Steam user experience with "revamped" Pox Nora

Hi guys,I'm a Steam user and I also had played this game 110 hours when it was released on Steam the first time under SOE. I'm opening this topic to share my thoughts about my experience with the second attempt of Pox Nora on Steam,and also to hear about yours and your opinion.

Long story short,my experience is a mix of bugs,frustration,headache, and all in all I think this game is going to fail badly. And with this,I am not saying it is a bad game,I am just saying that there are a lot of things that are seriously impairing it.

1-Let's start with the "less bothering" things,the little bugs in the single player campaign. There is a mission which tells me to capture the 2 founts. I captured both in the same turn,but the game didn't contemplated that scenario,so only 1 counted as captured,even if later I let the enemy recapture one from me and then I took it back again,the mission couldn't update the goals...so I had restarted it.

2-Same mission,this time the game asks me to over my mouse on the enemy unit and check his ability,I do so,but later on when I kill that enemy, a copy of it spawn again and the game asks me again to hover the mouse on the enemy ability. I do it again. Now my army surrounded the enemy tower,I am about to finish the game,I pass the turn and now is my turn again,the game asks me AGAIN to hover on the enemy ability...problem is,I had placed one of my champions where said enemy should have spawned so there where no enemy champion nor ability to check this time,then I use a spell,something go wrong now and now the game is broken,my mouse clicks don't take any effect anymore and I have to restart that mission a third time.

3- Campaign suggestion. Under the daily tab,there is a tab that suggests you to play a certain campaign. I clicked the button,the game didn't started and the game got stucked in that page,I couldn't leave to go Ranked pvp or somewhere else because the game won't start and no "back" button was available.

4- Targetting system. I was in the middle of a long game,20-30 minutes or so played already and this was a crucial point in the game. My opponent had a vindrax blockying one of my founts and I had the spell to send him back to the opponent tower,this would have been a game changer...but...my 2x2 creature was in front of that 2x2 dragon,I am 100% positive I dragged my spell on top of vindrax,and yet my creature got sended to my tower. He was surprised and asked me in chat "missclicked?" but I am sure I did not missclick,is just the targetting system in this game really ****ed up. I should at least change the grid color of the creature you are targetting to make you doublecheck,but not. And this ruined a serious game and brought the frustration toward this game to over 9000

5-Pre made decks . Ok,this is it,probably the worst part in this game. I ask you "what is the point of role playing in videogames?!" probably you would say "to level up,to build up your skills and to decide what your character will be. A pre constructed deck,kills it. Why? Well,first of all,you don't get to decide what cards go into it,you can't modify it therefore you have 0 control over it. Second,you don't own the cards inside it,all the cards are already at level 3 therefore the experience points you get after the game means nothing. And worst of all,the game doesn't even gives you the resources to build a starting deck for once you reach ranked pvp,so either you grind the singleplayer just "because you have to" or you use one of this pre-constracted against people who long time ago put money into this game,therefore you keep losing to killer decks,you don't win cards,you build up frustration because you can't change anything inside that deck to counter opponent decks.

6-ranked pvp. This morning I played this game and did 3 ranked pvp quickmatch,all the 3 quickmatches where against the same person...can you believe it?!This was an old user who paid in the old Pox Nora and had a killing combo,why the game thougt it was a good idea to put him against me,wich by the way I started with a new account,so I have 0 cards and I'm lvl 0. Not only I'm surprised by the fact that I was paired together with him,but also by the fact that all 3 time happened the same guy...I get that noone is playing the game,but putting me against that guy (3 times in a row) is just the easiest way for the game to build up my frustration and having me uninstalling...I would instead have preffered if the game didn't found anyone,wich by the way happened when I was 8 minute waiting for the Quickmatch to find someone...and you know why that happened? Because 160 players where stucked in the Firking Singleplayer (only 30 or so in the pvp area),wich is like a "frustration barrier" that prevents player for getting into the game,because or they get stucked in there grinding to build the first deck,or they uninstall before ever getting to try the real game against a human beign

To sum it up again,this 2 days of playing Pox Nora where full of frustration and headache,the worst gaming days I had in like 5 year or more I swear to you and not because I lost because if you check my steam account I have almost 200 hours at "Tales of Maj'Eyal" wich is a roguelike game wich I play on Nightmare Roguelike, and whoever do that really knows how to lose without getting frustrated...but Pox Nora...it brings it to another level,because you feel like you have no control over it, either you grind to death for the first 100% "homemade" battlegroup and the first glimpse of control,or you pay for it.

I'm not up for this Bane Shift,I had to uninstall it,but now I'm here because I'm curious to hear your guys experience with the 2nd start at Pox Nora,let me know what do you think
And if there are fanboys amongs you guys,keep it cool,I'm not claiming that my experience is how everyone experience it,this is only my personal experience about the game,live with it and don't be a fanboy

 

Some of your problems are duo to poor management. Some are small playerbase.

In truth, even when playing vs unranked players there is no sure way to match you with other new players. Which is due to a variety of reasons. Playerbase, poor ranked system, smurfing,..

If you still want to play, I woukd advise against playing ranked pvp until you aquire a stronger deck and better understanding of the game. No need to beat yourself up needlessly. If you need help with decks, use the new player forums or PM me.

 

"BurnPyro" was OP's first like. Interesting.

On Topic:

Pox Nora is brutal, which is a pro and con at the same time. And yes, it was revamped.

You must have misclicked. You don't have to use the premade decks. New players will not get placed against vets unless they stay in que for a long time. You admitted to 8 minutes waiting in que, so yeah. People are in Single Player taking their time. If that is what they like, neither you nor my opinion matters on the topic. Enjoy all future virtual battling action as much as possible. Peace out.

 

@BurnPyro: Unless one of my friends tells me "man,you can't believe it,they changed everything,you have to try it again!" I'm not going to try it anymore. Seriously,I only play ranked in every game and it always gives me the means to compete fairly,but this game gaved to me only unfairness and frustration,I don't need this in my life.

@DarkJello: "You don't have to use the premade decks." <---expand on this please. I have no card to build my full green deck,so I'm curious to hear the alternatives.

"People are in Single Player taking their time. If that is what they like, neither you nor my opinion matters on the topic. " <---That's not the only explanation. Playing singleplayer is required before you unlock ranking pvp,so people is painfully forced to play it,at least that's how it felt when I had to go through it (and I guess competitive players felt the same,maybe other like me who knew the game already but had to start a new account)...and that's why I call the singleplayer the "frustration barrier"

 

I guess he means runes you could buy with gold (somewhat free to play).

We, veterans, take a lot for granted regarding the new player experience. I hope you reconsider playing or check back later.

Cheers

 

I am an old player also who recently came back.

1&2 - I agree the tutorial is badly glitched in a few places. I was annoyed also when I went through it. We are on the same page here.

3 - I have encountered a bug like that before but it is very rare. I would chalk it up to back luck happening as soon as you came back. Thankfully the bugs were a little more spaced out for me so I had time to adjust before getting hit with the next one.

4 - I love this idea and I am sure the devs would also but I am sure that takes a ton of programming and bugs come first when you only have 5 guys making this massive game happen.

5 - This is where I disagree with you. I like the premade decks but that is just me. However there does need to be some sort of way to get a really basic premade deck ASAP that is yours to hold and keep. Then at least you have the basic foundation to build a real deck for ranked.

6 - Jumping into ranked on this game is just brutal as others have stated which is why I love the premade decks and there mass variety. Ranked should have a button before you first play it that says "are you sure your ready to bend over and get spanked? Yes or No"

In the end its just a game but I still have never found a game like it. Yes it has its bugs generally they are not crippling enough to fully stop gameplay so I just go with it. I wish you the best weather you stay or go and thanks for posting your view for the devs.

 

Yes,I think it was the Daily Skirmish,though now I don't have it installed to double check. Anyway,I'm glad you guys are working on it,that's also the reason why I posted my thoughts here instead of the Steam's game user reviews page,because I didn't wanted to hurt the game and your work in any way (because I am sure there is a lot of potential in this game, and I'm looking forward to it)

@BurnPyro: probably I'll check it again,maybe in 6 - 10 months time,the game is fast enough to download anyway so is not a problem

 

Overall OP has a reasonably good attitude, as well as excellent insight on several points.

A bit bummed you are stepping out already, but such is life. Battle on virtual gamer dude.

 

@DarkJello: A bit bummed you are stepping out already, <--- Actually I just downloaded it again. Reading again my first post,I realize that the point 5 is what is killing the game for me,the fact that is a card game and I'm using someone elses deck that I can't modify nor relate to,it totally destroy this kind of games for me. So with this new knowledge,I want to try to endure the single player a little bit longer until I get 30 cards and a full green deck I can call "mine",then I evalutate the game again.

Aside from that,since the Dev is reading the topic,I would like to highlight another problem I just remembered about the singleplay: I won the 4 pact challenge in nightmare difficult,kind of cheating the AI. The AI can't handle Stealth enemies,therefore I can easily stealth on enemy fount end even if it have there a unit with 10 AP, it will not bother at all to look for my invisible creature blocking the fount theoretically forever...same doesn't works with humans,they tend to find me pretty quickly

@Senshu: just installed again and checked,it was daily skirmish indeed,Wrath Heroes I and it happened this morning,so something like 12 hours ago (my gmt should be +1 or something,Italy anyway)
And I just managed to block it again,I started with it with the battlegroup I am building wich has not yet 30 runes in it,so I got a message wich says "you need a battlegroup with 30 runes in it",I changed to the premade K'tir down deck, hit the refresh button,but now the Start Campaign button is greyed out,so I can't click it again. At least I can still switch tab to Singleplayer or Battleground,so I broke　it less than the last time xD

 

@Senshu: I sometimes have trouble starting Daily Skirmish (or even regular skirmish) too. I get the loading screen with the filling orb, the orb fills to the top, and... nothing. I've left it for several minutes without seeing any activity, except that the loading text cycles every so often. Since there is no Cancel button, I have to quit and log in again.

I would say that it happens to me about once every 6-8 matches.

EDIT: I should mention that I haven't noticed this behaviour associated to any particular Daily Skirmish mission. When I log back in and try again, it usually works.

 

I could also mention other stuff,minor bugs,like the image below. Basically it says 0/4 even though I won all the 4 battles,and if I enter in there and change the difficult to nightmare,it still says 0/4,though I actually won all the 4 nightmare challenges...

Anyway,at this point should I open a thread in the bug section?

Spoiler

 

Heya Marcus, the campaign progress is a bit counter-intuitive, but I think it's working as intended. When you finish the fourth challenge, it goes back to zero so you can start it again. So you'll never actually see it read "4/4".

Instead, the checkmark tells you whether you have finished the whole campaign yet (at any difficulty).

Like I said, it probably could be improved, but at least it's not buggy

 

I see. Though I didn't talked about the game going silent during a match,when the background musics ends for some reason and it is dead silence...that's kind of ugly,that's a bug,right? It breaks the immersion,it stops the magic :S
This kind of game is slow,if it also became dead silent...it became a little depressing imo

 

Best of luck then.

Also the AI is silly like that, no shame.

 

Yep, that's a bug. The background music ends when a champion dies.

 

On the topic referring to the pre-made decks, it is kind of hard to figure out what to do here. Almost everyone wants to get rid of CP since it limits the making of BGs.