What would you do?

mewtwo

My immediate area I have 50-60 days defending 4 gyms in a somewhat busy shopping area. In December I'm moving 3.5 miles away to a less busy residential area. Some Instinct players (two are 40; one of them chill and the other uber-competitive) have dominated a few churches and a car wash for over a year. Way back I used to challenge them for that area two days a week. Those will now be my nearest gyms...gonna tighten up my gym sieging and find the hours they are more vulnerable to not immediately retake. It will be me vs. 5 or 6, nobody from my color bothers there.

NPCs to battle with

We APC region had Suicune for the last month and boy do I know how that feels. We didn't even have Mewtwo! For me, I basically complete the five T3 Solo challenge. Also tried some duo-lo or tri-lo T4, or for Suicune, 4-player (I think it's possible to do it with 3 but with 6 maxed Raikou).
Also, try to collect different types of Hidden Power! Sorry but that's all I could think of and what I did.

Trading and PvP

Those are the core fundamentals of Pokemon.

1) Maybe bring back the old gym system, but tweak it with elements of the gym system we have now. That way, we at least have a bit more of a challenge and something to show off! I personally had more fun with the old gym system than the one we have now, but if Niantic can find a way to integrate elements of both gym systems, this game may potentially turn into something promising.

2) A friend's list would be pretty interesting. I'm not entirely sure how the concept would be incorporated into the game, but it can certainly improve the social dynamics this game is mainly focused on.

3) (This might be a long one lol) Remove the raid system. I liked the idea of raids when it first started. But, as time passed, I realized that if I wanted some of the strongest and/or rarest Pokémon in the game, all I have to do is battle a raid boss (which, to be honest, provides not even the slightest challenge for me, even the legendaries included), and capture it. And, if I didn't catch the Pokémon, no worries! There's another Tyranitar or Snorlax in that other gym down the block! To me, it doesn't feel earned, suspenseful, or exciting. It feels too easy and bland to get these strong and rare Pokémon now. For instance, I used to be insanely proud of the one and only Muk I have (never did a Muk raid). It took me ages to collect enough Grimer candies to evolve my Muk, and once I got it, I felt pretty freaking amazing about it, since you literally never saw Muk back in the old gym system. Now, Muk raids are as common as wild Pidgeys, and now my Muk just feels like "another Muk". I just miss that huge excitement factor when you saw a Snorlax, or even a Larvitar in the wild, and rushed like hell to catch it! Sadly, raids took that away from me, and maybe from a lot others, too. I just simply think raids, the way it's been running thus far, have made this game utterly stale, and I fear it may do the exact same thing with Gen 3. Sorry for long post, but I thought about this one a lot.

Not the best ideas, but it's a start. =]

What I want is to not have to always go miles out of my way and spend so much time to play this game. When I open the game at my house, there are two pokestops and one gym in a cluster on the horizon, then one more gym and a few more stops scattered a ways beyond that. Everything else is miles away.

That leaves me with two gyms I can raid at without having to drive all over the place or devote quite a bit of time to reach on bike, and some people refuse to go to one of those two gyms, because it used to be laggy there. That means I have to be paying constant attention to actually catch the rare raids that are both a reasonable distance from me, and at a moment enough people are around to join me, and those two factors don't line up very often.

I tried to raid for a while this afternoon, but nobody else was active, so by 5:00 or so, I ignored the game for a while to make some food. Once I finished and checked the game again about 6:15, I saw that the people I raid with were all just finishing a Tyranitar raid at that gym I can see on the horizon from my house. I haven't gotten a single raid in for days, then there's finally a good one at the closest gym to my house, and it sneaks by at the exact window of time I dare to do something else for a little while.

So yeah, I've gotten very tired of feeling like I have to schedule my life around this game in order to actually achieve anything in it. As the game progresses, they keep adding more and more aspects that try to force you to play when the game wants you to, instead of playing the game when you want to.

It really feels like the only reason I even play anymore is because they've created a sense of obligation. Gotta always make sure to get the first spin and catch bonuses each day. Gotta hit enough gyms at the right time of day to get the daily 50 coins. Gotta constantly watch the radar for if anything decent pops up. Gotta be ready to toss your dinner aside to run out the door and travel miles to hit the rare raid that actually gets enough people, or else you're wasting your free passes. Gotta play as much as you can during all their limited-time events, and make sure to hit as many legendary raids as you can so you might have a chance of getting one good one before they're gone. Gotta make sure to raid at every single gym in the area every few weeks, because you never know which one might get a Mewtwo raid.

This game has become nearly impossible to just play casually and actually get anywhere at all, but I think that's how I'm going to play from now on. If I don't get my 7-day streaks anymore, barely get any coins, and miss all the raids because I'm not running all over the place the moment the game summons us, oh well, because I want a game that I play when I actually want to, not out of some manipulated sense of obligation.

I agree that gen3 is a bandaid and won't solve the many issues the game has. There just aren't enough objectives, goals, or competition to make the game compelling.

I say just do the dailies if you feel like it and don't rush filling out the gen3 dex because I don't expect a new battle system of pvp anytime soon.

They need to level raids level 3 and under be free. They are soloable and it's fun to do. In fact, you should be able to just hammer out that machamp raid until you get 20 of them or run out of potions.

It's very similar to battling NPCs and it would add some variety to the game without actually adding content.

The gym system is a mess, raids are getting monotonous, the Mewtwo roll-out has been a disaster, and the game still lacks core functionalities. Support for rural players is abysmal, and if I weren't spending most of my time in an urban area, I definitely would have stopped playing a long time ago. I know more longtime players who have quit out of frustration than have continued to stick with it. I don't really care that much about Gen III to be honest; I'd rather Niantic actually try to fix a game that has really only survived as long as it has because it has a god-tier fanbase. Gen III will be fun for a short while and then the game will grow stale again because the fundamental gameplay issues still remain.

I honestly don't know why I still play - habit more than anything else, I guess - but my expectations are not high. /endrant

To be more constructive, I would say that the biggest disappointment of late for me has been Mewtwo. Eliminate the EX system, make Mewtwo raids comparatively rare and with more advance warning/raid duration to give players time to prepare, and be done with it. I would be feeling somewhat more positive about the game if Niantic hadn't strung everyone along for a month and a half.

Add some functionality that lets me do something, ANYTHING, while standing still. I understand the game is designed around moving from place to place and such, but any kind of alternate in-game interaction that you could play with when not on the move would make a giant difference for me.

I agree with those that say the game is lacking core fundamentals and that niantic is only giving temporary fixes but right now for me it's upping my win ratio and getting gold badges. That's what keeps me in. That's what I'll go out of my way for. The fact that other players can see your wins and catches in the lobby made me determined to get them higher and higher so that people can see I'm a fighter. I'm friends with just about all the major raiders and high levels in the city (I'm lvl 37) and I'm in the top like 2% of valor players and usually in raids even with little to no valor support I can still get a +3 or +2 for team bonus. Usually in gyms I see high level mystic and instinct gyms but not so many valor gyms with high levels. So since it looks like I represent my team mostly and that when people in my city think of valor they think of me, I want to represent them well. So I fight lots of gyms and try to defend a lot and then do any raids at the gyms I'm after for points for gold. Currently sitting at an unimpressive 3k wins(too low for me) but what I do think is good is 7k hours defending and 13 gold gym badges. When people see my
Name in gyms I want them to associate it with strength and good fighters haha. Either that or they think I have no life (._.)/

Just of the top of my head:

• expand Buddy System,
• NPC to battle (like special gyms with Elite Four + Champion with tiers - something like gym within gym),
• daily quests like catching that one pokemon you don't care about anymore or spinning pokestops, taking down gyms, etc.
• PvP
• breeding
• get rid of stardust (new way of powering up pokemon, i.e. through battling - trainer is leveling up so why pokemon can't through battle. It would put more initiative to use those other mons. Perhaps you could gain experience with Pokemon and then unlock higher level with certain amount of candy).

Win packets of stardust as raid rewards. Controlling gym/maxing damage both team and personal would give you more bundles. More opportunities to roll for TMs, RC, AND extra stardust. Obviously too many potions/revives currently granted

1. Implement a re-worked battle system that is more than just tap-and-swipe with two options. Make speed relevant (allow it to reduce/increase cooldown time depending on the pokemon's speed base stat). Add in status-inflicting moves and stat altering moves, also add secondary effects to moves. Allow for mutliple moves by working how charge moves are selected and executed. Add abilities. Add critical hits?
2. Once #1 is complete, then introduce PvP!
3. Create 'quests' or objectives that hold rewards. Make daily and weekly/monthly rewards
4. Adding a new means of acquiring stardust, even if such way would be a way of acquiring it slowly
5. Release shiny variants of each species, possbily
6. Add a 'friends list' or something that allows for in-game communication [hopefully coming soon]
7. Perhaps incorporate new means of allowing players to compete directly, in addition to pvp