Opinions on Gwent's Current State

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rrc

Forum veteran
IIRC, you were the one who was so disappointed about NR's Echo card AA and said it is the weakest Echo card out there and was saying NR is so weak even though by that time Uprising was (and is still, but overshadowed by SW) very solid. And the sole reason you decided to quit was because you were thinking NR was very weak.

As the post above says, I can agree that it was the best decision for you.
 
IIRC, you were the one who was so disappointed about NR's Echo card AA and said it is the weakest Echo card out there and was saying NR is so weak even though by that time Uprising was (and is still, but overshadowed by SW) very solid. And the sole reason you decided to quit was because you were thinking NR was very weak.

As the post above says, I can agree that it was the best decision for you.
Lol, certain factions would sell their very soul for a card like AA....
 
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Yeah, guess it finally happened to me too. Game got too stressful and you can't even try anything different without playing against meta decks or rank 1 people even in casual mode. Got level 158 in journey, maybe i'll get to 160 and then quit for good, the burnout got me like it did to many others and to think I will need to get to 175 just for a title ( ciri's biggest fan, more like ciri's biggest grind ). Only thing I regret is that i am not a f2p player, i've actually invested a lot of money on this and I was rewarded with shitty luck on the hundreds of kegs I've opened. Tried to ask for an account reset, well out of luck cause you can't do it. Won't even address the many other problems the game has at the moment because the topics opened are many.
It's Life>> Gwent as always, even more when the game is in this sad state. Will look for a big renewal update, if not I guess I'll just collect my daily log-in reward for a very long time. Cheers
 
What the hell did you guys do to it? I get that there were some struggles pinning down effective balance and rules, but the current state is far too restrictive and leads to much less interesting decks than were once possible. I miss the old leader cards, I miss the old style gold, silver, bronze build, a lot of the cards themselves were rendered basically unusuable. It feels like playing a hollowed out version of Gwent. Not all of them are bad, supply limit is alright, two rows doesn't bother me.

I come back from time to time hoping to see some of the more recent changes reworked, but I'm pretty sure this direction is what is being committed to, and that's kinda sad because the game was in a much more interesting state a couple years ago. Much of the mind game that was once present is gone and it feels like the current state of decks that you just play them out.

~To the dungeon with you.
 
I think a problem is people are married to a faction and take it personal when their faction has been nerfed. While understandable, I think its best to play multiple factions and bounce around. You might enjoy a different one.
I think all factions should be and stay playable.....ST and NG got the most support, and believe me I feel the changes I came back to play gwent after 1year and what I see is a mess of a game
 
Hi there,
just realized now, and I have could realized far before, that playing an online game is quite a waste of time.

Gwent is, as the other online games with cards:

- meta-driven (for logical reasoning);
- endless (you will never finish anything, you only have little steps).

There are many other healthy activities that life and society offers:

- read a nice book (you will live the story);
- play a boardgame with friends (socialization, healthy competition);
- learn something new every day;
- learn to cook;
- you can really come up with anything.

And they are far better than staying in front of a computer waiting for luck to assist you.


At the beginning it will be difficult, but it is completely worth it.

Find excitement in simple things. You don't have to play hyperdecks, win rounds and crossing fingers for the right cards to come into your hand to live a happy life.


Ever thought of quitting this game or other games?


Do it immediately, as soon as you realize you need time for yourself.

If you stay, enjoy the expansion!

Good luck!
 

Guest 4375874

Guest
Hi there,
just realized now, and I have could realized far before, that playing an online game is quite a waste of time.

Gwent is, as the other online games with cards:

- meta-driven (for logical reasoning);
- endless (you will never finish anything, you only have little steps).

There are many other healthy activities that life and society offers:

- read a nice book (you will live the story);
- play a boardgame with friends (socialization, healthy competition);
- learn something new every day;
- learn to cook;
- you can really come up with anything.

And they are far better than staying in front of a computer waiting for luck to assist you.


At the beginning it will be difficult, but it is completely worth it.

Find excitement in simple things. You don't have to play hyperdecks, win rounds and crossing fingers for the right cards to come into your hand to live a happy life.


Ever thought of quitting this game or other games?


Do it immediately, as soon as you realize you need time for yourself.

If you stay, enjoy the expansion!

Good luck!
Already quit months ago but I was hoping this expansion would introduce some balance to bring me back to the game. It's however apparent what the chosen formula is:
Step 1 - Add some broken mechanic
Step 2 - Let the players argue over it for a few months to keep interest in the game no matter how toxic it becomes
Step 3 - Release a patch that partially address the issue so both parties feel inclined to keep playing
Step 4 - Repeat Step 1

That seems to be the business model the devs have agreed to go with for the game which just isn't why you play a game so I won't be playing again until that changes. Though from what I've seen this expansion building up to be (much of the same) this is probably my last bit of interest left in the game.
 
I have 1150+ hours on this game, I was really excited when I was introduced into this game because of the good things it brought into the card game land which are really high consistency thanks to the really thin 25 card decks plus 10 card opening hand plus mulligans, the pass system, the provision system etc. These traits made it a highly skillful game because you had to think about a lot of things while playing and building and that was just fun. However, with the road gwent is following since like I don't know iron judgement maybe (maybe even further back) it is becoming less and less appealing to me and I have been thinking a lot about why. I stopped playing this game 2 months ago because I stopped feeling like playing it one day and that's when I started thinking. I believe it mostly has to do with gameplay: we've been having binary interactions (artifacts and artifact removal being the main binary interaction) and binary interactions are not skillful, binary matchups between decks which leads to fixed game plans, not a lot of thinning options which leads to a lot of luck dependency, really and I mean really big power creep (and I don't understand how it can happen with the provision system in place) with stupid scenarios, 7p cards that get to 30 power and even bronze engines that are out of control, we also have really dull card designs in all expansions, all keywords give the same synergy literally, intimidate symbiosis etc give the same synergy for using special cards, all that changes is how the special card is categorized in each faction, it being called nature, crime, raid, organic etc and nothing else is different only the name. So yeah its all very dull, unskillful and stupid. I started playing again like three days ago just to see what's up in this game and reached pro rank without even trying, and I also have been losing to decks when having 1 card advantage and leader advantage at the same time (I mean damn how much power creep is out there?) both of which point to how unskillful the meta is. I am posting this to say that this game at its core is really good and fun but right now its straying away from that and that is a result of all the choices cdpr is making for it, I haven't even talked about 800 powder legendaries, big focus on skins which I don't like (I was against decoupling of leader abilities and their skin) and all that.
I say bring back max thinning for all decks but it should be skillful thinning not what we have now with thinning cards being 8 for 5 with no risk or thinking, have the deck be a resource and not something we have just to thin it, also define factions more give more meaning to categories, I have been thinking maybe they should have passive effects like being immune to something or regenarate damage over time for something like beasts for example and what not, be weak to certain things like weather maybe, so have rain damage a category by 2 instead of 1 etc also make the board and card placement more meaningful, bring back reach which was a really cool mechanic with potential that you ripped out for no reason , make effects have more to do with were they are placed on the board and what is in front of them, behind them, next to them etc. That is a good direction for Gwent the witcher card game in the opinion of a big admirer.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
I have 1150+ hours on this game, I was really excited when I was introduced into this game because of the good things it brought into the card game land which are really high consistency thanks to the really thin 25 card decks plus 10 card opening hand plus mulligans, the pass system, the provision system etc. These traits made it a highly skillful game because you had to think about a lot of things while playing and building and that was just fun. However, with the road gwent is following since like I don't know iron judgement maybe (maybe even further back) it is becoming less and less appealing to me and I have been thinking a lot about why. I stopped playing this game 2 months ago because I stopped feeling like playing it one day and that's when I started thinking. I believe it mostly has to do with gameplay: we've been having binary interactions (artifacts and artifact removal being the main binary interaction) and binary interactions are not skillful, binary matchups between decks which leads to fixed game plans, not a lot of thinning options which leads to a lot of luck dependency, really and I mean really big power creep (and I don't understand how it can happen with the provision system in place) with stupid scenarios, 7p cards that get to 30 power and even bronze engines that are out of control, we also have really dull card designs in all expansions, all keywords give the same synergy literally, intimidate symbiosis etc give the same synergy for using special cards, all that changes is how the special card is categorized in each faction, it being called nature, crime, raid, organic etc and nothing else is different only the name. So yeah its all very dull, unskillful and stupid. I started playing again like three days ago just to see what's up in this game and reached pro rank without even trying, and I also have been losing to decks when having 1 card advantage and leader advantage at the same time (I mean damn how much power creep is out there?) both of which point to how unskillful the meta is. I am posting this to say that this game at its core is really good and fun but right now its straying away from that and that is a result of all the choices cdpr is making for it, I haven't even talked about 800 powder legendaries, big focus on skins which I don't like (I was against decoupling of leader abilities and their skin) and all that.
I say bring back max thinning for all decks but it should be skillful thinning not what we have now with thinning cards being 8 for 5 with no risk or thinking, have the deck be a resource and not something we have just to thin it, also define factions more give more meaning to categories, I have been thinking maybe they should have passive effects like being immune to something or regenarate damage over time for something like beasts for example and what not, be weak to certain things like weather maybe, so have rain damage a category by 2 instead of 1 etc also make the board and card placement more meaningful, bring back reach which was a really cool mechanic with potential that you ripped out for no reason , make effects have more to do with were they are placed on the board and what is in front of them, behind them, next to them etc. That is a good direction for Gwent the witcher card game in the opinion of a big admirer.

1. Please start using paragraphs on long posts like that, it really helps other users to read it more smoothly, instead of these big walls of text, trust me, im one of the users who posts the longest entries in here and i obviously want them to be read.

2. I disagree, thinning does not make the game more skillful, quite the contrary, it makes players use a metadeck and always play it in the same way and still get great results. You distinguish 'skillful thinning' from the thinning we have now, but you are unclear on what's this means, and i think its a paradox.

3. Agree with the binary situation and how big of a problem it is, like most, and yes, the problem started exactly with Iron Judgement, with the introduction of defenders, then it increased with MoO and Scenarios. Master Mirror introduced evolving cards, which fortunately arent as decisive as the previous 2 types, but introduced too much thinning with AA, Oneiro and Blood Eagle, which elevated the binary issue.
Most decks just run a heatwave for everything, so if the opponent plays defender+scenario, the binary check is positive-negative, and all it takes is a negative for you to lose.

4. Yes, the powercreep is real, and its basically done on purpose, just to maximize profit from MTXs, while sacrificing balance.
And yes, a lot of the mechanics are displayed as different, to pretend there's much diversity, but they work exactly the same, usually just boost by 1 each time its triggered. Fortunately the new mechanic - Adrenaline - for the next expansion seems to be truly different and a breath of fresh air, even if its quite simple.
 

Guest 4375874

Guest
everything, so if the opponent plays defender+scenario, the binary check is positive-negative, and all it takes is a negative for you to lose.

4. Yes, the powercreep is real, and its basically done on purpose, just to maximize profit from MTXs, while sacrificing balance.
And yes, a lot of the mechanics are displayed as different, to pretend there's much diversity, but they work exactly the same, usually just boost by 1 each time its triggered. Fortunately the new mechanic - Adrenaline - for the next expansion seems to be truly different and a breath of fresh air, even if its quite simple.
The execution is different, however the result is the same...boost this or that when X along with the binary plays. All this does is paper over it in the same way the previous expansions did. Adrenaline is just the next "Evolving Card" or "Scenario" until the next shiny thing comes along, only surface level changes without balancing. Most of the adrenaline cards are power crept even without the adrenaline ability anyway.
I will say a step in the right direction was in the card that activates in the graveyard, sadly it wasn't a MO card but oh well. From what I've seen so far it's looking like I'll be skipping this expansion as well but hopefully we see more creative designs like that, maybe affecting the board, hand or deck.
 

ya1

Forum regular
I was really excited when I was introduced into this game because of the good things it brought into the card game land which are really high consistency thanks to the really thin 25 card decks plus 10 card opening hand plus mulligans

...and a lot of tutors and thinning. That's usually the arguments to defend Gwent as the most consistent CCG. It makes quite a lot of sense.

But IN MY OPINION it's quite the opposite. There is way too much of a gap between topend cards and low prov bronzes. And it's only getting worse. Like Gezras... how many Miners' worth of value does he got? 4? 5? With 8 units on ranged and 3 charges of Guerilla that's 47 points. That's almost 8 Miners' worth of value. And that's not even counting for synergies like Sentries or Cat Mentors. When one gold can be worth more than almost a full half of bronzes, the most important factor for the win is drawing into that gold. Until that RNG is evened out, and both players draw into a similar number of provisions (or get the binary interaction game zeroed out), nothing else really matters. Outside these situations, it's true RNG fiesta with zero player agency.
 
But IN MY OPINION it's quite the opposite. There is way too much of a gap between topend cards and low prov bronzes. And it's only getting worse. Like Gezras... how many Miners' worth of value does he got? 4? 5? With 8 units on ranged and 3 charges of Guerilla that's 47 points. That's almost 8 Miners' worth of value. And that's not even counting for synergies like Sentries or Cat Mentors. When one gold can be worth more than almost a full half of bronzes, the most important factor for the win is drawing into that gold. Until that RNG is evened out, and both players draw into a similar number of provisions (or get the binary interaction game zeroed out), nothing else really matters. Outside these situations, it's true RNG fiesta with zero player agency.
Exactly! And those who would argue that Gezras is “balanced” because he is easily removed totally miss the point — a binary win if not removed type of card does not make for a fun game. Not to counter needs to be a possible choice for every card.
 
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I'd then represent the other side of the coin and add that in my opinion, card design and creativity in WotW (be it powerful or not) already surpasses everything that came out under the past 3 expansions. I can only praise this direction and trust that CDPR continues adding creative options instead of streamlined, mindnumbing pointslams (or effects that technically do the very same under different tags).
 
1. Please start using paragraphs on long posts like that, it really helps other users to read it more smoothly, instead of these big walls of text, trust me, im one of the users who posts the longest entries in here and i obviously want them to be read.

2. I disagree, thinning does not make the game more skillful, quite the contrary, it makes players use a metadeck and always play it in the same way and still get great results. You distinguish 'skillful thinning' from the thinning we have now, but you are unclear on what's this means, and i think its a paradox.

3. Agree with the binary situation and how big of a problem it is, like most, and yes, the problem started exactly with Iron Judgement, with the introduction of defenders, then it increased with MoO and Scenarios. Master Mirror introduced evolving cards, which fortunately arent as decisive as the previous 2 types, but introduced too much thinning with AA, Oneiro and Blood Eagle, which elevated the binary issue.
Most decks just run a heatwave for everything, so if the opponent plays defender+scenario, the binary check is positive-negative, and all it takes is a negative for you to lose.

4. Yes, the powercreep is real, and its basically done on purpose, just to maximize profit from MTXs, while sacrificing balance.
And yes, a lot of the mechanics are displayed as different, to pretend there's much diversity, but they work exactly the same, usually just boost by 1 each time its triggered. Fortunately the new mechanic - Adrenaline - for the next expansion seems to be truly different and a breath of fresh air, even if its quite simple.

Yeah, a more readable text would be better indeed, I'll try now. About 'skillful thinning' I haven't thought of it enough to be a complete concept that I can propose for the game, but it's a general direction that I wish the game would go. RNG is bad, and it should be avoided as much as possible in my opinion. The one thing that I thought about linked with making thinning skillful is the deck be more of a resource than it is now.

Decks in gwent now consist of bad 4p cards and good 10-12p cards so what ends up being the only resource is the hand and the deck is just your future hand that you want as thin as possible so that you can have the best chances of drawing the good cards. This is not bad as a concept, its the core of card games. But we could be having bronzes matter as a resource like how frigates are for example for your AA or dwarves for novigradian justice. If this was pushed more to the point that you are losing points in r3 because you thinned r1 and r2, that would incorporate space for player choice and thus skill. You could also call skillful thinning cards that need a condition to thin like wild hunt riders so these 2 concepts in combination could lead to a competitive, non monotonous gameplan for decks. But all that is just an idea.

Another card design that already exists in the game to differentiate decks are good point ceiling bronzes like ghoul which suggest that you don't need thinning to have a good hand in r3, so we could be having decks that thin and decks that don't thin and it would be up to the player to decide what he likes more.

That along with card placement being more fleshed out which of course is already pursued by cdpr but pretty superficially and card categories being more differentiated from each other, like having unit categories being weak/resistant to other things or categories giving passive effects to the cards, would make the game deeper and more fun.

I don't know the general concept I would have as a dev in my head would be to go for lore 10/10 so nice and fun effects and balance on the way, which would be easy if you don't have the points a card generates stray away from its provisions too much and deeper and deeper and more difficult to grasp gameplay.
 

DRK3

Forum veteran
Yeah, a more readable text would be better indeed, I'll try now. About 'skillful thinning' I haven't thought of it enough to be a complete concept that I can propose for the game, but it's a general direction that I wish the game would go. RNG is bad, and it should be avoided as much as possible in my opinion. The one thing that I thought about linked with making thinning skillful is the deck be more of a resource than it is now.

Decks in gwent now consist of bad 4p cards and good 10-12p cards so what ends up being the only resource is the hand and the deck is just your future hand that you want as thin as possible so that you can have the best chances of drawing the good cards. This is not bad as a concept, its the core of card games. But we could be having bronzes matter as a resource like how frigates are for example for your AA or dwarves for novigradian justice. If this was pushed more to the point that you are losing points in r3 because you thinned r1 and r2, that would incorporate space for player choice and thus skill. You could also call skillful thinning cards that need a condition to thin like wild hunt riders so these 2 concepts in combination could lead to a competitive, non monotonous gameplan for decks. But all that is just an idea.

Another card design that already exists in the game to differentiate decks are good point ceiling bronzes like ghoul which suggest that you don't need thinning to have a good hand in r3, so we could be having decks that thin and decks that don't thin and it would be up to the player to decide what he likes more.

That along with card placement being more fleshed out which of course is already pursued by cdpr but pretty superficially and card categories being more differentiated from each other, like having unit categories being weak/resistant to other things or categories giving passive effects to the cards, would make the game deeper and more fun.

I don't know the general concept I would have as a dev in my head would be to go for lore 10/10 so nice and fun effects and balance on the way, which would be easy if you don't have the points a card generates stray away from its provisions too much and deeper and deeper and more difficult to grasp gameplay.

AA and Novigrad Justice are OP and other factions wish they had cards like those. Yes, AA also has a flexibility and a good push to make bronzes better, but Novigrad Justice is just used as pointslam+ thinning (13pts + 2 thinning).

You say skillful thinning cards should have a condition... If you check the deck builder, you will see EVERY SINGLE ONE of those thinning bronzes does have a condition already. Some are just easier than others.

You can definitely make a decision on how much thinning/tutoring you need, and you can neglect those and still have a good deck. The meta is dominated by those polarized decks with really expensive and really bad cards, but i personally gravitate towards more balanced decks and getting better value out of bronzes and i do just fine.

You also mention card placement... Check the new ST cards for the expansion and they're all about placement, unfortunately on other factions it still doesnt matter much. Yet i see even pros making placement mistakes all the time, playing into treasons or tavern brawls... so placement is not totally irrelevant right now.
 
AA and Novigrad Justice are OP and other factions wish they had cards like those. Yes, AA also has a flexibility and a good push to make bronzes better, but Novigrad Justice is just used as pointslam+ thinning (13pts + 2 thinning).

You say skillful thinning cards should have a condition... If you check the deck builder, you will see EVERY SINGLE ONE of those thinning bronzes does have a condition already. Some are just easier than others.

You can definitely make a decision on how much thinning/tutoring you need, and you can neglect those and still have a good deck. The meta is dominated by those polarized decks with really expensive and really bad cards, but i personally gravitate towards more balanced decks and getting better value out of bronzes and i do just fine.

You also mention card placement... Check the new ST cards for the expansion and they're all about placement, unfortunately on other factions it still doesnt matter much. Yet i see even pros making placement mistakes all the time, playing into treasons or tavern brawls... so placement is not totally irrelevant right now.

Yeah, that's what I meant about placement being already pursued as an element by cdpr, it totally matters even now. Also about AA and justice, they are indeed busted and kinda dumb I also believe that, I was trying to point to the concept of cards being a resource inside the deck, thus making the deck a resource.

In the end, what needs to change in this game is of course polarization and to stop that you need to stop printing cards that are purely busted like AA and justice and scenarios in every expansion just to get people to buy the new kegs, but also the game needs to advance its gameplay in fun ways which is what has been missing in gwent since always. Even without the busted cards having been printed the game has not been advancing and that's what has disappointed me most I feel.
 
came back to gwent after a while, only to get reminded in a couple of games why i left it, how can u guys still play this atrocious boring unfair garbage is beyond me
 
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