Cover Image: Logo image owned by Splinterlands - Edit by @libertycrypto27- Font used is Open Source
In the game of Splinterlands, seasons follow each other and have a duration of 15 days.
Today, September 30, 2021, my 48th season since becoming a Splinterlands player ended.
I was writing my usual post about the evaluation of my last season of Splinterlands when I read the last post published by Splinterlands that contains important news and so I changed my mind and decided to write a different post than I had planned.
Today @splinterlands announced some changes to the game's economy and to the mechanisms for awarding daily and seasonal rewards.
These changes became active with the start of the current season.
You can read the post published by Splinterlands at the following link (on Hive blockchain):
Link: https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/game-economy-and-reward-updates
Changes to Treasure Chest Contents for Novice/Bronze Leagues
The first change that is already active right now concerns the Daily Missions Rewards and the End of Season rewards for players playing in the following leagues:
- Novice
- Bronze III
- Bronze II
- Bronze I
Before the current change, the probability of finding a certain prize inside a chest was the same for everyone:
- 50% Reward Card (NFT)
- 25% DEC token
- 25% Potion
With the new change, the probability of finding a card in a chest will increase as you advance in league (Novice/Bronze III -> Silver III+ league).
In the following image you can see the new percentage chance of finding Cards, DEC tokens and Potions for each league affected by the recent change.
The main change is the introduction of Credits, which before this update could only be purchased and can now be found in chests.
Players who play in Novice and Bronze leagues will no longer receive DEC tokens but credits.
For players who play in the Silver III+ leagues nothing changes and everything remains as before.
Splinterlands' motivation for this update is contained in the following quote:
The change from DEC to Credits is necessary to prevent a similar restructuring from happening in the future if the external market price of DEC tokens significantly rises again, and the reduction in the chance of receiving a card is necessary to reduce the rate at which the new reward cards are being "farmed" by accounts with little to no in-game assets being held.
Changes to the reward mechanism for battle victories
The second change concerns the mechanism for awarding DEC tokens for each battle won.
In the Splinterlands game, there is a Reward Pool consisting of a certain amount of DEC tokens that is distributed daily to players as a reward for each battle won.
Have you ever noticed the fact that winning a battle in the early days of the season allowed you to receive a higher reward in DEC tokens than in the later days of the season?
The reason is that in the last days of the season players are more active and a higher number of battles corresponds to a lower amount of DEC tokens received by each player for each battle won.
The change announced today is already active and affects all Splinterlands players, differently to the change regarding the content of the chests.
Before today's change, the reward for each battle victory depended not only on the Reward Pool and the number of battles played in a day, but also on each player's rating score:
Greater rating score = greater amount of DEC tokens received for each battle won.
This direct proportionality has been modified and now has a threshold linked to the league a player is in.
For example, a player who has a rating score of 3000 points and plays in Gold I league will receive a reward not based on his rating score but based on the maximum rating score of the league he is in, which is 2199 points.
The player in the example will therefore receive a reduced reward compared to the reward he received before the recent update.
A player who has a rating score higher than the maximum rating score of a league is a player who cannot advance in a league because he does not meet the second requirement to enter the next league which is the power rating.
In order to receive a higher reward, the player in the example will have to increase his power score.
The power score is the sum of the DEC token conversion values of the cards (not delegated and not for sale) that compose a card collection.
The Power Score can only be increased in three ways:
- buy cards
- renting cards
- receive cards in free delegation from other players
Splinterlands' reasons for this change are in the following quote:
This change will go a long way to properly aligning incentives for players to increase their collection power and move up into higher leagues.
Considerations
I play and have played several blockchain based games and Splinterlands is the most complete and fun game I have played so far.
With these changes the cards, especially the strongest and most useful cards in battle, gain weight in the attribution of rewards because:
- the player who wants to receive more DEC tokens from the victories in battle must increase his power score and therefore must buy or rent cards to advance in the most advanced leagues
- the player who wants to advance in the higher leagues of Splinterlands must focus on buying and renting the most useful cards in battle (legendary cards or cards with strong abilities).
All changes introduced in any game have advantages and disadvantages and can be favorable to one group of players and unfavorable to another.
Surely these changes will create discontent among new players who will see their possibility to grow without investing slower.
On the other hand, those who have invested more in cards than in other assets of the Splinterlands game will be happy.
The new changes will create discontent for those who use bots because they will see their rewards decrease.
Personally I see many positive aspects in this update even if I'm sorry for the discontent that some new players who have just started their adventure on Splinterlands might feel.
For this reason I want to give a dispassionate advice based on my experience of 2 years and a half on Hive and 22 months on Splinterlands to those who have just started playing Splinterlands and have little money to invest.
Simple Player VS Smart Player
The advice I would give to those who have just joined Splinterlands and may be disappointed by this change is to choose to become a Smart Player instead of being a simple player.
Let me explain ;)
A simple player of Splinterlans plays and enjoys the game but his growth within the game will be slow if he is not going to invest in buying Splinterlands cards and assets.
The Smart Player not only sees Splinterlands but also sees and understands the potential of the house on which Splinterlands "lives" and functions: Hive.
The Splinterlands Smart player:
- publishes Splinterlands-related content on the Hive blockchain and earns HIVE tokens and second-layer Hive tokens such as SPT tokens (which he can staked or reinvest in card purchases and other game assets).
- participates regularly in Splinterlands contests and receives two votes per week from the @steemmonsters account which is one of Hive's biggest stakeholders.
- participates in the giveaway organized every day by other Splinterlands players to receive with a little luck free cards.
In my collection of cards I have the card Scarred LLama Mage (current value $ 357) that I received for free thanks to my participation in a giveaway organized by @dexpartacus
Splinterlands is not an ordinary game because it's a game developed and running on the Hive blockchain, a blockchain that has many advantages such as transactions at 0 cost.
The added value of Splinterlands is Hive and the added value of Hive is Splinterlands!
Conclusion
The airdrop of SPS tokens has led to a considerable increase in all Splinterlands game assets and in particular has taken the value of DEC tokens to the moon.
The announcement of the pre-sale of Chaos Legion card packs led to an increase in the value of SPS tokens.
What will happen with the latest changes made by the Splinterlands team?
Write me your thoughts and opinions in the comments of this post and I'll be happy to read them!
I hope you liked this post and thank you for taking the time to read it :)
Are you not a Splinterlands player?
Splinterlands is a beautiful game and it has proved to be a very good investment (at least until now) and if you regularly participate to the weekly contests organized by the @splinterlands account you will recover the registration cost (10$) in a short time.
If you decide to register, you can do it from this link:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=libertycrypto27
of course if you'd like to use my refferal link... :)
Any game that involves the purchase of cards and tokens is never a simple game but it is also an investment and should be considered as such.
I am not a financial consultant and if you decide to invest in the game of Splinterlands you do it for your own choice, after having made your personal evaluations and considered all possible risk factors.
My advice is to always invest only what you can afford to lose with a light heart.
See you on the battlefields of Splinterlands.
Unless otherwise indicated, the images in this post are screenshots taken from the sites:
https://www.splintercards.com/
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/game-economy-and-reward-updates
The font used in my images or edited by me is Open Source
Splinterlands ON!
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Thanks a lot for this man, I have just started out this week and this has made the changes very clear to me, I was drowning in information a bit. I guess I just wish I had started earlier, but ah well, will fight to make my way to the next levels!