Upcoming Changes & Downtime
We plan to implement the following updates on Tuesday, January 28th, around 10 am EST. There will be a short downtime during the release. We will send a notification to all players logged into the website 10 - 15 minutes before the downtime and we will not take the game down until all live tournaments are finished.
While we do not expect any issues, we recommend that all bots or other automated scripts which utilize the Splinterlands APIs be disabled during the downtime.
Tournaments
We plan to implement the following changes to the in-game tournament system on the date specified above:
The majority of Splinterlands-sponsored tournaments will have an entry fee of 10 DEC, even if you have reached the required league. Having the tournaments be free to enter has encouraged people to register as many accounts as possible in the off chance that they might end up getting a prize just by pure luck. We hope that a 10 DEC entry fee will be enough to deter that behavior while still being small enough to allow all serious players to participate. We will continue to monitor this and adjust as necessary. All fees collected this way will be burned.
The system will no longer allow accounts to enter Alpha or Gold Card Only tournaments if the account does not have the minimum amount of Alpha or Gold Cards respectively. Previously, this was only enforced through the game website, so it could be circumvented by broadcasting the
enter_tournamenttransaction directly. Going forward the check will be implemented on the back end both when entering and when the tournament starts. The minimum requirement for entering these tournaments is at least 1 Alpha or Gold Summoner and at least 6 Alpha or Gold Monsters.The players who receive a bye in the first qualifier round of tournaments will be selected randomly, rather than based on when they entered.
Lastly, it will now be possible to enter tournaments with a DEC entry fee using the posting authority for accounts that have the "Require Active Authority" setting enabled. This way players that are renting accounts will still be able to enter the Splinterlands sponsored tournaments with the new 10 DEC entry fee. Note that this only applies to entry fees in DEC.
Additionally, we are investigating whether there should be changes to Novice/Kobold tournaments to encourage newer players to participate and we welcome feedback and suggestions on what changes, if any, should be made.
We also have many other more involved changes to the tournament system in the works, including new "allowed cards" options, and new formats, and we will keep the community updated on our progress with those as they get closer to being ready for release.
Potions (API / Back-End)
The following are back-end / API changes to how potions will be handled in the game. There are no player-facing changes here so this section is only applicable to third-party developers and data analysts.
Previously, potions had been considered "items" which were somewhat like NFTs with a certain number of charges. We will be changing the potion charges to be fungible tokens and be handled through the "balances" API endpoints just like DEC and booster packs. Please note that potions will still be non-transferrable.
Going forward, the number of potion charges a player has can be found through the /players/balances API endpoint. The "token" name for the various potions will be: LEGENDARY, GOLD, QUEST, and MYSTERY.
All old "item"-related endpoints will be removed and should no longer be used. Players' potion charges will be automatically converted to the new balances system during the downtime when these changes are released.
Gelatinous Cube Stat Fix
The Gelatinous Cube reward card accidentally gets a Speed increase at level 8 which then goes away at level 9. This will also be fixed as part of this release so its Speed will be 1 at every level as originally intended.
Stay tuned for more updates from the Splinterlands!
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Note: 100% of the reward for this post will go to @steem.dao to support the development of the Steem platform
Great ideas!
Why not use the 10 DEC entry fees to add to the tournament prizes (or to fund new novice and bronze tourneys with no upper level players allowed.
I also suspect that the entry fee needs to be higher (or, even though it'll require a bit of programming, charge higher level players -- and probable bots -- more).
Lets burn those DEC and as many others as possible.
There's plenty of market transactions and boosters being sold to help with tournament costs.
Best idea.
Changes all sound good to me!
When it will be announced about the possible applications of the SPT token, the question has long been ripe and needs to be resolved!
ummmmm......
All great changes ....
I know some are suggesting limit the lower league to the restriction of those who are ranked Silver and below but I don't think that will work as currently lvl 1 cards can reach gold and it wouldn't be fair to exclude someone with lvl 1 cards from entering lvl 1 tournametns. Doing so will likely get new players who are skilled excluded to play in the only tournaments they have a chance at winning. It also wouldn't be fair to lock out part of the game to those who paid for the full game. I for one want to play the odd bronze tournament here and there.
My suggestion for the lower league tournaments is the same as it always been. Add new tournaments that are restricted to new players. This can be done a number of ways but the two that come to mind are:
(1) Every new account that purchases the $10 starter pack gets X amount of new player tournament tickets that are non transferable. These tickets would be for a tournament that can be properly named New Player Tournaments that requires the new player ticket to enter.
(2) Introduce new player tournaments that only accounts no older than 3 months can enter. The new player tournaments should all take place in the novice league so all new players can join and not just the ones who spent the most.
The suggestion above creates a $10+ barrier before abuse can take place. These tournametns don't need to be in abundance as creating too many will increase the odds of abuse. Instead I would suggest having two a week 12 hours apart on Sundays using the same start time each week (consistancy is important for those who are busy and want to schedual time to play their favorite games). Possibly even a total of 3 New Tournaments on Sunday / 6 hours apart from each other.
Why two on the same day you ask, so you can cover time zones. Why on Sunday, I ran many online tournaments in my day and Sunday tournaments always seem to bring in more players than any other day of the week. These new player tournaments would also be a great affiliate tool for those of us trying to sign up new players.
When lv1 cards can reach Gold, why not restrict Novice/Kobold for Diamond and up? Might be worth trying for a season or two and see what happens.
PS: Well, best would be to make this an option to chose at tournament set-up individually. I'd love to see tournaments on special rule-sets like Common & Rare only. Might be another approach to level the field for Novice/Kobold.
I don't view completely restricting a part of the game from those who paid for the full game as a good idea. That doesn't mean there can't be restricted games just for newbies/novice level players as we can have both restricted novice/bronze tournaments and non restricted (everyone doesn't need to play every single game).
I like your new game mode tournament suggestions.
I think anyone should be able to enter the tournaments if they have the same limitations on their cards as everyone else playing. People just need to stop being crybabies and then there isn't a problem. :)
I think the majority of tournaments should be like that but introducing some restricted games just for new players who just signed up so they can play against each other wouldn't hurt anything. There's nothing wrong with having a handful of restricted games, people shouldn't exptect to be able to play in every single game offered.
Thanks for the update. Keep up the good work. And, kidding/notkidding:
What a great update! We do throw a lot of ideas and proposals around and knowing how busy the team is, we appreciate you listening to us (again). :)
A change to the Novice/Kobold tournaments would be welcoming for new players. I know restriction is not favored, but I have no idea how to give new players a fair playing field except to restrict entry to existing players. Perhaps as suggested above, limit tournament entry to players at silver league and below.
If the purpose of these novice/kobold tournaments is to give new players an opportunity to learn, play and win, then the community shouldn't have a problem with this restriction. There may be some pushback though with players that enter these week day tourneys to complete their DQ. Plus bots likely to enter and win the DEC, regardless of prize amount.
Splinterlands could always create a Novice token specifically for new players. Tokens issued at time of account creation, given as the tournament prize, and can be sold for DEC on Steem Engine. Just a thought.
This sounds promising and a good way to expand the tournament scene, stop the abuse of it and hopefully try to get more new players into it. Novice/ Kobold Tournaments could be restricted to the Silver and below ranks unless there are not enough players joining them to make a successful tournament.
Another suggestion: Novice / Kobold Tournaments have cards as prizes, maybe lvl 1 summoner cards because they are notoriously difficult to obtain and accumulate when first starting out.
I like this idea. The lack of summoners has been the biggest hindrance for me.
Same here!! I barely got the beta rares to at least level 6 before they really started becoming unobtainable in the numbers I still need them. Having to drop hundreds more dollars just to be able to finish upgrading playing cards makes it feel like I'm not really going to advance any farther than I have.
On another topic, @yabbapmatt, how long before we start seeing other variations or entirely different games we can use these for? I recently thought it might be nice if there were a version in which the player chooses two teams at the start and replacements slide into play as positions open up. Or tag team, so every card tags out when it takes damage. I also think there's a very powerful Dungeon Master tool buried in here, too, but that's a whole other thing.
@splinterlands, I am not expert in this team but hope that whatever changes you are bringing it's for greater good of Splinterlands 👾 Ecosystem and for it's Users 👥.
Good wishes from my side and stay blessed team. 🙂
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I would like to see these restricted to silver and lower accounts as the players in gold upwards have enough to compete for and win rather than fighting over tiny prizes and not letting lower players have a fair chance to win something and grow their decks.
This isn't true because there are plenty of players reaching gold with 1lvl cards, so why should they be excluded? I think the better solution is to have two tournaments going at the same time so that players need to choose if they want to compete in a higher or lower league tournament and that will attract more players with stronger collections to go for higher league tourneys with better rewards.
I might be wrong but I don't see this being true. I play in gold and it's with level 4-5 summoners. I never come across players with level 1 cards there. There are lots of tournaments and DEC to be earned at those levels and having some tournaments just for the lowest level makes sense to me. Gives them a chance to learn the game and win a few prizes to get higher. just my thoughts on it.
Of course more players will have higher level cards in gold. But what about those that don't? Punish them for being good in the game? I agree something needs to be changed but ladder leagues don't have much to do with tournament leagues. I easily reach Gold I each season but don't have enough cards to compete seriously in silver tournaments so I tend to play only Novice and Bronze ones.