Fixing Gwent with Initiative Points

[Mnorojo]

Fixing Gwent with Initiative Points

Recently in the AMA, Burza said they are working on a solution to the coin flip. He talked about initiative points being assigned to leaders. Leaders with a low initiative will lose out to leaders with a high initiative. For example, Henselt would only have 1, where as Foltest would have 3. So the Foltest deck would get the red coin.

I think its a great idea. But it should be expanded to include all cards. Allow me to explain.

Every card in the game should have an initiative value of 1 to 5.

CA spies should be a 1.

Create cards, tutors, and 12pt bronzes should be a 2

Engine cards and most spells should be a 3

Cards that are high risk, or ones without synergy should be a 4

Cards that currently see no play should be a 5

When added all up this would put the middle range of a deck's total initiative at 75. If its higher, the deck will likely go second. If its lower, the deck will likely go first. If two decks have the same initiative value, a coin flip will decide it. Moreover, a player wont know the initiative value of the opponents deck until after the redraw phase is finished. Also, for decks that have more than 25 cards, the initiative value for bronzes will be calculated each match from only 8 at random from however many there are.

By doing this CDPR will have the ability to adjust another value. So instead of nerfing a popluar card into the ground, they can just lower its initiative value to reduce its overall popularity. The same goes for leaders. Best of all, giving good initiative value will encourage people to experiment with less popular cards. And these values can be adjusted without affecting gameplay. Yet it could still have an impact on the meta because players want that red coin. And if by chance someone like Swim figures out a deck that can abuse its initiative value to take advantage of going second by using some cheap exploit, the key cards can be lowered to make it harder to have that advantage.

I think this would add another new dimension to deck building and Gwent in general.

 

[TheEpicWhale]

Terrible idea about the initiative.

I'd prefer the coinflip and at least sometimes get to go second of always having to go first with Henselt.

I seriously doubt they are going to implement a system that calculates the entire deck.

Anyway, people would in no-time find a way to exploit this system.

 

[4RM3D]

Yup, I have to agree with TheEpicWhale that it's a bad idea. You've already broken the first rule of trying to fix the coin flip. The solution should never be dependent on what kind of deck you're running.

 

[TigersEye120]

I like the idea with the initiative in general, but i don't think this should be expanded to the entire deck.

First, this would be a nightmare to balance. Balancing 20 values against each other is reasonable, but balancing what, like 800 values? I imagine this is already pretty tough with strength alone, there has to be a better solution.

Second, to a new player this system would seem unreasonably complex, which it is, and might throw them off the game entirely.

Third, this should not be used to balance out or justify overpowered cards. If a card is too strong, it should be nerved. If a card gives you good value at a reasonable cost, then it's just a good card and there is no reason to change it or artificially making it bad.

And most of all, I find the idea of punishing popular cards absolutely terrible. Sure, Netdecks are boring, but it's a game, and you can't force the people to play the way you think is the best. Experimenting with cards is fun to me too, but that's just not something for everyone. Remember that the large majority of players are not on this forum or on Reddit or anywhere. The game also has to be accessible for the people who just play two or three rounds in the evening and don't bother if they have the new hot original deck or not.

 

[Pruny]

Just remove silverspies and give leaders option to create one if you lose coinflip instead of normal leader abylity

 

[1990BW]

Rating every card with initiative points is too complex and not necessary.
There are decks with strong and weak openings, I think every deck should have a (unique) good opening with bronzes/leader interaction.
The next step would be balancing the cards, the usual empowering and nerfing patches.
Coinflip is difficult perhaps the system should detect players which had a blue and red coin in the last ranked match played and pairs them.
This way it will be 50:50, which is fair, but it probably will take longer to find a suitable opponent.

 

[TrompeLaMort]

This is waaaay too complicated.

Also, giving cards bad initiative because you don't like them is a recipe for disaster. At most, you could give initiative for gold cards, so you only need to consider 5 cards, instead of 25. But still way too complicated.

 

[Mathspy]

Put bad cards with high initiative in a deck that thins to zero or that has access to a lot of swap? Profit!
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Plus one of the charms of Gwent is how a single stat (strength) can make for such a complex and gorgeous game, let's not add more

 

[Void_Singer]

personally, I hate the idea of initiative leaders... it just changes the complaint from "I got a blue coin, I'm screwed because ofr playing first" to "IMy leader has higher intiative, I'm srewed fbecause of playing first".... the problem isn't who goes first, the problem is that there are only a couple of cards in the entire game that provide first mover advantage... everything else is reactive advantage.

... but if they're going that direction I'd rather it apply to all cards than to just the leaders.