Check out the new SteemMonsters battling system. Much better than the old in my opinion and could be a bot beater !!!!!

A month or so ago I reached maverick status in SteemMonsters for purchasing more than 500 booster packs. This gave me access to the test server where upcoming changes are tried out before being implemented. For some reason I didn't use it until last week but so far I have been impressed with the changes to the battling system which are due to be rolled out soon. As those who play SteemMonsters a lot will be aware, last season there was an issue where greedy opportunists who care more about short term gain than anyone or anything else, took advantage of a loophole that allowed them to farm packs. It was possible to create multiple accounts and send cards between accounts, use a bot to battle and win 30 packs per account (at $2 per pack if they were to be purchased). If I owned a maxed deck for instance, I could have created 100 accounts, spent $1000 on starter packs ($10 each) and then transferred my max deck to each account, use a bot to battle until I had reached the 30 pack reward limit and then transfer the cards to the next account and repeat the process. At the end of the season I would have been awarded 3000 packs worth $6000 for a $1000 investment in starter packs.

As a result of this behavior a change was implemented about a week ago that added a cooldown period of 1 week to cards that had been transferred to other accounts so they could not be used in ranked battles until the cool down period had ended. This of course didn't do anything to combat bots who could play match after match 24 hours a day by submitting JSON requests directly to the blockchain. I believe that the new battling system I am testing now should stop this behavior or at least make it a bit more difficult.

Anyway, I'll stop babbling and get on with explaining what has changed.

So the new battling system. When you click battle in the new system unlike in the current system where you are taken straight into battle, in the new system, once an opponent is found you are presented with the following screen.

You can see that you are presented with the name of the player you will be facing, the last few splinters they have played, the rules of the game, mana cap and playable splinters. You then have three minutes to pick a team (or surrendering which will incur a loss).

Once you click the "Make Team" button you are taken to the following screen.

As you can see, you are provided with all the information you need to build your team (mana cap, game rules and active splinters) as well as the timer to show you how long you have left to build your team.

Once you've picked your team you click the "Battle" button

While you are waiting for the other player to pick their team you have the option to surrender.

Once the battle has loaded, things work the same as they did before in so far as you can watch the battle or skip to the result, slow it down, speed it up etc. The main difference to the battle screen is that you can see the game rules, mana cap and available splinters in the bottom left corner.

I got my ass kicked by @imperfect-one in that battle in case anyone is interested.

I am really enjoying the new way of battling and with the mana cap and game rules changing each battle it really makes you think about which teams you will field. As I said earlier, I think the changes I have highlighted should make it more difficult for bots to game the system but the greedy ones are probably already working on ways of getting around it. Par for the course I suppose.

Anyway that's it for now. I'm really looking forward to when these changes go live as I think it will benefit everyone but especially players who have taken the time to study the game and think about their teams.

Until the next time.

See you on the battlefield

If you have not yet started playing SteemMonsters, sign up using my affiliate link here. Let me know if you do and I will send you over a few cards.

Edited - I changed the first screenshot as the original was too small which explains why the name of the opponent is different between the start and the end of the post.