Raids and Gym System Discussion

Tl;dr. This is q and a

Just keep in mind you will not be able to solo Jolteon, Flareon (a few did, with multiple maxed Golems, a lot of tries) and almost every Alakazam (try psyco cut/ focus blast using Gengars). The rest are doable. Success.

I disagree that Valor or Instinct players are any more or less hard core than Mystic.

I'm a level 33 Mystic having never payed a cent. It's just a game. Today is my one year anniversary. I enjoyed the old versions and enjoy the new just as much.

I don't care about making friends playing. I have hundreds of very good friends I'd rather spend my time with. None of them play much.

Hi, teammate,

you have good points. I'm level 36, rural (but work and sometimes play in the city). Overall, I like the changes. I used to run out of supplies, including red balls, all the time for lack of poke stops (not lack of grinding) and hated having to pay for them! Now, I have almost 500 pokeballs (which is why I decided to finally get the Plus - thanks for your advice, BTW). All due to the gyms doubling as stops, and all stops seems to be more generous with items.

I had a late start (10/30) and an even later start battling gyms. Since I mostly play alone, I had only recently been able to collect 8-10 coins daily, after learning to prestige and finding enough good gyms. Now, I usually get the max, and have a lot of fun taking down rival gyms (they do the same, so everyone gets their coin payout. That's great). I have teamed up with Valor players in raids, not much, but it was fun. The suspected spoofers are legit, LOL.

I'm not into discord and stuff like that so finding enough players for tier 4 raids may never happen, or not for a long time, but that's OK. Like you, I am trying to solo some tier 3 raids (came very close with a vape and a machamp.)

I still enjoy the exercise inspiration, the new gyms (easier to take down, all the new items, got my first gold badge yesterday!)

What can I say, I love this game, don't play it more or less than before. It has its problems, but I'm hopeful that good changes will happen.

I can see your points, even if I don't share all of them because our situations are not the same. But one thing is for sure, even if you may be seen more casual players right now, the truth is that the hardcore ones are who keep the game alive, the ones that spent more money and play more time, one only hardcore will spend normally more money than 100 casual players combined together.

I am not saying that the old system was better (I like raids but I liked the old gyms better than this gyms for multiple reasons), but if hardcore players keep feeling they have no reason to work/grind/play, that their efforts are for nothing, that a level 10 player can get into a raid and get a level 20 tyranitar and 2 tm's without even having a pidgeot and without even contributing at all while others with 100 raids done are left with a bunch of revives and berries, the game will come to an end.

Unless of course that most casuals start spending money, and I doubt this will ever happen.

100% agree with the theme of your post.

I have my complaints with the new gym system (defense doesn't matter; I can easily knock out any gym as a level 31 player) and am hoping there are future improvements. As it stands, my interest in (and play time of) the game has lessened, because, frankly, I find it kind of boring.

That being said, and acknowledging that just based on the fact that this is a discussion board devoted to a free cell phone game, the majority of comments are going to be a circle jerk of how updates screw over hardcore players, commenters here seem to be willfully ignoring the fact that this game was designed to appeal to the casual gamer, someone that can pull up the app when they're bored and have a couple minutes of fun.

The old system didn't work for the target audience. 6 Blisseys, 2 Tyranitars, and a Dragonite didn't allow the target audience to have fun. I'm level 31, and that wasn't fun for me.

In an ideal world, Niantic will create a game that appeals to level 10, 20, 30, and 40 level players. And I think they can. But the game at its most basic level is designed to appeal to the 15-25ish level player. It has to; it's what generates the most interest and the most revenue for Niantic.

So instead of bitching about how Niantic has "sold out" by, honestly, appealing to the majority who just want to have something to do while walking to work vs. the select few who are super heavily invested, maybe take after "leshrocko1" here. (I'm a fan of the sentiment, less so the name.) Post concrete suggestions, create a back and forth dialogue. I'm sure people at Niantic see the posts here - they want a game that persists, not just a flash in the pan. Because $$$.

But complaining how this hurts the super hardcore gamers who have devoted hours and hours... it doesn't help, and Niantic doesn't care.

The gym change absolutely needed to happen. The game was too unfriendly to newbies, which was starting to threaten its longevity.
Now, it seems the pendulum is on the other side. Gyms and raid bosses could stand to be more challenging. Hopefully, this is seasonal and there will be a general difficulty increase in the fall.

I too think this change helped the majority of the player base. As Hanke said in a recent interview, the gym system was catering to the upper 1% of players.

Prior to the gym update, I had been collecting 100 coins + 5k stardust daily months. Now I'm lucky if I get the full 50 coins on a daily basis. But I have no problem with it: I know the majority of the player base is benefiting from this, giving all players a much more equal chance of getting coins. As for the stardust, I don't think feeding 250 berries on a daily basis compensates for the previous stardust reward, but as long as a new route for obtaining stardust becomes obtainable in the future I'll be happy