Battle Burns
There are a host of changes coming to ranked play at Splinterlands for next season, and it is going to disrupt many aspects of the game. And, with so many changes, it is hard to predict exactly how it will affect individual players, and many people have questions.
So, what do the new Splinterlands battle changes mean for you?
I have no idea.
The changes
- There will no longer be leaderboards for any league except Champion
- There will no longer be maximum level limits for cards nor will there be penalties for low level cards
- Players will no longer be able to choose not to advance to a higher league (since leagues will just represent a rating range)
- Matchmaking will no longer be limited by league and will seek to match players with the opponent closest to them in rating
- The SPS reward pool for ranked battles will no longer be divided by league, and will instead be one single reward pool for Modern format and a separate, single reward pool for Wild format
On top of these:
- Players will always gain 20 rating points for a win and lose 20 rating points for a loss, regardless of the rating of their opponent.
- Win streak will get 40
- No win streak in Champion League
Okay... So, while I have no idea about the actual impacts, I feel that this might play into my favor in some regards, because I tend to get few streaks, but many losses on RNG to players that are far below my rating, which means that I struggle my way up into Champion levels getting 10 points at a time, then a 24, then a loss, then a ten.... then get trashed for 300 points in a stream of losses, losing 36 points at a time.
And, I think it is a good move to remove the league leaderboard overall, because it is pretty silly to have people who could be battling in Champion, fighting it out in Diamond for a leaderboard prize. As a result of this, I think that there will be more people looking to rent and level up cards, because now the incentive is to get as high as possible on the boards, as it means getting greater rewards from the single reward pool. Getting as high ass possible should be the goal of any game, right?
Pass to the left.
The fact is, that it is the same set of accounts that are getting onto the leaderboards, but they aren't necessarily the ones putting in the most effort. Incentivizing all players to get as high as possible should create a better overall experience, as there will be a more accurate guide as to ranking. But, one thing that will also be incentivized is to buy more energy in order to climb higher in the rankings, and score more points.
This means that it will be in people's best interest to spend their energy, rather than climbing to the top of the boards, and then waiting. It also means that the people who wait until the last few days to play, smashing through on streaks scoring heavily against higher rated players, will stop too. Instead, they will likely have to play more of the season, if they want to get near the top. In a 14 day season, there are 336 energy points available, but currently the lowest in the T50 is there with only 18 games played, and 18 wins.
Unfortunately...
This also means that there is more incentive to cheat. In modern where there are meant to be no bots or Battle Helpers, there is added incentive to play more, and win more. So, there will likely be an increase in the dishonorables who are using the battle helpers to get into the reward positions.
That doesn't happen though... does it....
Overall though, I think it is going to be interesting to see how these changes affect people's game strategy, the games played in each "league" bracket in comparison, the rental markets, the amount of combines to move up leagues, the number of energy bought on the market, the reward distribution, the ....
A lot of things are going to be affected.
What do you think it means for the way you play the game?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I think these changes are actually pretty good. You would always see the same exact people farming they leader boards every season in the various leagues. They just tossed a damn grenade into the room LOL
How do you think it affects your play?
It will be interesting I have lost some interest in playing lately… thanks for posting it got me to open the game again.
Might be worth getting involved again, just to see what has changed at least.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Anything to restore rental prices would be really nice.
Are you renting a lot?
I used to have a good portion of my deck rented out. I pulled some of that back when I realized more than half the cards weren't even being picked up.
Looks interesting, but how this would affect the rewards, i cannot see.
Not sure about the rewards. Seems that there will be reward for leaderboard in champion - but do they go up? Guessing the rest goes into the pool.
I like this playing in silver league was very limiting. I hated not being able to use all abilities. I am not sure if the changes will be good for me but at least the game will be more fun.
I think it means the better players can move up a bit in the rankings with good card choices, rather than staying in silver or gold.
I've tried switching to Modern but can't get out of Bronze.
That's kind of silly, considering the cost of my playing deck vs the cost of the decks which are beating me.
Come March I'm going to switch to Modern, and send all my Alpha cards to land.
I've literally decided this right now as I'm typing it :)
I think at some point, you have to make the change over, otherwise you will lose touch with the changing gameplays.
I wonder why those who are not putting much effort in the game are the ones who are on the leaderboard
How’s that done?
various ways. One is just playing the last few days. One is using battle helpers and bots.
I think it's not going to change my gameplay at all. I wasn't fighting for the leaderboard and I am already struggling with a near 50% win rate. I just wonder how things will change in terms of what I am fighting with the new changes though.
Yeah - I don't know. The post was a little vague in what the reward structure will be.
My comment here costs as much as 2 SPS, I need to play 4 battles and win 3 to earn these 2 SPS. So I will answer. I like these changes, I've always tried to get as high as possible in the Splinterlands rankings. The abolition of fines is also good, newcomers will have fewer negative emotions.
I think the negative emotions come from crappy RNG results!
I am hopeful for the changes, but I can still see some ways on how the bot farms and cheaters can take advantage of it. I think it hurts me, since I don't have enough SPS staked for higher leagues, but I will be forced to play there and get lower earnings.
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a Splinter world where there weren't people scamming with bots and battle helpers?
I think if you move up, you will earn a bit more, even with lower SPS
Yeah. Why can't we have good things? People don't need to be all greedy and cheat with Bots and BH. I guess I'll find out next month.
I am going to go to just LAND since I can give a Shit about Battling anymore. It's a JOKE with all the Bot's in both Modern and Wild I have been here since the Beginning and have played every Battle Live and NEVER using BOT's nor Battle Helper's. Real Player's know the TRUTH.........
The bot and battle helper users are sad - there are still a few in modern I suspect... pathetic.
I think that a possible exploit is going to be oddball or unique high level cards being used in lower level battles. I for example am firmly in high level bronze or low to mid level silver league based on my summoner and card levels, but I do have a few cards that are level 6 common, or level 4 rare. I think that removing the max level limits is really going to spice things up.
I think it's too early to tell though... Because it also depends how players will react and adjust to these changes. I think it was also said they will monitor and make tweaks if necessary so I guess we will have to wait and see. As a Silver player, I think these changes look good based on first impression.