GO Battling in Pokemon Go

[Extroth]

So now that I'm officially on the Pokemon go hype train I wanted to make a few posts here.

From what I can tell there will be battling in Go. But we have very little information regarding how it will work.

I played Ingress for a bit but I could never really get over the learning curve. The biggest issue that I had was that there was very little way for lower level players to compete with higher level players in a game that is essential about puppy guarding real world locations.

Pokemon battles could have the same issue; levels are built right into Pokemon battle mechanics. I feel like this is probably something that has already been considered in the development of this game.

Of course to me it seems like battles in this game will be nothing like battles in a traditional Pokemon game. And that could actually be bad for those of us who enjoy battling more then anything. But at the same time I think if they keep it the exact same as battling in the main games it won't work as well with the augmented reality aspects since Pokemon battles can get very Meta at higher levels.

What they have to do is capture the feeling of a pokemon battle without the same mechanics. And to me that seems like an impossible task.

What do you guys think, how will battles in Pokemon Go work and how will they capture the feel of a Pokemon battle without turning it into the unbalanced mess the meta has become?

 

[minun1]

You would almost have to have a dedicated spots sprinkled around the world for battling. Because battling will get disorganized very quickly without the battles takeing place in a designated area. And it will feel almost as if battling with other players is discouraged if they don't set it up right.

 

[EXGShadow]

Well.. the game seems to focus on the collecting aspect of pokemon, and I assume battling won't be as important. I think it will be over-simplified, maybe each pokemon will have one single attack at a time, wich can be changed as you level it up.. like, Charmander starts with Scratch, after a few battles it gets replaced by ember, and a few more to get Flamethrower. The moves can have stars to represent their power (like in pokemon rumble world), up to 5. A 5 star attack would deal 5 damage to a neutral-typed foe, with type matchups changing the total damage. And all pokemon should have low HP, to make battles quicker.

 

[Shock3600]

I hope it's like the games, though grinding will be much harder due to being real life so there will be less high levels

 

[Psalmist]

There will always be that one guy that camps out in his backyard all day and night fighting Zubat so he can get to lv. 100.

 

[ii kanji]

If that video is real, then looks like you don't need pokemon to catch pokemon?... A worrying sign as far as I'm concerned RE battling.

 

[tyguy723]

That allegedly leaked video look absolutely terrible, hopefully that is like a beta of the beta or something. Clunky augmented reality and trying to dazzle the audience with good graphics via the pokemon 3D model, of which was already made during gen 5 and completely unrelated to the production team making this game....there was also something about crystals in the video that weren't talked about....microtrantasction mess I see coming....

 

[Rayne]

Things to consider:

This video was a demonstration to industry professionals, they're mostly concerned with proof of concept over presentation. Of course its going to be rough. And even after it releases, I anticipate some improvement visually, but probably not much more than what we already saw. This is no means an argument to write the game off yet. Ingress was visually worked on over 3 years, and it's still upgrading.

Go is going to evolve with play.

I expect continual development out of Go. Ingress evolved to adapt and improve how people play and I expect Niantic to treat Go similarly, deliver a base game and develop it as a flexible game to enhance people's play styles over time. That can include graphics and how we interact visually.

I thought for a long time now, those fans of Nintendo always supported quality of play over graphics. Writing off the graphics now is like saying you don't want to read the book because it has an odd cover even though you love the subject matter whole heartedly.

The crystals are most likely an in game tool for actions. Based on my playtime of Ingress over the past year, never was I forced to pay for anything. A pay store did surface recently, but items you buy are not game breaking or pay to win type items (banners you can deploy in the over world, capsule space for portal keys). The best items are earned as extremely rare drops in game, for free. That said, I expect Niantic to adopt a similar, minamaly necessary shop for Go that won't break the bank. It's there for things you may want but nothing you need to play the game.

Crystals- In Ingress, we use a fuel like item called XM to power all our basic actions. This XM is scattered all over the map. The algorithm that spawns XM is based on background cell phone data and portal nodes so any place people use cell phones or wherever notable locations (for portals are) XM will be there. Every player has a tank for XM that scales in player level (max level is 16, the higher the level, the more XM you can fill the tank with). XM is super abundant, so you don't usually worry about running empty (other than when actively defending or attacking other player portals, but there's items to refuel instantly like a potion). Crystals in Go might still be different, but if Niantic is drawing from their past history with Ingress as a model, this might be how it's done.

There is nothing in regards to transactions there.

 

[Mitchman]

Battle details are out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRo...r_pokemon_go_battles_and_hints_at_the_future/
To sum it up:
-Core mechanics like type advantages and status moves are intact.
-Battling involvea moving around in a circle, around your opponent.
-Straight up attacking is a no-go, landing hits is meant to be done after successfully dodging and cancelling your opponent out. Basically, the real time battle system is more focused on an action strategy and timing, compared to the turn based strategy chess you would play in the main series.
-Battles only utilize the set option and not switch when it comes to your roster.
-This means that according to the team preview of the gym, you would set your team order according to that, involving a bigger risk system them the core series.


If PvP and wild battles ever become a thing, then Pokemon Go definitely has potential, then what I initially thought based on the auto capture style featured now. This all sounds really freaking good.

 

[Silktree]

status moves are intact.

I haven't seen anyone mention status moves, and there are none to be had in the datamined move list. I guess this makes sense for real-time battles, especially with only two moves per Pokemon.

What worries me is what this means for defensive Pokemon.

 

[Mitchman]

I haven't seen anyone mention status moves, and there are none to be had in the datamined move list. I guess this makes sense for real-time battles, especially with only two moves per Pokemon.

What worries me is what this means for defensive Pokemon.

I would assume higher defense would equal slower movements and anhigher likelyhood of taking damage, where as the lowr tier defenses gain a speed boost, at the cost of taking more damage. Or I hope that is eventually what they intend.

 

[Silktree]

I would assume higher defense would equal slower movements and anhigher likelyhood of taking damage, where as the lowr tier defenses gain a speed boost, at the cost of taking more damage. Or I hope that is eventually what they intend.

I meant that I'm worried about using a Pokemon with low offensive stats with the moves all being offensive.

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

The way Gyms work reminds me an awful lot of Portals in Ingress (except instead of Resonators, you deploy Pokemon). I imagine it will be difficult to get involved for players who live in remote rural areas, but urban environments with lots of players will have plenty of opportunities to battle Gyms and train their Pokemon. Hopefully they will also include ways for players to get involved even when they live far from any Gym locations.

The Tester report on that Reddit thread looks optimistic. Although at first I was hesitant about the tap-and-swipe gameplay, it sounds like it's an interesting blend of skill and strategy. I'm glad to hear they're keeping in type advantages and status effects; it wouldn't be Pokemon without them! Hopefully battles don't take so long though; this is a game I'd rather play in short bursts while on the "go". (har har.)

 

[Lufenium]

The recent beta footage of GO is making the battling look interesting, the gym part especially.