The l--o--l collection

"|" is the pipe symbol (character 0x7C), but when the pipe symbol can't be used (ex. domain names or Farcaster usernames) the lowercase L is used: l--o--l.

|--o--| is a collection of 10,000 ASCII art spaceships represented as ERC721 tokens on the Base chain.

Each spaceship will have:

• A blueprint: The ascii characters that represent it, for example |-x--0--x-|. Each character is called a part.
• An engine (a smart contract used to convert the blueprint to artwork).

During mint, the the available parts will be |-:o@bd8x0()=\/, but the smart contract is designed to allow new parts to be added in the future. It also allows a holder of two spaceships to rearrange their parts to build two new ones.

The basic engine, that will be available from day zero, generates an onchain SVG representation of the ship, and will look something like this. The artwork is generated dynamically, based on the ship's blueprint, which means that if the blueprint changes in the future, so will the artwork.

More engines can be added in the future. Some may use a different design style (I'd love to see artists create alternative engines!), and some may even allow complex functionality, like altering the artwork based on game rules or actions. The ship's holder will always be able to change the engine used back to the basic engine.

Each ship has one more property that could be useful for future onchain integrations: Captaincy. This is the number of days a ship has remained in the current wallet. I'm not 100% how captaincy can be used, but it's there if you want to build some mechanics on top of it.

I want users to be able to modify their spaceships, play with them, have fun. This is why I like to think of |--o--| as "onchain toys".

A nice way to experience how |--o--| ships will look like is this Farcaster frame.

Minting

Minting phases I and II will only be available through Farcaster. Please consider this if you plan to participate.

It's not finalized yet, but most probably, this is how minting will take place.

Phase I: The first 100-200 "OG" tokens

This phase will be reserved for Edition holders. A snapshot will be taken, and holder FIDs will be whitelisted, and allocated a number of mints equal to the number of Editions they hold.

Minting will take place using a frame that will allow whitelisted users to create their ships using their own "blueprints" (characters). Minting will be free (probably no gas cost either).

Ships minted using this method will also have an "OG" flag set, and will be visually distinctive (probably have a glitch effect, like the Editions).

At the end of this phase, the collection will have 100-200 carefully crafted OG ships that will be used as blueprints for the rest of the collection (see next phases).

In total, 88 Editions were minted. I may manually mint some more to get to 100 or slightly more OG blueprints.

Phase II: Airdrop of 1000 tokens

I intend to whitelist 1000-2000 FIDs. Not sure about the criteria yet, probably based on other NFTs they hold, or social graph (Farcaster).

During this phase, each whiltelisted FID will be able to mint for free (but pay for gas) one ship. They won't be able to create their own, ships minted during this phase will be copies of OG ships (but without the OG flag and the OG visual effect).

Phase III: Open Mint of ~9,000 tokens

During this phase, the rest of the collection will be minted (up to 10,000). This will be an open mint, at 0.005 + gas per NFT.

The price tag is there to make sure that ships are distributed to many holders, and prevent someone from minting 1000s of them.

Like in Phase II, ships minted during this phase will be copies of the OG ships, without the OG flag.

Dates and final details to be announced. If you want to stay up-to-date, follow |--o--| on Farcaster.