My first conclusions about homecoming after playing it and experimenting with it for about an hour and half is that this game is a promising "work in progress".
Now, what do I mean by that? (I won't talk about the multiple bugs and engine issues here and will focus on the game mechanics).
THE GOOD :
- The game is visually stunning and I really, REALLY enjoy it.
- The two rows work well, far better than the old system. it finally feels like they matter and it really makes the game more interesting.
- The fact that you can do more than one action per turn.
- The coin flip doesn't matter anymore (or at least not the same way as before which is good although I haven't played it enough to really tell).
- Artifacts are a nice addition.
- The new leader system feels quite nice.
- The "anti dry pass" politic. I love the fact that it makes the whole match less coinflip dependent.
- Some cards are finally raising back from the dead.
THE BAD :
- My biggest issue with this new gwent is quite complex. I never thought that I'd say that but not having obvious archetypes and synergies actually gives each deck way less personality. I was all for making cards' effects more "general" to allow archetypes to be more diverse but in the end, we have the same possible archetypes than before but they're extremely harder to build if not impossible. Let me take an example, Skellige. I tried to build a deck around discarded units because it's kind of skellige's signature deck I think. So I put in my deck all the "discard" cards I could find and... Reached only half the number of cards I needed. So I tried to fill in with beasts, which boosts themselves by the number of beasts in the graveyard. It all seemed good on paper but when I played it, it turned out to be very suboptimal. it felt like there wasn't much synergy between cards overall and the deck I had built had no "Identity". Now don't get me wrong, cards being more "playable" and unrestricted to a certain type of deck is a good idea but with the limit of two copies per deck, it highly reduces the synergy capacities of a deck. it's like cards work by groups of 5 instead of working as a full deck which is a BIG downside for me. Now I think that all this can and will be fixed with little tweaks to card effects and balancing changes in the next couple months, I really have faith that CDPR is going to find the right "middle ground" between "no archetype at all" and "only a few archetypes possible".
- I dislike the fact that some cards changed roles for no particular reason. Greatswords became some kind of new axemen, wolfsbane is old sihil, etc. Why chanding sihil if you were going to keep this effect in the game anyways? I don't think that the current axemen feel more of an "axemen" than it was before, just like greatswords don't feel more "greatswords" than they were before (what I mean by that is that if you had switched the effects so that they matched the card or character better then I would've been all for it but it's not the case and that's where my problem is). Changing effects that way feels kind of... Useless?
Overall I do believe that homecoming was the right decision to take but in it's current form, I don't think I'll enjoy playing it as much as before. To me, RIGHT NOW homecoming is in a "not quite there yet" state. I trust CDPR to make this game epic and better than the current version of gwent and I will definitely stick around and play more of homecoming in the future (hell I already preordered thronebreaker) but to me, this game isn't finished. That being said, we're still at the early stages of that game and I believe that all the things that I think are wrong right now, will be fixed in the next couple months so, again, I'm not worried about the future of one of my favorite games.[/QUOTE]
Now, what do I mean by that? (I won't talk about the multiple bugs and engine issues here and will focus on the game mechanics).
THE GOOD :
- The game is visually stunning and I really, REALLY enjoy it.
- The two rows work well, far better than the old system. it finally feels like they matter and it really makes the game more interesting.
- The fact that you can do more than one action per turn.
- The coin flip doesn't matter anymore (or at least not the same way as before which is good although I haven't played it enough to really tell).
- Artifacts are a nice addition.
- The new leader system feels quite nice.
- The "anti dry pass" politic. I love the fact that it makes the whole match less coinflip dependent.
- Some cards are finally raising back from the dead.
THE BAD :
- My biggest issue with this new gwent is quite complex. I never thought that I'd say that but not having obvious archetypes and synergies actually gives each deck way less personality. I was all for making cards' effects more "general" to allow archetypes to be more diverse but in the end, we have the same possible archetypes than before but they're extremely harder to build if not impossible. Let me take an example, Skellige. I tried to build a deck around discarded units because it's kind of skellige's signature deck I think. So I put in my deck all the "discard" cards I could find and... Reached only half the number of cards I needed. So I tried to fill in with beasts, which boosts themselves by the number of beasts in the graveyard. It all seemed good on paper but when I played it, it turned out to be very suboptimal. it felt like there wasn't much synergy between cards overall and the deck I had built had no "Identity". Now don't get me wrong, cards being more "playable" and unrestricted to a certain type of deck is a good idea but with the limit of two copies per deck, it highly reduces the synergy capacities of a deck. it's like cards work by groups of 5 instead of working as a full deck which is a BIG downside for me. Now I think that all this can and will be fixed with little tweaks to card effects and balancing changes in the next couple months, I really have faith that CDPR is going to find the right "middle ground" between "no archetype at all" and "only a few archetypes possible".
- I dislike the fact that some cards changed roles for no particular reason. Greatswords became some kind of new axemen, wolfsbane is old sihil, etc. Why chanding sihil if you were going to keep this effect in the game anyways? I don't think that the current axemen feel more of an "axemen" than it was before, just like greatswords don't feel more "greatswords" than they were before (what I mean by that is that if you had switched the effects so that they matched the card or character better then I would've been all for it but it's not the case and that's where my problem is). Changing effects that way feels kind of... Useless?
Overall I do believe that homecoming was the right decision to take but in it's current form, I don't think I'll enjoy playing it as much as before. To me, RIGHT NOW homecoming is in a "not quite there yet" state. I trust CDPR to make this game epic and better than the current version of gwent and I will definitely stick around and play more of homecoming in the future (hell I already preordered thronebreaker) but to me, this game isn't finished. That being said, we're still at the early stages of that game and I believe that all the things that I think are wrong right now, will be fixed in the next couple months so, again, I'm not worried about the future of one of my favorite games.[/QUOTE]
I think I'll be most likely finishing with Gwent. It lost it's feeling, like absolutely lost it.
The small numbers on cards are driving me nuts - it's like there is zero diversity.
Cards from the Hand on the MURKY battlefield are annoying to identify.
Leaders still look like crap.
The cards next to those crappy leaders look out of place on the MURKY terrain - like from a different game. Maybe remove the backgrounds and the frames, so they can look more like UNITS than cards, as this looks/feels like anything but a card game right now.
Speaking of different game - have I mentioned Disciples 2 (still better game than this "Homecoming", BTW).
Anyway.
I love the art, some of the new visuals like mulligan screen, Deckbuilder background) but to me Gwent lost it's unique atmosphere.
I'm sad.
The small numbers on cards are driving me nuts - it's like there is zero diversity.
Cards from the Hand on the MURKY battlefield are annoying to identify.
Leaders still look like crap.
The cards next to those crappy leaders look out of place on the MURKY terrain - like from a different game. Maybe remove the backgrounds and the frames, so they can look more like UNITS than cards, as this looks/feels like anything but a card game right now.
Speaking of different game - have I mentioned Disciples 2 (still better game than this "Homecoming", BTW).
Anyway.
I love the art, some of the new visuals like mulligan screen, Deckbuilder background) but to me Gwent lost it's unique atmosphere.
I'm sad.
There's a typo in the Monsters description in the 'Choose a faction' menu. The description opens with 'Humans like the think they are the masters of the Continent.'
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A few early thoughts / suggestions regarding the deck builder.
- Add more filters, e.g. card rarity (Leader, Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary) with multiple options selectable.
- Add a Spares option alongside New, Owned, Unowned so that we can quickly see which cards we have spares of.
- Add sorting options, e.g. by Rarity, by Provision Cost, by Base Power, Alphabetically. Both ascending and descending. Preferably with multiple levels of sorting.
- Show actual number of copies owned, not "9+" if we have 10 or more copies.
- When we preview a card in the deck builder, allow a way to temporarily hide the Power and Provision overlays so that we can see the full artwork in all its glory.
- Better deck management. More options, e.g sorting, filters, favourites, preview (display of cards in deck, without entering deck-building mode). The existing basic list of decks is a bit unwieldy and could be more user friendly.
- Facility to display a selected deck in other ways, e.g. full screen grid of card images, preferably with sorting (similar to what we see while drafting in Arena) and including the new hover-over card description tooltips. The existing list format is a little inadequate, especially as you have to scroll to see all the cards in your deck.
- Ability to exit deck-building without saving changes, i.e. undo changes.
I enjoyed PTR so far but I think there are a few bugs:
- Missing tooltip for Shupe's Day Off
- Mahakam Volunteers ability triggers on Ranged row
- Lyrian Cavalry boosts when oponnent plays units from players graveyard
- Can't add anymore charges when all charges are used
- connection problems in friendly matches
- there is no Artifact Keyword, so you cant find Artifacts easily in the Deck Builder
In addition I really like the new mechanics and the overall look of the game, but I dislike the fact of only two copies of each units. It seems to lack consistency. Furthermore the fact of a hand card limit seems a bit restrictive.
- Missing tooltip for Shupe's Day Off
- Mahakam Volunteers ability triggers on Ranged row
- Lyrian Cavalry boosts when oponnent plays units from players graveyard
- Can't add anymore charges when all charges are used
- connection problems in friendly matches
- there is no Artifact Keyword, so you cant find Artifacts easily in the Deck Builder
In addition I really like the new mechanics and the overall look of the game, but I dislike the fact of only two copies of each units. It seems to lack consistency. Furthermore the fact of a hand card limit seems a bit restrictive.
"Permanently increase damage by 1", I got it up to 8 per turn and took the round, expecting it to stay when I resurrected it with caretaker. But it resets to 1 in the graveyard, and stays at 1 when resurrected.
I thought it'd be fun to make a deck based entirely around this card, and then resurrecting the card in the following round, but the word "permanently" here means "temporarily", so the deck doesn't work.
I thought it'd be fun to make a deck based entirely around this card, and then resurrecting the card in the following round, but the word "permanently" here means "temporarily", so the deck doesn't work.
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I played 3 games with a deathwish-deck and must admitt i never played a deathwishdeck as dull as this. I didnt expected to win (and i dont 
).
First things first, the things i liked about the new stuff i saw:
- the audio for each (premium) card was good.
- the strive ability
- the lower strenght avarage.
That's all. All other stuff was at is best mediocre. But lets keep the order, some suggesion, you can probably fix:
- if you play a card i missed the impact feeling this card has. Visual and audio as well.
- why you pass, if you played your last card and you have an order card outside you still can activate, while you Opponent still have cards at hand.
- Mulligan often didnt showed up. I could only mulligan for 6/9 times. No Letho was played
- ending the turn manually will prolong the game, because if there other players like me, they will forget to press the button.
- activate Leaderability should be 1 turn. So you can only play 1 card per turn and not like Morvran 2.
- some cards are still undeniably better than others and provision costs dont come up with it.
Now to the heavy stuff, which will end gwent for me:
- i missplaced a card in my games, but still: rows doesnt matter at all. They are just a possibility to choose an ability.
- too many cards thats just destroy a single card (i entered 3, maybe i got just countered by it and they arent a problem at all, cant really judge it).
- two copies are bullocks
- two rows are still not understandable for me. I didnt saw a single card, that profits from it. I still just play my cards evenly divided at both rows. So look back two point above: I coulndnt escape gigni or example.
- order mechanic looks good at first sight but didnt play smoothly, many tempo (gamewise, not tactical) lost while playing, too many advantages can be conserved by it (phoenix hatchling for example)
- worse optic (battleground), thats just too dark, too many stuff at the border, just a tiny clear field at the middle. Its like a tunnel where i can see the light.
- i still cant find the different for gold and bronze cards without zoom in. Get them some brighter color
- zoom to the opponent if it is his/her turn didnt feel right, i want to still see my hand as well. What was wrong before?
All the stuff short: I dont get it why you went this way and why you chose some gameaspects which are at least debatable. You thow away all you learned throught out the beta and let this happen. And even if there is a PTR now i doubt you will change anything besides spelling errors, which mean we couldnt test it at all.
Even shorter: Bye.
).First things first, the things i liked about the new stuff i saw:
- the audio for each (premium) card was good.
- the strive ability
- the lower strenght avarage.
That's all. All other stuff was at is best mediocre. But lets keep the order, some suggesion, you can probably fix:
- if you play a card i missed the impact feeling this card has. Visual and audio as well.
- why you pass, if you played your last card and you have an order card outside you still can activate, while you Opponent still have cards at hand.
- Mulligan often didnt showed up. I could only mulligan for 6/9 times. No Letho was played
- ending the turn manually will prolong the game, because if there other players like me, they will forget to press the button.
- activate Leaderability should be 1 turn. So you can only play 1 card per turn and not like Morvran 2.
- some cards are still undeniably better than others and provision costs dont come up with it.
Now to the heavy stuff, which will end gwent for me:
- i missplaced a card in my games, but still: rows doesnt matter at all. They are just a possibility to choose an ability.
- too many cards thats just destroy a single card (i entered 3, maybe i got just countered by it and they arent a problem at all, cant really judge it).
- two copies are bullocks
- two rows are still not understandable for me. I didnt saw a single card, that profits from it. I still just play my cards evenly divided at both rows. So look back two point above: I coulndnt escape gigni or example.
- order mechanic looks good at first sight but didnt play smoothly, many tempo (gamewise, not tactical) lost while playing, too many advantages can be conserved by it (phoenix hatchling for example)
- worse optic (battleground), thats just too dark, too many stuff at the border, just a tiny clear field at the middle. Its like a tunnel where i can see the light.
- i still cant find the different for gold and bronze cards without zoom in. Get them some brighter color
- zoom to the opponent if it is his/her turn didnt feel right, i want to still see my hand as well. What was wrong before?
All the stuff short: I dont get it why you went this way and why you chose some gameaspects which are at least debatable. You thow away all you learned throught out the beta and let this happen. And even if there is a PTR now i doubt you will change anything besides spelling errors, which mean we couldnt test it at all.
Even shorter: Bye.
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Foltest doesn't work as intended. I put down a unit without Zeal. I use Foltest on it but then it won't let me activate it.
Some random first impressions:
With how little of the cards in hand you show it's hard to recognize cards.
The new way you display putting cards down feels very unintuitive.
The lack of sound cues stands out like a sore thumb.
Provisions is by far the best change made to the game ever.
Triggered animations take way way too long.
Being able to trigger leaders in the same turn as playing cards makes for some really stupid tempo plays. Like, why on earth is Harald-Dagur a thing ? You have the average card being like 7 points and combine this with rain and you have a 26 points swing. Also, Morvran literally reads "Play 2 cards this turn", like WHAT ?!
And lastly, and I'll gladly admit this might just be a "get used to it" thing, but the hand limit feels incredibly restraining. One of the few things that made this game work was the timing of when to pass, but with the hand limit and card draw implemented at the moment there are large periods of time where passing is just not an option (unless extreme circumstances). I'm left wondering if it's gonna lead to some really degenerate play where people dump their worst cards then pass early because the opponent doesn't gain that much of an advantage from an early victory. The only thing you lose is last round initiative, which admittedly is important, but it's still very minor compared to the risk of losing a card.
With how little of the cards in hand you show it's hard to recognize cards.
The new way you display putting cards down feels very unintuitive.
The lack of sound cues stands out like a sore thumb.
Provisions is by far the best change made to the game ever.
Triggered animations take way way too long.
Being able to trigger leaders in the same turn as playing cards makes for some really stupid tempo plays. Like, why on earth is Harald-Dagur a thing ? You have the average card being like 7 points and combine this with rain and you have a 26 points swing. Also, Morvran literally reads "Play 2 cards this turn", like WHAT ?!
And lastly, and I'll gladly admit this might just be a "get used to it" thing, but the hand limit feels incredibly restraining. One of the few things that made this game work was the timing of when to pass, but with the hand limit and card draw implemented at the moment there are large periods of time where passing is just not an option (unless extreme circumstances). I'm left wondering if it's gonna lead to some really degenerate play where people dump their worst cards then pass early because the opponent doesn't gain that much of an advantage from an early victory. The only thing you lose is last round initiative, which admittedly is important, but it's still very minor compared to the risk of losing a card.
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Cards like Gascon should not have a place in Gwent. This is the type of RNG everyone hated here.
Same here
Looks like I won't be playing PTR after all.