I suspect that most of us got a lot out of this month's community event, and will now spend the rest of this week chasing Rayquaza, with Kyogre and Groudon in the mix. But what's happening after that? I think we have all the gen3 mon now except for the other legendaries.
So, over the next several months, they will roll out the Regis (rock, ice, steel), the Lati twins (my guess is together for those two), Jirachi and Deoxys. Is that enough to keep our interest strong?
Any speculation on what the next community event mon will be? I doubt that we'll get something as strong as Dratini, although it's possible they could make it Beldum, Bagon, or Ralts. Bagon would fit the theme of dragons coming pretty well, and would help please the non-fanatic group of players that aren't close to getting a Salamance yet. Personally, I'd love to see Ralts, with a fairy quick move that it keeps when evolved (even if after the event). I don't know if such a move exists, but that would have people out in droves to get it.
The other piece of the puzzle is that getting all these Dratini makes Dragonite less special. Used to be that hatching or finding a dratini was a big deal, allowing me to power up Dragonite another half level. After this, it's nice, but nothing compared to 'that community day'. I mean, suppose they had a unown community day. Then everyone would have several, and it would be no more interesting or special than Sandshrew or Natu, even if it never appeared again with that frequency.
And having led with the strongest of the legendaries, won't everything afterwards be a letdown? The three that are out there now, Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza, are the most powerful pokemon in the game (along with Mewtwo). Won't everything else afterwards be kind of ho-hum afterwards? How does Niantic keep this all fresh, after giving us a week of 3 of the top 4 in raids, and loads of candy and base forms for the strongest non-legendary pokemon in the game.
The only answer I can think of is to throw in quests. As long as they aren't "Professor Oak wants you to bring him 10 Rattata", and then 15 Pidgeys, and then 20 Shuckles (where almost everyone would give up on it). An interesting quest with a meaningful reward would be something new, and reflect the origins of the game. Do this quest and get a Smeagle (or Smeagle egg). Do this harder quest to find Mew. Do this other quest to get 100,000 dust. Or perhaps have not a few quests, but several hundred, all with different rewards, so that doing them all would be 'a thing' like catching them all. That would be fun.
Thoughts?
With ya on this. Weather trio are some of the best Pokemon that the games have to offer. I suspect Ralts as a possible community day candidate, which is a bit of a letdown since it makes people who hunted Ralts or used Rare Candy on them feel like morons.
I'm worried they used all of their ammo up early to make a quick buck, but I'm not done with this game yet.
Well, the escalation trend will continue, someday people will be laughing at the 'oldies' who think Dragonite was strong and still use it. If the next thing were weaker than the last thing, no one will care. If they tried to sell Altaria as the great new dragon, no one would be buying. So whatever comes next will be better than what we have now. We'll see. Or a quest to unlock primal Kyogre/Groudon/Rayquaza, that would make sense, and fit the escalation idea.
I think that Niantic finally realised that they can't have long periods with no new content, because they would lose large number of players very quickly.
So I think that they will continue alternating these little type of events with 2-3 days duration, release of legendary and community day. In that way, there's something to entertain us every week/fortnight. Saint Patrick's coming soon, summer solstice...
But I'm with you that anything coming after this is not going to be as exciting... and we need new real content soon. As you say, quests may be a good move.
Totally agree with you about making drats less special. I have mixed feelings about the community event. I spent over a year getting about 600 drat candy often going miles out of the way to get them. Then on saturday i grinded 1000+ candy in the wind. Got 8 shinies and dozen or more 80+iv of level 30+. One one hand great but on the other a bit miffed. Just like if someone installed a cable car to go up Everest!
I agree they make everything too easy, so that everyone gets rare ones as common as Pidgeys. They started doing this last year during events. In a way I liked it - I hardly would have gotten those Pokémon otherwise, since they did not spawn. But like that there is no excitement of accomplishment.
What they should do is two things:
1) Make hunting down rare Pokémon more rewarding: a) Create clear biomes based on OpenStreetMap features, b) Change the spawns at such biomes based on weather, specific times of the day. c) Randomize per player account so that trackers do not work - you need to follow a logic and experience. d) Automatically lower the IV and CP if patterns are detected that hint at bots or spoofing. e) Capture some moving Pokémon
2) Create a purpose for more Pokémon, in gyms, new fighting modes, with external factors and random help by other Pokémon or other players.
To give you a perspective from a casual under level 30 who doesn't do any group raid but still plays every day spinning a few stops and catch a few mons, good Pokemon still aren't all that common even with the events and I was very excited to have such event.
Eeveelutions and Hariyamas are the only meta relevant mons I have, and even the spawns have become much rarer recently and I don't have enough candies to power them up further. Seeing multiple Eevees makes my day, and Oddish and Bellsprouts excite me for not being a Pidgey or another completely irrelevant mon, which are there to be caught even for casual such as myself.
I spent many months getting a Gyarados, which turned out to be BT/OT and I used my only fast TM on it to get Waterfall. However instead of getting excited or feeling accomplished, I felt dread because it turned out to be mostly useless after all that work even though I still like it. I am still working towards my first Machamp and Golem, and not sure how the moveset RNG will turnout. The chances are it won't be optimal. I have no Tyranitar and obviously no legendary Pokemon.
So for casuals who don't live in a biome filled with Machop and other top tier attacker spawns, the last event could very well be the only chance to get a top tier attacker with some certainty. Even then I only ended up with around 150 candies as I had errands to run on the day. However I was so happy to finally get a Dragonite even though it was only a 82% with SW.
All groups, regardless of subject, have a number of whiny, entitled little w*nkers who feel an insatiable need to spread their bitterness over how unfair stuff is to them.
For the most part, they serve the rest of us with an I'm-glad-I'm-not-him-factor.
Or in the words of George Carlin: "Some motherf*ckers always try to ice-skate uphill".
