Splinterlands: New Rank Rewards System Changes and Future Plans
Yesterday, the Splinterlands team published a post describing the upcoming changes that will come to the new ranked rewards system.
Two of the changes will come into effect in 4 days, on Tuesday, June 28th. They are:
- Daily Focus Chests Based on Current League
- Starter Card RShares Reduction Formula Change
Let's take them one by one.
Daily Focus Chests Based on Current League
Currently, both season chests and focus chests are based on the highest league attained during the previous season.
After feedback and analyzing stats of the first season after the introduction of the new ranked rewards system, the team decided to change how things work for focus chests, but keep the same rule for season chests.
So, after the update from Tuesday (probably from the next day, since this is not a season-wide change), we will earn chests based on the league we are in when we start the new daily focus.
At first, I thought I will not feel a positive impact from this change, usually playing for the champion chests.
But then I reconsidered. While the content of champ chests is much better, on average, than the content of other chests, that average is greatly improved by a great DEC pull or a legendary card or a GF, or if you are really lucky, a GFL. And often more packs than in other chests. But in general, you get a lot of the regular cards you get for lower league chests and smaller DEC amounts (for champ chests). I've been so unlucky one time this season and only had potions for my daily focus chests.
So, maybe getting more focus chests when we start in the lower league is a very good idea. I get to experience both sides of the coin: more chests in diamond or even gold, and also champion chests for my season points and if/when I reach Champion League.
Starter Card RShares Reduction Formula Change
That's another interesting, and probably unexpected change that will see the light of day next Tuesday.
Currently, the reduction of rewards when using starter cards is linear, but it seems that's not enough to incentivize owning and renting cards to the levels expected.
With this change, the reduction of rewards is polynomial, more exactly cubed, and associated with the rating in the Rshares formula.
The Splinterlands team gives a simple example in their post, which I advise you to read to have the information from the source.
If someone uses 1 starter card out of 4 total, the formula turns into
from what we have right now
That almost halves the reward shares, from 750 to 421.875, in this case.
If anyone thought a 25% reduction was acceptable before, let's see if they believe the same way with a 50%+ reduction.
And think about it, 1 card can be the summoner, so if the player uses a starter summoner and 3 other cards he owns or rents he loses more than 50% of the reward shares starting with this update.
Personally, this update doesn't affect me, since I don't play with starter cards at my level. But it should be good for the Splinterlands economy and the rental market, and I am interested that both do well.
That's what we will see on Tuesday's update. But the post also talked about future plans:
- New Daily Focuses
- Daily Focus Mechanic Update
- Season Rentals
Without knowing more than it was presented, I am the most excited about the second one.
But let's talk about them.
New Daily Focuses
This is not something new. Matt talked about introducing new daily focus missions for a while now.
What we learned new is that they'll add about 10-15 new daily focuses based on groups of abilities, rather than individual ones, which to me sounds great for the variety of the teams used.
Something else we learned is that the new daily focuses will coexist with the existing splinter-based ones.
Daily Focus Mechanic Update
Now that's a plan (considered) I didn't expect and I totally agree with it. To be able to earn focus points every day, regardless if you play the daily focus or not. And only receive a bonus if you stick to the focus mission.
The "quantity" of bonus will be important to determine whether players will continue to play focus-only or vary their teams. There is still the variable of those who rent specifically for a splinter, and who will likely play that splinter no matter what if it's profitable.
So, will the bonus be something like the bonuses that affect the Rshares formula now or more consistent? Without knowing anything, I believe it'll be either more consistent or simply... different, affecting the Rshares formula more radically for daily focus.
Season Rentals
They will be also working to introduce the season rental option. Such a rental contract will work from the day cards are rented to the end of the season. Payment is daily, and both parties can request to cancel the rental during the season, but it will only be executed at the end of the season.
I am sure some will take advantage of this new system. Personally, in the beginning, I'll adopt a wait-and-see approach. I wouldn't like to rent for the entire season and the prices to move significantly higher during the season.
I believe the new system is beneficial for the rental market. Here are two reasons:
- there will be more predictability in the market
- part of the rentals will be locked in season contracts, which will force the market up for daily rentals, due to lower offer
How do you see the upcoming changes and plans?
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