Breeding pokemon is a pain. Base game there were plenty of people that bred pokemon, and plenty of people that used cheating devices to generate perfect pokemon. Usually complaining along the lines that breeding a competitive team took way too long, or that egg moves were too hard, or something. I did a bit of both and actually found breeding pokemon somewhat enjoyable, but I think mmo takes it a little too far in the grind aspect. A lot of people don't even try to breed and just settle for a mon that decent IVs, and an okay-ish nature, and it pains me to se someone ask for the 8th time if their random caught quiet nature staryu with 22 sp. att. IVs is good for comp.
I think that the main issue here is that grinding for a perfect poke isn't fun in the first place. It's rewarding, but the lead up to the reward isn't anything fun, just menuing and catching the same poke with false swipe and your flavor of sleep or paralysis, just to wait few minutes for an egg to hatch. There's a disconnect from other mmos, to this one, and tbf it's a hard balance to get given pokemon breeding is the medium. Other mmos would usually have the grind be fun gameplay, whether it be some type of raid or dungeon, team based or solo, there was gameplay and a reward at the end of the gameplay. Breeding pokes is more akin to grinding for exp, but takes significantly longer to do so, and once you know how breeding works, pretty much just as mindless. I understand that for balancing the gameplay, breeding had to change, otherwise absolutely everyone would have a fully kitted out team, and given enough time, a fully kitted out dex. While I appreciate a method that doesn't include 60 storage spaces filled with eggs that need to hatch, which turns into 59 pokes that are 4x31 or less, I think that there needs to be a way to reliably obtain targetable pokes with higher IVs to make this method of breeding work for players. Something that can be repeatable, but also needs the player to put in a bit of effort to complete and the reward can be a poke that has an overall higher IV spread, or potentially a guaranteed 1x31 if not just a higher IV yield. I think that taking the former over the latter, you'd need to have a little more opportunity and the latter would be a single reward upon completion. You can even make it impossible to get a 5x31 poke from it, just something that encourages you to actually breed and doesn't involve the exact same repeatable action over and over again, but still leaves it as an option for people that don't want to do harder content, but still want to grind for competitive pokes.
An idea that actually just came up while writing this is to use the already existing "dungeons" that are in the game and sorta make them into raids. Things like Challenger's Cave on Route 9 in Unova. There's already a guy blocking you from entering until you beat the e4, and he can act as the raid entrance, talk to him to start the raid, or enter the cave to just explore it normally. Once the raid has started, you've got to make it to the end room without your team wiping and exiting the cave also exits the raid (like the e4). There could be modifiers in place that prevent you from using items like repels, revives, or items in battle but it's not necessary. Add additional trainers, or make trainers stronger and have unique builds like F.E.A.R. or shedinja, etc. things that usually require something specific, that you should be running on your team for the raid. Rewards can be based on the pokemon you'd normally find within the cave. There could be difficulties in place, too. Easy is toned down AI, maybe a lower level, but you're supposed to be past the E4 at this point, just maybe not super cracked teams, but have the reward at the end be a random poke naturally found in the cave, with a slightly higher than average IV spread. Med is tougher teams, maybe a few more trainers, but the reward is a poke of your choice with a slightly higher than average IV spread. Hard is the toughest teams, the most trainers, and at the end you get to pick your poke and it has a guaranteed 1x31, but that one perfect stat is still random. This allows for breeding to be similar to upgrading gear in other games, as you slowly go from a 1x31, to a perfect poke, it still takes time, but the difference now is that it takes effort, and you still have to get your proper nature and ability as well.
Question
mrn
Breeding pokemon is a pain. Base game there were plenty of people that bred pokemon, and plenty of people that used cheating devices to generate perfect pokemon. Usually complaining along the lines that breeding a competitive team took way too long, or that egg moves were too hard, or something. I did a bit of both and actually found breeding pokemon somewhat enjoyable, but I think mmo takes it a little too far in the grind aspect. A lot of people don't even try to breed and just settle for a mon that decent IVs, and an okay-ish nature, and it pains me to se someone ask for the 8th time if their random caught quiet nature staryu with 22 sp. att. IVs is good for comp.
I think that the main issue here is that grinding for a perfect poke isn't fun in the first place. It's rewarding, but the lead up to the reward isn't anything fun, just menuing and catching the same poke with false swipe and your flavor of sleep or paralysis, just to wait few minutes for an egg to hatch. There's a disconnect from other mmos, to this one, and tbf it's a hard balance to get given pokemon breeding is the medium. Other mmos would usually have the grind be fun gameplay, whether it be some type of raid or dungeon, team based or solo, there was gameplay and a reward at the end of the gameplay. Breeding pokes is more akin to grinding for exp, but takes significantly longer to do so, and once you know how breeding works, pretty much just as mindless. I understand that for balancing the gameplay, breeding had to change, otherwise absolutely everyone would have a fully kitted out team, and given enough time, a fully kitted out dex. While I appreciate a method that doesn't include 60 storage spaces filled with eggs that need to hatch, which turns into 59 pokes that are 4x31 or less, I think that there needs to be a way to reliably obtain targetable pokes with higher IVs to make this method of breeding work for players. Something that can be repeatable, but also needs the player to put in a bit of effort to complete and the reward can be a poke that has an overall higher IV spread, or potentially a guaranteed 1x31 if not just a higher IV yield. I think that taking the former over the latter, you'd need to have a little more opportunity and the latter would be a single reward upon completion. You can even make it impossible to get a 5x31 poke from it, just something that encourages you to actually breed and doesn't involve the exact same repeatable action over and over again, but still leaves it as an option for people that don't want to do harder content, but still want to grind for competitive pokes.
An idea that actually just came up while writing this is to use the already existing "dungeons" that are in the game and sorta make them into raids. Things like Challenger's Cave on Route 9 in Unova. There's already a guy blocking you from entering until you beat the e4, and he can act as the raid entrance, talk to him to start the raid, or enter the cave to just explore it normally. Once the raid has started, you've got to make it to the end room without your team wiping and exiting the cave also exits the raid (like the e4). There could be modifiers in place that prevent you from using items like repels, revives, or items in battle but it's not necessary. Add additional trainers, or make trainers stronger and have unique builds like F.E.A.R. or shedinja, etc. things that usually require something specific, that you should be running on your team for the raid. Rewards can be based on the pokemon you'd normally find within the cave. There could be difficulties in place, too. Easy is toned down AI, maybe a lower level, but you're supposed to be past the E4 at this point, just maybe not super cracked teams, but have the reward at the end be a random poke naturally found in the cave, with a slightly higher than average IV spread. Med is tougher teams, maybe a few more trainers, but the reward is a poke of your choice with a slightly higher than average IV spread. Hard is the toughest teams, the most trainers, and at the end you get to pick your poke and it has a guaranteed 1x31, but that one perfect stat is still random. This allows for breeding to be similar to upgrading gear in other games, as you slowly go from a 1x31, to a perfect poke, it still takes time, but the difference now is that it takes effort, and you still have to get your proper nature and ability as well.
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