"New" Player Experience

[Archpriest]

"New" Player Experience

So... two days ago, I made a second account to test new players' experience and decks.
I laid down a few ground rules:
1. complete f2p
2. rotating decks
3. crafting only Neutral Epic and Legendary cards, at least until I reach level 10
4. not crafting Leaders or any Bronze cards
5. trying not approach this as a veteran player*
*as much as possible, of course

Starting Decks are ok but I tweaked them all. Not too much though, just a bit.
When I reached level 10, I had 898 points, two below rank 2. After two days of playing, I'm rank 4, level 11.

These are my Epic/Legendary Cards
*I was lucky to get Caranthir in my first or second keg
*I crafted both, YenCon and Aard after I reached level 9
*Got Earth Elemental around level 6
*Got Operator after level 8
*Blueboy, Giant and Skellen after level 9-10
*Jutta, Sile, Cow are included from the beginning, of course






Skellige





Monsters





Scoia'tael



Northern Realms





Nilfgaard






*all decks are tweaked and tinkered with all the time

My conclusion:
1. All decks are viable until level 7, then the division starts: Monsters and Skellige are beginning to pull away, followed by Scoia'tael and Norhtern Realms. Nilfgaard is just a little behind those two. By level 10, the division deepens.*
*it also depends on the cards you get from the kegs
2. Leveling up for new players is easy and reward system is great.

Great job CDPR on easing players into the game.

I hope this helps even a little.

Cheers

 

[Tir_na_Lia]

Nice analysis.

I am eagerly waiting for the next reset, having completely milled NR and SK to get more competitiveness.

Next time I'll try to keep all factions.

 

[Archpriest]

Thank you.
I agree on Open Beta completely. The game needs reset sooner than later.
Important for me to repeat myself about bronze cards in the decks I posted. Not much synergy there but as I wrote, I had to work with you get at the beginning without crafting any.

 

[robwarrior]

thanks for posting ur NG deck it will help me because I cant remember what a default deck looks like

 

[Axesome]

The starter decks are pretty bad. Thanks for this guide.

 

[Archpriest]

The starter decks are pretty bad. Thanks for this guide.

My pleasure.

 

[DMaster2]

Why crafting operator instead of King of Beggars? Way more useful imho. Was lucky enough to pull it from a keg and i almost always used it in any deck i've made.

 

[Archpriest]

Why crafting operator instead of King of Beggars? Way more useful imho. Was lucky enough to pull it from a keg and i almost always used it in any deck i've made.

I did not craft him. Got him form the keg. No card was crafted before level 9 and even then it were only YenCon and Aard. I wrote it in the OP, I recall.

Of course, the decks look different now - rank 7 ,etc. I might even update them soon.
Operator was dropped form a few of them for a moment.
But the house rules stay the same...


And King of Beggars is my absolute favorite card in this game...

:cheers:

 

[IRony03]

As a new player only getting beta key three days ago and not familiar with the game to start with got to lvl10 pretty easy despite really bad keg openings. What started to frustrate me after reaching lvl10 that most opponents are many lvls, sometimes even lvl20 in casual play. Obviously with more cards, meaning nigh impossible to win a game when they deck have more silver and gold that I have in total. Makes it a bad experience to those just getting into the game and not wanting to spend lots of money on it until deciding if the game is really for them. If this continues, I will loose interest in an otherwise great game...

 

[DMaster2]

As a new player only getting beta key three days ago and not familiar with the game to start with got to lvl10 pretty easy despite really bad keg openings. What started to frustrate me after reaching lvl10 that most opponents are many lvls, sometimes even lvl20 in casual play. Obviously with more cards, meaning nigh impossible to win a game when they deck have more silver and gold that I have in total. Makes it a bad experience to those just getting into the game and not wanting to spend lots of money on it until deciding if the game is really for them. If this continues, I will loose interest in an otherwise great game...

Don't let it bother you, we are in the final stages of the CB, which means that unfortunately very few players have the same level and experience as you, which means the matchmaking will often put you against people that played more and have more cards. You can still win regardless, i'm level 38 currently, and just yesterday i've lost to a level 25 player just to win against a level 49 next game.
Also keep in mind that level doesn't really matter in the matchmaking, it's your mmr that will decide which will be your opponent

 

[Archpriest]

Also keep in mind that level doesn't really matter in the matchmaking, it's your mmr that will decide which will be your opponent

I doubt that mmr matchmaking works in Casual at all.

 

[Archpriest]

Updated decks - lvl 17, around 1900 mmr
Same house rules apply.

Monsters

Northern Realms

Nilfgaard

Scoia'tael


Skellige

 

[AzureCrow]

I am new to the Gwent standalone game, being only level 5 at the moment and getting accepted into closed beta only short while ago made me think what others who have had it longer and who have played a lot more then me think about the game and a take on the new player experience. I found it interesting and fairly cool that you made a second account with restrictions set to have a had at what it is like to be new to the game. I have to admit this is pretty different then the Gwent that I am used to playing in W3, however it is still an amazing game. Looking at the decks that you posted gave me a leading hand into how I should consider deck making and what mine should look like as I proceed. Thanks for the insight!

 

[Ringlin]

2. Leveling up for new players is easy and reward system is great.

Great job CDPR on easing players into the game.

I wouldn't go quite that far, not without addressing a couple issues that may impact truly new players but not your playtesting here.

Before that, kudos to Henry for his helpful and fascinating testing! Good for you. And thanks to CDPR for much such a fun game. I agree it is accessible to everyone and that the rewards system is now quite good.

But keep in mind that newcomers are much affected by two things not evident in this experiment.

First, newcomers have a tough learning curve when learning how to play against specific cards that they may not access until much later. The lesson is easy for some cards - like Aard or Igni - but much harder for others, like Morkvarg or Operator + Morenn.

By far the best way to learn how to deal with such threats is to play them in your own decks. I couldn't figure out how to do deal with Axemen until I put them in my own deck to see what other players do in response. Same with Villentretenmerth, which no longer plagues me. No amount of losing against it gave me the same knowledge as using it myself.

So here's a suggestion for CDPR: make a 'try a deck' mode. It could be vs an improved AI, or better still, a once-a-day feature that pairs you against other players doing likewise. Build your deck of any cards you like.

Second - and this may not be an issue past Beta - but CDPR should either slow the pace of card nerfs or offer a crafting refund (as Hearthstone does). I saved my scrap like a miser while I planned out my competitive deck (I settled on NR Pavetta/ Sabrina, with help from Henry and a few other good folks here), then crafted it one wonderful week before the patch made it ineffective. While I'm not mad - this is beta and changes are both expected and necessary - that sort of big patch really impacts players who are just getting settled into the game (veterans have other cards for their rotation, and brand-new players haven't crafted yet).

In any case, this thread makes a great resource for newcomers. Maybe post the early decks + crafting tips to Treamayne's New Players Tips? That thread is helpful, but it has grown old, and more tactical resources would be welcome.

 

[4RM3D]

Second - and this may not be an issue past Beta - but CDPR should [...] offer a crafting refund (as Hearthstone does).

CDPR has stated that, once the game is out of beta, players will receive a refund when cards get nerfed.

 

[Ringlin]

CDPR has stated that, once the game is out of beta, players will receive a refund when cards get nerfed.

That's great! Thanks.

 

[kabal223]

I don't know why, but as a new player I found out easily an amazing deck for the monsters (devourer sinergy), I've reached level 10 in 2 days and tonight I'm almost level 11 and rank 3. Is that normal or I'm kinda good at this game?

Only played a few hours those days.

 

[rainwatr]

That's pretty normal, from here on out your progress will depend on what cards you get from kegs and which faction you all in on. Currently the best factions to rank up on are Scoiatael (Control & Ambush) and Monsters (Consume). They have by far the most consistent decks and the strongest decks.

 

[Swifty4]

This is really cool!

 

[Treamayne]

thanks for posting ur NG deck it will help me because I cant remember what a default deck looks like

Ringlin referenced the New Player Tips thread (link in my sig), which has all the starter deck contents and ideas for changes when first starting out. That said, I wonder if HenryGrosmont could verify that the start deck content have not changed.

Maybe post the early decks + crafting tips to Treamayne's New Players Tips? That thread is helpful, but it has grown old, and more tactical resources would be welcome.

Sorry it's a bit stale. As I posted to the thread a while ago, I have barely been able to play since 0.8.72 launched. Either the "signing in" never finishes signing in at all (I've let the screen spin for 15+ minutes a few time) or when it does actually sign in almost every game I try playing disconnects (I think I have successfully finished all three round of two games total in the last month). I'll review Henry's posts and see if I can segue the information into that thread's first post.