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After playing splinterlands for half a year there are a couple of suggestions that I can make. I don't consider any of these as major changes, but rather as quick wins.
1. Skip to fatigue
After playing 5404 battles, I can safely say that I have played a lot of games that led to fatigue. Especially when you like to play with byzantine kitty and the cube you will often reach fatigue.
The problem here is, that it is often pretty early in the game that you realize it's a draw until fatigue kicks in. It can still take a very long time before you actually get to that point, even at x3 speed. Often I will skip the battle, even though I'm actually curious to see how it will end.
Solutions can be a simple button where you can skip to round 20 (where fatigue hits in) or have a game battle "player" (like a youtube video). The first solution should be very low effort, but the second one would be better also for rewatching/sharing battles.
2. Use different version of a card
Okay, let's say I own a level 1 sandworm and a level 10 sandworm, I own both cards, so why should it not be possible to select the actual card (=level) that I want to use.
It's something that I have never understood, it's pretty annoying in terms of gameplay. I'm not sure if this was a conscious decision, but I find that hard to imagine.
3. See summoner information during the battle
It's a bit annoying that a player cannot see what abilities a summoner has/gives. It's a small change that would help newer players a lot to develop and get a better understanding of the game.
4. Add DEC card value information in-game
This may seem like something small, but I actually think this is the most asked question in the strat-chat of the splinterlands discord.
I do agree that this concept is good, but poorly explained. There are better ways to add this information in-game (show the dec-burn value per card when scouting cards in the market, add a dec-burn filter, add an explanation about how the dec-burn is calculated...). However, a simple start would be to show the dec per card chart somewhere in-game.
5. Allow browsing while waiting for a game
A large portion of my time in splinterlands is looking at loading screens. It's not that bad that we have to wait once in a while, however, it is a shame that the UI is completely blocked when this is happening. Even when I open splinterlands in a new tab, it's impossible to go to the market for example.
It would be a huge win in terms of user experience if we could simply browse while waiting for a battle.
6. Allow going back in lineup selection
Another somewhat weird thing is that a player cannot go back to the previous screen when he is selecting the lineup. The problem here is that there is crucial information about your enemy that you can only consult on that previous page.
A manual refresh is the only way to get to that information, but than you lose your selected lineup.
7. Add a "my explorer"
Again, the discord is filled with messages like "I didn't get my rewards?" "Did I receive my gift card?", etc. What I always do is redirect them to the "my explorer" tab on peakmonsters.
However, I feel like this is something that should be included in the main game. It's simply so confusing for beginners if they don't get this kind of information.
8. Redesign
Okay, this one might not be something that you can define as a "quick win", but let me at least explain my point.
When designing a website/app/product a very important factor is the first impression. This first impression will make visitors believe that the product is of high-quality, without digging much deeper.
To be honest, Splinterlands has a bit of a cluncky UI at the moment. The design choices are not really the most modern, but that in itself isn't wrong. The "problem" is that there are multiple design mistakes.
Some images/icons are low quality, multiple image transitions make the site look too crowded and busy and UI components are not always consistent.
I don't think I need to explain this any further with screenshots and such as I do think most readers will understand what I'm talking about.
I would think that if splinterlands works on that "first impression", more spellbooks would be sold and the playerbase would grow even faster. (but maybe that's not exactly what we need right now 😅)
Final words
The core of the game is absolutely fantastic and I'm looking forward to see the game develops more and more. Also the planned updates like the land expansions really get me excited.
However, I do think there should be a healthy balance between working on what exists now (in terms of user experience and overall quality) and creating new functionality. In my opinion, Splinterlands is currently focusing a bit too much on the latter.
Don't get me wrong, the dev team is doing a great job and this should not be interpreted as anything else then personal and constructive feedback.
Please share your opinions if you have them in the comments below!
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