It's been a while since an update

Well... it's been a while since I've told you guys about any updates anyway... so here goes:

First up, apologies for the radio silence... I've been very busy with a new game for STEEM where you'll be able to grow & sell weed. No... it's nothing like DrugWars (except of course that you're dealing with digital drugs). Now as I may have mentioned in the past, I'm more of a "retired developer" and having never dealt with some of the newer technologies it takes me a lot longer to figure things out.

Anyway... enough excuses. Go give @HashKings a follow and be the first to know as soon as we're ready to launch the game. P.S. We are "very close" now :-)

Enough of the drugs.... let's gamble!

So... what's changed in the world of PlayDice?

Bid Bots

I've always used the "penny bots" like @drotto etc. to give each game a tiny boost, but I've recently started taking it a bit further and added more bots & "programmes" to the mix. These bots are funded by my @BraaiBoy account, but wouldn't it be cool if @PlayDice was actually able to fund this itself? ;-)
Please read the end of this article for ways you can help make that happen.

Those Damn RCs!!!

Pre-HF20 the @PlayDice account had more than enough resources (bandwidth) to post the games, update them AND process the payouts... This was triggered manually (so that I could keep an eye that things were 100% bug-free) - I was just about to automate it, when along came HF20. Post-HF20 the account barely had enough RCs (Resource Credits) to post and update the game itself. So now payouts are still triggered by a manual script, and the transfers themselves are done either by the @IncuBot account or by my main @BraaiBoy account. However, that wastes RCs on @BraaiBoy which I need to claim Steemit Accounts.
More on this and how I would LOVE to fully automate, so Please read the end of this article for ways you can help make that happen.

Liquid Rewards: SBD vs STEEM

Speaking of payouts: The Steem blockchain has started printing SBD again, and as soon as the value of SBD rewards is larger than STEEM rewards, I'll switch to payouts in SBD (and vice versa). In the past, I would then use the smaller liquid (SBD or STEEM) to reward the most loyal players every week with SBI shares... instead I've started an experiment to push that into random games that are +/- 3 days old via buying votes from @MinnowBooster (when we have spare SBD) and @PostPromoter (when we have spare STEEM). i.e. 3 or 4 games each day will see a random boost to their payouts after 3 days. Depending on the SBD print-rate, this could literally double or even triple the pot.

I started this yesterday and will (probably) choose the "tough games" first in future as well.
e.g. https://steemit.com/games/@playdice/20190215213013346-diceroll

• @eii was only winner in this game and will therefore scores and extra 0.2SBD just for winning that one game.
  The other two games I boosted were the 2 immediately prior to that one:
  https://steemit.com/games/@playdice/20190215190013341-diceroll
  https://steemit.com/games/@playdice/20190215163013334-diceroll

Boosts will be more random than that in future when I'm not lazy/pressed for time :P

Anyway... Enjoy the extra free winnings folks... You can thank me later ;-)

img source: unknown (i.e. WhatsApp)

OK, so how can YOU help smooth over the BidBot and RC issues for @BraaiBoy?

Hell, even if you can't help, just ReSteem this post and maybe you have someone that follows you that can! THAT in itself would be cool enough!

But... on to some things that YOU can do:

BidBots:

Like I said, I'm sending STEEM to some bid-bots to boost the payout pool already:

That comes up to about 12 STEEM per month.
Then I've also subscribed @PlayDice to bots like @CryptoWithinCin for ~5 STEEM per month... and randomly send @SteemBasicIncome and @IncinBoost shares to PlayDice when I have a few Steem spare lying around.
Long story short: I'm in for +/- 30 Steem per month and +/- 15 Steem for hosting fees.

NB: I'm easily covering this through my @BraaiBoy & @IncuBot accounts, and see @PlayDice (and a lot more games I have planned) as a long-term project, so I'm gladly funding this and won't take it personally if you ignore this whole post and just carry on as before... but imagine how much MORE... and sooner we can do if @PlayDice was self-sustaining... I have pages and pages of ideas to make @PlayDice better (and more profitable for the players).

How can you help?

1. Upvote the winners announcement comment on every game (hell, even if you only do it when you win, it would make a difference).
   I'm talking about these post comments:
   

2. Send @PlayDice some @SteemBasicIncome / @IncinBoost / @MinnowVotes Shares
   You need to nominate someone anyway to get a share for yourself in these programmes... why not make that someone @PlayDice... it's a win-win really ;-)

RCs

I've got MORE THAN ENOUGH RCs on @BraaiBoy to comfortably make the transfers when @IncuBot runs low every 10-15 days or so... so no panic that we'll have a situation where you won't get paid... BUT, I would REALLY want to keep those RCs for claiming Steem Accounts, which I then convert into new accounts for users that I personally invite and onboard to Steem. I've got a dozen or so folks onboard like this already... some of them are still posting daily, others need a kick in the shins every now and then... but the point is that it's working, and slowly but surely I'll have the entire Pretoria (Capital of South Africa... the city where I live) on the Steem Blockchain. More users = more demand, more demand = higher Steem price, higher Steem price = You, Me and everyone on Steem winning!!!

So how do I save on RCs?

1. Weekly payouts

If I accumulate player winnings for a week, and only make 1 transfer to each player for a week's winnings, instead of a transfer for every game played == RC PROBLEM SOLVED! How do YOU help? I mentioned earlier that I'm busy writing the @HashKings game and that's eating up ALL my spare time :-( ... also I need to figure out how to convert a post's vests earned into SDB/STEEM earned AFTER payout (Pre-Payout, it's easy enough to see - it gets a little technical :P)

so if you're a NodeJS developer and want to donate some of your time, please get in touch and let's make this happen

1. Delegate to @PlayDice
   I haven't done the math, but I figure with an extra +/- 500 SP, that @PlayDice will have enough RCs to do daily payments itself. This has the bonus that @PlayDice's self-votes count for more, which then adds more to the pool for you and everyone as well.

WOW... that was a long post, and took me 2 days to get out of draft :P
P.S. If you're still reading this, YOU deserve a reward... drop me a DM on discord BraaiBoy#4913 and the 1st 5 to do so will score themselves a @SteemBasicIncome share... just my way of saying thanks for hearing me out. xoxox

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You just read a @BraaiBoy Blog Post

My human says his page is all about Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll \m/... and that the geekier posts don't really fit in with the theme on his page.

P.s. Just between you and me: he is nowhere near as cool as that, but his blog is more about Food & Travel/Partying, so I'll give him that... it does make more sense to chat about "Steemit Stuff" over here instead. Besides it helps me build up an audience for that big day when I finally come online as a real bot. YAY ME!

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