As the creators of Steem Monsters, one of our primary responsibilities is protecting the market values of cards. The number one way we ensure this happens is by limiting the number of booster packs from any specfic edition.
This is an incredibly effective tool especially in conjunction with the card condensing mechanic to level cards up. Already we've gone from 1.5 million cards sold in alpha to 473k still in game (and yes, they are still condensing). That's a decrease in supply of 57% and anyone following the market can see the effect it's having on price. Generally speaking we have seen common cards start trading in the 3-4 cent range and are now selling for 17-20 cents. Conservatively that's a 4x change in the last few months while most of crypto is tanking.
Season 2
Recently, we launched season 2 of Steem Monsters. We're happy with the balance changes we've introduced as well as the various conflict rules which spice up the game, but we've been a little befuddled by the high use of bots and also card swapping. The combination of the two is partially responsible for doubling the amount of pack rewards relative to season 1 (12k --> 24k). There are some voices that are very concerned about that effect.
To be clear, the booster packs awarded through the season rewards come from the same total pool of 900k beta edition booster packs that will ever be available. So really what is happening is that we are giving away more packs to our players instead of selling them. Every pack earned through season rewards or quests is one less that can be sold, so we want to be clear that we are not inflating the overall supply.
We realize that there is a temporary, short-term increase in supply when the season ends, which may lead to a short-term decrease in market prices, but over the long term all this really does is end beta faster at which point the cards are no longer available.
Now, neither bots nor card swapping are technically wrong or against any rules. The system allows it, and in fact there is no good, feasible way to prevent such a thing in a decentralized fasion. That said, we realize that it's creating a negative experience for many players so we're making some changes to help address the issues. While it appears that roughly 10% of the combat is facilitated by bots it's having a pretty negative impact to sentiment. So, we're making changes.
Two Key Changes: Cooldowns and Conflicts
Cooldowns
The first key change that we're adding is a cooldown between when a card is transferred to another account and when it is able to be played in ranked battles. The changes are as follows:
- If a card is on the market it will no longer be usable in ranked battle. This was always intended to be the case, however it was an oversight that it had not been implemented until now.
- If a card is gifted or sold on the market then it must have a period of 7 days where it does not get played in ranked battles.
For example, if a card hasn't been played for 7 days before it's sold/gifted then it can be played right away in ranked battles. Similarly, if a card was played 4 days ago and it's sold/gifted then it may not be played in ranked battles for another 3 days.
These changes won't effect practice mode. And when challenges / tournaments are put in place it won't effect them either. It only effects ranked season play.
Card transfers will only start to be counted once the changes are put into effect. Meaning that if you have transfered a card just before the changes went into effect, it will still be able to be played immeditaly afterwards.
This change has already been put into effect earlier this morning. We normally like to give a heads-up before changes are made however in this case we wanted to avoid people transferring all their cards around before the change was implemented to further take advantage of the season rewards.
Conflicts
Also coming is a change to how the game play will work. Right now you first create your team based on the current "conflict" parameters, and then you can battle over and over with that same team until the conflict changes every two days. This really lends itself to automation and gives human players little advantage.
Instead, we would like the game to require some active thought and interaction for every match. As a first step towards achieving that goal, we plan to change it so that you get matched with an opponent before creating your team. Then once you are matched, you get a randomly chosen set of conflict parameters and you and your opponent each have to create your team on the spot for that specific battle.
Here's a preview of what the new screen will look like once you're matched with an opponent:
As you can see, you'll be matched, know who you're fighting, see the last five teams they have played with, find out what conflict rules are in place, and then you have a short period of time to either surrender or make a team to battle.
While we're still not quite at the point where the game is complicated enough that bots really don't have a chance, we getting there. I'm sure they are trying to make a smarter bot, and so we have an arms race!
While automated play will likely never go away completely, and it is definitely useful to add "liquidity" and make sure everyone can always find a match, we hope that by adding more interaction and variables into each individual match it will put bots at a disadvantage to human players.
Matchmaking Adjustments
We have also made some adjustments to the matchmaking algorithm which have been highly requested by the community. Diamond league players will now only be matched up with other Diamond league players (vs Champion league players which they could be matched up with previously). Additionally Champion league players will be matched up with other Champion league players with similar ratings (though still a relatively large range), so you will no longer see matches against players with 10,000+ point rating differences.
Super Awesome Fun Mode
Our ultimate goal is to make an amazing and highly addictive game that provides earning potential and a sound place to stake some money to our players. Once tournaments are in place our focus will switch to making gameplay more interactive and allow decisions between rounds thorugh incorporation of items and spells in game. As we keep going we'll keep layering in complexity as intuitively as we can to make for a fun and engaging game where smart players can school bots all day.
Thank you
As you can you see we're doing our best to make everything awesome, but it takes time. Thanks for your patience as we work through some kinks. We take every card pack purchase as a "thank you note" and we do our best to honor your choice to stake your money and time here. Happy steeming and we can't wait to crush ya on the battle field for glory and riches!
Another reason why I'm happy to be part of the SM journey. The team listened to the community and took action to address the issues and concerns. We didn't have to 'debate' on this platform for months and months without ever seeing any changes implemented. There was an issue and it was addressed. Way to go! You guys are doing a great job.
Wonderful and much needed changes... great work @Steemmonsters team!
One thought on the cooldown of market purchases... Would it be possible to show the cooldown time left for cards on the market? I would hate to purchase an expensive card I desperately need only to find out I can't use it for another 7 days.
@gregory-f any cards for sale on the market that are not able to be played immediately will have a small timer icon shown next to the price. If you hover over the icon it will tell you how much time is left before it can be played.
is this already existing @yabapmatt? Can not see anything in the API :)
Yaba... I "self-inflict" myself from all the stress of watching/observing the Global Financial Markets, including the CRIMINALLY Wrong ( imho ) Manipulation of Bitcoin, Steem & other viable/functional coins...
SteemMONSTERS has become a Welcomed "Relief Valve" to allow me to "decompress" from the vulgarities of observing the financial markets.
Thank You @YabapMatt , @Aggroed AND ALL of the SM Team and of course all the players.
Cheers 2 the ongoing/continuous SUCCESS/Improvements of SteemMONSTERS !!!
Yeah, we knew you guys were on it. In fact, I almost wrote you a complaint about the bots and the uneven matching. And then it occurred to me. You aren't idiots. You knew about it. And you were working on it. And it would get done. And you were in Poland, and we just needed to wait. And now we're here. And I really appreciate how well you've responded to your public!
Will this create an incentive to create a competing marketplace without this restriction? Is the 7-day cooldown not enough to prevent swapping abuse? Or is this so sellers don't have an unfair advantage because they are card hubs.
Does this mean, if a card is on the market, whoever purchases it, can NEVER use it in ranked battles? I don't get it.
It can be used 7 days after it's last battle regardless of what battle it was in. There will be a timer to say how long that is beside the card.
Oh okay. So depending when it was put up for sale, if I purchase 4 days after its last battle, then I can use it 3 days from then. And once those first 7 days are up, I can use it at every single battle if I want because now it's mine and it's been more than 7 days. No 7 days in between each time I use it. Correct?
Yes that is my understanding!
Awesome, thank you!
Yup. Exactly.
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Excellent, thanks!
Im so excited for Season 3
To give something back i made 6 Steemoster Emojis for the Steemmoster Community, they are all free to use.
Get them here
https://steemit.com/steemmonsters/@bronkong/steemmonsters-community-this-is-for-you-6-free-to-use-emojis
Thats cool!!👍✌💕
Happy to hear that
Great adjustments!!!!!!!!!
We will be adding info to show that the card is in COOLDOWN.
Can you add a feature at the end of the matches to be able to replay the same opponent. Sometimes I have thought that I would love to replay the same opponent and try a different lineup.
Absolutely awesome solutions! You guys knocked it out of the park with these solutions! I'm very impressed and happy as hell as an participant and investor in the game :)
Oh, now that's an elegant solution. Nicely done.
First of all, thank you for implementing changes and updates. In particular, I really like the second part where you build a deck under random constraints each time so that you prevent meaningless bots continuously playing with the same deck 24/7.
However, I do not understand the "cooldown" part. I do agree in a general idea, but the way it got implemented does not seem fair.
If you want to prevent "abuse" of card rotating, then you simply put time limitations (say, 1 week) of gifted cards may not be gifted again. If you cannot use a card for a week after buying/receiving it, it will significantly decrease the incentive to buy/trade, which will result in reduced interest.
While I understand that this is right before the end of the 2nd season, I still believe that you should notice users first for the upcoming significant changes.
Sellers can make sure not to have played the card for the previous week. I imagine a card that cannot be immediately played should demand a discount on a decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace.
PS is this steemmonsters marketplace on the chain such that it's a decentralized exchange?
Are cooldowns already implemented?
Yeah, saw that after I wrote the comment....
Okay, I appreciate the efforts you are making!
Having been on Steem(it) for more than a year I have seen lots of frustration in regards to bots. I hope this effort is successful in giving humans the edge. Something may even be learned by this interaction that can be implemented Steemit wide (and in other blockchains too...ala EOS!?) and will give Steemit a more human feel and not like a social media site of zombie AI.
Cant wait to get setup and start playing!!
Peace
Nice work! Steem Monsters is awesome and it gets better and better, I love Steem Monsters! Thanks for making this amazing game!
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Overall, I like it. I foresee some issues with the responsive matchmaking and timeouts, but it probably won't be a huge problem.
We are going to need some sort of indicator in the marketplace letting buyers know how much cooldown that card has remaining.
@nealmcspadden any cards for sale on the market that are not able to be played immediately will have a small timer icon shown next to the price. If you hover over the icon it will tell you how much time is left before it can be played. I am also working with peakmonsters to add this in to their site soon as well.
A fantastic UIUX idea if you ask me!
Thanks to the bots that I now need over an hour to make the 10 wins a day. I don't know if I'll play then.
Some Issues
If you give someone 5 mins they will use that as their strategy of time wasting in hoping the other player will quite/surrender. I can only hope once you pick your team you are not stuck waiting 5 mins for someone to afk till they decided to select the cards they were going to anyways. That you are able to move on to another match and I guess if you want to see the results you check in after the fight.
I see what you are trying to do and I respect that. I just fear people will create bot/automation to data mine/ check the battlechain and then use external information to their advantage in what cards you have. At least you are going to show the last few matches.
In games like healthstone, you had players waiting out their timer every single move. Not because they do not know how to play the game or because they were having issues picking a card to play. It was done so people who want to play fast leave the match getting them an easy win.
I also have concerns here about not all splinters being available. While before it had not happened yet with conflicts. If it did you just would not play for those 48 hours since you did not have a great team/that splinter.
If you surrender are you taking a reduced amount of loss or does it consider it like losing a game?
Possible Solution?
I think it is great to know what splinter you were facing. That gives the player some insight into what they could be facing along with the mana cap and rules of combat. You can guess a lot just based on that once you understand the game and what possible monsters that person could present. This would also allow people to play what splinters they do have.
Timers
You do take a cut from sales right? That should be enough of a deterrent from people trying abuse high level cards that cost a fair amount. If they want risk putting their high level cards up for sale to buy them on an alt they also risk someone buying it before they are able to. So I’m not sure why buying cards off the market should have a cooldown before you can even use them. That be like me going to the store to buy milk and being told I’m not allowed to drink that milk for 7 days. By then I may no longer be interested in drinking milk. A lot can change in a game like this in 7 days where someone may no longer want use that card.
While I do like the idea of a cooldown on gifted cards. I think if you are gifted a card you should still be able to play it but it should have a cooldown preventing it from being gifted again. It should be either till the end of season or 7 days whatever one is longer. That way they can still play if they won a card/someone is helping them out. While also reducing “abuse” to at least some degree.
Yes, agree for high level or maxed cards it makes absolutely no sense to take the 5% fee and with low level cards you can't climb the ladder of the leaderboard, but may get the daily boosters. I think of the role of a neutral market buyer who now can get a pig in a poke if such card is currently in cooldown. He don't cares about history of the seller, he just wanna get some working cards for battle.
While gifting a card with recent battle history should be in cooldown to prevent acc rotation because there is no 5% fee and risk of losing a card to another buyer or in other words punishment, but selling on the market, i don't see the reason for most cases. If someone is doing that, he pays high fees for a small chance to beat the Top10 which is ever changing or to get one booster a day for daily 5% or more fee, makes no sense at all in my eyes. The cut also goes to Steem Monsters, so no worries about because someone who tries that will pay more fees than he will get back.. at least in most cases i think.
I like the the more decision based gameplay of the future in terms of more fun and excitement to play, great and hope to see a better ranking point system without exaggeration like now.
i agree with this thread, as anewbie, to a game a few friends are passing me level 1 cards, if I mistakenly put 2 together, and one happans to be my summoner for earth splinter, guess what for a week my caed that is barely level 2 is locked out....THATS INSANE, ONLY CARDS OF A REASONABLE LEVEL SAY 4 FOR COMMONS, 4 FOR COMMON GOLD, 3 RARE, 2 FOR LRGENDARY AND EPIC SHOULD HAVE THE RESTRICTIONS...
AWESOME!!!!! INTERACTIVE GAMEPLAY. THANK YOUS!
Good job!
But i have a question:
What if i have a lvl 1 rexxi card that i played today and i trade it to an other Account. This account combines that lvl 1 rexxi with his lvl 3 rexxi to get lvl 4 rexxi. Can he play his lvl 4 rexxi in ranked battles ot has he to wait 7 days?
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When cards are combined, it is the highest level card that remains and the lower level ones are destroyed. So in your example, you would be able to play the level 4 Rexxie immediately since the level 3 Rexxie was the highest level card and that was not on cooldown.
Thank you for the explanation 😀
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great changes...
two more questions.
1.) What are champion points? how do you gain them and for what are they useful?
2.) There are rumors from Krakow that you are planing to implement a strategy game similar to warcraft or starcraft utilizing the cards? Can you give any comment on that?
Kind regards,
solarwarrior
That is a great move guys! Looking forward to these interactive battles :)
Awesome .. its great to see bots are being fought against even if they are not against the " rules " of the game.
I like all the changes but see some potential issues with the new match making system and being able to see who you face first. If we are matched with someone we know we aren't going to beat some may simply not pick a team or run down the timer causing longer waits then needed for the next game to take place for the other player. To avoid such waits I think a short as possible time limit for picking a team would be Ideal. 5 minutes is too long.
I like how you implemented the card cooldown without giving notice. I wonder how many farmers cards are now stuck in cooldown.
Great Job SM Team I look forward to seeing whats next.
Agreed 5 minutes is way too long. 1-2 mins max would be reasonable. 60 seconds ideal.
I think 2 minutes might even be too long. 60 seconds is plenty of time IMO.
Agreed!👍👍👍
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Thanks so much for this awesome update. @steemmonsters ! y only concern is that its going to take longer to play matches if you need to take 4 minutes say each time , to choose or change your team.I think one minute or less is plenty long enough , especially as most of us just play the same team over and over once we get the order figured out that we like!👍✌💕💁
EDIT IN: My son suggested to maybe have like a green light or check mark go on once your ready to play and your team has been chosen , so the other player knows your done. Then the battle can begin once both have check marked , instead of waiting the full 4 minutes or whatever.
I think the changes are quite successful congratulations, I leave a part of a post I did with some recommendations for steemmonster
I am not an expert in marketing or strategies for a collectible card game to be successful, but I am going to comment on what I have seen that has worked in other games and how I think the steemmonster tournaments should be.
The tournaments (beginners) for the first invoker levels (LVL 1 to LVL3): I consider that there should be no prizes in STEEM or SBD, only steemmonster packages.
The (amateur) tournaments for invoker levels (LVL 4 to LVL 6): I consider that the prizes should be half reinforcement packs and half in crypts.
Tournaments (experienced) for invoker levels (LVL 6 to LVL 8): I consider that the prizes should be half reinforcement packs and half in crypts, (only that the amount of reinforcement packs and the prize in crypts should be be considerably older than the amateur tournament).
These first three tournaments must have modest prizes
Quarterly tournaments, would be open tournaments (but would require to pay a certain amount of SBD or STEEM to enter) regardless of the level of invoker, these tournaments if they would offer prizes in STEEM and SBD and could also create a special card for participants and winners, but with a 1:10 ratio of the annual tournament in the total amount of the prize, suppose that the annual tournament has a pot of 15,000 SBD, the quarterly tournaments would have a prize of 1,500 SBD. In these tournaments you could play with special requirements such as that the team includes at least one gold monster or do not accept legendary, a tournament could be just common, in short everything that can occur to the creators of the game, Clearly they should announce the format well in advance.
Annual tournament, you should program the existence of some requirements to participate, but not levels in the summoners if not in the quality of the player, a requirement could be to have a minimum number of battles played or also have reached a minimum number in the classification throughout the year, this tournament should have a pretty big prize, it would be fantastic to see an ad that says (1 annual steemmonster tournament $ 25,000 in prizes), apart from having enough publicity on social networks so more people join to the game.
Thanks for the interesting updates I look forward to it, as long as the blockchain can keep up and not lag we should be good :)
Hey @steemmonsters do you guys mind if I translate this post to spanish on my blog?
Legends! That's what makes the game so good is that you respond to our concerns. Steem on!
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Exactly what I was looking for @steemmonsters, you guys are always on point. Let's make this the forever lasting blockchain game!
Overall... Awesome!
Yes yes yes!
This is rather lovely indeed. Resteemed. And we'll be talking about this today on the Steem Monster Show.
Wow, Great Effort! @steemmonsters. I liked all the updates and making the game more interactive. Thank You Steem Monsters.
I really thing that this is a wise decision and a very elegant way to achieve what is your goal without breaking with the fundamental rules of decentralization. I think especially the mode where you have to chose your cards for every single game will make botting a lot more difficult.
early squad
I must say I am happy to hear of the current updates but am more excited for the future updates as outlined above. Making the game more interactive is something I personally blog about and I know it is also well supported by the community.
Perfect! Now we have a fairer game and league. Glad to see the sm team responding to players' feedback and acting on them promptly.
I think this is great progress for the game. Before the various Daily Quests began, I was constantly playing my one strongest Team, over and over again. With the Quests, I've started expanding out and experimenting with Teams from the other Splinters. Now, with this new change, I will be forced to "mix it up" a lot more, as each battle will likely be with a different Splinter, forcing me to get used to different play styles for the various different Splinters. I think this is going to really improve the game a lot, and will definitely reduce gaming the system with bots.
🙚 SteemMonsters: • Site • Discord • Contest Kings
Although, I support the new modifications in all the law, I think the wait time is 7 days, I think they are taking into account the large number of people who make purchases and changes with great account management, but have thought about the that we are beginning that we bought a letter to be able to improve our performance? and that to use it and you notice you have to wait so long? @steemmonsters
why don't you add an option to move all of your cards at once? it is a horrible time waster to have to move one at a time.
Kudos for the "cooldown" mechanic... steem's delegation model has it for a good reason and swapping cards is basically almost like delegating monster-stake!
Also love the new concept for the Conflicts, not just in terms of reduced automation advantages but especially in terms of the gameplay challenge it adds.
That's a fair update
So exploiters will still get new packs? I have probably seen more than a hundred alt accounts with high level monsters passing by and crushing everything on auto. I don't think it is that hard to find out who is using this exploit through multiple accounts and limit their pack rewards. Greed should be punished, not rewarded.
Nice work guys, this will make things even better 👍
Changes are always good.
These are some awesome changes that you are going to be implementing. I like the idea of things being a little more skillful as opposed to choosing the latest meta and running with that. I still think diminishing returns on losing to the same person over and over again would be a good idea. The converse would be true as well. Diminishing returns for beating the same person over and over.
Good changes
QUESTION
Seeing that some people got 10-30k and it seemed very easy even without bots to get to champion league are you considering changing the point levels for the leagues? Or changing the reward... I don't think people are interested in buying packs when they can count on getting 30.
These are very good ideas, especially for the new fighting method. Thank you for your work!
right
These are great news. Adding the need to actually think before every match it's a great improvement, and reducing the exploitation will likely evolve to a lot more sustainable gameplay. Thank you for hearing the community, every more and more the game improves. Great job guys!
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