So I have not been an active member of the forums but I have been a player for a really long time (since the Savage Tundra expansion). I also have a decent number of games played - definitely more than I've ever played on any other game. And a lot of memories related Poxnora - which I am sure many other players also have. Anyway, I think it is clear that Poxnora is on its death bed - when I saw Sokolov's talk about "post-mortem", I was kind of bummed. I know the situation, I understand the frustrations and all the problems related to pox. It's an incredibly complex game that is also old and it is hard to revive. With that said, it would be incredibly sad to see it shut down completely. I have invested around 200-300$ although lately I have not bought anything because, yeah, not too many interesting or mandatory things to buy. I would like to share some of the things I've been thinking about for possible future directions. They might be really naive, but I don't know. 1) Have you considered a kickstarter? I think at this point something along the lines of "pay 50$ and have access to all runes" would be at least a slight incentive for some players to pay. I definitely would. An honest statement saying that a last push would be made to try to save the game might also bring in more players. 2) Several times players have used Pox as an interface for online RPGs. There is a phenomenal amount of fantasy artwork in this game that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. How hard would it be to repurpose the client as a tabletop RPG simulator? Give the DM all possible tools to create cool maps (keep the existing ones of course) and allow access to all the beautiful runes. I would again pay a good amount to have access to something like this! Other options have far less appealing art. 3) Finally, what would be the probability of releasing the game open source once it becomes abandoned and then converting it to a client that works something like Battle for Wesnoth? If some kind of LAN multiplayer was enabled, player could use something like Hamachi to play. I am almost certain a community would develop and organize in a way to somehow rebalance the game. Let's face it, there are so many runes that there could be an endless amount of playability with only what is currently present. Anyway, just some thoughts from a normally quiet guy who cares about this amazing game and felt like he had to speak.
Since I am not the IP owner and I don't know the tech well enough either I can't answer these, but I will bring it up to DOG when I talk to them next I know part of the reason DOG acquired Pox back was so that they did get ownership of the IP again for future use, so it's likely that something will happen eventually.
if they do the number 3, it better be the old client and the new client >.> I would want t make the new client work out of sheer annoyance for how it turned out, but would be more interested in the code from the first client.
Given the state of the new client, there are certainly advantages and disadvantages to it relative to the old client. But there is a LOT of bandaids in the old client, stuff like sound would still be broken, and it's honestly a PITA to do anything to the client because of the way it was originally written. I don't think you can realistically choose without having better knowledge, but it's probably faster to get the old client working for core gameplay (which is really where the new client suffers), though the new client is better overall from a future perspective.
I wish the really old client still existed: the one where runes had bases. I would pay 100$ just to play that again, no problem. It seems to me like option 2 would be best in the context of the game client being so bad. If DOG owns the IP, make people pay 20$ and give them access to a ton of runes and a turn based system that can be easily adapted for online tabletop rpgs, wargames or board games. You would need extremely minimal coding as none of the balance or bugs would matter much - it would be essentially freehand playing. Rather than a game with complicated coding, you would have an interface. You could even run a kickstarter and be honest: we can't support the game anymore but we have so much art that could be used to create a new product.
I believe the bases are a switch in the old client, unless the art for the bases was removed somewhere along the lines. if not since they were once there it would likely not be excessively difficult to re add them, though if I was doing it, it would be a toggle in the settings menu and would only effect the individual player who wishes to see them.
yep, by switch I meant a toggle in the code to show or hide bases, at one point corpse was toggling them on and off with dev commands. but it's ben a long time since then so the art may simply be gone.
Adding bases back would be phenomenal. It was probably the decision that I've hated the most in the history of pox.
Yep they lost a good revenue source/reward source. They could of sold bases as well as rewarded them as prizes They could of been non-tradeable thus a good tournament prize for those old free events and more.
Agreed. Would have loved to see something like that. The bases gave pox such a unique feel. Gosh, I miss those days. I also feel like many players currently active have a strong nostalgia from the early days. Pox was never an easy game to get into. It's not like Hearthstone or something else where the core gameplay is really simple - there are lots of parts in pox that move around. I think it's a mistake to even try to market it as a game for mass audiences - it just never will be in its current state. Unless you have a sweet spot for tactical rpgs, you will probably not like it. And in my uneducated opinion that is where a lot of resources were wasted - trying to appeal to masses of people.
I definitely would like to see a kickstarter, I know that this community would bound together to give Pox one last chance at staying alive Unlocking runes for backing the kickstarter for a decent amount would also be a good incentive and help people play more games
