DRAFT - First impressions

[ya1]

Draft seems like it's great for people who liked Arena anyway. For people who didn't, it's just a variation of it. For me, there is enough rng-based brokenness, unwinnable/unloseable rng-fiesta, broken balance and doomed-from-the-start matchups in Gwent proper already.

Played it 10 times. I was getting crap packages all the time. I was redrafting like 10 times and got leaders and first cards totally unrelated. But I was facing what seemed to be perfectly synergistic decks with ridiculous amounts of unhindered, undiluted brokenness. How many times do you have to redraft to actually get something?

 

[OuterSpaceDoggo]

Played a bunch of matches yesterday, drafted a single deck ( no redraft ), some cards had sinergy, some not, yet managed to get a win streak against more synergistic decks.
My strongest package drafted was Geralt Unleashed:
- Igni + Yrden + Axii
My only tutor was Vivaldi Bank ahah; funny mode, but people should just stop forfeiting at 1st round, just play to have fun and enjoy the randomness, no need to keep redrafting until you get a seemingly perfect deck, no point on playing draft like this, no?

 

[Jamborinio]

The saddest part of draft mode, is that just like Ranked play, it will be beset with balance issues and defined metas, and therefore will need constant babysitting and adjustments from the Gwent team to keep it ticking along and interesting. The reason Arena was great, was that it was entirely independent from balance and meta and therefore made for a refreshing way to play that didn't rely on monthly patching. It could just roll on month on month without any interference.

With a few tweaks to Arena, for example, to keep some semblance of consistency between the number of golds vs bronzes, I think it could've been made even better, and certainly the difference between draft and Arena is such that it really didn't warrant deleting one for the other.

 

[dnadler]

What I'm generally finding is that there are a lot of people jumping into Draft that are, quite simply, not very good at the game. Because there's no MMR it seems, so you have Pro rank players going up against much lower rank or unranked players. So yes, it's possible that piloted well a worse deck can beat a stronger deck from somebody who gives up card advantage for no reason and doesn't understand how to manipulate long and short rounds, bleed cards, time their leader usage, or crunch numbers.

I went 7-0 with my very first deck, which had a few good synergies but didn't even get a single thinning package. I don't find the games particularly fun though. I want to play players with equal skill, not win games against players who make unforced error after error all game long, or lose games due to absolutely insane boards.

 

[Footsoulja]

I'm going to pile on with some of the other comments and say that an optional entry fee would be good for those who have ore to spend. Getting to the end of a run should be rewarded somehow.

 

[croloris]

What I'm generally finding is that there are a lot of people jumping into Draft that are, quite simply, not very good at the game. Because there's no MMR it seems, so you have Pro rank players going up against much lower rank or unranked players. So yes, it's possible that piloted well a worse deck can beat a stronger deck from somebody who gives up card advantage for no reason and doesn't understand how to manipulate long and short rounds, bleed cards, time their leader usage, or crunch numbers.

I went 7-0 with my very first deck, which had a few good synergies but didn't even get a single thinning package. I don't find the games particularly fun though. I want to play players with equal skill, not win games against players who make unforced error after error all game long, or lose games due to absolutely insane boards.

The logic for old Arena was a Pyramid scheme and it worked well. You played anyone for the first set of 3 matches, then only those who were in levels 4 - 6 for the 2nd set, and only those at level 7 - 9 for the final set. I have to believe that logic will be included in the final version, but they are just trying to get a burst of data now, and no matchmaking logic is being implemented yet (or they are tinkering with it behind the scenes as it is in beta.)

 

[DRK3]

Have completed 6 draft runs so far, no redrafts, not even when i got the sh**tiest deck (still managed to get 3 wins with that somehow).

The mode definitely needs a matchmaking system to put players that are winning more against each other.

Also, expect draft mode to become harder, because right now its new and EVERYBODY is trying it, specially with no entry fee and possibility of getting any card even for beginners. But once the new factor fades, only the players dedicated to the mode will stay and it will become quite tough to get 6/7 wins in a run, i predict.

 

[Luckless_Jack]

The saddest part of draft mode, is that just like Ranked play, it will be beset with balance issues and defined metas, and therefore will need constant babysitting and adjustments from the Gwent team to keep it ticking along and interesting. The reason Arena was great, was that it was entirely independent from balance and meta and therefore made for a refreshing way to play that didn't rely on monthly patching. It could just roll on month on month without any interference.

With a few tweaks to Arena, for example, to keep some semblance of consistency between the number of golds vs bronzes, I think it could've been made even better, and certainly the difference between draft and Arena is such that it really didn't warrant deleting one for the other.

This is my main concern with Draft mode too. Arena required no upkeep by CDPR - although it would have greatly benefitted from a few small tweaks that would have vastly improved it. Draft on the other hand is a high maintenance mode. It is effectively a constructed mode where the construction is done by the CDPR development team, rather than the players.

Based on the trouble CDPR have had balancing individual cards throughout the life of Gwent, how likely are we to get a satisfactory level of balance between pre-constructed packages in Draft and all their possible combinations and interactions? That is going to require a higher degree of oversight and intervention by the developers to get anywhere near right. On top of that, the way the Draft algorithm works relies on a lot of weighted RNG logic. That will also require a great deal of ongoing micro-management, especially as new cards and packages are added to the Draft pool.

I quite like the Draft mode, but I just think it will require too much ongoing developer work to ever feel like anything more than a crazy fun mode for more casual play. Who knows though, perhaps the Gwent team will suddenly find several more team members to devote to permanent balancing work?

I admire their ambition, but can't help but feel that refining the existing Arena mode would have been more likely to be successful in the end. I hope they prove me wrong.

Having said all that, is there really no room for both an Arena mode and a Draft mode? They do after all seem to be suited to different target audiences. Draft for fast fun, Arena for more competitive types.

 

[qLir]

Arena is what I loved about Gwent. Draft mode brought a few badly needed quality of life changes -- namely, cosmetic options, a fresh interface, and stratagem choice, but besides that it isn't worth playing, in my opinion. As others have said, the buy in was absolutely essential, and even beyond that it just feels dumbed down now. With only 8 three card selections, luck actually plays a larger role than in arena, IMO. I haven't been enjoying playing since the change, and would have bought the journey if not for the change as well. As it is, I don't think I will continue to play for much longer.

 

[Draconifors]

I'm starting to notice lots and lots and lots of Hidden Cache opponents. Triple Saul twice in a row last night.
But, I still think the mode is the most fun I've ever had after beta.

 

[StanislavOZZO]

Charges combo - insta-quit. Draft does not offer enough removals to deal with this.

Syndicate - likely quit. It's too prevalent, and again, very little could be done with it.

 

[_Shavi_]

I like to play dwarves in this mode and most of the time I have no other chance but to repick because the system is giving unplayable cards: I mean, this has happenned several times, what's the point in giving me two "Munros" (transform 2 allied rowdy dwarves into bersekers) if then not a single Zoltan or Zoltan's company card is given.

 

[DRK3]

Charges combo - insta-quit. Draft does not offer enough removals to deal with this.

Syndicate - likely quit. It's too prevalent, and again, very little could be done with it.

Agreed, those 2 cases seem to be part of the forming meta of draft mode.

Syndicate, because of the bug that makes SY packages appear always, and charges because removals and techs seem to be hard to get on this mode, making engines run rampant.

But if it makes you feel better, i was lucky to get a more control draft deck and faced one of these charge decks that probably was a player taking advantage of this... I wrecked him so hard i was wondering when we would forfeit (turns out it was when 2 cards were left):

Look at how crazy my hand was still... But it was not just luck, as soon as i had identified him as an engine deck on R1 i saved and mulliganed for all my control on that deck so i could survive a long R3.

 

[Draconifors]

I have a pretty good Assimilate drafted at the moment, with tons of engines, double Artorius, double Gascon IF, and more (triple Knickers!). My core card is Syanna, who surprisingly has yet to get disabled.

One opponent forfeited when I played Syanna very late in R3 and with several Assimilate engines on board, intending to pull a double Gascon and then use Vivienne on Syanna as last play (actually good value at +9). That was genuinely disappointing; I really wanted to pull off the combo.

 

[RichardIgnanz]

Some thoughts about DRAFT (Beta) after drawing decks and playing several games.

I never played Arena because there was this entry fee. So, I won’t miss Arena. When it comes to Draft I mainly have two points of critism.

1.) The decks vary too much
You can come up with some bad decks or have a crazy well functional deck. Well, you can’t prevent that but there has to be a solution that the variance gets smaller. For example I drafted several decks with provision from 131 to 147 and then one deck with 162. Lower or higher provision doesn’t directly mean you got a bad or well deck but it’s an indicator.

2.) Draft needs some structure
Sure, it’s Beta. You can draft as often as you like, that is fine for the beginning. However we need some rules. You shouldn’t be allowed to draft till you get a superb deck. My suggestion would be called:

„Draft Run“
Draft one deck, play one game
Draft one deck, play one game
…
After 5 losses or 11 wins the Draft Run is over. For winning 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 wins it grants you a small amount of resource. 11 wins also grants you the title Draft Master. You could also add contracts like there were for Arena.

 

[Sensimilius]

Okay, the largest and a very annoying problem I see is so many people playing a 100% Syndicate deck! Like wtf is up with this?? I think the whole point of a Draft game mode should be to make a deck mismashed from various factions, so maybe make a cap so that like you can only get 60% (or 50%) of cards from a single faction, after u reach 60% cards of one faction then the game should not offer you any more cards from that faction until your deck is complete. Sure I can play against this and mayyyyybe win vs rather unfair odds but it's super annoying and tiresome to see the same damn shit over and over.

 

[StanislavOZZO]

Okay, the largest and a very annoying problem I see is so many people playing a 100% Syndicate deck! Like wtf is up with this?? I think the whole point of a Draft game mode should be to make a deck mismashed from various factions, so maybe make a cap so that like you can only get 60% (or 50%) of cards from a single faction, after u reach 60% cards of one faction then the game should not offer you any more cards from that faction until your deck is complete. Sure I can play against this and mayyyyybe win vs rather unfair odds but it's super annoying and tiresome to see the same damn shit over and over.

I already stopped playing Draft.

 

[Draconifors]

I honestly can't wait for the "offer Coins when zero Syndicate cards have been picked" bug to be eliminated. Seeing Walter Veritas and Imke offered every. single. time, usually more than once, is really annoying.
Except when I want Create. Then a triple Walter with various bronzes is pretty great.

 

[ReaperTek]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1326598769807384576

 

[Slizzl]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1326598769807384576

Wake me up when they get back to balancing the actual game instead of this RNGfest.