I just finished listening to this week's Splinterlands town hall, and they made a presentation of what are their main targets during the next development period that extends until the beginning of August, which they call the "Age of the Phoenix". Practically, it still includes what's left of June and July, so almost two months.
There is a graphic roadmap they shared too, as usual. Here it is:
One change they made, unrelated to the roadmap is that from now on, town halls will be every two weeks instead of weekly, to match their two-week sprint cycles. During the weeks when there's no company town hall, they might facilitate open mic town halls for the community to participate in, but I don't think that's been decided yet.
Regarding the Age of the Phoenix, they have planned the following:
- Land 1.5 (Asset Staking, Plot Clearing, Resource Production, Market & Bridging, Land Surfing)
- Ranked Battles (SPS Requirement, Tournament Requirement Overhaul)
- SoulKeep Game Release
- Promo Cards (Quarterly Promo Card and New Mini Set with a Partner)
- Gameplay (Blocking Bots from Modern)
Since my Splinterlands focus for this year is land-related, I'll take a look at that part of the roadmap.
First thing to remark is no date was being given for releasing Land 1.5. Next town hall will be two weeks from now, so, it is still possible to squeeze it in June, but my feeling is there are little chances for that to happen without a pre-warmup (probably some testing by the community too), since this is a big release. So, maybe Land 1.5 will come later than planned in the previous roadmaps.
One reason for this might be Land Surfing, which is something that will be included in Land 1.5, although it isn't in the whitepaper and nobody (apart from those involved) seems to know what this is. And they don't want to share what it is.
That's a change in strategy. Instead of letting people know well in advance what they should expect, keep it as a surprise to be divulged at what they consider is the right time.
Well, this change in strategy might work on occasion. With one condition: that the surprise isn't disappointing. ;)
I, for one, can't imagine what it'll be from the name itself. All other elements shared as part of the Land 1.5 phase have an economic impact or component, which makes it even harder to guess what Land Surfing would be.
Anyway, without knowing what it is, you can't prepare for it. This should be interesting.
Something that doesn't appear to make it for this age is renting support for land. This was talked about as a possibility, but nobody promised it, as far as I know.
What do you think about Land Surfing? Want to guess what it will be?