Would you like more Pokemon to choose from in the meta?

[Roloc]

Hello everyone!

 

Today I would like to suggest something that not everyone will like and some will down right hate it. Balance.

Thats right, balancing Pokemon to make all fully evolved Pokemon capable of holding their own in pvp. This means some of the stronger Pokemon like Dragonite and Volcarona would receive a nerf while Pokemon like Butterfree and Hitmontop would receive some form of enhancement which could be in the form of more moves, stats or better abilities. The whole goal of this project is to make it so that there is as much variety in PvP as possible, and not so that there are the same teams appearing again and again in PvP. If someone likes a Pokemon, they should be able to use it in PvP and not toss it aside to use a Pokemon that would otherwise be actually much better for PvP.

 

 

Now, let's take a second to tell you now that this is not something you would be forced to do. It could be implemented in many different ways. The way it would be added would ultimately be up to the staff, but I do have a few ideas. Possible scenarios:

1. Whole new server with only balanced Pokemon. This way seems to be the best and least confusing for people. A new server would be created that would only have balanced Pokemon able to be caught / trained / battled.

2. Balance Clause. The balanced Pokemon could be implemented on any server but NO ONE would be forced to play against, or use them if they do not want to do so. There would be a clause box (just like a sleep, same item, OHKO etc. clauses) that you can select or de-select before battle. There could even be a box that you can "check off" in the options of the game that would prevent any other players from challenging you to a balanced Pokemon battle if you are not into that kind of thing. As for seasons go a different ladder can simply be added for the balanced meta.

3. Everyone hates this idea and it just doesn't get added. I'm sure there are other ways that I just haven't had the time myself to think them up or thoroughly think them through.

 

 

A little history on me:

I used to be a part of another Pokemon MMO that was in the works but was never finished. It was going to use the balanced Pokemon and I was the head balancer of said project. We not only balanced Pokemon but also some aspects of the game. When we first started, gen 6 was not out yet but we already had the idea of making weather not lasting permanently though Pokemon with weather starting abilities. We worked very hard on each individual Pokemon and tested them thoroughly. We made a test server that used the Pokemon Online client to balance and test, and balance more and test, over and over. We had multiple balance people working on Pokemon. While some Pokemon were a bit easier and could be done in less then a few days, we would sometimes take several weeks to balance a single Pokemon. We also did our best to keep Pokemon as close to what they were to begin with and made sure to never add something to a Pokemon that doesn't make sense. Such as make it so a Caterpie can one shot a Dragonite, or giving punching moves to a Pokemon without hands, even though Pokemon has that already... (I'm looking at you gastly) xD

 

 

Now, Pokemon is not a game that can be balanced easily. But then again, what game is? Balance is a job that is never truly done. Humans are not perfect and when trying your best to balance a Pokemon that was weak to make it a bit stronger you can accidentally make it OP through simple over sights, or a Pokemon that is OP could be made to weak. But that's okay. That's why we would having testing of the Pokemon meticulously.

If this project gets the go ahead, what I believe could happen is creating a sub-forum for it. It can be divided into a few parts; one where the status of each Pokemon is listed (not yet balanced), in progress (testing/discussing) and fully balanced (complete). I will lead the project and invite those who want to help balance and test the Pokemon out. I don't want to add to the burden of the current staff, so the 'balance team' will do everything about balancing. Once a good set of Pokemon is balanced, the balance team submits the edited stats, moveset, etc to the team for implementation. If there's anything from the 'balanced meta' that we feel is broken after submitting it, we will review the Pokemon and adjust accordingly.

 

For those of you that would like some more detail and an in depth look at balancing, I would like to point you to an article, HERE, by a former balance member who was apart of the balance team with me. He goes into great detail about the balance problems in Pokemon and how he intends to tackle them. That method gives a general idea of how we tried making Pokemon balanced, with a few exceptions though of course.

 

 

Below is an example of one of the Pokemon that took us about a week to work on and decide what we wanted to do with it. This is the finished product after a long process and it turned out great. All 3 forms were able to hold their own in PVP and were still unique. The changes didn't take away from any other Pokemon and were never thought of as "OP" after their balancing.

 

The Wormadams suck. 

Quite a bit. 

Bad stats, bad move pools, bad abilities.... 
Well, back last year we made them awesine, may as well again. May the tanky transformation begin. 

We want all of them to be sort of, unique tanks - right? 
What better way to do it than give them Shed Skin and forcing them to use Rest to recover? 8D

All should get 
Bug Buzz
X-Scissor
Gyro Ball

Ground: 
Ground is our physical tank, and Physical Attacker. + Heatproof over Analytic. 

+ Rock Slide
+ Spikes
+ Curse

From
60 / 79 / 105 / 59 / 85 / 36
To
75 / 85 / 125 / 59 / 85 / 36

Grass: 
Grass is our special tank. 
It would work nicely but it is weak to two very common Special types - Ice and Fire for this reason I want to change its Anticipation to Heatproof as well and give it reliable regen. 

+ Aromatherapy
+ Synthesis 
+ Light Screen

From
60 / 59 / 85 / 79 / 105 / 36
To
75 / 59 / 85 / 85 / 125 / 36

Steel:
Steel is our mixed tank. 

+ Spikes 
+ Reflect
+ Rapid Spin
+ Light Screen

From
60 / 69 / 95 / 69 / 95 / 36
To
75 / 80 / 105 / 80 / 105 / 36

Le fin.

[Tro11z]

This to me is a very terrible idea. I read the entire thing. To me it's not Pokemon. Although there are a lot of balancing problems there are always way to counter the "OP" Pokemon even with what others might consider "weaker". It's an ok concept but would be terrible for this game. Also I'd like to break down from of your ideas here.

275808 I will lead the project and invite those who want to help balance and test the Pokemon out. I don't want to add to the burden of the current staff, so the 'balance team' will do everything about balancing.

This has got to be the worst part of it all. You will become a staff recruiter and pretty much an admin with no training, no experience on this game as staff, and I'm just assuming staff wouldn't be able to put that much trust into someone they hardly know. You would be able to hire anyone you want and you could be hiring the most toxic players on the game without even realizing it. The staff recruitment process is very tight and something like this would never work for the system.

[Likuet]

if you want perfect balance you might aswell give all pokemon all types all moves and abilities. Then just name them the same too since why not? What game needs and already has is perfect imbalance. Means slight power difference on most of the pokemon which creates diversity, possibilities in teambuilding and such. If you try and balance it out so that less used pokemon become better your just shifting the meta untill people figure out whats the most broken of the new picks. Than you can rebalance once again. This is how games like LOL do it for instance, but they can afford to since there is no real background check that would say this champion is supposed to be stronger than this other one, whereas in pokemon.. a scary dragon should by definition be stronger than a rat. On top of this.. there is a reason why there are tiers like OU, UU etc., allows people to use their favourite pokemon without feeling like it has no use. Its not implemented in Pro yet but it might be in the future, who knows.

[Nasulelijah]

in confirmation with the new laws of the modern generation of 2016, i suggest that this ideea will be welcome by an aproximate of 0.00001 % of pro players and for the ones that have fully read this 10 minutes novel of a new world they lost a time that in current ideals will not be gained again. Long story

I wasted 10 minutes of my life reading this -_-. Short story. ,,Trump for president``

[Shewas18]

Ok :y:

[Fadoka]

https://imgur.com/KH1delC

 

''Volcarona would receive a nerf while Pokemon like Butterfree and Hitmontop would receive some form of enhancement which could be in the form of more moves, stats or better abilities'' he said?

 

https://imgur.com/a/EGIba

[Guest YourMomGr]

you are a madman for wanting to use only your "balanced"poke.i would never be a part of a server that only lets me catch never used pokemon..and yeah there are op poke but they will always exist in a pokemon game that you compare monsters with huge diversity..you want to take that diversity away and make wormadam like klefki or forretress..you can simply suggest like its been suggested 1000 times pokemon tiers and the devs agreed and they will add those in the future.#wasted10min

[Roloc]

275828 This to me is a very terrible idea. I read the entire thing. To me it's not Pokemon. Although there are a lot of balancing problems there are always way to counter the "OP" Pokemon even with what others might consider "weaker". It's an ok concept but would be terrible for this game. Also I'd like to break down from of your ideas here.

275808 I will lead the project and invite those who want to help balance and test the Pokemon out. I don't want to add to the burden of the current staff, so the 'balance team' will do everything about balancing.

This has got to be the worst part of it all. You will become a staff recruiter and pretty much an admin with no training, no experience on this game as staff, and I'm just assuming staff wouldn't be able to put that much trust into someone they hardly know. You would be able to hire anyone you want and you could be hiring the most toxic players on the game without even realizing it. The staff recruitment process is very tight and something like this would never work for the system.

 

 

Not once did I say I would become staff. If you did in fact read the entirety of the post then you will see this:

what I believe could happen is creating a sub-forum for it.[/quote2]

I don't want to add to the burden of the current staff, so the 'balance team' will do everything about balancing.[/quote2]

 

Meaning not staff, just a group of people working together in a subforum.

 

 

 

 

As for the "disapproving posts" Thanks for the feed back and keep it coming. I want as much critique as possible.

[Tro11z]

275850 Meaning not staff, just a group of people working together in a subforum.

Haha ok just people who overview all PvP action and have very significant changes on the game to the point where it is changed completely. Yep totally not staff at all :Angel:

[Roloc]

It is not a complete change to the game. It would be completely optional. Meaning if you wanted NOTHING to do with it, then you never have to use it.

Think of it as more of a side project that isn't controlled by current staff members that could one day be implemented into the game as part of the end game "fun stuff" to do.