The first Game Specific Node is to be launched in the form of Town Star Nodes, as announced.
The most important thing to note about these Nodes is that they won’t reduce or hinder the importance of Founder’s Nodes.

Without further ado, let’s get into some of the most important questions you have already asked, as well as many of the details of this upcoming addition to our Node Ecosystem!

When will Town Star Node licenses be sold?

In order to better reward those who continually support our ecosystem, we will be making an announcement in the Gala-Gold and Node-Owners channels in our discord 24 hours before the Town Star Node licenses go on sale. All other channels will receive an announcement at the time of sale.

In what currency will Town Star Nodes be sold?

Town Star Nodes will first be available in GALA, then it will open up to ETH, BAT, and Coinpayments. Town Star Nodes will eventually be available in TOWN, but due to the low liquidity in TOWN and the fact there is only one source of data on CoinGecko, and with the fact that it is quite volatile, we feel it’s best to hold off sales in TOWN until things have stabilized and the token is more spread out.

How many Town Star Node licenses will go on sale to start?

400 Town Star Node Licenses will be available for purchase on day 1.

How many Town Star Node licenses will exist?

The number of Town Star Nodes will not exceed 10% of the highest number of Daily Active Earners (those participating in play-to-earn). This is intentionally designed so that the Town Star Node network will grow in proportion to the growth of the game.

Why 10% of the Daily Active Earners?

This is to ensure that there are never more Town Star Node licenses than are needed to support the game.

When and how will Town Star Node licenses be sold?

Town Star Node licenses will only be sold as Town Star Play-to-Earn grows. New Town Star Node licenses will either be released every other week or 50 licenses at a time, depending on the growth of the Town Star Play-to-Earn game. The combined number of Town Star Node licenses (for sale and in the hands of users) will never exceed 10% of the highest number of Daily Active Earners in Town Star.

How much will a Town Star Node license cost?

The pricing model is currently being finalized. In order to better give you an estimate (emphasis on estimate), it is anticipated that Town Star Node licenses will cost between $7,500.00 and $12,500.00 for the first batch. Each subsequent batch will either be listed at the same price or higher than the prior batch.

How will Town Star Node operators be rewarded?

The current model involves the TOWN allocation for Town Star Nodes being based on two variables: (1) DAU for the prior day in Town Star, and (2) TOWN allocation to Founders Nodes. This will be a sliding scale that is equal to .25x-1.00x the TOWN allocation for Founders Nodes. For example, on 11/14/21 Founders Nodes were rewarded a total of approximately 47,000 TOWN. If Town Star Nodes were in operation on that date, the TOWN distributed amongst Town Star Nodes would be between 11,750 and 47,000 TOWN. Assuming there were 400 Town Star Nodes sold AND fulfilled operational requirements, each node would have received between 29 and 117.5 TOWN. If only 100 of the 400 met the operational requirement, then each of those Town Star Nodes would receive between 117.5 and 470 TOWN, while the non-operational nodes would receive nothing.

How long will you need to run a Town Star Node in order to earn?

Town Star Nodes will follow the same earning schedule as Founder’s Nodes. Currently, 6 hours will be required to earn. Once Founder’s Nodes change to a 24 hour uptime strategy, so will Town Star Nodes.

NOTE: TOWN STAR NODE REWARDS DO NOT TAKE AWAY FROM OR REDUCE FOUNDER’S NODE REWARDS IN ANY WAY.

Will I receive any other tokens besides TOWN for running my Town Star Node?

No, there are no plans at this time to distribute any other type of tokenized reward to Town Star Node operators. It is possible that we may release an NFT to those who own and operate their Town Star Node licenses from time to time, but this is not expected to be a regular occurrence.

Will rewards decrease as more players join Town Star Play-to-Earn?

Not necessarily, because the amount of TOWN awarded to Town Star Node operators tracks the amount of TOWN awarded to Founder’s Node operators. The amount of TOWN awarded to Founder’s Node operators increases as the number of Daily Active Earners increases and as more Founder’s Nodes are in operation. In addition, more Town Star Nodes cannot be sold until the number of Daily Active Earners increases.

What makes Town Star Nodes different from Founder’s Nodes?

Town Star Nodes are specific to Town Star, whereas Founder’s Nodes support the entire Gala Games ecosystem.

Will this proposal directly change anything for Founder’s Nodes?

No, nothing that pertains to Founder’s Nodes is changed directly by this proposal. Founder’s Nodes are the only nodes that are rewarded in GALA, individual game tokens, AND game NFTs.

NOTE: TOWN STAR NODE REWARDS DO NOT TAKE AWAY FROM OR REDUCE FOUNDER’S NODE REWARDS IN ANY WAY.

Will the supply of TOWN be affected?

Yes, similar to the TOWN created to be distributed amongst the Founder’s Nodes, TOWN will be created to be distributed amongst Town Star Nodes.

Will Founders Node Owners receive any Town Star Node licenses?

20 of the first 400 Town Star Node licenses will be distributed randomly to Founder’s Node owners.

What is the current roadmap for Town Star Nodes?

Town Star Nodes will be rolled out in two phases: Version 1 and Version 2. Version 1 is the initial version that will be available at launch. Version 2 is the first major upgrade to Town Star Nodes, which will allow players to begin hosting their own towns and enjoying additional TBD in-game benefits. As the roadmap develops, more versions may be added. The target date for Version 2 is Q2 of 2022.

What will Town Star Nodes do when Version 1 is released?

Version 1 Town Star Nodes will host content for the Gala Games Decentralized Content Delivery Network (DCDN). The DCDN pins content via the IPFS (InterPlanetary File Sharing) system — a key component to many web3 applications. This work helps remove some of the stress on the central Gala Games servers, and moves us further on the path to decentralization.

What will Town Star Nodes do when version 2 is released?

The current plan for Town Star Nodes Version 2 is that they will have the ability to run or host towns. Under this plan, each node will be able to run or host 1 town. There is a possibility of paid upgrades at a later release that would allow node owners to run towns for other players. Since this will be an ever-evolving process, this is subject to change at our discretion without a node vote (including removal altogether). We appreciate the desire for an absolutely clear roadmap, but the development of the node software will give us better insight into what is and what is not possible. While this current plan seems extremely fun and doable, the last thing we want to do is make a promise that will break the game or make the game less enjoyable upon implementation.

What could running or hosting a town entail?

Running a town on a node could look like this: When your town is running on a node it will keep running as if you were still running the game on a local device. More details will be provided as we get nearer to the Version 2 launch.

How does hosting content for the Gala Games DCDN help reduce centralization and the workload of Gala Games’ servers?

By running a Town Star node, you will be hosting Town Star content for anyone in the world to access. This means instead of there being only a few centralized servers hosting this content, operated by Gala Games, there will be hundreds or thousands of servers hosting this content. This means the work is shared across all of these servers, and it means that there are multiple copies of the data held by multiple parties — decentralized data!

Why should there be Game Specific Nodes?

At Gala Games, we are striving to create an ecosystem that goes beyond one or two games. It is our hope that the ecosystem grows to support hundreds or thousands of games. If this goal becomes reality, Founder’s Nodes will not be able to carry the workload alone if we want nodes to do ALL THE THINGS (unless everyone is interested in a requirement of 16 CPU cores, 64 GB of ram, etc. to run the Founder’s Nodes). Further, by having game specific nodes, we will be able to add functionality to each game that the Founder’s Nodes alone wouldn’t have been able to handle assuming our dream state of hundred or thousands (or more!) of games is met. We understand the frustration of introducing game specific nodes before Founder’s Nodes are tested to their capacity, but by doing so we are able to stress test while we build out and develop the ecosystem rather than after. By doing it this way, we can scale everything together to the anticipated end state, rather than having to work backwards.

Assuming that Version 2 goes as planned, will competitive players running Town Star Nodes receive unfair advantages to gameplay?

While towns run by Town Star Node operators may receive advantages to gameplay, they are designed to be fair advantages, and players who do not operate nodes will still be able to compete in and enjoy every aspect of the game.

Will Town Star Nodes require a constant internet connection?

Yes, just like a Founder’s Node, the Town Star Nodes will require a constant internet connection to keep towns running while users are not actively playing on their own machines.

Will Town Star Nodes require a different machine ID than Founder’s Nodes?

While each machine ID can only have one connected Town Star Node license (similar to a Founder’s Node), a machine ID can be connected to both one Town Star Node license AND one Founder’s Node license.

What are the anticipated specs that will be needed to run the nodes?

Phase 1
4 GB RAM
2 CPU Cores
60 GB disk space
10 MBit up/down connection

Phase 2
8 GB RAM
4 CPU cores
60 GB disk space
10 MBit up/down connection

Will other games in the Gala Games ecosystem use similar Game Node systems as that of the Town Star Node?

Yes. Ideally, versions of this system will be reproduced for different games on an individual basis, allowing players to support their favorite games in the same way that our early adopters have supported the ecosystem through Founder’s Nodes. It is highly unlikely that any two models will ever be exactly the same.

Should I spend all my saved GALA or TOWN on a Town Star Node license?

We can make no recommendations and offer no advice on how to spend your saved GALA or TOWN or any other assets. If you are considering purchasing a Town Star Node license, we’d like to encourage you to do as much research as you can and ask any questions you may have before doing so.

Are Town Star Nodes an investment?

No.

Do Town Star Nodes offer a guaranteed return (ROI) or give you any ownership of Gala Games or Town Star?

Absolutely not. Town Star Nodes are not investments, nor do they give you ownership or voting rights in Gala Games or Town Star. They are another way of supporting the ecosystem and purchasing a product that interacts with Town Star.

Can any of the above be changed?

Yes, all of the above is subject to change at Gala Games’ discretion at any time, including after the purchase of the Town Star Node. We at Gala Games would like to stress that the purchase of the Town Star Node license is not to be viewed as an investment, nor should a purchaser ever consider the potential for return when buying one. At any moment Gala Games can change the entire reward structure if it is not working as intended (or for any reason).

Are refunds available for Town Star Node licenses?

No, refunds are not available.

Look for a 24 hour Founder’s Node vote beginning very soon. We will announce in Discord when the vote begins.