Yesterday, there was a healthy discussion in the Mavericks Channel about a new way forward with Steem Monsters and specifically the daily rewards. It started with my suggestion to scrap daily quest rewards and introduce a new ticketing system instead.
To my delight the idea was met with some positive feedback so I thought I'd detail it fully here.
The Problem
We are still bleeding too many reward cards and the current system allows bots to farm cards on a daily basis.
There's also another underlying problem in that it's not actually that much FUN to grind your way through daily quests either.
The Assumptions
Bot owner are in this for the rewards only and if grinding get's too hard with no daily rewards they will quit boting. If the bot owners are in this to destroy the game, then this system will not work, as they will continue to disrupt the regular season too.
Automated Tournaments are flexible and completed.
We have an active player base to support this proposal.
The Proposal
Scraping The Rewards
It sounds harsh I know, but instead of grinding a daily quest to receive reward card you would receive a ticket to a rewards tournament instead. These tickets would be none transferable, and could be used almost immediately or saved for a future date.
These Rewards Tournaments would be specially created 'automated events' held on a regular basis (enough to support the current player base), and would actually be the delivery method for receiving card rewards.
Yes, there is one more hurdle you'll need to jump through to get those AWESOME Steem Monster Reward Cards.
And sure the bot owners could still farm tickets, but they will have to actually play some games to win rewards. This could be time consuming for large bot farms. ( The notion behind bot farming is you don't need to spend time grinding as the bot just keeps trying until it wins)
The Tickets
The tickets are none transferable, but have an unlimited lifespan.
And the tickets themselves can actually be a special non-transferable Steem Monster Card so they can appear in your collection and can be used as tournament entry utilizing the already proposed entry fee system for Automated Tournaments.
The Tournaments
For this system to work the Reward Tournaments will need to be held on a regular basis. And , ideally you'll want every tournament to be full, to ensure reward cards are distributed as intended.
I propose a 16 player tournament to begin with, run at 4-6 hour intervals, which could be expanded to 32 players as the player base grows or even held more regularly, like every hour.
The Reward Card Tournaments would be Single Elimination and payouts to top 16. So you only need to prove you are worthy of reward cards by winning at least one more game.
As you progress through the tournament, the chances of earning greater rewards are improved, and create incentive to get better at playing Steem Monsters.
It's expected these automated tournaments would take less than 30 minutes to complete, and would actually help improve the players overall skill level overtime.
This would also be the first introduction to the Steem Monsters Tournament System, where more lucrative prizes can be earned.
The payout structure would be as follows...
The Payout Structure
Ideally we want to decrease the amount of rewards cards distributed through the Steem Monsters ecosystem, to help maintain value for reward cards overtime.
I will work through examples of each league quest payout to ensure the math works out.
Bronze League
Current Payout: 16 players @1 card per quest = 16 reward cards (per 16 players)
Proposed Bronze Reward Tournament Payout: (16 player) = 16 reward cards (saving 0 cards per 16 players)
1st - 5
2nd - 3
3rd - 2
4th - 2
5th - 1
6th - 1
7th - 1
8th - 1
Silver League
Current Payout: 16 players @2-4 card per quest = 32+48+64 / = 144 reward cards (per 16 players)
Proposed Silver Reward Tournament Payout: (16 player) = 57 reward cards (saving 87 cards per 16 players)
1st - 15
2nd - 10
3rd - 8
4th - 8
5th - 4
6th - 4
7th - 4
8th - 4
Gold League
Current Payout: 16 players @6-8 card per quest = 96+112+128 / 3 = 122 reward cards (average per 16 players)
Proposed Gold Reward Tournament Payout: (16 player) = 75 reward cards (saving 47 cards per 16 players)
1st - 20
2nd - 15
3rd - 10
4th - 10
5th - 5
6th - 5
7th - 5
8th - 5
Diamond League
Current Payout: 16 players @10-14 card per quest = 160+192+224 /3 = 192 reward cards (average per 16 players)
Proposed Diamond Reward Tournament Payout: (16 player) = 130 reward cards (saving 62 cards per 16 players)
1st - 35
2nd - 25
3rd - 15
4th - 15
5th - 10
6th - 10
7th - 10
8th - 10
Champion League
Current Payout: 16 players @16-20 card per quest = 256+288+320 /3 = 288 reward cards (average per 16 players)
Proposed Diamond Reward Tournament Payout: (16 player) = 190 reward cards (saving 98 cards per 16 players)
1st - 45
2nd - 35
3rd - 25
4th - 25
5th - 15
6th - 15
7th - 15
8th - 15
I believe these payout structure would both incentivize playing to win and at the same time reducing the reward cards bleeding through the system by around 30%. (With the exception of Bronze League, which maintains it's bleed rate of 1 card per player)
The Discussion
So now it's over to you.
Do you like this proposal and would it benefit the long term future of the game?
I believe this idea further reduces the reward card quest distribution by about 30% and de-incentivizes bots to farm rewards. (Farming tickets might still be a thing, but the account owner will need to compete in a player vs player run tournament to secure rewards.)
And I would appreciate comments from the founders 
My intention is to improve the overall 'game' play of Steem Monsters while maintaining overall card values for investors.
I imagine to further reduce bot involvement we could create a blacklist of bot accounts and provide strategy guides for noobs, to beat the standard decks they play. The Steem Monsters battle interface could even identify the bot accounts on the blacklist during the match-up and provide an an information icon linking to the bot strategy guide.
NB: There was also another discussion relating to changes to the season structure too, but I will outline those suggestions in another post, if someone hasn't done so already.
And I'll leave you with this thought.
"We are all heading to the same Moon" - Aggroed