PoxNora gets an upgrade

[Grimwell]

The only thread I could find in search on this was so old... that it wasn't worth a necro.

PoxNora received a major upgrade late last night. This was a pretty big project for the team and it integrated the back end system with the rest of SOE so those folks are now fully in the family these days. :)

Some of you tried it before, but many didn't - if you have time and interest in strategy games I'd love some feedback on the new player stuff. The development team put a lot of effort into that aspect of the game, and are looking for some quality feedback that their existing customers can't give because they know the game too well.

[Valmorian]

The only thread I could find in search on this was so old... that it wasn't worth a necro.

PoxNora received a major upgrade late last night. This was a pretty big project for the team and it integrated the back end system with the rest of SOE so those folks are now fully in the family these days. :)

Some of you tried it before, but many didn't - if you have time and interest in strategy games I'd love some feedback on the new player stuff. The development team put a lot of effort into that aspect of the game, and are looking for some quality feedback that their existing customers can't give because they know the game too well.

I tried this for a little bit and it seems quite good.  I'm curious about whether there's a "knights in shining armor" type of faction, as that's the kind of fantasy army I enjoy the most.

[Grimwell]

There really isn't anything like knights in shining armor in PN:
http://poxnora.station.sony.com/factions/viewfactionprofile.do

The nearest you might get is the Ironfist faction, but they are dwarves in platemail, which isn't the same.

[Aez]

Constructive feedback : the Avatar (>game info>Avatars) explanation is confusing. There is no explanation of the concept, it simply load a page describing the Forglar Swamp Avatar.  Is there only one Avatar per faction?  Is the featured Avatar only an example?  I know you can check the other faction Avatars but I feel it's missing a introduction to the concept of Avatars.

[Yegolev]

This is a MMO?

[Lantyssa]

I'll start with saying I'm probably not the target audience.  With TCGs I tend to get whatever cast-offs I can and work with that.

You need some more attractive avatars.  The Forsaken Lands (?) [undead] had the only one I liked.  There are no feminine looking avatars at all.

I tried three or four windowed resolutions.  Only automatic worked.

What is the goal with free players?  Only to upgrade?  Do you want them as fodder?  Allowing them to upgrade troops to level 2 might keep them around longer.  (Leave 3 for the paid people.)  Letting them build between two sets might allow for some tactical choice since they're still stuck with the starter decks.  The Avatar only unlocks the set it's with, yes?  That would let customers who might have an unlock play around, too, which if they're already invested might encourage them to buy the next unlock, too.

[Grimwell]

The game went live on Facebook this week. More viral postings to my profile page! :) apps.facebook.com/poxnora

Good questions above, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to share them with the team today and will stress Lantyssa's point about avatars. I can see her point. No promises or anything. :)

[Musashi]

I tried it on facebook.  Basically did the first tutorial thingey with the elves.  Pretty cool.  First Impression: Needs health bars.  Like bad.  Can't tell how much health my dudes have.  Very important information.  Don't want to have to click on each one to figure out what their health is so I know which one to move where, who to heal, etc.  Also would be cool to have enemy health bars, but not as vital.

[Ghambit]

Grim, I've still got cards from like release day.  Do I have to do backflips or something to make them work with your current version or has that been fixed? 
I remember the last time I logged in like a few years back that it wanted me to manually "convert" every card in my collection.  At that point, I stopped playing.

[Grimwell]

You should be good to go Ghambit. The entire game has been resurfaced (to use a word that's not exactly accurate but delivers the point). Your runes should be reset and instantly able. Mind you, I haven't looked at my old runes yet - doing the scenarios on the "free" access level one more time now that it is live... but I don't think you need to push buttons on the old ones.

Musashi, I've never seen the health bar suggestion. Curse you for putting it in my head!

[Grimwell]

I just want to hit this one last time and solicit any feedback folks may want to give. The new player stuff is a huge target and you guys are well known for being... candid... ;)

[kaid]

Brasse poked me into trying it and poxnora is pretty darn slick even on my work mac. I am still working through the various single player starer match things to unlock more cards/figures/whatever but so far its very amusing.

[Grimwell]

Feedback on that starter stuff is highly desired.

[kaid]

This is one of the best "facebook" games I have ever played because its actually a game hehe. So far I only did the elfy type walkthrough and the ice critter walk through. The basic tutorial stuff was good and got me up and going no fuss no muss. I was very amused by my killer frost breathing stuffed animal looking ice creature can't remember what its called but it looks pretty cute.

[schild]

This is one of the best "facebook" games I have ever played because its actually a game hehe.

This is actually it's greatest weakness, imo.

[Ghambit]

Yah, it is one of those titles that gets stuck in that no-man's land of gaming.

[tazelbain]

Pricing was the issue for me.

[kaid]

One annoying issue is since I never had an existing poxnora account when I logged in via facebook apparently it created a poxnora account. Thats fine I have the urge to buy some starter packs to get the avatar stuff but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to merge this thing with my existing station account.

It would work fine if I wanted to setup a new station account but I just do not see any option to link it. I tried the merge account link but that does not seem to work with my facebook started account.

It really should not be this hard there should simply be a very clear button when logging in via face book to link with an existing station account. If you want money from facebook users this should not be this difficult to setup.

[Grimwell]

There is a button and path from FB to merge your Station Account. It's obviously not big enough (you aren't alone in this). You can contact Customer Service and get some help in this quest if you wish.

Also, in the last 24 hours a change went live that now gives new players a free pack of runes that do improve with use. They aren't the most awesome runes in the world like some of the starter packs, but it's a move for the folks who haven't paid to get some growth. It's not retroactive though, so don't ask. :)

[Lantyssa]

Boo for not retroactive.  Yay for taking my suggestion.

[Grimwell]

Get me drunk sometime and I'll bake that boo sound completely sensible...

[schild]

Get me drunk sometime and I'll bake that boo sound completely sensible...

Get me boo sometime and I'll drunk that bake sound sensible completely...

[Rendakor]

Couple questions: where exactly is the link to merge your FB account to your Station one? Clicking the My Account just prompts me to make a new one. Also, is there a way to turn the sound off?

[kaid]

There is a button and path from FB to merge your Station Account. It's obviously not big enough (you aren't alone in this). You can contact Customer Service and get some help in this quest if you wish.

Also, in the last 24 hours a change went live that now gives new players a free pack of runes that do improve with use. They aren't the most awesome runes in the world like some of the starter packs, but it's a move for the folks who haven't paid to get some growth. It's not retroactive though, so don't ask. :)

I wound up having to put in a ticket and have the support guys unlink it. Once they did that I could merge it with my account normally so I am all set to go. I believe I have that pack if its the burning tree battle group thingy.

[kaid]

Couple questions: where exactly is the link to merge your FB account to your Station one? Clicking the My Account just prompts me to make a new one. Also, is there a way to turn the sound off?

If you are getting no option to merge it to your existing station account go to the poxnora tech support forums and put in a PM basically you will need to have the facebook account unlinked and then when you log back in you will be prompted for your station account and type that in and good to go.

[Grimwell]

Couple questions: where exactly is the link to merge your FB account to your Station one? Clicking the My Account just prompts me to make a new one. Also, is there a way to turn the sound off?

What kaid said, if you are already so far into the game that you can play it. If you aren't the accounts might not be linked yet. There is a walk through somewhere for doing the linking the right way. When I get to the office I'll try and find it and link it here.

[Kitsune]

They need a non-Java client for people who don't want to install a giant security hole on their computer.

[Lantyssa]

Another suggestion for account linking, but first my situation:

I gave this a try on the original suggestion using my Station Account.  I thought it was interesting, but didn't get far since I got busy.  When I found out about the Burning Tree freebie and since I had more time, I made a Facebook account.  I got a lot further this time and decided maybe I wanted to spend a bit of my Station Cash on it.  Lucky me, the Knowledge Base says you can just ask to have the Station Account unlinked.  Rock!

They do that without any problem.  I go through the linking steps and got my Facebook linked to my Station Account.  Only, it's with the original that had two starter decks, and not the one with all the starter decks, the leveled Burning Tree deck, and several campaigns completed.  That one is completely inaccessible.  I'm not even sure how the original wiped out the FB account since the original was supposed to be unlinked.

I have a bunch of CSRs scratching their heads on this now, no access since they asked I don't , lost effort, and quite possibly lost runes.  I could redo the work, but I can't get the Burning Tree deck since it isn't retroactive.  I'm not inclined to spend the Station Cash on the game if I lose those cards, and I'm not dumping money into a separate Facebook account if they manage to unlink and restore it.

So the suggestion:  Make sure linking doesn't wipe away work.  Either merge the accounts (real merge, not whatever 'Merge Account' does), or let the user pick between them, or log in to both.

[Grimwell]

I'm going to contact you tomorrow, and look further into this.

[Lantyssa]

Sure thing.  If I can help refine the process and get my things fixed, that'll be great.  I'll be happy to go into detail or be a guinea pig.