My First Thoughts About PWO

[Rubbersock]

Hey all! When I got bored one day and typed "pokemon mmo" into google and came across this game, I couldn't be more excited to check it out. Before I get into my thoughts, I would like to start by saying that I've only been playing for 3 days now, so my information may be rather limited, so feel free to correct me. I'd also like to mention that I do like the game, and I am not making this a "OMG I HATE THIS GAME SO MUCH, PLEASE FIX IT!" kind of thread.

So here goes... before I even got into the game, I felt the registration process was rather awkward. Changing the symbols in that code and then waiting 30-45 minutes for a "chance" that you'll get a key, and sometimes having to re-apply if you don't get one. I'm sure there's a reason behind this system, but it felt unnatural, as far as registering for games is concerned. So I get into the game, go through the tutorial and get my first Pokémon. When I encounter my first trainer battle, I noticed something that I didn't care for. When you defeat an NPC's pokemon and he's about to switch to a new one, it doesn't first ask you to switch yours out, like it does in the original game. Not that big of a deal I suppose, but if I'm trying to get exp on a certain pokemon, I like to swap them into the start of each battle, then swap them out. Another thing I didn't like is the fact that exp isn't split equally, making it really hard to powerlevel low level pokemon against higher level ones. And the experience rates are AWFUL, making it a huge grind if you have to train on wild pokes to be able to fight the gyms. After the first day, I already paid the $6 for membership, just because of it. Not that I mind, this game has great potential.

Another major issue for me is how there's so many moves that don't even work I was pumped to finally get my Bayleef to learn synthesis, but when I first tried it, it didn't do anything. I also noticed Abra's teleport and Miltank's milk drink do not work. I see this game has been in "beta" for over 6 years now, and I just can't imagine how fixing the broken moves isn't on top of the priority list, but hey, I'm not a programmer

So I wanted a decent water pokemon to add to my team, so my first instinct is to go get my fishing rod. Then I find out it costs 10k, and the money-making when you first start out is SLOW. I didn't even get my Old Rod until my 2nd day, only to be able catch a Magikarp Not to mention, the fishing format on here is quite mind-numbing. I've read on other threads that once you get a surfboard, people don't even fish anymore, and that sort of depressed me. I never got bored of fishing on the handheld version of this game.

Lastly, and the most important, is the lack of the Daycare Center This took a major hit to my enjoyment when I found it it's disabled on here. I understand its for economy reasons, but I liked the daycare for the leveling and breeding for moves. I really wish there was a way to put this into the game and somehow block people from mass-breeding the Horribly Rare pokemon.

So, that's pretty much it for now. I know I'm only pointing out the negatives I didn't like about the game, but overall, I can't complain... what's not to love about a pokemon MMO? Hopefully I get used to the "new" system, but I really wish some of the features on here could get fixed.

Thanks!

 

[Sannosuke]

It's true that there are some moves that don't work throughout the game, but a large portion of the ones that haven't worked in the past have been fixed and the list is severely narrowing.
For me, it's been quite a different experience. Starting the game back in 07 at the VERY beginning, I've seen it where you took 1 step and had to reload the screen! (lol Java Alpha) so
the smaller things have never been any kind of deal to me. It's true that the exp. needed is intense, but that, I believe, is because as time went on it showed that the original exp. ratios
weren't lasting on the longer term of the game and they all had to be reworked. Man, most of my pokes have NEGATIVE exp. and are trying to "reearn" the level that they already are from the
earlier days.
Don't be too surprised about the cost for things. Since it's an MMO the time factor is figured and there should be things to look forward to beyond "day two" ya know?
And as for daycares, since we're all playing together, it's other players that are running daycares ^_^
Just check the forums and talk to the community in-game to find out a safe and reliable daycare and make sure to log your poke numbers before giving them to anyone.

Welcome to the game! Looking forward to seeing you out there =D

 

[HitmonFonty]

Some of the things you mention here just haven't been added yet, either due to lack of time and programmers or because a good way of implementing them hasn't yet been devised- or both. It has remained in beta and is likely to do so indefinitely because it uses copyrighted material and the programmers and other staff will never be and can never be paid for their work here.

Other differences to the handheld versions of the games are deliberate and necessary in converting them to an MMO format. As you say it's Pokemon and we love it for that, a lot of accepting PWO as it is doesn't just depend on patience waiting on updates but also understanding that it will never be exactly the same as the handheld versions. But while it won't have every feature we found in the originals it does have others to offer and that's what keeps a lot of us die hard pokemon fans here.

 

[Rubbersock]

Yeah, its a Pokemon MMO and I take it for what its worth. I was just expecting more, I guess. The lack of a daycare was the killer for me, and yes, I read up on the player-owned daycares but it doesn't really interest me.

I forgot to mention the negative exp thing. That is very annoying, and almost makes you have to swap out your newly-evolved Pokemon for something different, because more than likely, it won't be high enough to level to take on the next gym. This happened with my Bayleef. It used to be the highest pkmn in my party, now its 4 or 5 levels behind my highest. It seems like it should just be a minor coding change to fix it, but like I said, I'm not a programmer.

 

[king1234]

Yeah, its a Pokemon MMO and I take it for what its worth. I was just expecting more, I guess. The lack of a daycare was the killer for me, and yes, I read up on the player-owned daycares but it doesn't really interest me.

I forgot to mention the negative exp thing. That is very annoying, and almost makes you have to swap out your newly-evolved Pokemon for something different, because more than likely, it won't be high enough to level to take on the next gym. This happened with my Bayleef. It used to be the highest pkmn in my party, now its 4 or 5 levels behind my highest. It seems like it should just be a minor coding change to fix it, but like I said, I'm not a programmer.

Nothing is wrong with the exp system, its a common question, maybe if you look around the fourms, maybe entering "negative exp" in the search box above the forums you will find out why its negative. There are tons of query's about that, here a few with the answer.
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=230789#pid230789
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=221969#pid221969

Again maybe search around and do some homework you will find things about the game, and its still in BETA stage.

 

[Bluerise]

Registration system will be replaced later this year (once playerdex update is live & hopefully email server is playing nice).

 

[Professor.Oak]

Nothing is wrong with the exp system, its a common question, maybe if you look around the fourms, maybe entering "negative exp" in the search box above the forums you will find out why its negative. There are tons of query's about that, here a few with the answer.
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=230789#pid230789
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=221969#pid221969

Again maybe search around and do some homework you will find things about the game, and its still in BETA stage.[/quote]

I never understood how negative exp wasnt "wrong" or broken, Yes, I get its supposed to be there and why its there, but you can't expect the normal player coming from Playing the normal handhelds to playing here wont see something wrong with evolving and then suddenly having to pay 3X the normal amount they would have to pay. When a system is seen a by a majority of people as wrong or "broken" then it is so imo, until Negative exp can become something natural and streamlined then it will always be strange. The only way I really see to making Negative exp completely acceptable is if 1. Obviously moving the negative to the correct side, but 2. Also Spreading out the reaming exp to the remaining levels instead of all in one level, this will make it seem like you're leveling as normal, but you'll actually be paying off negative exp little by little.

 

[Rubbersock]

Yeah, its a Pokemon MMO and I take it for what its worth. I was just expecting more, I guess. The lack of a daycare was the killer for me, and yes, I read up on the player-owned daycares but it doesn't really interest me.

I forgot to mention the negative exp thing. That is very annoying, and almost makes you have to swap out your newly-evolved Pokemon for something different, because more than likely, it won't be high enough to level to take on the next gym. This happened with my Bayleef. It used to be the highest pkmn in my party, now its 4 or 5 levels behind my highest. It seems like it should just be a minor coding change to fix it, but like I said, I'm not a programmer.

Nothing is wrong with the exp system, its a common question, maybe if you look around the fourms, maybe entering "negative exp" in the search box above the forums you will find out why its negative. There are tons of query's about that, here a few with the answer.
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=230789#pid230789
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=221969#pid221969

Again maybe search around and do some homework you will find things about the game, and its still in BETA stage.

Oh I did look around, but from what I read, the negative exp is a "graphical error" but that doesn't make any sense. Either way, it really does hinder your already-slow leveling process, but like i said, I take it for what its worth, and still find it enjoyable. However, now that I think about it, it could possibly "make" trainers use pokemon that don't evolve for the simple fact that they can avoid the negative exp fiasco. And whats the fun part in that?

 

[Orean]

Yeah, its a Pokemon MMO and I take it for what its worth. I was just expecting more, I guess. The lack of a daycare was the killer for me, and yes, I read up on the player-owned daycares but it doesn't really interest me.

I forgot to mention the negative exp thing. That is very annoying, and almost makes you have to swap out your newly-evolved Pokemon for something different, because more than likely, it won't be high enough to level to take on the next gym. This happened with my Bayleef. It used to be the highest pkmn in my party, now its 4 or 5 levels behind my highest. It seems like it should just be a minor coding change to fix it, but like I said, I'm not a programmer.

Nothing is wrong with the exp system, its a common question, maybe if you look around the fourms, maybe entering "negative exp" in the search box above the forums you will find out why its negative. There are tons of query's about that, here a few with the answer.
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=230789#pid230789
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=221969#pid221969

Again maybe search around and do some homework you will find things about the game, and its still in BETA stage.

Oh I did look around, but from what I read, the negative exp is a "graphical error" but that doesn't make any sense. Either way, it really does hinder your already-slow leveling process, but like i said, I take it for what its worth, and still find it enjoyable. However, now that I think about it, it could possibly "make" trainers use pokemon that don't evolve for the simple fact that they can avoid the negative exp fiasco. And whats the fun part in that?

It also is worth noting that single-stage evolution Pokemon that are coveted by players tend to be more difficult to hunt for (HR), or are exclusively available on the token store (UCs). Pokemon of that caliber also tend to have a higher-than-average base experience value, requiring more experience to train off from lower levels than most base-stage Pokemon would. The exact reason evolved Pokemon need to train off negative experience is to have enough cumulative total experience to progress normally through its increased leveling chart, so evolved or not; depending on the experience base value, comparable amounts of total experience need to be trained off to reach a certain level.

For others single-stage evolution Pokemon, they may have substandard base stats, and no room for expansion of them. Would the more competitive pvp battlers mind training off negative experience in favor of more viable material for pvp battles?

To clarify, it's labeled as a graphical error because the debt of experience should not be visualized as a negative amount, which it technically isn't; just the difference between your Pokemon's pre-evolution, and the total amount of experience the freshly evolved Pokemon should have at that level.

It is possible that negative experience may be removed, but many aspects of the game, such as the leveling system, will not be completely reworkable until a new client is on board.

 

[Rubbersock]

Yeah, its a Pokemon MMO and I take it for what its worth. I was just expecting more, I guess. The lack of a daycare was the killer for me, and yes, I read up on the player-owned daycares but it doesn't really interest me.

I forgot to mention the negative exp thing. That is very annoying, and almost makes you have to swap out your newly-evolved Pokemon for something different, because more than likely, it won't be high enough to level to take on the next gym. This happened with my Bayleef. It used to be the highest pkmn in my party, now its 4 or 5 levels behind my highest. It seems like it should just be a minor coding change to fix it, but like I said, I'm not a programmer.

Nothing is wrong with the exp system, its a common question, maybe if you look around the fourms, maybe entering "negative exp" in the search box above the forums you will find out why its negative. There are tons of query's about that, here a few with the answer.
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=230789#pid230789
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=221969#pid221969

Again maybe search around and do some homework you will find things about the game, and its still in BETA stage.

Oh I did look around, but from what I read, the negative exp is a "graphical error" but that doesn't make any sense. Either way, it really does hinder your already-slow leveling process, but like i said, I take it for what its worth, and still find it enjoyable. However, now that I think about it, it could possibly "make" trainers use pokemon that don't evolve for the simple fact that they can avoid the negative exp fiasco. And whats the fun part in that?

It also is worth noting that single-stage evolution Pokemon that are coveted by players tend to be more difficult to hunt for (HR), or are exclusively available on the token store (UCs). Pokemon of that caliber also tend to have a higher-than-average base experience value, requiring more experience to train off from lower levels than most base-stage Pokemon would. The exact reason evolved Pokemon need to train off negative experience is to have enough cumulative total experience to progress normally through its increased leveling chart, so evolved or not; depending on the experience base value, comparable amounts of total experience need to be trained off to reach a certain level.

For others single-stage evolution Pokemon, they may have substandard base stats, and no room for expansion of them. Would the more competitive pvp battlers mind training off negative experience in favor of more viable material for pvp battles?

To clarify, it's labeled as a graphical error because the debt of experience should not be visualized as a negative amount, which it technically isn't; just the difference between your Pokemon's pre-evolution, and the total amount of experience the freshly evolved Pokemon should have at that level.

It is possible that negative experience may be removed, but many aspects of the game, such as the leveling system, will not be completely reworkable until a new client is on board.

Ahh, thanks for the clarification. Yeah, whether its intentional or not, its still a bit disheartening when you get one of your pokemon to evolve only to see that you need to spend numerous hours just to get it back to neutral My Snubbull evolved into Granbull tonight (level 23), and left me with 61k exp to work off -.- Wouldn't be so bad if the cooldown to re-fight NPC's wasn't so long, since thats the best way to train.

 

[Merse]

Negative XP is only a problem until you have low level Pokes. Later with NPCs and high level hunting areas you may get rid of any negative XP within a few hours tops, so it won't matter that much any more.

 

[Orean]

Wouldn't be so bad if the cooldown to re-fight NPC's wasn't so long, since thats the best way to train.

One may also suggest that reformulating the leveling system, into a more fluid proportion, would also be of a more optimum solution than enrichment of experience from NPCs. If the leveling chart requires less experience to level up down the lines, then it will effectively mitigate the amount of negative experience that needs to be made up as well. Not to say that negative experience is not intended to be removed (can't say if it will be the first thing done in another overhaul of the leveling system), however, just throwing out a potentially more preferable change, whereby it may be more practical than reducing the cooldown time on NPCs.

 

[Abox-]

Nothing is wrong with the exp system, its a common question, maybe if you look around the fourms, maybe entering "negative exp" in the search box above the forums you will find out why its negative. There are tons of query's about that, here a few with the answer.
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=230789#pid230789
http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?pid=221969#pid221969

Again maybe search around and do some homework you will find things about the game, and its still in BETA stage.

2. Also Spreading out the reaming exp to the remaining levels instead of all in one level, this will make it seem like you're leveling as normal, but you'll actually be paying off negative exp little by little.

That seems like a great idea Oak.

 

[Merse]

That idea is floating around in the community for a long while already, and if I remember correctly, the handheld games work just like that (I may be wrong, I didn't play Pokemon on handhelds for a very long time), but for that you must completely rework the XP system, you ahve to make it dynamic, so it could recalculate the XP cost of each level depending on what level you want your Poke to evolve. After all,a Pokemon can evolve on level 20 and level 98 as well...

 

[Rubbersock]

Sounds like a great idea, having the negative XP get dispersed into the remaining levels, not one huge chunk of it to work off at one time.

 

[Peace-Enforcer]

Don't get discouraged by leveling system. as u progress thro the game you will find it get a lot easier to level. Lack of Day Care is important cause its a way for players to earn money. Good Day carers use knowledge of pokemon, hunting areas, exp chart and move level requirement to level pokemon as fast as they can. There are players who get pokemon from lvl 5 to max in 10 hours. Player Day Care is an important aspect of the game and it is one of thoes things which makes it unique and worth playing and it shouldn't b changed. Just mby made a bit secure.
Have fun in game and welcome to the community!

 

[Rubbersock]

Now that I'm almost 2 weeks into playing the game, I've found something that is quite annoying, and I'm not sure if I missed something or not. Basically, I've achieved my 7th badge now, but the wild pokemon are still very low level. The gyms are now starting to contain level 40+ pokemon to fight, but I'm still left training on level 15-20's. Is this intended? Besides the training, its also difficult if I catch something new that I want to add to my team, and have to train it from such a low level. When do the pokemon start getting higher level? The highest I've seen is maybe 22 in the Johto Safari and maybe a level 20 in the Ice Caves.

 

[Orean]

Although it is not intended for training to be this time-draining, much of the experience system is not reworkable without a new client, therefore it is rather arduous to train, given the current limitations. Given the lack of training areas to commensurate with the amount of experience you need to gain, NPCs are often the only viable source of experience to train on until access to more potent training areas are unlocked.

However, since you are nearing your first 2 weeks of playtime, many NPCs are bound to cooldown soon (2 weeks being the cooldown time for most NPCs), thus I'd advise backtracking and rebattling them when possible. When you obtain a surfboard for 100k, and more badges, you will have access to considerably better training areas.

 

[Merse]

This is an MMO. You shouldn't be able to level your Pokes to 40-50 in mere hours. Unless you have all the NPCs to rebattle
I don't think the XP rate is bad, you just have to know where to train. In Kanto you can train in Digletts Cave B3F, or in the Cerulean Cave later. In Jotho, there is the whateverthecavename is (I forgot... ^^'), then the DD. And finally there is Mt. Silver. Plus the NPCs reset in 2 weeks, the first NPCs in 2 days, so you most likely always have someone to fight and grind XP on.

 

[Rubbersock]

This is an MMO. You shouldn't be able to level your Pokes to 40-50 in mere hours. Unless you have all the NPCs to rebattle
I don't think the XP rate is bad, you just have to know where to train. In Kanto you can train in Digletts Cave B3F, or in the Cerulean Cave later. In Jotho, there is the whateverthecavename is (I forgot... ^^'), then the DD. And finally there is Mt. Silver. Plus the NPCs reset in 2 weeks, the first NPCs in 2 days, so you most likely always have someone to fight and grind XP on.

I understand that this is an MMO, but why does that translate into long grind? I'm at my 8th gym already, and the wild pokemon around the town are still in the teens to lower 20's (most are around 15). I find this disheartening for two reasons. Poor exp rates when I'm training my level 40's on 15's and the fact that I can't really catch anything somewhat high to fight the gym with. I pretty much have to keep my current team because if I catch something new, I'll be behind in my quest to beat the next gym. To me, any MMO I've played is about the end-game and not the leveling process. Pokemon is slightly different, but I think most still have that sandbox MMO mentality where you want to rush to "beat the game" and then enjoy the random stuff you can do afterwards (completing your Pokedex, hunting shinies, etc.). For me, that is what I am doing (or trying to do). With the current format that's in the game right now, it would almost make sense to farm HR's and shinies and just buy a better team to take the gym leaders on, rather than catch and train my own. That is not what Pokemon is about. You shouldn't be able to buy your way to success, but that's a whole other story. I don't necessarily like the fact that Pokemon are treated in the fashion that weapons and armor are in other games either. To me, defeating all of the gyms is only 10% of why I play the game. The real fun begins AFTER that, when I can roam around the world and do what I want Making XP rates lower just because "its an MMO" is not a valid reason to me.