Open PTR feedback

[ttugamer]

Overall enjoy homecoming but the pace of games is way too slow. Matches take forever. I also dislike the lack of consistency that decks have now, it makes the game feel too draw dependent and RNG based. Leaders with 1 and 2 mulligans feels especially punishing for not drawing well

 

[time_drainer]

Playing some more with PTR and probably finishing with it for now, I'm still undecided. Most of what I have to say has been described here, so won't go into details if I have nothing to add (didn't read all the pages so far though).

• Order mechanics seem interesting enough, but makes the turns dragging somewhat. Though maybe it's more because of slow animations and such.
• The row system feels good, much better than current system. There may be some room for improvement, maybe with a lot of effort it could be made workable for 3 rows as well, but with this system the third row does seem unnecessary.
• Coinflip solution kind of works. Some people complain about TA being too strong, but I still feel it can be overcome and still only second player can gain CA (if the round lasts long enough), so I don't feel that first player got the advantage now. +1 Mulligan is nice and all, but too little to fight inconsistency (see later).
• Artifacts can be nice supporting cards, but too strong artifacts (yeah Sihil mainly) are even more binary, than current gold weather. You either have a counter (which are quite bleh in most other situations, so you won't have your deck full with them) or you might as well just forfeit.
• Same goes for leader abilities and being able to play them together with a card: it's interesting of how you can support your other plays with it, but it's too easy to make some insane move with zero opportunity to get countered. Like Eithne to MegaScorch, Eredin to strong engine (e.g. ex-Sabbath), Calveit into playing a strong deploy effect twice. I think even Foltest to Gaunter is an interaction that shouldn't exist, that card has summoning sickness for good reason. For this reason I can almost forgive players playing Usurper, the most toxic leader ever, that just shouldn't exist. Almost.
• There may be more to the round system (card limit) than getting rid of crap in first two rounds, but neither me nor my opponents know any better, so this is exactly how it plays out for now. Maybe it's just lack of meta knowledge though, as we don't know which match-ups it's worth to risk CA for bleeding or last say. Maybe if we would face current Gwent for the first time now, we would just double dry-pass all matches for the same reasons. (Not really. cause we have to thin and make other setup, but hope you get my point).
• I do feel that current Gwent suffers from over-consistency and makes every match play the same, but consistency was hurt way too much. Two bronzes, almost no tutors and decreasing mulligans is just way too much:
  • I was all for two bronzes: it's a way of decreasing consistency that actually adds variety to gameplay and feels better and more interesting than playing the same bronzes over and over again. But we would need more viable card options for that to work. Even if we cannot fill all our bronze spots with "archetype cards" because of provision limits, we would still need options to choose from and some viable bronze tech cards to fill the gaps. We have some of these tech cards, which is good, but too many non-archetype card options seem just plain fillers. Also even archetype cards are often just boosts and damages while they could have some more interesting mechanics.
  • As for tutoring, what we had was insane: it wasn't just ridiculously easy to find your cards and thin (and again play the same bronzes over and over again), it was also adding to your tempo as an added bonus, making a lot of cards (mainly specials) unviable to play from hand. I don't see how someone sees this as "clever" or "tactical" play. That said I do think tutoring and thinning should be possible to increase consistency, but should either require actual clever plays, risky moves (with ability for opponent to interact) or be a low tempo option instead of adding tempo. Obliterating it almost completely and making remaining tutor options so costly that only one or two fits into your deck is not a good way to handle the issue.
  • While I had some arguments in favor of the first two changes I can see no good reason for decreasing Mulligans. Having to divide your Mulligans between rounds is an interesting idea, same as making it leader dependant. But we would need either more Mulligans for each leader or additional free Mulligans for each round.
• Provision system has potential. On paper we wouldn't have strong, auto-include bronzes and the rest that nobody plays ever, because with Provisions the costs could be tuned (with old system you would need to make all cards in a single color to be perfectly balanced to work, but sadly you can't fit all cards into 3 uniform strength category). But as described in the two bronze section we would need more viable options for it to work instead of just bland fillers.
• Random crap, mainly the Casino Reveal mechanic should be removed entirely (Create may follow it to grave). It's exactly the kind of random that was hated by many people, which was acknowledged in the first HC announcement, so it hit me completely by surprise, when I first seen it. Just why?
• As said I didn't like tutor chains, but now with only limited ways to play more units, it's too easy to get into "you play something, I remove it" cycle that is not fun.
• There are some subtle synergies that people have yet to discover. Like many people complained, how Brouver has no synergies because there are no obvious "do something, when a unit moves" engines, but he actually synergizes well with row effects like Lacerate or for example Blue Mountain Elites. I like these synergies actually more than just aimlessly moving things around, just because I get rewarded when something moves (that is again not some very clever, tactical play). The payoff may be too low though for it to be competitive.
• Current "beta" version is very much polished, while still suffering from some major issues - some of them would have been fixable to some extent, others more fundamental. This new, "almost release" version however feels more like early beta. It has lot of horrible balance problems, broken mechanics, unfinished archetypes and bland cards. I don't even mention the numerous bugs and missing features as they can be easily addressed. I think it'll take several months maybe even 0,5-1 year to get to the degree of maturity as current version. It has the potential to become better though. Or worse. Depends on how core issues will be handled.

I constantly shifted between "it might be a good time to forget about Gwent" and "hey this may actually become something better than what we have now". Become... sometime in the future, cause right now it's far from it.
Thing is right now it's just not fun enough for me to spend my free time with it. I'm gonna see on release how much of the problems gets addressed. Maybe check back couple months later again, when devs have more time to polish it and players smarter than me to make sense of some of the more confusing things. But right now it's very much in the cards (no pun intended) that I won't be playing Gwent for too long anymore.
Even so, if it turns out that way, I still believe that Homecoming was worth the risk. Current Gwent is very limited by its core issues (like overconsistency or tempo plays ruling too strongly among others) and as slowly all the archetypes and ideas run out that I found interesting enough to try, I would probably be leaving the game soon without Homecoming anyway.

 

[Fimbulthrym]

- The row system feels good, much better than current system. There may be some room for improvement, maybe with a lot of effort it could be made workable for 3 rows as well, but with this system the third row does seem unnecessary.

I'm just curious: What excatly do you like about the new row system and why do you think it costs much effort to implement it for 3 rows?

 

[Sablin]

Let's go with some reworking the game needs in my opinion:

i) EREDIN: He is dangerous. They should rework it. I don't think you can tune his power with the mulligans. Giving immunity to crazy cards like the golden dragon (I don't remember the name), Ciri: Dash, Ciri, or any cool card they might introduce is just hilarious.
ii) IMMUNITY: A card with immunity tag shouldn't be targeted by any means. This should include renew.
iii) OLD SILVER WITCHERS: They must be nerfed. Maybe 4+3+3.
iv) ROACH: It should also be nerfed. 3 would be ok, I guess.
v) USURPER: It is not healthy. They should go for anything else.
vi) The guy who destroys the graveyard is not cool at all. You can't disrupt a single faction or Mourntart with a card.
vii) BEAR MASTERS: They are too powerful. They should nerf them via tuning the provisions. Maybe 6-7 would be ok.
viii) MOURNTART: I'm hating myself for saying this, because I've enjoyed A LOT playing this card these days, but this card is TOO POWERFUL. The finisher Petri's Philter+Mourntart is just nuts. You can make 40 points or more. It's true that you can counter the play (destroy the artifact/kill Mourntart). In order to indirectly nerf it, the arachas might be doomed. Not all of them, because then the card would just suck; maybe just the arachas spawned with Arachas Nest OR just the arachas spawned by the passive ability of the Arachas Queen.
ix) WILD HUND KNIGHTS: Aparently nobody is complaining about this card, but I think they are OP. 8 points + card thinning just fulfilling a pretty easy condition is too much in my opinion. They should be nerfed to 6 (3+3) or they might just increase the provisions.
x) GOLDEN FROTH: Fairly easily between 10 and 18 points with a 9 provision card is too much. They might limit the amount of units to 6, for instance, or increase the provisions.

And I think that's all.

 

[gem4ik]

Hello!
I'm playing Gwent for about 1,5+ years, I really like this game and I wish all the best to CDPR. I have played PTR for 27 hours within these days and i'm really impressed with your work, I also highly appreciate that you brought to life some of my ideas I posted of forum and sent to Mr. Burza. In this post, I want to analyze current state of the game, and after that, talk a bit about community feedback issues. Let's start!

I played this version of the game only for 27 hours, it's not enough to give you the most accurate feedback on this version of the game, but the way you solved coinflip problem by adding handsize limit and draws is really impressive. I can't guarantee it couldn't be better, but it's still really good solution. Now, it's pretty hard to lose a card, without missplaying. Now, this game is all about resources and not about tempo, like it was before. Great job! Also, I like a lot of new CORE changes added to the game, aka Provision system (perfect for balancing issues), new cards and new leaders. But let's talk about what you could've improve:

Leaders, Mulligans and Provision

Right now, leader cards added a new huge depth level of strategy to the gameplay core, but you need right instruments to balance these cards. Usurper completely deletes this depth from the game. I believe that you gonna change his ability anyway, but just in case, I want to remind you about that.
Balancing leaders by amount of Mulligans? I'll tell you straight my opinion - I don't feel that it's a good idea. That's why:
1) You can balance abilities only of SOME leaders. E.g., Eithne, you can slow her down just by decreasing amount of arrows she can shoot each round. But what you gonna do with UNIQUE abilities like Usurper or Arachas Queen? Are you gonna just change such abilities? It will limit your opportunities in balancing and creating new extraordinary abilities for future leaders.
2) Is Mulligan actually weakening leaders in the right way? When you have only 1 mulligan during whole game, it turns into real casino - you are 90% dependant on your lucky draws. Sometimes you will get good draws, sometimes bad. Smart deckbuilding improves your chances to win a game, but there is not enough skill involved, and moreover, it's not really weakening or strengthening leaders. You have ONLY CHANCE to improve your hand, yes, it will play in long range, but what about game experience and tournaments? Match being decided by lucky mulligan is not what you usually want to see.

Right now I can see 2 real solutions to this problem. 1st solution, is that don't really like, but in case if you already discussed 2nd solution and still won't do it, 1st might be your way to go:

1) Dramatically increase amount of Mulligans by each leader and, maybe, bring back Blacklist (which will not help in balancing, but will decrease amount of RNG). We draw more cards, we thin less, we have higher RNG impact. 1 or 2 Mulligans during the whole match is unsatisfactory experience, to be real. I think, the smallest amount of Mulligans by leader should be, at least, 3 (if you go 2nd).
2) I like this solution a lot, and would like to see it in the aggregate with the 1st one (just because 3 mulligans as a minimum feels fair). You can balance leader with amount of additional Provisions (let's name it PV) they provide for a deck. I believe, you may already discussed it in your developer team, but I don't see any real reason not to use this way of balancing leaders. It's pretty cool for deckbuilding, increase your opportunities to power up or slow down some archetypes (since changing Card's PV cost will affect different leaders, and if it's a neutral card, it will affect all the leaders) without affecting other leaders/factions.
For example: Every faction gets 150 Basic (PV), and every leader provides you with additional 10-20 (not exact numbers, just for example) PV, depends on your balancing point of view.
What if you will create a very unique leader that SHOULD play only 30-35 cards minimum and you will give him 50 more PV? It's just an example, not a real idea.
So, you will have 3 huge instruments to influence leader's power: 1) Mulligans (which is the worst and I don't want to see, to be fair) 2) PV 3) Leader's power (if it's not way too unique).

Small notes about leaders

1) Eithne feels really strong. She got THE strongest deck in PTR and one of the best abilities (with help of Potions and artifacts) that makes Epidemic 5 PV cost a joke.
2) Eredin's ability gives not just Immune, but also buffs a unit, deciding his biggest problem - almost no deck can play a unit with 8-9 power from hand. Immune ability is underestimated, and this combo is a nightmare
3) Usuprer ability is really strong, but pretty dumb, but everybody knows that already
4) Filavandrel's ability is pretty strong in combo with 4 mulligans
5) Adda's ability is just almost never gets full value, compare it with Eithne
6) King Demavend's ability is really weak, IMO, since almost all units with Charge abilities, have also Deploy mark, and he either lose value on buffed unit getting killed before Activating, either losing value on waiting till some unit will stay alive for an activation. He would've be better with ability, for example, "Give 3 Charges to a unit. Refresh each round", for example. If you give a leader Cooldown ability, he should get get value from it every time he get an opportunity to use it, maybe i'm wrong, but it how I see it. For example, Crach almost always get value.
I think, we done here, so let's move on:

Artifacts (Weather from old Gwent)

I built the strongest deck in PTR have seen on multiple streams and faced in the game withing hours of gameplay, there are, like 3 cards that could be changed. Here it is (click to see full):
Link
Sure, you can counter this deck by playing 4-5 units that destroy artifacts and some kind of White Frost. But will be this deck competitive in different matchups? I don't so. I don't think that you can nerf such a deck just by nerfing Sihil, deck is able to win without it. Here we came to an old Weather/Weather removals thing from old Gwent. New weather - Artifacts. New Weather Removals - bombers. Same story in new clothes, but came back stronger (since now you can't easily pass for card advantage in HC) - opponents have no targets to throw damage in, since there are only artifacts on a board, can't do anything, just watching their units slowly dying with no interaction.
To be fair, I don't know the right way to solve it. Maybe, it will be enough to just increase PV cost of such card, maybe it will not help the case. I heard some ideas like: "To artifact being able to use, there is a killable unit should be attached to an artifact, so you can stop it" or "timer should be added for all artifacts, after which they lose Charges/Stops working"/"limiting amount if Artifacts for each deck" etc. I just see a real problem with this type of card, making game interactive only for a 1 player, want to let you know this issue. That's it.

 

[vylm35]

I think the new gwent looks great and has great potential, however the new reveals RNG bothers me a bit, but I came up with a neat idea and wanted to share it with you guys:
->Instead of revealing a random card in both players decks, they should reveal the top units of both decks (and eventually move the top card to the bottom of the deck after).

This has great synergy with other Nilfgaard cards:
-Vicovaro Novice: You can move a Daerlan Footsoldier (or a Standard Bearer) to the top of your deck and then reveal it, to play it.
-'The ambassador with the hard name': You can control the top of your opponents deck to make sure your top unit has more power.
-Cynthia: you put a low power unit on your opponents top.
-Nilfgaardian Knight: Because of it's high power you usually have the highest unit. (If you implement the moving to the bottom, you don't have to play the card or get rid of it by using Vicovaro Novice and revealing it, thus placing it at the bottom.)
-Morvran: checking the top of your deck.
...

This also makes place for some cool combos:
e.g.: Albrich(put Imperial golem on top) -> Xarthisius (for 16 points!) (Might need some balancing ;D)


I think this could make reveal a really interesting archetype, that synergises well with the new 'messing with your opponents deck'-strategy.

 

[GoobleDip]

Hi, I've been playing this game for nearly one year and a half. At the start, I found the PTR kinda messy, but as I played more, I started to love the new changes. Whoever, there are still a few things that I think should be fixed.

- Make a clearer and detailed interface. The amout of melee/ranged points is poorly integrated; the number of cards on each player hands is varely visible; the number of points should be more visible; there are no indications of the use of leaders; some actions (specially orders) are not clearly indicated (or not indicated at all); it's not clear enough when a player passes, and the coin it's too tiny and has no sound effect.

- Fix audio bugs. There are lots of cards without sound in the deck builder and a lot of bugs during gameplay.

- Make the maximum amount of cards 12. The way it is now, it forces you to play 3 cards on round one. This limits round strategies, a core mechanic in this game.

- Improve the gamefeel. Cards seems to have no weight.

- Make texts more readable. Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/gwent/comments/9luk3v
- Make factions more unique! Too much "deal damage".

 

[gem4ik]

Gameflow/Interface

A) Timer

60 seconds timer is not enough to think about your turn, think about opponent's possible answer, use all active abilities, leader and playing a card. I tested it when I already knew all popular cards in PTR, knew my deck and knew possible opponent's plays, so I simulated a real game in meta. Some decks didn't simplify math compared to the old Gwent, but amount of actions you make, this game now match HearthStone, which have 90 sec timer. I believe, due to increased amount of actions being executed, and new range of ways to think about your turn, timer needs to be increased up to 80-90 sec. Even when you will increase animations speed, it still not enough to think through the turn.
Just watch streams of high MMR players (shinmiri2 or JoinTime), they face the problem of timer all the time in OLD GWENT. Sure, casual players will be against this decision, but if you will do it silently and slowly (increasing timer by 5-10 seconds each patch), they will not notice that. Also, you can always give players increased timers ONLY in ranked games, leaving 60-sec turns for Casual mode or Ranked on Ranks 1-15, for example. There are good ways to give this opportunity only to players who want to see increased timer.

B) Animations

Animations are really slow, I think that you already know about this issue, we need to somehow speed up animations and leader's ability animations (Eithne might shoot her 4 shots only withing 4-5 seconds, which is very slow)

C) Unnecessary clicks from old Gwent

Lessen amount of clicks needed to proceed to the game. It's very small issue, but very annoying.
I'm talking about "Do you really don't want to mulligan more cards? You have X more mulligans. Yes/No".
I think, buttons for "Yes" and "No" have to be much bigger, and appear only if you rightclick on the empty space. If I Press "Yes" in Card Mulligan Menu, why game asking me again? I really dislike this issue came from an Old Gwent. This function might be useful for newcomers, but it would be cool to have an opportunity to turn it off in SETTINGS menu

D) Number of Mulligans left

Maybe im blind (in that case i'm sorry) but I didn't found any info on screen about how many mulligans left for me. Amount of Leader use? Yes, not for Mulligans.

E) Card Category search in Deckbuilder

It would be cool to search card by types, for example: "Leader", "Weather", "Artifact", "Unit", "Spell/Special", etc.

With this, we finish with analysis and next thing I post just in case, if you have a little disappointment about negative feedback of PTR.



Community Feedback on PTR

So let's state this:


1) Most of people (especially, young) are influenced by opinion leaders, who are, streamers in our case. Influenced people usually, don't even have their own opinion, they just repeat what OL said
2) A lot of huge streamers aka Swim, Freddybabes, Crokeyz, Roadhouse (i watched their streams) gave negative feedback on Homecoming right before the PTR (You could improve your cooperation with streamers in future, so they set community for better mood)
3) Most of forum/reddit feedback is negative, because... Not much people usually use their time to post smth good, since negative emotions always give people more motivation that positive
4) Most of people can't accept unfinished product, they criticize it like it's already finished. That's why some companies (such as Blizzard or Rockstar Games) refuse to show unfinished product
5) A lot of people couldn't even play PTR because of low FPS/bugs
6) People getting used to radically new things very slow. After time pass, people will accept Homecoming

What should we learn from this? I can't tell that it's useless listening to masses, it's still useful, but you could also concentrate on feedback from experienced players.


I think, that's all I want to tell you after playing PTR, thank you again for such a great job you made to change core mechanics of gameplay. It solved core problems of an Old Gwent, and it's worthy of respect to make such a decision to accept you own problems, almost start over and come back much better than even before.
Thank you, and I hope that it may help you to improve the game!

 

[BojimaPC]

My feedback;
thank you for the hard work!


Visuals
- having potions lined up next to soldiers looks really bad. Does not look like a battlefield having huge artifacts in between units. Please consider putting artifacts on the side of the board or smaller car/indicator
- the battlefield is too cluttered. everything looks so crammed.

gameplay
- faction identity is missing as all factions just keep all string neutral golds. I see more neutral cards in r3 than faction specific cards
- Game's pace is slow and boring. Even more boring to watch.

I will support Gwent but please consider making the game fun to play (again). Started evaluating other card games as I did not enjoy a single game of homecoming ptr.

 

[static-ghost]

Most of people don't even have their own opinion, they just repeat what OL said

Please do not speak for the most people it's not true..

 

[Brennt]

Hi Projects!
Thanks for PTR.

What I found interesting is:
1 Visuals (except Demavend, he's like holding purple piece of brain).
2 Coinflip desicion and provision.
3 Artifacts and charges.
4 New Regis (human shape), but effect needs cool wow-sound; Summoning Circle, Roche: Merciless - more interesting cards, please.

Now to unsatisfying side of game:
1 Leaders have cards. There should be new models in leader choice menu. And they don't need premium versions of their cards now. But I assume, you already know this.
2 Lack of "unique" abilities that you promised. A lot of cards are just "buff", "damage", "destroy artifact". OK, we got it, the joke with "Artifact" and "destroy artifact" was great, but it won't save Gwent.
3 Time per round. With these changes player needs more time to think and manage all the manual moves.
4 You almost killed draw cards and gave three cards draw per round start, but it won't save Gwent either. The state is like that: r1 means nothing, just throw your garbage; r2 dry pass; r3 hit all you've got and bless rng, 'cos your deck doesn't have tools to get key cards anymore.
5 The most ridiculous card I've ever seen: Dol Blathanna Bowman (not quite sure, but the picture is saying it's woman). What an ability! "Deploy: Damage an enemy by 1 for each row that separates it from this unit". What a big dirty pile of words! Are we playing bureaucracy now, CDPR? Honestly, I don't know what you people are thinking of, but I would've immediately fire the man who "invented" THIS GARBAGE. Your game has 4 rows now. That means this bowgirl shoots for 2 at best. That description doesn't make her better than other unit that hits for 2 (1 or 3, doesn't matter). Who's that genius which offered THAT?! Or he (she) thinks that players didn't learn the simplest maths at school?
6 New key words "bloodthirst" and "thrive" need more support, IMO. But if you wanted these cards be hybrid, I'm OK with that.
7 Too many cards "destroy an enemy artifact", "lock unit", IMO. Is there a big need for such variety? Not sure.
8 "Strange" abilities. Gwent has characters and units with abilities which fit them. Like Wild Hunt Hound that draws Frost or Ciri that returns to your hand if you lost round. But why on Earth Johnny deals damage now for special cards, Caretaker plays artifacts from grave and Ceallah destroys tokens? That's not how we remember them from Witcher lore.
9 Troubles with matchmaking and new "game start artifact-token". Screenshot is in attached files.

You, CDPR, will never admit that you don't care anymore about old community and trying to build a new one with Thronebreaker. If this how Homecoming will go, players who started play Gwent during closed beta will be... Well, you get it. I really don't understand what you are trying to offer us, guys. This Gwent is interesting a bit, yes. It's brand new and all, but not enough. I just hope you have a plan. I just hope release will go better than this pre-release.

Good luck.

 

[ZylthVeldron]

BUG

In a match [10/8/18, 5:50 PM CST] a player had intermittent connection on his turn. About 6 times the prompt for "attempting to reconnect" popped up and went away a few seconds later. The timer ran out during this time but never ended his turn and the game was perpetually stuck (I'm presuming I was no longer connected to him as his highlighted card never moved)

 

[KissAndRun]

General:
Very small difference between bronze and gold cards. Not only graphical (color representing type of cards is too similar) but functionality too, only difference now is that bronze cards can only be two copies in deck.
When you have two copies of bronze card you cannot build deck around bronze card, it looks more like arena mode, where there is no big ongoing synergy between cards. In my opinion having 3 copies of bronzes allow create bigger difference between them and gold cards. Additionally, it allows meta be more stable and win good players more often over bad players than in more RNG based meta.

Limit of 10 cards in a hand cause problem for example if you leave to round 3 some complicated combo that requires some cards being still in a deck you may lost it even you work 2 rounds for this combo. Because when 3 round starts and 11th, 12th and 13th cards will be added over limit they are being destroyed. For example, I work in round 1 and 2 to keep Vesemir Witcher in hand and other Witcher’s mulligan back to have strong combo to the endgame. But if I’m unlucky and one of 11th, 12th or13th card will be a Witcher my combo will be destroyed. At least cards trying to be added to a hand over limit should go back to the deck not being destroyed.

Adding artifacts doesn’t recompense removing a third row. This change simplify gameplay. Left player less choices to made over each turn.

Players suggestion of making game darker I thing had been taken to literally. Game is visible darker. In my opinion its to dark now, a lot of elements aren’t visible enough. For me making game darker meant mainly that it should be more adult, don’t be afraid to show a little more violence, more adult content, use a more sarcastic sophisticated adult humor. Not being just graphicly darker.

When player plays a card, he should be able to drag it on a board now is forced to click once on a card and once on a place where he wants to put card.
If card has abilities working only on one row when player grab that card should see some green light on a row that card work on to prevent misplays.

After removing big value cards, and reducing all strength to small numbers there is no “emotional” connection with any card. There are so much dealing damage cards what cause that none of cards stay long on a board. I don’t care about any of card, because I know after approximately two turn this card will be no longer on a board. I don’t try to protect her (buffing, immune) etc. because I don’t see reason why and cost is way too high to that.

Bronze cards collection looks like was shortened from a lot of unique cards additionally removing cards working on basic cards strength over simplify game. Created in HC the basic/vanilla collection of cards feels boring in compare to old Gwent collection.

Dynamic of a game:
Dynamic of matches drastically slowed down. Mainly because of necessity of manually ending turn. Players very often forget to end turn.
Maybe there should be option in deck builder for players to check if they want auto pass after they card being played if their deck doesn’t use artefact that need to be “turned on” after playing a card.
Or Maybe there is possible to auto end some turns if on a board is nothing to click by a player.
Adding 3 cards at start round 2 and 3 is too much. It influences importance of a rounds. To keep matches interesting statistically next round should be shorter than previous. To keep a feeling that we are closer to the end and tension increase over time. In my opinion added cards to a hand should be 2 (start of round 2) and 1 (at start of round 3).

Graphic:
[1 on attachments] There is a big empty space for number of mulligans that current leader gives
[2 on attachments] Style of information on a card is rectangle rotated by 90 degrees (information about power of card, information about being new card in your deck builder) but information about provision is presented in simple rectangle what is not consistent with outgoing style.
In deck builder card already added to current deck isn’t greyed out enough. I often tried to add over maximum bronze limit.
[3 on attachments] In deck builder there is a lot of missing descriptions.
In deck builder useful would be to add sorting by being unit/special/artefact card.
[4 on attachments] Numbers of points on each round should be transparent because they are not so important than rest of stats and overall this stats bar hides to much of a board background.
Movement of camera when opponent is playing is annoying and unnecessary. When opponent has his turn player should be able to watch his own cards and plan his next move. When camera goes more to opponent player cant event look details of his cards.
[5 on attachments] Some 3D leaders look like they are floating in the air.
[6 on attachments] Watching all the time back of your own leader is unpleasant especially if leaders would be customizable. Maybe they should stand in different angle.
Maybe it is worth to gather artefact cards outside of a board – as an outgoing effect keep them near leader. To leave more place for unit cards.
When mirror match happens 3D leaders look like clones. They should have less synchronized movement or stand in a little different position and angle.
In card description window there is often big empty space. Margin between ability explanation and tag explanation should be bigger to allow easier readability. Big space can be used to explain more complicated abilities in a picture/animation form.
When I end mulligan earlier than opponent time progress bar is blue color suggesting that me time is ending and I done something wrong. It should be in opponent color or contains some description that opponent still mulligan his cards.
When Scoia’tael plays against Nilfgaard roses from statue hand are over flaming barrel looking very bad. They visually connecting creating kind of new shape.
Coin shouldn’t show sad face. It is a part being shown in each match, that player touch every turn. If this element shows some unhappy character it automatically causes in a viewer subconsciously bad emotion. It should be a smiling, brawler or belligerently. Maybe just a “blind” face of Tactical Advantage would be better.
When player hover over stones representing a row (a melee row and range row) not only border of stone should glow but a sword and bow sing too to make it clearer and aesthetically pleasing.

To start a match player, have to see 3 different loading screens (floating card scream, description of card screen, showing two players leaders screen) in 3 different graphic styles its inconsistent, all information during that process could be shown in one type of window. Especially middle window with random card description like out of place.

There is no graphical sign that Usurper blocked other leader ability, additionally there is still 1 in place very number of times leader ability can be used – it is misleading.
Old and new token cards still don’t have premium version.

Balance:
Sihil If opponent hasn’t had very specific card is unstoppable.
Weather cards in current form will be to weak. There be no weather decks.
There is no swarm helping neutral cards.

Other:
Zeal isn’t well known English world, it might cause problems with non-native English speakers that will not have their own langue version of a game. They might don’t understand easily this mechanic if name of it will sound very abstract to them.

Bugs:
When you start 2 apps instances besides error about being login elsewhere it informs that this app is not meant for world region you are in.
A lot of times game doesn’t show name of opponent.
In deck builder Sweeers description is wrong. With that description this card does nothing.
There is often white 0 point card in a middle of a screen.

 

[Benningon]

I would like to suggest a new title - "Gwent:Your opponent has forfeited"

This game is waaaaaay too slow … it's like trying to play cards through a bucket of molasses.
Now every deck is a generic control deck … coin flip "fix" isn't so much and only serves to delay the player 2 pass … I'll still dry pass just to get the d*mn game moving again … every turn takes 9 minutes!

Tactical advantage is an example of over compensation for the coin flip that wasn't really that broken to begin with (don't care what the 'tubers say )

So … what have we been testing for the past 2 years, anyway? Did cdpr really just dump all that testing and tweaking and tuning for a complete overhaul that obviously needs 2 more years of testing and tweaking?

-- EDIT --- And OMG it's a card game … make the board look like a table, not some lame version of Warcraft circa 1998!!!!

 

[DRK3]

I seriously doubt CDPR was expecting these massive walls of criticism from the PTR, and even more that they'll be reading everything, but i still feel i need to express my opinion on this new direction: it will be the 2nd and last time i do so:

-i think i know why most people arent happy with HC Gwent - the reduction of the points creates a huge impact on the 'feel' of the game, and players who are used to the old version (myself included) feel underwhelmed with the outcome of any strategies they come up, as it lost the epic factor. Maybe this will change with time, but the other problems are more solid:

-in 7-8 hours, didnt find a single NR player. so i decided to try it and quickly realized it was because of the order/ charges system which might be cool, but its WAY more complicated than anything else i've seen on other factions. i guess NR will still be at the bottom again.

-there are so many useless cards, among them those that spawn or summon or transform a card, which you expect to have its efect happen, only to realize that's it - you just get the points it has. (ex. Vilgefortz, people here complaining it's a bug - nah, i think that's what CDPR meant, to make him terrible)

-i was hoping with the reduction of power creep, the 'control situation' would be loosened, and we could actually try the new engines and the cool strategies they bring... Nope, as soon as you play a card, sometimes even a gold, that will only have its effect next turn, BAM its gone. Again, this is the main reason why nobody's playing NR...

-this one is more specific, but im really tired of that Eredin Immune BS. I know Avallach is Neutral and can also give Immune, but Avallach is a card, and might be neutralized before giving Immune - when you see it, you can expect a dangerous card next turn. But with Eredin, he can put the card he wants to Immune and "Immunize" it since Leader abilities dont cost a turn. And then Renew the Immune, its just rubbing salt to the wound!

Last note: i guess the new cards are the 20 ones the Thronebreaker buyers will get? That means players who had a full collection and buy TB will have all cards immediately!
I was really looking forward to doing more collecting, but without it and the lackluster gameplay, i'm pretty sure i'll never outplay my time with the beta!

 

[Sablin]

BUG AND MEMES

I found another bug. Henselt text says he plays a copy of a unit from the deck. However, if you manage to have more than one copy of a unit, Henselt pulls all the copies. In principle it seems impossible to have more than 2 copies of a unit, but you actually can do it with the Kaedweni Revenants (order: deal 1 damage and spawn a copy of itself if you manage to kill a unit) and with the Cursed Knights (transform a non-specter unit into itself without changing the strength). When these units go to the graveyard, you can Pavetta to send them back to the deck. If you manage to draw one of these copies or to get one of them with Royal Decree, Last Wish, etc., then you Henselt into that Kaedweni Revenant or Cursed Knight in the board and actually Henselt pulls ALL the other copies. By the way, this play is hilarious. I thought Henselt was literally unplayable in HC, but I just faced a deck who made me that combo with the Knights and I was totally freaking out. Then, I built a version myself and I managed to pull 5 copies of Kaedweni Revenants (with zeal, by the way). It is the extreme meme deck I've seen so far in the PTR. Super fun to play. I still have to do the combo with the Draug, but I think I'll have to wait a couple of weeks :/

 

[dregaro]

Technical problems

I'll start with the bugs and issues I've encountered so far:

1. Search engine
   • filtering does not work properly - if the filtering by provisions is active, reopening deckbuilder brokes search engine. The search results follow previously chosen filtering and if you choose other provision filter, the previously filtered cards are still displayed. Please fix this.
     
     
   • there is no way to filter special cards and artifacts
2. Keyboard navigation
   I always loved to use a keyboard instead of the mouse/touchpad in GWENT. However, in HC keyboard navigation (KN) needs polishing - there are some minor issues which affect user experience:
   • KN does not work on confirmation pop-ups (accept, cancel etc.)
     
     
   • In the main menu you can navigate to Settings, Messages etc. via keys, but on other menus (Play, deckbuilder) it does not work (those buttons block KN when highlighted)
   • After lounching HC, keyboard navigation is inactive until the mouse is used
3. Some descriptions are [MISSING]
   • Shupe's
     
     
   • When a game ends with a tie -> [MISSING] gwent_loss_title shows up.
4. When playing INCINERATING TRAP, the order of card activation is strange
   • When playing VIPER WITCHER - deploy works first (banish card) then trap activates but in the case of AUCKES, the trap activates first - destroying the card before the deploy (lock) (or is locking a trap no longer possible?).
5. After playing a card, sometimes music stop playing and I hear terrible (loud) white noise for several seconds. It hurts. Literally.

Overall impression

UI/Graphics
It looks awesome. Lounchig HC for the first time was so exciting - the loading screen (Ciri and Geralt facing each other) left me in awe.
Board is a huge improvement. It looks nice and 2 rows are surprisingly playable. Finally there is more depth to the row mechanics (reach, melee, ranged). The only thing that needs some tweaking is card visibility - as mentioned in some other posts.

Gameplay
I was surprised by the ammout of changes: different UI and mechanics (Reach, Bloodlust etc.), provision limit (it's great), card changes. I really like those changes and appreciate the effort put into this. However, HC feels a bit like early-access. It needs polishing and card/faction balancing. A good description of the faction/card issues was made by DrGoodie in #384.
Overally, the game is totally refreshed and I belive HC is going in the right direction.

 

[Lyserus]

I don't think leader provision bonus is good idea...and mulligan is fine as is

Think about it, 25 cards in a deck, you get 10 start up, 6 more in future rounds (even if your hand exceed 10 they are banished not returning to your deck). That means even without deck thining technique, you are garantee to have 16 out of 25 cards out of your deck. And with that, thin deck technique and leader mulligan, you really don't miss out much cards even with fewer mulligan.

And i get the feeling CDPR is trying to remove those one-card-centered decks (which are almost always the most toxic ones) in homecoming, and if 16 of 25 with more is still not satisfying to you, you are probably building your deck wrong

Provision bonus will be even harder to balance than mulligan bonus

 

[Dante2144]

I am not sure if anyone else is experiencing this but i thought i should mention it. When i kill an enemy sometimes i get this incredibly loud (screech?) noise in my headphones. so i lower the volume quite abit, it hasnt happened outside of killing any enemies.

 

[garretz]

I didn't want to make a post before I had all my opinions ready to post, but I thought that this would be really necessary, since it's worsening the whole experience.
I believe there are some card texts that need fixing. Deithwen Arbalest, for example, seems to have an ability that can chain up infinitely, but that's not the case. In scoia'tael faction, the hawker smugler reads "whenever an enemy unit appears, boost self by 1". My opponent played the monsters' organic card that destroy an allied and plays it again. My smugler didn't buff himself, so what is "appears"?

Post automatically merged: Oct 9, 2018

I really liked this time enjoying the PTR and the new gwent, and I really liked the fact that the game has more tendency
to be a battle for 3 rounds. The great reduce in the average power from cards feels good because it makes it easier to
make up for having card disadvantage. Now every point counts, and I like it.

The new row system is good. I don't mind the change in the number of rows, but giving them some meaning and some interaction
makes the game more strategic.

The new deckbuilding system is wonderful! The provision system makes it so much more fun, but I also believe that there are
some problems in card balancing that makes some of them just useless. Like, there are some bronze cards with high provision
cost that can't have a great reward, and these I believe that could have a 1 point buff. I believe balancing will be much
more complex, but at the same time, the umbalance will be harder to see.

There are two major things I believe that are problematic and I believe they come down to the dry pass solution. First of
all, drawing 3 cards in between both rounds is way too much. The amount of mulligans is just too low to allow you to have
brickable cards in your deck, since you will be drawing 6 and it might destroy your gameplan. In addition, not being able
to have some sort of control over your hand makes the game more luck based (in this matter), specially with the provision
system. You shouldn't be able to guarantee every card you want to appear, but I feel like the game becomes less strategic
with this, since you can't run, for example, some answers that aren't universal. For this, I would recommend dropping the
draws between rounds 2 and 3 down to 2 cards and adding 1 mulligan to each leader in the game (or maybe not every, in order
to help balancing them).

The second problem is the fact that the dry pass solution isn't actually a dry pass solution. In many games round 1 drags
down to 4 or less cards, and that allows you to dry pass and get back to your full hand. Also, tempo plays won't get rewarded.
If you slam the board to get 40 points ahead of you oponnent, and he continues playing, you can pass no more. That is due
to the fact that he can actually get card advantage back by dry passing round 2. For example, your 3rd card was a tempo
play with your leader. You got very very far ahead. Your oponnent keeps playing, while you pass. He goes down 3 cards to
beat your huge tempo. Now he's at 4 cards and you still have 7. R2, he has 7 cards and dry passes. You have 10, you drop 1,
then pass. Round 3, you both start at 10 cards, with you burning 2 cards. Best case scenario, you could to use this cards to
get some carryover, and burned nothing. So now you have 8 points carryover in a case which you actually should be 3 cards
up, since that's what you played for.

So I believe the dry pass solution isn't blocking dry pass, but is actually blocking "early" passes in round 1, and making
tempo plays pointless. I believe that the solution mentioned to the previous problem helps, but isn't enough to solve this.
My recommendation, in addition to dropping the draws to 2 cards, is to make the round 2 a new checkpoint for hand limit. So,
in round 1, your maximum hand size is 10. In round 2, your maximum hand size becomes which ever your hand size was when it
started. With this, your dry pass wouldn't be able to get you your card back in a cheap way, achieving what I believe was
the objective with the card draw change.

As a minor change to texts, I believe that there are some mischievous texts in cards, like in Hawker Smuggler and Deithwen
Arbalest, which I already mentioned in a previous post. Also, there are some card texts that say a effect, "then" another
effect. I would recommend changing the "then" particle to "if you did", because it's more self explanatory and avoid
misunderstandings.