Low level PvP

[Haneroze]

pvp should be for everyone not just elite

 

Salutations!

 

Right now, when we go in the PvP window, there's Ranked and Unranked PvP. Both require your whole team to be level 100, meaning it's pretty much an end-game feature, where people try to optimize their team as much as possible. That's all good and stuff, after all, if it's not Pokedex completion, that's what people think of doing if they want to keep playing post-league.

 

However, when I think of playing the original pokemon games with a friend, I think that sometimes, even if we haven't finished the league, we just do a battle together for fun. So when I think of an MMORPG, I think of a game where you actually challenge other players in the middle of your journey. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that, and until level 100, only the trading part is reinforced as a MMORPG.

 

 

To solve that problem, I suggest adding one or a few PvP matching options, aimed for lower level teams who are still running the storyline. Rules would be the following:

 

1 new Matching option:

- Cannot participate if there is any level 100 pokemon in the team.

- All pokemons are balanced to level 50, as per the same mechanics of the original games.

 

2 new Matching options:

- The first matching option is (temporarily) called PvP20, while the second option is called PvP50.

- For PvP50: cannot participate if there's any level 100 pokemon in the team.

- For PvP50: Pokemons over level 50 are balanced down to level 50, as per the mechanics of the original game. Those under 50 are not balanced up.

- For PvP20: cannot participate if any pokemon's level is higher than 70, and if the average level of the 3 higher pokemons is over 50. (This is to allow a smoother transition into the next PvP tier).

- For PvP20: Pokemons over level 20 are balanced down to level 20. Those under 20 are not balanced up.

 

For all options:

- The matching system attempts to find someone whose power is not too far to the player's team (even with level balance, evolutions and moves can create an unbalance). The longer it fails to find someone, the broader it looks for someone. It also does not find the same player more than once per day.

- As an incencitive for players to participate, pokemons receive experience at the end of the battle (I expect issues if done mid-match with the level balance), making it an alternative to grinding with wild pokemon. I think Exp reward is more than enough, no need for money or PvP token rewards.

- If you're worried someone could farm with that method and make leveling too easy (particularly around level 90), a daily limit can be implemented. Like, 5 PvP matches maximum per day.

 

 

In short, the new PvP matching would be limited to players still growing, allowing them to fight other players in a level balanced fight, in which they gain experience as if they were fighting an NPC trainer. This should make the game feel much more like you're playing with other players growing alongside you, as a MMORPG must be!

[Farzeen]

1st of all as a veteral pvp player the only way to get better is training with stronger opponents,and u do know u can fight your friend by just requesting him a battle request?also if they apply that type of system,normal queue will be way more dead than it is right now,simply because the new people to the community will become lazy to train their pokes or even continue playing if they keep losing or idk what.basically thats the problem in MMORPGS right now and alot of youtubers who try out all of mmos make that mistake and drop the reputation of the games,he was reviewing by simply playing only 4hrs.

[Imtrippin]

I don't see the need of making a new "battle option" when you can just challenge someone to a battle and set up your own desired rules for your match.

[Mordknight]

well you speaking right but the solution is not great. unranked option isnt even used by players ... adding other options wont help

i think of making a place where people meet and fight

like multiple open air arena spread in many towns; a player standing there means he wanna fight. we can make reward points system in there and make restrictions: like highest poke lvl - lowest poke lvl < 10 in the player team. and cant fight other player if pokes highest lvl difference is over 10.

to enhance this ; make ingame events (little ones...)

pvp should be for everyone not just elite

[Haneroze]

u do know u can fight your friend by just requesting him a battle request?

 

Yes, that is, if you have friends. I started alone, so no such thing. I would love to have some players to fight during my journey, but in the sea of high levels running every route hunting for pokemons, you can't really expect to find someone your level.

also if they apply that type of system,normal queue will be way more dead than it is right now,simply because the new people to the community will become lazy to train their pokes or even continue playing if they keep losing or idk what.

 

I don't really see that. Those low level matching options are essentially like Unranked, AKA it's only done for fun or testing your team. When you want the real rewards, you need to get serious and get your team fit for Ranked. Furthermore, by placing a daily limit, we're also essentially saying "Hey, you had enough fun, now it's time to go back to training your team!".

 

Also, the frustration that comes from losing is mostly the frustration from losing the reward. If the player receives experience even on a loss, I believe most players should be quite accepting of their loss.

well you speaking right but the solution is not great. unranked option isnt even used by players ... adding other options wont help

 

Since I haven't reached level 100 yet, I didn't know about unranked being unused. But I would assume it's not that it's unused, but rather that it's completely overshadowed by Ranked. Why played Unranked, when you can play Ranked and reap all the juicy rewards?

 

I personally do have a reason for Unranked, as I'd like to have some fun with some mono-specie team, but Ranked being subject to Specie-clause, that leaves me with only Unranked remaining. I'm probably the only weirdo thinking like that anyway.

i think of making a place where people meet and fight

like multiple open air arena spread in many towns; a player standing there means he wanna fight. we can make reward points system in there and make restrictions: like highest poke lvl - lowest poke lvl < 10 in the player team. and cant fight other player if pokes highest lvl difference is over 10.

to enhance this ; make ingame events (little ones...)

 

Placing a whole new area in every town like that sounds like quite the pain for mappers, and we can't afford to split too much, else there just won't be anyone in any split. Instead, we can make use of the underground train in Pokemon centers. Right now, they allow us to travel being cities for a cost, and after completion of a quest, but they would now give a second free (or very small cost) option to let you travel to the Arena (leaving it returns you to your previous city). The Arena could be instanced per level tier, or global for everyone, but people from every region would end up in the same arena.

 

After that, we'd need something to let new players know this place exists. Events is an idea, but I'm not quite sure how we would manage to make that work. Unless the reward is even greater than Ranked PvP, Level 100 players would feel excluded by the event, and I don't think that would sit well with the community, while if the event gives greater reward than Ranked, then we'd likely get in the problem Farzeen pointed out, people getting lazy to train their pokemons.

 

Personally, I easily noticed the PvP button early game, and immediately tried the Unranked option (only to see it was not all level). We could add a third option, "Arena", in which the player is informed about its rules and how to access the place.

pvp should be for everyone not just elite

 

Let me quote that alone and use it as the slogan of this thread.

[Imtrippin]

If you only pvp for fun, then there's no harm to queue up in ranked with a fun team. If you're not lvl 100, then you will just have to settle for challenging since the developers are focusing on another game right now, and I doubt any big changes will happen to this game at this point other than the rotating events.

[Haneroze]

But what if you want to PvP for fun while you're still running for the story? You pretty much can't.

 

Also, I don't think saying the Devs are no longer focusing on PRO is a good excuse to deny suggestions. Besides, what I asked for is not so much of a big change: Matchmaking already exists, you just need to add a new matchmaking channel with different rules. Probably the hardest thing to code in would be the balancing to a lower level, although it's not too complicated in Pokemon's system as there's no randomization in level up stats.

[Daedalus007]

I have an alternative to this, if so inclined. The 'Duel' option replacing the usual 'Battle' challenge option in the right click menu.

 

Lowbie here. I believe you can 'battle challenge' others even at low levels. Not through the PvP thing but just right clicking someone nearby and choosing 'Battle'.

 

Considering that it is an absolute chore to grind up to Level 12 (!) with even one or two pokemon just to have a chance against Brock without wiping or near-wiping, it would be nice to have some way to speed up the early-game progression somewhat by earning XP for winning (or losing) a Duel.

 

I'd love the duel option where losing gains you normal XP (equivalent to fighting an NPC trainer roughly) and winning earns you double the normal XP for that fight. Having this as an alternative to 'just grinding' would be quite awesome. Perhaps limit Dueling the same person to a 24 hour cooldown like a certain NPC trainer near Pewter City.