PoxNora - Anyone tried?

[Merusk]

Spied the ad for These guys on PA's site when I checked the Friday strip.  Considering the way everyone was drooling over the idea of Tactica Online only to have that go the way if the Dino, I thought I'd point it out.

Haven't signed-up for it myself, yet.  Had a few things to do this weekend in prep for tonight & tomorrow, but in the midst of cleaning the gameroom I remembered it and thought, "I'd better post now before I forget again."  :-D

I'm going to give it a try later this week, anyone who does before me let the rest of us know about it, thx.

Ed; 

Fucking hate cleaning.  Signed up for the free account.  If you're taking a look and want to know how much a 'credit' is when you look in the store, 100 credits = $1.   There is no discount for buying 'in bulk'.

   So, the 100 rune pack will cost you $25.   The units you get are random, like magic cards, but the $25 purchase gives a bonus for 'exotics' in each rare slot of the pack.   Hrm.

[geldonyetich]

I've played it in beta.  Pretty fun and cerebral game, but it was suffering from a shortage of players.  Not sure how different that is in release.

[Mr. Right]

I almost tried it.  It's an interesting concept.  I think their main problem is the lack of cards, try playing magic with 3 rares creatures per side and 3 spells.  It should be great after 2 or 3 expantions.

[Grimwell]

I played it in beta, and a little bit after release. The fundamentals for the game are very strong and I agree that a few more expansions will offer the depth in runes that most are going to be looking for.

[Merusk]

When did it go live?  The lowest-level 'rune package' ($3) said it featured runes exclusivly from the new expansion, which looks like a whole plant/ animal nature theme.   The whole of the game looked to have a decent base amount of factions already, with 7 teams to choose from.  Maybe I'll think differently after I play a bit.

[Margalis]

I made a thread about this a while ago. There is one expansion now and another on the way.

My summary would be this:

Fun core gameplay.
Some balance issues with both units and maps.
Lack of features like limited play, watching games, etc.
I don't need another game where you pay for packs.

You can try it for free with a starter group, which won't set your world on fire but is pretty enjoyable. I think my big problem with it now is that there is only constructed play and I don't like constructed play in most games in general.

[Grimwell]

The game went live in August.

I do like it for it's 'Indy' charm. The people behind it have a good background in mobile games, but this is their first foray into PC games from what I remember. There are definitely enough runes about to make a competent play group, but I think that a few more expansions will really change the play of the game and help it 'mature' into it's actual final state. Kind of how MtG was fun at the beginning, but changed and evolved into a similar but different game by Ice Age with balance and tweaks. Pox Nora will probably follow a similar development path.

Is it worth the money to get involved? I think so, at least enough money to build up one battle group. You should be able to find something to make you happy with a minimum investment, and then roll with it unless the game evolves rapidly in a different fashion. As a bonus, it's not a subscription based game, so say you drop $30 - $50 and get set up with a nice group of runes -- that's where the spending stops. Play is free... and it's worth the 'one game a month' allowance to jump in, support an indy, and play something different.

[Hoax]

It costs way too much, that was really as far as I got.  Did have a bit of fun learning the game though.

[Kitsune]

I'm perfectly willing to give the free game a spin.  Judging from the message boards, however, there are big upcoming changes to the game's rules, changes that seem to make the current players rather unhappy.  So, probably best to see how they pan out (they apparently go live in a few days with this upcoming expansion) before going and putting any money towards it.  WizKids has already proven with Mage Knight that you can take a license to print money and flush it straight down the toilet with bad ruleset changes.

(Edit: Oh, and this Grimwell guy is obviously a mole.  Somebody nobody's ever heard of shows up with 5 posts shilling for a game?)

((Disclaimer: Humor.))

[Grimwell]

Mole! Mole!  :mrgreen:

Pox Nora is the greatest game evar!!! It's best thing on intarweb I swear!

[Kitsune]

I gave it a spin today and found myself rather peeved.  Not at the game itself, but in its utter lack of a meaningful way to learn it.  They have no AI yet, so you're forced to grab a 'starter deck'-ish pack and fling yourself into combat against a live opponent.  Okay in theory, learn by doing and all that, but very very poor in practice.  There's a default timer of ninety seconds per turn, and several times I ran out of time before I could complete my actions.  I had no idea about the capabilities of my units, only a casual grasp of the game mechanics, and generally was utterly lost while getting the crap kicked out of me.  I had a very clever strategy of 'make monsters, have monsters fight other monsters', which served me well for about three rounds before going belly-up.

The game would be much better served if it had a 'solo mode' or somesuch where you could deploy your troops and march them around and get to see what each one can do without a timer breathing down your neck.  There is an AI player listed on the future feature list, so hopefully they'll be able to give players an opponent to learn against in the not so distant future.  Likewise for being able to record and observe games, both of which would be very useful.

But in any event, the very first thing I would do is to change the timer to two minutes per turn. (It can be configured by the player who starts the match.)  While nobody wants to be kept waiting for half an hour by the other player, strategy games need a little breathing room for contemplation.  The control is fairly intuitive, with clicking and dragging to target attacks and spells and move critters, but the UI could stand a bit of streamlining in a couple of spots.

In short, the game isn't done.  The features it's missing all stand out, pretty glaringly.  What's there is good and seems to hint at a very nice game when the rest of the features are complete.

[Margalis]

Yeah there is a lot of stuff they could add, and the control takes some getting used to. It is kind of flaky with regards to mouse clicks, it seems to work better using mouse/keyboard combo. Sometimes you want to do something like select a guy, attack, then attack again with the same guy - you try to do it fast but something ends up being messed up and you aren't quite sure what is happening...which clicks it accepted and which it did not. You can also enter actions as other actions are taking place to some degree...

I prefer the MTGO timer much more. It does exactly what it is supposed to - limit game length. The PoxNora timer doesn't even do that. The MTGO timer also means you can spend a long time on critical turns and blast through nothing turns. The worst in PoxNora is when you use Mobilization (extra AP for everyone) then can't spend the AP because you run out of time...really annoying.

They have a nice list of things to add like replays, sealed play, watching other games, etc - but they haven't made any progress on any of them as far as I can tell. Seems like they are focusing a lot on expansions and less on core features and playability.

Seems like it could be a very good game with a few more months of work but they don't seem willing to put that work in. Some games seem to get 90% of the way there and then - just stop. I've never understood that. It's like the devs say "fuck it, we're sick of this game, no more developing! That's it!!" I mean you've done all the networking, the engine, the graphics - can't you spend a couple more days cleaning up some interface quirks?

[Grimwell]

My assumption on their 'features vs expansions' balance was that they were interested in paying the bills and staying open as a company. It's indy after all... they have to balance the books first.

[Kitsune]

Well, clearly things got left behind so they could get the money to keep operating.  I'd've done the same in their shoes.  All the same, though, the lack of those features hurts the game; I probably would've shelled out the $25 to them had they been implemented.  As it is, I'm keeping a 'wait and see' on this.