How to make Raids fun and not an exercise in disappointment
1. Spin a pass (or use a Premium)
2. Use it right then and there at the same gym you spun it
3. Pick a Tier
4. If you have a group with you, great! Try a T4 or T5!
5. Fight a random boss of the chosen Tier
6. Go on about your day or play again until your out of passes
7. Buy passes and boxes more often because the Raid system isn't a pile of shit anymore!
Answers
What good would your system do to a rural player? Enlighten me. Pick lvl1-3 raids? Wow. The only way I see your system working is with a group.
I am a suburban player. I recently got 3 gyms nearby that no one raids in. So I HAVE to travel to the city to raid lvl4-5.
If by rural you mean you have no gyms, and that you would have to travel to a gym and spend all your passes in lvl1-3 raids, then I guess your system would help you. But that would mean to cater only to the "few" of you.
It's just another dumb restriction, in a system that's already filled with dumb restrictions. That 7:30 cutoff wouldn't be nearly as bad if you are given the ability to raid anytime you want during the daytime.
It would be alot easier to form groups too since you could pick a time that's convenient for everybody.
The last 5 tier 3 raids I've done, no tm's or rare candies, that is the real disappointment. Afterall, this is why we do raids, the guaranteed 1 rare candy they had during the fighting event should've stayed imo. Don't think, apart from the rewards there is anything inherently wrong with the current raids system. Raids could be visible via the gym badges which would make finding them easier & a ready button to save waiting around but small gripes. Certainly don't agree with random bosses, that would be super annoying. The raid pass suggestion is sorta the same as it is now or am I missing something?
The system I have in mind doesn't force you to be at the right place at the right time. It doesn't force you to wait an hour to do the raid. It doesn't force you to have to be lucky enough to stumble across a raid to begin with. It doesn't force you to constantly berry check your gyms to see if a Raid is happening. There are days when I constantly check a held gym (today for example) and NO raids happen. Who would miss that?
The random boss thing was just an idea but I'd be fine with being able to pick too. The whole point of this idea is to let us players control when and how we raid instead of being at the mercy of Niantic's random raid spawns and timers.
The more I think about the current system, the more it pisses me off.
Edit: The reward system could use some work too, I agree
This response just screams at me that you're a rural player and that's your sole problem.
I want to do a raid? I work downtown and look after work or at lunch for what is spawning. There are about 10-15 gyms within sight, and probably 30ish gyms within sight if I walk around a bit. There's pretty much always one with a raid. That doesn't come without its own problems (everyone starts as soon as the raid spawns, so it's always a 20-glob and you get fewer balls as a result. if you don't make it into the 20 you might get a second smaller group with more balls, or you might have a 4-5 man and fail the raid).
It works great for someone who doesn't have a group to play with though. I don't want to have to join a discord to play. I like seeing a raid spawning in 20min and choosing to go there and just joining whoever is there. I understand that doesn't work in rural areas though - but that's the same problem the game has always had.
I'm not saying screw everyone else - I'm saying your suggestion screws my playstyle and my playstyle is more common than yours.
If you want support from people without your problem, make a suggestion that doesn't hurt them.
I'm not sure if I was unclear, I do sympathize that rural players get the short end of the stick. I just wouldn't support a change that makes the game harder for city players. Let rural gyms have a larger spawn window? That works imo.
Wild spawns and raid spawns (lack of gyms and pokestops) are the biggest issue.
In a city, two people with two phones each (using one hand each) can beat Rayquaza, Latios, Latias, and Mewtwo with as much as 60 to 120 seconds to spare.
Occasionally that "team" will lose against Latias Outrage. MAYBE against the other double dragons if lacking in healing supplies.
Granted Lugia, Ho-Oh, Kyogre, etc not that simple...but yes, if you follow every rule it is definitely not a winnable game away from a city because of the few spawns, few pokestops, and few people
I was thinking about this. We don't even need direct text messengers. If we. Could raise a flag on a raid gym that other players could see that might be enough for people to know there are people sitting and waiting at the raid. Of you walk away, the flag vanishes. I guess this could allow spoofers to antagonize real players especially if they have vendettas against them.
Not the worst suggestion but why not go with the old favorite of reversing the raid clock. Instead of ticking down from 180/300, it ticks up from 0. This lets rurals solo legendaries if they're prepared for the massive cost of healing items and creates a whole new category of challenges which would be interesting to some whales. Tie the rewards in some way to the time taken to defeat the boss.
This makes no sense to me. "If you have a group with you" seems backwards to the principle of assembling the group to take down the raid boss, though it might just be a phrasing issue.
Also, it removes the ability to choose what boss you want to fight, especially if you're going for solo Tier 3. What if you got Shuckle?
I could have worded it differently. All I mean is, you get a raid pass, you can use it at any time during Raid hours at any gym. You can also coordinate with a group before throwing your pass so you can take on Tier 4's and Tier 5's if you want.
The random boss thing was my idea, but as I said, if they let you pick the boss, hey even better!
Meh. I don't think it's a good idea. Raids are thought to be events that happen and where you go to attend, not events you trigger yourself. It has a gathering effect on people that wouldn't happen with your solution. Or what TheClurachan just said.
Plus, if the boss is random, the whole thing will be even more annoying I guess: you have a great chance of being pissed to get this stupid raid boss again and blame Niantic's RNG :) And if you can choose the boss, it's too simple. It becomes a pokemon shop...
That doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with the current system, you raise valid points, I just think your solution is not great to address them. If you're pissed at not knowing when raids occur and have trouble getting people together to raid because of that, how about this on top of the current system. Either:
- Have fixed raid schedules per gym. You don't know what raid it will be, but for a given gym raids happen always at the same time(s) every day or every other day. Within a few days time you can write down the schedule of the gyms you have easy access to.
- Have the schedule of the next few raids in any given gym be known and readable when going to the gym badge page.
- Or maybe a mechanism inspired by EX raids: when you get a free pass, it gives you a time for an upcoming raid to occur on that same gym ; the pass should still be usable in any gym though. I like this one less than the two others.
I suppose this would make things less annoying without making them too easy.
If you're going to change a system that mostly works, I like a hybrid solution that may not be possible with current programming: be able to tell when the next egg on a gym you control is going to appear. Egg of unknown strength still shows up, still a chance for other teams to come in, but you at least know a timing: "Guys, egg is going to show at the church in town in 15 minutes. Will let you know what tier then."
"I thought changing up the raid system to give everyone a similar experience and to minimize the RNG and the wasting of time and gas would be an easy sell here"
Oh I surely would like that! but I'm actually not sure your solution would have that effect. Depending on the strength and level of organization of local communities, it could make things better... or worse. It probably wouldn't give a similar experience to everyone more than the current system.
You shouldnt be more open minded for a moment. Just think about it from someone elses perspective.
Your REAL problem is obvious: time and gas. The problems from rural players. What you actually need is to start an Ingress account and fill your town with gyms.
"give everyone a similar experience" like we already said this is debatable, because of the groups vs. solo players.
"minimize the RNG"- your think? Yeah, you are lucky, you will get Tyranitar-Absol-Aggron-Tyranitar again. Nice!. Me? Im not that lucky. Im gonna get Walrein-Aggron-Walrein-Aggron-Absol.
The you are gonna be reading the comments "Niantic fix this!! Wasted all my passes and didnt get a single Tyranitar!" So no, this isnt a good solution for everyone.
Your idea has some good points but its not perfect. And this is a place to discuss the pros and cons, nothing bad about that.
I know you are trying to be reasonable and I appreciate it but you're also telling me that it's my responsibility to play another game that I'm not interested in to fix the game that I am interested in. That's just bad game design to the core and I can't get behind that.
If the development team at Niantic were forced to play their own game rurally for a couple months, they would be ashamed of themselves
