I was there witness many of the milestones of @splinterlands and many other HIVE projects. Land 1.5 release is one of them. It was a long wait to see everything finally come alive. I had to make up time and postpone some things IRL to get into action as soon as Praetoria was made ready to produce assets. I have already written a tutorial based on Maverick's Server experience. If you had read it, you should have been able to manage Land 1.5 release without trouble.
Preparations for The First Day
As I told @achim03, there are many things I could have done better. I could have done a better job calculating the statistics and costs. If I had analyzed Praetoria launch better, I would have unstaked SPS a week ago. Now I am late to the party. There are diminishing returns for additional effort and I took the route of giving 20% of 80% of results. I am both paying for that decision and earning from it.
The Start of Praetoria Gameplay
I made sure to make a Thread to make sure other users are aware of the release. There were many players eagerly waiting for this moment for over 2 years that involved a very difficult bear market. There were may hours of waiting after the game went into maintenance mode. The browser showed a notification to refresh the page after few hours. I only created a loop.
I started with Hamford Region in Great Lowlands because it was a Rare Occupied Plot. The probability of finding such a Plot in a Survey is 0.6% and I am very blessed to have two of them. I used my only rare Totem to ensure the highest Production Points for the first Plot I start working on.
Make Sure to Buy Grain and Stake DEC
Grain is needed when Harvesting Rewards. DEC is needed to produce the Rewards. First take care of the DEC and then focus on Grain. If you have high rarity Natural Plots, consider using one of them to produce Grain. It will save you the 1 DEC per Grain cost. Grain and DEC Stake is separate for each Region. That is the way the game has been designed. I don't know what the future plans hold. I trust the judgement of @splinterlands developers. They made the biggest blockchain game on a blockchain that does not even have smart contracts.
Pandon Reach is a Great Community
I mainly joined because of @ecoinstant (he has some of the best content I have read on HIVE). Joining Roaring Twenties when Guilds first released was one of the best decions I made while playing @splinterlands. Community could play an important but nit compulsory factor in the future. It is best to be around some friends with similar values.
If you would like to join, you will have to exchange a Natural Plot you have to one in Pandon Reach. Other arrangements might be possible if you talk to @ecoinstant. Despite having 6 better Plots, I have decided to use some of the stronger Cards I have on Pandon Reach.
Half a Day Later
I was very happy to see the results. I was not surprised because I have Maverick's Server access to get a sneak peak into the gameplay. The best part is the SPS Rewards and I expect these to get lower as more Land is used as Shard Mines.
Press the Harvest button and you will be greeted to the screen to claim the Rewards. This is a very easy process and obvious process to anyone who has used DeFi for a while.
Claimed SPS is added to Land Rewards section of SPS Dashboard. This means the SPS will be Powered Up when they are claimed. It creates a friction point that can contribute to lower the liquid supply. I consider this to be good Tokenomics decision.
Grain Farm is Not That Different
The UI/UX has a good design and once all the parts have been explored, managing Land becomes an easy process. The difficulty may change for the Whales. Most of my readers are not Whales and Whales would not mind spending extra effort on managing their investment.
Overview of The First Few Hours
Removed Liquidity from Diesel Pools
After seeing the results of the first few hours (especially knowing that SPS Rewards are likely to be lower), I decided to double down on Praetoria. Unstaking the little I had in Diesel Pools was only part of it. I sold most of the liquid assets I held on HIVE, including $LEO. My 15,000 LEO goals will take a slightly longer to achieve, but I will be able to join LPUD on 15th of December.
Utilizing a Third Plot
I have already used up many of my best Cards that are not being regularly used in Battles. I may have to start canceling some Rentals to free up some high value Cards to be used within Praetoria.
This is one of the 3 Occupied Plots I own. I will eventually get to to the Occupied Common Plot and the two Magical Plots when I have more DEC from selling more cryptocurrency.
Unstaking 50% of SPS for 1 Week
In other words, I am aiming to sell upto 12.5% of my SPS stake and I want to do it fast. I will need to buy Power Cores, Grain and mainly DEC to Stake. SPS earnings will keep getting Staked and I will manage my Stake above 100K SPS.
I have written a lot today with many screenshots to look at. I do not want to overwhelm you any further. Let the information sink in and if possible, improve your gameplay with this knowledge. If you have your insights to share, I will love to see them in the comments.