The most luck-based expansion is in arena, Ridiculous.

[nmego]

Out of all the different configurations and expansions in RFTG, I wouldn't say that the current configuration is the best one for competitive play. As, the Brink of war expansion (and especially the prestige mechanism) is one of the more-luck-based expansions/configurations.

For example, change arena configuration into AA or RvI, those expansions are arguably better than BoW for competitive play.

Regards.

[KeroCola]

The whole game is luck based. Its just if you have good cards or not. nothing else matters.Ive played games where i knew i was gonna lose 2 cards in.

[nmego]

I agree that it has a luck-based element, but it is not THAT bad tbh. There's this trap of falling into autopilot mode and winning 50% of your games that I've seen most people fall into. But there's a deeper skill layer hidden beneath. There are some people I've had really hard time beating and I really had to step my game up.

But ignoring all of that, Arena mode is "the competitive mode" and should NOT have the most LUCK-BASED expansion as the only way of playing the game.

And having one of the most-played and popular on BGA relegated to that shouldn't be tolerated. There were discussions about 7Wonders, Terra Mystica, Tokaido and many other games about their "arena mode choices". So why there isn't for this game?

[razzinplant]

I would also like the Race for the Galaxy Arena games to be prestige free. Use a different expansion.

[sesquiup]

I won't play RFTG arena mode because of BoW. I very much dislike this expansion.

[ThreeMiler]

Yeah, I don't play arena either, even though I played one arena game, just to see the setup, and won. I prefer the base game with new worlds.

[lesslucid]

This should be decidable empirically, right?

If a particular configuration is more luck-based, then the ELO gap between the best players should narrow, since the advantage of being more skillful will be ameliorated by the greater amount of luck in the game. OTOH, if the ELO gap between the strongest players remains about the same, that would indicate that the degree of luck in the game has stayed about the same as before. Or am I missing something?

[nmego]

This should be decidable empirically, right?

If a particular configuration is more luck-based, then the ELO gap between the best players should narrow, since the advantage of being more skillful will be ameliorated by the greater amount of luck in the game. OTOH, if the ELO gap between the strongest players remains about the same, that would indicate that the degree of luck in the game has stayed about the same as before. Or am I missing something?

There are a multitude of factors at play here:
1. Experts will find themselves playing vs 'Strong' players more often than not, even if they are not actively trying to farm ELO. I admit I haven't played RaceFTG in quite a while, but I do remember having much easier time 'finding' Strong and less players and rarely finding 'Expert' players. So, the ELO system isn't really a factor of how good you really are, since, especially in raceFTG, you could find yourself playing a lot of 300-400 players and jumping up the ELO ladder.
2. The ELO is the same for all different configurations, and I'm pretty sure that BoW is not the most played configuration because:
- 1. It is a premium mode
- 2. The prestige mechanism is hated by many (Though some don't mind it that much)
- 3. Judging by how long it takes to find a single match in arena mode for this particular configuration.
So, since BoW isn't the most played configuration, and since ELO is shared among configuration, then ELO is not a good metric to judge BoW

But there's the thing, I've played a lot of raceFTG games, and talked to a bunch of raceFTG players. everyone agrees that BoW is one of the most luck-based expansions (if not the most).
Besides, I can't find a single match in arena (real-time). I've had a much easier time find matches for less-popular games. This should mean that most people aren't fine with BoW being THE configuration for arena. There hasn't even been a single response on this thread that was in favor of keeping BoW.

.

[fafa-fr]

Hi,
I think I won't play arena games anyway, but I can add my voice to those who dislike Brink of War, because of the Prestige mechanics. And I too have often heard people say that they don't like it. Its rating on BGG is below those of other expansions. The only expansion that has a lower rating is Alien Artifacts, but reading the comments, we can see that this rating is due to the orb mechanics, not to the cards, and that most players actually love playing with the cards and without the Orb.
Alien Artifacts without Orb would be my preferred option, but it could alternate from a season to the other with Gathering Storm.

[RerollAgain]

Agreed. At the very least they could have disabled takeovers. Prestige is a mess but takeovers are the true worst mechanic in my opinion. Base+TGS would be my choice for competitive.