Forge 2.0 Proposal Discussion

[stedari]

Proposal Summary:

• Hire the Forge Team for a 3 month period with an overall UI/UX focus
• Planned deliverables: full geode functionality with refilling of prize pool with at least 3 new schematics; respec potion completion and distribution; strong UI/UX focus with main website integration of the Dressing Room w/ similar art/RPG feel as offered by the Forge UI; major improvements to Forge UI/UX; operationalize a schematic pipeline for new schematic releases
• No plans for further core or alloy release in this period
• Goal is for content to accrue value to native assets (gotchis, wearables) vs charge the community GHST for the new content
• Backgrounds, wearable skins, evolving pets and a new BRS-modifying slot will be tabled for further technical development. The Forge Team will present the most viable and community-favored project(s) for the next Forge installment
• Compensation is denominated in USD instead of GHST for a total of $161,825 for the Forge Team and a 10,000 GHST bounty budget

The Aavegotchi Forge Team proposes a 3 month contracted period of service to the Aavegotchi DAO to continue developing and improve features on the Aavegotchi protocol and User Interface. Over this three-month period, we plan to “stick the landing” for the Forge, add additional User Interface work w/ an integrated dressing room, and outline potential new features that can be pursued by the Forge Team or other design teams.

A contracted three-month period allows the team to take on multiple projects simultaneously. It also allows our team the ability to provide rolling economic data, maintain and improve the UI, update the Core Framework document, and maximally engage the community. The Forge launch on 2/22 generated >170,000 GHST in total sales of which >80,000 GHST was in schematics. The Forge Team paid for itself twice over on launch. We anticipate we will be able to continue to generate revenue without inflating cores or alloy and aim for budget neutrality while delivering new content.

Forge Team Roadmap:

• Geodes: Regardless of this proposal, the Forge team will debut the minimal viable Geode ASAP with function to obtain the 400 legendary Forge set schematics. As part of this proposal, the Forge Team will develop additional schematics for some of the unmatched cores from the Forge Launch auction. Plan to reload the prize pool by the end of April, ideally with multi-tier rarity functionality.
• Complete and airdrop “Respec Potions”
• UI Upgrade: Integrate the “Dressing Room” to the main Aavegotchi website. Create a dress-up and buy now option with new art, new NPC, and Aavegotchi aesthetic
• Schematic pipeline – Will operationalize new schematic creation with predictable schematic releases, randomized/fair trait selection, intentional approach to avoid power creep, and maximally assist in translating new wearables to Gotchiverse functionality
• Updates to wearables.report (market data reporting) site to account for new wearables mechanics:

Add a dashboard of metrics related to The Forge

Update existing metrics to account for changes in supply related to forging

UI/UX improvements (mostly navigation related to accommodate additional content, with some minor aesthetic updates)

Back-end code improvements to allow for modularity and expandability in the future

Future Project Outlines – Forge Team to investigate and prepare potential proposals for the following:

• Outline and potentially implement the transition from FRENS to GLTR for raffle tickeets
• New/Custom backgrounds – Develop a path for the community to design unique backgrounds and/or obtain Forge Team/Pixelcraft designed backgrounds
• Wearable skins/non-BRS-modifying wearables – Continue aesthetics focus by creating a path for wearable skins w/ goal to maximize community-created content
• New BRS-modifying slot – Will be tabled for further economic and technical development for presentation to the DAO in Q3 2023
• Evolving pets/Upgradeable wearables – Tabled for further technical development and separate proposal for the DAO, though it still may be implemented by the Forge Team during the 6 month period or beyond.

Forge Team Stipend:

For this work, diddly will be hired on as a full-time developer and responsible for all technical builds, solidity work and front-end management. This stipend for the Lead Developer role includes pay for extensive work performed in February-March 2023 to complete the Forge and to build the mobile user interface for a 4 month total stipend vs 3 months for the rest of the team. The three other roles will be part time ~20 hours/week. The 10,000 GHST bounty budget is to maximize external contributions and facilitate open contributions as much as possible.

Execution Details:

• Three dispersements in DAI from the DAO Treasury Wallet to the Forge Team Wallet which will be specified in the core proposal:
  • $61,825 upon passage of core proposal
  • $50,000 30 days after passage of core proposal
  • $50,000 60 days after passage of core proposal

In summary, we are requesting compensation for a dedicated 3 month period to form a devoted, highly skilled and proven team to continue developing the protocol. We strongly believe we will create more value than our asking cost. We look forward to this period of exponential growth and helping the DAO continue its transition through the metamorphosis phase. -The Forge Team

[CryptoGotchi]

@stedari

$161,825

161k USD for 3 months is way too much. Can’t you do it for 1/10 of that? If not, I think the prudent thing for the DAO to do, is to call for bids, and give the commission to the team with the best offer.

@stedari

We anticipate we will be able to continue to generate revenue without inflating cores or alloy and aim for budget neutrality while delivering new content.

Does “aim for budget neutrality” mean you want the Forge team to receive that much (161k USD) because that is how much earnings you estimate from that new batch of schematics? If so, what if the next batch only brings in 30k GHST? Will your team give the rest of your budget back to attain “budget neutrality”? And what about the DAO and PC? Why risk such a large investment for “budget neutrality”? You ask the DAO to assume all the risk here, and trust your estimate.

@stedari

This stipend for the Lead Developer role includes pay for extensive work performed in February-March 2023 to complete the Forge

So you miscalculated your budget for completing the Forge twice already, and now ask the DAO yet again (this time retroactively) for money to complete the Forge? Why should the DAO trust any of your estimates at this point? Once again, I see no detailed financial plan.

[notorious_BTC]

I am really excited about this new roadmap

We took all the feedback from the Forge form and are bringing forward the biggest desires of the community. I want to expand a little bit. Bear in mind things are likely to change!

Dressing Room

The dressing room feature I can see working really well for new users. Part of the vision is to make things very user frenly. We want to bring a lot of great stats to the forefront of someone’s experience.

What if a user can quickly optimise their gotchi and see what their new cumulative RF rewards would have been / are going to be? And then just click buy. No need to jump through a ton of extra steps in the bazaar (which can be very overwhelming for new users).

The dressing room may also detail the different stats so players know what their new gear is doing for them. Ideally, as said, we want to make it where a new entrant doesn’t need to go down any 100 page rabbit holes to understand what they’re buying. The experience should feel intuitive. Player puts on new hat, sees that it boosts BRS +8, increases melee power, evasion, and crit rate. Clicks buy.

Players can also easily export their new look for PFP flex.

What I am personally excited about is bringing to life the whole experience, similar to the Forge UI. The wheels are spinning and a new NPC has already emerged to help you look your most fabulous self

My overarching goal with aavegotchi protocol development is to make things strike that sense of nostalgia that retro pixel art games bring. We received great feedback on the Forge UI design and would love to continue expanding on that with another shop

Geodes

As stated, the original concept is launching regardless of this proposal passing. However, with further development, the geode concept can grow into even more value for the community. Loot boxes are very popular in other crypto projects and a great source of revenue.

The geodes sort of turn traditional loot boxes on their head. Rather than simply selling them we can instead reward them through protocol interaction. It is my hope to co-create some really juicy schematics and possibly other prizes. We then load them up in the prize pool.

The only way to win some of these prizes is through geode opening. This creates an amazing value loop for the community. Players want the ebic prizes and must smelt wearables to get geodes. The smelting tax of 10% will quickly compound which in turn will raise the floor of the entire wearables market.

I’ve been tracking the alloy burn periodically. You can see here the quantity equivalent of each wearable rarity that has been burned.

I’m humbled by the positive feedback and compliments received for the Smithor skin design. It seems like it will be a very in-demand set. And it’s only going to be attainable through geodes. Can you imagine the supply reduction and alloy floor price with a steady stream of ebic prizes to degen on?!

Respec Potions

This one has long been in demand. It will be nice to wrap that up and bring these to the community.

Schematic Pipeline

I believe it’s critical we have a clear pipeline for schematics. Players need to know when and what will be coming. Reviewing over the past release:

For the stat modifications on the creator suite, we followed the advice given by a third party. The recommendations checked out as they filled the gaps in missing trait boosts. However, since the work was done entirely by human hands, it invited in scrutiny. Therefore, it makes sense to develop a system that relies less on humans. I will circle back to that.

I have always been very passionate about the wearables, how they look how they’re distributed, and the meta progression of them. In the past, the spreadsheets I have created were done at a hobbyist level. With this proposal I am hoping to really dig in deep with MJ and see what is needed and what is lacking. This goes beyond just a trait matrix. There are lots of “loose-end” wearables that are not part of sets but easily could be with just one or two new schematics. There’s a ton of opportunity here to really bring the wearables to a place that makes sense.

What I hope to do and believe the best path forward is to create a pool of potential stat boosts that make sense and don’t overlap with other wearables. Let’s say we create a master list of 200 potential wearable configurations. We then call on VRF to choose 20 which will be created and released.

There is also much to be done with meta progression. Although the godlike tier of items only impacts a small handful of players, it is essential we have clarity on how that development looks. With the last release, a four piece godlike-only set was released. Previously, there was only one other such set but it required all four traits to be a perfect fit. The Graandmaster set only needed three traits. This invited in an unintentional power creep. It is important then we lay out the rules for meta progression so the top tier players can compete properly.

In Closing

I am pretty hyped up about the next series of developments. There’s quite a bit to get done under the hood and I am eager to get after it!

If I can say things succinctly, the main goal here is to reduce friction for the user experience and make things intuitive. Most of all, I want to make things fun!

[Bearded]

@stedari

$161,825

Do you have a more specific breakdown for this amount? Like where does this number come from?

[stedari]

Definitely. It’s based on estimated time commitment and the minimal amount we are willing to work for to dedicate our time.

[Bearded]

Sorry, unclear on what this means — you’re saying you’re not willing to work on a project if it’s less than 20 hours/week of work?

[stedari]

Having done the Forge and contributed to the community for over 18 months, I don’t think I’m personally capable of spending less than 20 hours/week. This community and project is pretty consuming when trying to push multiple things through. We have ample work to do, we are willing to do it, and we’ve delivered successfully in the past.

[Bearded]

So is the concept here that the DAO is paying for your guys’ time and you’ll just find stuff to do? That seems a little backwards to how we’ve funded projects before

[notorious_BTC]

Not exactly. I think the first proposal we put together was a little like that. We were really pumped for what we had built on the protocol and wanted to keep developing. It was premature, however.

The DAO wasn’t thrilled about the road map and so we launched the feedback form. The most requested asks were: future schematics and roadmap for them, better UI/UX, more plans for geodes.

When looking at what the project needs most, I agree with the asks. We need less friction for new users. We need an outlined plan for schematics and their distribution methods (and randomness) for the current holders. And if we have a solid plan for geodes, we are giving value back to people using the protocol.

A lot of the responses were very pleased with the Forge UI and wanted to see more of it. I hope to bring more life and personality to the protocol experience. Overall, let’s make things fun to interact and easy for someone to make decisions (and click buy )

As we all know, getting into the aavegotchi ecosystem is incredibly complex and overwhelming for new users. The dressing room will help with that. It will be integrated on the main site and packed with information about what it is you’re buying. Think things like what the stats are doing, what kind of RF you would have / will earn. What else would you like to see here?

The schematic pipeline is also super important to establish. We want to create a fair distribution model that is consistent and predictable.

Geodes also are important in my opinion. A healthy prize pool will help bolster alloy prices and keep the wearables floor rising.

---

Taking on several asks at once allows us to multi-task with our time. All of these initiatives will no doubt bleed into one another with regards to time management. It is much more efficient to settle into the work mode and bash out a bunch of things rather than take on individual tasks sporadically.

[BingoBongo]

It looks like a very expensive proposition. Do you have statistics on how many users use the forge per day? per week?

[stedari]

-The Forge debut had over $250k in revenue. It cost the DAO 75k GHST. We estimate that quarterly schematics sales can continue to generate ~100k revenue each.
-DAU in the Gotchiverse is <100 for reference. Most of the Forge activity was done early by over 350 individual users around the time of Forge release with the new schematics. Pixelcraft still hasn’t imported schematics, alloy, cores, or essence into the Baazaar UI which likely further limits adoption.
-Over 620k alloy has been burnt/sent to the DAO which is >$40,000 value. Translated differently this is the equivalent of >6,200 common wearables removed from the market. It’s a mechanic that directly supports floor prices specifically.
-The way to grow active users is to have ongoing content and reason to interact with the Forge.

• We should see a nice increase in activity with geode release in the very new future. If our proposal passes, we will ensure ongoing content availability in the geodes which will mean more activity.

In summary, we are the only DAO project to ever generate revenue, let alone net profit. We are happy with engagement so far but need ongoing support to continue to encourage engagement, fine tune the UI, and create more content for our holders.

[reset]

@stedari

The Forge debut had over $250k in revenue. It cost the DAO 75k GHST.

…75K

Please Dr. Wagmi. Slow down and make some adjustment.

One is in ghst the other is in $
I am not sure what was going rate of ghst when you receive your funding.

But project management is 156.25$ vs 50 ghst

[stedari]

We updated the proposal to be denominated in GHST per the community’s request. The proposed stipend is the minimum I am willing to work for. The Forge was an enormous amount of work - many more hours than initially quoted and I am not willing to do that again. In your post, you quote the initial Forge proposal and then the updated one - they are two separate proposals with different goals, time commitments, and proof of accomplished work. If you don’t believe it’s worth the investment or that another team would be more cost effective, it’s reasonable to vote no.

[notorious_BTC]

I periodically check on the alloy burned. Here’s an interesting dataset:

Periodic release of schematics will drive further forge usage as players continue to optimise their gotchis (both for aesthetics and RF purposes).

With a fully developed geode mechanic and continual drip of exclusive geode-only prizes, we can expect to see more volume and smelting (and thus a rising alloy/wearable floor)

We would also love to launch a Smithing competition in the future which will further drive usage.

On the 2.0 proposal: One thing I have noticed is that many people believe it to simply be more Forge work. I think this is because of the name we gave ourselves. However, the major release we are proposing is the comprehensive Dressing Room. It will be integrated into the main site next to the Forge UI.

One of the major sticking points we face as a community is onboarding. How many times do people come into the Discord and ask “I got a gotchi, now what?” We then send them down a fifty page rabbit hole. The Dressing Room will help alleviate this and facilitate a better onboarding experience. We can say “go to the Dressing Room and kit out your gotchi with some great wearables.”

Some features we can build:

• try on and buy with one click
• view all rarity farming stats
• view all gotchiverse stats
• educational hover prompts
• quick inventory and floor data
• estimated total value
• helpful links to partners (pwn, vault, Orium)

The goal is to build a great user experience and keep developing the pixel art style from the Forge UI.

[HARDKOR]

Id like to add that the forge enabled me to come up with a guild channeling solution that multiplies the deflative effects. Those alloy burn rates are rookie numbers(literally, its 1st try) and will quickly go into supply shock territory once we add anything that gives other reasons to smelt.

[cyberlmt]

This proposal is very interesting and I think it has merit. However, I think the implications of the Forge and its impact on the Gotchiverse need more time to permeate throughout the broader community before a positive consensus can form around this kind of enhancement. With so much going on in the transition from the Curve it seems like the community as a whole is skittish about large expenditures while the treasury assets are still in flux. In other words, not the best timing for this proposal.

[notorious_BTC]

Oh? Tell me more…

With some solid games lined up, a schematic distribution plan, and locked in Rarity Farming, we can expect the price of alloy to rise significantly.

[HARDKOR]

The recipes need a heavy hand. Im going to present em this weekend, but right now i think it says cut base rate, raise the craft 7x, and find a better reason for upgrading them than more crests, because the current recipe pays itself off in 5 weeks with 1 crest and 5 godlikes. It would do a lot for alloy but alch would crater.