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This week in Splinterlands for the Community Engagement Challenge it's all about the newly added Training Mode. So I played some games and here is my experience with it...
What is Training Mode?
Training Mode: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly!
So I tried it out for 10+ Battles and this is my view on it right now which is kind of mixed because there are good and bad things.
The Good Things: To start off, I enjoyed playing this game mode choosing hard difficulty, at max level with all ghost cards available. I always spoke out that Splinterlands is just way too much a pay2win game along with the fact that the time requirements for players are just not realistic. This game mode fully solves these things as it puts you on a level playing field with the bots you play against in terms of cards that you can use and you are free to play at any given time without losing out on any rewards. In fact this game mode kind of lives totally outside of the economy as a single player experience. In fact, I would say it's more fund than ranked mode where you need to own a lot f cards as it provides a real challenge.
The Bad Things: One of the issues of Splinterlands remains that there are just too many cards in the game to choose from and a limited time to properly do so which provides some stress because it's just too much in a too short timeframe. So most of the time you end up with a very basic strategy based on the game rules often playing similar meta cards. This makes you miss out on many cards you simply aren't aware of and since the game rules dictate you strategy it's hard to specifically test certain dynamics and synergies you might look to test out.
The Ugly Things: (#1) This training mode kind of makes the entire economy redundant showing that things are actually more fun without it. New players would actually have way more fun to get into Splinterlands only playing this game mode learning all the cards and trying to beat the bots at hard difficulty instead of actually spending thousands of dollars to get a card collection and thousands of dollars buying SPS just to see the earnings not even cover the asset devaluation. (#2) Most human players simply are not able to compete with bots who have a way easier time to compile more optimal decks given the game rules. This is a curse in all games as Chess, Go, Poker are all pretty much solved and Splinterlands is no different. It makes me wonder how this can ever be truly fair especially when there is money involved.
Training Mode Examples!
To be honest, in most of the battles that I played, I simply lost without chance as I simply don't have enough knowledge on the newer cards who have some power creep in them. However, at times I do manage to win at Hard difficulty with the cards that I do know. these were some of the occasions
Battle #1 Low Mana Magic (Link)
As an older player I do very much know the power of the Archmage Summoner and the Ruler Of The Seas while the Shock Trooper as one of the new overpowered reward cards. This beat the choice of the bot to play also a good combination of cards.
Battle #2 Speed Death Deck Mirror Link)
This was actually a really interesting battle as the bot and I choose very similar strategies in a Death Speed deck which is one of my favorites to play. I opted for the Kitty summoner just to get some extra speed and heal. The Nightmare remains a great tank and the Carnage Titan I put in 2nd place followed by 3 monsters that buffed the speed in the Spirit Miner, the Boogeyman, The Supply Runner, & the Lira The Dark. This while my opponent opted for the Astral Entity Summoner, the Currupted Pegasus and reach monster which gave some heal and the Queen Of crows which is kind of unknown to me. I did have the speed edge and won the battle without losing a single monster.
Battle #3: Immunity Weapon Training Link
This was another really fun battle where I mainly looked for monsters with the immunity ability to counter the game rules while playing the double Weapon Training with the Tofu Summoner. this one I also took down fairly easily.
How To Fix Splinterlands!
Training mode perfectly shows what works and what doesn't in Splinterlands and a combination of this and ranked mode is needed to properly fix Splinterlands which has been broken for a long time now with no new players coming in. A game mode is needed where everyone plays at a level playing field (no bots allowed), where anyone can come in and play at the time they want without losing out on rewards. All this while players can't be overwhelmed by too much choice in cards and in a way where cards holders can easily get a passive rental return on the Max Level cards they own.
How To Do this? A Pay 2 Play game mode with packs as rewards making it an indirect way to buy them. A certain number of cards is given or drafted for players to play with which are provided by those who own them and lock them on land in return receiving part of the entry fees. Players face against opponents and rely on both some luck with the cards that they get and skill to win as many games as possible to receive rewards based on their performance at the end. This way new players have an affordable fun entry into Splinterlands playing at times they want while there is an incentive for card owners to combine to max level and provide the cards on land increasing the prices.
Conclusion!
Training mode actually is more fun than ranked mode which kind of breaks the entire game and economy more than it already was. At the same time the choice in cards is just too overwhelming and it's a massive challenge to actually beat the bots on hard mode unless you somehow get lucky or have a deep knowledge on Splinterlands as a game.
