The Splinterlands team has a number of relatively small changes to league ratings and ranked battles that are currently scheduled to be released during the next maintenance window on Tuesday, February 28th, 2023.
Mana Cap Changes
The current mana cap logic is a bit complicated, with things like the mana cap only incrementing by 2 between 40 and 60, so we are planning to simplify it by implementing a max mana cap for each league as shown below. The minimum mana cap will still be 12, and each value from 12 to the league maximum will have an equal probability of occurring.
- Novice/Bronze - 40
- Silver - 50
- Gold/Diamond/Champ - 60
Please note that all tournament and guild brawl battles will use the same mana cap settings as Gold/Diamond/Champ leagues.
The main result of these changes is that the max mana cap will be increased for Novice and Bronze leagues from 30 to 40, decreased for Silver league from 60 to 50, and high mana cap battles will be a bit more common in Gold league and up, as well as in tournament and guild brawl battles.
Additionally, the probability of an unlimited / 99 mana cap battle is being reduced from 4% to 2%, which will make it roughly as likely to occur as any other individual mana cap value.
League Rating & Rating Reset Changes
We will also be making changes to the rating resets so that players don't drop down as far in rating at the end of each season (particularly in the higher leagues) and we will be changing the min and max rating thresholds for Champion league so that each tier is 300 rating points above the previous tier rather than 500 as it is currently. The new rating and reset values for each league and tier are shown in the table below:
| League | Min Rating | Max Rating | Old Reset | New Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice | 0 | 100 | 0 | No Reset |
| Bronze III | 100 | 399 | 0 | 100 |
| Bronze II | 400 | 699 | 100 | 300 |
| Bronze I | 700 | 999 | 300 | 400 |
| Silver III | 1000 | 1299 | 500 | 550 |
| Silver II | 1300 | 1599 | 700 | 750 |
| Silver I | 1600 | 1899 | 900 | 1000 |
| Gold III | 1900 | 2199 | 1200 | 1300 |
| Gold II | 2200 | 2499 | 1400 | 1600 |
| Gold I | 2500 | 2799 | 1600 | 1900 |
| Diamond III | 2800 | 3099 | 1900 | 2200 |
| Diamond II | 3100 | 3399 | 2200 | 2500 |
| Diamond I | 3400 | 3699 | 2500 | 2800 |
| Champion III | 3700 | 3999 | 2800 | 3100 |
| Champion II | 4000 | 4299 | 3100 | 3400 |
| Champion I | 4300 | No Cap | 3400 | 3700 |
Additionally, players who have not played any ranked battles in a particular format in the current season will not drop down in rating at all at the end of the season. This is so that players who take a break from the game will remain at the same rating and league in which they left off rather than falling all the way back down to Bronze and having to slog their way back up when they come back.
Please note that these changes are not planned to go live until after the end of the current ranked play season, so the end of season changes will first take effect at the end of the next season (the one ending mid-March).
Novice League / New Player Changes
Finally, we will be making the following changes to Novice league which will help get ready for a larger effort around improving the new player experience in Splinterlands that we plan to work on in the coming months.
The rating reset for Bronze III league will be changed to 100 from 0 meaning that players in Bronze league will no longer drop back down to Novice league at the end of the season, and once hitting Bronze league, players will not be able to fall below 100 rating from losses either. This means that once a player gets to Bronze league, they will never fall back down to Novice, and therefore Novice league players (eg. new players) will no longer be facing Bronze league bots.
In order to ensure that new players can always find an opponent, Splinterlands will be running special bots in Novice league that will not earn rewards or gain rating, and will be programmed to play relatively poorly against new players. Additionally, wins in Novice league will always award a fixed 10 rating points, so new players will always need to win 10 battles in Novice before moving up to Bronze.
These changes aim to make Novice league really more like an extended part of the tutorial in order to give new players more time to get familiar with the game in a controlled environment before being sent out into the fray of Bronze league.
As part of that, we will also be adding new messaging that will be shown when a player moves into Bronze league from Novice that will attempt to explain that in order to be competitive in the game it will be necessary to buy or rent cards, and provide links to various guides and third-party tools and services that are available to help them. Please note that this messaging will be a work-in-progress and we plan to get feedback and make regular updates over time to better help new players get acquainted with the game.
Stay tuned for more updates from the Splinterlands!
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Thanks for this - a great start! I love to see this kind of non-economic changes that are designed to improve the gameplay experience for players-new and old alike! The current rating reset has been a real sore point for me.
While I appreciate it from my own perspective as a player, I do worry a bit that it will add more rating inflation from low level accounts that will climb together to champion leagues after a few seasons. Perhaps a later step might be to have # of games played in a season factor into the reset?
I like the last 2 changes about bot run by splinterlands and facilitating guides for new players!!
Its nice to see you are hearing the community about this.
I would add that a news page for everyone as soon as they entered the game would also be very beneficial @weirdbeard
The best news of the week for players who at some point leave Splinterlands aside, it's frustrating to spend a while without playing and after returning to be in the same novice league as always, now with this change I believe it will allow me to return more often after these withdrawals.
Thank you finally.
I am very impressed, a huge step in the right direction for the game.
Great changes and it's prudent to keep making changes to benefit the new player experience. These are the people who will make us or break us so please continue to push hard for any changes we can make to help new players LOVE the game 😍
Some great new changes to the game. Nice one.
As a player who was onboarded relatively recently (October 2022) I believe the Novice League changes are an excellent start toward improving the new player experience. Particularly the one about an explainer message to let folks know that renting/buying cards is the ONLY way to advance in the game. It was not made clear at all, when I came onboard, that it would be impossible to earn RP if I did not buy or rent non-starter cards. This led to much frustration and consternation until I finally figured out why I was getting 0 RP, even after winning battle after battle. So I hope much emphasis will be put on this not only as players transition from Novice to Bronze, but also before they ever buy the spellbook. Tell them what to do with those credits the spellbook gets them. As a newbie, it's likely they have zero clue. I know I spent mine stupidly because I had no idea how the system worked.
great feedback! I wasted my credits too - I had no idea what to buy back then, just trying to buy CP for bronze 2 back when it was just Wild... a lot has changed in the last 18 months
but cp was really a thing back then
I love to see the changes being made that are focused on the player experience.
This is a HUGE one. It addresses the very new player experience (which is important) and also stops a ton of the frustration many felt with the end of season resets.
Thank you guys for the changes and looking forward to what comes next now! :)
Agreed Dave, a safe learning space for new players is essential.
I'm a bit worried that 10 wins isn't enough for them to get hooked before going to bronze.
I'd love to see Novice league get more competitive and last a bit longer, maybe even a small leaderboard for some bragging rights. (As long as it's too small a prize for a bot farm to buy spellbooks at scale just to farm it.)
I would like for them to add a bot in practice mode as well . I think that would give new player a safe place to practice. and raise the bot difficulty with each league. I never managed to find a match in practice mode. some time I just want to do battles when my ECR is down or if am trying a new idea or testing some stuff. it will increase the number of people trying practice mode and will make it more likely to be matched with a real player there.
that's a good idea
Even bad bots, like the ones they're going to use for novice, is a good addition for that practice tool. Sometimes, you just need to check if your idea will work, regardless of the opponent.
Now that we have soul-bound reward cards, those might make good novice leader-board prizes that bots wouldn't want to farm, but would help new players build something they could later play with in bronze. That would extend the usefulness of novice as well.
That's a good suggestion and I'm sure the team would be open to that as well. I think the fact they made a change means they are focused on it. Now they will monitor it and take suggestions such as yours and consider them. Good ideas! :)
i thought champion was something special that had to be fought for. i find it strange that players now stay there forever. but maybe i just had a wrong impression of it.
I agree with this sentiment. C1 should go to D1 on reset IMHO. Gotta grind at least a LITTLE before you get all the good rewards instantly amiright?
I actually want them to add another tier above champion with only like 10 allowed. This is kind of flex in the game that "Hey, we're the best 10 players in this game."
They still fight against champion league. Just a little bit of flex for being the top 10 among hundreds of thousands of players in the game.
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All good, expecially the changes to the Novice league: helping new players getting started and not getting reck'd all the time is crucial in improving player-retention!
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A big thumbs up for all these measures! Making new players enjoy the game more is the way to go. Great job overall!
Novice changes and Bronze accts no longer resetting to Novice are some outstanding changes!
Kinda bummed about the decreased mana cap in Silver.
I also think Champ should be earned every season. The best rewards in the game (by far) shouldn't just be a given.
thx for the Rating Reset Change, so good to start in Silver when u are in Silver all the time... ;)
I love all of these changes EXCEPT that Champ1 doesn't ever leave Champ. That will give a huge advantage in SPS earned for the top players who are already earning the lions share of rewards. I'd personally like to see them reset to Diamond1 so that they still have to do a little grinding like the rest of us at the start of the season before they earn the big boy rewards. That aside, I see only positives. Great move!
This would incentivize us to get into champ,oy? Great idea! Clap clap!
Only C1 stays in Champ after season reset. C2/3 both get to enjoy the D for a bit. For context I play in C3 and hate getting bumped back to the D grind. (... just re-read that and it sounds kinda sexual... I like it! haha)
I think a percentage is better. Something like top 10% or top 1% (if there's a lot in champ) will be the only ones to stay in champ. Everyone else go to diamond 1. I think the BEST players in the game deserves it.
It's good to see new players being catered for.
I’ve been trying for a new Focus on and off for the last two days and it just keeps saying it’s loading…
I’ve tried refreshing my browser and even rebooting my iPad, nothing’s worked.
Also tried bypassing the new Focus altogether and just going straight to a battle, but then I get an error message:
There was an error submitting this transaction to the game.
Anyone else experiencing similar issues?
Seems like some relief to players trying to climb back to Tier 1 Ratings of their league. Gives us allowance such as a 10 losing streak to redeem ourselves in ranked battles.
Incredible. Love it.
After a long time finally a change that I really like. I hope it stays that way.
I love these changes, especially for new players, but at the higher end too. No more dropping to Gold from Diamond I. Champ III already means Diamond II at reset.
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Saludos excelente estas actualizaciones sobre todo para los que comiencen en este maravilloso juego
I think you should also include a post with all the changes you were making at the back end. By this, things like changes in rules of combat/rule set and other adjustments should have a post first before it goes live.
I'm not sure if it's only me but I noticed that the "fog of war" rule of combat, now includes opportunity ability meaning, Sneak, Snipe AND OPPORTUNITY abilities are now disabled during that rule of combat. I checked like your past week and never saw a post like this.
Also, I'm not sure if this was already applied before but I just found out today. My opponent was using Deeplurker on the said rule of combat and I thought there was a bug why it wasn't attacking. Checking the fog of war, Opportunity is now included.|
TLDR: Please update first before a change and not the other way around or worse, just surprise them and see if the players are paying attention.
but this was mentioned in town hall, was in the patchnotes and I think was even announced in the announcement channel I mean 2 weeks ago was the
Oh, it was 2 weeks ago. I was mistaken. I apologize.
Thank you! Please keep prioritizing the new player experience, it is essential for sustainability while maintaining the delicate balance of preserving relationships with existing players. Arguably moreso, because if we don't continue to bring more people into the fold with inclusive play, this isn't gonna scale!
Now I see the the real reason why you guys are against banning bots completely. This post just confirms my thought lol. It is a good move though especially on the season reset part but on the mana part I think the current system was fine except that there are guys complaining about low mana matches. Splinterlands is a strategy game and that is the reason the game is interesting , you need to work with given parameters and be able to produce results. having said that I don't really understand the logic behind making a fuss about low mana matches.
Can we also do something about win-streaks and double Rating points?
Rating changes should be zero sum, but the double-rating points for win-streaks are actually a major contributor to the systemic rating inflation that brings low-level decks to high leagues every season. This further provides easy winstreaks for levelled decks so the rating inflation expands through every league.
The current change will improve the impact of the end-of-season reset for players, and also narrow the Tiers at Champion, so there will be less reliance on win-streaks to climb back to previous tiers. Maybe this is the perfect time to finally eliminate the double-rating bonus for winstreaks and take a positive step towards combating Rating Inflation?
(@davemccoy - as one of the most adamant proponents for new player experience, I'd welcome your thoughts on it)
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