Are ranked seasons stifling balance/progress?

[Snake_Foxhounder]

Are ranked seasons stifling balance/progress?

Just wondering what you guys think about this. Whenever a bigger balance patch is talked about, it's stated it's coming out at the end of a season because releasing it half way through messes the season up.

But shouldn't they focus on balance patches and features first and competitive play second? We're still in "beta" so focus should be on improving the product.

I understand that you need an early start on a competitive scene to keep players interested and establish your product on an existing market. You can still keep ranked modes, just don't let it hinder progress.

Before I get attacked by shills, I'm not attacking CDPR. I like most of the things (not all) they did so far. I just find it a bit strange.

 

[DannyGuy]

Even the smallest patches are way more impactful than patches in any other game I've played. Hearthstone, for example, has 2-4 cards changed every year or so, and that's considered a big change. I think CD Project Red is doing very well and I wouldn't have it any other way

 

[Exoclyps]

But they said next patch is coming in the next days, just like you ask. So I'm not seeing the issue.

 

[Snake_Foxhounder]

The patch doesn't fix major issues, though. It's a hotfix more than anything.

 

[DeathhWisher]

not realy. Balance changes are coming even mid season. The only thing they postpone is game breaking changes like coin flip and whole agile stuff. And I'm sure it would be postponed even if there was no pro ladder. Not to mention that season in Gwent is only 2 month long.

And personally I'm ok to wait for them a bit more since for me pro scen is important factor for game development. does any1 remember Duel of Champions ?? imo this game was better than HS but w/o eSport support all top players changed to HS, followed by semi-pro ( or ppl aiming at pro),then hard core players, and casuals in the end. If I'm correct game servers are down as of now. And they had nice backgroudn with might and magic, also rows like Gwent

 

[Lornick77]

not realy. Balance changes are coming even mid season. The only thing they postpone is game breaking changes like coin flip and whole agile stuff. And I'm sure it would be postponed even if there was no pro ladder. Not to mention that season in Gwent is only 2 month long.

And personally I'm ok to wait for them a bit more since for me pro scen is important factor for game development. does any1 remember Duel of Champions ?? imo this game was better than HS but w/o eSport support all top players changed to HS, followed by semi-pro ( or ppl aiming at pro),then hard core players, and casuals in the end. If I'm correct game servers are down as of now. And they had nice backgroudn with might and magic, also rows like Gwent

Maybe the pro scene is important for the game, maybe not. I can only speak for myself, but I don't really care whether there is a pro scene. I haven't watched a single pro game or streamer or whatever. I play the game because I loved Witcher 3 and wanted to check out what they had done to Gwent. I found I enjoyed the game and like the business model so far. As long as those things are true, I will continue to play. I don't want major changes to the game happening too often because it is a pain to go back and rebuild all my decks. At the same time I don't want things to become too stagnant playing the same 3 decks constantly. Personally, I'd like to see minor balance tweeks every week or two to keep people on their toes and major balance changes between seasons.

 

[Kingoko]

Personally, I'd like to see minor balance tweeks every week or two to keep people on their toes and major balance changes between seasons.

Same here

 

[VanitasCabal]

They're compromising the competitive balance for better gameplay overall, by making changes mid-season. This is very welcome to me, even as a competitive player, as the game is still in Beta, and the best game possible should be focused on as a priority.

 

[ArianeGrosmont]

I understand where you are coming from, but in my opinion the answer to your question is 'no'.

1. This is the second hotfix this season: giving the devs another opportunity to make things better, look at their tweaks and learn from their mistakes. Sometimes these little changes can give devs an indication of the bigger picture.
2. A season is only 2 months long, it's not like we only get real changes semi-annually. And big changes need a lot of planning.

[Edit] this is not to say the changes aren't timed: it's obvious there's correlation between a new season starting and a new big patch coming out. I just think that as long as they keep making small changes mid-season and as long as a season last two months, it's seems right to me

 

[quantum_number]

A contributing factor to stifled progress might be consoles. Don't get me wrong, this isn't hate on consoles, I do most of my gaming on PS4.

Both Sony and Microsoft have a policy where they charge for each patch to a game. The costs are in the thousands, so releasing an update every week might be possible from a technical standpoint, but not financially sound.

 

[ArianeGrosmont]

quantum_number never considered that... sucks big time, and another reason it's worth being patient IMO: patches being a little less frequent is a small price to pay to keep all platforms updated and not have CDPR have to choose between making the game p2p or mortgaging their developers' kidneys to bring us updates.

 

[Snake_Foxhounder]

A contributing factor to stifled progress might be consoles. Don't get me wrong, this isn't hate on consoles, I do most of my gaming on PS4.

Both Sony and Microsoft have a policy where they charge for each patch to a game. The costs are in the thousands, so releasing an update every week might be possible from a technical standpoint, but not financially sound.

Actually, I don't think they charge for patches anymore. That was a thing at the start of last gen but disappeared somewhere along the line.

The reason it takes longer on cosoles is because both Sony and Microsoft require patches to be certified before release. Consoles are closed systems ans patches can do serious damage so they're taking extra measures to make sure nothing happens.