2.4: Guilds Redux, Player-Owned Ports v1, Skills & Profiles
Bigger Guilds! Player-Owned Ports idle management! Player Profiles & more!
Pirates, scallywags, lend us yer ears! Captain & Company is midway through its development into a fully on-chain MMORPG where both free-to-play pirates and daring ship-owning captains come together to venture out on daring pillages, collect resources to cooperatively build island nations, and duke it out in brawls to prove who the real Pirate Lord is.
We’ve got some big new drops for all o’ ye landlubbers today — dig in!
[Note: This article will be updated with comprehensive infographics to better explain these systems later.]
Guild System v2
We’ve redesigned the Guild system to address three big issues:
Large assetholders were paying other players to manage individual accounts
F2P players on the receiving end often voiced complaints about “bad managers”
Blast L2 recently disallowed multipliers for native assets (NFTs and tokens)
While we’ve taken no formal stance on “scholar arrangements” to date, the current user flow isn’t congruent with our long-term vision for the game. Ultimately, we’ve chosen to push the game in a direction that enables free to play (“F2P”) players who aren’t familiar with web3 to quickly jump in and enjoy the full scope of gameplay, while still preserving the economic upside for web3 holders by enabling them to engage in a more “idle” capacity.
Specifically, our objective with Guilds is to organize them more similarly to both “Corporations” in EVE Online and “Flags” in Puzzle Pirates. This means that assets in Guilds will be more cooperatively used, and the rewards from their use will be split out to the asset owners pro rata with respect to their ownership. This is to intentionally cater simultaneously to the action RPG players (in-game activities) and the economic metagamers (NFT and token ownership).
To that end, the adjustments to Guilds we’ve made include:
Guilds now have no maximum limit on members
Players no longer need a web3 signature to finalize membership when joining
“Major Guild Changes” are possible for 24hr after Tuesday resets at 4 PM UTC:
Adjusting the Guild Treasury / Member split ratio
Force kicking a player from the Guild
Leaving a Guild
“Minor Guild Changes” are possible at any time:
Adding players to the Guild
Ships owned by any members in the Guild are now playable by fellow members
Ships rented by any members in the Guild are now playable by fellow members
While a ship is in use by one player in-game, it cannot be used by another player
The notion of a “Guild Treasury Pool” was introduced
Quests completed while using Guild assets send a cut back to the Guild Treasury
These are complex mechanics, so we’ll continue to dive into more details below and finish up with a FAQ at the end.
Guild Treasury Pool
The Guild Treasury Pool has two major functions:
The pool takes in quest rewards and in-game loot from Guild members who use Guild assets, based on the Guild Treasury split % ratio set by the Guild Owner
The pool redistributes quest rewards and in-game loot to Guild members who have playable assets in the Guild via the idle Player-Owned Ports minigame
Specifically, this means that:
Guild owners who have many ship assets will invite players to their Guild who likely have no ship assets
Those players will be able to play those ships on behalf of the Guild
The players playing the ships will be able to loot in-game objectives and claim quests just as if they actually were ship owners themselves, but the Guild Treasury % rake will be automatically deducted and sent back to the Guild Treasury
The total sum of all rewards received by the Guild Treasury will then be assigned to the ships active in the Guild during that day
Those rewards will then be available to be claimed as bonuses by the owners of those ships in the Player Owned Ports minigame on the next day
In effect, this means that “scholarships” are no longer explicitly necessary, as large asset holders can simply house all of their assets in a Guild, and then allow any number of players to join and operate those assets en masse, splitting out the rewards as they go.
To be counted as eligible for the Guild Treasury pool, assets (ships) must have been in the Guild for 24hr. Rented ships are subject to the same rules as purchased ships, which mean that they also must be in a guild for 24hr before being eligible for the Guild Treasury pool, and can also be played by all players in the Guild.
Note: Company quests and Company in-game loot splits are not affected by the Guild Treasury split, as those are free-to-play actions that do not specifically utilize Guild assets, and instead are supportive to the Guild’s objectives.
Player-Owned Ports v1
In a similar vein to the somewhat controversially popular idle minigame in Runescape, Player-Owned Ports are designed to allow asset holders some quantity of semi-idle engagement in an explicitly economic metagame that does not require the same level of coordination or time as the in-game naval battles in Captain & Company.
Player-Owned Ports have three key objectives:
Allow asset holders to semi-idly utilize their assets by sending them on missions
Redistribute Guild Treasury yield in a way that requires engagement
Set the stage for the larger economic metagame around land later
To participate in Player-Owned Ports, you must:
Be part of a Guild
Own or have rented qualifying assets held for greater than 24hr
The rewards for Player-Owned Ports may include:
mBLAST
Land Crystals
Doubloons
Nuggies
Loot Crates
When a ship returns from a mission, you’re granted two different sets of rewards simultaneously:
The default mission reward, with a chance for success
Your guaranteed pro rata share of your Guild Treasury earnings over the past 24hr
To play, players navigate to kap.gg/profile and click the “Port” tab on the left. You’ll be greeted by a list of all ships that you have had control of for greater than 24hr. From here, as long as you send out the ship and pay for supplies using nuggies, you’ll automatically receive the bounty it pillages on its way back home 24hr later.
Note that this is a very early implementation of Player-Owned Ports, and does not constitute nor well represent the entire future vision of player ownership around islands, shipyards, crafting locations, resource nodes, and more. We’ll be releasing a revamped whitepaper with specific details related to those gameplay elements in the months leading up to S3.
Captain’s Passes
Via the new Guilds system, all players who have a Captain’s Pass are permitted to be a Captain on any ship owned by any member of the Guild. As a Captain, you will be entitled to keep the share of rewards and loot you earn in-game directly, minus the share that is sent to your Guild Treasury. Your Guild Treasury is controlled by your Guild Owner, and each week after Tuesday at 4 PM UTC they have the ability to change the Guild Treasury rate. See the “Guild System v2” section above.
A Captain’s Pass costs 200,000 nuggies, which can be purchased using the $KAP token directly inside of kap.gg/profile under the Currencies tab. Each Captain’s Pass lasts for 30 days, and, if you switch between Guilds, you still keep your Captain’s Pass. You do not need a Captain’s Pass if you already have a ship or have rented one.
To summarize:
You do not need a Captain’s Pass if you own/rent an NFT ship
You do need a Captain’s Pass if you do not own/rent an NFT ship and want to pilot
Captain’s Passes cost 200,000 nuggies, which can be paid in $KAP
Skills & Player Profiles
Players are each now inspectable and host their own profile pages in-game! View yer fellow scallywags’ equipment, rank, Guild status, skills, MMR and more that we’ll be adding over time as we complete the MMO elements of Captain & Company.
Player profiles are particularly important in the context of Guilds and recruitment, where Guild Owners will be able to easily verify the quality of a candidate in-game as well as their capability to pilot a ship (if they have a Captain’s Pass).
Additionally, the Skills section on the right will track your over-time experience gain in various categories related to naval battling, with more Skills to come in the future! The Reputation system on the left is still in progress, and will provide a more qualitative overview of your life as a pirate in the Goldcoves.
Blast Phase 2 and Multipliers
For July, Captain & Company was granted 532,213 Blast Gold, 100% of which we have committed back to our players. Blast recently disallowed multipliers for native assets (e.g. NFTs and tokens), which also impact our use of multipliers for NFT holders and tokenholders. As a consequence of this, all multipliers have been removed, and we’re rearranging a number of elements to ensure continuous utility of all impacted assets.
Additionally, note that we will need to continue to adjust ecosystem parameters due to potential new rulesets as well as driving towards mass web2 adoption. We will forecast changes in advance to the best of our ability.
We’ve made the following changes to adjust the economy away from multipliers:
Ships remain core playable assets required to complete Captain quests, and now qualify for earning rewards by completing missions via Player Owned Ports
Wraith Brigs have default higher rewards on Player Owned Ports missions, but do not command a higher Guild Treasury split, as they are still only playable by one player at once
Skellies will be equippable on ship missions and grant a chance at winning additional rewards (this feature coming within the next two weeks)
For July, we’ll be distributing 50k Gold to PvP Guild tournaments weekly, and 127k Gold to mBLAST earners weekly, always at weekly reset (Tuesdays 4 PM UTC).
While these new changes for Blast Phase 2 are a substantial departure from the prior multiplier system, we’re going to be continuing to drive game utility towards those assets using the tools under our control, starting with some changes to staking detailed below.
Staking Changes
As a result of the new Blast Phase 2 changes, staking will be evolving alongside the core kap.gg platform as part of our larger growth into an on-chain publishing group. To that end, the following changes will be going in over the next week:
Nuggies will be passively earned by staking certain assets
Nuggies will become a larger part of the in-game economy
KAP LP stakers will qualify for future potential partner rewards
At the start, USDB, WETH, KAP-WETH, and KAP-BLAST will be eligible for staking to earn nuggies, which are then used to send your ships on missions, craft, and rent within the game. Nuggies are principally purchased with $KAP, and certain discounts will be available for users who use $KAP at a later date.
Staking KAP-WETH or KAP-BLAST will be done via a new UI on kap.gg that will be up later this week, and those positions will accrue fees, Hyperlock Points, Thruster Points, and any Blast Points or Blast Gold assigned by Hyperlock or Thruster, in addition to yielding native nuggie rewards.
Staking USDB or ETH will also be done via that same new UI on kap.gg shortly, and those positions will forfeit their yield in exchange for accruing Blast Points and native nuggies.
The rates for each will be pegged to the floating native yield on USDB and WETH, with large bonuses for KAP-WETH and KAP-BLAST LPs. As of today, ETH currently yields 4.75% and USDB currently yields 11.43% on Blast. Thus, the rates as of this week will be:
$1 ETH = 1.43 nuggies/day
$1 USDB = 3.44 nuggies/day (+140% bonus)
$1 KAP-WETH = 15.73 nuggies/day (+1,000% bonus)
$1 KAP-BLAST = 15.73 nuggies/day (+1,000% bonus)
In addition to the above changes, we’ll also be releasing a revamped whitepaper and vision for the KAP Games token and ecosystem, as well as sharing more news about our upcoming [REDACTED] event.
Note that as these native yield rates fluctuate over time, they will be adjusted commensurately. After the release of [REDACTED], certain bonuses may be reintroduced, changed, or otherwise swapped.
Crafting is Almost Here!
Crafting will be back this week! You’ll be once again able to redeem lootboxes, pop those goldprints, and craft ships (assuming you have a bucketful of nuggies for the bonding curve price). There have been a few upgrades and changes made while crafting has been down:
Crafting is now done entirely on the Blast chain
Crafting is now done inside the kap.gg UI
Crafting bonding curves are now denominated in nuggies (can be paid in $KAP)
Crafting recipes now show the required ingredients to complete a blueprint
We’re going to be expanding the crafting system dramatically, as well as moving it more fully on-chain over the coming few months. Strap in, pirates!
Big Focus on Mobile
To set the stage for our upcoming regional appstore launches across Google Play, the iOS App Store, and Epic, we’ve implemented a number of substantial changes to core systems to make the game more approachable for new players and more sustainable for collectors and owners alike.
We’re going to be working with Blast to start distributing Captain & Company via their upcoming Blast mobile app. Additionally, we’re exploring deliver Captain & Company through both Telegram and Discord to further improve the cross-play nature of the title. We have a ton of belief that short, quick session-based content will be the stickiest in web2.5 over the next year, and we’ll be building to capture that momentum.
Other Minor Announcements
We’ll soon be launching a formal C&C Wiki and deprecating the existing Gitbook, as the game has evolved too quickly for us to maintain accurate information on those pages. We’ll be adding a substantial quantity of content in coming months, and we’ll be empowering the community to share and maintain that data on a publicly editable wiki. If you’d like to be one of our early curators, please reach out!
We’ll be allowing players to join and leave Guilds directly in-game soon.
We’ll be making a major transition to moving the entirety of the game economy into a fully on-chain state. Please bear with us as this transition will take a considerable amount of resources, but will result in C&C becoming one of the very few fully on-chain mobile games.
Concluding Thoughts
Blast rewards via the mBLAST system will begin again this Thursday, after players have had 48 hours from today to adjust to the new changes and set up their Guilds. More Shards PvP tournaments will be live soon, likely at the same time.
The largescale changes to the economy place the game into a position where a real fully on-chain economy is possible, and the nuggies costs that will be added to missions are the first steps towards integrating a full-cycle ecosystem economy. As we approach the launch of [REDACTED] we’ll continue to move more assets fully on-chain to increase transparency, composability, and experimental utility.
We’re excited to be setting sail with you all once again, pirates!
FAQ
Is there an optimum number of users I should have in my Guild?
No, in general, assuming that all players are of equal skill and are genuinely participating, there’s no reason to not invite hundreds of players to your Guild.
However, there are two mechanics to keep in mind:
(1) when a player is using a ship, the ship cannot be used by other players, which means there is an “opportunity cost” to having a poor player hog up all the ship time; and
(2) when a member with playable assets (ships) joins, they’ll contribute those assets automatically to your guild asset pool, which means the assets will be playable by other players and the contributing asset player will receive a cut of your Guild Treasury pro rata with their asset contribution time and ownership.
Net, you should feel comfortable inviting anyone to your Guild, and the rewards will self-organize, but, if you notice a player is “hogging up ships” but producing relatively little output, you should remove them.
How do I play to earn without an NFT?
You have two options:
Join any ship available as Company using the shack on the right side of the docks
Purchase or earn a Captain’s Pass and join a Guild to pilot one of their ships!
How do I farm $BLAST using my NFTs?
To get started farming $BLAST, purchase a ship on OpenSea or Blur, then create a Guild on kap.gg/profile after logging in. From there, other players will “Request to Join” your Guild, and you can advertise it in our Discord for expediency. Players will then automatically play your assets in-game and generate mBLAST, nuggies, doubloons, land crystals, and other lootable items, a portion of which (the “Guild Treasury Rate”) will be split back to your Guild Treasury automatically.
From there, log in once a day to complete your daily missions in the Port tab of kap.gg/profile to claim your yield. Missions have both a “guaranteed” portion, which is related to the yield generated by the players in your Guild, and a “probability-based” portion, which is not dependent on any factors and can be farmed completely idly.
Where do I get a Captain’s Pass?
You can buy a Captain’s Pass using 200,000 nuggies ) in-game on the Captain’s side of the docks. To get nuggies, either earn them in-game or purchase them in the Currencies tab on kap.gg/profile, where you can use $KAP to buy them.
How much Blast Gold are you distributing, and where?
531k total Blast Gold will be distributed over the course of July. On a weekly basis, 50k Blast Gold will go to PvP tournaments, and 127k Blast Gold will go to mBLAST holders. Gold is distributed shortly after weekly reset at 4 PM UTC on Tuesdays.
When is Season 3 of Captain & Company?
Captain & Company seasons each last 120 days. Season 3 is expected to launch sometime in October or November. Season 3 will also likely be the time that Captain & Company migrates to a “mainstream market,” and begins regional launch rollouts.
Find fortune, foes, and friends for life in Captain & Company: the ultimate swashbuckling MMO adventure game. Set sail with friends into epic naval battles with massive multiplayer crews, and pillage your way to becoming the wealthiest pirates on the high seas.
Make sure you join our Discord and claim your exclusive roles! You’ll have access to private channels only shared with other Captains and the devs o’ the Goldcoves themselves. Plus, if you have 25 or more ships, there’s a set of channels rumored to be hidden to all except the greatest of Admirals… conquer on, pirate!