Dark Forest: The three-body game that both V God and Paradigm are playing｜Project Introduction

Written by: 0x13, 0x26, Rhythm BlockBeats

1950, Physicist Enrico Fermi It raised a question that puzzled countless people: Judging from the amazing age of the universe and the huge number of stars, extraterrestrial life should be widespread, but why we have not found anything.

This problem will be called "Fermi Paradox" in the future. Overestimation of existence and lack of relevant evidence. Numerous scientists and researchers have tried to explain the Fermi Paradox, the most famous of which is "The law of the dark forest".

Law of the Dark Forest

"Killing everything is the most important thing for a civilization" - "Three-Body Problem II: Dark Forest"

In "The Three-Body Problem", Liu Cixin compares the entire universe to a dark forest, and compares every civilization to a hunter with a gun sneaking in the dark forest. And eliminate other hunters, because you don't know whether the other is an angel or a devil.

Because it is impossible to judge whether the other civilization is friendly or hostile to itself, due to the suspicion chain and technological explosion Influence, so they are hostile to each other by default, so they will destroy each other's civilization immediately after discovering it (with a small cost). Therefore, in the universe, once the coordinates of one's own civilization are exposed, it is equivalent to the destruction of one's own civilization. The destroyer and the destroyed have nothing to do with each other, and have never been in contact. The destruction is only due to "discovery".

As it is written in the book: "Destroying you has nothing to do with you."

This is the law of the dark forest, which describes the possible serious consequences of easily exposing your coordinates in the universe, and also explains the reasons, It also explains why there is a "lack of relevant evidence" in the Fermi paradox. The law of the dark forest is also widely known with the popularity of "Three-Body" all over the world. Have you ever thought about making the law of the dark forest into a game?

On August 14, 2020, V God tweeted and shared a very interesting game in his opinion.

 < /p>

This is the first time that this game called "Dark Forest" has entered the public eye. People can't help but wonder: what kind of game is this? Does it have anything to do with The Three-Body Problem? How can I join this game?

The production team stated in a blog post that Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" was the source of inspiration for this game, and from The name "Dark Forest" is not difficult to see, the basic principle of the game is "Dark Forest Law".

Dark Forest Game Introduction

"Dark Forest" is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) space conquest game. All planets in the universe and players' birth positions are all random, and players will have their own small planet at the beginning, with energy value and The visible range is also small, and players can obtain higher energy values and a larger visible range by conquering other planets. Each version of the game will serve as a test match, and the winner of each round will receive a prize money.

ZkSNARK-based fog of war 

The key to the "Dark Forest" game is the "incomplete information game".

For example, when you are playing the card game "Fight the Landlord" with two other players, you can only See your own cards, but don't know what cards the other two players have in their hands, so when making a decision, you can only make an estimate of the other players' hands, but cannot get exact information. This is called "incomplete information game". Games in which both players, such as chess and go, can see the pieces on the board and predict the possibility of placing them are "complete information games".

And "Dark Forest" uses the game of incomplete information in "Mist". The so-called fog refers to the visible range of the player. This setting is actually not uncommon in the game field. Classic real-time strategy games such as "Warcraft", "Red Alert", and "StarCraft" have used "fog" to hide player information. . In "Dark Forest", you don't know how other players in the fog are developing, whether they are on the way to invade your planet, or how far they are from you.

However, the data layer of most decentralized applications is completely open and transparent, such as Axie Infinity, Every player can check Axie's owner, attribute value, and skills, so the concept of "privacy" does not exist, and the concept of "incomplete information game" cannot be introduced.

In order to solve this problem, "Dark Forest" adopts "Concise Zero-Knowledge Proof (zkSNARK)", through zkSNARK , players can publicly submit verifiably valid actions while maintaining privacy. In the game, players do not need to submit the coordinates of their planet and the coordinates of conquering the planet to the core smart contract, but only need to submit a commitment to the position of their planet (that is, the coordinates of the planet after the hash algorithm) and a proof that the hash algorithm is Effective zero-knowledge proof, which also ensures the secrecy of the planet's position.

 < /p>

Proof of on-chain operations based on xDai

A major obstacle to the sustainable development of Ethereum network games The problem is the gas fee. If the game directly interacts with the Ethereum mainnet, then when the network is congested, the gas fee of tens or even hundreds of dollars will make it difficult for ordinary users to move.

OKLink data: On January 4, 2021, the suggested Ethereum Gas fee is 294.31Gwei

Dark Forest chooses xDai, a Layer 2 solution that greatly reduces the transaction fee for each operation reduce.

xDai is a chain with a stable reserve currency, its transactions and fees are carried out through XDAI, and xDAI is Created by locking DAI on Ethereum through the xDai bridge. The value of xDAI is basically anchored to the US dollar, which means that transaction costs are predictable and will not be affected by market fluctuations.

The actual cost of a transaction on Ethereum will have a large impact due to the congestion on the chain and the price of Ethereum difference, while on xDai the same transaction costs about $0.01 as on Ethereum.

Development history and current situation

The original version of Dark Forest was v0.3 launched in August 2020, and now it has been iterated to version v0.5. In addition to optimizing the system, this upgrade also includes an experimental PLUGIN system and adds the ability to explore the universe A special Dark Forest NFT to find. Each version is opened as an internal test with deleted files, and at the same time, 1024 DAI will be sent to the top 15 winners as a reward.

Every time a new version of Dark Forest is launched, there will be a wave of discussions in the Ethereum community. Looking back on the v0.5 version that is still in progress, Matt Huang, co-founder of Paradigm, said that this is the best encrypted game, and released a screenshot of the ranking of the game ranked second.

 < /p>

Figma CEO Dylan Field, Grammy Award winner RAC, Ethereum Fund member and ENS founder Nick Johnson, cryptocurrency investment institution Maple Leaf Capital and many other influential people of users expressed their love and appreciation for Dark Forest.

Strategy tutorial

（1）Get invitation code

New players need to enter an invitation code to join the game. The invitation code can be obtained by registering an email address on the official website and following the Twitter account. The registered mailbox will receive the private key of the game address for cross-browser login.

After getting the invitation code and logging in, the account will have 0.5 xDAI airdropped by the production team. A transaction costs 0.002 xDAI. After using the airdropped xDai, the user can continue to recharge xDAI to the Ethereum address. However, since the game is currently in the stage of deleting files and internal testing, it is not recommended for users to spend too much money. (Rhythm note, the v0.5 version ranking event has ended on January 8th, the dark forest has now opened the free game mode, entering the stage of universe expansion, users can still participate in the game.)

Every operation requires Approve, Players can also choose the 24-hour automatic confirmation option at the bottom.

The following is the xDAI official document Cross-account top-up guidance, users can send A address The DAI is recharged to address B in the form of xDAI, which means that users can use common addresses to recharge the Dark Forest address without transferring DAI to the Dark Forest game address and repeating the L2 recharge operation.

1. Loginhttps://bridge.xdaichain.com/ and connect to the Ethereum wallet Metamask.

2. Choose Single Tx Unlock (single unlock) or Infinite Tx Unlock (unlimited unlocks).

3. Click "Advanced", add the address that accepts xDAI and the amount to transfer from Dai to xDai. Press Unlock.

4. Confirm the unlock transaction in MetaMask.

5. Click Transfer and confirm the transaction.

6. Once the transfer is successful, the user will receive a series of notifications, and the last step is "Transfer Complete." After completing the above operations, the user has completed the whole process of recharging the Dark Forest address.

(2) The game starts

After logging in, novice users will have a small planet with 100 energy. Next, players will use this as a base to start a grand journey in the boundless universe.

 < /p>

Interface introduction:

1: Player information interface, this part shows User's Resources (resource), Silver (silver), Score (score) and Rank (ranking). Players can also bind their own Twitter accounts, maybe they will develop a deep friendship with other players who "encounter" in the vast galaxy.

2: Plant List, this is an overview of the planets that the user has occupied, where players can quickly manage their own planets.

3: Similar to the setting background of the game, players can find the game ranking, manage Artifacts and account private keys, etc.

4: The information of each occupied planet, the basic attributes of different planets are different, and the upper limit of Resources (resources) and output are different. The most important thing is Resources. Each planet can produce resources. Depending on the properties of the planet, the energy limit and output efficiency are also different. Send Resources is the only way to occupy a planet.

5: Represents the range of transmitted energy. The energy sent will be lost with the distance. The figure shows the range that can be reached by sending 25%, 50%, and 100%.

6: The energy of the player's own planet is displayed in white, and other players are represented by different colors. The upper part of the orange value in the lower left corner represents Silver, and the lower part represents Resources. The blue in the upper right section is another player.

7: The gray part represents the fog, and the player chooses the area to explore.

8: As xDAI is used to operate on Ethereum, each completed operation will display a gray Ethereum Logo, Indicates that the operation has been uploaded to the chain. The exclamation mark means that the discovery can produce Silver, or the planet meets the upgrade conditions. The pink Ethereum Logo means that the transaction on the chain has failed and needs to be re-operated.

9: DEEP SPACE. The areas of the game are divided into "Nebula (NEBULA)", "Space (SPACE)" and "Deep Space (DEEP SPACE)". The figure shows three different colors of dark blue, light blue and black in turn. All players are born in the nebula, which is also the safest place in the universe. Deep space contains rarer and more powerful planets, but are more vulnerable to attack from other players.

10: Operation on the chain.

3. Planet upgrade (Silver)

The type of planet and the initial level are inconsistent, resulting in different parameters such as its energy limit and production speed, whether it has silver mines (silver production), resource transmission speed, and defense power.

To improve the various parameters of the planet, in addition to collecting Artifacts, upgrading is the most common and effective way. Silver (Silver) is a must-have after Resources (Resources). It is worth noting that, unlike resources, not every planet can produce silver. In the dark forest, it is very important to find a planet that can produce silver.

Planet upgrade interface:

Three upgrade options: defense, sending energy range, speed

4 .Prehistoric artifacts (Artifacts)

In the process of exploring the universe, you will occasionally find planets with artifacts. When you zoom in on a planet that holds artifacts, a small gift box icon will pop up in the upper left corner of the planet. Click on the planet, open the planet details page and click the cultural relic button below to receive the cultural relic.

The author understands that prehistoric cultural relics are similar to bonus equipment. The original attribute value is affected.

The author's prehistoric cultural relics are to increase the energy limit and production speed, reduce the transmission distance, speed and defense.

Prehistoric cultural relics are also classified according to various categories and rarities, and cultural relics obtained on this planet can also be transferred to Other planets for placement.

 < /p>

5. Plugin (Plugin)

"The game is good, the plug-in is indispensable", in order to enhance The playability and diversity of the game, Dark Forest allows players to use and create plugins. Users can choose the official plug-ins, or write their own plug-ins. The specific method of use is to click the plug icon in the upper left corner and click Add Plugin to add a plugin (for the first use, you need to click multiple times to confirm that the plugin function is enabled).

After clicking Add Plugin, the user fills in the name and code of the plugin in the newly-appeared window to complete the plugin setting.

At present, there are many kinds of multi-functional plug-ins such as giving planets, repeated attacks, quick upgrades, and map exploration.

Dark Forest Plugin

6. Death

When the player is all After all the planets are occupied, it means that the Ethereum address belonging to this player is inoperable, and it is infinitely close to a state of death.

The player's "death" countdown< /blockquote>

However, other players can give their own planets to any player through the above-mentioned gift planet plug-in, including those who no longer own planets player. By gifting planets, not only can players from different galaxies be brought together, but also players without planets who have no game experience can be "reborn".

The above is an introduction to the gameplay of the dark forest. The wider and deeper areas are waiting for users to explore by themselves.

 

“No, don’t tell me where! Once you know where you are, the world becomes as small as a map , I don’t know where I am, it feels like the world is vast.”

"Well, let’s try to get lost."

—— "Three-Body Problem II: Dark Forest"

Reference reading: 

Dark Forest Official Website

Dark Forest Twitter< br>

Dark Forest FAQ

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia