The Splinterlands team published a post a couple of hours ago announcing follow-up changes to the ranked rewards system.
They would become effective after Modern & Wild will be released next week, so we will see them in the week of July 18th.
Please read their post linked above to understand what I'm talking about more clearly.
I'd like to go over them, one by one.
But first, the two ones that have already been implemented.
Daily Focus Chests Based on Current League
Before this change, I would have played for champion focus chests the entire season. After this change, focus missions gave me diamond chests until I start a new focus in the Champions League (which will be tomorrow as I am already there after a pretty weak season on my part).
Season chests remain the same. In my case, champion chests.
Regarding focus chests, diamond vs. champion... I tend to believe the change is good because we earn the same season rewards all season long. With diamond chests, I've earned more of them, so more reward cards. DEC rewards don't compare, in general. So it would have been better with champion chests (on average).
So, I count this as a positive change.
Starter Card RShares Reduction Formula Change
I haven't been affected by this since I haven't played a lower-ranked account with not enough owned cards at all this season.
For the overall economy, and to prevent farming at the bronze level, I believe this was a good change.
But I've seen the opinion that this also makes life harder for new players. This is true. At the same time, new players who join today find a well-established game and ecosystem and didn't take risks early on. And there are still opportunities for great growth in Splinterlands as we speak. The problem is when everything is down people tend to ignore them, and afterward, they envy those who didn't.
Ok... that was the preamble. :) Now to the main course which are the changes which are slated for the week of July 18th.
New Daily Focuses and Mechanic Update
We will have 10-15 new daily focuses, based on groups of abilities, on top of the existing splinter-based focuses.
What's important here?
- you can earn focus points regardless of what cards/splinter you play, if you win
- cards from the focus mission add a bonus, just like gold cards, for example
- the bonus from the focus mission applies to season points as well
- if the focus mission is a splinter, it is not guaranteed to be active every time you play
- you'll have to earn more points for every chest (both focus and season) after this change, to compensate for the bonus
A few thoughts.
As someone who is not looking to exploit loopholes in the game, I generally like the approach of adding a bonus for using mission-specific cards.
But what happens if a bot has only one or a few decks which are spammed continuously? These changes also allows it to earn focus chests when it has no focus cards. Will they be profitable? That's the question.
I like that the focus mission might not be active. This may add some more variety to the game.
The increased number of points needed to earn chests is a consequence of earning more using the focus bonuses. Of course, we haven't seen the numbers for either the bonus or the increased requirements, but in principle, it seems normal.
Overall, I'm neutral about these changes. I'd like to be positive about them, but it all depends on whether or not bots will be able to farm more with less.
Changing Minimum Card Rental Time to 2 Days
Ok, that's a tricky one.
On one end, I know of the exploit using multiple accounts and the same set of cards and draining ECR. And the 1-day rental contracts make it a quick cycle and profitable. The 2-day rental contracts would make it less profitable to use this exploit.
But what if the accounts using this exploit own the cards and delegate from one to another instead of renting? The exploit is still there with a 1-day cycle step.
This change would likely affect the rental market negatively, and I've already seen some positions taken in this regard.
At the same time, I believe this is an exploit that needs to be addressed. As the team mentioned in the post, this is one step, and they'll continue to monitor the data to see if further steps are needed.
I'm also neutral about this change. Because it left the door open for cardholders to continue to use the same exploit and because it will affect the rental market. Otherwise, this exploit needs to be addressed, as I've said above.
Adding Merits as a Chest Reward
Ok. I understand the reasoning for this change. Not everyone is in guilds and even fewer are in competitive ones. These merits will help more people get gladiator cards - which are bonded to the owner - and reduce the distribution of reward cards.
This should make guilds more competitive.
I feel positive about this change.
Higher Potion Quantities in Higher Tier Reward Chests
Finally! No more 2 champion chests with 2 potions for me, lol. At least then, when I'll earn potions, I won't feel so disappointed.
Obviously, I like this change. I have lots of chests to open anyway, and far too few potions.
I also want to talk about the following announced change that will come up later on.
Replacing DEC rewards with SPS
Basically, what they want to do is replace all DEC rewards from ranked battles (including chests) with SPS rewards shortly after the airdrop is over.
I don't know enough to judge this future change.
First of all, SPS rewards for ranked battles were coming. It is known since the distribution of SPS was made public, last year.
What many people expected, including me at the time, was that they were on top of DEC rewards.
But this is an evolving situation.
Take a look at this chart posted by @dalz two days ago:
Notice the amount of DEC printed during the last month, as a result of introducing the new ranked rewards system, most likely (since the new ranked rewards were introduced on May 31st).
Almost 350m DEC was printed in June, compared to a little above 100m DEC in May. That's about 3.4x more.
This could be the reason why DEC has no intention to go back up to its value in Splinterlands store for now.
So, the team intends to remove the majority of this inflation from the market, because I assume the majority comes from ranked rewards.
That's a radical move.
But let's hold on to hear future plans.
Maybe DEC will be part of land rewards. Or maybe there's something I haven't thought of.
I wouldn't have done something as radical.
For example, I would have removed DEC rewards from ranked battles, when DEC was below the 'peg'. Like right now. But I don't see any reason to do it when it's above. Which will happen again in the future, most likely.