Every so often I’ll poke my head in to see if the people who ****ed the game up are even still playing it after nerfing it to the ground. And nope none of them are around. Ya know It pains my soul after all these years of growing up to see this game is a wasteland. And it’s mostly cause the “council” had a say in a game when a majority of them didn’t give a Firk about balance and only about their fun. When they participate in recommending butchering of runes,ability combinations, Nora cost(RD nerf I’ll never forget the 35 man... and Firk you if you think it’s worth 40, and if you do enjoy it... BY YOURSELF), rune design(Silverlight cripple RiP), and “light tapping” Bane Shift like ancestral bear God while coming down with all your wraith on Warcry. You destroyed Earthmover because “constructs can’t have an insta kill like drown or domination chasm” And Elemenat Warstaff has just got his name and rep back... until you took it upon yourself to shoebox the entire faction. Not to mention premium runes like angels were demolished, magnus molested, and my favorite, Euan being given a “cool ability” as consolation for being gimped. Killing stalwart font defender because of the ST guy. Yes this is about IS, cause that was the faction I played but this is the examples from this Faction. Every faction has examples of runes that used to be fun to use and are now trash. Obsidian Paladin comes to mind from FW. Essence capture Then Retri from Sheoul Demon... Borghas Wasp Bomb from UD. But make Mika from SP the ultimate summon unit cause her parasitic fesh can kill anything, and it spawns on death. Destroy “adaptive decks” but make all champions the exact same cost, damage, defense and Hp. allowing KF elves to dominate the game because they were all melee units with ranged attacks. Stitched are unstoppable. Certain themes are allowed to exist broken and OP as hell like ST flying, or KF trees. DESTROYED ALL CONES AND BOMB UNITS BECAUSE OF X REASONING. Destroyed Any unit that had physical resist because they had a defensive ability. Nerfed every Aoe spell because it was an aoe spell. you even made Jangar Arcanist a passive unit with no Nora cost adjustment because “he was too strong” Because of these types of decisions were the death of poxnora. not wasn’t the devs that killed this game, it was the people backseat driving in the wrong direction that drove everyone in the bus off the cliff like it was simpsons. anyways peace and bye rant over hope you enjoy this trash cause the game is dead for a reason, and it ain’t my fault.
The things you consider good in this post and the way you speak show an extreme disconnect from the state of the game and possibly life itself
Wow so Dismissive. I know im right about stitches, and a whole lotta other Bane Shift... that’s why the other 1000s of population hasn’t returned, and you are agreed on with the other 20 ( fine lemme not exaggerate... 85) people Left playing this hollowed brittle bone Of a game. the most sad part about this, is if they actually wanted to make this game, a game again, all they would have to do is axe the god forsaken “formula algorithm” that all runes are cost at, like they seem to do at will anyways, and cost champions the SoE way... Trial, error, and finally sweetspot. But then again you are probable the “top “ PlayerS so of course you see nothing wrong with the “state of the game” Look around you... the silent majority have left the most vocal to do as they please.
You're not wrong on a lot of points, but @Daggan doesn't want to touch this version of Pox and the only ones left are those vocal minority/majority of the players still around that he may allow to tinker with code. Squeaky wheel and all, but...the ones that take the time to read these forums, silent or not, are most likely aware that this is a different state of game than what is now half a decade ago of development. TL;DR l2p the most stable state of Pox the community has ever seen. Ranked was a circle jerk under SOE anyway, least now the game has been left to what you should play for...the community...
That might seem like a good solution on paper, but in reality there are just too many runes for it to be practical. The advantage of the formula is that it allows the greens to quantify the abstract concept of balance, putting a number to every variable, thereby streamlining the development process. I'm not saying it was a perfect system, but after Sony basically hung Pox out to dry, it provided some necessary stability and consistency in rune design that was sorely lacking. The trial and error method runs the risk of leaving outliers ignored for too long as devs work out the best possible way to bring them into line. Pox patches weren't as frequent as other TCGs, and with good reason: the rune pool is huge, and the game is difficult for new players to get into as it is. If things are changing too often, it doesn't give people time to adapt and test what was changed. No testing means no data, and no data means no information to make decisions on the next balance patch. The more variables there are in a system, the more complicated the system is when you try to make sense of it. And Pox is most definitely a game with a lot of variables. Sometimes there's no clear way to know how one change will affect the whole. Perhaps the formula failed because it succeeded. A perfectly balanced game isn't always a fun game.
Both points are right. I'm in the same boat wanting more x1(unique) runes and it's not as simple as just reducing the rune count. Duplicates are an inherent learning mechanism that accomplishes all of what the OP and others are mulling over, which is... A baseline needed to be there; but it was never as transparent as let's just say Faction Bonuses. Those were able to get changed, although I never noticed much of a change; KF is the only one that I'm aware of off the top of my head. Poxnora has a lot of variables, a lot. Some aren't even present or noticeable from game to game; think CD and redeploy. Or Stealth for example. Stealth/Detection is almost always necessary but there can become a weird meta that it never gets seen. As with any tactic for defeating the Avatar. because that is the only win condition Poxnora has; Last One Standing/Battle Royale - set on a digital tabletop; (Genre) Collectible Tactical-Strategy C&C. ...Given both the Success/Failure of Poxnora, what is the best approach to bridge player experiences of Nostalgia/Ranked/Casual gameplay/modes. Skirmisher was removed which completely throws player knowledge out the window. Campaigns don't have a noticeable learning tool outside of get in and play; leaving Achievements as the only common ground players have. Not saying Skirmisher was a perfect situation however if it worked as intended, that was the only tool we had as players; outside of community. I think all development eras had their peaks and fair share of bane shift. Not saying I'm going to do any better with balance but I have my own formulas to accomplish a balanced state and entropy.
It's a hard discussion, especially when you can argue a consistent development plan creates it's own meta. I'm not sure what the best system is to roll out content, but having Leg packs forged after a P2W month or two was its own unique meta. Drafting has it's own limitations too; does it support player knowledge or just get people playing similarly to Campaigns, and if that's the case...why not have campaigns be the hook as we see with some mobile games with infinite zone progression. How do we approach scaling/time; if there's an infinite dungeon mode...does that progress have checkpoints. If it does, that creates it's own meta; skirmisher could have had an elite boss encounter that a formula would decide based on data tracking or what have you. Point is, why shouldn't progress be saved, and why should it. Why does player knowledge, today, matter as much as it did yesterday; if and again...here's the question. If development continued...what would you expect to happen once the bugs are squashed and something new on this Poxnora could be accomplished. Repeat: The only win condition Poxnora has; Last One Standing/Battle Royale - set on a digital tabletop; (Genre) Collectible Tactical-Strategy C&C.
Or perhaps the fact that the new client was botched and then the game abandoned by the Devs for years. That the game is still fairly active after all this time actually tells me that balance is pretty good. We've all got our bugbears with the game but most of us don't tell ourselves that what annoys us in particular is the source of all evil.
