Pox Nora Complete Overhaul - and why it should happen.

The was a redesign of the HUD that was kicked around for awhile that included the text for the list of passive abilities as well as currently applied effects. I don't honestly remember at this point if that was passed along to DOG, but I think it may have been. But you aren't alone in liking the textual information vs the visual icons.

 

I think the graphics are fine already. The only graphical issue that annoys me is the lack of graphical feedback. You barely notice anything happening if you aren't reading the combat log, at least not for newer players. Reading the combat log constantly might be good enough for some people but there are much better (and nicer) solutions out there.

A much more pressing issue would be general usability. The rune manager is pretty damn bad. It's missing basic features any person would except from something like it in this day and age, I mean it doesn't even have a search function! Something similar to Poxbase is something I would like instead of what we have now. If they would manage to update some of these things that would be great and even better if they would just do away with it all together and make a better launcher/platform and just have it there so we wouldn't have to jump between the game and the rune manager to play this game. I shouldn't even have to mention it but really? There is no hotkey for ending the turn?

Now I'm not pretending like any of this would be easy to do or anything like that, but this game would be sick if the content came in a modern package. I'm sure the devs are working hard, but let's not pretend the game will be any more successful than it is if they are focusing on new runes for the vets to play with instead of trying to attract new players. I've read through some of the recent patchnotes and yeah, they are trying to better the usability in many ways which is great but to really get people to play this game, Pox Nora would need some serious overhauling.

 

Because the game is trash right now. No one cares about graphics.

Nice try new guy

 

It's amusing how new people always come up with these "what pox needs - compared to the biggest games out there" threads. Then act all offended when people disagree.

Pox isnt like other games. Its got next to no staff and no money. Perhaps you should have informed yourself first, as mentioned previously, you assume a whole lot about things you don't have any knowledge of.

 

@Tack

I think you underestimate how much time and effort it takes to make art. This next level animation you're talking about would take a full team several months in order to make a dent into the vast number of runes we have. Pox has got like, 2-3 dedicated artists, most of the work is done on commission.

Translating from pixels to 3D isn't a simple switch, or take what you have and edit it. It's a full redo of everything in the game from scratch, all the champions, relics, effects, maps, engines, everything.

 

Art costs, heavily.

 

Why not keep the pixel art, but at least add more animations and a better resolution.

 

The thing with pixel art is that to increase the resolution, you need exponentially more pixels, probably 4x what you have currently. Animations are, for the lower models, about 3-4 frames per action, and the higher end ones are about 12-15. For each frame, depending on the unit and the animation, this can mean creating a new frame entirely.

Art is hard.

 

There's no question that there is a range in quality and style in the current sprites. Compare one of the original sprites (e.g. Wild Elf) with something in a recent expansion. Or what about Voil Progenitor and its pseudo 3D? Was that a one-off experiment, or was there a desire at one time to move other sprites to that standard as well?

I know I can't really do anything with this information, but I'd be curious to know from a professional artist what an estimate would be for something in each of the different quality bands. Would it actually be less expensive to make something retro-looking and pixelated? Or is the modern style easier to work with because it translates better from hand-drawn work?

I suspect that the main driving factor for sprite price would be the number of animations and the number of frames per animation. So by changing the style, you might be affecting the base rate per frame or animation slightly, but by adding walking animations you would be changing the price of the completed sprite by an order of magnitude. I'm not an artist though, so I could be completely wrong.

EDIT: I also don't know if that "order of magnitude" of price difference would still be within the reasonable range of costs So many assumptions are necessary to have this kind of conversation, haha

 

Ergo, Kickstarter.
Ergo, Remake.

 

Well if you're willing to wait a year or two without updates, then it's an option, I suppose.

 

When was the last time someone specifically cited the sprite-based graphics of the game as their reason for frustration with the Pox? Poke fun at less polished runes all you want, but if this game goes into another two years of revamping just to update the artwork, I'd leave the game and never look back. The graphics are not the main problem nor should they be given such a high priority that everything else is put on hold. I rate the current graphics at a solid 7/10 give or take a point from rune to rune. Compare this to everything else (5/10 or worse) and I just can't support your suggestion(s).

You've admitted a lack of experience with computers (which implies coding/engines/all-dat-stuff), graphics and really anything that would go into making this happen. Those more qualified than you to ask for this kind of change have repeatedly attempted to illustrate why it's not a feasible or reasonable request at this point in time. I'm struggling to see why you keep pushing this idea when your confessed ignorance prevents you from really understanding how exhaustive this process would be for DOG.

 

Agree....I love poxnora like I love Tales of Maj'Eyal.

Both have ACCEPTABLE graphics and the main points of them are the depth of gameplay not how they look like.

In MoSCoW method, the graphics of Poxnora only stay at could have.

Poxnora right now contains quite a lot of bugs, and have some balancing problem imo, they should be handled properly at the first priority.

No one wants a fancy looking but broken bugy game.

No single game succeeded because of its game graphics.

We are playing a GAME, not sitting in the cinema and watching 3D movies.

I believe whoever cares the graphics of the games too much will not be a fan of poxnora.

Those enormous fancy graphics (ofc costly) games are for them.

 

Because he's a dude who deluded himself into thinking he knows better than all of us and needs to educate us in order to show off how "new" and "intriguing' his ideas are.