Insane Grind for Journey Cosmetics with 175 Levels?

[Lantea]

I am wondering if anyone else has an issue with or is dissapointed by the crazy grind that was created by increasing the Journey from 100 levels to 175 if you want to unlock some of the top cosmetics for Ciri.
This takes it, IMO, from an enjoyable event into a stupid grind that has you playing for hours each day for 3 months if you want to get the best cosmetics; or alternatively you need to spend around $70 extra to compensate for the levels going to 175 instead of the standard 100.

After Slama said they would allow leveling after lvl 100 and give 2 reward points for each level that sounded great; in case you finish early you have some extra points to play for. Why not keep it at that? Why move the cosmetics all the way to level 175 and in effect put them behind a huge pay wall or insane grind wall? Why sour the whole Journey by this? It makes zero sense to me, but would love to hear what other players think of this.

For the details on the numbers a detailed calculation was done by Lexard here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gwent/comments/i3lr3z
"Journey lasts 92 days. Last meaningful level is 175.
175/92 = ~2 levels/day.
You can get ~6 levels/week from quests, that leaves ~8 levels/week to get by playing the game.

more detailed info:
We need: 175 levels = 175 x 24 crowns = 4200 crowns.
Daily bonus crowns: 92 days = 92 x 28 doubled crowns = 2576 crowns.
Weekly quests: 12 weeks = 12 x 6 x 20 crowns = 1440 crowns.
We will get: 2576 + 1440 = 4016 crowns.
We will miss: 4200 - 4016 = 184 crowns = 2 crowns/day.
Conclusion: If somebody wants 175 levels without more $$$ then he/she needs to win 16 rounds/day.

for F2P players:
They will miss: 12 x 3 x 20 crowns = 720 crowns (from weekly quests) = another ~8 crowns/day (7.83 rounds/day).
Conclusion: If F2P players want 175 levels then they need to win ~24 rounds/day (23.83 rounds/day)."

 

[rrc]

That is just daunting. When Slama said you can progress after Level 100, I didn't think he meant, now there are 175 levels for you to get all cosmetics. I thought only the RPs will cycle through. Basically, this is expecting players to do 175 levels in 3 months, that is just insane. I would have expected all the possible cosmetics are achieved at Level 100 and after that possibly some missions to only give RPs. This is disappointing and kind of gives Deja Vu.

 

[Draconifors]

You, and everyone else saying the same thing, are basically complaining that they put in additional rewards compared to the previous Journey. There is exactly nothing wrong with having incentive to play a lot, because it's all optional.

Last Journey many were complaining that after reaching level 100 the game was less rewarding, and now that the devs fixed the problem people complain that it's too difficult to obtain the top-tier rewards intended for players who do plan to play a lot.

The devs just cannot win, can they.

 

[InkognitoXI]

You, and everyone else saying the same thing, are basically complaining that they put in additional rewards compared to the previous Journey. There is exactly nothing wrong with having incentive to play a lot, because it's all optional.

Last Journey many were complaining that after reaching level 100 the game was less rewarding, and now that the devs fixed the problem people complain that it's too difficult to obtain the top-tier rewards intended for players who do plan to play a lot.

The devs just cannot win, can they.

But they added progressively increasing reward points in the reward book after level 100.
Collectors however are pressured to get to level 175 to get all the cosmetics.
The top answer they had was perfect (from my point of view), rather than leaving journey you keep getting a lot of reward points.

At level 101 you get 10 RP for just 1 level up and then 10 for 4 more, 15 for 10 more etc until you get 20 for 15 levels

 

[Lexor]

Last Journey many were complaining that after reaching level 100 the game was less rewarding, and now that the devs fixed the problem people complain that it's too difficult to obtain the top-tier rewards intended for players who do plan to play a lot.

The problem is: in previous journey by paying a small fee you were able to get all meaningful rewards just by playing casually.

This journey most casual players (which is Gwent, or any other F2P game, based on) expected to be the same way but it's not so now they feel cheated.

If you are developer and you are promoting some minority then your game will lose audience = you will gain less $ in the future. That's the brutal truth and shows that devs clearly do not understand the market of F2P games.

 

[Draconifors]

None of those arguments invalidate what I said. And since I'm not a developer, I quite frankly do not even care. Maybe they'lll change the system for Jounrey #3, maybe they won't.

 

[Lantea]

You, and everyone else saying the same thing, are basically complaining that they put in additional rewards compared to the previous Journey. There is exactly nothing wrong with having incentive to play a lot, because it's all optional.

Last Journey many were complaining that after reaching level 100 the game was less rewarding, and now that the devs fixed the problem people complain that it's too difficult to obtain the top-tier rewards intended for players who do plan to play a lot.

The devs just cannot win, can they.

There would be no complaints with the new system IF the Journey was actually just 100 levels to get the full Journey experience; and if you finish it early you get extra reward points, and that's it.

By making unique and possibly the best cosmetics contingent on reaching way past level 100 all the way to level 175, the developers have in effect increased the standard Journey to 175 levels of grind to get the time limited cosmetics; that is not ok IMO; why not just give out extra reward points past lvl 100 so you don't pressure players to reach lvl 175? That is the part that makes no sense to me and sours the whole Journey experience.

I hope the devs realize this and either move the cosmetics under lvl 100 or put in more weekly challenges to be able to reach all cosmetics without insane grinding.

Or maybe even better change the past level 100 quests to instead require you to play 'X' number of matches with Ciri avatar, so that the quests can be finished even after the Journey finishes and does not pressure you to grind in the limited 3 months with 175 Journey levels.

 

[rrc]

You, and everyone else saying the same thing, are basically complaining that they put in additional rewards compared to the previous Journey. There is exactly nothing wrong with having incentive to play a lot, because it's all optional.

Last Journey many were complaining that after reaching level 100 the game was less rewarding, and now that the devs fixed the problem people complain that it's too difficult to obtain the top-tier rewards intended for players who do plan to play a lot.

The devs just cannot win, can they.

In last journey, after reaching Level 100, people were put in the standard Daily Rewards which made the weekly journey quests and the rested bonus to go waste. The best thing the devs could have done is, finish the journey at Level 100 (where you get all the possible Cosmetics from the journey) and just extend the journey so that you can still benefit from weekly journey quests and the well rested bonuses. But now, this journey is effectively 175 Levels long for three months which is insane.
But in this journey it may be doable since we have this amazing seasonal mode in which you can get more Crowns... If the same thing happens in the next journey it would be just impossible even for someone who spends 2 or 3 hours a day in Gwent which is more than being a causal player.

 

[Wobbrrs]

Just curious which cosmetic requires journey level 175?

The highest one I see currently is the Scarlet Ronin at level 160.

Also not sure if anyone else has this Bug:
Play 150 Games with any Ciri Outfit to get the Silver Zireael Sword is not tracking.

 

[Lokiat0r]

Also not sure if anyone else has this Bug:
Play 150 Games with any Ciri Outfit to get the Silver Zireael Sword is not tracking.

Yeah, it bugged out for me when I added it to the tracker as well. It started counting up again once I stopped tracking it, though.

As for the 175 levels issue, I'm hoping we'll see some choose-a-faction events with crown rewards to help players along. But for now, I intend to grind crowns using the seasonal mode. I can easily play 2-3 times as many games in that mode as in standard or ranked.

 

[Lexor]

But in this journey it may be doable since we have this amazing seasonal mode in which you can get more Crowns...

This seasonal mode is only for one month, not for the whole journey.

And it is probably not worth the time to play "more rounds then needed" as you will lose well rested bonus.

The best thing you can do is to play 6 additional rounds per day per one (current) month (by using current seasonal mode) instead of 2 additional rounds per day per three months - it will save you some time but not that much.

 

[croloris]

I disagree RRC.

I was among the people who Paid $25 and finished journey in week 6, at the old rewards system pace of 18 rounds won a day.

This season, I bought just the basic premium accesspass. Currently after one day i am at level 8... so I'm roughly on pace to reach level 735. Admittedly, i did all of the bonus quests, but still i have no fear of reaching level 175.

I actually will commend CDPR for getting this system correct... hopefully they will now have time to update more legacy cards like Dandelion Vainglory and fix the botched updates to cars like ceremonial dagger and Saskia.

 

[Lexor]

Currently after one day i am at level 8... so I'm roughly on pace to reach level 735.

That's a really bad example, as quests give you a lot of crowns but they are weekly.

You played till 18 won rounds per day - yes, that's enough to reach 175 level (you need "only" 16 won rounds per day).

But the majotiry of players in Gwent are casuals and they do not have that time you have.

 

[EvanDavidson]

I am wondering if anyone else has an issue with or is dissapointed by the crazy grind that was created by increasing the Journey from 100 levels to 175 if you want to unlock some of the top cosmetics for Ciri.
This takes it, IMO, from an enjoyable event into a stupid grind that has you playing for hours each day for 3 months if you want to get the best cosmetics; or alternatively you need to spend around $70 extra to compensate for the levels going to 175 instead of the standard 100.

After Slama said they would allow leveling after lvl 100 and give 2 reward points for each level that sounded great; in case you finish early you have some extra points to play for. Why not keep it at that? Why move the cosmetics all the way to level 175 and in effect put them behind a huge pay wall or insane grind wall? Why sour the whole Journey by this? It makes zero sense to me, but would love to hear what other players think of this.

For the details on the numbers a detailed calculation was done by Lexard here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gwent/comments/i3lr3z
"Journey lasts 92 days. Last meaningful level is 175.
175/92 = ~2 levels/day.
You can get ~6 levels/week from quests, that leaves ~8 levels/week to get by playing the game.

more detailed info:
We need: 175 levels = 175 x 24 crowns = 4200 crowns.
Daily bonus crowns: 92 days = 92 x 28 doubled crowns = 2576 crowns.
Weekly quests: 12 weeks = 12 x 6 x 20 crowns = 1440 crowns.
We will get: 2576 + 1440 = 4016 crowns.
We will miss: 4200 - 4016 = 184 crowns = 2 crowns/day.
Conclusion: If somebody wants 175 levels without more $$$ then he/she needs to win 16 rounds/day.

for F2P players:
They will miss: 12 x 3 x 20 crowns = 720 crowns (from weekly quests) = another ~8 crowns/day (7.83 rounds/day).
Conclusion: If F2P players want 175 levels then they need to win ~24 rounds/day (23.83 rounds/day)."

100% spot on! The grind in general for this game is just WAAAAAAYYY to much.

 

[Six-Sided-Prism]

I was among the people who Paid $25 and finished journey in week 6, at the old rewards system pace of 18 rounds won a day.

This season, I bought just the basic premium accesspass. Currently after one day i am at level 8... so I'm roughly on pace to reach level 735. Admittedly, i did all of the bonus quests, but still i have no fear of reaching level 175.

Well, you start at level 1 and doing all the week 1 quests accounts for 5 of those levels. Therefore, you only earned 2 levels from rounds won, and 14 of those 48 crowns were from the well-rested bonus. If you continue to win 30+ rounds each day, which is far, far above the average player, then you would end up at around level 240 (2 levels per day plus 5 levels each week from the quests), definitely not 735.

For the average player who invests $10 in the regular Premium pass and plays normally, getting to level 175 isn't really an achievable goal. Doing every quest on both tracks and getting the full well-rested bonus of 14 crowns every single day still only gets you to level 165.

I'm all for allowing players to earn extra daily rewards by exceeding level 100, but all of the unique collectables should definitely be placed within the base 100 levels. Everything after that should just be reward points or resources.

 

[Lantea]

I'm all for allowing players to earn extra daily rewards by exceeding level 100, but all of the unique collectables should definitely be placed within the base 100 levels. Everything after that should just be reward points or resources.

This is how it should be done. If the devs want grind at all costs them make the extra cosmetics for playing 500 matches with Ciri avatar or something stupid like that; but at least it won't be time limited to 3 months and casual players will be able to unlock it in 1 or 2 years of normal play.

 

[RichardIgnanz]

Yeah, it's a lot of grinding.

To be correct you have to level 174 times.

I calculated it for me how I would reach level 175. In the current state (playing a few games a day) I would not reach it. I admit, I bought myselve in. Buying the Premium and the 25 extra levels and thinking about buying a few more.

Actually it's silly - some cosmetics and achievements - but I do want to get to level 175.

 

[EduFerraz]

which cosmetic need level 175?

I only see ronin escarlate wich needs 160.

Also, i am already level 9 in the second day, i think its ok to get level 160 doing all the quests and getting dayly extra crowns

 

[Lantea]

i am already level 9 in the second day

Thats only because the weekly quests gave you 6 levels right away, see how far you get in the next 5 days without those, or in a month when there will be no speed-mode seasonal.

 

[sfruzz]

Last Journey many were complaining that after reaching level 100 the game was less rewarding, and now that the devs fixed the problem people complain that it's too difficult to obtain the top-tier rewards intended for players who do plan to play a lot.

The devs just cannot win, can they.

You can’t please everyone. The devs can win by pleasing a fair share of their paying customers.

For the record, I like the old system better. I don't like when devs incentives the grind.
Just in general, not related to this specific case. I think that by encouraging grinders, you are encouraging an unhealthy behavior among players.