LukaAlfy

Wonderful comment, a perfect way to make them see that the game and the comp can be beautiful without the need to make so obvious the need for donations to enter.

Another essay of mine, there is no TL;DR so there is the door if you are lazy. Get out!
 
Now that's out of the way,
Especially @Kyu I beg you to hear me out. I really want to point something out here, we have an open wound in PokeMMO which causes a player to flinch once they finish stories of all regions. Shiny hunting, steep curve of casual to competitive play, berry raising or any similar end-game things require a decent budget to get started. While I agree this is hard to remedy without making things too easy or ruining economy. There is no reason to make it worse. Let's give a quick review to economy changes of the recent patch.

Berry vendoring was a huge cause of money entering to economy, these things always serve as an inflation cause in MMO environment so even though it hurts me too as a Liechi raiser, I will not deny this is healthy for economy.

Here is where things get tricky;

Let's pause and think about Amulet Coin for a second. Most likely Amulet Coin price will stabilize around the point where it is profitable to buy one when you do a full rich trainer re-battle run. Which approximately takes 1 hour for a veteran player anyways.

For people who just got out of story, they will most likely have a team of level 50-60 non-optimized pokemon in their hands where rebattling would take much longer time so buying an amulet coin would be non-profitable for them. They basicly won't complete a full rich trainer re-battle run before amulet coin expires.

This gives a fresh player 2 options, farm without an amulet coin, or farm meowths for one. Option 1 will be much more unviable compared to it's previous state as the money they get will be tooooo low for the time spent, so let's check option 2, farming meowths.

Since they won't make a full run in time with coin, for new players selling the coin itself will be a much better option. So you might think, "Hey, what's so wrong about selling amulet coins?"

Previously, Amulet Coin provided an equal ground for everyone, so while earning their money, fresh players could also raise their levels to a point where they could meet their next goal, being able to rebattle Gyms. Now this will split their path, money or experience?

Is this a huge issue? Technically it shouldn't be, because if they go money route, they will also most likely be able to afford new lucky eggs for a big boost in experience when necessary. But the problem is, this is only the case for people with knowledge of how those charms work. Most fresh players will have no idea about how things work in post-game and they will feel extra scared about playing further for higher goals.

Now about long term effects of this...
 
There is a thin line of balance between making things too easy and making things too scary for fresh players. For example, obedience limit updates were a great addition to balance how easy the story is by overleveling one Pokemon and stomping things. And I believe we are dangerously leaning on "too scary" part for post-story at the moment.

There are examples of big companies who thought they would never run out of new players but they went into a huge black hole by losing that thin balance, including but not limited to Blizzard Ent, Riot Games, etc. They are desperately trying crazy things to get back players or invite new players now. Let's not fall into that state.

There are things we need to fix and I'll give my probably not perfect but "could be built on" suggestions.
Before that I'll give an honorable mention to an MMO requiring more co-op play to be more inviting to friend groups but I'll skip things regarding to that since I'm pretty sure all devs are aware of it and working on it at the moment.

For story and fresh post-story experience,
 
We seriously need some sort of profile overview for players, maybe displaying badges earned or average level of the player's party. A lot of players during story end up getting in seriously imbalanced duels where they get bullied by higher levels that pretend to look casually around their level, or their duel requests are majorly rejected by others because other people are higher/lower than their level range. In second case the player sending request has no idea about why they keep getting rejected by everyone and may find the game a bit unengaging socially for an MMO. I don't see any negative consequences of adding a simple profile to players.

Stories are getting completed just for the sake of completion, so people are like "Yeaaa I'm a champion, now what?". This is only works for single player experiences. I kinda think giving people who have completed all available regions 2 completely competitive ready OU Pokemon (moveset + 5x31 + EV trained + proper nature + level 50 + untradable gift) either their choice or random, would be quite productive, I've seen it applied in other MMO's where the curve from completing the story to end game is quite steep. It works like a charm. People feel less scared to go on further when you give them a kickstart towards their goal in our case it's 1/3 of a complete team, so they would be more willing and less scared to add 4 more Pokemon on it. Which in return will give them dedication to add probably much more to their roster as they gain competitive experience. This has no negative effect on economy as those are gift Pokemon, it actually has a positive effect of having more active post-game players.

We should really expose people to knowledge of the stuff that are different from handheld games. Adding some random tips to login screens (since we don't really have any loading screens) would help.
Examples would be like;
"Did you know you could buy HM Ocarinas from other players as well as our Gift Shop to be able to use your HM moves without teaching them to a Pokemon?"
"Did you know we have a matchmaking system for PvP and we hold regular tournaments for great prizes? Check PvP menu in game!"
Some suitable places for it could be;
Here
or here
 


Regarding mid-range and high-end experience,

We lack events that target mid-tier players. This requires heavy brainstorming as much as lacking co-op things do. We have tournaments where only high-end players have fun and participate, or catching events which is pretty much a lottery for everyone. We need to think ways to engage people who are in competitive play but not experienced enough for high end activities yet.

Also we lack variety on matchmaking. Let me tell you straight. This UI is WRONG!

 
Our different tier ranked games start at different times but since we greet our players with OU interface immediately, other tiers can't really get attention, if we moved ranked info to a new tab and presented timer for all 3 tier queues on single screen there will be more people willing to play other tiers, "Oh, UU rankeds are up, I'll go play UU instead an unranked OU"



That's all from me now, thanks for your time reading!

Actually mathematically that is how probability works, it's an exponential curve that never quite reaches 100%

We have noticed a large amount of players crashing when trying to apply custom themes. Because custom theme compatibility has been broken, please remove them until mod authors update their themes.
 
Features
Added moves: Gravity, Magnet Rise, Telekinesis, Smackdown, Wide Guard, Quick Guard, Foul Play, After You, Circle Throw, Dragon Tail, Incinerate, Psycho Shift, Me First, Guard Split, Power Split, Flame Burst, Round, Echoed Voice, Ally Switch, Quash, Retaliate, Final Gambit, Wake-Up Slap, Worry Seed, Captivate, Chatter, Seed Flare, Synchronoise, Glaciate, V-create, Acupressure, Soak, Fling, Natural Gift, Judgment, Techno Blast, Lucky Chant, Heal Pulse, Chip Away, Sacred Sword, Wonder Room, Magic Room, Embargo, Reflect, Fusion Flare, Fusion Bolt, Heal Block, Lunar Dance, Heart Swap, Miracle Eye, Relic Song, Bestow, Fire Pledge, Water Pledge, Grass Pledge, Freeze Shock, Ice Burn, Shadow Force Added in-battle items: Air Balloon, Iron Ball, Muscle Band, Wise Glasses, Expert Belt, Light Clay, Toxic Orb, Flame Orb, Destiny Knot, Icy Rock, Smooth Rock, Heat Rock, Damp Rock, Float Stone, Quick Powder, Elemental Plates (+20% Elemental Damage effects), Black Sludge, Eviolite, Ring Target, Binding Band, Occa/Passho/Wacan/Rindo/Yache/Chople/Kebia/Shuca/Coba/Payapa/Tanga/Charti/Kasib/Haban/Colbur/Babiri/Chilan/Jaboca/Rowap/Custap Berry, Grip Claw, Absorb Bulb, Cell Battery, Odd Incense, Rock Incense, Wave Incense, Rose Incense, Luck Incense (Amulet Coin clone), Focus Sash, Zoom Lens, Metronome, Rocky Helmet, Sticky Barb, Big Root, Lagging Tail, Full Incense, Power Herb, Razor Claw, Razor Fang, Poke Toy, Dire Hit, Guard Spec Added out-of-battle item effects: Berry Juice, Sacred Ash, Old Gateau, Sweet Heart, Casteliacone, RageCandyBar, Heal Ball, Friend Ball Added abilities: Tangled Feet, Motor Drive, Rivalry, Steadfast, Snow Cloak, Gluttony, Anger Point, Simple, Sniper, Stall, Aftermath, Filter, Storm Drain, Contrary, Klutz, Leaf Guard, Dry Skin, Flower Gift, Ice Body, Solar Power, Reckless, Weak Armor, Heavy Metal, Light Metal, Moody, Justified, Overcoat, Sand Force, Telepathy, Poison Touch, Flare Boost, Poison Touch, Rattled, Sap Sipper, Toxic Boost, Mummy, Wonder Skin, Moxie, Prankster, Zen Mode, Anticipation, Unaware, Victory Star, Infiltrator, Magic Bounce, Slow Start, Multitype, Friend Guard, Normalize, Unnerve, Defiant, Big Pecks, Unburden, Harvest, Bad Dreams, Healer, Pickpocket, Analytic, Sheer Force, Mold Breaker, Turboblaze, Teravolt, Honey Gather, Cursed Body, Frisk, Forewarn Note: Where applicable, all moves/items/abilities have been added with their Gen 7 effects. Improved client performance significantly Improved performance of GBA maps during night-time Improved performance of NDS map object culling Added GUI Scaling & High DPI font support for Desktop for high DPI screens Added character render limits under the Settings menu. Default Desktop: Unlimited, Default Android: 20 Improved animations for battle sprites Updated overworld legendary movesets/builds Improved AI capabilities Added IME input support for macOS This option is experimental, and can be enabled by adding the configuration option client.input.ime=true to your config/main.properties file Improved default UI This update breaks compatibility with all custom UIs. Added EV/IV totals to the Summary Added font scaling Please see data/themes/default/fonts.xml for current size definitions. A UI will be added for font scaling at a later date. CJK languages show at a higher text size than LGC fonts, and may have graphical glitches in some windows. If your client is set to a CJK language and shows small CJK text, please make sure you are using the latest versions of strings files. The strings file must have a typeface parameter in its header, e.g. <strings lang="zh" lang_full="中文 (Chinese)" is_primary="0" typeface="sc">
Added 4 additional Ranked PvP timeslots
Ranked PvP now occurs every 3 hours
 
Balancing
Egg hatch times are now consistent across all species Leppa Berry can no longer be recovered via Recycle/Harvest Double Battles in Tournament Mode now use Sleep Clause. Mail items will now cause skills such as Trick, Fling, Bestow, and Thief to fail if the target or attacker is holding them Smoke Ball: No longer consumes when activated Increases flee chance by a percentage (up to 100% if you are higher leveled than the foe). Allows bypassing of Trapping skills (Bind/Ingrain/Mean Look/etc.) Toxic may now hit semi-invulnerable targets if the caster is Poison-type Stench now has a 10% chance to flinch the target In Triple Battles, Intimidate targets adjacent foes instead of all foes In Triple Battles, Trace targets adjacent foes instead of all foes Abilities which grant immunity to types of status ailments (Limber, Magma Armor, Oblivious, etc.) will now cure their status ailments on battle start, or if applied via Mold Breaker Cleanse Tag-type held items and Stench overworld effects now stack multiplicatively Cleanse Tag / Stench / White SMoke now each reduce encounter rates by 15% (Stacking) Figy/Wiki/Mago/Aguav/Iapapa Berry now activate at 25% HP, and heal for 50% HP When using Sweet Scent, players will now always encounter the maximum horde size of the map Notes: For example, if a map has both 3-sized hordes and 5-sized hordes, only 5-sized hordes can now be encountered. For hordes where the species was exclusively in 3-size hordes, they have been increased to 5-size. Contests now support Gen 4+ skills GTL updates: Auction durations have been reduced to 3 weeks Maximum listings per type has been reduced from 300 -> 250 The minimum item fee has been increased $100 -> $150 Minimum price for monsters has been increased from $1,000 to $1,500 The maximum fee per-item remains $25,000 These changes are temporary due to high server load. Sorry for the inconvenience Taxes for items are now calculated per-item instead of per-stack. Notes: Previously, players who sold high count stacks of items would gain an advantage over players who sold smaller stacks of items. This changes makes fees fair for all stack sizes. Added Berry Juice recipe for crafting Requires 1 Berry Powder / 1 Fresh Water Updated Rare Candy recipe for crafting Now requires 25 Berry Powder / 1 Balm Mushroom / 3 Big Mushroom OR 25 Berry Powder / 1 Balm Mushroom / 6 Tiny Mushroom When cleaning up a dead berry plot, there is now a small chance to gain an item Updated held items for many wild encounters X items now increase stat stages by 2 Prices for these items have been increased slightly, and they are now available in most Marts Level caps for the storyline have been updated to: Kanto: 20/26/32/37/46/47/50/55/62/100 Hoenn: 20/24/28/33/35/38/44/47/58/100 Unova: 20/24/27/31/35/38/42/45/56/100 Levels of gym leaders in many areas have been reduced slightly Storyline NPCs now distribute more effective held items in GBA areas Updated berry held item activation requirements: Oran Berry now activates at 50% HP Figy/Wiki/Mago/Aguav/Iapapa Berry now activate at 25% HP, and heal for 50% HP Updated ball formulas for: Dive Ball: Underwater ball bonus is now 2.5x Net Ball: Bug/Water ball bonus is now 2.5x Timer Ball ball bonus is now (1/1.66/2.33/3) for turns (<6, <9, <13, 13+) Quick Ball ball bonus is now 2.25x Level Ball ball bonus is now: 1/1.5/1.75/2/2.5/2.75 for levels (<=10, <=20, <=30, <=40, <=50, >50) Heavy Ball ball bonus is now: 0.5/1/1.75/2.5/3 for weights (<= 99,9kg, >=100kg & < 200kg, >= 201kg & <300kg, >= 301kg & <400kg, >= 400kg) Moon Ball ball bonus is now 2.5x for Moon Stone evolution trees Updated BP prices for items: Mental Herb 175BP -> 85BP White Herb 200BP -> 100BP Power Herb 200BP -> 100BP Added Absorb Bulb 100BP Added Cell Battery 100BP Added Air Balloon 100BP Added Focus Sash 100BP Added Toxic/Flame Orb 6400BP Added Zoom Lens/Wide Lens/Muscle Band/Wise Glasses/Ring Target/Binding Band/Iron Ball 4800BP Added Eviolite 9800BP  
Bug Fixes
Fixed many client crashes Fixed an issue where berries/Defeatist would not always activate at the correct percentage (<1% difference) Fixed Assurance move effect Fixed an issue where true damage skills could bypass type immunities Fixed Leftovers compensation for PvP timers Fixed Clear Smog base power Fixed Light Screen / Reflect / Taunt end messages Fixed Future Sight being able to damage Dark-types Fixed Curse bypassing Substitute Fixed an issue where Encore calling Metronome calling semi-invulnerable moves could potentially leave the caster permanently semi-invulnerable Fixed Thrash interruption Fixed an issue where, if an attacker fainted while using a multi-hit move against a target with retaliatory damage (Rough Skin, etc.), the multi-hit move would not end immediately Substitute now clears Trapping effects on cast Counter / Mirror Coat will now have 1 Base Power if the last skill dealt 0 damage. Fixed Counter / Mirror Coat damage calculation. These moves will now deal damage based on actual HP lost, instead of the maximum possible damage. Fixed an issue where, in Double Battles, Magnitude could cause different damage depending on the target Stat stages of the opponent are now copied when doing Transform LightningRod now boosts Ground-types Fixed an issue where, when holding a Life Orb while the attacker has Magic Guard, a message would play indicating Life Orb damage had proc'd Fixed PP healing (Leppa Berry) on Transformed targets Fixed an issue where Explosion-type skills could endlessly stall a match in Tournament Mode if Self-KO clause activated Fixed Defog's messages Fixed Quick Claw / Trick Room interaction Fixed an issue where Quick Claw would never proc on the first turn of the holder's battle. Added messages for the item Ability broadcasts for damage modification abilities are now suppressed Previously, this affected Heatproof, Thick Fat, Solid Rock, and Multiscale Flatter can no longer be cast on a target with Substitute Fixed recoil damage message Fixed Encore+Disable not allowing attackers to Struggle Fixed an issue where, if an attacker and target had identical Choice items, and the items were switched using Trick, choice skills would not be unset Fixed an issue where, if a party member with an ability which activated on swap-in (e.g. Intimidate) fainted while swapping in (due to Entry Hazards), the ability would still activate after fainting Fixed an issue where Keen Eye could not bypass Evasion stat stage changes Rough Skin will now always deal at least 1 damage Stat stage immunity abilities now indicate when they prevented a stat stage reduction (e.g. by Intimidate) Fixed an issue where Shield Dust would prevent stat stage reductions from self-targeted drops, e.g. Superpower In battle, Gems are now only consumed on successful attacks (previously, they would consume on Miss) Fixed Focus Punch charge-up message Fixed Synchronize activation indicator Fixed Conversion 2 type change targeting Fixed aggro/victory music for many storyline-significant NPCs Added Surfing music Pressure will now stack if multiple opponents have Pressure. Fixed Pressure messages Balls can no longer be wasted against invulnerable targets (Fly, Dig, etc.) Recipes for berries are now reused between plantings Fixed GBA disobedience level messages in gym leader badge scripts being misleading Fixed Psywave bypassing Dark-type immunity Channels for players are now more dynamic, and will be automatically created if too many players enter the same area. There are now hard caps on each channel's population Fixed escape rates for many species Fixed many issues where, if a move was restricted by Disable/Encore/etc., and the player reconnected, they could potentially become stuck if they were unable to Struggle If a party member has stored XP, it can no longer be traded Reduced bandwidth requirements further Fixed Aura Sphere learning for Squirtle evo tree Fixed sell count displays in Shop sell dialogues Fixed Unihan typeface rendering for CJK characters E4 cooldowns no longer apply on storyline runs for GBA regions Probably some other things, who knows?  
Known issues:
Currently, some characters of alphabets will no longer display (e.g. Polish). We will try to address these issues over the next week.