Crimefridge

Faction-specific content just means you're making two sets of content and denying one or the other. I'd rather just have all the content.

The problem isn't the grind itself, the problem is the pointless mechanic that penalizes evolving far too much. Again, evolving say Squirtle twice means you have to grind 9 times as much. That's not some "oh you're anti-grind, why are you playing an MMO then" argument you can make. That's like saying shooting yourself in both feet and then running a marathon is fun. If the devs want to keep this asinine, pointless mechanic, they could at least offer a way to unevolve pokemon. Hell, you could even make it a paid service since milking money is what this seems to be about anyways. The "absolutes" that I've heard from the dev team about this game mortifies me. "Absolutely no breeding, no discussion, never happening." The reason is to increase grind and therefore make more money. But they could easily incorporate a certain other MMOs breeding system where both parents die, they could then make products you can buy with donations that aid the process (or are even required), and they can make breeding prohibitively expensive with in game currency and they would still win. It takes a massive lack of imagination and basic mass communication ability to write off the most desired feature in the game like it's unattainable because of the bottom line. "It'll ruin pokemon hunting!" then design it so it doesn't. "It'll lose us money," then make it so you gain even more money over time than without. The excuses I hear for decisions is baffling (why is Shadow Ball TM, a competitively heavily relevant TM, subjected to being limited availability only during Halloween? [it's now available for the Celadon daily quest by chance at least]) and instead of resolving the problems that are actual problems through user feedback, the responses we hear are "it's never, ever ever ever going to happen" like some stubborn kid. Now I'm not some idiot who doesn't understand the level of programming required to implement the breeding system. But to claim that the problem is the long term server sustainability, pokemon inflation, the killing of the economy, or whatever such nonsense gets said is far too short-sighted to really be worth listening to. I don't think anyone is going to reflect back on "oh I'm so glad the server made me keep my pokemon unevolved the entire game" and think of it fondly as a wonderful game mechanic that allowed for an immersive user experience. And that's my entire issue so far with the server. It's like beating your head against a wall against tradition because "it just is" and it's clearly not good enough for the incoming user base. Now if you guys want to fail basic mass comm on your business (whether it's non-profit or not, it's still a business) where user feedback has dictated a current issue that's annoying / frustrating your user base, by all means, instead of being the CostCo of Pokemon MMOs you can be the Wal-Mart.

I do have an issue with the system they set in place. It penalizes pokemon with evolutions unable to fight in their first form effectively. It does not really do anything but add an artificial difficulty to the game either by being unevolved or getting a temporary boost before the unevolved form outpaces through a 20 level gap. It feels clunky because it is clunky. I can't understand the logic where it's somehow optimal that you have to keep a Squirtle until level 99 to finally get Wartortle, unlike any other game. Instead of, say, raising the exp required by 1.3x and then offering the bonus for keeping your pokemon completely unevolved to be 1.3x exp. The penalty for evolving is absolutely ridiculous. It unfairly penalizes pokemon that need to evolve like Eevee and Magikarp, and makes evolving detrimental to your mid-to-late game before you reach the 100s. Evolving isn't really a choice when the penalty is more like a gun to your head that says "do it and you'll be 20 levels behind and your stats won't even keep up". Gen VI gave you a choice, but that choice could be good or bad, not some one-sided bias towards not evolving.

You know the only system REMOTELY similar to the one in this game is the "bonus exp" system from reaching an evolution level and choosing not to evolve (which is gen VI, not gen V like someone just said). "EXP Factors: If the Pokémon is at or past the level where it would be able to evolve but has not - Gen VI" From the very bulbapedia linked by an admin. And under this section of Gen VI, there is a bonus to exp for not evolving, not a penalty. The Gen VI bonus has been tested to be around a 1.25 / 1.3x exp bonus, it does not mean that if your pokemon required 1 million that you would need more exp after evolving. In this game, game simply punishes you by requiring 3x exp, or evolving gives you 0.33x multiplier. So let's compare: Base gen 6, say you need 1 million exp for medium-fast pokemon (estimate) With the Gen 6, your choosing not to evolve means you can level with around 770k base exp In this version, not evolving still means you need 1 million exp, but say you evolve two times? Now you need 9 million exp The unevolved form from gen 6 was a bonus, not a penalty...

The server may have added an incentive for leveling unevolved pokemon but it's never, not once, ever been a part of the pokemon series. Individual pokemon forms do not have unique exp requirements: they belong to "groups" that comprise of six types: Erratic Fast Medium Fast Medium Slow Slow Fluctuating For reference, starter pokemon are Medium Slow, while most Legendaries are Slow. None of the evolutions of any pokemon at all change the amount of exp required. Not one bit.. So if that's true on this server, it is a server-exclusive feature, not a canon pokemon concept. EDIT: I asked Chappy in chat and he confirms the existence of unevolved pokemon leveling faster. Asking for a source as to how that's from canon pokemon solicited a facepalm and no source. PERSONALLY CONFIRMED: Sacrificed a low IV Growlithe and it nearly TRIPLED the amount of required exp from level 6. It also manipulated the base exp value of the Growlithe.