I really hope DoGz picks it up. I'm entirely aware that the console release and all the stuff being worked on is probably being accomplished far ahead of schedule. It's a huge step so really congrats. Dogz took over a few years ago and I bet it wouldn't have been for another 3-5 years for Pox to gain the traction it is without this Console release, so thank Sony, they pulled through in the end. I'm just worried that @Senshu @Sokolov you guys haven't done anything other than the 'Dogz era of Consolidation' and now the console release. I think it's a step back towards SOE waiting and waiting for the opportune time to preview or leak something that no one cares once it's released because the next week everyone will have that knowledge. These patch previews are great, I still think that doing the work and then previewing it is ass backwards but practice makes perfect. Sok seems spread thin and I'm sure everyone working at DoGz has a nice workload through winter but keep in mind that even more is expected once the console launch has hit. Advertising- that breaks the mold of SOE Patches- that are consistently released, we can manage with some poorly made patches as long as it's biweekly laugh at how small that list is, but nothing has been done recently that shows DoGz is aware these need to be done. TL;DR Best give the players what they want. Also, release a master list of Achievements, really some kind of acknowledgement that "Yes! we want our players to know what they're playing towards" would be great. I'll volunteer to make tutorials, guides, walkthroughs whatever is necessary to get player knowledge more available and to reduce the workload on greens.
Patches -- Personally, I'm not that interested in balance tweaks anymore. I feel like I can run pretty much anything I want to run semi-competitively, so balance seems fine to me. I'm really hungry for those midterms though. I'm hungry for new client, new players, new website stuff... and a new goddamn rune database -- which seems like it is running 8 years behind schedule about now.
Biweekly patches? That seems like a bit much. Monthly might be alright but even then that's a bit often.
I think the game is in a good state right now, other than the low population. Everyone is hungry for new content- the last patch was 3 months ago. Just wait a few weeks for the midterm and new client. Any doubts about the game's health should be dispelled then.
I'd rather expect biweekly patches and only strung along for a week or two than have monthly patches and then strung along an extra month or two. Larger timelines are easier to push because they can be packaged together and advertised as something larger but that still leaves the game stagnant for the time in between. I totally understand the lack of content now. I know the client is a huge task and I do think that this down period is necessary for a clean release of the new client. I've come to understanding a while ago that what is released is what is released and then we have to go from there. This down period leaves a lot up for speculation but once it's in front of us I'm pretty much going to assume that is how Pox will be developed for the next year. The patch previews pretty much are those biweekly updates that sok is willing to do so again it's one of those things that I and the players will have to take for how it is. It's an interesting time in pox, always is. But once that's all done and said, the client is released and PS4/vita players are active, what's up? When DoGz took over they definitely kept things updated and I have really grown to like most of how things are rolled out but player retention heavily weighs on updates and how consistent they are. A lot of the previews sok is doing will go over new players heads and if anything further derail players from playing this or that because it's soon to be changed. I really hope for the future that there will be less reworking of existing runes and more released content in place of a rework. Week 1 Expansion Release week 2 patch week 3 open week 4 patch&preview week 5 open week 6 preview week 7 patch week 8 patch&preview week 9 Midterm week 10 patch week 11 open week 12 patch&preview week 13 open week 14 open week 15 patch&preview week 16; now week 1 Expansion Release repeat I'm just ready for something new
My first thoughts after reading this thread that you probably haven't been here in while at least I would hope not. Take a look at some of the things people are playing in ranked you will probably see themes you haven't seen in like 4 years, pox is fairly balanced the game doesn't need biweekely patches. They do need more advertisements I can agree.
In my opinion the current patch schedule (ignoring the current delays) is ideal. Exp release patch balance patch 2 weeks later Midterm patch balance patch 2 weeks later Pox has so much content and so few players that frequent patches are unnecessary. The point of balance patches is to nerf op stuff, so it makes sense to only have them after people figure out what's op. Do you really need frequent patches? If you're bored, try a new deck, or practice your current one in ranked and get better.
There are a few things here. The new game client is a very large undertaking, but it is going to ensure the long term stability of Pox Nora. Before we shifted to the all out focus on the new client we did everything we could to leave the current game in as stable of a state as possible. This is so all of you can have a consistent experience but also so our team can focus on the new client and get it done ASAP. Frequent patches can be great to make it seem like a lot is happening, but they can be misleading because they are very disruptive to development. We are able to do new and bigger features like the League system and heroic achievements because of having less frequent patches. The key to advertising is timing. It is easy to spend a lot of time and money advertising and get very little benefit. We are are strategically positioning our advertising to maximize the impact and reach. We have said that we have a long term plan for Pox Nora, the new client and releasing on PlayStation is just another step in that plan, but that was only possible because of everything we have done in the lead up with our backend optimizations. Pox still has a lot of life in her.
Dont forget the first time we had the "Big Revamp" from the old upgrade system to the new one with the 4 choices. You and @Sokolov have both mentioned that being one of the worse decisions for poxnora because we had a 3 month period of nothing new so a lot of players left during that time. Also dont forget to remove the horns on the rune display bottom left ^_-. anybody still have the link to the first ever time that the new upgrade system was shown? i think it was of a Sandstalker Dustdevil.... would like to see the comments on that.
It wasn't the upgrade change specifically so much as all the time/resources spent on making Pox work on FB that was the issue. And as far as I remember it was longer than 3 months (which is the typical gap between expansions anyway).
Hm.. This is probably the first time I have seen you have so much confidence in pox's future usually you try to not show so much... " EXCITEMENT ". " but it is going to ensure the long term stability of Pox Nora. " This got me excited.
Partially that is because we couldn't talk about the new client. We have said since we first got the game form SOE that we have long term plans for Pox Nora, but our messaging was cryptic because we couldn't go into detail about our long term plans until they could actually be locked down. The Java client did what it needed at the time, but it is antiquated for what Pox Nora actually needs which Unity provides.
Not exactly sure what your question is or were you just referring to when we were making improvements to the game but didn't specify?
