Author: Common Ground World | Page 10

How I Wound Up in Business with a Dragon

by Common Ground World | Mar 31, 2022 | Gala Games

PART 1 — Farmer’s Log — March 30th, 2022

It all started at a Town Council meeting.

I’m not on the Town council myself, but this time I was there to be heard. Ever since that Nikole Tesla came to town, strange things had been happening in the sky.

I’d gotten to wonderin’ if her bizarre high-tech experiments with electricity were to blame for the unnatural green spiral cloud that sometimes appears in the sky over yonder above Perch Hill. Turns out it wasn’t her fault, but that night I was ready to raise a fuss about the pollutin’ of our beauty of a big sky view with odd shapes and colors of clouds.

There was a heated debate about the increasing price of gasoline and how it would affect our deliveries. One Council member said everyone should drive little mopeds instead of cars. Then the meeting was completely side tracked while everyone talked about a young man who used to run deliveries round these parts… A young man named Jimmy.

No one had mentioned Jimmy in some time. The boy decided early last year that he needed a vacation. He up and started traveling the world. He wrote to Town Hall for a while, but his messages were cryptic, then barely believable, and finally, nonsense that often bordered on gibberish. Then one day the letters and messages just stopped coming.

At first we just all figured he was shacked up somewhere where he could put off adulthood for a few more years. But a crazy rumor started getting around that he’d been abducted by outer space aliens. Then a lady from Nextville (the next town over) started coming into town, said she was Jimmy’s mama. She was a wide-eyed, sweatpants-wearing, tote-bag toting mess of a lady who looked like she hadn’t slept in her life.

To anyone who’d listen, Jimmy’s mama would spout the same story, and it was completely bananas. There were some parts about some kind of worldwide supergovernment, then she’d transition perfectly into how the aliens who abducted Jimmy were actually not aliens, but robots from another dimension.

She’d go on to explain that in addition to being the world’s largest coverup conspiracy, the interdimensional alien robots were somehow connected directly to Jimmy. She thought he had done something stupid (Jimmy was never the brightest) and opened up some kind of interdimensional wormhole.

We’d say something like “Gert…” (that’s her name, Gert) “Gert… When we look for that wormhole, it’s never where you say it’s gonna be.”

She’d wave her Diet Coke in our faces and shout “It’s always moving! You’ll see! Unimaginable things will start coming out of that portal!”

Ol’ Gert hung out in town a lot those days, spent her time convincing the more gullible folk that there was a wormhole in the sky that was impossibly hard to spot. The alien rumor continued to spread, and before long everyone was really confused. No one knew if it was the government, aliens, robots, wormholes, high gas prices, or all of the above.

One sleepless night the details of the last few months came together for me. The green spiral cloud I was seeing in the sky. Gert’s ravings about portals, and Nikole Tesla’s strange experiments with electricity. The cloud was none other than the portal in the sky from Gert’s ravings!

Apparently energy escaping from Nikole’s lab was occasionally stopping the portal just over Perch Hill. Maybe the portal is like a revolving door that opens to hundreds (or thousands, or more) of different dimensions or realities. Makes you wonder what may come out of that green portal over Perch Hill, doesn’t it?

To be honest I’m still confused about what happened to Jimmy, but this isn’t about Jimmy. It’s about a dragon, whose arrival would eventually lead to not only one of the best friendships of my life, but a business endeavor that could really do some good for the whole town.

Part 2 coming soon…

If you’re new around the Gala Games community, you may not be aware of the Mirandus Dragon Familiar, earned for collecting all 10 Mirandus Dragon Vouchers. You know, the ones found inside the Mirandus Skin Packs.

Basically, it now has a Town Star counterpart. Holders of all 10 Dragon Vouchers will have the Dragon’s help with fast and gas free deliveries — a real game changer.

Certain Mirandus Skin Packs are available now in extremely limited supply in the Town Star store, so act quickly if you’re still trying to collect your Dragon.

Town Star website

Town Star store

Join the discussion

The Dragon is Back

by Common Ground World | Feb 8, 2022 | Gala Games

Mirandus Skin Packs are back in limited supply with an AMAZING in-game ability coming soon!

TL;DR

The remaining supply of Mirandus Skin Packs has been drastically reduced by burn.
2 of the 10 Skin Packs will be released each week in extremely limited quantities.
A new Town Star utility beginning soon will create a stronger incentive than ever before to collect all 10 Dragon Vouchers!

At Gala Games, we’re gamers first, just like you. We look for the most compelling and exciting gaming experiences that can be found, nothing within our imaginations is truly out of reach, and we recognize some gaming conventions that don’t always cut it anymore.

When gamers hear the word “skin,” they’re reminded of something that will spruce up the look of their gaming experience in some simple aesthetic way. Most serious players are tired of spending real money on skins that do nothing, especially when they aren’t even entitled to real ownership of their items.

Thanks to blockchain tech and the ability to own your Gala Games experience, we’re reskinning the idea of gaming skins completely, demonstrating just how powerful these multi-layered game-boosting items can be.

Mirandus-Themed Skins are Coming Back

Last year, our art team spun up some beautifully authentic medieval style Mirandus-Themed versions of every single Town Star building and character. They were sold in the Gala Games store in 10 different Skin Packs, each containing 5 different skins from the set.

The Mirandus-Themed Skin Packs have since been pulled from the store, but after a massive supply-reducing NFT bonfire, we’re excited to announce that they’ll be back in small, measured quantities each week starting tomorrow, February 8th, 2022.

Only a max of 2500 Dragon Familiars can now ever exist in total. This limited opportunity return sale will cover the final 250 sets of 10 Dragon Vouchers.

When the Skin Packs were first released, the sole utility was the Dragon Voucher described below, but as time went on, we continued to demonstrate how easily additional layers of benefits and in-game utilities can be added to existing owned items.

The Dragon Voucher

Each Skin Pack contained a 1/10 Dragon Voucher, and collecting and keeping all 10 Dragon Vouchers will allow the owner to later claim a Mirandus Dragon Familiar in the upcoming MMORPG, Mirandus.

A couple months into the initial sale of the Mirandus-Themed Skin Packs, it was decided that they should have a Town Star in-game boost like nothing else that existed in the game. The Town Star engineers put their heads down and came up with a unique worker speed and production boost based on how many different Skin Packs a player has deployed in their town.

The Utility Boost

If 1 Skin from each Pack is deployed in your town, you will receive the maximum total worker speed bonus of 25%, a substantial increase to the travel speed of all workers. (2.5% per Pack deployed).
Additionally, all craft production is increased by 1% for each Skin Pack represented, up to a maximum bonus of 10%.
Learn more about these benefits in THIS ARTICLE from last year.

These in-game benefits are pretty incredible when so much of Town Star is strategy around travel time and efficiency of production. When you also consider the fact that each Skin is a separate token and they can be traded individually on the OpenSea secondary market, it becomes possible to make the in-game boosts a reality even without buying the Packs directly from the store.

The Not-So-Familiar Town Star Dragon

Since the supply of possible Dragon Familiars was culled so drastically (10k to 2.5k) with this burn, it was only natural to provide a new layer of Town Star utility that justified the significant price increase from when Mirandus Skin Packs were previously sold.

Owners of all 10 Dragon Vouchers will take advantage of new winged and scaled transport unit. Your Dragon Familiar will flap around your town in style, delivering goods to nearby cities. The best part is that your Dragon Familiar will make deliveries with absolutely no Gasoline cost.

Imagine how making Gasoline-free deliveries could completely change your Town Star game. Instead of creating a polluted industrial area just for Gasoline production every time, you could get truly creative with your builds, experimenting with new strategies or trying out new crafts and systems.

Dragonkeepers, you’ll have the luxury of placing your towns in exotic locations even further from cities with no Gasoline costs!

Here’s an early design iteration of the Town Star Dragon — visual details subject to change.

Sale Structure

For those who don’t have their Skins already, this could be a tough one to pull off, but don’t forget about the secondary market at OpenSea.

Each Tuesday for the next 5 weeks, a single supply tier of only 2 Skin Packs will be available while supplies last.

Each Skin Pack at this tier will be priced at $2500*

*USD price is only an estimate and may fluctuate regularly based on fluctuating values of various currencies accepted as payment.

You must watch both Discord and the store closely for the exact time of the drop. You will not know which Packs will drop until you see them, and you will only see up to 50 of each Pack available at a time.

We will only sell 250 total of each of the 10 Packs. Each price tier will consist of 50 Packs. Over the next 5 weeks, 2 new Packs will be released each week until all 10 have sold their first tier.

More plainly: Only 2 different Packs (and only 50 of each) will be released each Tuesday. Total Packs each Tuesday = 100.

The next 5 weeks will account for one fifth of the return release. Look for more information over the coming weeks about when and how the remaining four fifths of Skin Packs will be released. Hint: Future sales will have higher pricing.

Stay tuned for updates on when you’ll have the chance to start using your Dragon Transport in Town Star! Good luck!

2 Skin Packs will return to the store tomorrow, Tuesday, February 8.

Town Star Website

Town Star store

Town Starter Updates… Storehouses for All!

by Common Ground World | Jan 26, 2022 | Gala Games

You get a Storehouse! You get a Storehouse! Everyone gets a Storehouse!!!

The Town Star team is always listening to community feedback, analyzing data and making improvements to create a smoother and more empowering player experience. Today a new update went live that will lower the difficulties facing all new Town Star players, pushing them ever closer to accomplishment of the most important Town Star challenge: Gasoline production.

From now on, every new town starts with a Storehouse already on the board. Continue on to learn why this is such an important move toward a more compelling and enjoyable first time player experience.

The Storage Challenge

As all new players quickly discover, resource storage is one of the most important strategic considerations in the game. All resources, from the most basic crops to the highest tier crafted goods, must have space in a dedicated storage unit. If no storage space is available when a good is produced, that good is exploded on the street in a wasteful and tragic display.

Different types of resources are stored in different buildings, as described below.

Wood Shed ($5000) — Wood, Oak Wood and Lumber

Silo ($10,000) — Wheat, Sugarcane, Cotton, Mint, Brine, Pumpkins

Storehouse ($20,000) — Eggs, Milk, Wool, Butter, Batter, Flour, Salt, Sugar, Cake, Baguette, Candy Canes, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon

Warehouse ($10,000) — Water Drum, Energy, Chromium, Limestone, Steel, Blue Steel, Wine Bottles, Wool Yarn, Cotton Yarn, Uniforms

Fuel Storage ($15,000) — Gasoline, Crude Oil, Petroleum, Jet Fuel

As you can see above, the Storehouse is not only the most expensive storage building, but it also stores the greatest number of different goods.

Here’s the Storehouse sitting comfortably next to your Well in a Forest!

Early Steps

New players must elevate their production as quickly as possible, selling more than just Wheat to ensure they can make enough money to continue on the road to Gasoline production. There are a few different ways to take these early upgrade steps, but all of them have previously required the addition of a Storehouse.

Now, with the $20,000 Storehouse initially included, the player can build a Windmill, a Chicken Coop, or a Sheep Farm faster. This will allow them to start producing a higher tier good that can bring in 5–10x more per load than selling a basic crop like Wheat. New players spending half (or more) of their Gasoline selling Wheat alone has always been a recipe for disaster, often resulting in players having to start over after a few hours of play.

Life can be tough in a desert… The Storehouse makes it easier!

On Your Way to Gasoline

Getting to the point of crafting your own Gasoline is simpler than you may think, especially if you break it down into just what is needed.

Cash Flow — To make Gasoline, you’ll need a secure source of money without worrying about running out of your initial Gasoline supply. This means upgrading your production to a higher tier good like Flour or Eggs.
Warehouse ($10,000) — A Warehouse is the only storage building missing when you begin the game. It’s needed to store Energy and Water Drums for your Gasoline production.
Water Facility ($10,000) — The Water Facility makes Water Drums (very easily if placed next to a pond).
Wind Turbine ($2500) — If placed far away from wind-blocking buildings, your Wind Turbine will produce Energy fast.
Oil Pump ($1250) — Each Oil Pump makes Crude Oil on a timer. Hint: You can place them next to Wind Turbines with no negative effects.
Worker House ($2500) — The Worker that lives here is required to harvest your Energy and Oil, delivering them to storage buildings.
Paved Road ($10,000) — The road next to your Refinery must be paved before the Refinery is built.
Refinery ($15,000) — This final step is used to refine Crude Oil, Energy and Water Drums into Petroleum, then Petroleum, Energy and Water Drums into Gasoline.

A Storehouse on the Plains gives you a place to store your Eggs, Milk and Wool!

As you can see, having a Storehouse at the beginning of the game simplifies the first step, allowing you to establish a secure cash flow earlier than ever.

This update to Town Star gameplay should allow all players to hit the ground running more quickly while affording new players a smoother experience when first learning the game. Win win!

Town Star website

Town Star store

The Town Star Rulebook

by Common Ground World | Jan 4, 2022 | Gala Games

Town Star is the flagship game of the Gala Games platform. The competitive and play-to-earn game of town and city organization is always growing and evolving.

It’s fairly simple to pick up Town Star and learn the ropes quickly after creating your Gala Games account. Completing the Daily Challenge to unlock P2E rewards (for those who hold Gala Power and NFTs) can be a bit trickier at first, but that’s why they call it a “challenge.” In the interest of making the game even easier for new players to grasp, we have decided to lay out this Town Star Rulebook for your reference.

The Week-to-Week Flow

The values described in this Rulebook will henceforth be called the Standard Rules. These are the basic values that are at the core of Town Star gameplay. Every regular player should be fairly familiar with these rules. Any permanent changes to the Standard Rules will be published in this guide.

In the past, we have often referred to this collection of numbers as the “Meta.” For example, “The Meta will be changing in next week’s competition,” or “Have you tried the new Candy Cane Meta?” We will steer away from this type of phrasing in the future for maximum clarity.

Dynamic Rules

Sometimes rules will change. We won’t always give you advanced warning, and we won’t always tell you how long these changes will remain in effect.

These changes may focus on a particular crop or relate to the function of a new NFT we have released in the store. They may raise the trade or Star value of certain goods but reduce the value of others.

When we report new rule changes, we will only report the numbers and values that are changing from the Standard Rules described in this guide.

Jan 4-Jan 17 = Standard Rules

Consult the following Google documents for current rules, including changes.
Spreadsheet
List

Sellable Goods

KEY: (Name of Good — Price for selling 10 — Stars awarded for selling 10)

Baguette — $913,00–14,720 Stars

Batter — $487,000–4,500 Stars

Blue Steel — $2,709,500–68,000 Stars

Brine — $3000–10 Stars

Butter — $162,500–1,530 Stars

Cabernet Grapes — $18,200–160 Stars

Cabernet Sauvignon — $420,000–6,880 Stars

Cake — $1,780,500–44,750 Stars

Candy Canes — $257,000–1000 Stars

Chardonnay — $279,500–4,640 Stars

Chardonnay Grapes — $8100–80 Stars

Chromium — $46,000–540 Stars

Cotton — $3500–10 Stars

Cotton Yarn — $32,500–160 Stars

Crude Oil — $500–10 Stars

Dough — $291,500–2,700 Stars

Eggs — $16,500–120 Stars

Energy — $1500–10 Stars

Feed — $3400–10 Stars

Flour — $22,500–120 Stars

Gasoline — $14,500–80 Stars

Iron — $46,000–540 Stars

Jet Fuel — $19,000–270 Stars

Limestone — $46,000–540 Stars

Lumber — $13,500–80 Stars

Milk — $40,000–200 Stars

Oak Barrel — $55,000–630 Stars

Oak Wood — $2500–10 Stars

Peppermint — $3400–10 Stars

Petroleum — $4500–40 Stars

Pinot Noir — $572,000–10,080 Stars

Pinot Noir Grapes — $26,700–200 Stars

Pumpkin — $10,000–20 Stars

Pumpkin Pie — $497,500–8,160 Stars

Salt — $25,500–160 Stars

Silica — $10,000–20 Stars

Steel — $470,000–7,680 Stars

Sugar — $31,500–160 Stars

Sugarcane — $4000–10 Stars

Uniforms — $344,500–5,600 Stars

Water Drum — $500–10 Stars

Wheat — $3000–10 Stars

Wine Bottle — $128,000–1,260 Stars

Wood — $2500–10 Stars

Wool — $45,500–240 Stars

Wool Yarn — $242,500–2,250 Stars

Fields

Cabernet Vines — Cabernet Grapes = 420 seconds

Chardonnay Vines — Chardonnay Grapes = 360 seconds

Cotton Field — Cotton = 20s

Oak Tree Farm — Oak Wood = 60s

Peppermint Field — Peppermint = 240s

Pinot Noir Vines — Pinot Noir Grapes = 450s

Pumpkin Patch — Pumpkins = 300s

Salt Field — Brine = 475s

Sugarcane Field — Sugarcane = 20s

Tree Farm — Wood = 20s

Wheat Field — Wheat = 20s

Crafting/Livestock Buildings

These are the standard production times for each production building. Keep in mind that any multipliers based on proximity or location will cause these numbers to vary. In many cases, multipliers can cause the production time for a certain building to increase 3–4x.

Bakery — Butter = 30 secs, Dough = 30 secs, Baguette = 60 secs

Cakery — Batter = 30 secs, Cake = 60 secs, Pumpkin Pie = 180 secs

Candy Shop — Candy Canes = 360 secs

Wind Mill — Flour = 30 secs, Sugar = 30 secs, Salt = 30 secs

Winery — Pinot = 300 secs, Cabernet = 270 secs, Chardonnay = 240 secs

Chicken Coop — Eggs = 30 secs

Sheep Pen — Wool = 60 secs

Milk Barn — Milk = 30 secs

Fabric Plant — Cotton Yarn = 60s, Wool Yarn = 60s, Uniforms = 60s

Glass Factory — Wine Bottle = 60s

Lumber Mill — Lumber = 10s, Oak Barrel = 30s

Iron Mine — Iron = 30s, Chromium = 60s, Limestone = 60s

Power Plant — Energy = 10s

Nuclear Power — Energy = 20s

Oil Pump — Crude Oil = 180s

Sand Mine — Silica = 565s

Refinery — Petroleum = 30s, Gasoline = 30s, Jet Fuel = 90s

Steel Mill — Steel = 90s, Blue Steel = 90s

Wind Turbine — Energy = 60s

That concludes the Standard Rulebook for Town Star! Feel free to use this post as a reference anytime. It will come in especially handy when we start shaking things up with major changes!

The Town Star Bar at -into the galaverse was a thing of beauty.

Town Star Website

Town Star Store

Lolli Finds Love

by Common Ground World | Jan 3, 2022 | Gala Games

I was never really into the school scene. When I started my high school career, some popular upperclassmen were intrigued by my style. They attempted to take me under their wings and give me the world class high school experience of some kind of John Hughes heroine. I think they just liked telling people they had a blue-haired friend. After a couple years of light and lovable hazing I found some semblance of acceptance there, but it wasn’t the academics or the parties. It was the leads.

You may already know this, but kids can seriously put candy away, and high school kids are no exception. They’re just adult-sized children. They have the metabolism of toddlers, the bodies of full-grown humans and the brains of jungle monkeys at the height of mating season. Basically, as long as I was hanging out around the high school, I had the perfect market for my candy sales.

Halloween was always cleanup time, Christmas bells sounded more like a cash register’s ker-ching ker-ching, and Valentine’s Day gave me an opportunity to play on the lust, guilt and insecurities of my peers. I loved the holidays, but they were just a little extra. Candy was a 5-days-a-week habit for most of these kids, and I was the pusher. I gave them the sweets they wanted at a reasonable price. I was the Candy Queen.

Second semester of senior year was mostly blow-off classes, just going through the motions. The Candy Queen was nearly free!

Improv, Pottery, Creative Writing… You know, things that would never make me a real living. Not like candy. Candy was my pride, my passion, and most importantly, my paycheck. I had a totally free Friday schedule for that whole semester, so I rented a local commercial kitchen over the weekends to expand my operation. The equipment was old and the building was a heap, but I got a good deal (partial gum drop trade) on the rent, so it became my first “location.” I had the production and the ingredients, but I started getting orders from all over town and I had never learned to drive.

One day in early spring, a hot rod sped into the school parking lot with rock n’ roll blaring out the open convertible top. In a fluid movement that looked completely effortless, the car spun around with a squeal and backed straight into the spot that was reserved for the vice principal. Without opening the door, the driver hopped out and removed his driving gloves.

He was a tall, cool guy with black shades and dark, moussed-up hair. Hanging casually out of his mouth was a stick that I’d recognize anywhere. It was a Weststone Excalibur — the Cadillac of lollipop sticks. I found myself wondering for a moment what delicious flavor was on the other side of that stick.

The car was incredible. My eyes took a walk over its sleek body as visions of my candy’s future filled my mind. Delivery. Delivery was the answer to my expansion issues.

I staggered toward the car as the dude approached it from the rear. Taking a firm grip with both hands on the metal wind-up handle, he gave it a few good turns. I remember the first time I heard that satisfying click sound like it was yesterday. Once he’d wound up the car, he looked straight at me and took off his shades. In a voice like hot silk, he spoke his first words to me: “Gotta be ready to run.”

His name was Pop. At first, I didn’t know who I loved more: Him or the car. It didn’t matter. They both filled my world like a blinding cloud of sugar dust. I had never met anyone else as passionate about candy as I was. We were a perfect team. I showed him the ropes of my candy-making biz and he hooked all my customers up with free deliveries all over town.

The Candy Queen had found a Candy King. Lolli & Pop’s was born.

The Lolli and Pop Shop is currently available in the Town Star store while supplies last. With these NFT Candy Shops, you can make candy faster, place your shop for free, and enjoy reduced wages for the crafting!

Remember that all Town Star NFTs (including the Lolli and Pop Shop) are eligible for daily TSP2E rewards in TOWN, as long as you have some Gala Power and complete your Daily Challenge.

Town Star Website

Town Star Store

« Older Entries

Next Entries »