Is it worth to come back?

I ditched all of my runes, when I left(including full firk set), left with some crap. All I have left is about 1kk at poxbox. Is it worthy to give Pox one more chance? Assuming, that I will try to break wall with Jellies probably?

 

Pox is significantly easier to obtain runes in now. thanks to the forge system and the dailies/heroics gold system. Even avatars u can earn in about a week of just playing the dailies and doing the challenges every day.

With next big updates theres going to be a new pack system which i dont know the details on but supposedly gonna help people have a better chance of getting the runes they want and you'll be able to buy more frequently than you do now

 

Also, there are big things coming. Pox is set to be released onto ps4 soon, and after that an expansion comprised of entirely player made runes.

Balance is probably the best its ever been, with maybe 1/2 outlier bgs.

Oh, and jellies are pretty strong rn.

 

Ya come on back we could always use more players! And jellies are pretty decent I know some see play in meta. And I just built up a full jelly BG last night and am pretty excited to play with it.

 

If you end up needing any help just let me know and I'll see if I can help out. Esspecially with c/uc/r

 

I did come back after 6-7years break, got myself all new runes in IS (except limited) just by playing the game. Trading some at poxbox and forging from the gold/shards you get when you play the game. iam not so effective either, just having fun and while at it i get tokens, runes and gold to get more runes.
Think its worth giving it a few more chances, a bit too few players atm on certain periods so you might face the same player 3-4 times in pvp, if you are a FS player i think you will be happy, they seem to be pretty good.
if i was smart i would probably stack the gold to buy from the new shop when its released since it looks like it will give 2x as much exotics/legendary, but why wait when i can use the gold now?

 

Do not come back to Pox because of rune accessibility, you will just be upset with yourself.

I would suggest coming back on the PS4 release and even then you may want to still test the waters, by no means have we been given any expectation that these changes will provide a resurgence in active players. Especially when new players researching Poxnora will be able to see that DOGz and Sony are not working together, September release was announced by Sony, then a winter release and now the PS4 release is whenever DOGz feels like it. Most likely a summer release so certainly there is time for you to gauge your own opinion. Also the preview of the rune manager has been lack luster; it is visually appealing but let's see if DOGz is a smart enough beast to revamp their rune manager, database and website. Up to you if you appreciate a company that won't create their own tools for players to interact with their game. Poxbase is no more and qpox is the new database DOGz expects you to use. It'd be a great day for Pox when DOGz gets put down and devs who appreciate their community takes control. We don't need devs that think they know what they are doing cause certainly they don't; Communication, timely & frequent updates, and resources that are current to the standards of 2017 is what we need and @Sokolov and @Senshu seem to disagree with that logic on every level. All we can hope is that they were smart enough to make a good database for them to use in Unity; cause if it takes as much time to navigate through runes for them as it does us players, well no reason it takes so long for everything to get done.

Balance is always counter active rather than proactive so take that with a grain of salt, there are no standards in Poxnora; at least none established currently so the runes you see now may very well change as soon as something else is released to take abuse of it.

Certainly your own personal reasons should influence why you come back but at the end of the day, Poxnora is still the same exact game you left and if you had good reason to leave then it will most likely stand true today. There are no new game modes, PvP community is still/always will be hostile towards PvE because there are no other game modes, Ranked is a circle jerk so really the best reason to play Poxnora is for nostalgia and to reconnect with any friends still playing. Drafts won't be expected to return because of the PS4 (right?idk, idt drafts will ever come back) so if that was something you enjoyed playing, that is still gone.

What I mean by standard has a lot to do with Heroes and what their roles are for Pox, it's not really ever going to take off cause DOGz doesn't seem to like standards or constants for players to compare past to present or have any expectation of what's to come, the players will always be at the mercy of the devs, and the devs are shut off from anyone who is antagonistic or expects very basic functions in a game.

What I mean by no standards is best represented by the change of Annex and how Diplomats, runes released in every faction(as if to create a standard), have been entirely changed and now no Diplomats have Annex, except maybe one I think...idk let me go check qpox because DOGz doesn't have a database to use...

Not everyone is as frustrated with DOGz as I am but really DOGz is just disappointing. You may have more fun playing Conquest of Champions which is a Poxnora clone...although I still never liked that game despite how I feel about DOGz, ofc there's nothing wrong with Poxnora; the blame solely lies in those developing it because so far Poxnora has stood the test of time, 10 years old just last year!

 

Can we start staying the PS4 debut, the planar disturbance mid term, the pilfer armory patch will happen in few years? All this soon stuff is misleading. If we start saying in a few years who knows it might get done earlier then we think, by saying it will be done soon it lets people down. It is, in fact, later.

 

That's why I mentioned the announcements

Idk why DOGz doesn't remove that announcement from their YouTube channel when it is clearly incorrect and outdated by several months now, even the "Winter is coming" announcement is outdated now.

 

What did you mean by ranked is a circle jerk?

 

I disagree with these points.

DOG have stated repeatedly that they want to improve the game and the website, but the reality is that they are a small team, and some of these things would take an extremely long time to get done, especially on the website end. With this in mind, it makes more sense to do what creates the biggest benefits in the most convenient time frames, like the regular content releases and bug fixes that we got until a few months ago.

Why do you think DOG doesn't appreciate their community? They are active on the forums and obviously care about the game. Communication was pretty great until recently with the delays of the new client. Did you just forget because the new client has been so long coming? The only thing that hasn't been communicated to us is the release date.

Balance updates are absolutely proactive as well as reactive. Reactive changes are when something too strong gets nerfed, and we see the proactive changes when shoebox runes get buffs or reworks.

What's the benefit of having a set of standard, almost identical runes in each faction, like the diplomats (which all have annex, btw)? We already have things like doombringers, renovators and harbringers, and they have really boring flavor.

 

I sometimes miss the hilarity of old school diplo truce.

To the op I came back about 5 weeks ago after a three year vacation from pox. I still had my rune collection so the situation is a little different than yours. However I think most of the changes that happened while I was a away are positive. The game still has some bugs and annoying things that could be improved upon, but if feel like BG diversity is greater than when I left and overall balance is better.

I've also been gone so long that there's tons of stuff that's new to me and so many changes to old runes that I've just had a good time making bgs and experimenting.

If your goal in life is to be the number one pox player, using only one chosen theme of one faction you're probably going to get frustrated. But honestly that's a dumb life goal. If you thought the game was fun before, the game is still fun and more f2p than it's ever been.

The player base in client is small, which is still the games main problem. Also at least half the people you see online don't post in the forums and it seems like half the people that post in the forums don't play currently, for one reason or the other, but still feel the need to interject their opinion here. So take some of what you read here with a grain of salt.

 

It's true that improvements have been implemented and the game is in a better state than SOE however if you're asking for an honest opinion, the devs have too much on their plate while being funded by SOE, it is only an excuse to say that the team is too small, there are plenty of people in this world who know how to recreate a website to the standard that DOGz wants (which is pretty easy to gauge since they are comfortable with the current site)

I have enough of a collection to play several themes in the game and frequently make bgs that use the runes that get changed, however the gameplay has not changed and if that was attractive to you then certainly come back, however if you played the game and continued to play while under SOE hoping/expecting for more then you will be in the same place under DOGz

Yes there are more runes and yes C/UC/R/EX/L have more diversity now with DOGz, but that has only been to undo what DOGz disliked about SOE. The range change was great but was done in the first year of DOGz takeover. The past year has been "just wait for the PS4 release" which DOGz disrespectfully allowed to be a thing, there was never a possibility for a 2016 release which should be noted; also that there was no acknowledgement that the announcement was entirely misplaced which is entering disrespectful to the community, that goes for both new and old gamers.

There has to be some kind of demand from the players and it starts with you @Alkioneus honestly. I have been on this campaign since DOGz took over; always asking for a new rune manager, website and database that is not a 3rd party site. It has been three years with DOGz and in that time they have received funding from Sony and were able to announce a new client release for PC/PS4 however DOGz has continued to provide the same excuse that their team is too small. This is what's i mean by no communication with SONY, you would expect them to require updated features provided with the new client, however DOGz standard is not of 2017 but entirely outdated for gaming today. There will be excuse after excuse for why basic features won't be implemented and again it is disrespectful that DOGz deny their community that. Look up my Steam review which was made when DOGz took over and compare what I have posted/asked for relative to Poxnora now. It's on Steam and the host of it is; a new website, a new rune manager, and a database that is not a 3rd party site. It's a good read and hopefully once you do you'll ask DOGz for the quality of life (NUX) improvements Poxnora deserves.

@Schmacko is right that playing a single theme is not a good way to play Pox, although I wouldn't expect anyone to do that. Even though I'm a Rock Defiance zealot I still form non RockDefiance bgs, I just don't post or talk about them because there are other players that actually play those themes and have a better understanding on them. However it is advantageous to pick a theme that you want to keep an eye on to watch what gets done to that theme relative to the others, there is no love loss that Grintmaws, a unique theme to Poxnora, does not get attention the way more classic races/themes do such as Elves/Dwarfs/Demons/etc.

 

@DiCEM0nEY what I mean by circle jerk is that the community is too low to really have a ranked game (obviously we can play ranked and be ranked) but compared to SOE the community is 5% of what it used to be. I'm going from the 2000 daily players under SOE. I can only guess that those players left for the glaring problems Poxnora has, poor website, poor database, poor rune manager. Balance is not a problem, it's laughable to think that balance in a game is a problem. Every game is in a constant state of flux and even when things are 'balanced' the new content being created will create imbalance that can only be tested by releasing the content and proactively making changes/new content to keep said balance. So for those saying "Poxnora is finally balanced!" Those are the ones that will not be facing the problems that new players will such as, navigating around a poor website/rune manager/3rd party database because those veteran players including myself have enough knowledge to steer us in the right direction.

We have years of navigating these waters and all have our own way of doing things but it's sad when @Sokolov and @Senshu expect the players to create the standard for the game without giving their own definition of what Poxnora should be. We need a moment in time that we can hold the greens accountable to, all we have is that they are a small team that has received funding from SONY so whatever we get is because they are a small team that didn't receive new employees from SONY...

Every game has a circle jerk built in for ranked. Take League of Legends, RIOT was able to acknowledge this and created different game modes to bring in new players or at least keep current players. I honestly don't care about the repetitiveness of ranked, that's the point of ranked and the grind to be top 100. But if there were games inside of the game rather than just capturing a font and destroying the shrine players may find more appeal in playing.

If there is anything to take away from what I am saying it should be that the review I gave for Poxnora on Steam stands true today and would not be far off if it were to be copy/paste and posted today. I will let it slide that new game modes is due to a small team, however it is unacceptable that in the three years DOGz has had Poxnora there has been no movement to revamp the website, add a database and make a new rune manager. I'm not going to praise DOGz for the things any development company could/would do had they taken control of an existing game, they've definitely put their mark on Poxnora, but it is not at all enough for the time and funding that they already have been given. Perhaps had there been a new website, rune manager and a localized database we would see an increase in players, however it can absolutely be said that we will continue to lose players because of these features, or lack there of.

It is just as much SONYs fault for not requiring these updates, however it can't be expected that they are going to really care so long as they make money off Poxnora. Which seems like that won't last long because if Poxnora was worth playing people would, they just don't because to even begin playing players are confronted with a poor website, then a poor database and finally a poor rune manager.

It may be annoying to hear this negativity but DOGz seems to take comfort in it, otherwise they would have made it clear that these changes would be made. Is it going to be a year, two years...three?! Before we get these features...are they going to try and pull the wool over your eyes and say "hey look here's something new!" When really all it will be is what should have been released before a console release.

 

If the manager, website and checklist are the biggest problems in the game, I'd say we're in a pretty good spot, because ALL of those things WORK. They may have some issues, like not being able to search for abilities, or having errors pop up when switching avatars, but none of those issues directly impact the game at all.

The actual game is as good as it's ever been.

PS. I was under the impression that people left under soe because of massive power creep and poor management, not website issues.

 

Is it not poor management that has not been able to produce a website, rune manager, and database.

Rune manager certainly can be last, but give @kalasle some free reign of the website to add in guides or what not. Let @Moles1909 make a how to play video so that the SOE YouTube video is removed and replaced within DOGz own video.

Player retention is a problem and the biggest reason is that players are not respected on any level power creep and cash grabs from SOE at least retained a high player base. This player made expansion was simply a stunt, otherwise the artwork would not have directed the player made runes, which is the entire reason for the artwork. Always has to be "oh but I'm the Dev let me, let me...I'll show you cause I'm the Dev..."

Can anyone explain how a "player made expansion" has any reason for Devs to change what the players made? Oh but of course their word trumps all because they have green text? They would be just as insignificant were they not on pay roll, and since DOGz is such a small team, what are they paying these guys for? To brainstorm how to create "new and hip" stunts that will further pull the wool over players eyes.

Could new rune packs not be released simultaneously with a new website or rune manager or database? Wouldn't that make more sense? If playing the game is part of Poxnora than you cannot deny that deck building is absolutely part of the game as is understanding each rune. If players are left to simply understand the runes while in-game absolutely will more Dampen esque removals happen because once PS4 players start playing they are not going to squint their eyes to read every last text while in game, most likely they will read the rune effects while in the rune manager or checklist and then simply play the game when they are in a match; of course they will still read but it cannot be expected that in game tootlips are going to be more beneficial than other resources that can be viewed whenever. We don't even have a multi-race rune search and there are plenty of reasons to want to have that.

I was holding off on making a video series to demonstrate how to navigate around Poxnora, I'm still hoping that the greens are letting me make all this noise and then just come and release the new content, I wouldn't mind that at all. However I have waited to make videos because I expect a change, now that there is no winter release I am going to start recording again. I'll give an honest and real interpretation of building decks and navigating around, as for try hard playing I most likely won't do until the PS4 release. I tried making some videos before but navigating around just becomes too time consuming and when you're recording and trying to plan out what it is you're doing it becomes very clear how inefficient the resources we have are. Especially when it could be done be an intern who just graduated with some web/game design skills...intern is a nice way of saying there is no excuse for your lack of funding and a small team....

I'll be the "gimme gimme gimme" zealot, while those hopelessly supporting DOGz can be the "but we have more gold so dont anger the gods" human centipede peanut gallery. At the end of the day we all play for our own reasons and it should be clear that most of us playing now have enough internal justification to continue playing however new players won't have that bond which is why we don't have the numbers we used to, all the same advertising schemes are still in place, anyone wanting to play a strategy, turn-based, grid, card-collecting game can still find Poxnora.

I'd be willing to say it's not the end of the world (cause it isn't) that these updates haven't happened; so long as you be honest enough to take a look at what can/should have been done in the three years time DOGz has had control and if that is adequate enough; and don't believe that it was such a colossal task to take control of Poxnora and only Developers with years of experience could tackle this challenge. They could have just as easily stepped back, made a website, made a database and runemanger and then go through all the revamps that they have in the past few years, all while still being able to miss the September/ Winter is Commig release...

Has anyone read my Steam Review? How timeless is that?! I'm only missing "I bet they won't have made these changes in three years" and I'd be a modern day Nostradamus lmao

 

I figured it out.

This conversation seems to go in two directions from what I can see.

1. "When a player plays the game..."
2. "If a player plays the game..."

I absolutely fall under the second category since I will log on to play less and less, I'm stopped by what I think is Poxnoras largest issue in retaining players which is, better resources.

A lot of others come from the first perspective (which admittedly is more optimistic) that "When (meaning there is an expected amount of commitment/engagement) a players plays...what then turns them away."

Balance (power creep) is only relevant if/when you skip over the first interactions new players will have which will be with the Website, Rune Manager and potentially Rune Checklist(database)

The accessibility of free runes certainly helps retain players but is still secondary to how players interact with Poxnora, which has not received as much attention.

I am thankful for balance/lack of power creep and more rune accessibility but I am not trying to fool myself or lessen my expectations of what a game released in 2017 should have, especially when suggestions like these have been given since day one.

#pedestals2017

 

has it really been 3 years since sony sold off?

 

I made the Steam review Oct 2014 so it's been two years at least, I believe the Steam re-release was several months after ownership was passed on so we are coming up on three years. Although early 2014 I do remember first hearing about DOGz and so at the very least it has been 2 years going on three now.

Here's me review that wanted to read it, there are a lot of others but these are still glaring issues today imo...replace Poxbase with qpox

 

Just remembered that this exists:



So at the very least we know that the new client has a new rune manager, even if though it may not look exactly like this. It's been almost 10 months since this was posted.

http://forums.poxnora.com/index.php?threads/pox-nora-on-playstation.23182/