• Hello and thank you for checking in with our constant, unyielding, criticisms and ideas, born out of my love for the Hive blockchain game Splinterlands! For those of you who have not been following the most recent developments, please check This Post out before you continue my article if you have not already done so, I will move forward considering you are up to speed.

• This is the 3rd set of significant updates to the reward system since the Splinterlands team started their overhaul. In my opinion, each iteration has improved on the structure of the system of rewards and gameplay enjoyment, I particularly like the ECR and rental move recently which drew the most criticism of any of their moves so far from select voices in discord. In addition, the team creatively implemented soulbound cards into the drops using their existing gladiator mechanic, pure genius... Magnifico!

• Probably most significantly, from a gameplay diversity and enjoyment perspective, the most important update, adding a ton of new daily focus options, was amazing and it is definitely making play more enjoyable. The change that allows us to earn daily focus points even when we win without using our focus, but we get bonus points when used, also brilliant. 2 birds one stone, that combined with focus no longer guaranteed stops bots and players from only renting 1 splinter of cards in a day, also makes the game more enjoyable and less of a spamming of your focus.

The Next Steps

• Great work @yabapmatt and @aggroed . I commend you on first, your open mind and also your unending commitment to the game and our community. Second, no time to rest on your laurels. There is more work to do. Here are some more ideas for your pleasure, to take and do with as you wish, twist and refine, and surprise me with something better as you have tended to do lately.

-Incentives for combining cards in the rshares mechanism

• As you remember from my last post here I advocated for more benefits for combining cards. I offered a solution whereby each incremental card added to a combined card would affect the r shares mechanism. After some additional thought, I arrived at the value of 5%, a gold foil card individually adds 5% bonus to rshares calculation. A maxed card should also add 5% to the value of r shares, while a card that is halfway to max would provide a 2.5% bonus to rshares. This would be balanced with the current system you have created.

-Incentives for combining accounts, vs multi accounting and distributing assets

• I strongly believe, due to the nature of card games, and the reality of information availability on the blockchain, combined with AI and data analysis we will always be getting outplayed mathematically by machines over time. As time goes on, in any period following the release of new cards which upsets the old data frameworks, machines and analysis will take new data from battles and make new frameworks of which cards in which rulesets and mana cap are optimal. This is not a problem with the game, but a function of the aforementioned factors.

• Instead of facing an ever faster adaptation by programs as more and more programmers follow splinterlands, we can do another one of your favorites, two birds with one stone, maybe even 3 birds.

Account Customization

-All accounts are created equal, and stand equal to this day in the Splinterlands. Whether you were there at the beginning, or started in 2021 like me. There are cosmetic titles which bestowed airdrop points for the sps airdrop. But otherwise, serve no utilitarian function.

-I dont like that, and if this remains, there will remain no incentive in game to consolidate your account assets beyond the point of 500,000 cp for champion level, if that motivates you, well it motivated me, but not most bots it seems.

• I want to spend my hard earned tokens to improve my account, gameplay, and market abilities, why cant I do this? It just seems common sense for the Splinterlands team to offer things like:

• Keep in mind, im throwing random amounts of DEC and valuations around, the concept is what should be focused on, not the nitty gritty specifics, the specifics I leave up the the capable hands of the Splinterlands team.

• Overall Gameplay and Market Related (Permanent)

1,000,000 DEC ECR charger- recharges ECR on account an additional 5% ECR per 24 hours

5,000,000 DEC Splinterlands Market Franchise- reduced market fee, 4% instead of 5% cut from Splinterlands market when you sell a card, for first $100 dollars of card sales each month. per month.

5,000,000 DEC Splinterlands Purchase Booster- whenever you purchase cards, if you purchase a total of $100 usd in cards in a month, you will recieve $5 or $10 usd in credits. per month.

10,000,000 DEC Guild Donation Booster- whenever you donate dec to your guild, for the first 50,000 donated, the Splinterlands team will donate a bonus 10% of 5,000 dec, usable once per month.

5,000,000 DEC Splinterlands Rental Focus- For the first 500,000 DEC of rentals in a month, a reduced 4% fee instead of 5% will be assessed for rentals from that account, equivalent to 5,000 dec in savings per month.

- Battle Mechanics (Temporary)

100,000 DEC All battles for the next 48 hours, will give you an additional +1 mana for your card selections.

50,000 DEC All cards in your first position in battle, for the next 48 hours, will have EITHER +1 health or +1 armor, randomly each battle.

100,000 DEC For the next 48 hours, any card you play with tank heal, had a 33% chance to gain resurrect for that battle, rolled at battle start, if resurrect is placed, the enemy team gains +1 speed.

3 birds?

• One, this will add to random diverse match ups of infinite possibilities, increasing the fun factor for people and reducing the predictability for programmed playing.

• Two, this provides players with tangible benefits, some permanent and some temporary that will increase enjoyment and give legitimate use cases, demand, function, and value to our beloved DEC, SPS, and Vouchers.

• Three, IF you decide the nft print rates are still too high after your next data analysis session, you could consider adding a new soulbound token drop that could replace a portion of nft drops in all leagues, that would be usable in addition to dec to purchase these upgrades. Reducing nft print rates, delivering value.

Best wishes everyone!!