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Ben Brode Dev Interview - RNG, ESports, Secretadin
Ben Brode sat down with Tim Clark of PC Gamer for an interview to talk about TGT, RNG, Esports, and more. We've recapped the important parts of the interview below, if you'd like to read the entire transcript head on over to PC Gamer.
Quote from Ben Brode
- Deck slots are officially on the to-do list. They want to do the best implementation possible - not the first thing that comes to mind.
- Not all Inspire cards were targeted for tier 1 decks.
- Had they of buffed some of the "bad" Paladin secrets, Mysterious Challenger may not have been able to be what it is today.
- Secret paladin isn't very concerning as it doesn't kill you in one turn - you see it coming.
- They aren't in love with Grim Patron gameplay but not only is it not being played much on the ladder, but it is a difficult deck to play correctly and the win rates aren't at the point of cards they've nerfed in the past.
- Power level reasons aren't why they nerf things, it's all about how fun cards are to play against.
- Poisoned Blade's intention was to bring back the original Rogue hero power in a more balanced form. It does seem less good if you didn't get to play with it during Hearthstone's beta.
- Dragons are in an awesome place right now.
Internal Stats
Ben talked about some of the internal stats they keep track of.
- Class breakdowns of grouping of cards.
- Individual card win rates.
- Groups of cards win rates.
- Individual players and their win rates of individual decks.
Strength in Numbers - Weekly Card Design Competition
This week's card design competition, Strength in Numbers, is now live! The entry theme this week is to design a card which has an effect that depends on the number of minions on the battlefield, such as Sea Giant or Frostwolf Warlord. It gets a little bit more complicated though, more details on which can be found in the submission thread.
So what are you waiting for? Winners get bragging rights and a fancy avatar border, so go submit your entry today! If you'd like to discuss this week's entries, you can do so as always in the discussion thread. Good luck!
Hearthstone Probability Guide
TheAnimaker has put together quite the thread which discusses probability in Hearthstone over on the forums. The thread details card reliability by turn, odds of getting that mulligan you wanted, individual card outcomes, and more! Go check it out, and leave a comment!
People want to try many different things, but they can't without deleting a deck. It's not about laziness, but about them altering their design in a small way to improve the overall user experience. How is that a bad thing?
Also, about netdeckers: I'd actually argue that one reason a lot of people netdeck because they just don't have the room to do anything else. They need to have decks that work with the meta (which currently is lame of course), which doesn't leave much room for fun decks or testing creations out. One slot per class just isn't enough for many people to creatively work with, especially when you want to play multiple decks of the same class.
yeah it is just you
the rest doesnt want to have to go back to collection, delete one of your deck, build a new one and finaly play when you feel like playing 1 game 4fun on a whim with a deck that isnt your regular. its just needless busy work that shouldnt be there cause is easy to fix with addition of a fucking slider to scroll on deck selection. who cares if i dont play with everysingle one of my 9 decks each day.
1 type of deck for each class is not really enough. There should be atleast 3 type of deck viable to play for each class, and some other deck space for "fun" decks and lets not forget PvE decks.
and you think one exclude the other?
its a "to do list" cause it is a list = multiple positions
tournament mode which me and many others wanted but got this garbage brawl instead is an even higher request
The reality: Poisoned Blade's intention was to make the worst epic card in the game.
You mean... after Kidnapper?
... and Patient Assassin? XD
For single-use the stats are just too bad to have any use whatsoever. However, if Poison Blade had a Battlecry that altered your Hero Power for the rest of the game it might be an interesting card.
Awesome idea!
They could have made poisoned blade give you the hero power from beta. It would still be better than the piece of crap we got...
tbh patient assasin is one of the best minions you can get from Shredder
I want to start playing Arena myself after this, but I'm not thrilled about not being able to choose your own packs. I was fine with them rewarding GvG packs following its release because you knew what set you were getting, but now it's random between 3 different sets. It's like they know people want to migrate away from the terrible meta, so they make the alternative not as appealing as it used to be to make it as unfun as possible. I really have to wonder if the devs are trolling the community or they're really that dense.
ask any player if they have fun when they face Dr. Boom
"They aren't in love with Grim Patron gameplay but not only is it not being played much on the ladder, but it is a difficult deck to play correctly and the win rates aren't at the point of cards they've nerfed in the past."
Yeah, I'm going to have to call them out on that one. Everyone has played Patron Warrior since BRM and it has been unanimously deemed to be the strongest deck in the game for several months running. It's also very frequently played by pros in tournaments, which influences how the rest of us play. In ATLC, I don't think there was a single team that didn't have a Patron Warrior.
The devs need to be honest with both themselves and us and realize that Miracle Rogue was nerfed for the same reasons that make Patron Warrior strong today, and that Patron is arguably far more dominant than Miracle ever was. Also, here's their exact post from a year ago:
"Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. Fighting for board control and battles between minions make an overall game of Hearthstone more fun and compelling, but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not particularly fun or interactive."
Sounds a lot like Patron Warrior, huh? They need to stand with their design principles and do what needs to be done. No excuses anymore.
Love the card design competitions and probability thing was very interesting
The game is pretty well balanced right now. There are a lot of classes and archetypes which became finally playable with TGT. Haters gonna hate, but Ben Brode is very smart and farseeing guy, I like his design thoughts and ideas a lot. Nice interview.
Aren't you naive?
Especially for the "farseeing" guy. If Blizzard was proactive and "farseeing" as you say, they could have been able to avoid so many mistakes with GvG. Now, because they are greedy they tend to find excuses, in order not to nerf some OP cards from that set.
Haters gonna hate but we shouldn't use that expression to cover our own mistakes...
I don't see any OP cards currently in game. Even Dr. Seven is not so bad. There are a lot of annoying decks to play against, yes, but it's inevitable at high level play. Your deck must be annoying and uncomfortable for your oppenent too if you want to win, it's easy.
This isn't all about winning or losing. Hearthstone is supposed to be a fun game (above all) and not annoying. This is why you have so many "haters".
It's not fun to play against Dr7, especially when he clears your board. It was fun at first but when it happens continuously it gets annoying and after a while, old. I don't have such a big problem with him too, mainly because I got used to him. But I would be quite relieved if they nerfed the bombs to hit allies as well as enemies (much like Mad Bomber); maybe even cost 8 mana just to give your opponent 1 more turn and not have consistent big turns.
There are different types of players in HS. There are casual players, which playing for "fun", and hardcore/competitive players, which playing for an excellence and perfection. For hardcore player fun is when you play it for win at maximum. It's no annoying cards, it's just challenge for your skill. Main problem, I suppose, when casual players start playing ranked mode and see it full of OP decks and unfairness. Instead of improving their decks and skills, learning meta and so on, they simple blaming game designers all day long on forums.
About Dr.Boom, I think, right now his nerf is counterproductive, because it will buff aggro and fast deck even more. It's not needed in current meta.
Where do you see the fun in casual? All I can find is netdeckers with the excuse of "I want to complete my daily quests faster"...
If you're facing aggro, you're not supposed to survive till turn 7. I agree and disagree about not needing a nerf in the current meta but it will take too long to explain (aka lazy atm; sorry :D)...