Public Test: Exp. Rework

[Moontear]

Before and After Gym 7, Kanto.

Get all trainers-in-gym XP, except leader because I lost T_T

[Nm3]

Kanto

 

Spoiler

1st Gym

Before

 After 

2nd Gym

Before

After

3rd Gym

Before

After

4th Gym

Before

After

5th Gym

Before

After

6th Gym

Before

 

After

7th Gym

Before

After

8th Gym

Before/After (No fights after 7th gym before fighting gio)

 

E4

Before

After

Kanto Thoughts:

Exp seems really REALLY bad in mid-late game. Sure you can evo mons, but I feel like especially later, its going to  feel so bad to level mons without candy. Evo mons are technically faster to level up but I feel that levelling 1st stage pokemon in the past was just easier.

 

Something I wasn't aware about was the exp boost you can pick up in viridian. I think this would've made a huge difference for getting through the game, but assuming a new player doesn't know about this, they're going to get screwed over long term, especially during hoenn. Overall I think the update did its job of helping out new players get through the first few gyms, but in the long term, it will make it harder to progress in late game without changes to wild spawn exp.

 

 

 Johto

Spoiler

(Sorry no SS until 2nd gym)

 

1st gym:

Before:

Quilava Lv16

Geodude Lv7

 

After:

Quilava Lv 17

Geodue Lv7

 

2nd Gym:

Before:

Quilava Lv 27

Geodude Lv 7

Gastly Lv13

Mareep Lv 8

After

3rd Gym:

Before/After (NO xp had to redo gym)

4th Gym:

Before

After

5th Gym:

Before

After:

6th Gym:

Before

After

7th Gym

Before/After

 

8th Gym

Before

After

E4

Johto thoughts:

Exp problem was worse here than in Kanto, Pokestops not giving out candies until 8th badge meant less levels. Power level of gyms here was way higher than kanto, which didnt help, and there was less trainer density compared to kanto. Unless you are funneling every point of exp into one pokemon, its going to be difficult to get through gyms, which is what I decided to do for future regions, unless I needed a 2nd mon to help progress through a certain gym. The exp share helps in the early game, but using it later is detrimental because you cant afford to be splitting exp between mons late game, or else your team is unable to outspeed, let alone damage the gym leaders pokemon. I had to resort to toxic stalling with a geodude just because my team was so under levelled compared to the leaders for gym 8, and the starters are so much worse compared to the rest of the regions.

 

Repating Johto Elite 4 gave decent experience, but I had to repeat it so many times until I was in decent shape to run through the e4. I think adding more trainers would be a benefit if the system for exp will be implemented this way.

 Hoenn (Placeholder in progress)

Spoiler

1st Gym

Before

After

2nd Gym

Before

After

3rd Gym

Before

After

4th Gym

Before

After

5th Gym

Before

After

6th Gym

Before

After

7th Gym

Before

After

8th Gym

(Screenshots got corrupted sorry, Swampert was at lvl 77 and manectric at 72)

E4

 

Final Thoughts:

There's too many npcs that don't give exp. Mt pyre is the biggest offender (Why does this gauntlet still exist its just a useless time sink) and admins from the weather institute + every battle with Jackson. Thankfully you can train a bit better in this region because its larger and has more trainers, but trying to raise more than 2 Pokémon is going to be impossible, because wild encounters don't give any exp mid game. I had to do the e4 100+ times just to meet the requirements to get into sinnoh.

 

 

 Sinnoh

Spoiler

1st Gym 

 

Before

After

2nd Gym

 

Before

After

3rd Gym

 

Before

After

4th Gym

 

Before

After

5th Gym

 

Before/After (Had to restart due to dc)

6th Gym

 

Before

After

 

7th Gym

Before

After

 

8th Gym

Before

After

 

Shop for sunnyshore is also bugged:

E4

By far the easiest region, theres many trainers and very few fights that dont give exp. It helped that this time I only used one pokemon so I had a mon that could beat all the gyms reliably instead of 3/4 mons unable to damage a gym leader at all because they are to slow/frail. I ended up just soloing the whole game with an infernape using toxic sturdy stall to beat the things ape couldnt like gira. Overall I would say this was a better run than the other regions but I still would appreciate more exp so I could use other team members.

 

 Final Thoughts:

 

I think that overall, the changes did it's job to help the early parts of each region not feel like a huge pain, and reduce the punishment new players face for evolving their pokemon too early. Now you can evovle whenever you want, and it give usually unviable pokemon for story in current time (early route bugs/birds, certain stone evolution Pokémon) a purpose for being trained. 

 

The problem I'm finding with each region is that it is very difficult to manage a team with more than 1 permanent member, let alone 2. There is just not enough exp to be handed out to party members and it doesn't help that the wild exp mid-late game is extremely low, and rematches with trainers are locked to 1 whole week. Using Pokémon in EXP groups outside of fast/medium fast are just going to put you behind.

 

If this exp system is going to implemented the way it is, trainer rematch cooldowns need to be reconsidered, and wild spawn exp also needs to be looked at carefully. Otherwise I think this is going to have a detrimental long term effect on the playerbase. Glad I got the time and opportunity to play this beta and I hope that my and everyone's else's feedback is considered.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Nm3
update info -placeholder

[Jadeash]

Spoiler

Before first gym

 

After first gym

 

before second gym

 

after second gym

 

before 3rd gym

 

 

 

after 3rd gym

 

 

before 4th gym

 

after 4th gym

 

before 5th gym

 

after 5th gym

 

before 6th gym

 

after 6th gym

 

 

before 7th gym

 

after 7th gym

 

 

 

before 8th gym

 

after 8th gym

 

 

 

Kanto Review

Spoiler

The exp is really having an effect super early in the game. Until the second gym it feels like everything is a breeze. And then the exp curve starts to decline and it begins to feel like leveling is so much slower. The levels of the wild pokemon could be increased a little bit in between routes or at areas close to gyms so players can train adequately, or npcs could have more fully evolved pokemon to give more exp.  What I find necessary to be given to beginners early on in the game is a macho brace. That would help so much throughout clearing gyms. Power items could be introduced further on in the game to make the macho brace not feel like a power hack item. Another item that should be made available are focus sashes, even if given out by a couple of npcs only.

 

Adding some more items in Celadon mart will also give some much needed advantages to early starters such as more useful TMs and Sun and Moon stones since a lot of pokemon in kanto need those to evolve as well (nidoking, clefable, bellosom)

 

Extra Notes

Spoiler

There are a couple of small things that could be added to help aide new players and show them the ropes. First of all is that new comers to PRO don't know that you can trade items directly without making pokemon hold them. Adding a script or 2 that signifies this can be very helpful. Second is a way to make pokemon in your team switch items directly without having to take each item off and then go to the bag to re-drag them onto your pokemon.

 

One more thing is to remove some of the old trolls that the players could find along the way. A good joke is okay but repeating it many times can push players the wrong way and they could easily just leave the game.

 

What I did love seeing was the variety of pokemon that npcs had. Even those that you cant catch in kanto. Getting their seen data is very important for new players to be able to see them in maps in the future in case they want to catch them for themselves.

 

Link to my Stream of the Test Server new EXP System:

https://youtu.be/hWUcGNZS69o

 

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Jadeash

[Luffy04]

Finally done with kanto i'll probably stop here unless i change my mind exp mid late game is too long to farm imo so you're always underleveled unless you spend a lot of time grinding on lower level mons which doesn't gives a lot of exp

 

Tried my best to make post easier to read sorry if it isn't that great not using forum often

 

Some screenshots were taken after getting to pc post gym but they're all taken after the corresponding gym and for gym 8 there's no exp gain because i failed first attempt so no exp and there's no pre-e4 screen because the run happened as I was training so gyarados was around lvl 60 and that's the only difference from post e-4 screen

Spoiler

 Before Gym 1

 After gym 1

 Before Gym 2

 After Gym 2

 Before gym 3

 After gym 3

 Before gym 4

 After gym 4

  Before gym 5

 After gym 5

 Before gym 6

 After gym 6

 Before gym 7

 After gym 7

 Before gym 8

 After gym 8

Post elite 4

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by Luffy04
Making it easier to read

[Archr]

Before 6th gym Kanto:

 

After 6th gym Kanto:

 

 

[Olker]

Before and after 6th gym (Sabrina). By far the most challenging gym.

[Ausu]

[Moontear]

Before and After Gym 8, Kanto.

[Cordeiroxii]

(After Kanto & Johto Done )

So far the new EXP System is better to "new" players and for story but doesnt seem very attrative to train pokemons to higher level (ofc we dont have acess to cerulean cave that would probably help) but since u gain the evs with the exp share we are able to train 2 mons at once is cool .

Thought about the new EXP System: 
Probably will need some adjusts , especially in the higher lvl mons EXP gains , it was a pain to train Gyarados and Venusaur especially , doing E4 reruns was the best way and fastest that i found to lvl up and it was actually slow . 
With this change some spots are not interesting at all , example : The Saffron Dojo NPCS  are almost useless, the EXP gain is not high and this is the closest spot to lvl up VS Sabrina.
In the beginning I really felt overleved  but the further i was in story i was actually felling slightly underleved specially in Kanto ( Probably because i skipped the Route 19 and went straight from Pallet to Cinnabar and only fought a couple of NPCS in route 20).  In Johto i didnt noticed underlevel at all.

Final Comment based on my experience in the game:
I liked the idea of EXP Share , obviously needs adjusts but overall seems OK.

PS: Forgot 1 print but I remember the level of my Pokemon.

KANTO 
Pre 1st Gym 

After 1st Gym

Pre 2nd Gym

After 2nd Gym

Pre 3rd Gym

After 3rd Gym 

Pre 4th Gym

After 4th Gym

Pre 5th Gym

After 5th Gym

Pre 6th Gym 

After 6th Gym 

Pre 7th Gym

After 7th Gym

Pre 8th Gym 

After 8th Gym

Pre E4

After E4

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johto 
Pre 1st GYM
Forgot to Print it but Totodile was lvl 16 , gastly 9 and Machoke 4

After 1st GYM

Pre 2nd Gym

After 2nd Gym

Pre 3rd Gym 

After 3rd Gym

Pre 4th Gym
After 4th Gym

Pre 5th Gym

After 5th Gym

Pre 6th Gym 

After 6th Gym

Pre 7th Gym 

After 7th Gym

Pre 8th Gym

After 8th Gym (Had to change the team a little bit after trying )

Pre E4

After E4

Trainer card

Edited September 21, 2022 by Cordeiroxii

[Lupo93]

Before and after first gym
.