Steem Monsters - Some Weird Things That Happened to Me

in #steemmonsters5 years ago

I haven't been as active on Steemit this month, though I'm still playing Steem Monsters. Some rather curious things have happened in my battles, be it thanks to the game itself, or external factors, or my particular cases.

Battles behind the scenes

This month, I've managed to complete the daily quests and get one free booster pack every day... except one day when the server was having node problems, and lots of Steem Monsters transactions on the blockchain didn't go through (to those who were following the happenings, this was right when the developers were away at the Steemfest event). I tried many times, but more often than not, the game would fail to find an opponent for me and enter a battle. However, sometimes, a strange thing happened. Even though there was an error, a few minutes later, the battle logs would suddenly begin showing that the server had found me an opponent, a battle had taken place, and one of us had won! Battles I hadn't even know that had happened! I wonder whether my opponents had actually witnessed the battles and the errors had only happened to me...

People trying to lose!

Aiyumi VS. Smongo

Image source: screenshot of the battle replay on Steemmonsters.com

Have you ever seen a game where players deliberately lose ranked battles? Yes, Steem Monsters!

My battles from the daily quest managed to get me to the 1,000 rating range, and I started to run into people using only one card. Then, I gathered that they were trying to lose on purpose! The reason is that from 1,000 rating and up, we begin running into opponents with Common cards above level 3, and if we're trying to complete the daily quests and are forced to use our weaker cards, the only way to guarantee fair battles is to lose and drop to a league below 1,000 rating.

Even though I didn't run into many unfair battles this time, during the previous season, I accidentally got past the 1,000 rating. I began trying to lose, but it hadn't occurred to me to use just one "useless" card to make sure I would lose. Since I was losing a lot anyway, I just continued using my normal team. But it took a while. Each battle only dropped my rating by 2. And when I was just one battle from dropping below 1,000, my unlucky team would win and bump my rating up 20 points at once! It was so frustrating... now I know. Use only one "useless" card to avoid this risk!

Losing to the time limit

Recently, Steem Monsters updated the gameplay, and made it so that the battle rules and the Mana cap change every fight, we get matched against an opponent first, and only then we choose the cards to use. This makes the game more dynamic and harder for bots to abuse. However, there's a time limit when choosing the cards, and if the opponent chooses the cards but you don't manage to put your team together and click the "Battle!" button in time, you lose automatically. The previous teams used for that Mana cap and ruleset don't get saved anymore. We have to make a team from scratch every time. And this is my problem.

Those who've read my previous Steem Monsters posts probably know that I'm a blind person, and to interact with the computer, I rely on screen reader software (a program that speaks aloud all the text that appears on the screen). And as I've also written in my previous posts (like this one for example), the Steem Monsters website has accessibility issues, and screen readers don't get along very well with it. This includes the part where we must choose the cards before entering battles, where the cards can't be focused or selected from the keyboard and can only be chosen through mouse clicks. I have to do workarounds for my screen reader program to simulate mouse clicks on the cards I want. The problem is that, sometimes, I just can't get my screen reader to focus on the cards I want no matter what I do. And while I'm trying to do workarounds and simulate mouse clicks on my cards, the time is up and I lose the match before it has even started.

After this update, I get nervous every time I'm about to start a battle and have to choose my cards, worried that this problem might screw me over. It already happened a few times, and it's frustrating to be kicked out of the match because of this...

These frustrations and panicking aside, I'm still managing to complete the daily quests (thankfully), so I'm glad that at least this problem doesn't prevent me from playing the game entirely.

Knowing a pack's cards before opening it

Another oddity, also courtesy of my screen reader. This happens when I open a booster pack (the buttons to open packs have accessibility problems, by the way, and I have to do a workaround to simulate mouse clicks on them). When I simulate a click on "Open Now!" the cards inside the pack appear face down (it shouldn't be possible to know which characters they are), and we need to click on the cards to flip them and reveal the characters. However, the screen reader can tell me the cards' names even before I simulate a click to actually reveal them!

Cards face down on the pack opening screen

Image source: screenshot of the pack opening screen from Steemmonsters.com

When I took this screenshot, I had already known that the cards were: Flesh Golem, Divine Healer, Peaceful Giant, Centaur, and Enchanted Pixie.

This happens as a result of how the page is made. The cards are turned face down visually, but the text with their names is still on the screen (maybe it's hidden visually, but it's still there, in a way that the screen reader can find it). I think this may be sort of a bug...


And this is it for the weird things that happened to me in Steem Monsters, for now. Though something tells me that more is yet to come. And I say, keep them coming. Frustrating ones aside, the others can be quite amusing :P .

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This was really intressting. Never heard that someone blind play steemmonster before.
It was cool that you can read the cards before open them. But they have to fix that. Nice post !

Posted using Partiko Android

Yes. One could make a whole predictions video. "Look into my crystal ball, I will reveal the future of your new cards..." But it's Steem Monsters cards and the reveal is what cards they are before flipping them. Would be entertaining at the very least ;)

I got the timed out or never ending battle load waiting thing too. And players trying to lose lol I think, however, those might be kids who might not understand all the mechanics of the game. Because I saw one player appear again and then they had a proper deck and beat me. Unless, when it times out, it takes a random splinter and card and makes you look like someone trying to lose.

If ever I see a screenshot of anyone I know or of me, or if I see while playing someone I know, with just one card in play, I'll let that person know and I'll know it's gotta be a bug.

to play with one card is a good tactic. As the rules are now you really want to stay at low level.

Haha that's a good one. New Rule, lose the battle! Competing to lose is one tactic that would be interesting to see.

If their ratings were low, we could assume that they don't understand the game mechanics. But since those people's ratings were above 1,000, then they had won a lot of battles to get there and most likely know what they're doing.

This was before the update, though. Now, after the update, there's a much easier way to lose the match. Just surrender!

Hehe yeah. Although I do still see some people trying to lose with the one monster card in play. So it's still an occurrence. If their rating is high, then I wonder what makes it do that.

Maybe they were having a hard time deciding what cards to use and freaked out at the time limit or something?

Today I ran into another one of those players with only one Monster card, but the rating was low.

It's a mystery we'll have to solve ;) Now I'm curious to solve it. I might take notes lol

thank you.jpg
This was the most intresting post about steemmonster I have red for a long time. Thank you and you deserve my "Thank You" card. I will send a steemmonstercard too !
(sent from @fiftypercent)

I'm glad you found the post interesting. I wonder if there are other SM players that are also blind or have other disabilities. And yes, the "card names before opening the pack" bug needs to be fixed XD .

Thank you for the thankscard and the monstercard :D ! Crustacean King is one of the cards I use the most, too!

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