The Journey to Praetoria Begins!

"NEXT!" The irritated voice of a Chaos soldier spat out the order with contempt. Cruel eyes, studded armor of dark leather, and one gloved hand grasping the hilt of his blade a little too eagerly.

You glance at the line of people waiting behind you. Most of them you recognize as fellow Battle Mages, and like you, they decided to keep that particular fact a secret. To the casual eye, they appeared to be no more than farmers and merchants. After all, none of you can be sure that this is not some sort of trap.

You step forward.

Out of your peripheral vision, you can sense the soldier staring intently. However, it is a tall, robed figure that captures your attention. Dressed in dark crimson and a hood that shrouds her features, the woman has skin like ebony and eyes as piercing and bright as amethysts. “Prove your claim,” she says.

You retrieve a large, metal token from your satchel. The imprint of an exploration company on one side, the symbol of Praetoria on the other.

A string of hard syllables leave her lips, and suddenly the coin feels warm, almost hot to the touch. You almost drop it when the coin begins to glow, but within moments, the coin returns to normal. She steps aside and nods at the doorway behind her.

When you step inside, it takes a few seconds for your eyes to adjust. The interior is dark. The entire room is piled with stacks of books. The only sound is that of a quill scratching on parchment. A goblin sits behind a large desk. Flickering candles cast shadows like dancing spirits.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Do you want your land or not?”

You stare. You have waited a long time for this moment. It is almost surreal. “Yes. Yes, I would like my land.”

“Then let’s draft up the Deed, shall we? Praetoria awaits.”

Overview of the Map

Welcome to the first phase of the Splinterlands land expansion! In this first glimpse into the lands of Praetoria you will be able to finally redeem your land tokens in exchange for individual, unsurveyed land deed NFTs! The release of this feature is currently scheduled for Tuesday, December 13th, 2022, after the regularly scheduled maintenance is completed.

What is an unsurveyed deed? Well it is a guaranteed plot on the map of Praetoria. Each unsurveyed deed has a location in the world, this location includes the continent name, the territory name, the region number, the tract number, and the plot number. This location information will make up the unique identifier for the land deed NFT and it will look like the following:

PR-PNW-007-03-027

The above NFT represents plot number 27, in tract 3, of region 7, in the Pristine Northwest (PNW) territory and continent of Praetoria (PR).

In the next phase of the land expansion, expected out in early 2023, players will be able to survey their land deeds and find out the terrain type, rarity, resources, and special buildings available on their land.

Claiming your Deeds

Claiming land in Praetoria requires you to convert your existing REGION, TRACT or PLOT tokens into Unsurveyed Deeds. Claiming a region will yield 1,000 consecutive plots all contained in a single region, claiming a tract will yield 100 consecutive plots all contained in a single tract, and claiming a plot will, of course, claim a single plot.

Land claim redemption will start with region 001 in the Pristine Northwest (PNW) region of the map (shown above) and will continue in consecutive order with region 002 next, then 003, etc., through region 150.

When a REGION token is redeemed the algorithm will find the first completely empty region - one where no tracts or plots have been claimed - and mark it as claimed, generating 1,000 deeds in the process. When a TRACT token is redeemed, the algorithm will do a similar operation but instead find the first completely empty tract, marking all 100 plots claimed and generating deeds for them. Finally, when a PLOT token is redeemed then the algorithm will find and assign a deed for the first available plot.

Multiples of the same type of token may be redeemed in a single transaction. For example, if a player claims 50 PLOT tokens in a single transaction, then the next 50 available plot deeds will be assigned to them. If there are 50 plots available in the same tract and region, then the player's plots will all be together, however if only say 20 plots are left in the first region, then the first 20 deeds will be in that region and the next 30 will be in the next available region, which may be many regions away depending upon how many regions have been claimed in full via REGION token redemptions.

The land claim redemption screen will indicate which region, tract, and plot are the next available for claiming. This will help players anticipate where their claims will be on the map before they are redeemed, however it is not guaranteed as many players may submit redemptions at the same time and they will be processed in the order that they appear on the blockchain.

Please note that land deed NFTs will be eligible to receive SPS rewards just like the land claim tokens were, so there is no loss of rewards by redeeming claim tokens for deeds.

Finally, we want to let everyone know that there is no rush to redeem your land claims. We plan for land claims to be redeemable for deeds for at least one year from the date of the initial release. There is no advantage to redeeming your claims earlier or later, but it is required to redeem your claims in order to find out the location of your plots on the map and to survey your deeds once that feature becomes available.

Additionally please note that until the market for land deeds goes live (planned for early next year) there will be no place to buy/sell land deeds, whereas the unredeemed land claim tokens will still be available to trade on the non-card market, Hive Engine, and AtomicHub platforms.

Location and Terrain Types

As we have said many times before, we do not intend for location placement on the map to have any clear benefit as it relates to harvesting and crafting. For example, if your plot is located near the center of the continent or on the coast or in any particular territory, there are no plans to have that impact your productivity in any way.

Similarly, we do not expect there to be any advantage or disadvantage between the various natural geography terrains. All 14 geography types will be an equally necessary part of the overall land economy and the crafting of item and spell cards.

As you can probably tell from the map, certain parts of Praetoria may have more forests and other parts may have more swamps. No single Region will have all 14 geography types represented. This means that the plots within any particular Region will predominantly consist of a few primary terrain types, with other secondary terrain types appearing less frequently. For example, a Region (1000 plots) within a forested area of the continent will contain mostly forest plots, but will also contain a smaller amount of some other terrain types such as lakes, rivers, mountains, hills, etc.

For players who are contemplating whether it makes more sense to diversify or consolidate geography types, understand that we DO plan to introduce aspects of transportation and storage for resources that may make it advantageous for a single player to have plots within close proximity to one another and to focus on certain resources.

In addition, we intend to add market functionality to the game that allows for swapping and trading of harvested resources. The idea is that a player who has primarily forest plots and produces mostly Wood will be able to easily trade that Wood for any other resources that are needed (via the Markets). As such, they will have access to everything they need to be successful in building construction or item/spell crafting.

Currently, there is no clear benefit or reason to claim every Geography type or spread the location of your plots across the continent. However, everything is subject to change, and it is important to understand that much of the planning for the Land expansion is still being designed and developed. Regardless of whether you lean towards diversification or consolidation, know that we will always strive to maintain a sense of balance and accessibility so that all forms of gameplay remain as viable as possible.

Let the Land Rush Begin!

This upcoming release marks a major milestone for the Splinterlands game and community. It is the beginning of an exciting new phase for the game and the economy, and the Splinterlands team (many of whom are also land owners) are as excited about this as our players - if not more so!

The land expansion is now one of the absolute top priorities for the organization and we are working on planning out all of the future phases so that we can deliver realistic plans and release date estimates to our players.

The next few Land releases will add Deeds to the Market, improved Map View functionality, and the ability to Survey the Deeds you own (to reveal Geography, Type, Rarity, and Building options). These exciting features are already well underway and expected to be released in early 2023!

Stay tuned for more updates from the Splinterlands!

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