In my previous post, I noted how I started using @Splintermate just a few hours in.
This post will just elaborate a bit further on expectations and considerations when using a bot service like Splintermate.
Historical, not Optimal
The first thing I always thought was that the bots are able to choose the maximum optimal team per ruleset with some consideration for countering the expected opposing team.
Now I don't know how the Spliterlands History API works but by the sound of it you would not be getting all the info you need to be able to build a proper counter in real-time.
So I will just assume the entire battle history of the chain is not being streamed and transformed by the bot itself and instead, it relies on what is available.
I think this broken API is a bot deterrent by Splinterlands, but obviously not for long since for the most part each one of these services would now be streaming the data and storing it for more and more information to be accessed at any given moment.
The final assumption then is the bot only knows the last 20 games of the person I am playing against.
That does not really sound good and becomes more apparent that decision-making cannot be on par with any adequate human player in the higher leagues since so many of the matches are by Bronze and Silver league players.
For those leagues, I would say jump right in and expect a better win rate that you probably might get yourself.
Gold or no Gold
Obviously I struggled a bit once I hit gold also so really the bot is not doing so bad given the cards I have but since I have higher expectations of bots than I do of people I will be a bit more critical than with some flesh monster.
The very first thing that irritated me a bit was the preference for playing a Level 2 Tarsa over a Level 4 Malric, a Level 2 Thaddius over a Level 5 Zintar and fuck knows why, choosing a Level 2 Kelya with almost non-existent water cards over a Level 4 fire and Level 5 death squad.
To be fair the latter only happened once but was definitely an indicator as to how much it tries to mimick other games.
The preference for Tara and Thaddius though made me delegate or rent out all my summoners that I do not want it to play. I was hoping it would get the message.
I said: "Botty, you leave those alone ok."
It said: "Hold my beer."
and proceeded to use Ghosts cards.
Notice how the match just before it was perfectly fine using my Malric Level 4... Dick move.
Not once but twice.
Malric Level 4 then Tarsa Ghost...
So I rented it the stupid modern summoners Level 5 and now it happily chugging along with Bronze inspired squads.
The more the merrier
I think the more it is playing the better it seems to be doing so I am not indicting the bot of being a bad service.
I will actually be looking at the cards it does like to play and seeing if I can upgrade them, the more I use it also there are definitely features I want more control over such as default team sets which is can choose over whatever the fuck it is choosing.
One of the biggest ruleset fails I noticed now is with Equalizer where it really likes to put Tusk the Wide in. So firstly it is 13 Health beast with no hitting power. Then it stacks more weak ass monsters behind it.
Literally, that team loses every time. So if I could override that team with a triple heal or double heal Earth squad or tiny monster killers life squad which will have triage and healing then the bot could at least stop losing one type of match.
To be fair I just don't think fire is a good squad in general. It needs speed or it needs to be a ruleset that benefits slow but hard.
Overall the bot has been catching up from the crappy start and went from a 9 win and 22 loss to a 30 win and 36 loss over the last day or so.
I will keep tweaking things as need, possibly forcing a higher winrate % requirement for team selection in Gold but the Bronze one, well it is chugging along nicely.
Going to grab that screenshot, I saw the bronze Tarsa also lost a equalizer match... Oh I wonder why...
FFS.
It would be nice to just override it, but oh well, it works well enough for now and can probably only get better.
Passive Earning
Both accounts only cost me 2HBD for the month, the Gold has made about 60+ cents in battle rewards per day so far and the Bronze one has gone from novice to earning in the last day for another 30 cents in battle rewards.
Bronze should be pushing it up as it becomes more stable and Gold also so we will say for both accounts just in battle rewards I can make basically a low estimate of 80 cents a day.
Chests are shit in general but they are a bonus so that would make it a $1 a day easy.
I don't really have to spend an hour of my own time or even 2 playing, so the bots with nuances and all are worth at least a therapist fee.