First Impression: PvP is underpowered

[mungus]

I just started the game. I've beaten Brock and started heading to Cerulean City. My first impression is that the game is excellent and seems like a lot of fun, but the PvP elements are not motivating enough. The main problem is that you get no XP or ¥ from using the Challenge command in the wild. (I obviously haven't tried matchmaking yet.) So why would you do challenges at all, except to flex on other players? It's also tedious to issue challenges. You have to click a player and select Challenge, then hope they're interested. Even if they are interested, they might get into a random battle by mistake. So you need to issue 5 or 10 challenges before you get to start a fight. That's a lot of work for something that doesn't even provide a reward! Here are my suggestions:

 

• Challenge Mode: You can click on yourself and select Challenge Mode. This puts a "!!" symbol above your head and causes you to automatically accept the first challenge you receive. This will make it easier to find players who want to battle.
• Challenge rewards: Challenge battles should provide XP and ¥. If this is unacceptable for some reason, perhaps the winner could receive items like Nugget or Rare Candy instead. (I don't think balance should be a concern here, because these rewards will just help you complete the PvE campaign faster. They won't affect PvP battles, which are level-adjusted anyway.)
• Challenge restrictions: If challenge battles don't provide XP and ¥ because of balance concerns, I suggest using some kind of restriction. For example, the XP and ¥ you receive is capped at (1000 x your number of badges) every 24 hours. This lets players receive rewards for Challenging occasionally, but prevents them from powerleveling with their friends. Also, perhaps, you should not be able to challenge the same player twice in 24 hours.

 

Basically, I think it should be slightly easier to Challenge players in the local area, and you should receive some sort of reward for doing so. The Challenge fights are really fun and interesting, but they should provide a little more motivation!

[razimove]

7 minutes ago, mungus said:

(I obviously haven't tried matchmaking yet.)

then please try it before writting this essay

[mungus]

4 hours ago, razimove said:

then please try it before writting this essay

You need four badges to use matchmaking. Anyway, my comments apply to the beginning of the game and the Challenge command, not matchmaking.

[TohnR]

We don't typically engage in PVP battles before we have a proper PVP team.
If you want to challenge random people in the wild with your lvl 9 squirtle, I mean you do you but that ain't competitive mons so obviously it'll be for fun, why would you expect rewards from that ? 
To be honest clearing Elite 4 represents like 1% of the time you'll spend in the game so it's really not that important to most of us

Edited October 2, 2023 by TohnR

[Johnwaynee]

Maybe play the game before you suggest things that can be easily abused.

[AcidChrist]

I appreciate the perspective on PVP from a fresh player. While I don't agree with most of your points, I do think there could be better rewards for the time spent than the current ones they offer. I highly recommend you try some matches once you've obtained enough badges, they're quite fun even if you're playing Randoms. Would love to hear what you think about it.

[BrokenJoker]

On 10/2/2023 at 2:35 AM, mungus said:

I just started the game. I've beaten Brock and started heading to Cerulean City. My first impression is that the game is excellent and seems like a lot of fun, but the PvP elements are not motivating enough. The main problem is that you get no XP or ¥ from using the Challenge command in the wild. (I obviously haven't tried matchmaking yet.) So why would you do challenges at all, except to flex on other players? It's also tedious to issue challenges. You have to click a player and select Challenge, then hope they're interested. Even if they are interested, they might get into a random battle by mistake. So you need to issue 5 or 10 challenges before you get to start a fight. That's a lot of work for something that doesn't even provide a reward! Here are my suggestions:

 

• Challenge Mode: You can click on yourself and select Challenge Mode. This puts a "!!" symbol above your head and causes you to automatically accept the first challenge you receive. This will make it easier to find players who want to battle.
• Challenge rewards: Challenge battles should provide XP and ¥. If this is unacceptable for some reason, perhaps the winner could receive items like Nugget or Rare Candy instead. (I don't think balance should be a concern here, because these rewards will just help you complete the PvE campaign faster. They won't affect PvP battles, which are level-adjusted anyway.)
• Challenge restrictions: If challenge battles don't provide XP and ¥ because of balance concerns, I suggest using some kind of restriction. For example, the XP and ¥ you receive is capped at (1000 x your number of badges) every 24 hours. This lets players receive rewards for Challenging occasionally, but prevents them from powerleveling with their friends. Also, perhaps, you should not be able to challenge the same player twice in 24 hours.

 

Basically, I think it should be slightly easier to Challenge players in the local area, and you should receive some sort of reward for doing so. The Challenge fights are really fun and interesting, but they should provide a little more motivation!

I like core of the idea. A mode with incentives to hunt down players to fight would be exciting. Hunting down players is part of what makes fighting for Legends fun, so I think your idea could work.

 

You do have to remove exp gains and pokeyen rewards and replace it with an exclusive metric. Something as simple as one win gets you one point, if you beat someone with 100 points you get all the points. They would need to have a one pokeday restriction for repeat fights + increase visibility of the players who have the most points.  The rewards could be something as simple as them the "!!" symbol or a reduced cooldown in public chats or any other social reward. I think your idea would work if geared towards the social aspects of the game.