Another QB suggestion - make the games harder

Upstartes

It seems to me that many of the surface problems with QB are tied to a single root problem: the games are not very challenging. Almost every time you play a QB game, you win. If you always win, then the only differential between who wins more is who plays more games.

If, on the other hand, the QB games resulted in a non-trivial loss rate, then differences in skill and/or deck quality become more important.

The ease of defeating opponents in QB is more or less tied to the inadequacy of the AI, but also to the fact that we are playing against the Planeswalkers of other players. The life totals and abilities of these planesewalkers mostly require human skill to work well, and become easy pickings when handled by an AI.

Some ideas on how to address this:
* Change the way the life levels (and maybe the abilities) of the PWs when they are being used by the AI.
* Handicap the games by starting the AI off with some other bonus (mana, for example, or maybe a generically useful support, not in the AI's deck, that gets added to the board under the AIs control at the start of the game)
* Mix in some opponents in QB that aren't based on decks from other players - that is, have a random selection of decks similar to the harder levels of the story modes. Have these mixed in at some rate (10% - 30% maybe) to up the challenge factor of the QB overall.

Obviously, improved AI would also help, but I'm assuming that a better AI is a pretty tall order.

HexStarDragon

I think it'd be better to change the underlying structure and reward system, since that's the underlying issue/complaint.

As it is now, you can play AI-style decks, with boosts/advantages now, in the single-player, any time you want, if that is what you are looking for. The only difference is that you get, potentially, less reward than playing QB - which, again, is an issue with the reward structure itself, rather than the game.

Ideally, we'd all agree that the AI in QB could be improved in the absence of true PvP. However, other "fixes" essentially just turn it into the same as the single player matches. As is, they fill a "niche" of pitting your cards and deck ideas against those of others, on an "even start". Though not a great implementation, this is the only way to test your cards and ideas in authentic match environment where the power or effectiveness of cards and combinations aren't badly warped by an opponent starting with bonuses such as extra HP, extra mana, or overpowered abilities.

nexus13

There are some AI fixes that should be pretty low hanging fruit ie. stop killing its own creatures.

PapiLouis4

Upstartes wrote:

It seems to me that many of the surface problems with QB are tied to a single root problem: the games are not very challenging. Almost every time you play a QB game, you win. If you always win, then the only differential between who wins more is who plays more games.

If, on the other hand, the QB games resulted in a non-trivial loss rate, then differences in skill and/or deck quality become more important.

The ease of defeating opponents in QB is more or less tied to the inadequacy of the AI, but also to the fact that we are playing against the Planeswalkers of other players. The life totals and abilities of these planesewalkers mostly require human skill to work well, and become easy pickings when handled by an AI.

Some ideas on how to address this:
* Change the way the life levels (and maybe the abilities) of the PWs when they are being used by the AI.
* Handicap the games by starting the AI off with some other bonus (mana, for example, or maybe a generically useful support, not in the AI's deck, that gets added to the board under the AIs control at the start of the game)
* Mix in some opponents in QB that aren't based on decks from other players - that is, have a random selection of decks similar to the harder levels of the story modes. Have these mixed in at some rate (10% - 30% maybe) to up the challenge factor of the QB overall.

Obviously, improved AI would also help, but I'm assuming that a better AI is a pretty tall order.

a bunch of good ideas here, but i doubt theyll change the way qb works, as it is supposed to be, a quick battle. however i would love to see them implement similar ideas like these into events. there are so many possibilities they can achieve with future events, lets just hope they do it sooner rather than later

Morphis

PapiLouis4 wrote:

Upstartes wrote:

It seems to me that many of the surface problems with QB are tied to a single root problem: the games are not very challenging. Almost every time you play a QB game, you win. If you always win, then the only differential between who wins more is who plays more games.

If, on the other hand, the QB games resulted in a non-trivial loss rate, then differences in skill and/or deck quality become more important.

The ease of defeating opponents in QB is more or less tied to the inadequacy of the AI, but also to the fact that we are playing against the Planeswalkers of other players. The life totals and abilities of these planesewalkers mostly require human skill to work well, and become easy pickings when handled by an AI.

Some ideas on how to address this:
* Change the way the life levels (and maybe the abilities) of the PWs when they are being used by the AI.
* Handicap the games by starting the AI off with some other bonus (mana, for example, or maybe a generically useful support, not in the AI's deck, that gets added to the board under the AIs control at the start of the game)
* Mix in some opponents in QB that aren't based on decks from other players - that is, have a random selection of decks similar to the harder levels of the story modes. Have these mixed in at some rate (10% - 30% maybe) to up the challenge factor of the QB overall.

Obviously, improved AI would also help, but I'm assuming that a better AI is a pretty tall order.

a bunch of good ideas here, but i doubt theyll change the way qb works, as it is supposed to be, a quick battle. however i would love to see them implement similar ideas like these into events. there are so many possibilities they can achieve with future events, lets just hope they do it sooner rather than later

Yes quick battles are fine in their own purpose: being quick battles.
The problem is that quick battle are the (only) way to get ranked competition.

In my opinion quick battles should be more about grinding resources, in this case runes... And are pretty fine for it.

I think another way to get ranked prizes should be implemented altogether. Maybe events?

Quick battle would be fine then for runes and maybe some daily quests, if they will implement something like that in future.

knthrak

If d3go wants harder quick battles (and battles in general), they can get a huge increase in difficulty by _not_ ignoring most match-5s.

Upstartes

Morphis wrote:

In my opinion quick battles should be more about grinding resources, in this case runes... And are pretty fine for it.

I think another way to get ranked prizes should be implemented altogether. Maybe events?

Quick battle would be fine then for runes and maybe some daily quests, if they will implement something like that in future.

I had not really considered this. Having now read the upcoming update and its included new events, I can see how this could work.