Dreaming on Splinterlands: bringing a little Dr. Moreau

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As part of my business I burn a lot of Splinterlands cards, so I probably think about the less useful ones more than just about anybody else. And I had kind of a crazy idea to make those cards, or those type of future cards, more valuable.


Vampire.png Rusty Android.png

One of the limits on the game's card-combining mechanism is that only identical cards can be combined. Which certainly makes things simple to understand, but it isn't really necessary in any way. So I thought, what if you could merge different cards, and especially what if you could take a max version of one of the less-valued cards, combine it with any other card, and convey the lesser card's key ability to the card you're combining it into?

Part of the reason these cards are less desirable, and often really only useful for the DEC they contain, is that they only have one notable ability, and by itself that doesn't do much. But if by acquiring (and destroying) enough of the cards you could have that single ability untied to its monster, able to transfer it anywhere you want, suddenly the cards-as-items become much more interesting and valuable.

Collect 505 Rusty Androids to give any card you want Magic Reflect. Collect 115 Skeletal Warriors to pass along Shield to any monster you think would benefit from it. Between the less-wanted Reward cards there could be a lot of abilities available:

CardAbility
Rusty AndroidMagic Reflect
HobgoblinDouble Strike
Sea GenieStrengthen
Divine SorceressDivine Shield
VampireLife Leech
Flame ImpSwiftness
Wood NymphTank Heal
Creeping OozeSlow
Phantom SoldierVoid
Pirate ArcherBlast
Naga Fire WizardThorns
BrownieInspire
Silvershield ArchersSnipe
Goblin MechStun
Skeletal WarriorShield
Imp BowmanPiercing
Crystal WerewolfSilence
Javelin ThrowerDodge
Sea MonsterHeal
Undead MinotaurDouble Strike
ManticoreReach

You could expand it further - Harpy is a good card, but would you rather have Harpy or an Exploding Dwarf with Opportunity? Armorsmith mostly doesn't need to be maxed for itself, but would it be worth maxing one to give Repair to Silvershield Paladin, or to Crustacean King?

Not only would it drive up the prices of the cards useful for such a method, it would make the game more complex and interesting at the top levels, where almost everyone is currently playing with the same deck. There aren't enough of these cards to go around for maximizing added abilities to be a thing, and if they were restricted to one per card you'd have to make choices anyway. One of the things that bothers me about the game is there's really no card acquisition strategy besides "get them all," and this could change that.

Adding this to the game itself would be a significant addition in terms of development, but shouldn't be a huge one. You wouldn't have to change the way everything works, just add a secondary_ability field in the card data and make sure the playing engine reads it.

Where it gets sticky is the marketplace. Cards upgraded this way would really need more of an NFT showcase style of marketplace, rather than the current method which treats each type of card as a fungible token. (Which really they are.)

I'm not convinced this should really be done, but it's fun to think about. Maybe it's more appropriate for someone developing a new game that uses the card-combining mechanic, where it could be built in from the beginning.



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11 comments
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That would be amazing!

You'd probably have a slot limit based on rarity level. So you couldn't have every ability on every card. Based on existing cards, slots would probably 2-4, but maybe expand it to 3-5. It would probably also make sense that abilities could only be combined upward. So a common ability could be added to an epic monster, but not vice versa.

This would create huge extra demand for summoners as well.

And yes, NFT trading would definitely be required.

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That would be awesome to be able to do that - kind of like when you pick 2 cryptokitties to "mate", LOL! Another great post! Than you for being here in Splinterlands! I will be giving this a nice Steem Monsters upvote!

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Now that's what I call a cool idea! It would definitely shake things up!

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Good Thinking, even allowing combinations slowly one by one would be very challenging but it is a fantastic idea.

Posted using Partiko Android

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This is a really cool idea to make those cards more valuable. There would be a limitation needed to avoid making this too crazy, though.

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It'd be bedlam, but I shudder to think what it'd do to the balance of the game. Imagining the Pirate Archer with Shatter, or Phoenix with Life Leech.

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I wonder if it could be accomplished by adding empty slots or sockets to certain cards, so the uncoupled skill could be slotted and maybe removed before a card could be sold (instead of permanently combined.)

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Very interesting .....

I think it would likely lead to allot of OP cards that only a select few can attain. I suppose if the added (transferred) ability is only allowed on max cards then that will help to balance that issue a bit.

It would lead to another round of mass burning which would be great ....

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Interesting idea indeed! It will definitely disrupt the meta. I think it would be easier to make the abilities more temporary in nature or maybe applying a cooldown to avoid them becoming OP with some of the potential combinations.

Posted using Partiko iOS

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