In this week’s AMA, Heidi and Luke introduced us to a BIG Merchant Ships Update! Read all the details in the Pixels Post announcement:
⛵ Merchant Ships Just Got a BIG Update
All aboard, Farmers! Merchant Ships is setting sail from Terra Villa with a full trade overhaul and new adventures. This update introduces Fishing and Sushi industries, fresh pier contracts, new Seaside Stash items, limited wineries, new recipes, and more. Let’s dive in! 🌊
Questions from AMA Section:
Are ponds going to be mega expensive?
They are 6500 Buoy Bucks and then we’ve got our sushi kits at different prices.
A moment of appreciation to the mastermind behind all the dad jokes in the names of in-game items
It’s something all of our team has adopted over time. It’s ingrained in most of us to name these things in funny ways. It’s our culture and vibe at this point.
Can multiple people fish at the same time in the same pond?
No, only one player can use a pond at a time.
Are the ponds limited?
This depends on the new land type industry limit: Exploration. There will likely be 3 allowed on one NFT land
Can we eat fish heads?
The fish are not edible.
Is Grice going to be grown or bought?
Grice is a windmill recipe.
Will sushi be available in the taskboard?
It will not be available in the taskboard in this update. It will be primarily used in Merchant Ships Contracts. Only Tier 1 recipes to start.
What are the boosts and what do they do?
There are two new types of boosts (time-limited potions) that can be found in the Seaside Stash Store: Yield and Speed. Both boosts can stack on top of any Sculpture boosts already active on lands. Boosts of the same % do not stack, just extend time.
Will there be a quest that teaches us the mechanics?
There is a quest and it should be relatively straightforward.
No more tikis as of today?
No more tikis as of this update.
If you put the fishing pond in one place would it be permanent?
It behaves like a normal industry.
Rods are bought or crafted?
Rods are purchased with Buoy Bucks in the Seaside Stash Store on the pier.
How long is a temporary boost?
It depends on the boost, can be several hours.
Are boosts tradable?
Yes.
Are these boosts only for individual players?
Yes, they are only for individual players.
If you stack the self boost potion would the +7% and another +7% add up to +14%? Or only the time?
The percentages do stack, but 2 of the same % will only increase in time. If there were 5% + 7%, then it stacks to 12%.
Are pond you place on lands a permanent item in the store or chase?
They are a permanent item.
I assume the pond on the buoy store doesn’t have a limit right?
There is no limit.
Does the pond produce surplus?
Yes, ponds give surplus and sushi tables give Quicksilver.
Will this be released 2 - 4 weeks?
In the next couple of days is the goal.
What is the purpose of all this?
Taskboard has gotten stale for a lot of users. We need the game to be more fresh in order to keep engagement. Taskboard itself is maybe not the best loop when we’re talking about sustainability inside the game. A lot of what we’re working on for the next few releases, chapter 3, is the big push on that, too. We want to get Pixels to RORS over 1. Less rewards than we take in revenue.
Can you put ponds on speck?
Yes, you can put a pond on any type of land and each type of land will generate different species of fish.
Do Rods have durability?
It has 300 uses.
How about the industry limits? can we place the ponds and sushi tables without taking back the existing ones?
Yes, because it’s a part of the new skill Exploration.
I think Merchant Ships is better for earning in system, more gacha and more reward, better than TB (taskboard)
Taskboard is kind of stale but we’re not abandoning it because it will be very key for chapter 3.
When buyback with revenue and burn pixel off the markets? With halloween and christmas events maybe? :D
This is why we talk about sustainability inside the game so much. We do need to make revenue and we need to make more revenue than we give out in rewards. So we need to make changes in the game to make that happen. We’re also releasing a new game pretty soon, and our goal is to make revenue with that game, like any gaming company does. This and chapter 3 are our first attempt to rework some of the mechanics and some of the systems inside of the game in order to get to a sustainable part.
When Pixel Dungeon social?
It will be live tomorrow with a streamer.
I think many players are tired of doing the same old thing. Why not put minigames inside pixels, like a racetrack where for 5 pixels you get 10 tickets to play it, but not compete?
We do! It’s called Leon’s Neon Zone. We don’t have a racetrack, but we have a bunch of minigames. Leon’s is a full-blown arcade so you can buy Zonez Tokens and spend them at all the arcades. You get Stuff Stubs as a reward and you can use those Stuff Stubs to further play the other games.
Are we close to solving P2E?
I think so. We’re starting to experiment with paid user acquisition and we’re going to need to do it with the pets game because we’re going to do a web2 push. The pets game will be profitable because we’ll be monetizing in US dollars. It’s really promising with how we’re positioning it. Acquire gamers, acquire people who want to play games, and have the backend be web3.
We cannot solve p2e if we keep playing the same things for months and years
I completely agree. We as Pixels will not make any progress if we just keep doing the same thing and say “it should work eventually”. That’s why we keep changing things. That’s why we did chapter 2. It didn’t go quite the way we wanted it to, but that’s also why we’re changing with chapter 3 some of the economics of the game. That’s why we’re releasing a new app, publishing, staking, building out a new B2C platform and B2B product that we’re going to be releasing more widely to people.
We have a new task on the offer wall. How soon will we see new and varied tasks? The current task is boring, and I already log into the game every day.
This is early stages, we are deep into all the testing but you will see some new ones that will be more varied and exciting. But yes, there were some new ones released recently.
Will we eventually integrate NFTs into Chubkins?
This app is totally different than the Pixels core game. It’s not pixelated and it’s multi-user, but not multiplayer/open-world. You can adopt a pet together but not walk around the metaverse together. This app will be early access Friday or Saturday. There’s no earnings inside of the game right now and will slowly introduce earnings in future releases. The reason for early access is because we want to see how the paid ads perform when people install the app, and to see how the app is performing without the rewards first. There might be a chance for NFTs in the game but we might not. If we were, it could be TCGish. We did say Pixels Pets would be tied into this game somehow. If we don’t integrate Pixels Pets NFTs, we could give you a targeted offer for having a Pixels pet.
What are b2b products?
Business to business. It would be a service that other games would use. We’re building out a way for other games to give out rewards to their users inside of their own game.
Is it possible to play pets app on ios?
It will be but not early access. Once it’s in a good spot, then we’ll release it to iOS also.