Nature, You're Scary!

[Jobey]

One can not deny the progress PWO has made as of late, and as they continue to sort out old bugs and implement new features, I can't help but feel natures will be here sooner than later. Now, I know a long time ago in a galaxy far away, there were discussions about how best to implement natures once that fateful day comes. If I recall, a leading discussion was to simply allow a person to change the nature of a pokemon one time (much like the ability feature) however I feel this would cause a missed opportunity to help give a "soft reboot" of the economy so to speak.

In my opinion (I know, my opinion is about as relevant as a squirrel that has been run down in the middle of a road but here it goes anyway LOL) I feel all current pokemon should keep their natures and only newly caught pokemon should have the new natures. I know most may feel this may make current pokemon useless but I disagree to an extent. See, even though a hardy nature doesn't help a pokemon, it also doesn't entirely hurt it (I'm not denying that the proper nature is a huge bonus just stating that those of a neutral nature aren't completely hindered) and I feel current battlers will still be useful, especially considering the time it would take for the playerbase to create a substantial pool of pokemon that are the perfect combination of IVs and Natures, in fact, some may feel it would be quite a daunting and painstaking task to pull off with current encounter rates, which brings me to my next point.

My next point is, I feel that if natures are implemented to wild pokemon, that the encounter rates should be more in line with how the official games are. This may seem shocking coming from me as I have always stated that I feel the more difficult encounter rates are needed as this is an MMO but I feel if natures are implemented, which in a way would be like making finding the perfect pokemon almost 25 times harder, that it would balance out. This could also lead to a boost in the economy as it would encourage buying and selling of these more favored and ideal pokemon. Now, with that said, I don't deny it will devalue the current pokemon in the long run, however, prices have seemingly been on a slight decline anyway, and at least with these new pokemon there can be a new upside. Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!

 

[Lobonatico]

No, we're good.

Nah, just joking! xD

Hey Jobey,

In the great stairs of progress I agree Nature step is inevitable. But a fundamental step is needed before we decide taking this path.

In my opinion your suggestion to hold all current pokemons into Hardy nature can punish more than help. Farm natures + decent ivs at random wild encounters, even with low encounter rates is like a lottery. Devs may designed tiers and "pokemons from event-only" at some point for a purpose (not that i agree with that its just the way the things are), with swarms and stuff.

Also we can take out a huge variety of pokemons from battles by doing that just by locking out the possibility from players to catch those pokemons anytime. But this will turn into other topic, so back to the subject...

About nature farm, here some insights:

> Farm perfect pokemons isn't that hard in original games due to lot of mechanics to help, like:

1.

Egg breeding system.

2.

Destiny Knot | to pass 5 IVs at random from the parents.

3.

Oval charm. | raise the chances of pokemons actually breed at Daycare.

4.

Everstone | to pass held parent nature.

5. One of every nature Ditto caught (with decent-to-perfect IVs).

6. Ability (Flame Body) working outside the battle | to hatch faster.

Now if we had half of this we players would be fine at this subject. But currently we don't. And discussing in a competitive point-of-view: A suitable nature and close-to-perfect IVs are connected, right? How often can we farm those two variants at events or swarms? Somebody can scream: someone at a point will find goods and the economy...! The economy can be fine if we can hold new players to play longer, and they seem interested in more regions, variety of pokemons and frequent access to items/tutors, regular updates, etc before vanish from the game. I don't want to get out of the subject here, so if Nature would be implemented tomorrow (for example) i would like playerdex could help us selecting the nature for sure otherwise god help us (unless this come packed inside a '2 new region released, hundred of ucs catchable, new tutors, new everything' pack).

Conclusion: Nature works as another variant to make battlers have headaches, and consequently more difficulties for hunters. Have no nature make it a 0 - 0 scenario which is good imo, I like to be able to change abilities (even Hidden ones) at playerdex too, that helps a lot we could manage the same for nature and still get variety in gameplay. I dont even need to mention that lowering the encounter rate would conflict with 2 other concerns: ¹Current boxes space and ²Shiny encounter (which truly have advantage in IVs).

 

[Jobey]

In my opinion your suggestion to hold all current pokemons into Hardy nature can punish more than help. Farm natures + decent ivs at random wild encounters, even with low encounter rates is like a lottery.

The fact that it could prove so difficult to obtain said pokemon would cause those of hardy nature to still be relevant and not entirely "punish" them

Now if we had half of this we players would be fine at this subject. But currently we don't.

Yeah, I agree, it would still not be as easy here as it would be in official games to get a good IV/Nature combo, but for the same reason I was always fine with more difficult encounter rates, it doesn't need to be as easy. This in turn causes this MMO to encourage buying/selling/trading.

so if Nature would be implemented tomorrow (for example) i would like playerdex could help us selecting the nature for sure

Of course you would (who really wouldn't prefer that?) because then why feel the need to hunt for something else? Yeah, selecting natures would be easier and more convenient, but it would/could dissuade further hunting.

How often can we farm those two variants at events or swarms?

This right here is by far your strongest point, and there is no counter argument to it besides encouraging people to spend more time hunting during events and swarms, but as much as most people already spend (many somehow manage hunting 26 hours during a 24 hour day like some kind of time manipulator LOL) they really cant spend much more time grinding. Only alternative would be longer duration swarms and events.

Good discussion though man. Thanks!

 

[GuiiHenrique]

Well...
First of all, Nature is something I really miss, but in my opinion, I don't see how positive it is to only add Nature to Pokémon caught after a certain date. Doing so is basically throwing players' gametime into the trash.
A simple example: How would the Pokémon that appeared only in Swarm / Events look like?

I am in favor of change, but I believe that it is not possible to think of Nature in isolation.
We can go further and think of another example: PWO does not keep Tutors / TMs that were only present at events, that is, the player would depend on someone's goodwill to add these Moves another time.

(Thinking about economics). Complaints about high prices are only on the forum or in private conversations. In my opinion (based on what I've seen in the game), a "perfect" Pokémon (Nature / Moves / IVs) would cost (at least) 3x more than it is today (considering current rarities). I also don't believe anyone would pay a high price on some Pokémon with a Neutral Nature knowing that its value tends to only decrease. I'm sure TS Pokemons would also have increased prices.

Since I mentioned rarities, it is worth remembering that some Abilities influence hunting (the famous "Outside of battle")... in PWO this does not exist.

Anyway, in my opinion, Breeding (original) would solve the problem of Natures to a certain extent, but it would be a way to keep the current Pokémon usable, however, the trade of eggs would appear (is this legal in an MMO?). I guess the most prudent way would be some kind of fusion (two Pokemons would become one), however Pokemons with IVs 32 would return to the game.

In summary: In PWO, today, it is not possible to think of Nature in isolation, we would have unbalanced PVP, price increases and the competitive would basically be gen 1 / 2.​

 

[Fadoka]

Okay, if we go through things logically, we will find that every step might have defects that we will need to minimize as much as possible to implement.

When official pokemon games were made, they included natures, IVs, EVs and egg system all together. So when we implement something huge like that, we have to make sure to keep it fair for the older pokemon and the newer pokemon to come after the update.

Having implemented natures is actually a great step. But it would be really unfair to basically restart the game. The older pokemon you had over the years would be useless if only the newer caught pokemon after the update will have its value with the nature.

The best case for implementing natures is to allow the players to choose a nature for their already caught pokemon from before the nature update implementation (at least once on playerdex), and just put random natures on wild pokemon so you would balance the old with the new.

It's no secret that older stuff are the most valuable stuff. The 28-31 IV shiny pokemon from the past have a huge value for now. It will be the same for all the current pokemon when you get to choose the nature once. It won't burn anything nor anyone but it would cause a huge damage if you basically ask 10+ years old players/collectors just to "restart the game upon releasing an update, hunting all over again".

As to mention, nature update shouldn't be implemented solo on its own. You have to implement "Synchronize hunting system" at which the wild pokemon would have at least 50% for copying your opener's nature while hunting.
Example: Having an adamant synchronize abra will allow wild dratini spawns to have at least 50% adamant nature.
This is needed to balance the whole system together.

Breeding system will have less fuzz than others but I'm pretty sure that I've already said the most important part when we come to implement those. I've been around places and I've see how places died because of incorrect updates/lack of knowledge. So basically that's pretty much what I see is fair/heathy for such newer updates.

Briefly:
1- Add synchronize hunting system at the same update of adding natures. (These have to go together to balance things)
2- Allow older (existing) pokemon to have natures chosen for them at least once on playerdex.

 

[Cleveland]

Natures are a new concept to me (get off my lawn please!) but, as a general line of thinking, if you render older pokemon useless, you risk upsetting and alienating older players, which represent like 95% of the active playerbase...

Simply put, older pokemon would need to be given the opportunity to update to remain relevant & competitive.

 

[Jobey]

Welp, given the comments, seems that if natures are implemented then they should be what was originally discussed and just make it where you can change the nature of every pokemon once, including all future wild caught ones as I feel giving random natures to new pokemon while allowing players to change the natures of older pokemon is kind of counter productive. Good discussion everyone!

 

[Jobey]

if you render older pokemon useless

My logic behind it was those pokemon wouldn't exactly be useless because the amount of pokemon with a good combination of IVs and natures would take a very long time to be of a significant enough number to over take them. I am seeing everyone's point on this though.

 

[Cleveland]

My logic behind it was those pokemon wouldn't exactly be useless because the amount of pokemon with a good combination of IVs and natures would take a very long time to be of a significant enough number to over take them. I am seeing everyone's point on this though.

Yeah I understand that logic, however I'm not convinced dying a slow death would be any better than an instant death.

 

[Fadoka]

Who cares about natures Jobey? Lets get some burgers

 

[Jobey]

Who cares about natures Jobey? Lets get some burgers

Hell yeah! natures are a pain, burgers rule! XD

 

[Jobey]

Yeah I understand that logic, however I'm not convinced dying a slow death would be any better than an instant death.

Fair enough point XD

 

[thunderclap]

I also have no experience with natures, but what about adding an item obtainable from Battle Tower to re-roll your pokemon to a random nature? Being able to select the exact nature you want seems too easy.

Also see my suggestion about making Battle Tower regular mode pay Pd and exp.

 

[lWtRl]

I also have no experience with natures, but what about adding an item obtainable from Battle Tower to re-roll your pokemon to a random nature? Being able to select the exact nature you want seems too easy.

Also see my suggestion about making Battle Tower regular mode pay Pd and exp.

Maybe Vouchers… Battle Points is too EZ