GWENT: Ask a Dev

[qurbani]

hey Burza
1- WHEN Jason Slama was on stream he was great at giving insights into the design process, could he (or design team in general) talk about why the 3rd row (one personally painful and confusing change homecoming brought) and therefore more complex positioning strategies not being possible now? As Gwent is all about creating a complex and dynamic board, three rows opens up infinitely more possibilities.

2- Was making the game play across the screen (rather than up and down) ever considered in order to use more of the screen?

 

[rrc]

Dear Burza,

How is the game getting balanced in every patch? Is it purely based on collected statistics or do people discuss and decide? Those who have the ultimate say in the numbers arrived (+1 for WLS for example), do they play the game or they only think logically and come up with the numbers?

 

[Duhad]

Burza46 much as I would love to know about the new leaders in detail, I understand that that all needs to wait for a future reveal stream, but could you possibly shed a little light on how we will get and how long we will keep the new leaders?

Like you have said they will be related to Thronebreaker, but will they be unlocked by owning Thronebraker or by opening nodes in the reward book like the other leaders? And more importantly will they be PERMANENT new leaders or will they eventually rotate out along with Thronebraker to be replaced by a new set of temporary faction leaders introduced in a future set? Assuming obviously that you eventually introduce a card set rotation a year or three down the line.

Honestly either way is fine with me, I am just curious how we should be thinking about these new leaders, as permanent fixtures of the factions or as flavors that will come and go as time goes on and that will be themed to fit with each block of expansions like the Hero cards in Hearthstone or the Planeswalker cards in magic.

Also just for fun... My predictions on the leaders are:
Meve (longsword): NR
Ardal aep Dahy: NG
Eldain: ST
Arnjolf the Patricide: SK
Gernichora: Monsters

 

[BibuGwent]

Hi

Why did you released Gwent HC on consoles without premium cards animation ?

Thanks

 

[Alch1mist]

Hi,

1) During the road map stream you talked a little bit about your philosophy on randomness in card games, what’s the stance of the team on high variance cards such as Gascon, Spotter, Yennefer: Divination (…), and do you plan a rework on those cards.

2) While I’m talking about rework, are you interested in reworking some of the cards that are unused because their ability might be underwhelming and/or too limited, again during the stream you talked about Lambert: Swordmaster, but what about Ciri: Nova, Olgierd von Everec, Mandrake (…).

3) Can we expect the next update to improve the responsiveness of the game, it already improved quite a bit, but it's not exactly where a lot of people would like it to be.

4) Are there any plans to make artefacts more interactive (equipping them to units, or giving them armor ...), and in return change artifact removals in order to make the game less binary.

5) Are there any plans to make bronze weather (fog, rain ...) more meaningful, I've seen the community toying with the idea of a reach decrease with fog, would you be interested in that.

6) The team decided to nerf the provision cost on cards such as Igni or Scorch (...) because they were too oppressive, but I’d argue it was the ability to line them up immediately before plays that was too strong, so is there any plan to introduce some sort of initiative mechanic for orders in general to reduce the impact of those one turn plays.

It’s a lot of questions ^^, I hope you can answer them, anyway thank you and I wish everyone the best.

 

[Burza46]

I don't know if there is any difference between animations speed in PTR and release version but they are still slow few months after game release. Buffing animations, damage animations, leader animation, cards going to graveyard animation, drawing cards animation - everything feels really slow.

1. When can we expect faster animations?
2. Why are we locked in place for few seconds with animations? Is it impossible for this engine to queue stuff? Leader animation locks player for few seconds, same when you play in NR e.g. you buff Tridam Infantry then you wait for buff animation and then you wait for damage animation and then you can buff it again. It is really slow. Of course timer doesn't stop or doesn't add a few seconds when game locks you for few seconds.

So we need faster animations or queue for actions or both.

Hi, can't give you a ETA, but we're working on new and improved animations plus quality of life changes.

 

[Burza46]

Hey Burza! keep up the good work you and gwent team!
I wanted to ask for some tasty leaks on whether or not some cards are going to get nerfed\change soon:
Unicorn\Chironex, Yrden, an Craite marauder, Schirru, Birna\Derran, Rot tossers
If any other cards I did not mention are gonna get changed feel free to mention them aswell =)

Thanks alot!

We'll seem, the cards are still WIP

 

[Burza46]

Hi

Why did you released Gwent HC on consoles without premium cards animation ?

Thanks

It's something we're still working on.

 

[Burza46]

Hi,

1) During the road map stream you talked a little bit about your philosophy on randomness in card games, what’s the stance of the team on high variance cards such as Gascon, Spotter, Yennefer: Divination (…), and do you plan a rework on those cards.

2) While I’m talking about rework, are you interested in reworking some of the cards that are unused because their ability might be underwhelming and/or too limited, again during the stream you talked about Lambert: Swordmaster, but what about Ciri: Nova, Olgierd von Everec, Mandrake (…).

3) Can we expect the next update to improve the responsiveness of the game, it already improved quite a bit, but it's not exactly where a lot of people would like it to be.

4) Are there any plans to make artefacts more interactive (equipping them to units, or giving them armor ...), and in return change artifact removals in order to make the game less binary.

5) Are there any plans to make bronze weather (fog, rain ...) more meaningful, I've seen the community toying with the idea of a reach decrease with fog, would you be interested in that.

6) The team decided to nerf the provision cost on cards such as Igni or Scorch (...) because they were too oppressive, but I’d argue it was the ability to line them up immediately before plays that was too strong, so is there any plan to introduce some sort of initiative mechanic for orders in general to reduce the impact of those one turn plays.

It’s a lot of questions ^^, I hope you can answer them, anyway thank you and I wish everyone the best.

1. We want some randomness in the game, preferably controlled, but also fun cards like Gascon
2. We're looking into those
3. Yes, step by step.
4. Nope
5. We'll see, thanks for the suggestion!
6. Too soon to say

 

[Burza46]

hey Burza
1- WHEN Jason Slama was on stream he was great at giving insights into the design process, could he (or design team in general) talk about why the 3rd row (one personally painful and confusing change homecoming brought) and therefore more complex positioning strategies not being possible now? As Gwent is all about creating a complex and dynamic board, three rows opens up infinitely more possibilities.

2- Was making the game play across the screen (rather than up and down) ever considered in order to use more of the screen?

1) We won't go back to the 3 rows for sure I can tell you that. We talked about this change numerous times, there was a good stream with Luigi regarding this change.
2) Yes, but it looked bad

 

[Burza46]

Dear Burza,

How is the game getting balanced in every patch? Is it purely based on collected statistics or do people discuss and decide? Those who have the ultimate say in the numbers arrived (+1 for WLS for example), do they play the game or they only think logically and come up with the numbers?

It's a whole team of designers, they play the game and look at stats, but also community feedback and try to find balance between all these aspects.

 

[Burza46]

Burza46 much as I would love to know about the new leaders in detail, I understand that that all needs to wait for a future reveal stream, but could you possibly shed a little light on how we will get and how long we will keep the new leaders?

Like you have said they will be related to Thronebreaker, but will they be unlocked by owning Thronebraker or by opening nodes in the reward book like the other leaders? And more importantly will they be PERMANENT new leaders or will they eventually rotate out along with Thronebraker to be replaced by a new set of temporary faction leaders introduced in a future set? Assuming obviously that you eventually introduce a card set rotation a year or three down the line.

Honestly either way is fine with me, I am just curious how we should be thinking about these new leaders, as permanent fixtures of the factions or as flavors that will come and go as time goes on and that will be themed to fit with each block of expansions like the Hero cards in Hearthstone or the Planeswalker cards in magic.

Also just for fun... My predictions on the leaders are:
Meve (longsword): NR
Ardal aep Dahy: NG
Eldain: ST
Arnjolf the Patricide: SK
Gernichora: Monsters

The leaders will be unlockable via reward trees or by purchasing them with scraps. Owning Thronebreaker won't unlock them.

 

[dobtf2]

The leaders will be unlockable via reward trees or by purchasing them with scraps. Owning Thronebreaker won't unlock them.

I know you have a plan for revealing leaders but can you give a rough estimate on how many reward points we need to unlock them? Would be good to know how many we should save before the end of January

 

[Proud_Kekistani]

Hi Burza! I have a few questions today.

1) I'm not sure if this was addressed, but can we expect a statement regarding the still incomplete transfer from UWP to GOG any time soon? I've seen many on reddit having the same situation, where we've been waiting for almost a month without receiving a confirmation email. This feels really bad because not only couldn't we play the game since HC launched (almost 3 months now!) but we also missed the chance to craft a full premium collection on GOG. I know it's been said that this is Microsoft's fault but are there any plans to speed things up or compensate in some way (e.g. allow crafting premium cards with scrap)?

2) [Not a question.]

Keep up the good work!

 

[Darkegall247]

Hey, do you plan to bring back armor at all? i would even be fine if it was in small amounts for a high provision cost, something like 3 armor for 6 provisions. I miss having it, used to be a NR armor user.

 

[Mooseking86]

@Burza46

Any plans to allow players to change their 'Starter Artifact' for Round 1?

Maybe something similar to Thronebreaker (Standard / Manticore Head etc)

Would be a very nice addition for the Artifact to have synergy with builds.

Examples
Boost a unit by 2 (2 Charges), Damage a Unit by 5, Strengthen a Unit by 3, Reset an Allied Unit to Base Health, Unlock a Unit & Boost by 2, Lock a Unit & Damage by 2, Play a Bronze Weather Card from Your Deck, Summon a Copy of a Bronze Unit (3 Round Timer), Boost all Units on Melee / Ranged Row by 1 (3 round timer) etc.

Also having the R1 Artifact face down would be a very enjoyable layer of decision making for opponents.

 

[BibuGwent]

Hello again
Do you plan to add more background music in the game ? I really like the croockbag bog theme song ( when Geralt meets the crones )

Thanks

 

[qurbani]

1- Is the concept of lock thought to be in a good place in terms of game-play by the design team? I feel timed locks would help with adding more dynamism.
2- It feels bad when yrden erases all the effort/planning you put in to set up boosts. Is the card on the radar of the devs? Maybe it could only reset every other card on a row and therefore add some counter-play.
3- What happened to the idea of adding more interactivity to artifacts by giving them armour (which was mentioned in a dev
stream)?

 

[Wish]

Any plans to rework Regis: Higher Vampire?

 

[JimmyIan]

Can we expect drag&drop feature this month?