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Swarms as Announcements


Emlee

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References for this suggestion: 

 

Not too long ago there was a suggestions calling for swarms information to be relayed to players in game as a "money sink", via a "cell phone" type system, this suggestion can be found here, this is suggested by Fluffyknowsyou

 

A very recent suggestions by RacheLucario includes moving the Mewtwo Alert/chat spam to a separate chat for legendaries (this could be useful later on when there are more than one event style legendaries imo. 

 

LeGaryOak's info on swarms can be located in this thread.

 

Suggestion: 

 

I believe that swarms should be announced just like Mewtwo is, this would be most beneficial if it were implemented alongside RacheLucario's suggestion into a separate chat, but either way I wish for swarms to be easily accessible to those who are currently completing other tasks or already multi tasking.  Our most recent update (economic rework etc) allowed for many multitasking options in game (payday/money farm while breeding, and/or while farming Pokemon, and/or while shiny hunting, and/or while EV training, etc). I think this is a good direction for the game and makes the grinding aspects a bit less mind numbing (as opposed to only being able to breed (BikeMMO) before, or only being able to sit at slots, etc). I think the devs/staff involved in development should continue this path and this is a way for them to do it. 

 

As a player it's very frustrating to need one or two Pokemon from swarms as it's tedious to constantly check the TVs for swarms (usually you don't find one) and then when you are in time to see that one is occurring it's usually Pokemon you do not want to hunt. I believe it's realistic to assume that the majority of players who have interest in swarms are interested in them for finite amounts of time (to obtain a specific Pokemon for a dex entry, for pvp/breeding, for selling/trading, etc), I will also assume most of the time the players looking for swarms are not interested in every swarm but a select few at a time (usually one or two). These assumptions have lead me to believe that swarms implemented via Fluffyknowsyou's method (referenced above), as a "money sink", would not be viable long term. I believe that for a period of time people will pay to be notified of swarms but I do not believe it will last as a money sink for 99% of players in game. I do not believe it will last for the reasons I stated above; players only want to chase swarms for specific Pokemon, and for a short period of time. 

 

I do want to note this suggestion is requesting for something in game to be easier but I hope it's understood that I do not want it easier so that I can be lazy, I want it to be easier so that I can legitimately make use of it as I don't believe I should (or others should) be forced to stand in front of a TV (etc) pressing Z in order to catch a swarm I need to locate. I am in favour of being able to multi task in game.

 

Overall: Swarms should be made more accessible via announcements or a separate chat (along with event legendary information if implemented). 

 

Pros: 

  • Players can make full use of swarms (the initial fun of attempting to figure them out and chase them has already occurred and now the method is simply frustrating - for me at least). 
  • If players are making full use of swarms it will also mean they're using Pokeballs/Great Balls/Ultra Balls. These are an expense in game that applies to most players, from a game mechanics standpoint I think it's best if players have ease of access to swarms so they can use the Pokeball money sink further. 
  • New players are aware of the mechanic in game 
  • Swarms are only twenty minutes long, and they're not an extremely high encounter rate, I don't dislike these factors but they make swarms difficult to be used efficiently with the current notification method, an announcement will make this a much better

 

Cons:

  • Easier to obtain a competitive Pokemon of the swarming species/makes the newly implemented Pokemon less rare (Baltoy/Gulpin). (I will argue that this inevitable on a long enough timeline and as it currently is it's too frustrating of a mechanic to endure, it either needs tweaking or this suggestion to occur)
  • Can take away a degree of "fun" in some people's opinion. (I do not think they're currently fun, it's just frustrating for me now. I do believe it was a bit entertaining at first when the community was gathering swarm information but again it's just frustrating now imo)

 

TL;DR: Put swarms in the announcements chat or a separate chat, they need a notification system now as checking the TVs etc is a poor long term mechanic, imo. Keep creating game mechanics that we can multi task with, please. 

 

Feel free to leave your feedback, if you think of further pros or cons I will gladly add them to the list. 

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I fully support this.

 

As it is, standing in front of a TV pressing z isn't any different from the game corner or the old BikeMMO - it's a repetitive action that adds nothing at all to the gameplay aside from a few amusing quotes (that lose their novelty when you've read them all a thousand times). If anything, it's worse than those because there's usually no reward for doing it aside from the opportunity to have NPCs call you names.

 

I'd suggest just adding this to system messages or announcements instead of a new chat type, since unlike Mewtwo passing from person to person, swarms don't happen nearly enough to annoy people. I'd also suggest having 2 messages per swarm - "[Pokemon name] are swarming at [location]!" when it begins and "The [Pokemon name] swarm at [location] has ended." when it finishes. It would also be nice to send the first message if a player logs in during a swarm too regardless of how long ago it began, since the Pokemon are still swarming after all.

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Either idea could work in my opinion,but money is really easy to get. I get on average 50k(per hour) just from looking for shinies while paydaying near celadon city's bushes. I'd like some cool nifty items to show off my swag and give me reason to spend the potentially inflated currency,but at the same time I can see where the idea of getting a free system message would be nice. Not many things in this world are free and so when they do come along, it usually is wise to jump on the oppourtunity and use them. However with the ease of this game and the lack of things to spend the money on, I'd still look for interesting ways to get people to spend spend spend!

 

-ps I know swarms as they are wouldn't warrant a big purchase since there is a limited number of swarm only pokemon, which aren't accessible anywhere else in the game via trade/npc.

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Either idea could work in my opinion,but money is really easy to get. I get on average 50k(per hour) just from looking for shinies while paydaying near celadon city's bushes. I'd like some cool nifty items to show off my swag and give me reason to spend the potentially inflated currency,but at the same time I can see where the idea of getting a free system message would be nice. Not many things in this world are free and so when they do come along, it usually is wise to jump on the oppourtunity and use them. However with the ease of this game and the lack of things to spend the money on, I'd still look for interesting ways to get people to spend spend spend!

 

-ps I know swarms as they are wouldn't warrant a big purchase since there is a limited number of swarm only pokemon, which aren't accessible anywhere else in the game via trade/npc.

I don't find it hard to get money in game, I just don't think paying for swarm notifications is necessary or that beneficial to the game overall (as far as moneysinks/economy). 

 

Has nothing to do with me being lazy or wanting something for free.

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I don't find it hard to get money in game, I just don't think paying for swarm notifications is necessary or that beneficial to the game overall (as far as moneysinks/economy). 

 

Has nothing to do with me being lazy or wanting something for free.

My basic point was making it completely free isn't any better in my opinion. It's not because your thread is the completel opposite of what I proposed,but rather giving us something free doesn't help the game in the long run either. I could amass 1 million dollars fromn paydaying and have nothing to spend it on. So why would making it free help, it would just eliminate another way to spend my inflated cash.

 

Furthermore if people really want something free, a countdown page similar to the altering cave page would be more beneficial or just as good as in game alerts. Or rather if you didn't want to pay for a consumable alert, then sitting in front of the tele would have been the way to go.

Edited by Fluffyknowsyou
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To counter that my basic point was making it completely free isn't any better in my opinion. It's not because your thread is the completel opposite of what I proposed,but rather giving us something free doesn't help the game in the long run either. I could amass 1 million dollars fromn paydaying and have nothing to spend it on.

 

Furthermore if people really want something free, a countdown page similar to the altering cave page would be more beneficial or just as good as in game alerts. Or rather if you didn't want to pay for a consumable alert, then sitting in front of the tele would have been the way to go.

That site is not an official site. Also Mewtwo is a free announcement so I don't see why swarms shouldn't be. Anyway I don't care to change your opinion or not, it doesn't matter to me. I was just addressing your statements that seemed to assume certain things. I will mention that sitting in front of the television is a completely horrible game mechanic, I won't be condoning it in anyway and I don't think it should be used for any points in terms of the discussion other than to state it needs to be changed.

 

Please note this isn't a competition/debate between yourself and I. The devs can pick what they wish to and I won't care either way, as long as the mechanic is fixed because it is currently not working out. 

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That site is not an official site. Also Mewtwo is a free announcement so I don't see why swarms shouldn't be. Anyway I don't care to change your opinion or not, it doesn't matter to me. I was just addressing your statements that seemed to assume certain things. I will mention that sitting in front of the television is a completely horrible game mechanic, I won't be condoning it in anyway and I don't think it should be used for any points in terms of the discussion other than to state it needs to be changed.

 

 

Altering caves cycle page is just a page and it still exists because creator had information from the developers about the cycles themselves. You are stuck on this mewtwo thing being free,but don't realize there's probably a different intent behind mewtwo and swarms. While it is something I can't answer myself, there is probably a reason why the developers didn't make a system announcement for swarms. That can either be lack of time or simply be because there is acompletely different intent behind the two ideas.

 

As for being free when you admit it's not hard to get money, then why is it such an issue in itself? Knowing your suggestion is based on a assumption or idea which doesn't have any basis.

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Altering caves cycle page is just a page and it still exists because creator had information from the developers about the cycles themselves. You are stuck on this mewtwo thing being free,but don't realize there's probably a different intent behind mewtwo and swarms. While it is something I can't answer myself, there is probably a reason why the developers didn't make a system announcement for swarms. That can either be lack of time or simply be because there is acompletely different intent behind the two ideas.

As for being free when you admit it's not hard to get money, then why is it such an issue in itself? Knowing your suggestion is based on a assumption or idea which doesn't have any basis.

I don't understand why you insist on discussing this haha. We're allowed to have separate opinions. The dev didn't hand information over to the creator of that site, and the devs made a mistake (IMO) with the current swarm alert mechanics. They make mistakes. The current mechanics were meant to be fun and entertaining but they're clearly no where near being fun at this point.

You're allowed to want your suggestion to work and I am allowed to want mine. There is no need to be hostile and to continue this discussion haha.
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Altering caves cycle page is just a page and it still exists because creator had information from the developers about the cycles themselves. You are stuck on this mewtwo thing being free,but don't realize there's probably a different intent behind mewtwo and swarms. While it is something I can't answer myself, there is probably a reason why the developers didn't make a system announcement for swarms. That can either be lack of time or simply be because there is acompletely different intent behind the two ideas.

 

As for being free when you admit it's not hard to get money, then why is it such an issue in itself? Knowing your suggestion is based on a assumption or idea which doesn't have any basis.

 

The information was leaked by a (former) staff member to a specific player, who then passed it on to me, at which point I plastered it everywhere I could on the forums

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I don't understand why you insist on discussing this haha. We're allowed to have separate opinions. The dev didn't hand information over to the creator of that site, and the devs made a mistake (IMO) with the current swarm alert mechanics. They make mistakes. The current mechanics were meant to be fun and entertaining but they're clearly no where near being fun at this point.

You're allowed to want your suggestion to work and I am allowed to want mine. There is no need to be hostile and to continue this discussion haha.

How am I being hostile? Is it because I am not writing, ex dee or putting a smiley? :P If you're uninterested in discussing this,but mention my thread then fine. I'm not trying to force you to like my idea,but I am also not being a wet noodle when terms such as assumptions are brought into the fold. I'm sorry for not being passive enough for you, this isn't even important to me.

 

 

The information was leaked by a (former) staff member to a specific player, who then passed it on to me, at which point I plastered it everywhere I could on the forums

 

Dayum

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How am I being hostile? Is it because I am not writing, ex dee or putting a smiley? :P If you're uninterested in discussing this,but mention my thread then fine. I'm not trying to force you to like my idea,but I am also not being a wet noodle when terms such as assumptions are brought into the fold. I'm sorry for not being passive enough for you, this isn't even important to me.

 

Dayum

This is off topic then but you should work on your communication/discussion skills then. On a forum people cannot view your body language so when you do things like state "You are stuck on this Mewtwo thing" then you're no longer discussing the subject at hand/suggestion you're discussing the person who wrote it. This is not something you do in a productive discussion. I am a person who avoids emotional driven discussions at all cost because I am only interested in logic, so forgive me if I am misinterpreting your words but I do believe you've worded yourself poorly a few times in this thread. Your passive aggressive reply also further leads me to believe you've a bit emotional in this conversation. 

 

So I am happy to hear this isn't important to you (after all of your posts) as we no longer need to continue this discussion. I think you took me posting in your thread very poorly, if I had simply posted my opinion in your thread (a summary of the OP) then I am sure you would have been fine with that. If I did that then I would have been essentially doing the exact same thing. It's not that I didn't want to discuss it, it's that we have different opinions and we're in a position to agree to disagree as we don't make the choice of what is implemented (if anything). 

 

Anyway.

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Bumping this because this should be put in IMO. Make swarms as announcements, it makes them viable at least. 

 

Also the way this is catalogued in the ToC is incorrect, it makes it seem as though this has to be in its own channel. I'd appreciate if a moderator edited to "Swarms as announcements" or as the title describes it to prevent confusion. 

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Also the way this is catalogued in the ToC is incorrect, it makes it seem as though this has to be in its own channel. I'd appreciate if a moderator edited to "Swarms as announcements" or as the title describes it to prevent confusion. 

Changed the wording to hopefully make it less ambiguous.

 

"Swarm notifications via "Announcements" Chat Channel"

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Changed the wording to hopefully make it less ambiguous.

 

"Swarm notifications via "Announcements" Chat Channel"

Well it's suppose to be via announcements unless they add the "chat channel" RacheLucario was speaking about in another suggestion. I'm just going to edit the chat channel part out because it seems too confusing. haha. Thanks though, Patlee!

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Well it's suppose to be via announcements unless they add the "chat channel" RacheLucario was speaking about in another suggestion. I'm just going to edit the chat channel part out because it seems too confusing. haha. Thanks though, Patlee!

 

It now says "Swarm Notifications in Chat". Please PM XelaKebert/me/any Global Moderator if it can be worded any better for the idea you intended.

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