Hey there, Erthians! We’ve been getting lots of keen questions about the status of the next Ertha Beta update, so we’re taking a moment (or a few!) to give you all the necessary information you deserve to know.
Our latest update is taking a bit longer than we anticipated, but rest assured it is almost done now. But, since we kept the majority of our changes under wraps, we think this is a great moment for us to explain a bit what exactly we are working on and where our focus is.
Current Focus
We are approaching a very important milestone in Ertha’s history. Instead of adding small features like cars, quests or other quality updates, we are now focusing all our effort on actual gameplay mechanics. We have been working hard on some major changes in our system infrastructure and we are getting very close to some major updates. In recent months we have streamlined the way our items exist in Ertha.
Now, items persist and get transferred between platforms like the Ertha Marketplace, blockchain and the game. We have also built communication interfaces to allow people to earn $ERTHA Tokens, spend them, receive and lose items, and much more. This is a very important foundation on which we are now building Ertha’s gameplay mechanics.
An example of what this entails — here are some of the key actions we are aiming to make available in the near future, using these foundational changes:
- HEX manipulation. You will be able to upgrade, modify and research your hexes. These changes will persist and impact the game itself.
- Jobs. People will be able to finally do some work in Ertha and earn items, money and experience.
- Item manipulation. You will be able to modify, consume and gain items that can then be transferred between players or platforms.
All these features involved heavy changes in database structures, communications, security, stability and overall data handling throughout the ecosystem. We have quite a few cool features and layers of functionality that are very close to being unveiled and released.
Upcoming Changes & Improvements
Currently we have several teams working on Ertha infrastructure. Servers, websites, platforms and the game itself. Ertha was never meant to be just a game, so it requires many different technologies to be completed. Our next update implements some very much needed changes and lays groundwork for our future major updates.
- New Items. We will now include all items you have received from HEXBOXs into the game, as well as a few others.
- New Animations. We have been keeping animations under low priority for quite some time now and we decided it’s a good time to change that. So, we have replaced almost all animations in the game with new ones that are much more fluid, and they raise the overall game aesthetics quite a bit!
- Inverse Kinematics for character animation. This lets us sync the character’s feet position with the surface they’re walking on. So, if you keep one foot on a rock while standing on the ground — your feet will reflect that. This adds a small detail to the overall quality of the game.
- Layered animations. Now we are able to combine different animations into one seamless sequence. This allows us to crouch and walk, or sit idle, carry items in your hand (or both), sit on a chair and still perform upper body actions.
- New inventory. The way you see items, the way they equip and work has been refined.
- First person hands. You will have hands now, and who knows — maybe they will be more useful than you think! Animated hands with the ability to pick things up unlock new FPS gameplay possibilities.
Things that might not be easily noticeable:
- Joint inventory. Do you have some Ertha coins in your marketplace inventory? Or maybe that cool VR Headset? Well now you’ll see that in-game too. Any changes done to your inventory in the marketplace will be reflected in the game and vice versa. This unlocks many new possibilities, like rewarding people with $ERTHA Tokens and items for their achievements in the game.
- Soil for HEXs. Some people have been wondering “Why does it take time to just “unlock” some of those land hexes?” Well we have been building a tool to generate every hex on the globe by using real world data. We also tried to stay independent from the real world so that we can have HEXs that resemble real world conditions, but not impose any existing infrastructure on Ertha landowners. We kept regenerating these lands and we will probably regenerate them few more times while increasing their looks and quality. But we have a version already and we are eager to share it with you.
- Unique Item ownership. Remember those Santa Hats? Or maybe those Anniversary T-Shirts? We will be transferring all those items from your Ertha inventory to our new “Global Inventory”. So owners of those unique items will receive them in their marketplace inventory too. Since those inventories are now one system — we will be phasing out old inventory.
So when will I get all this!?
We are doing our best to get you these updates as fast as possible. Unfortunately, winter is coming (John Snow was right) and we are still human. Flu, halloween and other foreseen and unforeseen events sometimes slow us down a bit, but we are almost there.
This update, however, will come in a few different waves. Since Ertha is now composed of multiple servers, systems and brand new infrastructure — our next update will consist of many separate deployments each bringing something new.
Here’s a list of some of them:
- Unique item assignments will happen first. We will be migrating existing database items first and this will cause our players to receive their unique Ertha items in their marketplaces. And yes — they can sell those items if they decide to, since we will not be locking any existing functionality for them.
- Ertha Beta v0.6.5 will happen next. We cannot promise you any specific date but we are in the very last steps of releasing it. We have to make sure everything is secure, stable and ready before hitting that release button. Any day now.
- HEXs. This will be released shortly after the game update itself. Vast mass of land will be made available for people to visit and view and for owners to start terraforming and building on. Terraforming as well as building will be free for owners, but keep in mind that your changes will be reverted once we are ready with our next release.
As you can imagine this upcoming update is just a small step towards something great. Our gameplay update that we are working on right now prevents us from releasing small updates since everything has to come “in one big piece”, but rest assured we are closer than ever to finally giving players the real taste of Ertha.
Conclusion
All of this work we are doing is still just a part of what we have in store for you. It’s not easy to build a real Metaverse, and we knew that when we started. Even though some great achievements are taking time to accomplish — we are excited to see how close we are to some major changes in Ertha. Thank you for your time reading all of this, and we will keep you posted on these upcoming deployments!
Ertha is an MMO 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) game with extensive opportunities to satisfy one’s need for curiosity, competitiveness, and social recognition through roleplaying in a vast geopolitical map.
With three distinct characters to select from and endless possibilities to alter them, players themselves will be the creators of their own narrative and wealth both in virtual and real worlds.
Welcome to Ertha
