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Thoughtful opinion on Battle Tower

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The new system will definitely feel less repetitive than the "immune training" as mentioned in the update post. But I wouldn't go as far as to say it's "fun". To me it looks like it will be basically just like clan battles or sidequests (but randomized), which at least for me, are kinda boring to do. But fun is subjective, so let's talk about objective stuff about it.

First, I hope that some measures were taken into consideration regarding how points are attributed to each aspect of the seasonal leaderboard. What I mean by that is that the average player's average experience by the end of a season will very likely become lower than it used to be, requiring it's value to be revised, otherwise I feel like it's just gonna switch "the meta" towards the unique pokemon stat drastically (unless you put a lot more time into battles than you used to...). Those are predictions, of course, but if how the score is calculated wasn't revised, in a season or two we'll be able to see if I was right.

Now as mentioned, the new battle tower will definitely feel less repetitive than exp training does now, but to me it will feel a lot less attractive too. The thing is, when I dedicate time to place in the seasonal leaderboard, if I go the immune training route, alongside with the prize by the end of the season I get a lot of money, a decent increase in my account's total experience and perhaps a little increase in average experience. Thus, I have extra incentives to grind due to those permanent "earnings". Unless the prize money is calculated differently for battles in the tower, it will be less attractive to spend time on (even tho it might be more fun for some. Also, as mentioned in the update... It's all good when it's new, but even though it's completely random, might start feeling repetitive again after a while.)

My suggestion to mitigate this is to include sidequests as viable ways to earn exp/wins for the season. Considering a lot of teams in the sidequests do not have 6 pokemon, it would be a way faster way of achieving wins, so I would understand if battle wins wasn't part of the equation. But in essence the fighting is near the same, so I think the exp earned this way could and should be considered. And I suggest that because it will feel like you're earning something else as you play other than investing time just to collect the prize by the end of the month (and a small portion of the previous exp you used to earn in previous months). Immune training grants you so much money that I, playing to get in the leaderboard this month, was able to buy a few event pokemon in the auctions + mega stones + new hisuian evolution items and I'm still richer than I was by the beginning of the month. This kinda feels like the reward for playing this month had all of those things in addition to the seasonal shop point that I get.

Another problem that I have with how the exp/battle wins will be calculated is that facing a team of 6 level 100 pokemon, you very likely will not be able to gain level on most of the puny level 14's you get on the maps. So you'll grab them to increase the unique pokemon count, and let them sit there unused, because your time for battling is spent where only the big boys can play, it's the only place it will count towards the leaderboard afterall, decreasing your account's average exp unless you opt to simply capture and release around 300+ pokemon each month. (Not to mention hopefuly it won't increase the pointless pokebay auctions selling standard pokemon that no one wants for the minimum price, clogging up the front page of auctions and wasting everyone's time)

I get the intention behind the changes, but I feel they're much more impactful than they seem at first glance.
Thanks for reading this long rant.

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In response to the feeling rewarded part, I agree with you and the Battle Tower was originally intended as an updated replacement to Sidequests in which each battle has a chance to drop the rewards usually found in Sidequests.

As time went on, Sidequests became much longer than I'd expected and it's very tedious to update with each generation so I was hoping to phase it out in some way which is where the Battle Tower idea came from.
As you'd see from the Battle Tower FAQ:

Quote

Q - Can I win prizes from these battles, like Sidequests?
A - Currently no, but that is something that is being explored as an option.

If this original plan were to go ahead then it would not completely replace Sidequests but it's likely that Sidequests would become a "single-run" kind of thing, so you'd only ever be able to do it once and no longer reset progress. The rewards usually obtained through Sidequests would come from the Battle Tower, with each singular battle having the chance to drop rewards, as previously stated.

In regards to your other concerns; unfortunately, like yourself, we cannot predict the future so it's a situation of release what we hope will work, if it doesn't then we'll see why and then take it from there. It's best not to just see it as a "final solution", but rather a step in a progressive direction.
This season will be closely monitored to see how people play it, what works, what doesn't and then if adjustments need to be made, they will be made.

Thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

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On 6/30/2022 at 7:51 PM, Patrick said:

 

If this original plan were to go ahead then it would not completely replace Sidequests but it's likely that Sidequests would become a "single-run" kind of thing, so you'd only ever be able to do it once and no longer reset progress. The rewards usually obtained through Sidequests would come from the Battle Tower, with each singular battle having the chance to drop rewards, as previously stated.
 

Does this mean that regional variants will only ever be accessible in a single playthrough? EG, once I went past Alola in sidequests, I'd never be able to get Alolan forms ever again?

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2 hours ago, DeathsSpook said:

Does this mean that regional variants will only ever be accessible in a single playthrough? EG, once I went past Alola in sidequests, I'd never be able to get Alolan forms ever again?

No, they'd likely unlock permanently once past that point. Of course, I couldn't say for certain as nothing has been decided yet but it would never work in a way that would make it possible to "lock yourself out" of certain content.

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I like the sidequests, especially being able to reset them and start again... there's a definite sense of progression, something sorely lacking in the battle tower. I love seeing the full Pokedex get revealed bit by bit in the carefully chosen encounters, seeing the occasional level 150 legendary at the start is a shocker and then you get very interesting and non-trivial encounters with level 150 teams towards the end which require building actual teams of counters and finding a strategy to beat them - the money reward is always nice, most of the time it'll dwarf the item reward but pulling a fossil feels like winning the lottery. I can (and have) easily sit down and blaze through sidequests every now and then because it's an experience.

 

Battle tower doesn't have any of that appeal to me. It's just mindless battle after battle being infinitely generated. No progression and no unique prizes to justify it - I just can't get invested, much the same way as I can never get invested in grinding clan battles. Sidequests have an attraction and appeal on their own, clan battles have somewhat of a community aspect... if battle tower wasn't tied to the seasonals when it was released I doubt I would have spent more than a few minutes on it. I think for it to be more engaging, a more interesting system with novel encounters is needed - for example a rare chance to battle a battle tower leader who uses level 150 Pokemon, or prizes of different tiers every 10/50/100 battles etc. As it is it feels half baked and just as mindless as immune training... 

 

Regardless of what happens with the battle tower, I'd really love sidequests to stay repeatable lol, it's loads of fun 

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