Alpha trade-ins or other way to remove alphas from circulation

[tutledragon]

Identifying the Need
Alphas are currently only removed from the economy by breeding. For most alphas and egg groups, this helps create a stable demand to meet the supply of new alphas that are caught every day. Genderless and female only alphas, on the other hand, are not desirable for breeding and are not worth catching. As of writing this post, the cheapest alphas on the GTL are about $8k. They are both Kangaskhan and Miltank, female only pokemon. After yesterday's alpha swarms, they dipped as low as $5k. After listing fee and a conservative estimate of 3 timer balls used, it costs $4,600 just to put an alpha on the GTL. For only $600-$4k profit, these alphas are simply not worth the time to catch. They are disappointing spawns, ignored by many. Of the players who do head over to the swarm, many simply kill for candy and leave. Since alphas appear only once per in-game day, they should have higher intrinsic value. "Trash alphas" are not a valuable or enjoyable part of the player experience or alpha system, and an adjustment should be made to fix the issue.

 

Proposed Solution

I am proposing a trade-in system for players to give alphas to an NPC in exchange for items. The Baron NPC does this with Prismatic Pearls, keeping a floor on the price of shiny pokemon, and I think a similar system will help the alpha economy. The amount is up for debate, but for the purpose of brainstorming I'm going to say any alpha should be worth at least $20k.

 

Potential exchanges for an alpha:

• Power braces corresponding to the x31 IVs of the alpha
  • Would also reward more value for trading in higher IV alphas
  • Reduces the amount of pokeyen currently destroyed by buying braces, may contribute to inflation.
• Ability Pills
  • May increase inflation for same reason as above
  • Might be too valuable of an item for an alpha trade-in
• More exp candies
  • Would be boring, but better than nothing
• Alpha rewards chest with chance for exclusive vanities
  • Very fun
  • Has smaller effect on global pokeyen consumption rate
  • Hard to precisely predict effects on alpha market since popularity plays a large role in vanity prices
  • Some people may dislike the addition of another loot box style item
• Beast balls or other alpha catching pokeballs
  • Would also improve alpha catching experience
  • They look cool
  • Could just make Kurt do it and skip the effort of creating another NPC

 

Any of these options would bring intrinsic value to alpha pokemon and put a floor on the price of alphas like Miltank and Kangaskhan

[agncunhass]

Great idea, i personally would prefer the third option, more candy the better.

[ChihuahuanRaven]

I like the first option with the braces. It feels the most natural, and doesn't spill extra money into the game.

[HigorHD84]

That's a good idea, it would be really nice to add a use for these alphas.

I think the option to trade alphas for chest is the best option.

 

The chests would be like the MysteryBox and could contain different items.

The chests could have items such as:

Power Braces

Ability Pills

EXP Candy

or an exclusive vanity Alpha Hat

 

I made these images to get an idea of what the hat could look like:

[tutledragon]

On 10/20/2023 at 12:57 PM, HigorHD84 said:

That's a good idea, it would be really nice to add a use for these alphas.

I think the option to trade alphas for chest is the best option.

 

The chests would be like the MysteryBox and could contain different items.

The chests could have items such as:

Power Braces

Ability Pills

EXP Candy

or an exclusive vanity Alpha Hat

 

I made these images to get an idea of what the hat could look like:

That hat looks really cool! The chest was my favorite idea, but I put out the other ones too since the chests might be harder to implement from a game balance standpoint.

[Gengarcello]

we gonna cash in the Jynx Alphas

[mxdzzz]

Not attractive enough, add one more:

 

Shiny dust:  can only be applied on legendaries. each Alpha trade 1 Shiny dust. Consume100 Shiny dust on a Legendary to give 1/1000000 chance to shiny that Legendary!

 

Assume 5000$ for 1 Alpha, the expected $ to obtain a shiny Legendary is 500B by this way 🙂

Edited November 11, 2023 by mxdzzz

[mateusvictor]

Does it make sense that even in the second capture of the same kind of beasts we get 20 rainbows again? the GLT is flooded with beasts and they all come at min with 3x31 and we don't even have a way to burn them.

I don't like the idea of legendary comps being worth 5b, but them being worth much less than a regular comp when you've barely farmed the second wave seems to me to trivialize "legendaries".