Disappointment

[AvaDDon]

After playing over 800 games of this game, I realized only one thing, for reasons I don't understand, players with a rating of 400+ just need the right cards. Everyone says it's a skill, they look for mistakes in my game, they say it's about you. But there is a logic. Ark Nova is not chess, where skill is very important, it is a random game where you can win only with good cards. I see how other players are playing and which cards they have at the right time, and I'm often shocked because it kills.Has anyone noticed a similar situation? This is especially true in the arena.

[Tisaac]

After playing over 800 games of this game, I realized only one thing, for reasons I don't understand, players with a rating of 400+ just need the right cards. Everyone says it's a skill, they look for mistakes in my game, they say it's about you. But there is a logic. Ark Nova is not chess, where skill is very important, it is a random game where you can win only with good cards. I see how other players are playing and which cards they have at the right time, and I'm often shocked because it kills.Has anyone noticed a similar situation? This is especially true in the arena.

A game can have luck and skill at the same time. Just look at the top ELO to see how much luck the game has. Backgammon or other games with a lot of randomness will have only few players above 400 ELO. It's clearly not the case for ArkNova with players reaching 700 ELO. It's more similar to Agricola than to Backgammon. There is some luck involved with the cards, but good players just dont rely only on luck to win.

[yazavats]

If the game was as luck based as you claim it to be there wouldn't be a guy who's won three arena seasons, three WSBG titles, achieved over 900 elo, has a 90% win rate, and is capable of reaching top 3 arena within 80 games of creating a new account. I'm not fawning over the guy, I'm just using him as an example. Sure, the same guy can lose to a 100 elo if the latter is very lucky, but he wins that matchup 49 times out of 50. So the factor that you're overlooking is consistency. Of course the game isn't like chess which is 100% skill based, but there is no ground for you to go to the other extreme. Games exist on a spectrum. If you've hit a wall, I'm sorry to break it to you, but it is a skill issue, so your disappointment is misaimed.

[Azoken]

Sure, the same guy can lose to a 100 elo if the latter is very lucky

Pretty sure it's not even possible... Having the right cards and playing them well is another story.

One more reason that good players have good cards is that they give themselves more opportunities. Snapping as a rewards was quite popular.

[Monkeyunit]

As people have mentioned, it's not that luck based at all.
A lot has to do with understanding the tempo of the game, who benefits the most from staying in the round. When to play sponsors, when to break.
What makes Ark Nova such an amazing game is that it's hard to be definitive in how to play. It depends on map, but also on the cards and situation.
What to upgrade when, learning to play without upgrading build, and taking snap or 2 size income instead of second worker as bonus, all those things are important.

I have looked at your most recent loss and here are some things I would consider questionable or wrong plays.

GAME#810858187

Picking No discard cards over mark animals seems wrong. Even on commercial harbour the mark animals is a stronger action.

Picking build over rock/water over clever cards seems wrong. Clever cards is a very strong ability later in the game
Keeping build over rock water over ignore animals is also questionable. Build over rock/water is overrated by a lot of players. On some maps it can be very strong when it can be used to grab a free uni or partner zoo with the first build action. On other maps its mostly a distraction.

Starting hand: Keeping South American Coati over Ox. Coati isn't a good animal in general, unless species diversity is a project.
You are better of keeping Ox as its a very good animal to release. And being a large herbivore it can help using less build actions due to flocking.

First action: Bird University. If you keep a hand with 2 america animals you might want to try to do that project round 2 and grab america's partner zoo.While birds uni is good as its the only animal project available you probably won't be able to do it round 2 as the minimum you need is 4 birds.

Later that round, you build for the third time in the round a 2 size on the card draw, which you need to sell because of hand size
You have used up almost all card draw spots on your map at this point meaning less choice in future rounds.

After that, you draw 2 cards putting the break at 8/9 instead of causing the break using sponsors at 4.
You opponent has side entrance out, so you really don't want to give them more time to build.
You also had no sponsors in hand so the action had no purpose remaining this high up.

You then play expert in large ( not really a good card) and another build actions staying in the round even longer. Letting your opponent build a 1 size and play another animal.

By staying in the round this long, your opponent now has a huge income lead.

In the end it almost works out because you found the kookaburra and are able to do birds project at 4.

I watched the rest of the game, and some more things that could be more efficient.

[Retired Actuary]

A while back I looked at the average Elo for the top 10 players in a bunch of different games, to get a sense of how luck was spread across games. Want to guess which game had by far the highest average Elo? That's how much you can overcome luck with great play in Ark Nova.

[Jellby]

That should be also affected by the size of the playerbase. Did you collect something some measure the number of active players too?

[Retired Actuary]

These are all games with a lot of players, and the top players have a lot of games.

[carnage04]

I play games with my friends. They are smart people, good gamers, but they don't play a ton. I'll beat them 9/10 games at Ark Nova consistently.

I've played a lot of games with others on here. It turns out I'm not very good at any of them. I don't think I've ever beaten a 500+ ELO Ark Nova player.

Do I curse their existance and call them dorks in private after they destroy me? Yes, I'm petty and jealous Do I get mad when I watch them work out the optimal play when they are beating me 94-47? Yes, stupid dorks. Do I think they just got lucky?

No. No I do not.

[Meeplelowda]

I play games with my friends. They are smart people, good gamers, but they don't play a ton. I'll beat them 9/10 games at Ark Nova consistently.

I've played a lot of games with others on here. It turns out I'm not very good at any of them. I don't think I've ever beaten a 500+ ELO Ark Nova player.

Do I curse their existance and call them dorks in private after they destroy me? Yes, I'm petty and jealous Do I get mad when I watch them work out the optimal play when they are beating me 94-47? Yes, stupid dorks. Do I think they just got lucky?

No. No I do not.

At least you have the self-awareness some on BGA lack to recognize that there is a vast difference between being the best [insert game] player in your own gaming group and being good relative to a literally global player pool. My realization of what playing on BGA means occurred in Carcassonne, which I used to think I was pretty decent at. Turns out I'm rubbish against people who actually take it seriously. And I'm OK with that.