PTS Storyline Balancing Feedback Thread

[Rache]

 

The goal of this PTS is primarily to test storyline balancing. In attempting to create a smoother difficulty curve, Johto's rebalance is experimental and quite a bit more involved than other regions.

• Trainers are more plentiful, their teams have expanded, and more evolutions are mixed in.  
• Wild encounters have leveled up significantly throughout most of the region.
• When the region opens up after gym 4, the trainers on the path taken second become stronger after progressing far enough along the first path.

 

If you have any feedback about a particular battle, please leave it here. Please also note the team you were using for it (including levels) and which direction you went first if it's after gym 4.

 

If you encounter any bugs, crashes, or other issues, please report them via the support platform under Bug Report > PTS subtype.

[SpectreSoul]

The Onyx+Phanphy hiker in union cave devastates Quilava teams. With this starter you pretty much are required to catch either a belsprout(tower), a tentacool (in R32) or a Goldeen (in union cave).

It isn't a mandatory trainer though, so you can just walk around it.

[xkaru]

I like when the games are hard

[Hughzey]

Main thing I ask is that when you add it to the actual game, please make it like the other regions and have the mom be able to allow you to go back to other regions until we can use the s.s. Anne. So far it's working great, but maybe have the elite 4 leveled up to 50 through 56 to make it more challenging like the other regions. Thanks for the hard work

 

[DoubleJ]

GIB dem doggos

[MalaLui]

I love when Pokemon battles are challenging. Challenging gyms/trainer battles or even wild encounters allows us to really think about the Pokemon we carry in our teams and how we utilize them with moves/abilities. I personally love to take my time while exploring regions and challenging encounters can prevent many players from steamrolling through their adventure and getting bored.

[BaliAds]

too ez make him lvl 100.

[caioxlive13]

7 hours ago, BaliAds said:

too ez make him lvl 100.

Give to him another rattata, lvl 1(Endeavor + Sash)

[ScizoMonkey]

Guys, I think we have to talk about the 3rd gym.

 

I have played PokeMMO since 2013, I have done many storylines on many different accounts.

I have completed Kanto in Nuzlocke, Kanto + Hoenn on bug monotype, Sinnoh on Ghost monotype, Unova on Water monotype, Kanto on water monotype + only gift Pokemons, right now I am doing a Ditto only challenge in Hoenn.  

You guys can check on my YouTube channel I am not lying. 

 

I know how difficult PokeMMO is, I enjoy the difficulty and even the not totally fair AI hax, but this one, this Miltank.

 

It feels worse than an alpha, only level 25 but outspeed level 29. It feels like it has 31 in all IVs + 252 in all EVs.

I tried to play Miltank in PvP in the past and this is definitely boosted.

 

Too fast, too strong, too tanky.

 

And also the accuracy looks boosted like an alpha, the love mechanic is either glitched or OP, and and evasion of the Miltank feels off too.

 

I tried many different strats, hyper fang, poison point, statik, flash, spore, fighting type moves, etc.

 

At the end I just had to use X defend, Potion, X attack and keep pushing until it worked.

 

But this Miltank does feel unbalanced

 

[Rache]

9 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

Guys, I think we have to talk about the 3rd gym.

 

I have played PokeMMO since 2013, I have done many storylines on many different accounts.

I have completed Kanto in Nuzlocke, Kanto + Hoenn on bug monotype, Sinnoh on Ghost monotype, Unova on Water monotype, Kanto on water monotype + only gift Pokemons, right now I am doing a Ditto only challenge in Hoenn.  

You guys can check on my YouTube channel I am not lying. 

 

I know how difficult PokeMMO is, I enjoy the difficulty and even the not totally fair AI hax, but this one, this Miltank.

 

It feels worse than an alpha, only level 25 but outspeed level 29. It feels like it has 31 in all IVs + 252 in all EVs.

I tried to play Miltank in PvP in the past and this is definitely boosted.

 

Too fast, too strong, too tanky.

 

And also the accuracy looks boosted like an alpha, the love mechanic is either glitched or OP, and and evasion of the Miltank feels off too.

 

I tried many different strats, hyper fang, poison point, statik, flash, spore, fighting type moves, etc.

 

At the end I just had to use X defend, Potion, X attack and keep pushing until it worked.

 

But this Miltank does feel unbalanced

 

Its IVs and EVs are on par with gym 3 in other regions (quite low) and its evasion / accuracy / Attract luck are the same as any other mon. It's a pretty strong species for so early in the game though, so it will be losing its Sitrus Berry and Super Potion for the final release.

[ACHurdles1]

11 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

Guys, I think we have to talk about the 3rd gym.

 

I have played PokeMMO since 2013, I have done many storylines on many different accounts.

I have completed Kanto in Nuzlocke, Kanto + Hoenn on bug monotype, Sinnoh on Ghost monotype, Unova on Water monotype, Kanto on water monotype + only gift Pokemons, right now I am doing a Ditto only challenge in Hoenn.  

You guys can check on my YouTube channel I am not lying. 

 

I know how difficult PokeMMO is, I enjoy the difficulty and even the not totally fair AI hax, but this one, this Miltank.

 

It feels worse than an alpha, only level 25 but outspeed level 29. It feels like it has 31 in all IVs + 252 in all EVs.

I tried to play Miltank in PvP in the past and this is definitely boosted.

 

Too fast, too strong, too tanky.

 

And also the accuracy looks boosted like an alpha, the love mechanic is either glitched or OP, and and evasion of the Miltank feels off too.

 

I tried many different strats, hyper fang, poison point, statik, flash, spore, fighting type moves, etc.

 

At the end I just had to use X defend, Potion, X attack and keep pushing until it worked.

 

But this Miltank does feel unbalanced

 

I hit it with a poison fang from Golbat (lv 23), badly poisoned... and it just sat there until it died. Had I not gotten that poison proc, I might have been in trouble. Beat it first try while being mostly under-leveled. For me it was Bugsy I struggled with. Mostly because they switched to opening w/ butterfree so I couldn't set up rocks, and butterfree had super effective coverage for 5/6 of my team.

 

Also, iirc, trainer pokemon will at max have 24 IVs per stat and like 85 EVs per stat? 

 

 

[Rache]

13 minutes ago, ACHurdles1 said:

Also, iirc, trainer pokemon will at max have 24 IVs per stat and like 85 EVs per stat?

They're not that high until the end of the story, gym 3 is set to 15 IVs / 24 EVs.

[ScizoMonkey]

1 hour ago, Rache said:

They're not that high until the end of the story, gym 3 is set to 15 IVs / 24 EVs.

It really feels more than that, I guess the fact that the level cap is at 29 is the reason since we can't evolve many Pokemons before.

 

Is the "fell in love" mechanic bugged ? Or was I just really unlucky?

 

And I am also curious about the luck boost that the AI has with moves that can poison, paralyse, burn etc

And also the critical hit rate and speed tie rate.

 

I really appreciate the work you guys did to make PokeMMO a game that is challenging for adults,  especially how the movesets of NPCs in PvE is upgraded or the way they switch Pokemons. 

 

Thanks you for your answer, I feel really lucky playing a game where the devs are so communicative about the difficulty balance.

 

I guess the Miltank can have another item, a rocky helmet would be pretty cool with the strat it uses.

Or a Lum berry to heal its status for players who have chikorita.

 

Leftovers would be too OP I guess 

[Rache]

37 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

It really feels more than that

It isn't, it just has high base stats for this part of the game.

37 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

Is the "fell in love" mechanic bugged ? Or was I just really unlucky?

Infatuation is a 50% chance to fail to attack, it's pretty strong for an RNG-based effect. You were unlucky.

 

37 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

IAnd I am also curious about the luck boost that the AI has with moves that can poison, paralyse, burn etc

And also the critical hit rate and speed tie rate.

These mechanics don't exist, they have the same odds that you do.

37 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

I guess the Miltank can have another item, a rocky helmet would be pretty cool with the strat it uses.

Or a Lum berry to heal its status for players who have chikorita.

 

Leftovers would be too OP I guess 

These items are a bit too mean, she's being downgraded to an Oran Berry. Leftovers and Rocky Helmet are stronger than Sitrus Berry, and I'd rather reward players for thinking of alternative strategies than to punish them for it with a Lum Berry.

 

37 minutes ago, ScizoMonkey said:

I really appreciate the work you guys did to make PokeMMO a game that is challenging for adults,  especially how the movesets of NPCs in PvE is upgraded or the way they switch Pokemons. 

 

Thanks you for your answer, I feel really lucky playing a game where the devs are so communicative about the difficulty balance.

This is nice to hear, thank you. I appreciate the feedback a lot, what feels right to me in terms of difficulty isn't always right for the playerbase at large.

[Quakkz]

Whitneys Miltank has a reputation to be one of the hardest opponents already in the vanilla games, so its not really surprising that it is challenging here as well

[RysPicz]

I have cleared the region with just my starter (Totodile). Shit got so much stored exp it would probably go to lvl 75 already. Haven't really encountered many problems- with the X-stat boosting items you can beat pretty much anything.

The way I see it, starter selection is pretty much difficulty selection (I said it few times ingame already eh). Totodile- easy, Cyndaquil- medium, Chikorita- hard.

Johto, however, is a bountiful region in terms of available usable species. Totodile can be encountered quickly via lure and it's just straight up an incredible pokemon for storyline, you get a free storyline Togekiss early on (although this one depends if it will have Hustle or Serene Grace), there's Gastly, Gyara, Nidoran fem, Nidoran male, Vulpix and Growlithe and many more. If anything, for me it feels like the region itself is very, very easy and pretty enjoyable, compared to obnoxious Unova and Sinnoh with 3h long dialogues (I can barely stand bianca's bullshit anymore). I did not find Whitney's Miltank problematic either (my Croconaw knew Low Kick already and after one x-attack it just oneshoted the cow).

 

One thing I would like to ask, is considering max obedience level from 54 to 55 or 56 on the final badge. This would allow people to use their Dragonites/ Tyranitars, both species are not easy to raise and Larvitar isn't easy to find either in the region and I feel that players might feel rewarded with ability to use the mon itself after sacrificing themselves to actually finding and raising one, unless that level cap was set specifically not to allow the fully grown pseudo legends.

Edited June 11, 2023 by RysPicz

[Boojanglez]

Just wanted to give my praise regarding the difficulty topic that comes up so often here. 

I really appreciate the work the devs put in to make this game feel very rewarding upon completion/reaching goals when it comes to story mode. It's also way more interesting gameplay-wise, as the fights are not just made harder in a cheap way, e.g. giving 1st gym Kanto leader Brock stone edge or Johto Falkner Brave Bird + perfect IV/EV distribution, but actually more interesting move- and team setups that require actually smart input by the player. This also includes the level-cap, which I like a lot for the same reasons. 

In addition to that, it ultimately makes the game a lot more interesting, too. Taking the Fuchsia gym for instance, the whole poison+confusion shenanigans that Koga was obviously built for in the original games actually comes to fruitition in Pokemmo, whereas that gym was a free first try for any player in the original games, as you just one shot everything/deal way too much damage to his supposedly tanky ace pokemon. 

 

I just felt the need to say this, as the difficulty topic seems to be a controversial one - there definitely is a big part of the community of this game that not just mildly prefers the challenge but vastly favours it. 

 

Been loving Johto so far

Edited June 11, 2023 by Boojanglez
spelling

[hamizoss]

14 hours ago, BaliAds said:

too ez make him lvl 100.

this one is a phone bug at all , in main server too , hope to see this one fixed in the next updates

[ScizoMonkey]

6 hours ago, Rache said:

 

These mechanics don't exist, they have the same odds that you do.

Do you mean they don't exist in PokeMMO code? Or even in the original games?

 

And a last question (not Johto related) what about the haxx regarding alphas? 

Because I often use 6 flash on them and they still keep hitting every turn.

[keirama]

El 6/10/2023 a las 2:09, Rache dijo:

 

El objetivo de este PTS es principalmente probar el equilibrio de la historia. Al intentar crear una curva de dificultad más suave, el reequilibrio de Johto es experimental y un poco más complicado que otras regiones.

• Los entrenadores son más abundantes, sus equipos se han expandido y se mezclan más evoluciones.  
• Los encuentros salvajes han subido de nivel significativamente en la mayor parte de la región.
• Cuando la región se abre después del gimnasio 4, los entrenadores en el camino tomado en segundo lugar se vuelven más fuertes después de progresar lo suficiente en el primer camino.

 

Si tienes algún comentario sobre una batalla en particular, déjalo aquí. Tenga en cuenta también el equipo que estaba usando para ello (incluidos los niveles) y en qué dirección fue primero si es después del gimnasio 4.

 

Si encuentra errores, fallas u otros problemas, infórmelos a través de la plataforma de soporte en Informe de errores> subtipo PTS.

hola rache. Quiero saber si podrían aumentar la dificultad en los gimnasios de johto, que los líderes jueguen dobles o individuales pero que tengan 4 o 6 pokes. Porque cómo es una región Deseada,Podrían dificultar el avance para disfrutar un poco mejor de la Región. Sería un verdadero desafío y nada más. También publicaré esta publicación en sugerencias. Espero amablemente su respuesta.😀😎

Edited June 11, 2023 by keirama

[MrPurpleee]

29 minutes ago, keirama said:

hello rache. I want to know if they could increase the difficulty in the johto gyms, that the leaders play doubles or single but that they have 4 or 6 pokes. Because how is it a Desired region? They could make it more difficult to advance to enjoy the Region a little better. It would be a real challenge and nothing more. I will also publish this Post in suggestions as well. I kindly wait for your answer.😀😎

If you are new, Fight and Ice gyms are really hard, the IA makes good prediction movés, if you are not, then It doesnt Matter how difficilt It Is, you will always have resources to beat the npcs

[Enlightt]

Here is my experience after the first 10hrs of gyms 1-6 + Shalpha Gyrados.

 

I'll start by saying Totodile was my starter and he's basically carried me throughout the entire game. I haven't relied much on other mons up to this point, as his rage/ice fang/crunch combo has devastated most teams and can be an easy sweep during battles. In some situations where I was expecting a challenge (Bugsy, Morty, and Chuck), he made it fairly easy if you can get a rage setup going. Ekans/Mareep would only help in situations where I needed an Intimidate and Paralyze to further push the rage setup.

 

My most notable example of an easy sweep was Morty at Gym 4 in Ecruteak City. Using Feraligator at level cap (31?), I was able to one shot every single mon in that gym including the leaders Gengar with purely using Crunch.

 

Besides this, I haven't had any issue with the difficulty. Overall, it's been a good balance between challenging (at times) while also not being frustrating in the tougher situations such as Whitney's Attract/Stomp Miltank and the incredibly done Shalpha Gyarados encounter! (I really enjoyed these parts as it made me think more about strategy vs just spamming my strongest attack, which I appreciate)

 

Thanks for all the hard work that's gone into this bringing us this experience, and I very much look forward to Johto hitting the live server in the near future!

[ChaosEncoded]

I don't know if I'm in the right place at all, but I ran into a bug where running into the trainer just outside of dark tunnel softlocks the game. battle never starts it just stays here.

 

For reference i'm running this on Windows 11.

 

UPDATE: I closed and re-opened the application and it resumed the existing session, the battle was already underway and I can continue from here.

 

 

I

Edited June 11, 2023 by ChaosEncoded

[pokemonmaster69]

I beated the e4 and I felt the hardest fight by a lot was Whitney. I think it would have been a lot easier if we had been able to bring other pre-trained pokemon from other regions like we would be able to on live. For someone starting on johto tho that fight would definitely be really annoying. My strat for beating it was basically mudshot with croc > get attracted > swap to a sac > go back to croc and keep mudshotting until it was -6 and then setting up an xattack on it. I don't like that the only way to beat hax was with your own hax but i know whitney has the reputation of being the most annoying gym to beat so i understand it. I think the removal of sitrus berry and potion will help. 

 

I think the only other fight i wiped to was the rival battle in the goldenrod underground but that was probably more because i didn't have a good team composition I think at that point i was still only useing magnezone and feraligator

 

lastly the e4 was very easy i'm not sure if it was intentional or not but you were able to save your progress when u wiped so you would just basically throw yourself at the battles until you lose. ii beat will first try > wiped on koga > beat koga > wiped on bruno > beat bruno > wiped on karen > beat karen > wiped on lance > beat lance. i remeber karen being harder than lance but again probably because of my team composition (at that point feraligator, magnezone, gengar, and a lvl 42 donphan that didnt do mch). i guess at the end of it all you can say that you maybe would have beaten them had the healing after every member mechanic been in place

[caioxlive13]

I'm going to beat Johto with only gift mons on my alt, like i did on other regions, so the devs can say which gift mons are going to be in final release and which one would be removed?