This is a good thought. But by saying getting one in 2-3 year on average is really vague and hard to realize, unless you make it something like an annual reward. For example, like the special iterms (king's rock, sun stone, etc., or dropping of RC, TMs from raids), they are RNG, but all have a rate, which makes a big difference between elite trainers (those who play a lot, raid a lot) and casual trainers. An average of one in 2-3 year might result in one every month for elite trainers and one in 10 years (which means never) for casual trainers. This could just angry the casual trainers and kill the game.
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The answer to all of the "exclusive move" problems
HMs. Hidden Machines. Done.
"But HMs don't work that way in the game". Well, TMs don't work like a glorified move-relarner. Just have HMs as super-rare items that will change a fast or charged move into one that can't be normally learned. Make the way to get it like maybe 2-3 per year on average, and the problem with exclusive moves is solved.
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Well, just give it a second thought. It could be done together with research breakthrough. Assign a low rate as a reward for research breakthrough (like 5%). Then assuming a player get a stamp every day, then every week a research breakthrough and having a 5% chance to get a HM. That means on average 20 weeks can obtain one, which is something less than half a year.
On one hand I like this idea. On the other hand... putting MORE things into the game that depend on the Niantic definition of Random is NOT a good thing.
Making it a 5% chance makes it possible that people might not get a single Pokémon of a certain type. We all know how crappy the "R"NG is, so can you imagine it you had 0 Entei, then every time you finished the Research Task in September... you got an HM instead of an Entei? We can smirk about how difficult that would be to have happen, but then we've all had times where we've gone weeks without getting any Revives from anywhere, where we've gone a dozen raids without a TM, where Rare Candies become Impossibly Rare Candies for weeks on end, etc. Then we have that raid that gives us 15 Rare Candies, or 4 TM's (Yes, I've had both from Raids), where we've spun 3 stops in a row and every stop has given us an Evolution Item (I've had that happen to me too), where we've suddenly filled up on something like Ultra Balls or Max Potions or Max Revives. Things that make us go "That's not Random, Niantic. THAT'S NOT RANDOM!".
But attaching HM's to Research Breakthroughs is a good idea, IMO.
So what about making it something like "Choose your Research Reward: (Pokémon encounter) or Hidden Machine"? Yes, some people might decide to get 52 HM's per year (why? Who knows?) and 0 (Pokémon Encounter). But it gives players a way to control it, and I'm all for exploring ways to give players more control over their game.
Well, I'm not saying getting a HM instead of Entei. Besides the pokemon we can catch after reaching a breakthrough, we also get some side reward like 20 poke balls, 5 pinap berries or 3 rare candies. I'm saying Niantic could add a HM into this pool, besides allowing us to catch a pokemon. And the chance to get a HM instead of balls, berries, RCs could be assigned lower like around 5%.
That's actually not a bad idea.
A few points to consider, some which may have been stated already:
- How would you manage distribution? An item like this would need a more reliable means of obtaining rather than random chance
- Would it need to distinguish between fast moves and charge moves?
- If a Pokemon has multiple event exclusive moves, how would it know which one you want to change and what to change it to? Pikachu for example has Surf and Present as event exclusive moves, how would a general HM handle that?
It's an idea I could really get behind, it just needs refinement for some of the more special cases.
Honestly, I feel like it would be a perfect candidate for special research. Instead of a one-time research for a mythic,.give us an 8 stage research with random tasks that rewards an HM and is repeatable like once every 3-6 months. Using that system, Niantic coild perfectly set a drip on them so that they never become an issue. Most people would use them right away, and it wouldn't be a HUGE blow to special events, as why waste something that you only get a few times a year when you can go out and catch it in mass today?
As for move determination, Niantic would PROBABLY randomize that to death because they LOVE their RNG. The better way would be
-use HM on Pikachu
-Which move do you want to change (only shows up on mons with multiple moves)
-Click on Charged Move
-Move will be changed to Surf. Is this OK?
....you could also make the system even more unweildy, random, and Niantic-like by randomly giving either a change HM or a quick TM at random.
Hmm, good idea. Though maybe not quite that rare, maybe something a bit more common, like once a month (so if you missed the event each month or so you dont get boned out of getting all of the event moves) The only problem I could see is multiple event/legacy moves (like dragonite/lapras/gyarados)
But I agree, this seems very reasonable
As much as I want to have my 3 98% Gengars to have Shadow Claw... I think that limiting this kind of thing to Intentionally Exclusive Moves is the best way to go. If ALL moves that the Pokémon has had are on the table, I won't complain one little bit, but I think it would have to be only for moves intentionally introduced by Niantic for a limited time (Moltres and Sky Attack, Tyranitar and Smack Down, etc.) and not moves they removed from the game for other issues.
I like this idea, as it would ease some of the bitterness players are feeling towards very time-limited exclusive moves that result in certain Mons outclassing themselves. My only suggestion would be to have them be very rare drops from raids. That way, hardcore players can grind for them, f2p players can try their luck for them just using the free daily raid pass, people have more of a reason to do lackluster raids like the Regis, Niantic makes money, everyone wins.
I totally get your point, but hardcore players who drop hundreds of dollars into the game and play with greater frequency should have more at their disposal over someone who plays for free and more occasionally. Thats already the case (hardcore players will have more dust, candy, higher levels, more legendaries, rare candy, golden razz, TMs, etc). That's more or less how these games work.
Plus, keep in mind that Niantic is a business and their #1 goal is to turn a profit. If an item this impactful were to be introduced, I'm hedging my bets on them introducing it in a way that will earn them some additional coin.
I'm not trying to dump on casual players, mind you, but if Niantic were to introduce something like this into the game, it's highly likely that it'll show up alongside TMs and the other high-value items in raids.
The whole point of exclusive moves is to encourage participation in community day. HM should, therefore, be a CD research task. Maybe catch 50 of the CD species and get an HM to use on any Mon that has had CD. Only 1 per CD and only 1 CD research allowed at a time. If you don't complete it by the following CD, you have to trash it to get the new task.
I've thought about this myself, and I believe you're spot on. If it's important to Niantic to use exclusive moves as leverage to draw people out during specific events, they just have to tie the HM to the same events. Boom: they still give players a good reason to value community days and other events, AND the players are happy to play without feeling cheated.
Not a bad idea, though I would allow it to be more than 1 Research Task per Community Day. This would allow for people to hunt for far more Pokémon on Community Days where they wouldn't normally care (like the Chikorita day...) and would allow people who couldn't take part in previous ones (say they were working on Saturdays for a few Community Days) to have a chance of having more than 1 Pokémon with an Exclusive move.
I know that I'd be far more willing to grind out Chikorita's next month if I knew that catching 50 of them would get me an HM that I could use on one of my awesome Bite/Crunch Ttars, or even one on my Perfect Ampharos (which I got during Mareep day but hatched AFTER the event ended... ARGH.). Right now, I'm probably going to catch only enough Chikorita to get a Shiny of each form and a good one with the Exclusive move for... uh. Just because I'm obsessive, I guess. But give me a chance for a HM and I'll catch 200 Chikorita!
