As I have now been playing "Splinterlands" (formerly called "Steem Monsters") and Drug Wars for several months, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM, (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Splinterlands + "Drugs Wars" player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky

1 ) I've made some good headway this week on putting the final touches on my strategy to be able to most accurately estimate the daily amount of DEC (also accounted for in USD) that I am earning daily. One thing I hadn't accounted for is the fluctuation in the capture rate, which can have a significant effect on the value of the daily DEC earning (when converted into USD). I devised the following template entries to amend to the daily activity log entries, and this is now producing an "accurate enough" estimation of the daily earnings:

Starting DEC : [the amount of DEC I start with upon waking and playing my first battle each day]
Starting Capture Rate : [ ~ [x]% - the starting capture rate before my first battle each day]
Ending DEC - [the amount of DEC I end with upon finishing playing my last battle each day]
Ending Capture rate : [ ~ [x]% - the final capture rate after my last battle each day]
Balance = [the difference between the day's starting and ending DEC balance]
Daily Earning = [the daily DEC balance converted into the Steem equivalent of that DEC balance, multiplied by the current rate of Steem/USD. This gives the amount of earning in terms of USD]

Notes : Any relevant notes which make the above calculations make more clear/proper sense.

Spent: the daily purchase I make with roughly the same amount of DEC which has been earned for the day. I try not to go over the daily balance. If I do go a few hundred DEC over I try to justify the extra expenditure (ex. "I used the leftover xx DEC from yesterday."). By doing this I am generally spending ONLY the daily DEC earnings, which helps give a better sense of earnings (input) versus output over time.

You can see the ACTUAL calculations for of my daily DEC earnings in the final "daily diary" section of this post. Consider that my capture rate remained significantly low this week, when you factor in the tournaments I placed in (and earned extra DEC), I think it is safe to say that I ultimately averaged close to $1.00 USD per day (give or take) over the span of the week. This is in line with my general intuitive prediction. I will continue keeping this record, and at the end of one month of keeping this more accurate record I will begin to decide on how much of the monthly DEC earning would be feasible to spend on another cryptocurrency (ex. Bitcoin, Tron, DOGE, etc), as well as which one(s) to buy with the one monthly purchase.

2 ) My activity on #DrugWars is primarily focused on "marketing analysis" of the game. That is, I am continuing my contribution of 500k of each resource per day, and one of the gang members has been doing some battles, the proceeds of which I have been using to increase my safe capacity, drug production, and fund my daily gang contribution, with the primary focus on withdrawing a few DWD (Drug Wars Dollars) into my @steem-engine account when there are some to withdraw. Drug Wars has simply failed to maintain my attention at this point, and I may even decide, in a few weeks, to take their name off the title of this post series in order to focus primarily on @splinterlands, and make Drug Wars, Prospectors, and any other games I explore SECONDARY to the main focus of this series (Splinterlands). I originally added Drug Wars to the title at a time when the future seemed more promising for the game, but my judgement tells me that this is no longer the case. Even with the new upgrades I think the game is ultimately best used as a marketing case study. I am ALSO getting a bit jaded with my "Prospectors" activity, since the hurdle of getting external crypto into that game is also significant, and my progress there is slow. I will continue analyzing, and doing minimum activity on BOTH of these games for at least another month, but ultimately my focus on these games is now taking a back seat to Splinterlands, which I believe is the one Steem-related game which has the MOST potential, and is MOST rewarding (in the sense of daily active play). It's easy to get Steem, Bitcoin, fiat, etc. INTO Splinterlands, and the active play of the game itself is exciting/dynamic enough to be called a proper "game". I am now playing Drug Wars and Prospectors as primarily "marketing analysis" case study games, unless/until they change their games to make them SIGNIFICANTLY more engaging. It's unfortunate that I have concluded this, but it's also important to be practical. It's a waste of time and energy to simply push buttons with no real sense of reward/progress. This is all I will say on the issue at this time. Maybe something will happen to change my mind. I will stay open to it for now.

3 ) Last week I reported that I had successfully created a TronLink account and withdrawn the payout of the previous post into that Tronlink wallet. HOWEVER, what we learned this week was that the TronWatch site decided to take down their TRX/DEC trading pair, and as a result of this I became a little bit weary of doing anything with Tron this week until there is another option to convert DEC into Tron (otherwise, it would be better to just keep the DEC in my in-game wallet, or @steem-engine wallet, or TronLink wallet (as "DEC"). The @splinterlands admin mentioned in a recent post that they are working on hooking up a different exchange to allow the same TRX/DEC trading which TronWatch offered until last week. In the meantime, I have decided that a better, more immediately useful way to use the Steem/DEC payout from this weeks post would be to buy some of the cards I have been prioritizing to upgrade, because those upgraded cards will enhance my success in battles immediately. So, the payout from the previous post has been ~ 15 Steem (plus 15 SP - which is not liquid), which I converted into 2,659 DEC, and bought the following cards (upgrades):

17 x "Feasting Seaweed" (non-gold - 2,253 DEC - to bump this card up to Level 6, and unlock the very powerful "scavenger" ability)

2 x "Failed Summoner" (non-gold) - 367 DEC

I will say that it is MUCH more enjoyable to "go shopping" for cards after a JUICY 15 Steem payout than it is to just buy one random pack (which will more than likely not have any especially good cards, will like cost MUCH more (2,000 DEC) than the value of the card in the pack, and less likely be the specific cards that I most need). That is, one pack contains just five cards. But as you can see from the above purchase, I was able to use around the same amount of DEC required to buy a new Untamed pack of five random cards to instead buy 19 specific cards which I actually most need for my specific battling strategy.

This strategy of buying additional cards with the weekly post payout of this series is actually a more immediately useful and gratifying task, since those cards generally give an immediate boost to my ability to win battles, which of course increases my DEC earnings. The good thing is that I have THREE ongoing weekly post series, and so I can experiment with which post payouts I can use to save in DEC, versus in Tron, versus buying cards. I will work on figuring out the best formula for this in the next few weeks. For THIS week, and likely next week, I will use this main post's payout to buy cards. I also want to see how many cards, in general, I can get from these payouts. It's also fun to "go shopping" for cards, especially with Steem/DEC I have earned from the hard work I put into creating these posts. In other words, I now have something more immediately gratifying to look forward to on payout day of each of these weekly posts.

4 ) In relation to the tragedy that occurred on December 28th, 2019 - when I deposited 0.03 Bitcoin into BitcoinVideoCasino.com , and the admin claimed that I bet the entire 0.03 BTC in the first hand after (they claim) the credit had been posted to my account - after over a week of debate on the issue on the BitcoinTalk forum (in which some members were supportive, while others accused me of "not taking responsiblity for clicking the "bet [0.03 BTC worth of credits]" button", I finally decided that the ONLY way to effectively PROVE the claim I am making would be to deposit more BTC into the game and document (via video screen capture) the entire process - beginning when the first transaction clears on Coinbase to when the "real" (non"test/free") credits show up in my account. So I decided that since I had won 0.01 BTC from this casino on the previous (successful) deposit BEFORE the incident in question, I would simply do ANOTHER 0.01 BTC deposit to be able to do the video capture, and if I lost that 0.01 BTC for any reason I would then at least be able to say that I ultimately properly lost the 0.03 BTC I am claiming to have now lost due to negligence. The two pieces of good news are that : ( 1 ) I indeed made a successful deposit of 0.01 BTC, and even won 0.007 BTC, and successfully withdrew ~ 0.0107 BTC, and ( 2 ) I did INDEED capture the deposit process on video capture (using Camstudio open source screen video capture software), and as I had suspected, the video capture INDEED shows that there is a "significant enough" GLITCH in their system to back my accusation. I think the best thing to do is simply let you readers view the actual video capture, which I have now uploaded to YouTube, so you can see (and decide) for yourself if I have a case:

Bitcoinvideocasino.com - Test Credit Versus Real Bitcoin Credit Deposit Documentation

You can see in the video (the relevant footage starts at [0:46] (as the conversion from the 4 GB .avi file to smaller .mp4 messed up the timing somehow - but all of the footage is correct after [0:46]) that the QUANTITY of my bet was adjusted (from .001 to .0001 - one decimal) to the "real credit" value (which means that if I had not intentionally decreased my "test credit" bet amount (to "1" instead of "10" test credits) then my bet would have included the ENTIRE amount of my deposit. You can see that ONLY AFTER I clicked "reload" to reload the page, did the proper notification menu come up, and the "real credits" show properly. My argument is that, for a "professional" casino that this operation claims to be there should be ABSOLUTELY ZERO chance that such a "glitch" should exist, let alone be allowed to CONTINUE to exist, since you can now see that I documented this in a SUBSEQUENT deposit on their site. In all honesty, I personally believe that this is an "intentional" glitch in their system, by which they can use "plausible deniability" to NOT have to reimburse players like me who lose their entire deposit "playing one hand". Unfortunately, the only options I have at this point are to continue sharing this documentation online to warn future players, and I have also decided that since their email support people (who are a joke) are not going to reimburse me, I would simply TAKE my BTC back on MY OWN TERMS. So what I did was make another deposit of 0.01 BTC one day this week, after which I won 0.01 and withdrew it, and then converted that 0.01 BTC into Steem (via @blocktrades) and then used that Steem to buy 40 more Untamed packs to add to my reserves (I now have ~ 410 packs (up from ~ 470), which I will continue to open within the current "two packs per day" strategy). Since I ultimately lost 0.06 BTC from the BitcoinVideoCasino.com (that is, 0.03 BTC from the "glitch", PLUS 0.03 BTC "chaser" (in another casino), I have now EARNED BACK 0.02 BTC of that 0.06 BTC, and so what I will likely do is deposit 0.01 BTC (to hopefully win 0.01 BTC once per week - at least until I earn the full 0.06 BTC back), and use the 0.01 BTC winning to buy 40 more Untamed packs. Of course, I am not CERTAIN that I can win each week, but this is my own little way of getting revenge for (what I believe was) being wronged. It's obvious that no one else will assist, so I will do it onmy own. It's also a way for me to play blackjack, which I enjoy doing, and also do some more research on blockchain gambling for my series posts. The other option is to just lose that full 0.06 BTC in such a terrible manner, which just doesn't sit well with me. Perhaps I can win 0.01 BTC from this casino every week for the next year, and really let them have it ;->. If nothing else, it's a way to continue building my Untamed pack reserves so I will always have plenty of packs to open. I think this is a healthy way to look at an overall bad situation.

5 ) Okay. As I did in the previous posts in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #steemmonsters / #splinterlands activity is laid out in the last part of this post, for those of you who are inclined to follow, more closely, what I am doing. It occurred to me that this "diary" section is JUST THAT - a highly detailed record of my daily activity in the game, with some JUICY "play-by-play" analysis notes, and commentary, on what works, what doesn't, and some suggestions for further tweaking and experimentation. So, with this in mind, I hope some/any of you will enjoy this information. If not, you are under no pressure to read it fully, and are free to SKIM, or even IGNORE, any parts, or ALL parts, completely - at your discretion. I lay this out because it also HELPS ME to document my progress in the game over time, for future reference, and may help some people NOW, and into the perpetual future...

January 6th, 2020

Starting : 6,101 DEC (started at a low capture rate of ~ 52.5%).
Ending : 6,678 DEC (ended at ~ 60% capture rate)
Balance - 577 DEC (not playing as much as I would have liked today, in combination with low capture rate, resulted in overall low daily DEC earning. But since I wanted to maintain my regular daily card purchase amount I used some of my DEC reserves in addition to the 577 DEC to buy two "Khmer Princess" (non-gold) cards for 1,038 DEC) to bump that card up to Level 5 and unlock the valuable "Tank Heal" ability.

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 170 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - 510 DEC
nonkeepers - 105 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

January 7th, 2020

Starting DEC : 5,641 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 65%
Ending DEC - 8,214 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 43%
Balance = 8,214 - 5641 = 2,573 DEC
Daily Earning = 2,573 DEC = 16.00 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $1.92 USD

Spent:
1,204 DEC on "Gremlin Blaster" (non-gold - to bump him up to Level 5 and unlock the "Stun" ability)
926 DEC on "Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - two more gold cards to o to reach Level 6 and unleash the powerful "Shatter" ability). This is a very powerful and useful card.

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - 240 DEC
nonkeepers - 90 DEC

Tournament Win - 1,500 DEC
Placed 9th in the "The Golden Rule (Broze)" tournament this evening, which provided a JUICY boost of DEC for the day.
https://steemmonsters.com/?p=tournament&id=105e4d5df815051b43651720527c0eeb75c600c2

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - "Sniping Narwhal" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.71 USD - 500 DEC) + 70 DEC
Total = 570 DEC

January 8th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,082 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 51%
Ending DEC - 6815 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 47% %
Balance = - = 733 DEC
Daily Earning = 733 DEC = 4.33 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $0.52 USD
Notes : Was NOT able to finish the daily quest before bedtime, so intend to do two daily quests tomorrow

Spent: Bout 1 x "Goblin Thief" (Gold - 991 DEC (which includes the 733 DEC earnings from today, PLUS the few hundred extra I didn't spend from yesterday's earnings)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Diamond III" level for the season - + 10 season reward cards)
keepers - 80 DEC

Untamed (Pack #3 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

January 9th, 2020

Starting DEC : 5,824 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 46.75%
Ending DEC - 6,974 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 43.22 %
Balance = 1,150 DEC

Daily Earning = 1,150 DEC = 6.90 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $0.83 USD

Notes : Was NOT able to finish the daily quest before bedtime, so intend to do two daily quests tomorrow. Also, got a payout of ~ 2.6 Steem from a Steemit post, and converted that 2.6 Steem to 446 DEC.

Spent: bought "Goblin Thief" (Gold - 962 DEC - to bump up to Level 6, and unlock the "Shatter" ability)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (from YESTERDAY'S "fire" quest which was especially challenging, and took an especially long time to complete)
keepers - 240 DEC
nonkeepers - 120 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

January 10th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,011 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 46.75%
Ending DEC - 6,619 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 50.48 %
Balance = 608 DEC
Daily Earning = 608 DEC = 3.56 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $0.43 USD

Spent: 1 x "Giant Squid" (non-gold - 248 DEC - to bump him up to Level 4 and unleash the "blind ability") + 3 x "Magma Troll" (non-gold - 118 DEC) - to bump him up to Level 5) + 4 x "Biceratops" (non-gold - 130 DEC - to bump him to Level 5) + 2 x "Goblin Thief" (non-gold - 134 DEC) = 630 DEC

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - "Living Lava" (Gold - Level 2 - $1.87 USD - 2,000 DEC) + 40 DEC
Total = 2,040 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (from YESTERDAY'S "death" quest which I didn't have enough time/energy to complete yesterday),
keepers - "Exploding Dwarf" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.61 USD - 750 DEC) + 270 DEC
nonkeepers - 60 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (today's "water" quest),
keepers - 120 DEC
nonkeepers - 105 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 140 DEC

January 11th, 2020

Starting DEC : 5,954 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 60.86%
Ending DEC - 6,690 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 63.04 %
Balance = 736 DEC
Daily Earning = 736 DEC = 4.382 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $0.53 USD

Spent:
1 x "Serpent Of The Eld" (non-gold - 179 DEC - bumped up to Level 3),
3 x "Failed Summoner" (non-gold - 557 DEC)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - "Gloridax Magus" (non-gold (legendary) - $2.64 USD - 1,000 DEC) + 100 DEC
Total = 1,100 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (today's "water" quest),
keepers - "Ettin Spearman" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.58 USD - 750 DEC) + 150 DEC
nonkeepers - 180 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

January 12th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,018 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 76.09%
Ending DEC - 6,509 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 87.70 %
Balance = 491 DEC
Daily Earning = 491 DEC = ~ 2.9 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $0.35 USD

Spent:
4 x "Feasting Seaweed" (non-gold) - 488 DEC (need 18 more cards to bump this guy up to Level 6 and unlock the powerful "scavenge" ability)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - 550 DEC
nonkeepers - 135 DEC

Untamed (Pack #1 : evening pack)
keepers - 110 DEC

January 13th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,018 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 85.67%
Ending DEC - 6,828 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 76.08 %
Balance = 810 DEC
Daily Earning = 810 DEC = ~ 4.527 Steem x ~ $0.12 USD/Steem = ~ $0.54 USD

Spent:

4 x "Failed Summoner" (non-gold - 738 DEC - to bump him up to Level 5, giving him one extra health point)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Diamond II" level for the season - + 10 season reward cards ( 50 total season cards)
keepers - 80 DEC

Untamed (Pack #3 : evening pack)
keepers - "The Vigilator" (non-gold - Level 1 - $4.17 USD - 1,000 DEC) + 40 DEC
Total = 1,040 DEC

January 14th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,091 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 76.30%
Ending DEC - 6,789 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 86.00 %
Balance = 698 DEC
Daily Earning = 698 DEC = ~ 3.673 Steem x ~ $0.144 USD/Steem = ~ $0.52 USD

Notes : The price of Stem jumped up over 10% today, so this means my daily income (in USD) went up a nice amount. This is an important factor to consider going forward, as in if/when the price of Steem goes back up to previous high levels of $1.00 + USD.

Spent:

4 x "Albatrz" (non-gold - Level 1 - 608 DEC - working daily buy the additional 34 cards needed to bump this card up to Level 6 and unleash the powerful "tank heal" ability.

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (this is from YESTERDAY'S "complete one tournament battle" quest, since there were not tournaments available yesterday)
keepers - "Goblin Mech" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.81 USD - 750 DEC), "Zalran Efreet" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.43 USD - 1,500 DEC) + 90 DEC
nonkeepers - 795 DEC

Daily Quest - didn't have time to do the quest today. Will finish it tomorrow morning.)

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - "Phantom Of The Abyss" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $3.15 USD 1,000 DEC) + 70 DEC
Total = 1,070 DEC

January 15th, 2020

Starting DEC : 6,180 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 93.12%
Ending DEC - 7,526 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 68.69 %
Balance = 1,346 DEC
Daily Earning = 1,346 DEC = ~ 6.402 Steem x ~ $0.14 USD/Steem = ~ $0.90 USD

Notes : Nice DEC income today due to the new season reward cards, and higher capture rate.

Spent:

4 X "Dark Astronomer" (non-gold - 457 DEC - to get this card up to Level 4 and unlock the "shatter" ability)

5 x "Albatros" (non-gold - 802 DEC - still steadily working to buy the remaining 27 cards to get this guy up to Level 6 and unlock the "tank heal" ability)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 110 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (this is from yesterday's "death" quest, which I completed this morning, four hours before the season's end)
keepers - "Screeching Vulture" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.73 USD - 750 DEC) + 210 DEC
nonkeepers - 75 DEC

Season Rewards Cards (50 cards)
keepers - "Goblin Mech" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.69 USD - 750 DEC) + 585 DEC
non-keepers- 375 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : celebration pack completing first battle of the season season - + 26 season reward cards ( starting new season at "Gold III" level)
keepers - "Kobalt Bruiser" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.43 USD - 50 DEC) + 70 DEC
Total = 120 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards (today's "water" quest (in new season))
keepers- 465 DEC
nonkeepers - 75 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Whew! These posts are growing dense - but that's okay. Take what resonates with you,and leave the rest. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the SteemMonsters (Splinterlands) and/or Drug Wars, and/or "Prospectors, and/or any other game(s) - and the " blockchain gaming " industry as whole - which I end up exploring as this series evolves. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I dig deeper into this whole REVOLUTIONARY PHENOMENON, and become more experienced and successful in the game(s).

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky