How to make raids more competitive
The fact there's zero competitive element in go is disappointing. So i would make these changes to make raids more fun and competitive.
-The player who inflicts the most damage in a raid gains triple candy (if they catch the thing) and stardust, plus a super egg incubator! While The top 50% of damage inflictors in the raid gain double the candy/stardust and a free incense. Only counts for level 4/5 eggs.
-Players whose pokemon all faint, or who press the 'quit' button during battle, cannot gain these bonuses and are penalised by getting no candies if they catch the pokemon.
-Any gym that is at least a mile from any other gym, the xp and rare candies from raids here are doubled. If a gym is between half a mile and a mile away from others, xp/candies increased by 50%.
-Whichever team controls the gym, for each player on this team there is a 1% chance the boss turns into a shiny pokemon.
-Soloing a level 3 boss gives level 5 tier rewards and a super egg incubator! Difficulty of level 3 bosses is increased so they're nearly impossible to solo without weather boosts.
-No more Tyranitar raids. Pupitar, Dragonair etc. Would be level 4 bosses.
-Base Raid rewards are decreased slightly to balance out all these bonuses.
-Difficulty of tier 5 bosses is increased. Three people doing a legendary is ridiculous.
Merry Christmas Eve.
Answers
Unless the core battle mechanics are considerably changed, this would just result in the player(s) with the most playtime getting better rewards from raids, while newer and any casual players suffer.
With the "gameplay" being as, let's be nice and call it "child friendly" as it is, your change would hurt most of the player base, and discourage new ones from starting.
You wrote "-Base Raid rewards are decreased slightly to balance out all these bonuses."
How is that not decreasing rewards for casuals?
I already only get 1 TM per 10 T3 raids, which you think should only barely solo-able.
And as a lvl 33 rural player, I only have a very small selection of optimal counters to choose from, so I'd maybe be able to solo Gengar, Scyther and Machamp. Depending on what you have in mind I might not even be able to do that.
I agree that raids need a competetive aspect, but they also need a fair reward system.
From my point of view, the changes you suggest basically only benefit high lvl players with optimal counters, and are irrelevant at best to everyone else.
I'll be in favour of you suggestion if the battle mechanics are improved and stop being "Whoever has high lvl mons and is capable utilizing multiple brain cells simultaneously wins".
In the current system, a player can do everything right and still lose.
And I can't think of any game where a system like that makes sense.
a fair reward system would be one that isn't randomized and gives out fixed rewards depending on the tier raid. While it's down to RNG people are always gonna complain.
something like;
tier 1- one rare candy, one g berry
tier 2- two rare candy, two g berry
tier 3- four rare candy, four g berry, one fast tm
tier 4-six rare candy, six g berry, one charge tm
tier 5- eight rare candy, eight g berry, one fast+charge tm
Ofc the battle mechanics need to improve, that's another topic i've mentioned plenty of times before..
From what I know, you live in a city with active players, but try to see this from a suburban/rural player's pov.
What you suggest means that even someone who's only been playing for a week can get top tier rewards, if they're in a high turnover area or raid group and swipe-spam to get through raids alive.
Meanwhile a lvl <35 who doesn't have either of those things, but has been playing since the game launched and doesn't make a single mistake during a raid battle is doomed to live in a world without (charge) TMs.
Call it selfish, but I can't support sth like that.
This game should already be called "Pokémon Drive", what you suggest would only make it more so.
For sure gyms should be made more competitive aswell. However a lot of people think they're great because *i can get my 50 coins a day!*
Pokemon go is like Planet fitness gyms. These gyms are not really gyms, their more social clubs. They're for lazy casuals who don't really want to push their bodies properly. In these gyms you can actually get kicked out for lifting too heavy because it *scares* people.
That's Pokemon go, it's aimed at that type of person.
I think it's a good idea to reward players for doing better than the average player, but there's no need to penalise normal players. This is a casual game after all.
It doesn't make sense for a player who does more damage using optimal counters to get no candies while someone who brings in crap like Snorlax and Blissey to raids to be rewarded for using suboptimal Pokemon, since the goal in raids is to deal as much damage as possible in the limited time you have. If your initial party survives, great. If it doesn't but you rejoin and still contribute, why should you be punished?
It would seem that Niantic also think the same way as they made the damage bonus stay even if you rejoin the battle.
Increasing rewards for gyms with no surrounding gyms obviously benefits rural / suburban players the most, but at the same time you're proposing the idea that level 3s cannot be soloed without weather bonuses, which hurts said players the most.
Soloing level 3s in their current state is fine. Some bosses aren't a challenge but that's just because those bosses are poor choices for raid bosses (Scyther and Porygon). Level 3s as a whole don't need to be made more difficult, they're in a good spot in terms of challenging players, you shouldn't need to have maxed counters with a weather boost just to have a shot at doing it, that just alienates too much of the player base.
The idea of giving an incentive not to lose all your pokemon is a very good one, gives a bit more of a balance between high attackers and high defensive pokemon. ATM only high attackers matter, there's no reason even to have an anchor in your party. That's not a balanced meta.
soloing level 3's have become too easy, considering they're not really meant to be soloed. You're worrying too much about annoying players by making things more challenging.
Which is Go's problem, it makes things as childishly easy as possible.
This game is meant to make money at the end of the day, it's a business, not a charity. If something is going to push away too many players, why would it be implemented?
There shouldn't be a reason to bring anchors anyway, they don't help you win the raid. In the time it takes for a Blissey to faint, if you have high damage counters you could probably go through 2 or 3 of them and deal more damage, and the only thing that matters in a raid is whether you can deal enough damage before the time runs out.
Who's contributing more in winning the raid? The person who's just spamming dodges with Blissey for the remaining 100 seconds or the person who's rejoined with 6 disposable Banettes to kamikaze into a Mewtwo?
Increasing rewards but also difficulty of level 3s only benefits very high level players, as only they would be able to continue soloing them. Why would Niantic do that when passes make money.
You can increase the challenge of the game without giving the middle finger to every player who's under level 38, like adding the option for a hard mode in private lobbies for example.
Players that feel like the regular boss is too easy can opt for the harder one, while players that are challenged enough by the regular boss can still play the game too.
You don't need to make a game easy to make money. Infact GO is the only game i've ever heard of that does that. Your idea of how a business must make money is wrong there. It's also worth noting most of Niantics income will come from hardcore players, a level 20 who plays twice a month isn't going to be spending money.
If someone shows up to a raid spam dodging with Blissey, that's too bad. There's nothing stopping them doing that now! That's part of raids, some people are passengers. ATM the people contributing more are not being rewarded at all, besides a couple of extra balls.
Your idea of a hard mode lobby is interesting, that would be another way to make things more competitive.
Where did I say it *needs* to be easy? You don't need to make the game difficult for the sake of being difficult or inaccessible for newer players though.
If the game is inaccessible to newer players, then there are less players that are going to become higher level players and some of the current players may stop playing. You can't keep a game going without getting new players.
The point I was making is that your current idea of trying to reward players can be abused to benefit players that don't contribute, or contribute less and at the same time punish players that are contributing to raids.
With the current raid system there is a black and white definition of who is contributing or not, those that deal damage and those that don't. Do more damage and you are rewarded more, which makes sense.
Surviving with your original party does not affect raid outcome in any way and so should not have anything to do with raid rewards when it can incentivise players to not follow the objective of the raid which is simply to deal enough damage in the time limit.
Just adding something simple like the top X of players (depending on group size) that deal the most damage get some sort of bonus, whether that's bonus balls, raid rewards, dust, whatever.
In this case there is still one objective, just deal as much damage as you can. You're not making people choose between rewards, by either spamming dodges so that your first team survives and therefore get less bonus balls, or by doing damage (as you should be) and being punished by fainting at the end.
If you are going to reward players for going against the objective by not doing damage and spamming dodges until the raid's over, make the reward have nothing to do with the raid rewards, such as giving extra XP or stardust or something, nothing like making the boss easier to catch or getting more candies from it.
It's not something you should go out of your way to do because that hurts the chances of actually completing the raid in the first place.
The old damage bonus was a good example of that, some people simply would not rejoin after their 6 had fainted and so you might end up with raid bosses getting low and not completing it because no one wants to rejoin, or some people rejoining because they want to complete the raid, while others benefit on their behalf by keeping their damage bonuses while they are punished for actually doing what you're supposed to do in a raid, make the boss faint before the time runs out.
Nothing i suggested makes the game inaccessible for newbies.
And as i said, doing more damage does not reward you more at all atm! having a couple of extra balls is not a reward it just slightly increases the chance you catch it. If i had a good IV groudon i'm not even going to be that bothered about catching it!
my ideas may not be perfect but they're a lot better than the communist system the game has now.. ah well, i'm not in charge. It's still nice to think of ideas that are better than Niantics :)
One reward of a raid is the opportunity to catch the Pokemon. Giving more balls is an increase in chance to catch the Pokemon, which is a reward that also is dependent on the player's ability - players who throw better get more benefit than players who throw worse.
Whether or not you think it's a *good* reward doesn't matter, the point is that it *is* a reward.
Soloing level 3 raids is something that even casual players can attempt currently, with the addition of Porygon and Scyther, and you propose to make level 3s difficult to the point that it's not even worth attempting unless you're near max level because it should be "nearly impossible to solo without weather boosts".
That's how you drive players away from the game, because there are rural players out there whose most challenging aspect part of the game is working towards being able to solo level 3s, and their grind is also slower, but someone in their level 30s can at least do some of them, but making them near impossible without weather bonuses means "why bother if I'm not maxed out" or "why bother if I don't have 2 phones?".
If you need to grind to near max level before you can even attempt the challenging parts of the game (short-manning raids), how do you expect people to stay?
The game should be fun for players at all levels so that they have reason to level up, it shouldn't be the case that the only reason to level up is to reach a point where the game starts to become enjoyable / competitive / whatever.
Like if you're a high 20s, low 30s player and every raid you join you're getting no candies for catching the Pokemon simply because you're limited by how far you can power up, and you're basically told: "fuck you, keep grinding Pidgeys until you're level 38", why would you keep playing?
Imagine a new player coming into the game being told that the game doesn't start to get fun until you're level 38 because that's when you can even consider getting the bonus rewards, and until you do, enjoy getting either no candies or no bonus balls to catch bosses with.
A game that is sustainable would keep players at all levels of skill happy. Lower level players should still have content and higher level players also have something to do (and no, catching Pidgeys all day doesn't count), not just make more content for the older players (high level raids) and leave the newer ones in the dust so that the older ones get even further ahead - some raid bosses are countered by other raid bosses, but if you can't even get one of the raid bosses, then your ability to contribute to raids is gimped basically.
For example say you want a Tyranitar. Well you need some Machamps. If there aren't many players in your area then you need to be able to solo Machamps.
What's good against Machamps? Exeggutor used to be a level 2 raid boss, and had a double weakness to Bug, so a lower level player could start off by soloing Exeggutors which would eventually let him solo Machamps which would then be useful in Tyranitar raids.
Your last paragraphs contradicts the rest of your point. You're saying a lower level player should solo exeggutor that to work their way up (which makes sense) but the rest of your comments are saying level 3 bosses should be easy enough for low level players to solo? I'm driving new players away by making level 3 bosses more challenging even though they can still do easier raids? Your comments don't make sense.
"A game that is sustainable would keep players at all levels of skill happy. " I got to level 37 and i don't get any fun or happiness from playing anymore, i can't be bothered to play. So your statement obviously doesn't apply to me. My level doesn't matter anyway, the whole thread was based around increasing the competitive element of the game. You sound like someone who is quite happy and has fun without any competitive element but not everyone is like that.
Well you can't please everyone and from your comments you're just a cynical person. From my experience of actually playing the game as well as reading these forums you're in the minority.
Instead of trying to change the game the way you want it to be since you have no control over that, it'd probably be easier finding a game that already has the depth you want Go so desperately to have.
I said level 3s are fine in the current state they are in. In what what did I say that low level players should be able to solo them. I said that the easier ones (Polygon and Scyther) are doable though that doesn't mean level 3s as a whole are too easy, Polygon's stats suck and Scyther has a double weakness.
The Pokemon from easier raids are worthless currently. Some of the level 3s are useful, Machamp is often the first step towards the harder raids and you'd be making it harder for people who aren't already maxed out to take that first step.
I'm not going to argue whether I'm what you consider competitive or not because that's subjective, but I'm not some level 20-something who asks "what's good against this raid boss" for every raid, but nor do I go out every day catching the 1000 Pokemon limit every day. I don't consider myself competitive though as there's players who've accomplished far more than me.
I'm with you that the likes of Tyranitar shouldn't have been a raid boss in the first place. It was so much more fun when the strongest and coolest Pokemon weren't as abundant as today. With Pupitar as a raid boss people could eventually get a Tyranitar but as a result of constant progression.
I also like the idea of better rewards for individual performances. Imo Pokemon should not gain energy by taking damage. One should not be rewarded by stupidly hammering on the phone. It should by quite the opposite - you lose energy when you get hit. This would also buff the defensive capabilities of your Pokemon. Right now everyone is only looking for 15 IV attack stats. Some even want low defensive IVs in order to gain energy faster. I don't like that.
