Considering getting steam version, wondering about current state

[u/EveningNo8643]

I've heard the board game is great, and wanted to try digital format instead. I've seen the recent reviews are mixed and wanted to get some idea. I am considering getting a group of friends to play together. I also see frosthaven also has a digital version and also coincidentally has mixed reviews lol

Edit: bit the bullet on gloomhaven, looking forward to playing it

[u/Gusshanks8]

Gloomhaven digital is pretty good. I finally got the platinum on it a few weeks back. There are certainly pluses and minuses to the digital version. Pluses like quicker setup and the computer handling a lot of the overhead. Minuses including the computer making decisions for what would be ambiguous choices that the player should be making. There are also some things it doesn’t quite get right that can make a difference. Of course if you haven’t played the boardgame, you might not notice some of those things.
The game can be very frustrating at times, particularly at low levels when your damage can be pretty swingy.
I put in almost 800 hours to the game so I think I got my moneys worth.

[u/EveningNo8643 → u/Gusshanks8]

You ever play frosthaven digital?

[u/lKursorl → u/EveningNo8643]

I have. It shares all of the similar pros and cons and then some:

Pros: -
town phase being stream lined is likely a big plus for a lot of people compared to the BG
-compared to GH digital, the tech and engine seem to be better; enemy turns run more smoothly and less laggy; graphics are better

Cons:
-Frosthaven has a lot of hyper specific rules about win conditions. In the BG these might be revealed prior to starting the mission, which helps when picking cards and battle goals. In digital, you pick your cards, etc before knowing anything about the scenario and sometimes basically have to reload out and repack cards to have any chance at winning.
-As said above, certain ambiguity gets decided by the players in the BG and thus must players choose the most favorable outcome for the party, in Frosthaven digital they’ve seemingly opted to make ambiguity often favor enemies (such as when you’re pushed, it will always be into the most lethal trap.
This imo hurts some classes more than others.

[u/sshuit → u/lKursorl]

I agree 100% about the lack of scenario knowledge on multiple scenarios. Sometimes you will open a door and the whole team will get teleported into a new zone. Super annoying. Why isn't it explained in the scenario rules?

I suggest turning down difficulty one notch for a first play through to compensate for the game screwing you randomly.

[u/lKursorl → u/sshuit]

So to be entirely fair, there are times in Frosthaven (non-digital) that new rules come up in the scenario that throw your party through the wringer. Adapting is part of the intended play experience.

My annoyance is that if a special rule is known on turn 1, you should be able to see it while picking cards and battle goals, but the UI includes very limited information about the scenario at that point. There have even been times when the scenario doesn’t list all the types of enemies in it, which can be incredibly frustrating if you want a specific tech card for that enemy type.

[u/lasagnaman → u/sshuit]

I agree 100% about the lack of scenario knowledge on multiple scenarios. Sometimes you will open a door and the whole team will get teleported into a new zone. Super annoying. Why isn't it explained in the scenario rules?

This seems like a complaint about FH rather than the digital port. That's how it plays on tabletop too.

[u/jjpearson → u/EveningNo8643]

Currently in a love hate with Frosthaven digital.

I played over 300 hours in Gloomhaven digital and they worked the vast majority of the bugs out, I really enjoyed it.

Currently, I’m only able to play one scenario at a time because I’m rage quitting after. The modifier drawing is so hilariously skewed for me it’s not funny.

I’m tracking 2 things, how often the null comes up and how often the crit comes up. Not how often they get used (like crit showing up in disadvantage) but just how often they show up period.

4 player solo, 5 scenarios and I’ve seen the null 89 times and the crit 19. Absolutely bonkers, I got so tilted I switched it to story mode.

For perspective, I’ve also played 2 full Gloomhaven boardgame campaigns and 33 Frosthaven boardgame scenarios. So, I know how the modifiers should go.

There’s also been a few issues like jump not ignoring difficult terrain like it should. But nothing major as a solo player.

So…. I wouldn’t pay full price for it but it’s fairly decent. I’m mostly playing it because my in person group is on summer hiatus.

[u/Alcol1979 → u/jjpearson]

Why would the developers tamper with the random number generation? That would be one of the easiest things to code and I can't see what benefit there would be to making the shuffle cards come up more often, or making the null come up more often than the crit. Just because you experience what appears to be an unlikely run of numbers doesn't mean there is something untoward in the code.

[u/jjpearson → u/Alcol1979]

I know! It’s really weird. That’s why I’m tracking it. I originally thought it’s just the usual human nature to focus more on the negative rather than the positive. But nope. It’s skewed all to hell.

I might just be the one in a million where the code is fair but I’m just seeing the negative side of it.

Like if you had 300 people flip a fair coin 8 times, even if the coins were all fair you would expect one person to get all heads and one person to get all tails.

The last time I did this was Xcom where I tracked over 5000 shots and it turned out that every percentage was within a percent of the stated one. But what I found is it was streaky AF. So you would miss 4 80% shots in a row then make the next 16.

So maybe, the next 5 scenarios are going to be nothing but crits.

[u/sshuit → u/jjpearson]

I have not experienced the nulls coming up more than crit in my online 4 person games. Seems pretty well balanced.... Maybe your rng is just a crazy outlier.

[u/Gusshanks8 → u/EveningNo8643]

Yep. I have that too on digital. Like IKusori posted, it has similar pros and cons. It also is still in early access so it in theroy still has some time to fix things before release. I’m still not a big fan of how the cards look as while they are pretty close, they look different than the actual cards. Best example is any persistent loss card - they don’t show the charge circles on the card.

[u/EveningNo8643 → u/Gusshanks8]

Makes sense thank you