The Splinterlands team is excited to announce an upcoming new gameplay format known as "Survival Mode" which will be a new ranked play format in addition to the current Modern and Wild formats. We believe this new format will have a major impact on the overall product and game economy and we are hoping to release the initial version within the next couple of months.
Similar to Wild format, any card in the game may be used (except for Gladiator cards without a Conscript Summoner or Ruleset), and the use of battle helpers and automation tools will be allowed as well. There is not currently planned to be any pass or payment required to participate. Survival mode will, however, include two significant changes that we expect will create a very interesting and unique gameplay experience:
- No energy required to battle - players can battle as much as they are able!
- When a card dies in a Survival mode battle, it will not be able to be used again in ANY battles for a period of time (more details on that below).
In Survival mode, the cards themselves act as the "energy" that determine how many battles a player can play. Survival mode is less about choosing individual teams for each battle and more about overall collection management. It changes the collection strategy from "do I have one copy of each card I need at a high enough level?" to "how many copies of each different card do I need and at what levels?".
With only these two relatively small changes, Survival mode creates a completely different type of game that can appeal to a different type of player, and for the first time incentivizes players to get more than one copy of cards they need to win battles.
Nearly all other aspects of ranked battles will remain the same in Survival mode, including seasons, end of season resets, the rating system (except that there will be no win streak rating bonuses), matchmaking etc.
Rewards
Survival mode will have an SPS reward pool of the same size and that works in exactly the same way as the reward pools for Modern and Wild formats. That means that players will win SPS from the reward pool for each win in Survival mode based on the reward shares they earned in that battle as compared to the total number of reward shares earned from all Survival mode battles over the past 15 days. The same calculations and modifiers/bonuses will apply to reward shares for Survival mode battles as for Modern and Wild battles.
There will also be leaderboard rewards for the players who have the highest ratings in Survival mode at the end of each ranked play season.
Initially, both the SPS rewards and the leaderboard rewards will be supplied by the Splinterlands company. After some time, assuming that the Survival mode format is well received and is adding value to the ecosystem, we hope that the SPS stakeholders will approve the rewards to be paid from the DAO or from the available remaining SPS inflation via a governance proposal vote.
Glint rewards are also planned to be added for Survival mode battle wins after a few seasons have passed. This will allow the team to review a couple seasons of real data and design the payouts to ensure that reasonable amounts of Glint are awarded in a fair manner.
Card Cooldowns on Death
The primary difference between Survival mode and the other ranked play formats is that when a card dies in a Survival mode battle, it goes on cooldown for a period of time, meaning that it cannot be used in ANY other battles (including Survival, Modern, Wild, Tournaments, and Guild Brawls) until the cooldown period is over.
Please note that cards on cooldown from a Survival mode battle death will still be able to be transferred, delegated, listed for sale or rent, and put to work on land. The existing cooldown indicator will be used to indicate if a card is on cooldown and for how long in the collection and market detail screens.
Summoner cards will be considered to have died in a Survival mode battle if their team loses the battle. In the case of a draw, neither Summoner will be considered to have died.
The cooldown time for a specific card will be based on the card's rarity, level, and foil, and will be calculated based on the following formula:
base_cd - (base_cd - max_cd) * bcx / max_bcx
Where base_cd is the base cooldown time for a 1 BCX card of that rarity and max_cd is the cooldown time for a max level card of that rarity, both of which can be found in the following table:
Please note that a 1 BCX card will use the Base cooldown from the table above and will not use the formula. Additionally, Gold Foil cards will have half the cooldown time of the equivalent regular foil card.
For example, a 300 BCX regular foil Common card would have a cooldown of 180 hours or 7.5 days:
360 - (360 - 120) * 300 / 400 = 180
A 5 BCX Gold Foil Epic card would have a cooldown of 78 hours or 3.25 days:
(240 - (240 - 72) * 5 / 10) / 2 = 78
Revival Potions
A new type of potion will also be added to the Splinterlands shop with the release of Survival mode that will revive a card that has died in a Survival mode battle, removing its cooldown so that it can immediately be used again in battles.
Each Revival potion charge can be used on a single card and will remove its entire cooldown, no matter how long that cooldown is. The Revivial potions will be purchasable with DEC, Credits, or Glint like the other potions, and their cost is still TBD.
Players will be able to apply Revival potions manually through the card details screen by selecting the card or cards on cooldown they want to revive and clicking a button to use the required number of Revival potion charges. There is also planned to be an option to use Revival potions automatically, in which case the system will use available Revival potion charges to remove the cooldown on cards that die in Survival mode battles automatically, requiring no action from the player.
MVP & Future Iterations
We fully expect that, after reading this, the player community will have tons of ideas and suggestions on how this new type of battle format can be expanded, changed, and made better. Indeed, the Splinterlands team has had many such ideas during the design process as well. While we have listened to and noted all of the ideas that have been presented so far, we have purposely kept the initial version of the new format as simple as possible in order to be able to get it out for players to try as quickly as possible.
We can discuss and debate indefinitely about how it will go and what will work and what won't (and there were many such internal discussions), but ultimately there's no better way to find out for sure than putting it out for our players to try in a live environment. Assuming the new format is well received, we fully intended to iterate on it and incorporate player feedback to continue to improve and expand on it over time.
Some ideas that have been discussed internally that we may look to add in the future are:
- A "Modern" version of Survival mode that only allows cards from the two most recent sets.
- A version of Survival mode that does not allow battle helpers or automated battle services.
- Limited time Survival formats that offer special prize pools and/or allow limited sets of cards. For example, there could be a month-long Survival mode event that only allows Rebellion cards and has a special prize pool.
- Ability to craft Revival potions using land plots and/or land resources.
Additionally, things like card cooldown times on death, reward amounts and structure, revival potion mechanics, etc., are all subject to change both before and after the initial release as we evaluate the new format and work to incorporate community feedback and improve upon it.
Prepare Your Collections!
Survival mode will be all about collection management. The best player with only one copy of each card may get easily passed in rating and rewards by a player with hundreds of copies of cheaper cards who can play many more battles while the first player is waiting for their cards to come off cooldown.
We are extemely excited to see what interesting and unexpected strategies come out of this new format and we expect that it could spark a significant increase in market sales and rental volumes, especially for some of the cheaper but powerful cards, of which players may now want to acquire multiple copies.
Town Hall
Finally, we want to remind everyone that we will be holding our monthly live Town Hall event later today - Thursday, November 21st, 2024 - at 7:00 PM ET / 00:00 UTC in the Splinterlands Discord server, as well as on our YouTube and Twitch channels, where we will be discussing the new Survival mode format and taking questions from the community.
For those of you who are not able to make the live event, please feel free to post your questions or comments about Survival mode or anything else in the #town-hall channel in the Splinterlands Discord server and a team member will do our best to respond as quickly as possible!
this could be cool!
edit: from the getgo, hopefully you can make it so coders do not have any advantages over non-coders... please 😀
How?
I am concerned about returning bots draining the reward pool.
With soulbound rewards cards (including summoners), and tens of thousands of idle accounts loaded with SBR cards, this seems like an incredibly obvious and very serious issue that was overlooked.
I assure you that it was not "overlooked". We recognize that it might be an issue, but it is possible that it might not be, or might not be an issue in the way we think. As a result, the current plan is to put the format out and see how it goes. Then we will watch and see what the actual issues are and address them quickly.
If we need to not allow soulbound reward cards in Survival mode, then we will do that - it will be very quick and easy to do. I think it would be better overall, however, if soulbound reward cards can be used, so I would prefer to make sure that measure is actually needed rather than doing it preemptively. It may also turn out that there are better ways to address the issue of the idle bot accounts than banning SBR cards from the format as well.
That's my n1 concern as well...
There are many bot services available that non-coders can use, and those tend to actually be much better than individual custom-coded software from what I've seen, so I don't see any reason that coders will have an advantage.
Why do we want to open up our reward pool for exploitation again when we fought so hard to get rid of the bots from modern. No problem with the new game mode but I am uncomfortable about the reward pool exploitation
I don't intend to open up our reward pool for exploitation. This mode is quite different than the other game modes we have, and it's very difficult to predict what the possible exploits will be or how they will work out ahead of time. I know a lot of people have thoughts on how it can potentially be exploited, and they may or may not be correct, but I prefer to try it and find out rather than try to guess. I suspect we would end up spending time addressing some exploits that never end up panning out in reality, and missing other things that we didn't anticipate.
The plan is to release the format, see what issues come up, and then address them quickly. We have many different ways to address all of the different possible issues that we can think of, so we are going to see what comes up and then decide (together with the community) which way(s) are best to resolve them.
I understand and I know that you have been bot neutral, however that neutrality has almost cost us everything. There is nothing wrong with a new game mode. But why open it up for bots? Why can’t we have the mode just like modern. I understand it won’t be a lot of games and yea it won’t cater to that certain clientele.
For years every single update or change was designed to curtail bot and finally with the introduction of wild pass we ultimately stopped the leak. Why open up a whole league and test the same hypothesis that: “if you let people exploit they will exploit”. We already know this!
Hi @yabapmatt Survival Mode is absolutely a good idea because more game modes = + fun = + use cases for cards and tokens BUT
Modern Format is the only format that is fun for Splinterlands players who LOVE to play on Splinterlands
The Wild Format is a format with 0 fun because it is the realm of bots and is basically an idle game.
In Survival Mode will bots be allowed?
The current big problem is:
Does Splinterlands want to attract new real players or not?
Real players are the pillars of any game but on Splinterlands it seems that protecting the bots is the priority...
If Survival Mode will be only for real players = great idea
If Survival Mode will also be for bots = bad idea
I play manually in wild and it IS FUN. I love using the older cards that have rotated out of modern.
Hi @fatjimmy first of all, I would like to make it clear that I am not against those who create bots or those who use them.
There is in my opinion a problem related to the impossibility for an active player who wants to play only against active players like him to use all his cards and not only the cards that can be used in the Modern Format.
But in my opinion IS FUN that you who have xbot, archmage in your wallet don't use them and you write a comment in which you also say that you don't use them even though you have purchased them. Do you like to buy tokens that you don't use? :)
well there goes his whole theory that it is 0.0% now he'll have to apologize and update his numbers. hahaha (cuz that will happen)
Hi @jarvie :)
My comment was a personal and passionate opinion as an active Splinterlands player who loves Splinterlands and was not meant to have any statistical value. I thought it was implied that it was my opinion but in fact I should have specified it better and so for that I apologize, I never have a problem with apologizing :)
But here you should apologize to yourself to have believed that fatjimmy actually plays manually nel wild format because it is certainly possible but it seems funny to me that there is someone who buys xbot and archmage and doesn't use them :) LOL
But joking aside, my opinions are completely opinable and I am interested in confronting ideas different from mine.
I am not against those who create bots or those who use them but I see a balancing problem in the options available between active players and those who use bots.
Do you think it is fair that an active player who wants to play against only active players like him can only use two sets of cards in the Modern Format while someone who uses a bot can use all the cards?
Wouldn't it be more logical to give the same option to both?
If bots are so useful why not allow them in Modern Format as well?
Why the Wild Pass?
So far I have not found a “real” active player happy to play manually against bots if you find one I would be curious to meet him ;)
These are all things that we have thoroughly considered in designing this new format and it's good that you brought them up for further discussion. The first thing to keep in mind is that most everything you have said here - while presented as facts - are actually just your opinions. It's important to understand that other people view things differently.
For example:
I understand that in your opinion Wild is "0 fun", but I know a lot of people who enjoy the game experience of using bot services in Wild. Many people enjoy idle games and I don't see any reason that Splinterlands should not provide an option for those players as long as that option doesn't take away from the experience for players who prefer an active game, which is why it is completely separate from Modern format.
This is not true at all. You seem to be categorizing "real players" as people who do not use bots. I think this is a bad way to look at it. Behind every single bot is a very real player and that group has put millions of dollars collectively into this ecosystem over the years. I can assure you that many "real players" can and do have fun in Wild format.
Yes! We want to attract players who want to test their skill against other human players in live battles (and we have been doing a lot of work on that front recently) but we ALSO want to attract players who want to compete in a more passive, collection-management style game experience. We feel that the latter is a very key demographic for Splinterlands that has contributed significantly to our success in the past but that we have been ignoring more recently, which has been to the detriment of everyone in the ecosystem.
Finally, I want to note that we clearly stated that assuming this new format is successful and we are able to work out the kinks that we will look into adding a version of this format that does not allow automated services or battle helpers to be used.
Matt I respectfully ask, where are those millions? I clearly do not see it inside our ecosystem:)
So I am going to guess that those millions are sold for cash. I rest my case.
A real human maybe, but not a real player.
If I let my chess software beat chess grandmasters that doesn't make me a chess player (maybe a good programmer, but in case I use the chess software of anybody else, I might not even be a programmer).
But fortunately, in every successful game software is strictly separated from human competition.
I don't think there there is any doubt about that point. We can all agree on that.
I am always arguing about the earnings and exploitation bit. If bots put in millions in the game they have taken their millions out and more. They were and are a net negative. How do we know? We know from price of the assets and our tokens and they don't lie.
I agree 100%
Honestly at this point, can't tell if they're just trolling real players...
That's amazing, we are finally getting a new gamemode to Splinterlands and it sounds AWESOMEEE.
I'm super excited to kill off my cards 😅 (for a period of time ofc)
That's a very good thing for the game to get a new game mode!
Also amongst the followup ideas, the land related one is the most important one. The ability to create a valuable item using land will give actual use and value to plots and help reaching the original land goal (locked DEC, locked cards, ...). This will also create a new market and earnings for players and the company.
Please finally give some actual use to land plots!
We 100% plan to provide as much in-game utility for land as we can, but we need to wait until the current ongoing work on land is completed before we can start on that. I can assure you the team wants this as much as the players, and we're doing everything we can to get it done as quickly as possible.
Looks like a great idea 😀
Sweet! This new mode brings more utility to old cards.
Wow this sounds insanely cool! And we have enough SPS inflation left to add another full size reward pool?
There is a large pool of SPS inflation that is currently unallocated that could potentially be used for this if that's what the SPS stakeholders want.
I'm thinking about SPS reward pool from Soulkeep
That sounds quite interesting, and the idea of “killing” the creatures for a while was great.
I would like to add an opinion about the automation of the Bots, you could release a tool that is not totally automated, but that has half of some functions of the other versions like XBOT and ARCHMAGE. Maybe just the possibility of leaving it running, configured manually of course. That could be an advance.
cooking so now gold matters can double up his gold foil collection
Yep and max GFL are kind of overpowered when you consider that they only go into time out for 1 day (if i'm reading it right) ... that's IF they even die. haha
I guess you play enough games and they'll die eventually so you only have to wait one day to get them back.
Ya I love the idea. You are reading it right; they do get half off :D. I just hope they keep it bot free to keep it fun if not it might not cook as much :(
It would be better if the card will only die on survival mode, modern or wild battle should be separate.
I agree. If I can't use dead cards in Brawls, Modern, or Wild, I'll probably never play in Survival mode. Overall, it's still a good idea that should benefit card prices.
Agreed with you. It seems Splinterlands wants players to own and upgrade more cards.
This is something we spent a lot of time considering, and ultimately I do not agree that it would be better the way you are suggesting.
If cards that died in survival mode could still be used in other formats, then it is effectively forcing everyone who currently plays in modern and wild to also play in survival mode or else they are losing out on rewards they could otherwise be earning.
This is similar reasoning for why energy is not separate between modern and wild format which I believe is working well there. It's important to understand that this new mode is not expected to be for everyone. This is specifically geared towards players with large collections including multiples of many cards and we expect most players that don't fall in that category to stick to modern or wild format.
Hardcore mode is too hardcore? Maybe you would like a softcore mode?
Or a tis but a flesh wound mode?
That's what I was thinking.
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Just make sure the new potions are expensive or rare, otherwise you're just adding to inflation by trading a big SPS pool for a proportionally small DEC burn (and there won't be much incentive to load up on extra cards).
Honestly, I'd say just don't have the potions or perhaps only have them come from land, players should be dipping into the rental or purchase market to get the extra card copies instead of being able to constantly reload the cards at will.
Either ways, rent or purchase, it will help the market to be more active
I was thinking how some people may just use a potion on one particular summoner non stop and that's all. Seems like perhaps one option is to make it more expensive each time they revive a particular card.
Is it possible to play f.e. my L6 Kelya instead of max Kelya in order not to risk my maxed version of the card or will the higher level card be the only one possible to be selected in the battle selection screen?
They will for sure have to make some changes to the battle screen for choosing cards. Perhaps a dropdown under the card that lets you choose the version of that card. It shouldn't be too big of a feature addition.
A pretty good idea, a new game mode, a good way to improve economy... and then, bots wild and free? For fucks sake...
getting rid of bot players must be having an adverse affect on their wallets
Fairly certain it had an adverse affect on all our wallets.
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You know they're in info stage right? You know they said they'll take input and see how it works out. If you are in the demographic of this mode then share some thoughts. They've changed modes based on DAO proposals and yet you seem to forget all this. Your reaction is disappointing. I expected more.
I may have sound too harsh, but it comes from being absolutely frustrating for me (and I would say any human player) that after SIX YEARS bots are still allowed AND encouraged.
Similar to wild format, you'll be having real humans playing against advanced AI bots; just looking at leaderboards and battles in wild league, yu can probably have a way better idea than me on how many human players are there.
Is this what we want for the game? An idle game played by bots where we basically don't play and try to get an ROI on the assets we buy? Because that's what we have in wild league, the (by far!) funniest game mode, that is basically impossible to have fun playing with. I've lost count on how many times this subject was brought to discussion.
And again, seeing the clear intention of keeping this ethos on a new coming mode is frustrating, to say the least. As a real player, it's beyond my comprehension this way of thinking. Just my two cents.
I didn't even think of it as an idle bot game until y'all started talking about it. If you have the cards and are in the demographic speak up. What do the users want? I myself am not sure... i would enjoy playing survival mode and i for sure have the cards for it. BUT... i'm not a consistent game player in general. I play almost no computer games. I will do splinterlands in spurts. I do wish splinterlands had an idle game... but i didn't think survival mode would be a good idle game but i guess you're saying you think this game is a bot game. Why do you think it is?
I dont think it's a bot game, it IS a bot game, if you exclude modern. How many real players you would say that play regularly in wild league? It can be as idle as it gets: if you have the cards (and you don't even have to have maxed deck, nor nowhere near), you choose a bot, click a couple buttons: that's it. You stack rewards and forget Splinterlands exists until you want to cash something out. Any game that allows full automation is doomed to the same fate: a few human players, and the rest extractors. That's what is hapenning now in Wild, and what will happen in any future mode where bots are allowed.
We can all have different opinions, that's fine. For me, and I'm not a hardcore gamer, knowing that I'm not playing real humans takes all the fun away. And I would argue most humans, after a few loosing streaks battling bots, will likely be fed up.
As for speaking up: how much more? How many posts have been written by players saying modern mode was a breath of fresh air because finally bots were out? How many players has the game lost because of bots? How many players wrote full posts detailing why they were quitting the game/ botting and stopping any manual gaming because they had lost faith? It's crystal clear by now that the team is perfectly accepting the amount of current botting; why, I'll leave it for you to decide.
What I can't foresee is an influx of new players, given the current state. And truth be told, the team is doing a lot of good moves lately; unfortunately, most of them have the opposite effect if we're talking about new players. As a new player, is it appealing to know that you'll start playing a bot filled game if you want to try anything apart a SINGLE game mode? That you'll have to spend thousands in new cards every couple years or be relegated to playing against bots? Or that you can start the game and get trashed by maxed decks, or cards you have zero way to obtaining unless you are extremely lucky after months of gameplay (e.g. gladiators)?
So when you read "for fucks sake"... this is why. As a player, seeing an awesome game going this route is sad. Taunting the "New Player Experience" as the utmost priority and announcing a new game mode open for bots is just yet another decision that I just can't reason.
Sorry for the long answer; given how much you have given to the game, a thorough response was the minimum I could do. Cheers!
A new interesting game mode, thats exactly what the game needs but...
Are you seriously going to give this new mode to bots once again? Wtf, whats wrong with you guys?
Because bots will need more cards to play in this mode. Imagine, bots may need 20 cards of 1 core monster to farm instead 1 card.
I'm already loving it! While I don't see the last word to be spoken on all the details.
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For example, I have 2 General Sloan cards , if one dies in a battle, I still can use another one in next battle, right?
Yeah.
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Suggestion: take the sps reward pool from modern and wild and then Split it into 3 for modern, wild and survival. Then keep all modes separate. I.e. survival cool down for cards only affects survival mode
I'm thinking about SPS reward pool from Soulkeep.
Uhm, this could revive the rental market... Interesting!
I don't think the cooldown should apply for guild brawls. Also there should be a new locking system that can be applied to cards, where players can rule certain cards not to be used in survival mode in order for them to be able to protect their brawls(if this is not changed), ranked and tournament core teams that they don't want to risk.
I would be happy to try this with by secondary teams and lower level cards, but I would hate to accidentally use some of my core cards and potentially ruin brawls for my guild or my normal ranked season.
Such locking option is a must imo, otherwise the stress to not accidentally pick core cards would be too much and I would not deem the risk worth it. Also those core cards in current system will block you from selecting you lower level cards, which the locking system would solve as they would not be visible in the selection screen.
I hope I'm making any sense, just woke up.
It is how Splinterlands can sell new potion :)
The ability to lock your cards from being used in survival/hardcore is an option i suppose.
I wonder if we could coordinate between peakmonsters and allow them to use lists to see which cards the user has in a list (a do not use in survival list). Or they can do their own list like system. it's not that complicated took us very little time.
One of the best news regarding the game I have seen recently. The tide is truly turning and let's do our best to become the #1 DAPP in the world again!
Why a new potion? Couldn't we just use Time Crystals?
While time crystals were created for land. I kind of like your idea. Could be less work too and helps give utility that may not get much land usage for a long time to come.
I'm pumped! Excited to see some new features like always @yabapmatt 😎
I really like the idea, but I’m concerned about soulbound cards. There are many accounts with single BCX soulbound summoners (and other soulbound cards). If these accounts queue up together, they’ll often end up fighting each other, which could easily drain the reward pool.
That said, giving utility to soulbound cards beyond a single max copy should still be a goal. However, I believe a better solution would be this:
Only allow fully maxed copies of soulbound cards to be used. This would drastically reduce the potential for exploitation while still providing players with meaningful utility for soulbound cards beyond their first max copy.
NO BOTS PLEASE
LMAO, yet another strategy to squeeze your (dwindling) existing player base and alienate new players. This is about a tone deaf as you can get.
Will it still be 6v6 cards? Just that on death they go on cool down?
Sps stake requirements?
@yabapmatt thx
Sound like another money grab to get people to buy more cards. Great job Splinterlands.
Typically I try not to respond to obvious trolling, but I thought it was important to address the absolute ridiculousness of this comment.
First, that is what businesses do. They try to create products or services that people want to pay for in order to make money. So yes, what we are doing here is developing something that we think a significant number of Splinterlands players will like, and therefore be inclined to purchase more cards. Nobody is forced to purchase anything. Players will only buy more cards if they like the new format and want to participate in it and need more cards than they have already.
The really ridiculous part of all this though, is that if it causes players to buy more cards, the money won't even be going to the company for the most part! Nearly all of it will go to the player base either directly or via the DAO.
So if I understand your comment correctly, you're saying that Splinterlands is spending company money to develop, operate, and even fund the reward pool, for a new feature that we expect players will like and therefore lead to more money going directly to the players, and that that is somehow a bad thing and a "money grab" by the company?