A few changes I want to see in the game:
1: Option to start immediately and skip the 120 second timer in the raid lobby for all private group raids.
Players have to wait for 120 seconds in the lobby, whether the raid boss is Kyogre or Wailmer. It's just downright ridiculous for lower tier raids, when a single Solar Beam from an Exeggutor will take down Wailmer.
2: Remove team damage bonus and gym control bonus, and increase personal damage bonus to 8 balls based on individual DPS
This isn't too big of a problem in my area, because the teams here are quite balanced. Instinct controlled raids aren't uncommon here either. But in other parts of Singapore, I get only 7-8 balls as an Instinct player. It's even worse in some places elsewhere from what I've read.
3: First in, last out for gyms. Again, shavers aren't a big problem here (as known shavers will get hated and targeted), so I'm doing fine with a single account now. But in other areas, I often get shaved out for slotting in the first Blissey. In the past, I even used an alt account to put in a random Eeveelution for the first defender, wait for others to slot in, then slot in my main account!
4: Multi-accounters. I'm not sure about what can be done here, because there is no way to distinguish multi-accounters from a group of friends/family playing together. Also with raids, alt accounts are much easier to level up, even with a single device.
Mystic/Valor players usually create Valor/Mystic alt accounts respectively, while Instinct players create more Instinct accounts to make up for Instinct's lack in numbers. There's a famous 8-account Instinct multi-accounter in my area, all 8 accounts Instinct, while no Mystic or Valor player has more than 4 accounts on the same team. 4-account Instinct players are actually common for Instinct players here. Some also "borrow" PTC accounts from Instinct players who quit the game.
Answers
Downright HORRIBLE way to word your request. In fact, it would be downright stupid of Ninatic and break private groups because you wouldn't be able to have a private "group"
Now what are going for could be realistically accomplished one of two ways:
1) Person who started private group have a start now button. Though this would have the side effect of people using this even in general raids and a few people missing out on rolling up while lobby going.
2) A solo raid button for T1-T3
Totally agree with an option for private raids to start immediately. Of course, Niantic would never do that because they do not encourage soloing raids.
Having multiple accounts was less common during the CP-creep era. There was little need to shave as players could easily find gyms to prestige. Raids and golden razzberry feeding are other factors contributing to the rise in players with multiple accounts.
BTW: #2
Is a bad idea. You want team competition
I would though offer solo players a way to get more balls by Bronze/Silver/Gold on a Gym.
Not more total, but I would allow Badge to "Make up" for either team category or gym control category.
Bronze/Silver/Gold could add 1 each to category.
Like for your example, if you had gold on a gym as a long instinct player in a raid of valor/mystic. Your "team bonus" would still read 3, for your contribution to that Gym.
OR it would be less (2 max... say 1 bronze/silver... 2 gold) but you would always get the 2 balls of Gym control for your long term gym control.
This wouldn't make more total possible balls, but it would allow the outnumbered team to make up for it by working on controlling that gym.
1) Agree
2) I don't see this as a problem. Sucks to be on the team that doesn't control most of the gyms (which I am; I'm Instinct in an area that is 75% Mystic), but the raiding is a pretty even split between the 3 teams. (Mystic just has more players who are Keeners, and are trying to trigger an EX Raid in our area.) When Rayquaza comes out today, I expect that the first raid that is organized will be on a Mystic gym but will have enough of each team to do their own Private raids. Maybe even enough for all 3 teams to do their own Private raids.
3) Got my coins, don't care.
4) Not sure this is much of an actual problem anymore. Mostly my answer is "See #3 - got my coins, don't care."
To me, the way to fix 3 and 4 is to give players the option of when to collect their coins, and they get their coins based on when they COLLECT them, not when the Pokémon are kicked out of the Gym. For example, I've got 2 Pokémon on Gyms for 9hrs+, and both get kicked off today. The current system says I get 50 coins only. But if I could delay collecting one of those Pokémon until tomorrow, I could still get 50 coins for that Pokémon defending a gym for 9+ hours. (Naturally I couldn't Revive or use that Pokémon until I Collected it, but for many of us we're simply tossing in a Pokémon we're going to Transfer anyway, so it's just taking up space in our bag.) Put that in the game and the biggest reason to have a second account - knocking your Pokémon off of the Gym to get coins - is no longer relevant.
Outside of that, of course you'll find Individuals who have different goals in the game. That 8 account Instinct player would likely annoy me more than an 8 account Valor or Mystic because they'd be taking up spots on Gyms that I could be taking (or my family). But even then, it would be a minor annoyance at most, and wouldn't get me worked up as much as the (bleep)holes who come through and take down 5-10 Gyms at the same time every three or for days now (due to the weather, I'm guessing) regardless of how long the defenders have been on. It's perfectly legal and legit, taking down a gym mere minutes after someone else took it, but when it's done late at night, and they're taking down 5-10 gyms anyway? That's going to get my blood boiling. Find a gym with defenders who have been on for 9+ hours, leave the new gyms alone.
Nothing can be done about that except excluding them from raids when they show up. If they show up. (Bleep) those (bleep)holes.
I used to get annoyed with people who blew up gyms just before midnight, but as I got to know more people playing in my area, I found out that, for quite a few, late night was the only time they could play. Also, if you notice a pattern that they're regularly hitting the same gyms every night, they're probably trying to level up their gym badges at those gyms, and I'd recommend not relying on those gyms for daily coins unless you're willing to fight back and forth on the gym more frequently. If they are indeed hitting said 5-10 gyms to level up their gym badges, then they're probably spending more resources doing so compared to the 50¢ that we can collect daily anyways. Expecting people to turn around (and spend additional time/resources) and find another gym to hit because the one they were aiming for has been occupied by another team for a short period of time isn't always reasonable either.
If they were taking down 1 or 2 gyms, I'd be sympathetic to your view. I wouldn't agree, but I'd be sympathetic. If there wasn't 20+ gyms in the area that could be taken down, I'd be sympathetic. But they're taking down 5-10 gyms in the area. Even if they're walking (which they weren't, unless they wanted to wander around in -30C weather) they can reach 20 gyms quite easily.
I'm not living in a small town - I'm living in a town of 700,000 people. In the very small area I'm talking about there are 20 gyms or so, all of which are able to be taken down while sitting in a car. (some are... more difficult to do so due to the snowbanks now, but still able to do it) It's not like I'm talking about only the gyms that are easily accessible. They aren't even that far apart - if you started at one gym, walked in essentially a circle-grid to the other gyms in the area, you might hatch a 10km egg when you get back to the first gym. And like I said - all of them are reachable while you're sitting in a car. Hell, if you extend it by 1 major street, you can add in another 20 gyms - not all of which are easily accessible by car, but most are. (I tend to avoid that area when I'm walking because it's a Red Light district, and police regularly do sweeps in the area. Not exactly a great place to be out walking at 10pm on a Friday - last thing I want to do is to try to explain to a cop that no, I'm not out looking for a prostitute, I'm playing Pokémon Go.)
It's not like there aren't enough gyms to go around in my area. And it's not like there aren't many accessible gyms. There are many, and they're accessible. It's not unreasonable to check how long someone's been on then move on to the next gym - I do it every day. Every single day I check 5-10 of the closest gyms to my house, and if they haven't been on the gym for more than 8 hours, I move on to a different gym. I take down maybe 3 a day at most, and regularly I only take down 1. Or none, if someone else has taken it down and there is room to put another Pokémon.
So nope - (bleep) the (bleep)holes who take down gyms with minutes of someone else taking it down. No excuses for it - they're just being (bleep)holes.
#2: Team damage bonus and gym control bonus make it possible for low level players to get a decent amount of balls by banding together as a team. Which is something Niantic encourages. Probably because there will be peer-pressure to spend money on raid passes, but even so.
#4: If you really want to take out multi-accounters: Every modern phone has thumbprint or face recognition. Which the game could access. As a side bonus this would render #3 moot.
1. Agreed. Put a "ready" button in there and once everyone presses it, the raid starts.
2. Agreed. I'd much rather compete in pure damage against everyone else than either get lucky or shafted based on things over which I have limited or no influence.
3. First in, last out would be horrendous if we would still battle the mons in placing order, it would mean it's impossible to kick Blissey 1-v-1 against a feeder. And if we battle the last mon first, then what's the point of Blissey?
4. Niantic could at least react to reporting in some way. It's too bad the POGO userbase is so accepting of multiaccounts, because peer pressure is essentially the only thing that keeps Ingress from being a multiaccount fest. I don't think we'll ever get a good solution to this unless Niantic implements some pretty heavy anti-multiaccounting measures that I don't know of.
