Types of NFTs
There are six types of NFTs in the Cosmic Champs ecosystem: Champs, Planets, Ships, Blueprints, Treasures, and Utilities.
A major problem for blockchain games is how to create a large quantity of unique NFTs. There are multiple approaches, the two most commonly used are:
Hand-design each NFT as they are minted. This is most commonly used for small quantity collections (e.g., artworks) but it is not viable for thousands of NFTs released at regular intervals.
Design many variations of a small number of components (e.g., head, tail, horn) that are randomly and automatically combined when a new character is minted. This is the most commonly used approach for larger collections (e.g., Crypto Punks and Bored Ape Yacht Club). A significant downside of this approach is that some unattractive characters are generated. This automated approach works reasonably well for 2D images, however, when applied to 3d models it still requires manual work to get each 3D model game-ready. Again, this is not feasible when thousands of NFTs are generated at regular intervals.
Cosmic Champs NFTs are 3D models that are used in our real-time mobile game. Our NFTs have been designed with several considerations in mind:
They need to look great and be easily recognisable;
They need to conform to technical specifications to function properly in the game;
They have to allow for manageable game balancing.
Neither of the commonly used approaches for designing NFTs allow for the creation of a large number of 3D NFTs that always look great and meet our technical needs. Our solution is to use fractional NFTs as described in ARC3 (Algorand Standard Asset Parameters Conventions for Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens). Each season of NFTs will contain different versions of the same Champs. Some will be unique with the most enhanced statistics (1:1), some will be epic with high-level statistics (10:1), some rare with mid-level statistics (10:1), some will be uncommon with low-level statistics (100:1), and others will be common with less enhanced statistics (1000:1). This concept and its benefits are best illustrated with an example. Let’s take our Champ Coyote which has the following NFTs minted:
6 legendary NFT, each completely unique (total of 6 NFTs);
2 x epic NFT, each with 10 copies minted (total of 20 NFTs);
3 x rare NFT, each with 10 copies minted (total of 30 NFTs);
1 x uncommon NFT, each with 100 copies minted (total of 100 NFTs);
No common NFTs were minted. S2 will introduce the first commons with 1000 copies minted.
That’s a total 156 Coyote NFTs available on the blockchain. There’s only one copy of this legendary SpiralCandy Coyote so it is unique in its appearance and statistics. There’s 10 copies of the Hardboiled Coyote and 100 copies of the Coyote 3. Each copy has the same appearance and the same statistics so these are fractional NFTs. This approach has an additional benefit as players can quickly identify which NFT (and its statistics) is used against them during battle. It is important to note that the statistics within the same fraction will be the same, however, they will vary between different fraction groups. For example, all Hardboiled Coyote fractions will have the same statistics and they will differ from the Coyote 3 or SpiralCandy Coyote. While the issuance determines the rarity of a specific variant of a Champ it does not mean that a rare variant is by default better in battle than a more common NFT. A more common NFT might have statistics and traits that are a better fit in a player’s deck than a rarer NFT.
There will also be benefits to holding multiple fractions of the same variant of a Champ NFT. This may provide a buff to the in-game statistics of a unit. For example, holding three Coyote 3 fractions will make your in-game unit stronger across its statistics than holding one Hardboiled Coyote. On this point, if one wallet holds all fractions of the same Champ variant then that user will be able to swap all of the fractions for a unique NFT (1:1). This will increase its rarity (you are now the sole owner of that Champ NFT variant!) and give the unit the greatest statistics boost in the game. When this occurs, the fractions will be destroyed (burnt) so there would only be one version of that NFT in existence. Fractional NFTs allow us to ensure that all NFTs have exceptional visuals while allowing us to meet the growing demand from players for more NFTs.
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