GM optimism!
On behalf of the DFArchon team, I am excited to announce that we have reached Milestone 4 of Dark Forest ARES project, which received an OP grant in Season 5, Cycle 22 . We have now completed all the milestones outlined in our grant application！
In this post, we outline our achievements and the upcoming steps. I will present the tasks we accomplished during the completion of Milestone 4 and also share our longer-term plans for the project. Welcome to give us feedback！
Dark Forest MUD Intro
During the completion of Milestone 3, we migrated the core part of the project to the MUD engine. For promotional purposes, we renamed the project to Dark Forest MUD.
In November and December, we continued advancing the project’s development, completing the tasks outlined in Milestone 4. At the end of December, we held the Dark Forest MUD v2 Round, a six-day testing event on the Redstone mainnet. Players submitted approximately 98,180+ transactions and consumed around 87,319,167,720 gas during the event.
Major Tasks Completed
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The game client provides open interfaces for querying game data and submitting game operations. The frontend also includes modules for importing and running plugins. We refactored and improved the underlying interfaces for all player actions and game data analysis, migrating some popular player-favorite plugins to the latest interfaces and integrating them into the game client. Examples include Map Filter Export, Repeat Attack, and Diplomacy Ambassador, among others.
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We developed a Guild System and a Game Operation Delegation System. The Guild System introduces three roles: Guild Leader, Guild Officer, and Guild Member. The Guild Leader creates the guild, holds the highest authority, and can dissolve the guild. Guild officers, assigned by the Guild Leader, have the authority to manage guild members. All members within the guild can send energy to support each other. Notably, we also implemented the Game Operation Delegation feature. Guild members can delegate other members within the guild to operate their planets on their behalf. Since the game typically runs 24/7, players can delegate operations to guild members in different time zones while they are asleep, ensuring continuous gameplay.
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We have introduced a conversational AI assistant called SophonServerAI into the game, representing a significant step forward in integrating advanced AI capabilities into decentralized gaming ecosystems—particularly for the Dark Forest within the MUD framework—by leveraging OpenAI’s GPT models and robust API integration, with plans to include Claude and Deep Seek V3 in the future, aiming to provide dynamic, responsive AI agents that enhance player interaction, game strategy, and in-game functionality.
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Artifacts introduce new strategic gameplay: each planet can hold up to 8 artifacts, divided into offensive, defensive, productive, and general types. Only one artifact of each type can be activated at a time, except for general artifacts. Operations include Charge, Activate, and Shutdown. Supported artifacts are Pink Bomb, Bloom Filter, Wormhole, and Photoid Cannon. Pink Bomb can now directly target planets, destroying all planets within a circular area. Photoid Cannon allows for rapid long-distance attacks. Wormholes enable a single planet to connect to multiple others, improving energy transfer efficiency and providing offensive and defensive options. Bloom Filter can supercharge energy reserves.
Relevant Information
Open Source Code: GitHub - dfarchon/darkforest-mud r2 branch
Game address: https://r2.dfmud.xyz/ or https://dfmud-r2.netlify.app/
Blockchain explorer: Redstone address details for 0x803a8182f2a2f0dabfd06c77c97d5703ce28d8e9 | Blockscout
Dark Forest MUD v2 Round Player Guild
What’s next
The completion of the four milestones outlined in the grant application does not mark the end of our project. As a fully onchain game project, it requires ongoing development and adjustments over a long period. We will outline some areas that need further optimization and development in the future.
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Continue to introduce new artifacts and complete the guild features, enriching the game content to attract more players.
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Optimization of the user onboarding process and adjustments to the user game account delegation mechanism.
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Management queue for a large volume of on-chain transactions.
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We aim to introduce AI tools to provide game information, analyze in-game data, and develop AI agents for direct game decision-making.
Having maintained the Dark Forest community rounds for over two years, we have accumulated valuable experience in building large decentralized applications. In the process of developing our own project, we also plan to create reusable modules, such as the wallet management and account delegation mechanisms, and transaction queue management, which can be integrated into other games. This will help lower the barrier to developing fullchain game projects.
Contact info
If you are interested in blockchain games or our project, or if you would like to support our project, feel free to get in touch with us.
- GitHub: DFArchon · GitHub
- Dark Forest MUD Twitter
- DFArchon Team Twitter
- Email: dfarchon[at]gmail[dot]com
Stay Optimistic! 