Balance & Development Updates

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(Edited)

We want to wish a very happy new year to all of our players and supporters and share with you a few updates to kick off what looks to be a very exciting year in the Splinterlands!

Balance Updates

First and foremost, we have some card balance updates to announce. We know many of you have been asking for these for a while now, but we didn't want to do too much over the holidays when a lot of the team wasn't available and we also wanted to take our time with the changes to make sure we get them right.

We want to reiterate that, while we try to avoid changing card stats wherever possible, there will inevitably be times where certain cards or abilities turn out to be far more powerful than we originally thought and we will not hesitate to make the necessary adjustments in order to maintain a fun and balanced game.

The following changes are planned to be released on Wednesday, January 8th, at approximately 9am EST.

Prince Julian

As an "ultra rare" mystery potion card, we wanted Prince Julian to be a very powerful and highly sought-after card, but it appears that we've overshot a bit. The win rate for the card is far too high and as a result it needs to be adjusted.

To resolve this, we will be removing the -1 Health debuff from the card. Even without any stat adjustments, as the only 2 mana cost Dragon Splinter Summoner in the game, the card should still be quite powerful and valuable, however we hope that this change will give opponents more of a chance against him, especially in lower mana cap battles.

Redemption Ability

We agree with the community that this ability is too powerful, and the statistics also back this up. As a result the damage dealt to all enemy monsters when a monster with the Redemption ability dies will be reduced from 2 to 1.

Fire Spitter & Serpentine Mystic

Finally, we are also removing the Redemption ability from the Fire Spitter card so that there cannot be two cards with the ability on the same team and we will also be removing the Weaken ability from the Serpentine Mystic and replacing it with the Slow ability. Having too many cards with the Weaken ability available on the same team in low mana cap battles was clearly an issue.

While we never like having to make changes to cards after they are released, overall we feel that these changes are relatively small compared to the size and complexity of the Untamed release. We are generally very happy with the way things have turned out so far from both a balance perspective, and with the new cards being complementary, rather than replacements for, the old cards, and we hope that our players agree!

Filtering & Sorting Options for Team Selection

With the addition of the Untamed set of cards it has become much more difficult to sort through your collection and find the cards you need when making teams in the game. To help alleviate this, we will be adding additional sorting and filtering options on the team selection screen as shown below:

In addition to foil, mana cost, and attack type we are adding the ability to filter your collection by edition and by ability. Playing an Earthquake match? Just select the Flying ability to quickly see all of your monsters with that ability.

We will also be adding new sorting options. The "default" sorting will be the same as it was previously for those of you who know exactly how much to scroll down to find the card you're looking for, but for the rest of you there will be options to sort by mana cost and rarity (ascending or descending) as well as by “Last Used” so your most recently used cards for the selected splinter and chosen filters will show first.

We hope that this helps players make their teams and we are always open to feedback on how we can improve the user interface here.

Ethereum Integration

A few months ago we announced that we were working on the ability to convert Splinterlands cards to ERC-721 tokens, and DEC to an ERC-20 token, on the Ethereum blockchain. That work has now been completed and is planned to be put live within the next week!

We may need to have a short downtime later today - Monday, January 6th in order to get this set up on the back end. A notification will be sent to all players logged in to the game website 10-15 minutes before the downtime occurs and it will not be during an active tournament.

If everything goes okay then the feature will be put live later in the week and then Splinterlands cards will be able to be traded on OpenSea and we will also work on getting DEC added to some Ethereum-based exchanges!

Mobile App Update

We were shooting for having a first version of the mobile app ready by the end of 2019 and obviously we are behind schedule. It is still our top priority and we are going to try to get an alpha version out for the community to start testing as soon as possible, but it's also very important to us that we release a really solid product, and we don't want to rush something out too early.

A lot of things have changed in the game since the initial mobile app designs were made that required going back and redoing some things, and there were a number of instances where, once the initial designs were implemented, we went back and re-worked them because we didn't feel they provided the level of user experience and ease of use that we were going for.

We know all of you are very eagerly awaiting this and we appreciate your patience and support during the process!


Stay tuned for more updates from the Splinterlands!

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Note: 100% of the rewards for this post will go to @steem.dao to support further development of the Steem blockchain



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51 comments
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BDvoter Team

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I was so amped for the mobile app and I still am! I still am pretty amped for it, I’ve been talking to a few mates about it and they’re keen to try it out once it launches! Said the game looks cool but the motivation to play in browser ain’t great lol

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Solid update, thanks for your continued work! I think Splinterlands will be one of the key drivers to the public visibility and success for the Steem blockchain. Happy to be in on it as early as I/we are!

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I guess I was wise enough to join at this time. Ethereum integration would mean worldwide recognition to and DEC could like jump by leaps and bounds.

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Yay, redemption change! Fair balance changes allowing players to use their new cards (some with/without redemption) plus still allowing other low mana monsters to be used. It was sudden death before.

The whole shaman and redemption attack combo conjure to mind ancient stories of shamans sacrificing to the Gods and weaving their magic to weaken their enemies. Poor slimeball!

As always, happy to know you've taken our concerns into consideration. Great updates.

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Nice updates! And those new filter options are going to make life so much easier :0)

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(Edited)

Brining redemption down to -1 from -2 was the right call. Now that this has been done I would like to see it reintroduced to the Goblin at Level 3.

I for one am happy you are taking your time with the mobile app. I much prefer a user friendly app than one that normies download / get frustrated with / delete and forget about.

Keep up the great work and all the best in the new year.

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The filter will help hasten our selection and give us peace in the midst of card chaos...Good work team

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Mobile app will be awesome!

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today I made the Steemit account for my wife because she wants to play Splinterlands too

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Great to see these improvements to the game. Especially the balance and so quickly - ty!

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Filtering cards by ability is one of the most important features I have been wanting to have. Thank you for finally putting it out.
!trdo

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Will the filtering by ability be also available in the Market?

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Is there any chance to hold off on Julian nerf and test him out with all the other cards and abilities being nerfed?

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Great work! Exactly what the crowd was asking for.

I knew about the NTFs on Ethereum but DEC being an ERC-20 token? This could turn out huge (as in Godzilla size) if it ever got listed on one of the bigger exchanges!

Posted using Partiko Android

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great news!!! DEC is going to the MOON!

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Great work. Redemption was definitely too powerful.

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Can't wait to see the mobile app up and running! Thanks for all the updates!

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@splinterlands, Thank you so much for these updates team. Unfortunate to know that you had to do the Rework but hope that these efforts will not go to waste and end of the day we will going to experience a Solid Product.

Good wishes from my side team and stay blessed.

Posted using Partiko Android

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Thanks for the awesome updates, looking forward to the eventual Mobile App. release, hope it will be available on Android from the google play store. Keep up the great work! Upped 💯 and resteemed!👹❤💯

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Keep up the great work guys! :)

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Finally, a less lethal redemption ability...Thanks God
And nice work as far filters are concerns. I love the ability filter the most.
PS:
We all are desperately waiting for the mobile app. Wouldn't it be awesome to play SM waiting for your bus in passenger lounge???It would make waiting much less painful.

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Julian is still powerful. Access to dragon monster for only 2 mana is enough.

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It is definitely not a worthy Legendary card anymore. Its values ​​correspond to an epic degree of rarity, if at all. For me, Azarius is the much better card, which is a shame with the same rarity.

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But Arius costs 5 mana.

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(Edited)

Look at the Archmage and Rennyn. Both have the "same" attributes, both cards are Legendary, the bonus of the Archmage is the Dragon Splinter.

044E7A74-F53F-4C5F-901E-FDAC3535F2B1.jpeg

F189EC72-BDD5-4F77-8D71-556EF2357649.jpeg

If you now compare Julian with the other 2 Mana Splinters, you will notice that they have the same attributes, but the 2 Mana Splinters are a rarity level among Prince Julian. Either the epic 2 Mana Splinters are too strong, or Prince Julian is too weak.

E4A69C07-EF1B-4884-9C19-0F42267B1B28.jpeg

8292E683-D23C-4EC4-86A6-DB5A9B5AC99A.jpeg

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But you cannot use dragons with any other 2-Mana-Summoners - that's in every case a benefit of Prince Julian. So Prince Julian is in every case the best card for "Summoner give no buff"

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I don't think rarity should (or does) determine how "good" a card is. Perhaps rarity is for more exciting cards.

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Rarity is irrelevant for Julian. It is only available at max strength. Other than changing the price/bcx number, it wouldn't matter even if Julian were a common.

And, anyways, given how many are going to be produced -- Legendary is absolutely the correct "rarity".

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(Edited)

A Fire Spitter without Redemption doesnt make sense.
The last few weeks have painstakingly collected the card and now it is useless overnight. The change of Redemption was necessary.
I can understand that you can't satisfy everyone. However, you should also understand that people get upset when several cards lose value significantly.
After changing Redemption, it shouldn't be an issue to win against two monsters with this ability, so I can't really understand the change from Fire Spitter.
For example, a Peacebringer Rare is stronger than the Fire Spitter on Epic.
If I wasn't sure that the cards were still adding value, I'd sell all my cards and turn my back on the game after these repeated adjustments with loss of value.
I cannot understand Prince Julian's adjustment. Now he has nothing special at all and is not worthy of a mystery card.

ps: A beta test before a new release prevents a lot of hassle and major changes later in the game.

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I think compensating players that have a card nerfed with some DEC or reward cards would be a good idea. Not much fun collecting a card only to find it becomes useless and looses most of its value. Could make a special reward card for this?

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(Edited)

Hey. I request money (DEC) back for the mystery potions I have bought.
'cos I do not buy any of them for this "cutted" Julian. ((

Will you have an honour to compensate this

and exchange (refund) the present charges back?

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When DEC gets listed on eth exchanges, will it get indexed on major listings like coinmarketcap?

Posted using Partiko Android

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Why make DEC in to erc20? Why not make it an smt?

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SMT's aren't out yet and an erc20 opens the game up to new markets. Many people use exchanges that have erc20 tokens. We can store DEC in an erc20 wallet now too, like the Ledger or Trezor.

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The filter update is really useful.... Thanks for update .....

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I love the fact that you are constantly improving the game. However, I believe the nerf to PJ is too much. He is now a very corner case card(very low mana and silent summoner games). Even in low mana matches he is not good anymore since almost no dragon cards are low mana. Now Camila and Selenia are better summoners with only 3 mana cost and a buff/debuff.

I think you should give him the slow ability to bring him back to relevance. Either that or raise his mana cost to 3 and retain the weaken ability.

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@steemmonsters you're game is stil so unbalanced... 9 out of 10 times I am second to attack.. And I get matched against people with maxed out cards.

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(Edited)

Happy to finally see these balance adjustments. The biggest problem was obviously Redemption, especially with multiple Weaken (+ Rust). This was a typical battle:
https://steemmonsters.com/?p=battle&id=07a10af895dcf6f39b2ef85d6fc5c9b9af335824

  • -4HP from Prince Julian +Undead Priest + Serpentine Mystic + Death Elemental
  • -2HP from Cursed Slimeball
  • -2HP from Fire Spitter
  • -2 Armor from Darkest Mage

As a result: -8HP and -2 Armor. Even strong, having high HP, self-healing cards like Gold Dragon were useless. Redemption was just devaluating all other cards and made game unbalanced broken.

PJ is a separate issue, it simply gives a big advantage, not only in low mana battles. Access to dragons for 2 mana, it's very strong. Additional weaken just made this card too OP. Someone may say that this is a small difference, but such nuances make a huge difference at top level.

PJ was the strongest summoner for the Redemption strategy which made things worse. Why the strongest?

  • access to dragons for 2 mana, so Fire Spitter (redemption), Serpentine Mystic (Weaken), Fiendish Harpy (Opportunity, useful for killing cards that were not killed by Redemption)
  • -1HP

Playing with Selenia/Camila? +1 mana cost, no -1HP
Playing with Jarlax? no Weaken, no dragons
Playing with Zintar? +1 mana cost, no Weaken, no dragons
Playing with Crypt Mancer? + 3 mana cost, no dragons

I agree with removing Redemption from Fire Spitter. Why? Because it allowed 2 Ressurect + 2 Redemption which was not fun:
https://steemmonsters.com/?p=battle&id=30eb196f5bdc9adba4c53515e3245f0547abb883

I agree with removing Weaken from Serpentine Mystic too, but this adjustment is the least important here.

If I owned PJ before, I will still approve these adjustments, this card was too strong. And I still want it, but I have no luck with Mystery Potion ;-) After nerf, PJ is still strong, giving access to dragons for 2 mana.

People used Fire Spitter only for Redemption, even if it has 1HP, 0 attack, 0 armor, 1 speed it still would be used for Redemption. Happy to see that it became a normal card.

What I don't like is that it took so long to make these adjustments. The game was broken for so long time. And playing was frustrating.

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(Edited)

The change is very good I think.
The only thing which I don't understand is why you posted before that all these changes would be announced 7 days before becoming active and now it's already the second time within a short time frame that you didn't comply with this policy.
In case of the Gremlin Blaster it was the same.

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Great, but Fire spiter... now its a fool card... i mean epic whit nothing interesting.. no velocity, no power shot, no blast, no nothing.. only fly and evade.. but.. for 4 mana... uhmm other cards whit less mana are best range

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Dman... only now I saw this.

So happy about that mobile app update. At least I know the standards are being worked out. Keep it up.

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