If your only intention is to be rude and/or start a fight, do not post. A couple posts deleted.
From what i gathered, by only playing 1 draft run and seeing 3 different streamers on draft, the options you will be getting are mostly decided by your first 2 picks: the leader ability and a "central gold card".
If you are lucky to have these 2 correlated, then its probably easy to make a full archetype deck with plenty of synergy, otherwise the deck can be too scattered.
Also, those 'central golds' can give some terrible choices, but also some good choices but that end up having associated terrible packages.
On the other hand, there are packages that include 3 really powerful cards, like getting 3 Geralts, which one alone can actually get more value than some of these central golds...
Here's my feedback so far. I went 7-0 with the very first deck I drafted and have done many more drafts since. I'm a huge fan of limited modes and have been for decades, playing them at least as much as constructed in every ccg I've played so far (aside from Gwent, because Arena was not good).
1) The algorithm should only allow for taking one thinning package per draft. If you RNG into two of the same thinning the value of such in a deck is preposterous and there's no way to balance around that, but even getting two separate thins is ridiculously strong.
2) This game has such a good mechanism for balance already built in, with every single card meaningfully rated by provision cost. Use this. Your game is balanced around this specifically. Set a provision cap on the final drafted deck and give players more packages to work with at the start. Allow for some minor deckbuilding using the drafted cards. Make some extra copies of basic 4 and 5 cost cards available so players can hone in on meeting the provision cap/deck limit.
3) Make it so your draft deck evolves as you play it. After each win you get to draft another package, and can then modify your deck using the new cards. If you can matchmake so players with the same wins play each other, it'd be incredibly cool if your provision cap went up a bit with each win, so you could truly "upgrade" your deck, and overall deck power went up and up as the draft played on, making those final matches titanic clashes of ridiculous decks that you wouldn't find in Constructed play.
TL;DR - Limit thinning packages to one per draft. Use a provision cap for balance, and include some basic deckbuilding with drafted cards. Evolve decks by providing additional packages/provisions to work with when you win.
1) The algorithm should only allow for taking one thinning package per draft. If you RNG into two of the same thinning the value of such in a deck is preposterous and there's no way to balance around that, but even getting two separate thins is ridiculously strong.
2) This game has such a good mechanism for balance already built in, with every single card meaningfully rated by provision cost. Use this. Your game is balanced around this specifically. Set a provision cap on the final drafted deck and give players more packages to work with at the start. Allow for some minor deckbuilding using the drafted cards. Make some extra copies of basic 4 and 5 cost cards available so players can hone in on meeting the provision cap/deck limit.
3) Make it so your draft deck evolves as you play it. After each win you get to draft another package, and can then modify your deck using the new cards. If you can matchmake so players with the same wins play each other, it'd be incredibly cool if your provision cap went up a bit with each win, so you could truly "upgrade" your deck, and overall deck power went up and up as the draft played on, making those final matches titanic clashes of ridiculous decks that you wouldn't find in Constructed play.
TL;DR - Limit thinning packages to one per draft. Use a provision cap for balance, and include some basic deckbuilding with drafted cards. Evolve decks by providing additional packages/provisions to work with when you win.
I don't like this change at all, I played Gwent mostly for the Arena mode... now that it's replaced by a mode with no rewards, there's like no incentives for playing it.
So yeah, played 2 more draft runs, and specially after the 3rd, i really have to agree with @dnadler 's 1st point:
The thinning packages are ridiculous. Yes, with a lot of luck you can build an OP draft deck with other cards, but going for the thinning packages it seems its the most consistent way of making your deck broken (ofc the mulligans are a nightmare then, but its a small price to pay)
I would suggest to change this with a hotfix, if not, then on next month's update/expansion - limit thinning packages so you cant get 2 of the same, and maybe only get 1 max.
And here's the proof:
(built a deck with 6 impera brigade and 3 hunting pack, and had Tactical Decision, which is just perfect for this broken deck as morvran is a soldier and that way you can mulligan all the imperas on hand back to deck)
And no, it was not just i that was lucky, look what i faced on the same run:
So yeah, maybe this should be the 1st thing fixed in Draft Mode, no?
The thinning packages are ridiculous. Yes, with a lot of luck you can build an OP draft deck with other cards, but going for the thinning packages it seems its the most consistent way of making your deck broken (ofc the mulligans are a nightmare then, but its a small price to pay)
I would suggest to change this with a hotfix, if not, then on next month's update/expansion - limit thinning packages so you cant get 2 of the same, and maybe only get 1 max.
And here's the proof:
(built a deck with 6 impera brigade and 3 hunting pack, and had Tactical Decision, which is just perfect for this broken deck as morvran is a soldier and that way you can mulligan all the imperas on hand back to deck)
And no, it was not just i that was lucky, look what i faced on the same run:
So yeah, maybe this should be the 1st thing fixed in Draft Mode, no?
Lots of golds was not a guarantee to win in Arena. I recently lost a run while having 21 golds, and on the next run I reached the end with only 13 golds. However, most of the time the amount of golds helped, so the only thing CDPR had to do was to limit the amount of drawn golds to 15 (and then you would draw only bronzes), and limit the bronzes to 11 (and then you would draw only golds). Problem solved. Everybody would have very similar provision decks with majority of golds to make it fun. Then it would be about making and executing combinations. I'd love to see the Arena like this.
With Draft I posted a rather long analysis above and by many accounts Draft seems like a worse alternative than Arena.
Draft has potential to work better than Arena, but it's definitely a work in progress. There's no way they could charge ore or provide rewards for this in the state that it's in right now, and they knew that which is why it's labeled Early Access and costs nothing. We're acting as testers for them and providing feedback, not playing it as a proper competitive mode.
That's obviously not for everybody though. I think it was a mistake to remove Arena entirely given that Draft is still in an early form. I didn't care for Arena, but for anybody who did the current state of Draft is not a suitable replacement because the lack of cost/reward means the key strategy for winning is to reroll for free until RNG gives you an absolutely busted deck. It goes entirely against the point of Limited play, which is to make the most out of subpar cards by finding interesting or unusual synergies, and compete against others doing the exact same.
I expect they're getting a lot of data about what people are picking, especially since it's more fun to click through packages and build decks than to actually play them right now.
That's obviously not for everybody though. I think it was a mistake to remove Arena entirely given that Draft is still in an early form. I didn't care for Arena, but for anybody who did the current state of Draft is not a suitable replacement because the lack of cost/reward means the key strategy for winning is to reroll for free until RNG gives you an absolutely busted deck. It goes entirely against the point of Limited play, which is to make the most out of subpar cards by finding interesting or unusual synergies, and compete against others doing the exact same.
I expect they're getting a lot of data about what people are picking, especially since it's more fun to click through packages and build decks than to actually play them right now.
It does seems people have figured out that SY and thinning is the way to go.
I actually rejected SY for a while but they keep giving the option of coins package even when I went with a totally different leader and first starting card.
Today I say, WTH, I will just play SY and I keep winning hahaha
Does anyone know if there is any link about the info of ALL the 79 packages ?
I actually rejected SY for a while but they keep giving the option of coins package even when I went with a totally different leader and first starting card.
Today I say, WTH, I will just play SY and I keep winning hahaha
Does anyone know if there is any link about the info of ALL the 79 packages ?
That's a bug in the algorithm (Slama said so), and will no doubt be fixed before draft leaves early access.
Hope I can reply this time without stirring up a fight ahah, anyways.
Reading about losing a run in Arena with 21 golds it's a first for me, guess that's luck of the draw for you. What I didn't like about Arena was that it was really, really, an RNG mess. Of course one didn't play Arena for consistency, but an entire mode when you basically pay an entry fee and start to pray to the RNG god? Very rarely I did get a funny deck in Arena, most of the time it was just a bunch of assorted cards without any type of sinergy and, for me, this isn't fun at all.
Yeah, Draft has its problems and it's far from perfect now, but asking for absolute balance in Draft is like asking for Balance in Arena: nonsense. As I've said in another post, if I wanted to try a strange deck there's always casual for me, I don't need to play Arena to just stop playing meta decks.
What I'm really looking forward to it's that Draft won't have any sort of Meta without being a total RNG fest at the same time. I really like the idea of starting with a smaller deck that becomes bigger and bigger with every win, that's a recipe for strange and interesting matches.
The more I play draft the more I love it, and I play the decks I draft instead of wasting time trying to get crazy combos.
This opponent must have been frustrated by all the movement I did (three Tax Collectors and Imke, plus Arena Ghoul but that one made no difference).
I lost by one point in the end but it was an awesome match.
This opponent must have been frustrated by all the movement I did (three Tax Collectors and Imke, plus Arena Ghoul but that one made no difference).
I lost by one point in the end but it was an awesome match.
So far I seem huge issue with being able to reroll infinitely. Just reroll till you get hoard deck and 2 round all matches opponen doesnt have yrden. 3 round The ones whre they do
I played the draft for several days now and it seems there is no choice of Oneiromancy or AA but there are other Echo cards like Coup.
I also did not see any artifacts like Sihil
I also did not see any artifacts like Sihil
A strange decision that might cost them losing a lot of players. A played mainly arena, but this draft mode is so disappointing and even with some tweaks it will be worse than arena by far.
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Huge mistake to take away arena without a viable alternative for no reason. I am so disappointed.
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Yes please. It looks like even old arena will be so much better than draft.
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Great Post!
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As a long-term arena player I also start thinking about quitting. Why are they doing this?
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Please return the Arena mode at least while the new system is not tested well.
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HAHAH
me too.
Ok i have to admit, i am rerolling to get crazy combos and thats its amazing.
I just made a deck with 2 corvos, 3 dandelions and 3 priscilas.
In one match, in last round i played 2 dandenlions and 2 corvos. I dont need to say who wins.
But i admit, my opponent had a crazy combo too. He used 3 Harald Houndsnout and didnt killed anyone of the harald's friend. Than he used ritual sacrifice and activate all the haralds friends damage.
That was crazy too, but for my luck, even with 18 damages, neither the corvos and neither the dandelions had died, so i just continue my combo until the end
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I played Gwent a lot in beta, then quit before the big changes to the game came around, and then started playing again a month ago. I got hooked into arena this 2nd time around and I'm sad to see it gone right after I started playing again. I tried the draft mode once and played a few games with my draft and it's not for me. I don't like the no risk/no reward aspect at all. Might as well just play ranked or whatever the seasonal mode is. From the few games that I did play, the balance in power seems way worse than arena ever was (I'm guessing people are just re-doing their drafts until they get a god-tier deck).
I'm hoping arena will come back (why not have both modes?) but in the meantime I don't see myself playing the draft mode.
I'm hoping arena will come back (why not have both modes?) but in the meantime I don't see myself playing the draft mode.
Combos like this are almost unbeatable. It's one of the meta combinations for sure. There are not enough removals in this draft to deal with this.
Amphibious Assault is offered as a core card. Blood eagle is in packages, i've gotten 2 of them in a row(and proceeded to draft only 1 warrior...)