I’ve been playing @ageofdino and its companion TG game Dino Museum for the past month.
Here are some honest thoughts, both pros and cons, and my takeaways as a 100% F2P non-holder playing the game.
This is NOT a strategy or content guide so I won’t be elaborating on how to min/max etc.
GAMEPLAY & FEATURES
AOD is feature-complete and there are tons of content to go through, especially when you first start playing the game, and are exploring and learning everything.
The tutorial eases you into the game and makes the transition a lot smoother, but it still does not explain all the details.
Which is fine since it’s pretty straightforward to explore and learn about it yourself, plus there are explainers within each feature/section if you need it.
After you’ve gotten the hang of things, AOD does feel like any other cookie-cutter base-builder mobile game with the same core loops of running down timers for construction and research, while participating in the multiplayer alliance war aspect of the game.
Not that there is anything wrong with that since it is the genre of the game in the first place.
WEB3 INTEGRATION
I’m not a holder of any Dinosty NFTs and, since the Bounty Missions (along with Furnace, Crystals, Skins, etc) are locked to me, I cannot comment on it.
However, setting up an Xterio wallet is easy enough with a simple email sign-up and linking it to my game account.
Once that was done, it’s very straightforward to transfer ROAR and DB between the game and my connected wallet.
There is also an in-game staking feature for DB, which web3 natives will find very familiar, and will serve as a good introduction to web2 gamers about web3 concepts.
You can also use the in-game mining site to earn additional ROAR and DB via the X-Crates if you’re a holder. For non-holders, you can only open the basic crates.
P2W VS F2P
Imo, this needs more balance.
As a 100% F2P player, I’ve had P2W whales 10 times my power attacking me multiple times in a row and stealing my resources away.
And there is nothing I can do about it.
Just rebuild and restock my supplies which I’ve accumulated for days.
Perhaps the team can take a look at scaling the rewards according to the power levels between players such that the wider the power gap, the lesser the rewards.
This will encourage players to attack other players within their same power level.
GRAPHICS
Have to give credit to the team for this.
The graphics in the game are beautiful.
The base design and artwork are slick, and the dinosaurs are all creatively designed and 3D rendered – I sometimes just take a look at them to admire the designs.
Each of the heroes are unique and has a different visual feel to them.
TG MINIGAME
Dino Museum acts as a fun companion minigame to AOD.
It’s completely independent and has nothing to do with AOD’s gameplay. However, your actions in Dino Museum can provide a slight additional rewards, which can be claimed and used in AOD.
To me, Dino Museum acts as a something to do inbetween AOD sessions, and also serves as a funnel for gamers to encourage them to try AOD out.
Xterio also uses it to boost engagement numbers with their chain – the daily wallet check-in quest makes it very obvious.
TOKENOMICS
The token allocation seems reasonable with 56% going to the community (early airdrop + holders + game rewards).
However, my main concern is the vesting schedule between the investors/team/advisors, and the game rewards.
Investors, Team, and Advisors (28%)
– 6 month cliff
– 24 month linear vesting
Game Rewards (40%)
– 48 month linear vesting
If you’re playing purely for the rewards, take note that your tokens will be still be vesting for 1.5 years after the investors, team, and advisors tokens have fully unlocked.
SUMMARY
PROS
– Feature complete game
– Beautiful graphics
– Additional rewards for NFT holders
– Potential to earn ROAR and DB for F2P and non-holders
– Fun TG companion minigame
CONS
– Cookie-cutter base-builder game
– Some friction bridging over to Xterio’s chain
– Game rewards tokens vested the longest
– Multiplayer (highly subjective as I prefer single-player games)
All-in-all, AOD is a solid game if you’re a fan of the genre.
While it doesn’t provide a unique experiences from any other base-builder games, it does have all the features of one plus web3 integration in the form of their Bounty Missions and Mining site.
As an F2P player, the game does keep you very well-supplied with resources to keep building. I haven’t found myself lacking in the one month I’ve played on a daily basis.
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Thank you for reading!
Source by Winterfyre
