[Denied]Badge-Based Trading Restriction - A More Effective and Fair Alternative to OT Disobedience

[Rache]

THE PROBLEM: OT Disobedience

 

The reasoning behind making OT Pokemon is understandable - preventing players from catching a Pokemon on an alt, trading it to their main account, leveling it up, then trading it back. It made alt running too quick and easy. However, preventing this trick from being viable resulted in making Pokemon disobey their OTs at higher levels.

 

Although the disobedience levels were adjusted during the last update, it still isn't a good system.

 

-Depending on the player's play style, this system can still be extremely unfair. Rather than focusing on a full team of 6 Pokemon, some players prefer to use a smaller team of 1-3. This means that those 3 Pokemon will level up faster and the challenge of the game ceases to be in training your team to take on the next gym - it becomes a game of avoiding battles to prevent your Pokemon from overleveling and loafing around. People want to play PokeMMO, not StealthMMO or EscapeMMO. With a team consisting of less than 6 Pokemon, you will almost always be above lv30 for Erika and possibly over 25 for Misty. "Just train 6 Pokemon" is not a solution as people may want to use Pokemon that cannot be caught early on such as Lapras and Eevee, or may prefer to use less than 6 for the entire game. Grinding and opting to fight every NPC should not be punished.

 

-New players are often unaware of this huge alteration to canon until it is already too late and their Pokemon is useless. Some things are simply expected of any Pokemon game, and OT obedience has always been one of those things. Altering canon isn't always a bad thing, but it is in this case as it can potentially cause a lot of frustration which can lead to quitting.

 

- A large part of the Pokemon franchise is the trust and love between a trainer and their Pokemon. When a Pokemon that was obeying just fine one moment starts disobeying their trainer the next, it is almost insulting to the spirit of Pokemon.

 

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THE SOLUTION: Do not let the player receive a high level Pokemon in a trade until they have enough badges.

 

The reason for OT obedience was ultimately to nerf alt running. Doing so essentially nerfed the early storyline though. There are better ways to make alts harder without turning away new players however. Simply do not allow the player to receive a Pokemon above the disobedience level threshold for the number of badges that they have, regardless of OT. This means that if they try to level a Pokemon on their main account, they cannot get it back on the alt until they have enough badges. With the exception of owning 1 badge, traded disobedience levels would go back to canon values, but the chance to loaf would not be 100%.

 

0 badges: Pokemon above lv10 cannot be received.

1 badge: Pokemon above lv20 cannot be received.

2-3 badges: Pokemon above lv30 cannot be received.

4 badges: Any Pokemon can be received, regardless of level. After defeating Erika, players are allowed to use Global so this seems like a fair time to allow them to trade freely.

 

This system completely eliminates the easy work-around of training a Pokemon on another account entirely. The proposed system would be fair, balanced, and people who aren't doing alt runs won't have the problem of unnecessary disobedience. This allows them to use the Pokemon they want to without worrying about their levels, and forces alt runners to either use low level traded Pokemon or catch their own.

 

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What problems will this cause, and how can they be prevented?

 

Problem: "I traded my Pokemon to my friend and now I can't get it back!"

Solution: A popup message that says "Due to its level, if you trade this Pokemon you cannot get it back until you have x badges. Are you sure you want to trade it? Yes/No" when it is placed in the trade window. "No" will remove it from the trade window, and the other person will not see it unless the player selects "yes" to prevent scamming via this method. If someone selects yes and trades anyway, they were warned.

 

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Discuss.

[guigoz0rd]

Hey Rache, I didn't understand the disobedience levels yet. (I didn't make an alt yet)

Badge0 10 -> 20
Badge1 20 -> 25

So in Cerulean Gym I can't use a pokémon at level 20 without risking disobedience? Or it is after level 25? It is for every pokémon or just traded ones?

[iamyourGOD]

or just make them not able to trade at all till the 4th badge its not like they have anything usefull to trade or so

[Rache]

or just make them not able to trade at all till the 4th badge its not like they have anything usefull to trade or so

That's a terrible idea. Most of the appeal in Pokemon is being able to trade them with friends. If you take that away right at the beginning, it takes away one of the main selling points of the game and doesn't give a good first impression.

[Rache]

Hey Rache, I didn't understand the disobedience levels yet. (I didn't make an alt yet)

Badge0 10 -> 20
Badge1 20 -> 25

So in Cerulean Gym I can't use a pokémon at level 20 without risking disobedience? Or it is after level 25? It is for every pokémon or just traded ones?

You used to be able to use a Pokemon on lv10 without risking disobedience when you don't have a badge. Now you can use lv20s before Brock. Against Misty, you can use Pokemon lv25 and under. It is for every Pokemon, even OT ones.

[Dannnno]

What problems will this cause, and how can they be prevented?

 

Problem: "I traded my Pokemon to my friend and now I can't get it back!"

Solution: A popup message that says "Due to its level, if you trade this Pokemon you cannot get it back until you have x badges. Are you sure you want to trade it? Yes/No" when it is placed in the trade window. "No" will remove it from the trade window, and the other person will not see it unless the player selects "yes" to prevent scamming via this method. If someone selects yes and trades anyway, they were warned.

 

What if they trade it before it is too high of a level?

[Rache]

What if they trade it before it is too high of a level?

Good question. Something like this could possibly serve as a warning. Even without this help text though, most people would only lend their party Pokemon to their friends. Unless that friend were a scammer, they would likely return the Pokemon once the player has enough badges for it.

Edit: Should be "level 30", not "level 35".

Edited January 15, 2014 by RacheLucario

[Asakano]

Seems like a great idea, but it'd probably be hard to implement

[Zehkar]

Gift pokemon have since been implemented.