I have 16 gyms with 1.5 miles from my home, if they didn't funnel players into sponsored gyms for EX raids they wouldn't be possible here. Yes it should be easy to put one in a Central Park in your small town. However, here I've been thinking a big raid is like a flash mob...but there is a company profiting from organizing one and it is at the site of an unrelated business.
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When will Niantic get the raid system right? (Or will they?)
Situation: Small town, but nice park with 11 stops and 3 gyms; 8 gyms total in the center of town. Active gym turnover, all 3 teams equally represented (yes), but unlikely to ever form a raid group (different ages, etc.) Therefore, legendary raids are just not possible here.
So what do we get? Lots of legendary raids (sigh), no EX-raids though (this might actually work as I'm sure rivals would happily raid together if they knew the time and place); since the raid boss changes, I have not seen a single t2 or t3 raid (which I am tyring to solo!) but only 3 t1 (Wartortle and Metapod; did them anyway or my free passes would have gone to waste).
Why can't we (a) have more raids, especially now that it gets dark sooner and there is less time available after school or work, (b) have raids that players can solo with a reasonable number of t2 and t3, and (c) have an in game notification system that would alert players within a certain radius (maybe 10 or 20 km?) of any upcoming raids. Better yet, in game chat that would allow players to meet for raids without having to use other apps.
Surely, this can be done? (a) and (b) should be easy, and (c) apparently exists in Ingress, so why not here?
If they don't improve the raid system, they might just push more players (especially rural) into the arms of competitors.
Do you think the raid system will improve? I wish Niantic listened to us....
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Answers
It's probably just bad random luck that you haven't seen any of the new t2 & t3 raids yet. They'll come around, and when they do, you'll be able to knock off Porygon and Scyther pretty easily,. And Cloyster looks interesting as a t2 that might be more challenging than the aforementioned t3's.
As for the t4 & t5 raids, you just need to find a way to coordinate with people. Discord works well and is pretty easy to use. I was not excited about joining another social media app, but I got tired of showing up to t4 & t5 raids right after a group finished, so I got on the Discord group and never looked back. Now, I only go to t4/t5 raids if I know in advance there will be enough people to at least have a fighting chance.
In the meantime, start building your pure grass team in order to take down Omastar.
They definitely need to improve the timing. At the moment, raids finish here around 7:30pm, but on an average weekday I don't get an opportunity to play until 6pm so I have to make do with what's already spawned and half the time something worthwhile does pop up it's somewhere that's awkward to get to.
Organisation for the larger raids is easy though. We use a mixture of Facebook and Discord in my town to organise, and many of legendary raids find sufficient player numbers to conquer them as a result. I've raided with a wide variety of players and 99% of the time everyone gets along well with each other.
a) more raids will spread out small groups of player further. Not sure you really want that.
b) Niantic fucked up with DST change.
c) you would not want in game global or regional chat. It would be toxic, full of noise, and of little to no use for raid coordination. Having a guild/group chat will alienate some players and create unintentional drama. See: any other large multi player games.
Suggestion. Discord. Solves most problems with raid coordination and raiding efficiency
It's a simple fix for Niantic, Scale. Lvl 1 raids should be easy for 1 trainer to do and lvl 5 raid should be difficult but not impossible for 1 trainer to do. Where does the working together come in? Rewards. The more trainers in the group of course the difficulty will scale to keep it challenging but increase rewards for the trainer amount as such.
lvl 5 raid
1 trainer 1-3 Rare Candy, 1-3 Golden Raz, 500 Stardust
2-5 trainers 3-6 Rare candy, 3-6 Golden Raz, 1000 Stardust
6-10 trainers 6-10 Rare Candy, 6-11 Golden Raz, 1500 Stardust
11-20 trainers 11-14 Rare Candy, 11-17 Golden Raz, 2000 Stardust.
I've noticed that I get a random raid notification sometimes (when I'm near gyms and when I'm far from gyms). I think it is a notification that there is a raid happening at one of the gyms I have a mon at. I'm nearly always too busy to check but I think that's what it is. All they show is the raid egg color and a message saying there is a raid happening nearby (even when there isn't). Maybe that will help?
I saw that recently although I live too far (4 km) from any gym to see what's happening there - had a defender in that gym. I don't even get any spawns at my house (yes, that's how Niantic sells incense).
If they could only give us some notification that a raid will start at x gym (say, within 10 or 20 km if our current location) I'd be happy (and sites such as Gymhuntr would be out of business).
In Singapore, most serious players use SGPokeMap to check for raids and bring three iPhones (as the exception, I am occasionally asked to lend a hand). Hence legendary raids usually attract large-enough groups, unless the location or timing is really bad. The typical new town (area ten square kilometers, population one hundred thousand) gets two legendary raids per hour.
Discord.
We started out with a handful of players, but just continued to share the discord server info. It ballooned to a couple hundred trainers at least. Nobody cares what team everyone is on. There are no rivalries. Families, kids, young adults, old adults, grandparents. Doesn’t matter. We all just get together to raid.
A number of new friendships have formed as well. It’s been a great addition to the game experience.
But it took some effort to get the ball rolling.
