Re-couple leader abilities

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Would you like to return to abilities coupled to leaders?

  • Yes, let's give leaders some meaning again

    Votes: 48 69.6%
  • No, I like to see Dettlaff pop Gerni fruits out of his...

    Votes: 17 24.6%
  • No opinion, opinions are like a**holes: everybody's got one

    Votes: 4 5.8%

  • Total voters
    69
I know it's probably a shot in the wind because chances that the devs go backward are pretty thin, but I really preferred when leaders meant something and they had their own abilities.
I also know there are far worse issues right now with balance, defenders, bugs etc but since I've seen here and there people also complaining I'm making this to know what other think and if there is a majority of us, why not, in the hope that CDPR sees it and thinks about going back.

So what do you think about re-coupling abilities.
What uncoupling brought so far:
On the + side, ok, we have Radovid and maybe we will have a few leaders, aka skins, to play without needing new abilities. This would actually also be possible by just giving alternative skins to some leaders...
On the - side:
-confusion, less readability. I guess it's a matter of getting used to it but still annoying to realize you can't play your leader ability while facing Anna Henrietta...
-complete lack of importance of leader choice
-some very weird things like Eredin spawning drones, Svalblod playing Arnjolf, Whoreson spawning firesworn zealots... It's just ludicrous.
 
This would actually also be possible by just giving alternative skins to some leaders...

This has happened for the first premium skin, Unseen Elder Blood Armor, but there are two major issues with this:
1. [From the users] You actually have to play Unseen Elder, which you might not want to.
2. [From the devs] They need to put a lot of time into developing these skins, which only a small percentage of players can use.

The conclusion is that it might not be worth creating premium skins, without decoupled leaders. Now, with the decoupling, the devs can create premium skins per faction, which more players can use (and thus more players will buy).

Yes, I have only mentioned the premium skins because that's the only relevant aspect of the decision. As such, I have a new suggestion, which is sort of a middle ground (and more feasible): Re-couple all leader skins, except for premium skins. For example, Meve will always be Boosting, but you can use Radovid with every NR ability.
 
I understand the desire to give heroes a meaning, and I also feel how the uncoupling harmed the attachment to the heroes, and made game a bit more chaotic (you have to check abilities every game and retrain reflexes) but the real questions in my eyes are:

How long can an online card game allow itself to deny the partitipation of new players in the competetive part of a game (as it probably took quite some time to get all the leaders together) while expecting them to stay?
What content of the game should be grindable, and how grindy should it be and how does that influence the healthiness of meta, community and willingness to purchase ingame content?

This change basically gave new players access to all hero abilities from the start (and made the effort of old players getting them useless in the process), expanding the room for experimentation for new bees by this and giving them the chance to create attachment to factions they would usually ignore (eg: because the starting hero was mediocre).

As one of those new players I can't ignore that gift which is really gratious and on behalf on many I say thank you( So, in case you were wondering who on earth pushed no...).

Now the issue is: How can we

a, keep this achievement of early access to all leader abilities for new players
b, keep the emotional attachment to the leaders, their so they stay unique and not just soem random skin
c, keep the value of Research trees so RP remains a motivating grind content and the efforts of old player not wasted

within one system with one solution. A simple roll back wont solve it.
 
keep this achievement of early access to all leader abilities for new players

This was a (surprising) choice by CDPR. They could just as easily have switched the unlock requirement for the ability and the skin, meaning players would have gotten all the basic skins for free, but needed to spend RP to unlock the ability, instead of how it's now.
 
Leaders were decoupled from their abilities so that leaders who were rarely played can now use a different ability and be played more often. Let's do the same with cards. I don't like the art of some cards and several cards' abilities are completely useless. Let's decouple cards and card abilities as well so that we can play the cards we want!

Sounds ridiculous? Yes it is and it's not any more ridiculous than what happened to leaders. Leaders used to be cards with cool art and specific abilities, played on the board. Makes a lot of sense as Gwent is a card game after all.
Then the leaders became 3D models with specific abilities and the leader cards were no longer played. This is were it started to go wrong, as the devs indicated themselves: people not liking the 3D models and people forgetting to play leader abilities as the 3D leaders don't feel part of the card game.
And now, the leaders are meaningless puppets, with abilities represented by icons that all look the same. It looks silly and it is not intuitive at all.

If CDPR really wants to focus on different art, why not create different versions of leader cards, "coming home" to the card game that Gwent is? Multiple cards with different art of the same leader can represent different leader abilities, just like in Witcher 3 Gwent, and it will be fun collecting these. Playing leader cards with specific abilities is cool and creates many possibilities for interesting card interactions.
 

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Since they won't go back to leader cards in the old format for monetizing reasons I just hope to see the old leader cards back as legendary units at least. They could make Woodland Spririt one of the strongest weather spawning cards, AQ a strong consume staple etc. so they'd still feel special in some way.
 
Yes, I have only mentioned the premium skins because that's the only relevant aspect of the decision. As such, I have a new suggestion, which is sort of a middle ground (and more feasible): Re-couple all leader skins, except for premium skins. For example, Meve will always be Boosting, but you can use Radovid with every NR ability.
I probably expressed myself poorly but this is what I had in mind. I was thinking the same with Radovid example, just giving all NR leaders a Radovid alternate skin. People would know that when playing against Radovid, you need to check the leader's ability
 
...out of his what?
prison purse
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If CDPR really wants to focus on different art, why not create different versions of leader cards, "coming home" to the card game that Gwent is? Multiple cards with different art of the same leader can represent different leader abilities, just like in Witcher 3 Gwent, and it will be fun collecting these. Playing leader cards with specific abilities is cool and creates many possibilities for interesting card interactions.
I like that idea also. I didn't have that much of an issue with going to the 3D model but I can see different versions of each leader card. But instead of different abilities, just a small variant for each of them. For example Maeve could "boost a unit by 1, cooldown 2" on a version and "boost a unit by 2, cooldown 3" on another. Just little tweaks of the same fundamental ability. But I see that happen even less than just going back to leader = ability.
 
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We have some Eredins with armies of nekkers instead the Wild Hunt............the Gerni fruit is just a detail in comprasion.

I think we should not mix what each idea is, the avatars are no longer related to the ability, they simply react to what happens on the board.

Now, that the icons of the skills are not of general pleasure and we would prefer to have the cards again as before, that is another subject.
Having the old cards as before, each one with his ability would be the best option, especially since each leader would be associated with his original ability.
And we leave the avatars just as they are, purely cosmetic.
 
But in that case, if the 3D models are to be purely cosmetics, make them reflect the player's avatar. That would also give more incentive to unlock those. Right now, there is no real difference between which leader you have and the avatar icon you choose. They're just here to be there.
 
1. [From the users]
Always thought the way premium skins worked was the perfect incentive they had to make every leader at least playable so that they can bank on a sizable number of sales for their skins. When they announced the decoupling the first thing I thought was that they finally gave up on that and that we'd sooner get a couple of dozen new premium skins before we get every "ability" balanced or actual new "abilities".

2. [From the devs]
Also never got this excuse. If they got a freelance 3d graphic designer from Poland to work on these, which I'm sure people would kill for to put CDPR on their resume, the skins themselves would most likely break even after like.... 5 or 6 sales.
I'd go even further and say if they reached out to the community they would definitely find someone willing to do it for free and not to offend whomever's done the modelling before but someone with blender could probably produce similar level handiwork without a degree.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Also never got this excuse. If they got a freelance 3d graphic designer from Poland to work on these, which I'm sure people would kill for to put CDPR on their resume, the skins themselves would most likely break even after like.... 5 or 6 sales.
I'd go even further and say if they reached out to the community they would definitely find someone willing to do it for free and not to offend whomever's done the modelling before but someone with blender could probably produce similar level handiwork without a degree.

Make it a competition and give the winner the skin for free. Done.
 
I hate this new system with regards to leaders. My biggest issue is that I had to go back through every deck and "correct" the leader to the ability. For example when they decoupled the leader from the ability Filavandriel became the default skin for all of my Scoiatel decks. The crazy pirate women became the skin for all of my Syndicate decks, Crach an Craite was the skin for all of my Nilfgardd decks. After I spent an hour and a half getting everything right again the next time I logged in Gwent reset everything all wrong again. I don't play this game competitvely, I play for the feel and flavor of this game and this is very discouraging for me as far as wanting to play this game if I have to reset the skin to the ability every fricken time. My question to CDPR is if you are going to decouple the leader skin to the leader ability why not just go all the way. I am sure the citizens of the Northern Realms would love to be lead by the Arachas Queen. (smh)
 
Since they won't go back to leader cards in the old format for monetizing reasons I just hope to see the old leader cards back as legendary units at least.
Having the old cards as before, each one with his ability would be the best option, especially since each leader would be associated with his original ability.
And we leave the avatars just as they are, purely cosmetic.
I think that also for monetizing, CDPR made a bad choice here. Multiple versions of leader cards with different leader abilities are infinitely more interesting to collect than useless skins for 3D models. Now I can just pick my favorite useless 3D model and play all abilities with that model. In fact, now that leader abilities are decoupled, I want to have the option to not see any 3D leader models at all as they are distracting and confusing. Just the silly icon with pop-up description will suffice.
 
I think that also for monetizing, CDPR made a bad choice here. Multiple versions of leader cards with different leader abilities are infinitely more interesting to collect than useless skins for 3D models.

Cardbacks, avatars and titles are purely cosmetic as well and, while you can only equip one of each, they still sell well. Also, while players love shinies, even they have a (financial) limit. Buying one skin per faction is doable, buying one for every leader is not. Incidentally, when the leader archetype gets (indirectly) nerfed, it would also have upset players who bought a premium skin for that leader, which they can no longer use. "Wasting" a skin on a leader almost no one plays might be a worse downside.
 
Cardbacks, avatars and titles are purely cosmetic as well and, while you can only equip one of each, they still sell well. Also, while players love shinies, even they have a (financial) limit. Buying one skin per faction is doable, buying one for every leader is not. Incidentally, when the leader archetype gets (indirectly) nerfed, it would also have upset players who bought a premium skin for that leader, which they can no longer use. "Wasting" a skin on a leader almost no one plays might be a worse downside.
For different versions/abilities of a leader other than the standard leader card, buying should be an option, not the only possibility. Collecting/unlocking should be possible as well. Monetize anything and everything, but make the leaders cards again and treat them as such. A leader becoming uninteresting for competitive play, well, that's the devs' doing isn't it? As already obvious, you can't protect against bad dev decisions.
 
I like this change. At least doesn't look like Francesca all the time.
Still, would say "play Ardal" instead of "play whatever his ability is called now", when it's not actually Ardal.
Maybe they could "re-couble" SOME of the abilities just for people having big problem with that. Like Gernichora being only her skill and AQ. Perhaps Eldain and Eithne.
 
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