The Survival Mode v2.0 Changes!
So there were only 2 small changes for Survival mode afer it was down I believe 3 seasons. The fist change is that they added liquidity bots at all levels of play as there simply aren't enough players which made it so that even at lower levels you were quickly faced with max level opponents. The 2nd change is that SPS Earnings were capped so it is no longer possible to get crazy high rewards at the lower levels.
- Liquidity Bots: From what I am seeing, these bots don't actually own any of the cards and they also get zero earnings which I guess is fair. at Silver level they put out Level 4 cards of mostly Chaos Legion cards and they are easy to beat at their level.
- SPS Earings: These have totally collapsed now at 2.4-3.5 SPS Earned each Won Battle at around Rank 1900. in V2 Season 1 this was still at this range around rank 1300 and I'm not quite sure what the deal is or how much can be expected when grinding up higher. To compare it with the first season of ranked where there were earnings of 25 SPS + at rank 1000. By Season 5 of v1.0 the earnings were around 10 SPS around rank 1000.
Looking at some of the higher-ranked players, it shows 17 SPS earnings around Rank 4000 with a x9 SPS Staking Multiplier, so Earnings have pretty much totally collapsed in Survival Mode.
My Survival Mode v2.0 Experience!
So while Survival Mode was offline, I took a break from Splinterlands and I didn't miss it at all to the point where I had a hard time getting myself to play again when Survival Mode came back. I dropped to Rank 800 and was going to see in the past days if I could climb my way up again. 86 Games later, I'm now at level 1880 and I earned a total of 142.351 SPS with that (around 1$) and it felt like an endless grind without any actual fun whatsoever maybe aside from 1 or 2 games.
Survival mode still suffers from the same probem that you either submit a great team and win against a lower level opponent, or you don't take the risk and just surrender against a higher level opponent as it's not worth the risk to lose high level cards against those.
It also takes forever to get some games in as the waiting time still often gets over 2 minutes
You also often faced the same opponent twice in a row.
Basically the entire process of playing Survival mode feels like a torture of a job that pays around 0.2$ an hour and where you need to have done a big investment which on top continues to go down in value and get inflated away by the printing of more an more cards.
How To Actually Improve Things
I still see Splinterlands as a game with the potential to have plenty of fun with and which I actually want to play instead having the feeling that I have to so I don't miss out on rewards.
First of all, the main obvious issues should be addressed in that choices continue to be made in favor of the economy but at the cost of fun and gameplay which makes the game worse and worse. Survival mode & Land are prime examples of this.
Secondly, it should be understood that the target audience of Splinterlands are players with money but not with time. So it can't be that the only way to actually be a Splinterlands player is to be in it full time with the obligation to grind hours each day.
And Third, the main investment of players are cards but those still get printed like there is no tomorrow and power creeped away. The card price gap is between new and old cards is massive and there is a certainty that they will lose all their value over time which makes it so that no new players are willing to invest thousands.
I personally would just scrap Survival Mode as it's not fun and it brings more hours of grinding with most matches that are not fun or the act of just running a bot. What could improve things is to base earnings on the cards that players manage to destroy so they are much more evenly and it's not all-or-nothing. Battles whould also be more rare and higher profile instead of the endless and mindless grinding.
However, what I personally thing that could still save splinterlands is some kind of Draft Game Mode
A GAME MODE WHERE PLAYERS PAY A SMALL FEE TO ENTER AND WHERE THEY GET A FUN AND FAIR EXPERIENCE AT THE TIMES THEY WANT TO PLAY WITH SOME REWARDS BASED ON HOW WELL THEY PERFORM. ALL PLAYED WITH LIMITED CARD CHOICES AND MAX LEVEL CARDS PROVIDED BY THOSE WHO OWN THEM (BY STAKING ON LAND) GETTING IN RETURN GET A PART OF THE ENTRY FEES.
Conclusion!
I just hate the Survival Mode experience so far gringing up my ranking and feel like a fool doing it at an earnings rate of just 0.2$ an hour which makes me want to quit and give up on Splinterlands all together. There are just so many obvious flaws in the way that the game is designed that it just blows my mind especially since the potential for this to be something to be great obviously is there. I'm not sure where to go from here on out but I'm getting closer and closer to just calling it a day and take out the little value that is left in my assets. At the same time I kind of want to stay in denial and keep believing.
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