Splinterlands Going Into HyperDrive Mode

almost 2 years ago (Edited)

At the beginning of the year, we have seen quite a few promises from the Splinterlands team. As time went by and the team expanded and prices dropped people started to ask the usual "when this?" and "when that?". If there is something we could use a lot more of in the crypto space, patience makes the top by far.

Here comes the end of May with two major things at once for Splinterlands.

First is the initial phase of their node validators' release - the presale of validator licenses. This one starts in about 24 hours.

Then the new ranked reward system will become fully operational at the beginning of the next ranked battles season, meaning June 1st.

Also during Q2, are slated, in order:

the introduction of modern and wild formats
tech modernization phase 1
non-card market

Let's talk about each of them a little bit.

Presale for Splintershards (SPS) Validator Licenses

As I write this, the countdown says this is almost 24h until the presale for these licenses is open.

It costs $1000 worth of SPS and 500 VOUCHERs to buy such a license in the presale, and, just like the presale for the Chaos Legion packs, VOUCHERs are the limiting factor for some people to buy a bunch more licenses, but at the same time allows others smaller buyers to have a chance at this entry price.

Here are the full details regarding the SPS validator nodes and this presale of licenses.

I don't think I can add much beyond what Matt wrote in the linked article. If you were interested in the presale you most likely have your stock of VOUCHERs and the liquid SPS ready for this purchase already.

New Ranked Rewards System

This is being deployed as I write this post, in today's planned maintenance for Splinterlands. However, most aspects of the new system will not become effective until the new ranked battles season starts.

Until this season is over, the effect will be mainly on DEC rewards. Here's a summary:

The post where full details are announced is here.

We can also consider the effects the new ranked rewards will have on the rental market or the targets we'll need to have going forward. More about the latter in a separate post.

Modern and Wild Formats

The separation of ranked battles into the two formats could probably have been done a while back, but it made no sense to release it first and then change the ranked rewards system which will affect the modern and wild formats too.

So, this is pending the release of ranked rewards. Then cryptomancer will update what is needed and then will be released.

According to the roadmap, it is over 90% completed, which means it shouldn't take long to finish it once the new ranked system is released and works properly.

Tech Modernization - Phase 1

This will include the MVP versions of the new login and navbar, as well as the non-card market (land, titles, totems, etc.).

At least that's what we'll see.

From what I heard in the town halls from different devs, they are looking to upgrade the language in which the code is written and modularize it. That will speed up development since newer devs are used to more recent versions of the language.

Tech modernization (phase 1) is about 80% done, according to the roadmap.

Non-Card Market (NCM)

The team has mentioned a number of times that NCM is a needed precursor to land expansion.

The reasoning is simple. The current market Splinterlands has, works for cards and only for them. You can't trade land (it doesn't exist yet anyway, only land claims), or other non-card assets like titles or totems on the card market.

So they needed to create this non-card market to trade other assets that are not cards.

The roadmap gives us almost a 60% estimate for the progress of NCM development.

Conclusion

If you look at the timeline for these releases, who do they cater to?

Licenses (Investors)
New Ranked Rewards (Players)
Modern & Wild (Players)
Tech Modernization (Indirectly both)
Non-Card Market (Investors)

It looks pretty fair and balanced, doesn't it?