Discussion: Announcement & Preview Expansion 25

The more I look at this artwork, the more I think I am not getting what I want....I want a KF phoenix...but that firebird is obviously evil-looking....

The oversized parakeet is way too green to not live in a forest. Which means it is probably KF An Alt damage flyer with synergy to Rage of the circle I guess... Please let them both be split runes with KF....then I can die happy.

 

Personally what I think themes bring to the table (it's what they bring to the table of various other strategy games) is that you can build a deck that if you commit heavily to the theme you get a competitive deck that plays differently in an important way from all other decks in your faction. Really good examples of this in Pox IMO are Stitched and Creepers(Worms?). Creepers are a bit of a weird example bc they aren't quite as good as they really need to be and not everyone thinks it's interesting but it is certainly a significant shift in how gameplay operates. Obviously themes shouldn't just be added to make weird gameplay dynamics just because we can. I think that a much better approach is to have a smaller list of themes with well defined and unique mechanisms and submodules and to continuously expand on those themes instead of just adding more every expansion like SOE did.

 

I re-read my original post, and I sounded more critical of themes than I intended. I'll take a second stab at my point.

Focusing on themes can sometimes increase deck or play-style diversity. Stiched and Creepers are pretty good examples of themes that have a unique play-style. But sometimes building a theme is little more than creating units with a similar race and sprite. And even for themes with unique play-styles, the choice is really at the deck-level (i.e. will I play a Stitched deck or not) rather than much of a choice within the deck. That makes owning certain key, theme-enabling runes extremely important (which is a barrier to newer players); it doesn't add very many interesting choices to either the player building the Stitched deck or the opponent who more or less knows what to anticipate once the cat is out of the bag that he's facing Stitched; and it doesn't improve meta diversity much because the theme is centered around having an all Stitched deck, rather than smaller modules that can be mix-and-matched with other types of runes.

We'd see more overall deck and playstyle diversity if we focused on building smaller, splashable modules rather than deck-unifying themes. Hyaenids are a decent example that includes both good and bad types of modules, i.e. dogpile, deep wounds, and debuff/death sentence. Dogpile really requires the whole deck to be built around it, which both reduces deck diversity within a hyaenid/dogpile deck and makes each dogpile rune slightly too expensive in non-dogpile decks. Deep wounds and debuff/death sentence, however, are better designs because they are splashable with other modules and units. For example, pre-nerf, death-sentence on executioner combined very well with Hyaenid Spearman and Voltaic Slag, and that module could be combined with other synergistic modules (maybe Static Greeting/Spark Crones or certain Slags w/ Oozing).

 

This is why I mention continually expanding themes. At small sizes like most of the themes right now you can easily run every rune in a theme or at the very least all the good runes in a theme. However, when you get a race to the size of something like Draksar it's impossible to run everything or even everything that's really good. You give every rune in a theme a very precise/unique purpose within the theme to try and make them all something you can consider and have a large selection then inevitably you'll get a much greater diversity of deck construction within each theme.

 

Right, but isn't that a whole lot more work to get to the same place? Why design 30 draksar to create deck diversity within a draksar theme when we could design 6ish, self-contained 5-rune modules that could be run with draksar or anything else?

 

Honestly, they need to expand the player base. More people buying runes allow more employees for DOG which allows for more creation and fixing of runes. You have to increase the player base.

New players should be bombarded with new runes. The problem is the rampant multi-accounting that goes on. That has to be eliminated or distinguised between true new accounts to multi-accounts. Yes, easier said than done, but they need to increase new player base and the only way I can think of doing that is getting new players a ton of runes quickly. Tournaments geared toward new players should constantly be offered. A lot of people will hate this, but the owls need to pay attention to new players and not old ones. Almost to the point of detriment to the old players. I understand there is no quick fix, and I am sure they are trying, but the one thing I have noticed that is lacking severely since I have come back (been away for almost 5 years and came back with Sony sold Pox back to DOG) is the lack of focus on new player retention.

Here are some ideas:
1. Give new players an entire set of C,U from the first 6 expansions. Make those runes "special" that they are untradeable and unforgeable.
2. Constantly run tournaments geared toward new players.
3. Offer a lot more runes for completely campaigns. Or higher value runes. Make them also untradeable and unforgeable to eliminate the nutjob obssessed Pox player from farming it to death.
4. Better starting pack packages. Basically giving them hundreds of commons and uncommons for a startup price.
5. Offer untradeable and unforgeable packs that are cheaper in gold price.
6. Different pvp leagues. Instead of it being just a title moniker, make true different leagues. A common only league and all the rest on up. Have prizes for having a high rank. It doesn't have to be runes, but can be cosmetic stuff. Anything from custom banners (faction banners with same bonuses but different pic) to being able to yell "I am #1" during a game. Weren't we able to do that earlier?

I understand there is a transition period to get everything back to the way DOG wants it from what Sony Corrupted. I know everything takes money. You have what I think is a solid if not fanatical player base. I really think a marketing direction is essential.

 

I am sure all of us tried to promote this game to a friend who did not stay. Share those experiences. And for those that did stay what was the key? For me I had one person stay and that is because he had access to all my runes. He loved the game, but if he did not have access to my runes, no way he stays.

Please folks, share. I got to believe this is the most critical thing for the game. I don't see it surviving if the player base is not increased quickly. Tired of seeing the same Trolling and anti-trolling by the same peeps on chat. Which is far superior to the dead silence in chat most of the time.

 

If you design it right you can do both at the same time. You can have runes that fill roles within a theme but are also part of a particular module that can be run in that theme but can also be useful in a more generic strategy. Additionally you can have modules that jump between themes allowing for good split BGs. The Psychic Anguish ability is a good example of something that enables this. It's an ability that is in 2 factions that links together two different existing modules.

I'm not saying that making lots of interesting modules is a bad thing or that we should prioritize something over it but I don't think that we should do that with themes either. There are benefits to both styles of play and design and they're not mutually exclusive.

 

you got one thing right "Move on". Done deal

 

super duper looking forward to this love split runes

 

Nowhere was it said that they'll be split runes. It was said that the image will be split and put on two runes.

 

I was going to guess just two rares from UD and KF. Most runes they preview early always seem to be rares.

 

what this guy said. a few months ago everyone was crying over how long it had been till the next expansion. now there have been one with another one the way i would hardly call it a rush.
looking forward to new expansion

 

Cool new expansion. It amazes me that everyone is so opinionated and feel that their fraction of thought matters. Here is the cold truth. Most of you opinionated players don't have a clue about design and execution. Just what you feel would make the game better for you. No real grasp on how changes affect the masses. Another hard truth....no matter what the devs do its not enough. The same group of sour apples will still be sour. Not realizing they chase away more players with negativity, arrogance, and some internet based delusion of grandeur. Just because you spend way to much time playing a game does not make your opinion matter more or accurate. Its an opinion.

As someone who has been playing this game from GD. I have witnessed the game change multiple times. Some good some bad. I am happy just to see that the game is still active and being worked on. If the current devs keep working hard this game is in good hands and will be fine. Keep up the good work devs and long live pox.

 

I hate themes, they take away from creativity and give you prebuilt bgs. The part I enjoy most about card games is being able to make something creative, have a large pool and find cool interactions. I hate just oh pick x race, search x race, bam 20 of your runes right there. I want less themes, first focus should be bugs, second should be balance between factions, next new content/fixing shoebox stuff. I like what they are doing, they have rapidly improved the game since taking it from sony, and new content is always good, not all runes have to be top notch, and adding in new stuff has its own balancing factor by giving older things new synergies to work with and giving some power to factions that need it.

 

Poxnora is mainly based on themes so if you don't like themes your gonna hate playing this game

 

There are plenty of non theme builds out there which is exactly what that person was complaining about, of which I am fond of. There is also nothing wrong with people running themes I just don't like cookie cutter stuff, and again themes drawn from a large pool is also fine, my issue is when you pick a theme and over half your deck is already decided for you. New content can broaden themes and improve them, rather then trying to simply refine and force what is already there. In short I like what they are doing, and prefer creativity over themes, and new content allows for creativity in themes. Bugs should be fixed first, and then balance, and balance can be achieved with new content.

 

If that 'Phoenix' doesn't have Fiery Death....

 

Perhaps upon death it leaves the AOE "Breath of Ash"...