I agree, a lot of RNG effects just make things fun and interesting.
However, things that feel bad as RNG and decide games like knife juggler and the shaman board clear fiasco really aren't suitable. It's not funny to see that random, just one relieved player and one frustrated player.
While you're around a thread, can I request that you guys do some more designer insights? I really enjoyed watching Ben Brode talk about some issues that people have raised, and honestly there are plenty of things the community would love to hear something about.
We agree with the last point, being around and listening to what is going on in the community is a fairly important aspect of doing our job. Hopefully some of those videos Brode did were useful and we can do more stuff like that in the future.
if high impact 10/10 power level cards arent healthy, what about shredder? shredder and boom (which had some hard rng going too) defined the meta and every deck building started with putting them in your deck..
I think the crazy outcomes of Shredder and Boom get a little more room in your memory that the normal outcomes do. In practice the randomness they provide was pretty low variance on average. Ram Wrangler has much less predictable outcomes.
Would it be possible a Hearthstone dev QnA to happen? There are many questions that are repeated constantly and it would be useful to have something to regret to whenever someone starts complaining about balance.
I reply in my free time when it makes sense, Brode does a pretty good job of answering some broader questions in some of his dev insight videos...I would check that out. Our community team is awesome and does most of the decision making when it comes to community interaction, so if they think it's a good idea to do videos/QnA/someotherformat we usually trust them because they are awesome!
Hey Iksar, thanks a bunch for replying to us. I have a kinda unrelated question. Why was the card "Charge" not nerfed? Isn't this exactly what you were trying to discourage? Don't get me wrong, I love the card, but it just seems like inconsistent judging by how Blizzard wants to discourage OTK's.
Charge was nerfed back in the day. Used to be (0) mana. It's actually a card we still worry about in some regard, but felt it wasn't causing too many problems....yet, haha.
Aside from most of the cards already mentioned, ram wrangler. The variance is just too high. Tuskarr totemic is ok imo, with a low of a normal totem and a high of totem golem. But getting respective lows and highs of a 1/1 and a 8/8 with charge? Nah, that shit ain't cool.
Just to say it again, webspinner is ok in this regard since you still need to play the beast and pay the mana cost, but getting it on the board for free is too much.
Cards with such high-impact variance like that aren't healthy as 10/10 power level cards. Sort of like Servant of Yogg. It's hard to control the randomness of either of those cards, which is why their power level is modest. They are still fun and I'm still glad we made them, but only for a small portion of the audience that enjoys that sort of variance and is willing to sacrifice win rate.
It is a card that is a two-of in every single mage deck in existance. Aggressive mage: 6 face damage for 4 mana. Control mage: remove a minion for 4 mana. It is just so good on its own that every mage deck you build is basically what 28 cards do i add.
I don't mind a card being powerful in certain circumstances, but fireball is good in literally any circumstance.
Some class auto-includes don't bother me much. Having a general idea about what to expect when you queue into Druid (Swipe), Warrior (Axe), Mage (Fireball) contributes a lot to the identity of each class.
Iksar
We agree with the last point, being around and listening to what is going on in the community is a fairly important aspect of doing our job. Hopefully some of those videos Brode did were useful and we can do more stuff like that in the future.
Iksar
I think the crazy outcomes of Shredder and Boom get a little more room in your memory that the normal outcomes do. In practice the randomness they provide was pretty low variance on average. Ram Wrangler has much less predictable outcomes.
Iksar
I reply in my free time when it makes sense, Brode does a pretty good job of answering some broader questions in some of his dev insight videos...I would check that out. Our community team is awesome and does most of the decision making when it comes to community interaction, so if they think it's a good idea to do videos/QnA/someotherformat we usually trust them because they are awesome!
Iksar
Charge was nerfed back in the day. Used to be (0) mana. It's actually a card we still worry about in some regard, but felt it wasn't causing too many problems....yet, haha.
Iksar
This guy gets it! ;)
Iksar
Cards with such high-impact variance like that aren't healthy as 10/10 power level cards. Sort of like Servant of Yogg. It's hard to control the randomness of either of those cards, which is why their power level is modest. They are still fun and I'm still glad we made them, but only for a small portion of the audience that enjoys that sort of variance and is willing to sacrifice win rate.
Iksar
Some class auto-includes don't bother me much. Having a general idea about what to expect when you queue into Druid (Swipe), Warrior (Axe), Mage (Fireball) contributes a lot to the identity of each class.