We have not talked much yet about the Pox Nora revamp. We are hard at work on it here, and I wanted to give all of you a preview of what we are doing, and give all of you the chance to make your own comments and suggestions. The Goal The goal of the revamp is three fold More Strategic play This means fewer champions that can do everything, and more champions that are intended to be played as a team. This means more focus on players being able to deploy and play champions based on a theme they want to build/create. Address Complexity Creep Champions will have a role to play. You will be able to look at a champion and figure out what they do. No more cheap "Kitchen Sink" champions or abilities. Most champions will have 4-5 abilities after this revamp. Currently the number is 7. Pre-soe this was 4.2. Focus on the fun We are hitting the reset switch on Pox Nora -- so the current meta is going out the window. We want you to out-think your opponent. Out-smart you opponent. Out-play your opponent! Coming up with a good strategy is fun. Creating your own combos is fun. We want to get back to that. The New Upgrade System Under this new system, most champions in Pox Nora are going to have 4-5 abilities in total. 1 Attack Ability (usually) 1-2 Starting Abilities (usually) 2 Configurable Abilities Upgrades are Optional Every configurable ability slot will start with an ability. At level 2, you can change the first configurable ability selection. At level 3, you can change the second configurable ability selection as well. In this new system, a level 1 champion is just as good at a level 3 champion, all CP does is give you more options. Upgrades effect Nora Cost Not all abilities are created equal! As a player you understand that, and now so does the upgrade system. You can make a rune more powerful, but they are going to cost more nora. Likewise, its possible to make a rune more efficient by picking less costly abilities than the default. Gameplay Changes More items are being addressed than the ability count on champions. Themes In the next week or so I will post some more concrete examples. Themes are fun, thats clear. Fun way to build a battlegroup, fun way to play. However I have less of an affinity for obvious/forced themes. Not every single Dwarf in the game needs to have Carouse for a "drinking theme" to exist. If a Carouse-like ability was "better" and on a select few champions you still have a theme if you wanted it. (Who exactly is the scorched dwarf drinking with anyway?!) Kitchen Sink Abilities Abilities that blindly add other activated abilities all going to be changed. Titan may get addressed, but certainly abilities like Nohkan Do will be. More to come! More coming soon.
I particularly like the adaptation of the old CP/Leveling system and the newer "plug and play" system. Understanding that the level of complexity and the number of BAD builds possible under the old system was unsustainable... and that the new system is easier to deal with, control, and understand... I also think the old system was REALLY cool and allowed for much more creativity. The mix you've put together seems to be a really nice compromise.
yesplzthankyouowls Question about configurable abilities: How many configurations are going to be available? Will it vary between different champions, or rarities? There are some spells and abilities that interact with upgraded abilities, how will these be changed? Will they be removed/reworked, or adapted to work with the new system?
h0spy -- thats a UI thing. Inquisition has a cost of 6, so that image should probably say +# relative to the current selection, which would be +2. However the nora costs above are not final, its just an example of whats going on.
I like the words that you put in my monitor and those pictures are also nice. I like that you getting rid of those all forced themes. Not every rune must have theme. Maybe it's upgrades could encourage one or other theme. For me Kiergana is perfect example for rune that is good as stand alone , but also can be very good in 2 themes! That's awesome balance (in theory, not for all those abilities that are put on her).
complex system with upgrades. it's definetely better than the current one, but.. but.. but that's like saying piss stinks less than Bane Shift. why we can't have NO piss and NO Bane Shift. if you incist on keeping the current alike upgrade system, it's perfectly doable as it is right now - just TRY to focus on abilities being on the same powerlevel. remember, when you said that old-old system (with everything upgradable) was fun for a while, but for olders it was quite "obvious" and for newbies it was punishing? this is exactly what it is going to be. spirte in the description is neat though! the last thing is good about those add-ish abilities.
Quick question: does this mean there will not be any upgrade stats anymore? No more SPD +1 and so on? Kudos for that. Another question: how exactly are you handling racial abilities, like zombie apocalypse or mischief? Are you just cutting out of several champions, or many champions that fall within a theme will have it, therefore limiting their additional abilities? That is, few zombies will retain ZA, but those zombies will play a key role in flavour, or the other way around, many zombies will have ZA, but each will be more specialized because the limited amount of runes? Linked to that, are most racial intended to be at base, or as upgrades?
however, I like your ideas on modules. I even think it could be the main design behind themes, not focusing on themes, but modules. on the otherhand, I would like that themes wouldn't be indicators of race/class. so if there is no strong (power/designwise) racial for a theme, it shouldn't exist at all. Carouse is something I dislike a lot.
O.M.G....this is...i think i'm crying of joy...this is how (without knowing it) i always wanted poxnora to be!
This all sounds amazing. I especially like the part about upgrades affecting nora cost. The old system was so much better. Also, hearing you say things like "We want you to out-think your opponent. Out-smart you opponent. Out-play your opponent! Coming up with a good strategy is fun. Creating your own combos is fun. We want to get back to that." makes me feel that Poxnora is really going places. Excellent work owls!
I can sense there will have to be a lot of balance changes after this is implemented, but I am sure most of us are ready to contribute toward helping with that.
I have not categorically ruled it out but I dont do not currently plan to put any on a champion. If it would exist it would be for a specific reason, like maybe +hp on the lifegiver. Case by case. Mischief (and maybe even ZA) are more of a theme than a racial, so I would upgrade it and put it on fewer champions (even tho the distinction between a racial and theme is not always apparent). I actually have a re-design of ZA ready, but I want to post that along with a bunch of other themes once they are nailed down. Something that is clearly a racial would be a boghoppers ability to leap. Usually it will be a starting ability, but I could see it being configurable in some cases too (allowing you upgrade to a better, or different kind of leap).
I like it. My issue with optional levelling (discussed in another thread) was needing the option to stay level 1. But having abilities regardless of level solves that. Any info on what's happening with average damage/spd/def/hp and defensive abilities. I mean, I note that magnus still has a lot of damage in that image. But I imagine a lot of champs will have less defensive abilities now. Also, since it came up this week. How is Boon of the Undead being handled? I assume not every undead is going to have 4 abilities + this?
Some champs should maintain a higher number of abilities, Titans and Heroes Im thinking. There is something exciting about that big bad ass champ being dropped that makes you groan when it is not widespread like it is right now.
What about drawbacks? Is stuff like Lumbering and Ponderous actually going to cut into the number of abilities a champ can have?
