Currently, and increasingly as content is added to the game, battles are often being decided by the first skirmish. The smallest advantage often prompts the opposing player to surrender, because they recognize that there is no system in place to recover significantly from your losses. Rather there is a system in place, but it's become insignificant against the current pace of the game. I'm writing of course, about the Nora dropped from champions when they die. There needs to be a system in place to perpetuate battles past the first skirmish. LoL has increasing risk/reward from monsters/players/minions as the game goes on, but Pox Nora lacks the player vs. environment aspect for such a system to be viable. Pox Nora has Nora globes, and besides the Nora gained from Fonts, it doesn't have another resource to work with. Unfortunately, not all runes are represented in the value of the Nora globe dropped. There are Relics of course, but they are insignificant against the plethora of single-target spells & equips. The game is more diverse now than when the Nora globe system was first introduced. There are perpetual-single-target Spells & Equips that significantly & perpetually alter the power and functionality of a champion, and these are seen commonly in play. I have several ideas & suggestions, and i would love to hear what people think about their viability. 1.) Have the value of Nora globes dropped be equal to not a % of the champion value but a % of the champion value + the equipment value + any perpetual-single-target spells upon death. Let the value of all runes used on a champion be reflected as risk/reward upon death. 2.) Have Nora Fonts give a small amount of Nora upon first claiming the Font as ones own. This would make Nora fonts even more important to contest, would increase the overall resources available to both players, & would give a losing player more chances to recover from their losses. It doesn't have to be a huge amount, but even a small amount would add another layer of strategy to the game. 3.) Have Nora globes dropped only be available as positive gains to the opposing player. This is my favorite idea, and it's the one with the most potential to alter the flow of the game. When a friendly champion dies, the resulting Nora globe would only be available as Nora to the opposing player. Walking over it yourself would simply make the globe disappear. This would greatly increase the level of risk/reward in Pox Nora, and i think it would be an incredibly healthy change.
What about just adding abilities that activates when you are falling behind. Something like this Persistent:X Ability (When your opponent control more Nora Fonts than you, this champion gains X Ability.) The abilities gained would be focused on trying to get back in the game.
I have games that go way beyond the first skirmish whenever I play a BG consistatly, and play pox consistantly. The problem does not really lie within nora flow as much as it does game/bg design. If you perhaps have a rushy battlegroup, but lose the fight to get a mid font or side font; then you will be put at a disadvantage, and since your battlegroup is built for rushing and has spells supporting this, you will have trouble when your the one that has to turtle and recover. I have a plenthora of bg's that deal very well with being rushed and often come back into the game from multiple fonts down; its really a thing about design and learning to play at a disadvantage, rather then a problem with nora flow. I disagree with your sentiments on Nora Globes improving gameplay-- The first because using spells/equips are already very powerful in being unpredictable, no need to give them more power in potentially being able to recover some of the nora sunk into them. And the third because being able to collect your own nora globes is a MAJOR part of coming back into the game, you are talking about losing skirmishes, if you can't even attempt to collect your nora globes and ease your losses your in trouble.
snowballing exists for a reason. using LoL example as "healthy snowballing" is plain wrong. compared to DotA, LoL system is bad. in DotA, the cheaper item is, the more stats it gives. LoL has almost perfectly the same line in all categories of cost (from the starting 400 to 4000 equipments) aka gold per stats. back to Pox. some situations you described are absurdly healthy (killing championS and taking globeS) since it means the combat is actually happening. you cannot stop one player possessing advantage as his award if he deserves it. your other suggestion is pushing game to even bigger slavery of fonts. the EXACT OPPOSITE should happen. fonts should give less nora and shrine should give more. equipment suggestion is probably the only one of those 3 worth thinking about. but in general, equipments and relics are already overshadowed by spells. relics are hitting the board, because of their contesting potential. what are equipments providing for the competition between them and spells? that's right! and you want to nerf them even more?
I understand your concern, but it only exists because everyone is used to playing on such small maps. 1 or 2 fonts to a side is the norm, when there is so much potential in larger, more objective based maps. I think you misunderstand what i wrote. I simply suggested that the value of runes used to increase the power of a champion (i.e. single-target-spells & equipment) be represented in the value of the Nora globe dropped upon death. 60 Nora champ drops a 6 Nora globe right now right? Why shouldn't a 60 Nora champion using with a 40 Nora equip & a 30 Nora spell be worth 13 Nora upon death? I would like to see eliminated the scenario of a powerful champion dying, and having it's Nora globe recovered for a % of it's cost by that same champions owner. In this regard, i feel that my final suggestion has the most potential. I don't think they system as it exists now is a terribly healthy thing for the game.
but if we are up to discuss some potential gamechanging mechanics, my experimental suggestion would be for initiative to become global mechanic for all champions.
