Preferred Row System (a missed opportunity?)
The time of row locked units in Gwent is over. Since the start of open beta the number of cards, which were not agile, had been continuously reduced and the midwinter patch was the final death blow for the concept of row locked units. Personally I think they could have found a better solution than this: A prefered-row-system
Agile vs Row Locked:
Before talking about a prefered-row-system, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of having all cards agile or having most of them row locked:
Everytime you play a agile unit you have to decide on which row you want to place it. In General giving the player more opportunities to make decisions is a good thing, but from my personal experience in most matchups you just try to evenly distribute your points over the three rows. But there are also some matchups like axemen SK there it usually matters a lot where you place your units.
In my opinion the biggest disadvantage of row locked units is that it limits the deckbuilding process. Some deck combinations just don't work, because too many of your units would be on the same row. One important aspect of having a lot of row locked units is, that it forces you to decide a little bit more carefully when to play which unit, because it is harder to play around cards like Igni or lacerate (depending on which deck you play). Furthermore I think it makes it easier for people with some skills in deckbuilding to create anti-meta decks, because having row locked units removes versatility and adds more vulnerabilites to the meta decks. Last but not least there are still three rows in gwent: Melee, Ranged and Siege. If you can play your trebuchet in the melee row without downside it takes away a lot of atmosphere from the game. Closed Beta definitely made more sense lorewise.
Prefered-Row-System:
As said in the beginning I think that a prefered-row-system would be better than the other two options. Instead of forcing players to play their units on one specific row like it was during Closed Beta you can decide if you want to play it on the correct row and get some kind of buff for it or play it on another row. So the decision to make is still the same like it is now, but there are more consequences and decision-making becomes more challenging than before. I have to admit that most of the disadvantages of row locked units also apply to units with a prefered row, but only to a smaller degree.
How to implement it:
I think the best way to implement it is by giving every (non-agile) unit an extra deploy ability*, which only triggers when you play it on its prefered row. This ability shouldn't be so strong that you are actually forced to play it on the correct row, but strong enough that you never would play it on another one without a good reason.
Lorefriendly implementation:
One tip: The prefered row of our beloved trebuchet isn't the melee row.
Pure gameplay:
If you don't care about lore and such things, there is also another solution:
Let the player decide which row is the prefered one of your units. This possibility would make deckbuilding a lot more interesting and complex(not saying it is boring now
). The deckbuilder would need another rework in this case though.
Why we will never see it:
Well, we know that CDPR isn't afraid to make major changes, but a system like this would force them to basically change every single card and this would take a heck of a long time. Some archetypes like machines wouldn't work very well under these circumstances. So they would need to rework the crewman ability as well maybe by adding a whole new "type" of placement**. For example the crewman card could be a ranged unit and you can place your machine behind it (you could tweak this system so that one card has up to two cards „in front“ of it). Creating this kind of system has the potential to add even more complexity, strategy and atmosphere to the game, but also takes a lot of time and I don't think they want the game to be too complex. Furthermore it would make it harder to balance the game properly(balance is already pretty bad tbh). Having an extra deploy ability also would make the card text a lot longer, which they definitely don't want.
*edit:
example:
temerian drummer:
5 strength, buff a unit by 3 ; deploy ability for playing it on the correct row: buff a unit by 3
the alternative would be: Buff a unit by 3. If played on the correct row buff it by 6 instead
Other people suggested to buff all units, which are played on their prefered row by 1 or 2, but I think that's rather boring and my suggestion makes it easier to balance cards.
** https://forums.cdprojektred.com/forum/en/gwent/general-discussions-aa/suggestions-aa/10334572-extended-positioning
What is your favourite option:
The time of row locked units in Gwent is over. Since the start of open beta the number of cards, which were not agile, had been continuously reduced and the midwinter patch was the final death blow for the concept of row locked units. Personally I think they could have found a better solution than this: A prefered-row-system
Agile vs Row Locked:
Before talking about a prefered-row-system, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of having all cards agile or having most of them row locked:
Everytime you play a agile unit you have to decide on which row you want to place it. In General giving the player more opportunities to make decisions is a good thing, but from my personal experience in most matchups you just try to evenly distribute your points over the three rows. But there are also some matchups like axemen SK there it usually matters a lot where you place your units.
In my opinion the biggest disadvantage of row locked units is that it limits the deckbuilding process. Some deck combinations just don't work, because too many of your units would be on the same row. One important aspect of having a lot of row locked units is, that it forces you to decide a little bit more carefully when to play which unit, because it is harder to play around cards like Igni or lacerate (depending on which deck you play). Furthermore I think it makes it easier for people with some skills in deckbuilding to create anti-meta decks, because having row locked units removes versatility and adds more vulnerabilites to the meta decks. Last but not least there are still three rows in gwent: Melee, Ranged and Siege. If you can play your trebuchet in the melee row without downside it takes away a lot of atmosphere from the game. Closed Beta definitely made more sense lorewise.
Prefered-Row-System:
As said in the beginning I think that a prefered-row-system would be better than the other two options. Instead of forcing players to play their units on one specific row like it was during Closed Beta you can decide if you want to play it on the correct row and get some kind of buff for it or play it on another row. So the decision to make is still the same like it is now, but there are more consequences and decision-making becomes more challenging than before. I have to admit that most of the disadvantages of row locked units also apply to units with a prefered row, but only to a smaller degree.
How to implement it:
I think the best way to implement it is by giving every (non-agile) unit an extra deploy ability*, which only triggers when you play it on its prefered row. This ability shouldn't be so strong that you are actually forced to play it on the correct row, but strong enough that you never would play it on another one without a good reason.
Lorefriendly implementation:
One tip: The prefered row of our beloved trebuchet isn't the melee row.
Pure gameplay:
If you don't care about lore and such things, there is also another solution:
Let the player decide which row is the prefered one of your units. This possibility would make deckbuilding a lot more interesting and complex(not saying it is boring now
). The deckbuilder would need another rework in this case though.Why we will never see it:
Well, we know that CDPR isn't afraid to make major changes, but a system like this would force them to basically change every single card and this would take a heck of a long time. Some archetypes like machines wouldn't work very well under these circumstances. So they would need to rework the crewman ability as well maybe by adding a whole new "type" of placement**. For example the crewman card could be a ranged unit and you can place your machine behind it (you could tweak this system so that one card has up to two cards „in front“ of it). Creating this kind of system has the potential to add even more complexity, strategy and atmosphere to the game, but also takes a lot of time and I don't think they want the game to be too complex. Furthermore it would make it harder to balance the game properly(balance is already pretty bad tbh). Having an extra deploy ability also would make the card text a lot longer, which they definitely don't want.
*edit:
example:
temerian drummer:
5 strength, buff a unit by 3 ; deploy ability for playing it on the correct row: buff a unit by 3
the alternative would be: Buff a unit by 3. If played on the correct row buff it by 6 instead
Other people suggested to buff all units, which are played on their prefered row by 1 or 2, but I think that's rather boring and my suggestion makes it easier to balance cards.
** https://forums.cdprojektred.com/forum/en/gwent/general-discussions-aa/suggestions-aa/10334572-extended-positioning
What is your favourite option:
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