I think most people would agree that the shiny market and the whole concept of shiny trade is hurt and in need of healing. Before proposing a solution, I will highlight some of the problems.
The system is too linear for an mmo: Rare items in most other succesful mmos have at least certain degree of non-linearity attached to them, upgrades, unique or at least very rare characteristics. For instance slots with the right enchantment on them, etc. There is also incentives or factors that make you desire such items. (and actually use them! wear a rare armor or wield a rare and expensive weapon, etc) I think pokemmo tried to approach this whole idea with shiny breeding (making shinies better and differenciating shinies within species from one another: ie, a competitive shiny magikarp vs a random shiny magikarp) and this is indeed the way to goo but there is just so much unexplored potential for improvement, I will expand on this later.
Influx and outflux of the quantities are not balanced, the current system doesn't even allow the concept of balance. The shinies that actually go out of the market are the ones being bred, but with our current system the devs can't control and tweak the numbers till a desired influx/output rate is achieved since breeding is not really a core mechanic of the shiny market right now but rather a 'luxury' its not difficult, its not interesting, it is just expensive but other than that is pretty straight forward. Also, some lower tier shinies with bad ivs are just useless, no one will breed them, no one even cares about them, they literally only harm the market.
Market stagnation: it is very non-dynamic, too slow, with a high entry barrier. These are three big problems enclosed in one. The market is small and actually kinda boring (this could be seen as a consequence of the above problems)
There is no real 'rarity' or 'uniqueness' as @Darkshade mentioned on an earlier reply on the topic, there is a permanent increase of each species. in my opion here, and I am hinting towards my proposed solution is that the only two factors that account the shiny's prize are its species, the ammount of said species that is avaliable to the market and its ivs. The first two cannot be changed, and the third is in a very strange spot right now (because of all the reasons already mentioned) but even then, this one does allow room of change (as it is, pokemmo has a different breeding system to the normal games). There could also more factors added to account for a shinies value that we don't have right now.
As I see it all these problems are very closely related, and as you have probably noticed, ive hinted or talked about shiny breeding in plenty of the points I've made. In my opinion it is simply the holy grial, with the right mechanics to support it, it could actually make shinies interesting and unique.
Now, I will state the changes/rework to the current mechanics that I propose and then I will expand on why they just make so much sense, it is actually only two very simple changes with a huge impact.
Make the shiny rate and its spawn ivs deppend on the species rarity; Common shinies will be more common and have better ivs, whereas rare species will be even more rare and will spawn with very bad ivs.
*It adds up to the endgame It's no longer a linear system, the trading itself will be more active, as will be shiny breeding.
*A Bigger, Better market with more interaction. Wether you want to hunt, breed, sell, buy or collect shinies, there will be way more of it, and a greater interess in doing so; more supply, more demand, and rarer 'items'(shinies) that are worth more.
*Decent competitive shinies (and thus an actual use for shinies) are more accesible. Yeah, now breeding a perfect shiny comp would be a very difficult task, it'd involve patience, some luck but mainly buying and breeding lower tier shinies a lot, this makes the market way more active. But you could also choose to breed non-perfect, above average and usable competitive shinies.
*Easier to get the 'first taste' of the system to get in touch and engaged with more players. (Entry barrier) Say you are a new player, now the chances of getting a common during the storyline shiny is way higher, and this does not hurt the market, on the other hand, it feeds it and makes it grow! you can now decide what to do with your OT shiny rattata, sell it? (it will be desired even tho it is common because now multiple breeds are needed to have a chance to improve results) hunt for more commons and breed them? make a godlike rattata? hunt for rares to breed with your nice iv rattata? whatever you decide, it will be cool and you will get curious about how the shiny system works, you will be asking questions in global/channel/trade chat and you will be more engaged with the game itself. (right now the only question you can ask is: "how much is this worth [Rattata]" not "what can I do with this" since as the system is now, shiny breeding/trading is out of the question for more casual players). it will get you going.
*Numbers can be tweked. the chance of an iv being lowered during a breed can deppend on the average, devs can find the right probability values so that the expected value of a single process of breeding is an okay competitive result, yet the near-perfect rolls are very rare and thus the shiny becomes unique and expensive... (think of a normal or an f distribution). with these, you can actually balance the market's influx and output
*Every shiny is now unique and has room for improvement, this is an addictive conecpt. (Have you ever spent tons and tons of cores in those old mmos to get your Rare sword from +12 to +13? Sure, +12 was good enough to use but you wanted +13 right?. see how this applies here?)
*Every shiny will be unique. wether its value comes from its species, its ivs or an extensive breeding process, each and every shiny will have something (besides the aesthetics) that makes it worth. there will no longer be common, bad iv shinies that no one desires.
Ive tought of more and I could go onto the specifics but to be honest i'm a little tired of writing all of this so I will just let you decide for yourself.
QA:
Q: This will hurt collectors and hunters who are not interested in a shiny's ivs or competitive usage.
A: No, it will not! On the contrary, since more rare species would have a lower shiny rate, even if its ivs are bad it makes them more desireable and expensive (and more valuable to collectors regardless of the ivs). They could be worth more with worse ivs than they would with our current system!
Q: Transitioning period.
A: Designing this is obviously necesary, the specifics could be studied so the best result is obtained where everyone will be happier, I have actually tought of some ideas around the implementation but I'm to tired to expand on them, if this does get traction I will do so later on.
Feel free to add any more questions, opinions or ideas.
Question
FNTCZ
I think most people would agree that the shiny market and the whole concept of shiny trade is hurt and in need of healing. Before proposing a solution, I will highlight some of the problems.
As I see it all these problems are very closely related, and as you have probably noticed, ive hinted or talked about shiny breeding in plenty of the points I've made. In my opinion it is simply the holy grial, with the right mechanics to support it, it could actually make shinies interesting and unique.
Now, I will state the changes/rework to the current mechanics that I propose and then I will expand on why they just make so much sense, it is actually only two very simple changes with a huge impact.
What does this accomplish?
*It adds up to the endgame It's no longer a linear system, the trading itself will be more active, as will be shiny breeding.
*A Bigger, Better market with more interaction. Wether you want to hunt, breed, sell, buy or collect shinies, there will be way more of it, and a greater interess in doing so; more supply, more demand, and rarer 'items'(shinies) that are worth more.
*Decent competitive shinies (and thus an actual use for shinies) are more accesible. Yeah, now breeding a perfect shiny comp would be a very difficult task, it'd involve patience, some luck but mainly buying and breeding lower tier shinies a lot, this makes the market way more active. But you could also choose to breed non-perfect, above average and usable competitive shinies.
*Easier to get the 'first taste' of the system to get in touch and engaged with more players. (Entry barrier) Say you are a new player, now the chances of getting a common during the storyline shiny is way higher, and this does not hurt the market, on the other hand, it feeds it and makes it grow! you can now decide what to do with your OT shiny rattata, sell it? (it will be desired even tho it is common because now multiple breeds are needed to have a chance to improve results) hunt for more commons and breed them? make a godlike rattata? hunt for rares to breed with your nice iv rattata? whatever you decide, it will be cool and you will get curious about how the shiny system works, you will be asking questions in global/channel/trade chat and you will be more engaged with the game itself. (right now the only question you can ask is: "how much is this worth [Rattata]" not "what can I do with this" since as the system is now, shiny breeding/trading is out of the question for more casual players). it will get you going.
*Numbers can be tweked. the chance of an iv being lowered during a breed can deppend on the average, devs can find the right probability values so that the expected value of a single process of breeding is an okay competitive result, yet the near-perfect rolls are very rare and thus the shiny becomes unique and expensive... (think of a normal or an f distribution). with these, you can actually balance the market's influx and output
*Every shiny is now unique and has room for improvement, this is an addictive conecpt. (Have you ever spent tons and tons of cores in those old mmos to get your Rare sword from +12 to +13? Sure, +12 was good enough to use but you wanted +13 right?. see how this applies here?)
*Every shiny will be unique. wether its value comes from its species, its ivs or an extensive breeding process, each and every shiny will have something (besides the aesthetics) that makes it worth. there will no longer be common, bad iv shinies that no one desires.
Ive tought of more and I could go onto the specifics but to be honest i'm a little tired of writing all of this so I will just let you decide for yourself.
QA:
Q: This will hurt collectors and hunters who are not interested in a shiny's ivs or competitive usage.
A: No, it will not! On the contrary, since more rare species would have a lower shiny rate, even if its ivs are bad it makes them more desireable and expensive (and more valuable to collectors regardless of the ivs). They could be worth more with worse ivs than they would with our current system!
Q: Transitioning period.
A: Designing this is obviously necesary, the specifics could be studied so the best result is obtained where everyone will be happier, I have actually tought of some ideas around the implementation but I'm to tired to expand on them, if this does get traction I will do so later on.
Feel free to add any more questions, opinions or ideas.
grammar
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