Gwent: The Witcher Card game - standalone Gwent game - now with Rogue Mage standalone expansion

[Latro]

I'll give the game a shot again for my flaming rose bros.

 

[Danikas]

https://www.playgwent.com/en/card-reveals

Here they reveal new cards bro Vincent Meis is coming back.





Sletkirk premium :mrpresident:

 

[Grubba]

I swung by the Gwent subreddit to check out what's going on in that world and holy crap, seems like dark times. Lots of bitching about the state of the game, full of bugs and recent changes have left people pissed. Apparently some of the top streamers are taking a break until shit gets sorted out. What the hell did CDPR do now?

Not a good sign when a game goes from "fresh & fun" to "dumpster fire" all while still in beta.

 

[v1rus]

What the hell did CDPR do now?

Rushed a huge update, so it would come out before Christmas.

I've been playing on 4k for half an hour almost every day since the patch, and tbh, most of it is just the usual reddit bitching. Havent encountered any bugs, spy abuse is messed up, but eh, we all knew its gonna get fixed sooner or later. Hate for create as a mechanic is kinda retarded, since it seems fine, and if it doesnt, its gonna get patched. I'm far more annoyed by the fact that cdpr adds bunch of new cards every month-month and a half, and as such, meta keeps getting shaken the fuck up, so I have no idea wth I should be crafting, and any balance changes are made in a vacuum since cards coming out next month (or heck, this month) can brake the freshly balanced cards.

 

[Grubba]

Hate for create as a mechanic is kinda retarded, since it seems fine, and if it doesnt, its gonna get patched.

So create is some new random card generation mechanic? I can see why that would turn some people off, a big part of the early appeal of the game was that it wasn't the RNG-fest that HS had become and thus placed more importance on player skill.

I still see myself coming back to the game at some point once things solidify but goddamn, the path they've taken since open beta started is worrisome.

 

[Lithium Flower]

It is sad but not surprising to see how CDPR have gradually stripped away the elements that made Gwent unique instead of building on them. Gold cards being interactive, lanes no longer being specific to unit types thanks to almost every unit being agile, and now create. Who could've thunk?

 

[hivemind]

the midwinter hearthstone update

 

[hivemind]

unit agility is tolerable desu it kinda makes the game better mechanically better rather than worse even tho it's meh thematically, the preferred row idea that has been floating around is probably the best one

create is completely retarded tho, it's like such a completely retarded hearthstone mechanic I can't even

 

[Erikolaz]

New card art has been leaked. A dildo merchant with a large crooked nose, fleeing from a threatening Aryan farmer. Finally some minority representation.

 

[Zer0wing]

Never change, polish artists!

BTW, how's new patch? Any reason to come back?

 

[Latro]

Infinitron rides Crispy to escape the wrath of Thor Kaufman and agentorange

 

[Crispy]

Am I supposed to be the goat or the cart?

 

[hivemind]

game is in worst state it has ever been

if it doesn't get fixed radically in next 2-3 patches it's p much OVER

 

[Infinitron]

 

[hivemind]

should have just posted the twitch vod where they actually show it

 

[Zer0wing]

A little bit lazy way, just to eliminate faction restrictions tbh.

 

[Erikolaz]

I've been playing Gwent since the beginning of closed beta, but eventually decided to quit.

Gradually realized that it's simply not enjoyable to me any longer. There's too many frustrating gameplay issues, which it seems increasingly unlikely that CDPR will address. The most major ones being:

• Despite nearing the end of open beta, they still haven't made a single effort to address the coinflip problem. It doesn't even seem as though they recognize it as a problem.
• The Create mechanics, which were supposed to be for the new game mode (draft/arena), are highly competitive on the ranked ladder. It's frustrating to lose to randomness, since there's no way to plan for it and cleverly play around it. Gwent was originally designed to not have this form of randomness, but the devs must have decided to go in an entirely different direction sometime leading up to the Mid-Winter Patch.
  
• Gameplay has become more monotonous, since you're largely punished for playing synergistic units that become powerful over time. Removal is too powerful and prevalent. To be competitive you must generally run cards with a powerful ad-hoc effect on placement.
• Faction identities are gradually becoming more diluted, with cards that share the same kind of streamlined effects.
• CDPRs approach to balancing is typically just to add 1 point to an underplayed card, or subtract 1 point from an overplayed card. They aren't addressing any of the underlying problems.

Part of the reason is also that I'm a roleplayer at heart, so card games feel a bit too mechanical and non-immersive to me. Thanks to the richness of the Witcher lore, it took a while before I got to that point with Gwent.

 

[hivemind]

hello reddit

 

[FritzedProcess]

I hadn't played much in the last couple of months, but I gave the new arena mode a try a couple of days ago. I have to say it's pretty good. Great for old and new players alike.

Regarding the meta, this game suffers from a problem that is common to LCGs (which is funny, considering that this is a CCG), which is that the meta gets resolved very fast. I am not sure whether this is due to the rank-up rewards being so generous, so that a new player can build a tier 1 deck by winning 18 rounds daily in a few weeks' time (to explain the possible relationship, in LCGs all players have access to the same card pool, so optimal builds are reached in a few iterations, excluding local metas, and the more factions there are, the worse this is, due to the fact that you can allocate so many cards per pack to each faction).

 

[hivemind]

no that's not at all the problem of the meta

the problem of the meta is that the developers aren;t printing interesting and fun effects and so any kind of figuring out of the meta is just a boring slog

if the figured out solution of a meta was a diverse and interactive environment with a place for unique decks playing off each other there would be no problem

 

[Erikolaz]

Rethaz has stepped down as lead designer. He's been replaced by this lesbian incarnation of Uncle Fester.

Source

 

[Berekän]

Well, let's wait and see, apparently they're going to limit the create cards a bit.

 

[Latro]

lol rethaz is leaving? I was just thinking about coming back out of boredom, but I suppose this is a sign to stay away

 

[FritzedProcess]

Rethaz has stepped down as lead designer. He's been replaced by this lesbian incarnation of Uncle Fester.

Source

Those looks, and Undertale fanart in her deviantart account? This does not bode well.

 

[Rahdulan]

Future plans for the game. It seems rows will once again have meaning, for example.
https://www.playgwent.com/en/news/18951/gwent-homecoming-see-whats-next-for-gwent

I love GWENT — especially when I am winning. At times, I hate it — it’s when I get my ass kicked. GWENT is one of the very few games I play almost every day (I clocked close to 350 hours). Why am I telling you this? It’s because I want you to know that I’m invested and treat GWENT very personally.

I still remember the excitement of E3 2016 when we announced GWENT on PC and consoles. It was a blast! Well received by both you — gamers — and the media, I think we couldn't have had a better opening. And boy..., were we naive. Compared to the single player RPGs we had been creating so far, we didn’t realize how different it was to operate and develop a live game at the same time.

A year later, we took GWENT to Public Beta and — again — tons of gamers jumped in and checked it out. We still had a lot to learn. But, as always, we adapted. What we didn’t realize back then was that we also started slowly drifting away from our original vision for standalone GWENT. While fighting with the everyday reality of regular updates and content drops, we lost sight of what was unique and fun about the game. And you played a big role in making us realize that. Thank you for your sincere feedback!

We have never accepted ‘good enough’ at our company. We have always taken risks and made bold decisions if we believed they would result in a better game. And, you’ve guessed it, we’ve just made one now.

We call this project GWENT Homecoming.

We want GWENT to kick some serious ass and reignite your passion for our beloved CCG. We would like to ask you for your trust and patience. We need 6 months of fully-focused development to deliver what we’ve planned. Aside from standard season transitions and events like Faction Challenges or Warped Arena rulesets, we will release only two updates during this time. One in April — it will introduce the missing Premium Cards as well as faction specific board skins — and one in May, which will balance out the game (Wardancer included) with a new approach to “Create”. Six months is a long time, however, on the flip side, after Homecoming concludes, we will go out of beta and release Thronebreaker at the same time. Don’t worry about your progress, once Homecoming is complete, for a limited time, you will have the ability to mill all of your cards for their full value. Regarding our esports activities, for now, our calendar is not changing.

As for details on Homecoming, Kasia and Rafał, GWENT’s leads, have broken down the project into the following key pillars:

• Turning GWENT into a battlefield

When you play GWENT, you are a leader of an army from the world of The Witcher. We want to put more effort into reflecting that in in-game mechanics and visuals. As an example, we would like to introduce a preferred row for some cards that would grant them additional benefits when put on that row. Also, rows in the front and back would always grant a different buff when a unit is placed there.

• Upgrading the board

Currently, rows don’t have direct impact on gameplay. If we count the hands of both players, we are looking at 8 rows in total. Our greatest visual assets — card art and premium versions of cards — are too small to shine in the current view. What we’re aiming for is a complete overhaul of the visual experience. The redesign will leave no stone unturned. We are even considering cutting one of the rows and leaving only melee and range. It’s still something that requires extensive testing, but we’re that serious about making things work.

• Fixing the coin mechanic

Currently, going second can give players a significant advantage. We heard you — we will ‘fix the coin flip’ and are already testing possible solutions.

• Revamping player progression

We have a lot of things planned for new and returning players. We will be offering a proper tutorial to ease first time players into playing GWENT. There will also be a new leveling system, achievements and a revised ranked mode — all with suitable rewards.

• Focusing on skill and player agency

We heard you discussing the “Create” mechanic. At first, we thought it would be an interesting addition to the game, but — as time passed — we realized that this form of wide RNG is not something that fits our focus on player skill. We will be extra careful with these types of mechanics in the redesign process. That said, if we manage to find some cards interesting enough to include, but ‘too crazy for Ranked’, they will still have their place in Arena and Casual Mode.

• Re-focusing on core gamers

We want GWENT to remain a deep game, where each faction has its identity and offers distinctive gameplay archetypes. We want rows to really matter in terms of gameplay, and gameplay itself needs to be engaging and rewarding.

• Bringing back The Witcher

Homecoming will bring back a darker aesthetic and mood, more in sync with the original Witcher lore. We’ll change the main menus and in-game shop, as well as work on a consistent UI and UX throughout the entire game.

• Thronebreaker

We saved the best for last. After Homecoming concludes, we will launch GWENT along with Thronebreaker — our single player campaign. A dedicated team has been hard at work to deliver you a great new story from the Witcher universe. Expect goodness!


Best regards,
Marcin Iwiński, co-founder / joint CEO
Katarzyna Redesiuk, Game Director
Rafał Jaki, Product Director