Pokemon Go time warp
Lets pretend it's 2016. What things happened in Pokemon Go then that don't happen anymore?
-Lapras is a top tier pokemon
-Jigglypuff is decent
-Machamp is garbage
-Everywhere is a Drowzee nest
-Water Gun is OP
-My Gyarados got twister!! :(
-Vaporeon is the best Pokemon
-Dragonite pwns everything except Lapras
-My local gym has 10 spoofed Snorlaxes in
-Claiming gym coins every 21 hours
-The game has crashed (still happens sometimes)
-Five hundred people rush off when a squirtle spawns
-Five thousand people rush off when a Lapras/Snorlax spawns
-Hoarding 70 pidgeys to evolve with a lucky egg
-Debating how/when Niantic will release legendaries
-Spending 1250 coins for 25 lucky eggs
-Praying every 5k egg you hatch is your first Tangela
-Hatching Pidgeys
-Evolving your first Dragonite and hoping it has dragon breath
-Waiting for buddy pokemon to be added so you can get more charmander candies
-Running around like a headless chicken because there's a rare pokemon on your map and the map gives you no clue where it is.
-Using the latest scanner to find said rare pokemon and hoping Niantic haven't blocked it.
Let's face it, the game was like a beta version (to put it politely) when it was released, yet somehow i miss those early days. The romantic era of Pokemon Go.
When are legendaries coming?????
Answers
So good memories of that early game...
- That first Halloween event where I got enough candy for my hundo Gyarados... oh, another Gengar with SC, but it's only "decent", I'll better trash it down the toilet.
- Going in gangs of 3 people for lunch to quickly take over the 3 gyms around our office and claim the 30... F**k those blue trainers again!! 20 coins. Tomorrow we'll manage it.
- Buying incubators and bag space like there's nothing else where to put your coin.
- Yes, that makes 124 candy! Evolving... Steel Wing / Hyper Beam Dragonite, awesome...
- Bubble Poliwrath defending gyms like... what is this? 3 Jolteons dead.
- Rainer, Rainer, Rainer, Rainer... (a few months later) Wait, what happend to Water Gun?
- Walking Lapras to top gyms and next day it's 400 CP less. 361 Km just fading into oblivion.
Lapras was far from the only mon that got hurt by the CP formula revamp and even after that it was a crucial top tier gym attacker until the end of the first gym system.
I guess it does hurt when you walk 500km, but that investment was far from wasted if you were able to make a double ice attacker Lapras thanks to it and it was a long time ago. Why dwell on it?
I mean, it was the way Niantic did this that frustrated me the most. They, indeed, nerfed all Pokemon, except Lapras! This was a conscious decision.
It is the inconsistent way of making decisions that bothered me the most. It was only after the initial nerf that I decided to walk Lapras.
Back in the days CP mattered for placing in the gyms. After its nerf, it wasn't worthwhile anymore to put a Lapras in a gym.
They didn't nerf all pokemon, they changed the formula which resulted in some mons becoming better and some becoming worse. Alakazam, Machamp and a lot of other mons with unbalanced physical/special splits got a huge buff to their stats. The inconsistency of making the change affect Lapras only a week later was a horrible decision for sure. They had a reason for doing it that way but I still think they handled it extremely poorly.
I highly doubt you walked those 500km in a week. That's how long it took for the rebalance to affect Lapras as well.
I know full well how the old gym system functioned. Lapras obviously lost its status as a defender, but like I said it was still a star attacker, the optimal counter to Dragonite which was in every gym, usually in several copies.
Fair enough, I should have used to words "CP rebalance", rather than "nerf". I was referring to the same phenomena however.
Anyway, the original CP nerf took place on November the 22nd, 2016. Lapras nerf found place early February 2017. According to my calculations, this exceeds one week by a lot.
Not only did they nerf Lapras CP wise, its attacks also lost its value. Tho I can't remember if this happened on the same date. Yep, I'm still butt hurt by the inconsistency Niantic has provided us with since day 1.
I had always been under the impression that they let the nerf hit Lapras a week after everything else was rebalanced. From searching google it seems I was mistaken. The 500km makes more sense then. The nerf never impacted me personally in the slightest way so I don't remember anything related to it, I'm just going by what I can read online.
Lapras had its movesets changed with gen 2 release like many other pokemon. It lost its only good defensive moveset but the FB/B set that's still available today is very much fine for slaying Dragons. If you look at old articles on this site and others, double ice Lapras was considered the best counter to Dragonite in the old system.
- I had fun
- Gym scène was more competative
- Prestiging was still a thing
- my friends were still playing pogo
- Lapras was not nerfed yet
- only few pokemon spawns
- no XP bonuses for curve, first throw, nice, great etc.
- bubblestrat
- Poliwrath would rock your world in the gym
Yea, I miss those days. Not necessarily because the game felt better to me back then, but because it was still fresh and the memories seem always the brightest at the start of a new experience.
EDIT: Some of the fondest memories
- tracking pokemon with the 3-step system when it worked
- triangulating pokemon positions with the sightings system
But most of what I remember just makes me think of how very differently I view the game nowadays. Back then walking 5km seemed like a lot, so did catching 100 pokemon, so did evolving for 30 minutes. Reaching level 20 seemed big and the road to 30 seemed endless.
- purposefully seeking out remote gyms to stick your Pokémon in because they might collect you coins “forever” instead having to battle daily to take gyms
- being happy when a gym stayed yours for 2 months
- setting an alarm to claim gym coins every 21 hours
- being happy that you were able to collect gym coins 9 times in 8 days
- trying to figure out how to get 1000 prestige against hypno, chansey, that 27 CP flareon.
- actually mapping out what to evolve during a mass evolve session
- ugh, twister on the gyarados. Ugh, water pulse, ugh stone edge on my only machamp. Yay! Solar beam on eggy. Etc...
"- purposefully seeking out remote gyms to stick your Pokémon in..."
Everytime I tried this spent 3-4 hours walking in a natural reserve to get my pokemon kick out in 10 minutes by the couple of instinct spoofer. Ended up claiming 30 coins in the best case scenario. The new system was an improvement to me. Definitely don't miss the reign of spoofers.
How did the old system encourage spoofing? The only difference is that nowadays you may be able to defend remotely by berrying, otherwise there are the exact same incentives to spoof for gyms. Arguably the new system has an additional incentive to spoof for collecting massive amounts of gold gym badges.
IV scanners did encourage spoofing but they have nothing to do with the gym system.
It did in many ways. Hoarding as many inaccessible gyms as possible was the key. Discouraging real players to compete for those gyms was also important. Etc.
The system has changed completely in a way that spoofers have little impact. Now you are rewarded for time spent in the gym and need to be kicked out to collect. Spoofers don't want to get stuck in gyms anymore. They don't discourage people for competing cause they need real people to collect coins. There are also ways to fight against them in equal ground. You detect the spoofer taking down your gym at 2am in the middle of a heavy storm? You can berry feed comfortably from your bed same as he is.
Spoofers are not gone. Old timers still camp free-range in most cities, that hasn't changed. But they can't impede real people from collecting as they used to.
I used to plan taking over the 3 gyms around my area in an afternoon walk with friends and claim coin immediately after. It was fairly after summer, so not so many actual players, but a whole lot of spoofers. Guess what, we never got 30 coin that way, because at least one of the gyms was taken back too quickly. Spoofers didn't need to walk that distance to take over gyms in order to claim the coins.
Nowadays I get early to work and place my heavy-ass 100% L40 Blissey in the gym nearby, my raiding mates little by little filling it up. We feed berries, telling each other over Discord to keep it ours. Are the attackers spoofers? I don't care, and that's the point.
Night comes, our mons are out after like 9-10 hours, 50 coins earned. I really prefer this system.
1) My Dragonite got Steel Wing and Hyperbeam...
2) Always low on revive and potions..
3) Pokemon like Tengla and Wiggly tough amazing for prestige
4) Valor waking up taking gyms at 3 am
5) OMG HALLOWEEN EVENT IS AMAZING!
5) noob players were fun to play with and didn't annoy you because you didn't need to count on them to help you beat a raid.
6) No toxic admins. This is the biggest one for me. Social Media pogo in year one was amazing. Everyone was nice and sociable and helped eachother find rare spawns or just show off their Dragonite. Now it's full of toxic admins who quit their jobs to focus more on adminship. Your entry into the social media page is based off of level and participation. No prescription list that admins kept and when you reached 5 marks that the admins considered (warnings or defects) receiving a ban from their discord or FB. I honestly feel the raid scene destroyed pokemon go. None of my friends that played in year 1 don't play now because of it.
- Every gym had 10 Dragonites/Vaporeons/Gyarados/Snorlax
- Gen 2 turned this into Tyranitar/Blissey central
- Always wonder how people manage to have armies of Dragonite
- tfw no dust ever
- Finding a wild Dragonite and having no balls to catch it
- Constant gym errors the minute more than one person attacked it
- Had zero idea how to claim coins, never bothered with gyms as a result
I was an idiot early player. One of my biggest regrets is not getting into the gym scene before the revamp, all those potential coins down the tube :( But hey, that first Halloween event gave me enough Gastly candy that I've literally never had to be concerned about my supply of it!
Started on day one. Look a Pokémon! I should just catch what I can. I evolved anything I could. What’s that a gym? Died instantly. Won’t do that again. I’ll just spin stops. Whoops ran out of balls. Better spend real money to get more.
A year later, what you can get coins by defending gyms?! Why wasn’t this explained?! What Pokémon have IVs?! My Dragonite I worked so hard for is only a 12%? My Gyarados is only 40%? Well that’s a disappointment. There are legacy moves? I should have checked them before I transferred everything... there are chat groups to help with raids?! So me trying to take down an Articuno by myself wasn’t a great idea.
Stardust is a rare commodity?! I guess powering up my Umbreon to help take down an Alakazam what a waste. Tyranitar is an easy raid boss?! And people have multiples? I barely have a Larvitar. And haven’t evolved a Machamp.
I am still hoping that someone comes out with a starters guide for new players...
