New week, new blog. This time I want to dive a little deeper into land: the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly.

If you’ve been following my blogs for a while, you know I spend way too much time on land. I track the market prices of resources, try to make sense of the different mechanics, and help others plan their land setups. It’s a rabbit hole I’ve happily fallen into, but like most things in Splinterlands, it comes with both promise and challenges.

The Good

Let’s start with the positives, there’s a lot to be excited about.

The big end goal of land is crafting items and spells that will directly influence battles. That alone is a game changer. Imagine preparing for a match and not just choosing archon and monsters, but also equipping unique spells and crafted items to swing the outcome. That’s where land is heading, and it’s a massive opportunity to tie together the economic side of the game with the competitive battle side.

The roadmap in the whitepaper lays it out clearly:

• Phase 1.0 – Claiming & Surveying (released Q1 2023)
• Phase 1.5 – Initial staking & production (released Q4 2023)
• Phase 2.0 – Full buildings & resource production (in progress now)
• Phase 3.0 – Item & Spell crafting (TBD)
• Phase 1.0.0 final – Items & Spells in battles (TBD)

We’re not there yet, but the vision is ambitious and meaningful. Land isn’t just a side game, it’s being built to integrate tightly with Splinterlands as a whole.

I love that. It makes my hours of planning and spreadsheeting feel worth it, because I know that eventually, all this effort will matter in the core game.

The Bad

That said, there are challenges.

The first one is complexity. Even at the current stage, I see newer players struggle to understand land production and resource flow. I sometimes help people with planning, and even then it’s a lot to wrap your head around (taxes/fees/boots etc). Once we add buildings, crafting, and more advanced mechanics, it’s going to get really complex.

Some people will love that depth (I admit, I’m one of them), but others may feel overwhelmed and turned off. The big question is how to keep land engaging without making it a chore.

The second concern is oversupply of resources. Right now, some resources simply don’t have enough use cases. We’re producing far more than we consume, which hurts the economy. If this isn’t addressed, it risks discouraging players who don’t see the value in what they’re producing.

I’m confident the team knows this, but it’s still something that weighs on my mind.

The Ugly

Now for the ugly part: research.

According to the flow chart, research was meant to be produced only by castles and keeps. Right now, though, everyone can produce it. That means whales have already stacked huge amounts, while smaller players are left wondering whether they should keep producing or not.

The problem is that we don’t know what research will unlock or how much it will be worth. It’s a gamble. Personally, I’ve set myself a goal of collecting around 30K research, 10K per region for me, and then stopping. Some days I wonder why I’m even collecting it.

The oversupply here is glaring. If the team simply makes future content ultra-expensive to burn through it, that could solve the oversupply issue short-term – but it also risks creating a barrier for new players trying to get into land. That’s the last thing we want.

This is where I’m most curious to see how the team responds. * Do they introduce new sinks? * Do they rebalance production? * Or is there some brilliant solution waiting to be revealed?

Right now, it’s a mystery, and that uncertainty is what makes this the “ugly” part of land for me.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I’m still bullish on land. The promise of item and spell crafting is too exciting to ignore, and I enjoy the challenge of figuring out the economy, even if it’s not always about chasing the highest ROI.

But I’d be lying if I said I had no concerns. Complexity, oversupply, and research are issues that need attention.

Splinterlands has surprised us before, and I believe there are still plenty of clever solutions out there waiting to be implemented.

So that’s my “good, bad, and ugly” take on land. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you see the same issues I do, or do you have a different perspective? And more importantly, do you see a concrete solution that the team could use?

That’s all for this week, signing off, see you all on the battlefield.

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