FAQ
What is Townforge?
Townforge is a blockchain based game where you create buildings which will provide you with income. You trade with other players and outcompete them. You can build 3D models of your buildings using a Minecraft inspired system.
Townforge is also its own fully functional cryptocurrency, based on the Monero, a cryptocurrency focused on data protection.
What kind of game is it?
Townforge is a turn based economy planning game. You manage buildings and other stocks to try and make a profit from them. Townforge is entirely blockchain based: all player actions are embedded in the blockchain. This is the source of Townforge’s turn based nature, which means that every action you take will be sent to other computers participating, and will only actually happen in the game when mined (ie, added to the blockchain, like a typical cryptocurrency)`. This makes Townforge a slow paced long term game. People will usually want to play a little every day, to maintain their business empire and grow it over time. Note that Townforge is a live game, your buildings consume/produce materials and income even if you do not actively play, so you do not need to have regular play sessions if you do not want to micromanage.
On what platforms does Townforge run?
The daemon and wallet run on the same platforms as Monero: Linux, Mac, Windows, etc. The game itself runs on Linux, Windows and Mac (thanks to iDunk and Syksy for Windows fixes, and selsta for Mac fixes).
What are the technical differences between Townforge and Monero as cryptocurrencies?
Besides adding a fully fledged game on-chain, the currency part of Townforge has a few differences:
- payment ids are gone
- No pre-RingCT transactions
- larger tail emission
- 20 second block time
- no custom unlock time
How does Townforge compare to Monero overall as a cryptocurrency?
Townforge and Monero are technically very similar. Townforge is a source code fork of Monero and has been keeping up with Monero updates with time. From a cryptocurrency point of view, the main differences are:
- a fresh blockchain, without the historical bloat of Monero
- a smaller effective anomymity set due to much fewer users
- solid network security from the start due to merge mining
- builtin use for the currency itself through demand by game players
- a hybrid PoW/PoS system
Can I use Townforge as a currency without playing the game?
Yes. Townforge is based on Monero, and is a fully functioning cryptocurrency in its own right. The game part of it is optional, and you can ignore it entirely if you want to use Townforge as a cryptocurrency that respects your privacy.
Is the game part private?
Not quite, it is only pseudonymous.
Out of game transactions have Monero level privacy. After depositing to a game account, in-game transactions are in the clear and linked to the game account. However, an observer cannot link a game account to a wallet address.
Compared to typical web games, there is no website registration, email, etc. You play by interacting with the Townforge blockchain only, and you may use Tor or I2P to do so if you wish to protect your privacy further.
Once you withdraw from your game account, the withdrawn money is shielded by Monero style privacy again. However, be aware that if you withdraw several times from your Townforge game account, a blockchain observer will know that the resulting outputs all belong to the same person. Similarly, depositing many times allows that observer to know at least one of the inputs in each ring of these transactions belong to the same person. This knowledge allows one to make better inferences.
Can someone link my game account to my Townforge wallet address?
No, your game account public key is generated with a salted one way hash from your spend secret keys, so an observer cannot determine which game account corresponds to which wallet address. You can also have multiple in-game accounts with different Townforge wallets and they will not be linkable.
Is Townforge exit scam safe?
Yes. Player deposits are not controlled by a central administrator. Your deposits are controlled by two entities:
- You, using your own wallet keys, allowing automated instant on-chain withdrawal at will
- Consensus rules, which can take from your deposit only as instructed by game rules
Any other attempt to take money (or anything else, such as items or land) from your deposit will be an invalid transaction, and rejected by network participants.
This ensures that nobody is able to take player deposits and run.
How large are Townforge’s transactions?
Most in-game transactions are typically about a hundred bytes. Some transactions can occasionally be much larger, for instance building a large 3D model, or adding a long player profile text.
Out of game transactions are similar to Monero transactions, at about 2 kB each for typical 2 to 2 transactions.
Is in-game trading atomic and decentralized?
Yes. Trading is implemented by transactions which get matched to other trade transactions either by the taker or by a miner. Transactions are (possibly partially) executed when mined, thereby atomically transfering items bought in one direction and gold in the other.
There is no central server doing the matching, any party wanting to buy or sell may send their own transaction, and any miner may mine it.
Is Townforge using PoW, PoS, or something else?
Townforge uses a hybrid PoW/PoS system, with PoW using the same RandomX mining algorithm Monero uses. It will be merge mined with Monero.
What is merge mining?
Merge mining is a way to mine for more than one blockchain using the same work. Mining is usually compared to generating a lot of lottery tickets, each with a very small chance of winning. Merge mining lets these lottery tickets participate in two lotteries at once. Another metaphor is throwing darts. If you have two bullseyes, a large one and a small one, you can place them on top of each other on the wall. Then, when you throw a dart, if you hit the small one, you automatically hit the larger one too. If you hit the larger one though, you do not necessarily hit the small one.
What is Proof of Settlement?
Proof of Settlement is a variant on Proof of Stake (PoS). While traditional PoS uses currency itself as a base for creating new blocks, proof of settlement uses in-game buildings, which is a derivative of gold. Buildings’ staking weight receive a bonus from their owner’s prestige score. This is done to prevent an incentive to hoard gold and not play the game. Indeed, it is best for someone to both play and stake.
Why are PoS block rewards less than PoW block rewards?
PoS block rewards are gained by staking buildings, so the higher they are, the more incentive there is to use all your gold to create buildings, as the potential income from PoS increases compared to the potential income from playing the game. Keeping PoS block rewards at about 5% of PoW block rewards incentives both PoS staking and playing the game.
Is Townforge secure?
Maybe. While it’s based on Monero, there were a huge number of consensus changes made to support the game mechanics, making the attack surface very large. While all consensus bugs may not be exploitable, it’s very possible that a bug exists which allows some kind of exploit.
However, it is unlikely that a bug exists in the actual money supply. Any exploitable bug would most likely be the kind that allows generating in-game items, but these would have to be traded for gold which is then withdrawn, and that is limited by the amount of deposits.
Still, Townforge has a huge number of consensus changes and they have received nowhere the amount of scrutiny than consensus changes would received in, say, Monero. It is meant to be a game, so treat it as such.
Do I need to keep the game running while my game actions are mined?
No. Once the game actions are sent to the daemon, you can exit the game. As transactions containing these game actions are mined, the blockchain will reflect those changes even if you are not running the game at the time. Once you run the game again, it will scan new blocks from the chain and display the updated state.
How can I get Townforge gold?
Without playing the game, you can mine (Townforge uses PoW like Monero does) or buy some off someone else.
In game, you can get gold in a multitude of ways: build a building which qualifies for payouts; create resources and sell them to people who need them; Hunt and sell the food; become the mayor of your own town; buy buildings and sell them for a profit; research new discoveries and sell the patents…
How does treasuries work?
Every town has a treasury, which is an automated account managed by the consensus rules only (ie, nobody can grab that money). When buying blocks from the game, buying land, paying for a workforce building’s tick, etc, the money raised go to the treasuries. Every game update, town treasuries get income (equal to 10% of block rewards since last game update), and spend some of that income to pay building owners, the mayors, and the game account. Mayors get 0.1% shared between them based on their city sizes, the game account gets 0.25%, prestigious players get 0.5% and building owners share about 9.5%. See the manual for the weight of different building types and how prestige is calculated.
How do I found my own town?
You can found a new city by paying a one time fee. This fee decreases as the total size of all cities in the game grows, and goes up as the number of cities in the game grows. The idea is that as more players start playing the game, it becomes easier to found a new city, but not too many pop up at once.
Once you have your own town, its treasury will start filling from people buying land, etc, and from the regular mining income, and you and settlers in your city will start getting payments from it.
How do I gain levels?
Levels are reached by collecting badges. The more badges you have, and the higher level these badges, the higher the level.
How do I gain badges?
Badges are awarded for various game achievements. Some are awarded for sheer amount of possessions, others by being succesful in a particular area (ie, hunting or research). Some others are awarded for building cool looking buildings in the voxel 3D world. Yet others will be awarded by participation in role playing events.
Who controls the game account, and what powers does it have?
The game account is controlled by moneromooo and Syksy. It gets 0.25% of the town treasuries, which will be used for various purposes, such as hosting expenses, paying for Syksy’s game master work, prizes for players in role playing events, and possibly bounties for important work we cannot do. This is not exhaustive: moneromooo will use this money for whatever moneromooo feels appropriate. You may assume it will go in moneromooo’s pocket for purposes of determining fairness of distribution if you like.
The game account can do a few things than normal accounts cannot do:
- define new attributes (to be used for role playing events, players can assign points to attributes when levelling up)
- change the ignore settings recommendations (suggestions for who to ignore, since we’ll likely get the usual mouth nazi idiots)
- create and award role playing badges (to be used as role playing event awards) and award Atlas and Architect badges
- dice rolls (those are role playing event helpers with no effect on the game state)
- create and enable/disable new scripts as well as change global script variables to advance the game storyline
- change the set of items a merchant ship may offer on markets
What is the Atlas badge?
The Atlas is a special in game badge which, unlike most other badges, is awarded by the game account rather than by consensus rules. The Atlas badge is given to accounts of people who have helped Townforge prior to launch.
What are role playing events?
Role playing events are mini games hosted by Syksy using the game account, intended to drive the Townforge storyline, engage players who prefer story over economic games, and generally for people to have fun participating in interactive Townforge themed adventures. Custom participation badges for people who put in some effort will be awarded. Occasionally, gold or items may also be given as prizes. Attributes will be used to allow participants to increase their chances of success in those adventures.
What is the ignore system?
To anticipate the appearance of a few people who just want to spam objectionable material, the game account can maintain a list of suggested ignore settings. By default, the game will ignore people, items, cities and buildings on the ignore list. You can add to this list locally if someone ticks you off, or you can disable this system altogether. It is hoped that the fact this system exists will discourage widespread vandalism and spam.
Is there a tech tree?
Yes. Townforge has a discovery tree, allowing you to research different technologies. This takes the form of funding research towards a particular discovery. The more funding is directed to a given goal, the cheaper it becomes to research it. The more time passes, the cheaper it gets as well. Once discovered, most discoveries give the researcher a patent to the discovery. That patent can be sold (for instance, a patent that increases agricultural land returns is much more valuable to a large land owner than to someone who’s specialized in research). The current owner of a patent will benefit from its effects automatically. Most patents lapse after 30 real days, after which everyone gets the benefit of the discovery.
How do I trade with other players?
Townforge includes a decentralized trade system. Offers and bids are blockchain transactions, created by traders, and mined by miners. The game acts as a last resort seller for some items (labour and building materials). The game and other players’ orders will appear in the books in the trade screen, where you can trade as you would on an exchange. Note that since trades are only executed when a transaction is mined, you will have to wait after you click buy or sell, even if your order can be filled immediately.
Can I create more than one account?
Yes. Create another wallet. Each wallet can create one game account.
Why does Townforge not use Monero as its currency?
That was the original idea, but there was no way to do it trustlessly. A huge number of consensus changes were needed to support trustless game mechanics, and that was obviously not going to fly as a Monero patch :) Besides, running on a separate blockchain avoids bloating the Monero blockchain.
I made a mistake in the game, can I undo it?
If the mistake was mined, then not unless you 51% the chain.
For building 3D models to represent your buildings, these can be amended at any time, so if you decided you don’t like the front door, you can alter it at any time. Townforge is a living world.
If a command was submitted but not mined yet, you can cancel it (click to the “N queued commands” notification at the bottom of the screen, then click on “cancel” near the command you want to cancel). However, there is no guarantee the command won’t be mined before the cancellation takes effect. The cancellation is a command too, and issued with a higher fee so rational miners should mine it before the command it cancels. Last, Townforge is a multiplayer game. You can sometimes correct a mistake by doing other things. For example, if you bought 500 units of grain instead of the 400 you intended, you can sell the extra 100 back on the market. If you bought a new plot of land and it turns out to be too small for the building you were planning, you can adjust the size. If you minted too many gold coins, you can smelt some to get your gold back (minus a small smelting fee), etc. Some other mistakes are harder or impossible to undo though, like smelting a very rare and prestigious coin.
Is this related to Crypto Kingdom?
Townforge is inspired by Crypto Kingdom. It is not a successor though, and is made by different people. Basically, moneromooo and Syksy played Crypto Kingdom and liked it, and decided to make a game inspired by it after it went bankrupt. See another of these FAQs explaining how Townforge is safe from exit scams.
How can I withdraw money?
Click on “Withdraw” in the player menu. The money will go to the wallet you created this account from.
How can I deposit money?
Click on “Deposit” in the player menu. If it is the first time you deposit from this wallet, you’ll get the chance to name your account. There is an account creation fee of 1 unit for anti spam purposes.
What happens if I run out of money?
It depends what the reason is:
- If you don’t have enough to meet tick requirements or staff salary, the building pauses and does not produce nor receive income until you can meet the requirements again
- If you don’t have enough to meet land tax, the land (and any building on it) is destroyed and returned to the game
- If you don’t have enough to buy items for a buy order you had previously issued, your order will be partially filled
Is the day/night cycle linked to game mechanics?
No, it’s cosmetic only, and based on your local time. It can be disabled in the options.
What is the canonical in-game scale?
Blocks width, height and length are about 30 cm, or a foot. This makes the average human about 6 blocks tall, so door frames should be at least 6 or 7 blocks high. Keeping to this rule of thumb will help make the city look more harmonious.
Townforge now has an avatar the player can control, which should help with issues of scale when building.
What are special events?
Special events are randomly occuring temporary variations in game mechanics, intended to spice things up a bit. They typically alter payout levels, production amounts, etc. Examples include “good harvest”, temporarily increasing agricultural land food production, and “earthquake”, temporarily increasing building decay rate. Special events are announced in the chat window.
Can I create NFTs ?
Yes. You can create items, with custom name, description and number of instances to create. Once a custom item is created, you are given instances, and may either give or sell them. They are freely tradable using the same trade mechanics as building materials. An IPFS multihash can optionally be attached to the custom item if the item is to represent arbitrary data on IPFS, such as an image, video, etc.
Custom items can be used to mesh with storyline progress, but can also take the form of lottery tickets, company shares, even a simple in-game premined toy cryptocurrency.
Why aren’t my 3D build commands mined?
You probably don’t have enough resources to build. Check your inventory for sandstone, pine, etc, and buy some more if needed. It might also be that you tried to modify a building right after you submitted other modifications to that building, but before they were mined. If the changes conflict, the conflicting ones will never be mined.
How do I resize a plot of land?
Select the new area, and click Resize in the Flag menu. The new area must intersect the old area, and not intersect any other flag.
How do I obtain gemstones?
Gemstones are found when digging for stone in a quarry. The larger the quarry, the higher the chance to find a gemstone.
Can I use a stranger’s node?
Yes. However, it is not recommended. No efforts were made to shield the game for the node’s behaviour. A malicious node will be able to feed the game bad information, and possibly crash it. Run your own node.
Can I play without owning land?
Yes, land/building ownership is a big part of the game, but you can play without owning any, by focusing on research (and selling discoveries), or playing the in game markets.
What is the Townforge theme/background?
Townforge is loosely placed on an alternate history timeline during the Medieval Warm Era (approx. 12th century), with Norse settlers arriving to Greenland. While e.g. tech tree is loosely based on real history, we reserve the right to implement creative choices that serve game’s best interests.
How can I contribute to Townforge?
For now, by testing and reporting bugs (https://git.townforge.net/townforge/townforge/issues). You can also participate in the coming public testnet which will help balance the game.
I don’t like one feature in Townforge, can you change it?
If it’s a good idea and worth the effort, maybe. Changes affecting consensus (ie, game rules) will need a fork though, so that everyone can update in sync.
How do I move in game?
The default keys to move are WASD. You can look around by pressing the right mouse button and moving the mouse around. Press shift to go faster. You can change these in the controls settings in options (or press ESC while in the main game). Pressing B toggles the building mode, in which the mouse controls rotation without pressing a button.
I lost my wallet password, can I recover it?
If you saved your 25 word seed, yes. Use the –restore-deterministic-wallet option on the townforge-wallet-cli command line. Otherwise, no.
I’m lost. How can I get help?
There is a manual. You can also chat with us in #townforge on irc.libera.chat.
Are there binaries?
Yes, for Linux (built by myself), Windows (built by iDunk) and Mac (built by selsta). Do make sure you check signatures.
Why do I have to wait for every action I make?
Townforge is a blockchain based game. All game actions are recorded on the Townforge blockchain. Game actions are embedded in transactions which are added to the blockchain by miners using a PoW process. Blocks are added to the blockchain every thirty seconds on average.
What are Townforge vistas?
Vistas are short text codes which map to a given position and orientation in game. A vista code can be used to give someone a quick and easy way to move to a particular sight in the game. Select “Go to vista” in the city section to go to a vista with its code.
Why does my antivirus program claim there is malware in Townforge?
Townforge uses Monero’s RandomX mining algorithm, which is commonly reused as payload by malware. Antivirus software often does not bother separating the wheat from the chaff and complains about anything using RandomX, whether good or bad. If this is from a binary which you did not build yourself, you should verify the signature to make sure it really is a genuine Townforge binary, just in case malware was actually injected into it.
Does the terrain have an influence on gameplay?
Yes, gameplay does get affected by the terrain. The two main influences are relative elevation (some buildings, such as military buildings as well high end residential buildings, get a bonus from being higher than their immediate surroundings) and cliffs (giving stonecutters a production bonus). Temperature also drop with altitude, which has an effect on heating needs and farming. See the manual for details.
What is prestige and how do I obtain it ?
Prestige is a measure of a player’s standing in the game, and is dependent on that player’s collection of gold coins, gemstones, and level. The 20 most prestigious players get extra income every tick.
Do new players get freebies?
Every new player receives a random gold coin. This coin is one in a series of “newbie” gold coins which cannot be minted by players as other coins can, and is thus all the rarer. Most players will get the most common coin, but some lucky players will get the rarest ones. As all coins, these coins contribute to prestige, as collecting them gives an increasing additional prestige boost as the collection gets more complete.
Is there a mining pool ?
Yes. pool.townforge.net offers merged Townforge/Monero mining, or plain old Townforge mining, as your option.
Can I export my trade/activity data ?
Yes. Go to the player screen (F10), click on history, click on Export.
Are 20 second blocks too fast ?
It depends on what you consider. While 20 second blocks are fast from an orphan perspective, and will lead to more orphaned blocks than one or two minute blocks, gameplay is much improved by fast blocks, since you often have to wait for the next block to make your next in-game move. I view this as an acceptable tradeoff for this particular case. Anyone receiving gold may want to increase the number of blocks to unlock deposits if this is a concern.
What is the Townforge emission curve ?
It’s basically the same as Monero, scaled up 1.67x, and with a higher relative tail emission. The block time is 20 seconds. There is an equal number of PoW and PoS blocks on averge, and the first PoW block reward is about 17.5 gold. PoS block rewards are 5% of the equivalent PoW block reward. The tail emission is 0.5 gold per PoW block and 0.025 gold per PoS block, and will be reached after more than 7 years, when the total emission will be almost 35 million gold.
What happens if there is a consensus bug ?
It depends on the circumstances, ie the severity of the bug, the consequences of the bug, how easy it is to fix, how severe the consequences of a chain reorg. A decision will be made, and will by necessity be subjective. The chain might continue or might fork and lose some history. If this is something you cannot agree with, you may want to not play Townforge.
Is this Pay to win (P2W) ?
Mostly no. The core of the game is not competition between players where one will win and the other will lose, a setting where buying better equipment/bonuses etc gives you a better chance of winning. The core Townforge gameplay is to build one or more buildings that are competitive and will get you income back. Richer players will be able to afford more and larger buildings, but generally get little improvement on their return percentage. In fact, smaller buildings can also get advantages as they’re able to fit better in sweet spots on the map. Improvements based on building size are designed to be limited as well. You can compare this to a savings account: a richer person can stash more in the account, but in the end you’re all getting the same interest rate. In Townforge, the interest rate is generally based on how well you plan, and not on how much you buy.
Why is it so hard to get enough gold to build a whole borough ?
You’re not supposed to do this. While rich players may be able to build many buildings, most people are expected to build only a handful of them or fewer. The intent is that people will try to slot their building(s) to match other players’ buildings to benefit from their influence. The organic interaction between player buildings, rather than centralized top down urban planning, is intended.
Why is townforge/townforged failing on startup with “Illegal instruction” ?
You likely have a very old CPU, and the prebuilt binaries are compiled for a later CPU. Townforge binaries should work on Intel CPUs from the last decade, and Linux distributions from the last few years. Any older than that, and you will have to build Townforge yourself for your machine.
Will there be forks and consensus changes ?
Yes. Some of these changes will be to add game features, such as feasts and art patronage. Others may be needed to change economy parameters such as land tax, prices of the last resort seller, etc. This will be gauged based on how the economy runs with many players. In any case, the emission schedule will not change after mainnet starts.
How deep is the blockchain integration in Townforge ?
Townforge really is a game on a blockchain. All game actions are embedded in the blockchain, and Townforge could not run without it. While many other games are centralized and use a blockchain to peripherally trade in game items, Townforge relies on blockchain data mined by players for the very evolution of the game world. The integration is as deep as you can get.
I missed a notification, can I read it again ?
Go to options (ESC or in the panel), select the UI page, and click on “Notification History”
Can I add my own textures to the game ?
Yes, you can add textures, and other players can licence it if they like it. Adding a texture costs 5 gold. Licencing a texture cost 0.5 gold, so good artists could get their money back and more.
Do player accounts time out ?
Not at the moment, but if there is an influx of bot/spam accounts, this might be added later on.
Will prices, fees, budgets, etc change ?
Possibly, based on how many people play, how much gold is deposited in game, whether balance issues are found, etc. If those change, this will be made through a hard fork, as these are consensus rules enforced by miners. Moreover, to keep the game fresh, new items and features may be added, changed or removed.