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Next » There was an error. Delete post THIS IS A SPINNER or cancel THIS IS A SPINNER metadata Let me start with wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a splendid New Year! In this post, I would like to explain our thoughts on the current metagame, where we see some potential issues, and which cards might be adjusted accordingly. At this point, it is too early to go into the details how exactly cards will be changed, as we’re still in the process of testing and validating our options. *** ### Analytics *** As you might be aware, we track a lot of statistics in our game! This ranges from which cards are opened from books, how often ads are watched, or which game modes are played most often; allowing us to spot issues and make adjustments accordingly. When balancing the metagame, we use all the data we get from all player matches - which will provide us the outcome, the decks, levels and more. This data is then used to see how popular each kingdom is and how well they perform at all levels and ranks. And we do the same for all the cards. *** ### Kingdom Wars *** ![](https://i.imgur.com/IW53zHq.png) Let’s first take a look at the popularity of each deck, which indicates how often a certain deck is played. We’ve separated them based on the card or player levels to show how numbers deviate. There are a few things you can see from this view: * Swarm is on average the most popular kingdom * Shadowfen is the least played kingdom * Ironclad is played a lot at the early levels and considerably less at the higher levels We can also look at the numbers from a different perspective: what percentage of their games does each kingdom win? ![](https://i.imgur.com/GQS1iBK.png) At earlier levels, win rates of the kingdoms are much closer to each other than at the high levels. * Ironclad and Swarm are strong at early levels, much weaker later. * Shadowfen is strong, especially at higher levels If you compare the two graphs, you’ll notice that for the early levels they are very similar. But at later levels, the most played decks aren’t actually the ones with the highest win rate. So, why is Swarm so popular? The two most prominent reasons are: * It has the highest deck average of the kingdoms, so often they are played at a higher level (versus others with a lower level). * It has the shortest matches on average, so it quicker to play with and easier to grind with. *** ### Card Battles *** In the same way we get information about the kingdoms, we can do the same for all the cards. When balancing the game, we look at all the cards per level. For now, let’s just take a look at the averages. ![](https://i.imgur.com/HbfbyTq.png) The most popular cards are not too surprising: * The cards played most are those unlocked through the tutorial and campaign * Common and rare cards are played more often than epics and legendaries, as they are easier to obtain from books * The least played cards are the newest ones, because most players don’t have them yet. Card win rates tells us more about how the balance is in the game. ![](https://i.imgur.com/pSuAsaq.png) The best and worst cards only deviate about 10% from the average, so in practice the all cards have a good chance to be played and will mostly depend on the current meta. A few patterns to notice: * Legendary cards tend to have a higher win rate * Newer cards often start with a lower win rate and then climb up over time * Spells and structures seem to perform worse than units and heroes Some other info about the win rate of cards: * The best performing structure is Upgrade Point * Emerald Towers has the lowest win rate of the structures * Broken Truce has the highest win ratio of all the spells * Herald’s Hymn is performing slightly over 50% *** ### Future *** Based on these numbers (and many more), we will see which cards we feel need to be adjusted and test our options. Card synergy is an important aspect we keep in mind at all times, which can result in a single change having effects on several other cards and in the end the entire meta. Here are some cards or card combos that we are currently looking at: * Decrease the power of some cards from aggressive decks, for example Green Prototypes and Herald’s Hymn * Tone down 1 or more cards that are part of the strong combo with Rain of Frogs, Azure Hatchers, Toxic Sacrifice and Kindred’s Grace * Reevaluate the values of all removal cards: Broken Truce, Icicle Burst and Curse of Strings * Improve some of the structures that are underperforming * Increase the performance of some control cards, such as Moment’s Peace and Flaming Stream metadata While I'll appreciate any buffs to structures/Moment's Peace and gladly welcome any nerfs to whatever units Swarm-mains run with, was it really wise to add the most recently released cards in the metrics? That aside, it seems that Popularity of the factions definitely corresponds to what you would see on the ladder but the Win-rate seems to be surprising. While Shadowfen is no surprise, Swarm's low win-rate is definitely a head-scratcher. Are there less prominent reasons for Swarm's win-rate? Also, what ranks/levels correspond to early/medium/high? Would it be possible to show win-rates for the non-neutral, non-legendary cards? I feel like that would give a better, more detailed view of how strong each faction is. Additionally, excluding Ubass who hits the base and Mirz who provides supreme value as game drags on, the other 3 are all low cost. Doesn't this more or less confirm that low-costers are king in the meta? Are there any plans to shake this up? metadata > *Originally posted by **[aspareforyou](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11799632)**:* > Are there less prominent reasons for Swarm's win-rate? Two main reason: * People now create decks that work well versus the most popular deck * Shadowfen has some very strong combinations as mentioned and Swarm (or Ironclad) can't deal with that at all. > *Originally posted by **[aspareforyou](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11799632)**:* > Also, what ranks/levels correspond to early/medium/high? We track the data per level, but this is roughly the division I've made for the staticstics shown here: * Early = players with level 1-2 cards, 10-12 hp * Medium = level 2-4 cards, 12-16 hp * High = level 4-5 cards, 16-20 hp > *Originally posted by **[aspareforyou](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11799632)**:* > Would it be possible to show win-rates for the non-neutral, non-legendary cards? I feel like that would give a better, more detailed view of how strong each faction is. We won't be sharing exact win rates of cards or kingdoms. The win rates of cards coincide very well with the performance of the kingdom itself. Ironclad cards are doing very well in the early levels, Shadowfen at high levels. > Additionally, excluding Ubass who hits the base and Mirz who provides supreme value as game drags on, the other 3 are all low cost. Doesn't this more or less confirm that low-costers are king in the meta? Are there any plans to shake this up? Two points that I mentioned might help tone down these low-cost units a bit: * Decrease the power of some cards from aggressive decks, for example Green Prototypes and Herald’s Hymn * Increase the performance of some control cards, such as Moment’s Peace and Flaming Stream - as these can slow down or kill the opponent's units metadata Thanks for information. metadata Are you guys considering any nerfs for Ubass and Mirz? metadata > *Originally posted by **[spicie](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11799798)**:* > Are you guys considering any nerfs for Ubass and Mirz? We're okay with legendaries being somewhat stronger - but with that said, they are being considered. metadata Thanks for the detailed and informative post. Interesting to see the win rates of the different factions broken down like that. metadata JW, when considering win rates, can you remove cases such as farming from the data? As those situations are very likely to pull down win rates. Just interested. metadata Hey atleast this means Winter Pact is well balenced I guess metadata I kind of have a problem the list of Lowest Popularity & Lowest Winrate. Yes, from the data you guys have it will show that these are low in all of these aspects, but the being said the majority of cards are recently new from the update of this season. So although some player will find some cards. Is there actually a decent census in which these cards being own or used. Even then some player might not have them at an appropriate level (means around there deck average level) to use. So, maybe if you can show us the Lowest's excluding recently add card might put this in a different perspective. Because it feels a bit bias towards the new cards. metadata Looking at the Popularity and Winrate for Kingdoms, it makes sense that Shadowfen is least popular from Medium to High levels because the only way you can safely run it in ladder to climb is having RoF+KG, which are both epics and hard to acquire for f2p. And since it's mainly (almost all) the people who run RoF+KG are p2w, it makes sense that they have the highest winrate since they have the right cards to the right combo. This however does not justify nerfing other Shadowfen cards, causing it even less playable at lower levels resulting in even lower popularity. Whic in turn causes the only people who play Shadowfen are the p2w, which concludes with an even higher win-rate than we see now. Let's say right now around 80% of the Shadowfen players are running RoF+KG and 20% running something else. By nerfing Shadowfen cards, the 20% would be affected more than the 80%, because the card the 20% relied on for winning has just been nerfed and continue playing Shadowfen isn't a good choice anymore. However, if Kindred's Grace itself is nerfed and some early level cards in Shadowfen is buffed, then the Kingdom might see some more play in the early levels and less in the higher levels. Looking on to Ironclad now, at Early levels it seems to be a staple choice, but rapidly loses power as the level increases. This calls for a nerf in the initial power of Ironclad and buffs to the strengths of higher level Ironclad cards. Especially since Ironclad is the Kingdom with the least diverse and game-changing abilities (push/pull and giving strength), their power needs to increase significantly to offset the lack of uniqueness and power-spikes in abilities. Winter is alright, just needs some attention at the earlier levels. Now onto Swarm. It makes sense that the most popular Kingdom has the lowest winrate because for most f2p players, they really have nothing else to play. Shadowfen requires specific and high level cards, Ironclad is too weak in the current meta, and Winter is too slow compared to Swarm. This makes Swarm the ideal faction for most, and including the fact that with Herald's Hymn, it has a decent chance in winning even when faced with an over-leveled opponent. Now you might ask, "If Swarm has a decent chance in winning even against p2w, why is their winrate so low?" This is because at some point in ladder they will reach a "wall". A rank filled with other players that they simply cannot surpass anymore. It is certain that there is a "wall" for every player and Kingdom, but for the Kingdom that is most popular and fastest to play, Swarm players will hit the "wall" earlier in the season (mainly due to less time per game resulting in more games played and because they will more games than they lose while facing equal level opponents but once they catch up to the p2w, that's where they reach the "wall") than other Kingdom players and will begin to dilute the winrate down to around 50%. Hence the low winrate even with a high popularity. A way to fix Swarm is to either nerf its cards to make it less popular, or balancing other Kingdoms to make them more popular in comparison. I would stick with balancing other Kingdoms over nerfing Swarm: Ironclad at Medium to High levels, Shadowfen at Early and Medium levels, and Swarm at High levels. As I said, Winter just needs some more power at Early levels. Please do note that High Level means players with 16-20HP and level 4-5 cards, which is considerably a very miniscule fraction of all the players. ~5% max I would say. So the statistics for High Levels cannot be safely used to determine the balance changes for Early and Medium levels. metadata Two questions: 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? metadata > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > Two questions: > 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. > 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? Arano did show the statistics for the most popular cards (most played cards), if that's what you're looking for... metadata So.... with that, can I deduce that winter is going to be buffed? it has the second highest winning rate in the medium and late game and it will be buffed? can I also asume that it is beneficial for me to switch to winter faction? (in order to get to higher ranks) metadata > *Originally posted by **[sven100](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800013)**:* > JW, when considering win rates, can you remove cases such as farming from the data? As those situations are very likely to pull down win rates. Just interested. > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. These are both good points! We have the data in both cases and the difference between them is pretty small and doesn't change the order as posted. We apply all types of filtering to the data to only get the relevant information out. > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? A percentage as high as 99% I would indeed see it as an issue (or any other high ratio). We do take into account the size of the card set and the rarity of the card to determine how big the issue really is, and make adjustments accordingly. metadata What should also be looked into is the freeze faction of winter deck. Freeze should stay applied through the turn of the opponent. Like that, using freeze against the most popular deck on the game, swarm, won't be pointless. metadata It comes as no surprise that decks with broken truce, which practically means all swarm decks, have the highest win rate. Action should be taken there, either to nerf the card, or at least make it a neutral card for all decks to use. metadata > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > Two questions: > 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. > 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? 2) There are core cards to factions, as someone else already stated, have you ever seen a Winter without Rimmelings? 1) really good point in general, but if you take grinding into account (without changing deck, but why would someone change deck just to concede, xD) you have to consider that for every intentional loss there's an "automatic" victory, so there's no bias, one compensate the other metadata > _Originally posted by **[Araku](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11801644):**_ > > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > > Two questions: > > 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. > > 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? > > 2) There are core cards to factions, as someone else already stated, have you ever seen a Winter without Rimmelings? I'm coming from Magic:he Gathering with this point. The main reason M:tG bans a card is because too many players are using it, which is counter to the whole design philosophy. metadata well, we should nerf rimelings then, also shady ghoul, destructobots, azure spawner, potion, gifted recruits, green prototype metadata > _Originally posted by **[FnMokou](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11800250):**_ > Looking at the Popularity and Winrate for Kingdoms, it makes sense that Shadowfen is least popular from Medium to High levels because the only way you can safely run it in ladder to climb is having RoF+KG, which are both epics and hard to acquire for f2p. And since it's mainly (almost all) the people who run RoF+KG are p2w, it makes sense that they have the highest winrate since they have the right cards to the right combo. This however does not justify nerfing other Shadowfen cards, causing it even less playable at lower levels resulting in even lower popularity. Whic in turn causes the only people who play Shadowfen are the p2w, which concludes with an even higher win-rate than we see now. > > Let's say right now around 80% of the Shadowfen players are running RoF+KG and 20% running something else. By nerfing Shadowfen cards, the 20% would be affected more than the 80%, because the card the 20% relied on for winning has just been nerfed and continue playing Shadowfen isn't a good choice anymore. However, if Kindred's Grace itself is nerfed and some early level cards in Shadowfen is buffed, then the Kingdom might see some more play in the early levels and less in the higher levels. I agree. Well said. P2W RoF + KG is the issue. Please don’t nerf other SF cards and make the whole faction unplayable. And yes, full disclosure, I use SF. metadata It would be interesting to look at win rates by deck type combo'ed with how much of that type are actually in the deck. For instance, while I technically run a Winter deck, only 2 of my 12 cards are from the Winter faction. The remaining 83% of my deck is Neutral. This also seems worth exploring because all of the most popular cards and 4 of the 5 most winning cards are Neutrals themselves. So I would love to see Neutral category added for plays and wins. A deck could classify as Neutral if it is at least 75% (or whatever makes sense based on the data) Neutral. metadata > _Originally posted by **[Potem](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11804074):**_ > well, we should nerf rimelings then, also shady ghoul, destructobots, azure spawner, potion, gifted recruits, green prototype It could just be there aren't enough cards yet because the game is too new. It's not necessarily bad, I was just interested in Paladin's perspective on it. metadata > _Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11803751):**_ > > _Originally posted by **[Araku](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11801644):**_ > > > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > > > Two questions: > > > 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. > > > 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? > > > > 2) There are core cards to factions, as someone else already stated, have you ever seen a Winter without Rimmelings? > > I'm coming from Magic:he Gathering with this point. The main reason M:tG bans a card is because too many players are using it, which is counter to the whole design philosophy. In MtG that makes sense since there's a zillion of cards, but on Stormbound, with slightly more than 10 cards per faction, part of which needs a buff before becoming usable, it's pretty obvious to have core cards that everyone uses. I would consider more of a problem a neutral being always chosen, since there are more of those. Green Prototypes, for example, is probably a problematic card. Then there are cards that are just so basic that it's obvious to see them everywhere, like Gifted Recruits. I think they will overcome this problem not by nerfing the most used cards, but by giving them alternatives making other cards on par metadata > *Originally posted by **[Araku](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11807468)**:* > > _Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11803751):**_ > > > _Originally posted by **[Araku](/forums/941638/topics/969379?page=1#11801644):**_ > > > > *Originally posted by **[RefugeZero](/forums/955764/topics/969379?page=1#11800541)**:* > > > > Two questions: > > > > 1) does this data filter out games where one player immediately forfeits? I imagine that swarm players do this more often than others while grinding, which would bias win rates. > > > > 2) I didn't see any mention of % usage for cards. For instance, if 99% of swarm decks use HH, do you consider that a problem? > > > > > > 2) There are core cards to factions, as someone else already stated, have you ever seen a Winter without Rimmelings? > > > > I'm coming from Magic:he Gathering with this point. The main reason M:tG bans a card is because too many players are using it, which is counter to the whole design philosophy. > > In MtG that makes sense since there's a zillion of cards, but on Stormbound, with slightly more than 10 cards per faction, part of which needs a buff before becoming usable, it's pretty obvious to have core cards that everyone uses. I would consider more of a problem a neutral being always chosen, since there are more of those. Green Prototypes, for example, is probably a problematic card. Then there are cards that are just so basic that it's obvious to see them everywhere, like Gifted Recruits. > I think they will overcome this problem not by nerfing the most used cards, but by giving them alternatives making other cards on par 18 cards per faction for now (each page can hold 9 cards). « Prev

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