Hey all.
If I had to describe the first ZedX AMA last month I would call it an “information bomb”.
It dropped on us and there was a lot of initial news to take in.
In need of detail, we understandably had some shock and worry amongst the community.
It led to more questions than answers.
In todays AMA, Nick Ciesinksi, Zed’s “Head Of Product”, did an excellent job of stepping up to answers those questions!
And there were a lot.
On behalf of the community I spent hours trawling through discord and Twitter to compile 4 full pages of them.
He addressed just about every single one.
On that note I’d like to thank Nick for taking the time and Caroline for allowing me to be a part of the process.
I know many people have comms PTSD but I think we may have turned a corner here and I’m really looking forward to these continued AMA’s.
So much so that I am going to attempt to write an AMA recap whenever I feel there is enough new information to warrant it.
That was certainly the case today.
Below I’ve outlined some of the key information and highlights we heard about ZedX and the transition from Zed Run.
Racing, breeding and populations size.
One of the first items that caught my ear was an answer to our question regarding horse population size in ZedX.
I guessed in my last blog that it was shrinking by 90% but it turns out we are going much lower than that.
On launch day we will have just 4,320 horses in the racing pool and that is a static amount. (at least initially)
Racing assets will certainly be scarce!
Races will run every 2 minutes and individual horses will run twice in a 24 hour period.
There will also be a breeding pool which will increase over time, though there are mechanisms to combat over growing the population, such as a burn to breed function.
Horses that are bred will start with an internal amount of Zed Tokens built in to them based on their breeding price.
This will come from a portion of the breeding fees and will increase or decrease depending on the horses success on the track.
Those tokens will not be able to be accessed by the horse owner until they decide to retire the horse at which point it enters the breeding pool.
If a horses internal token balance runs low it will also be flagged for retirement.
Furthermore regarding breeding, Nick stated that there would be a lot of strategy required to pick the right breed pair.
With the right strategy a good pair would have the ability to breed a foal better than both parents.
Furthermore regarding racing, the words “player agency” were emphasised.
We’re told it will take player skill to optimise a horses racing outcome which will include making adjustments between races.
In ZedX each horse is unique and we will have to adapt and adjust as players to get the most out of them.
There will be strategies to implement, trial and error to be tested and research and discovery aspects included to keep players engaged.
In fact, even though better bred horses will have a massive advantage, any horse has the ability to be a winner if you are a good enough player.
It was also mentioned that visuals will contain horse data which will make watching our races very important. (and fun)
I can see myself replaying a race multiple times to look for a telltale sign of what to do next.
Economy and spectator loop.
The economy loop and spectator loop of ZedX was also discussed in the AMA.
Of note the appetite sportsbet.io has for digital racing.
This has led the team to the conclusion that there is an opportunity to reach a very large audience there.
Following on from that, Nick posed the question from the perspective of a stable owner – “Whats in it for me? followed by “This is the part where you should all get excited” .
He discussed at length the new economic model, in particular the non crypto spectator group that will be involved in ZedX and the scaling of that group for the benefit of the game.
He mentioned that a portion of all spectator fees will be funnelled back in to the game loop, fundamentally changing what it is to be a horse owner in ZedX.
Very exciting and innovative stuff, I urge anyone that is interested to take a listen for themselves.
Rewards weighting and distribution system.
Another hot topic since the last AMA was the weighting of rewards and how they would be distributed.
Nick began discussion on this point by letting us know free racing will have zero impact on rewards, which I think is the right move.
Engagement from June 26th onwards will be counted including paid racing and dollars spent breeding.
Horse traits that will be weighted in the rewards calculation are breedtype, bloodline, level and coat colour.
Superbreeds will also be factored in but profitability WILL NOT.
All rewards for each horse will be tied to the owner and this includes all horses purchased prior to the calculation date.
After rewards are calculated stables will be placed on a leaderboard based on their allocation score.
If we choose to, we can consolidate our stables in to one stable for bigger prizes.
We can move up that leaderboard by way of continued engagement or by winning legacy Zed tournaments and prizes.
When the time comes for us to collect our rewards they will be distributed by air drop.
We will receive a loot box that contains our rewards that we can then claim or sell.
Of note we DO NOT have to burn our old NFT’s to claim the rewards.
Further information.
* Current treasury – Currently Zed has about $530,000USD in the player treasury.
We discovered that this will be used for legacy Zed while we sunset the game and anything left over will port over to ZedX.
* Reward types – Rewards will consist of racing pool and breeding pool horses.
Racing pool horses will contain a “not insignificant amount of inbuilt Zed Tokens”
Those at the top of the leaderboard will likely get multiple racing pool horses.
* Road Map. – The Zed team currently have a high level internal road map though some areas are not finalised.
This will be released publicly in the future.
There will also be some diagrams and flow charts released to show how the game loop works.
* Zed Token. – The entire ZedX loop will utilise Zed token from day 1.
* Current stage of development. – There is much to do but quite a bit of the game has already been built and internal testing is about to begin.
Beta testing will begin later this year starting with small batch beta testing which will then expand.
User feedback will influence design.
* ZedX Horses. – ZedX horses will be NFT’s.
Nakamoto’s, Szabo’s, Buterin’s and Finney’s will still exist but they will not be the same as they are today.
* Polygon. – The Zed team are exploring all options when it comes to which chain they will be building and releasing ZedX on.
* Tool Creators. – Nick said it would be difficult to port the current tools to the new game as they are vastly different however they really want similar tools in the new game.
He will speak with the team regarding incentivising our current tool creators to join ZedX.
* Item Removals. – There will be no XP and no levels in ZedX.
Initially there will also be no choice of race distance. (1 distance only to begin with)
* KYC. – For crypto native stable owners it seems Zed are trying to keep things as web3 as possible.
On the other side, for spectators there may be some phone verification or KYC required.
They are attempting to cater to both sides.
In summing up, I have to say we received a lot of much needed information today and I suspect I have left many things out of this summary.
I also couldn’t convey how well Nick answered all of our questions or the enthusiasm in his responses.
After hearing everything I really am excited about the journey ahead and the transition to ZedX.
I suspect once the leaderboard goes live, even the Zed Run sunset period is going to be a lot of fun.
Thanks for reading guys, I look forward to the next AMA!
Below is a link to hear todays AMA for yourself:
ZEDX AMA #2 CLICK HERE (Twitter Spaces)
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Thanks!