Daycare Update 2024 plans

I love this idea! More uses for berries would be amazing!

I love this idea even if it were alongside a gem option. Like maybe a berry is a 5 minute gain and a gem is 10, increase accordingly for rarity/size of berry/gem. The berries would be weaker, but still an option for those wishing to hoard their gems. I've said it before but other than my personal goal of "Have at least 100 of each berry" and for the rare event use case, berries don't do a lot. Yes they make Pokeblock, but if you don't care about that aspect of the site or have a few Pokemon maxed out in each category, they're largely useless. Even trainer customization only take a small amount of each. More ways to use berries is pretty much always a plus in my book

It's taken me a bit of time to put my thoughts on this into words, but I did want to try and share some of them at least. I think most of the backlash from this update was mainly because a lot of users (myself included in some aspects) thought something along the lines of "Oh, this is new and effects me negatively, so it's bad." And wanted to voice those thoughts in fear of getting stuck with an update that would make them want to stop playing, or something. I don't know, just thinking of the worst-case scenario here. This about an update which the staff team had who knows how many months of time to consider. Compared to the 5-ish hours most users had before posting in the thread, if they even took that long. (Again, not excluding myself here. I posted within the first hour lol.) It makes sense that a lot of the feedback was negative because of this. But that's… not necessarily a bad thing? Yes being rude when providing feedback isn't ideal, and should be avoided, but it's still great that the option is there. The fact that these updates are being announced ahead of time proves the site is still moving in great directions. Threads like these are perfect for sharing initial thoughts about updates and bringing things to light the staff might not have considered yet. It is, and always will be, so much better to have this heads up and opportunity to voice concerns than it is to have the update just be implemented without any input from the users. Just because it doesn't seem like update threads like these are being "rewarded", doesn't mean they aren't appreciated. In fact, the same could apply to the update as a whole I think. It's easy to focus on the negatives as that is something we actively want to change. But that doesn't mean we aren't happy with the other parts of the update, there's just less to say about them. Maybe I should make more of an effort to highlight the good parts though. I'll keep it in mind for the next big update. <3

---

I think, honestly, the update was fine the way it was. Yes, I'm still not a huge fan of having to pay gems to use something I already payed a lot of GP for, but staff clearly put a lot of thought into it. It's not up to me what gets added and what doesn't. If this felt like the right thing to balance out the better overall breeding rates to staff, then so be it. As for the V-Wave, I never really had anything against it. I feel the bit of randomness is actually pretty nice and keeps breeding a little more engaging. Especially since you get a 5 day heads up it's fairly easy to plan around. People shared some valid points about it though. Overall I think staff should be more confident in their updates. Backlash will happen for parts of the game that seem like a nerf, but that's just part of adding new things. Something about necessary evil, right?

I love the Berry idea!!!!!! I have so many and never know what to do with them because I don't use them for anything. If that got implemented I would ABSOLUTELY save up for the red gig and try it out JUST so I can get a use out if all these things

I was holding off saying anything until I read through the first post repeatedly. Didn't expect an update post to need to be carefully read through. To give my first impression, I was honestly happy, I liked having the numbers to compare and get a good idea of where the pairs sit even if they don't always match in all elements they still improved. My fears from before were laid to rest and was happy with it. As for the Red gig thing, being able to use gems was appealing. Though I think the gems would've been okay to keep if it didn't cost happiness as well. My main reason for not using it was the happiness drain, I felt kind of like having something that made them depressed/unhappy was kind of mean of me to use, so I didn't. But I would've if the happiness drain eventually got dropped in favour of gems feeding it. Though with the amount of kick back and fuss presented I am not surprised it got dropped sadly. As for the v-wave, am I'm sad to see that get dropped, I was really looking forward to it. Even with the potential negative days where the v-wave may hurt my pkmn I'm breeding, key word 'may', as with all the increases to the breeding as is. Clicking a little more on those days isn't a bad thing, we already click a lot as it is, and need to in order to earn credits. The matching natures part, it was curious and something to fiddle with if something about the pair needs a little boost one way or another. So interesting at the very least. I can't speak for anyone else, but I do think it's just the tension and competitiveness from the type race that are making it so people get demanding or overly negative without any real logical way of explaining themselves unlike during times calmer periods. Still that doesn't mean it was okay. Anyways all in all, I love the update and am looking forward to it. I understand reasons certain things get dropped, but I will hope for reconsider on the v-wave at least. Cause I think it's a change that people have to see in action to see where all the impacts are, and yes I am factoring in the later on update concerning the clicking (stage six I think?) as well and that sort of impact. And I hope you continue to provide the information for comparison sake as it does help those like me whom value being able to think it through looking at what is provided. Thank you for doing so, and thank you for the update.

I've been thinking about this point in particular because it bothers me. If you know me at all you know I'm a huge fan of the TR. I love when people help one another and hatch cool stuff and it's how I've made most of my friends here on the site. I think the amount of affect the V-Wave has on the TR is a lot less than everyone thinks it is. Hunting with the V-Wave exclusively is only really worth it for you personally if either your Wishalloy badges that are very low level that match anything else you would want to hunt, or your badges are all Wishalloy. For an example, this past V-Wave Fairy day there was some discussion in the Ghost thread about swapping hunts to Mimikyu - but the person who was being asked about it has a Wishalloy Fire badge, so they decided to go with Litwick instead. And that is definitely the better choice, the boost from a higher level badge is stronger than the 50% from the V-Wave. In the last 4 TR I have participated in, 3 of which I've been the team leader, my team has had a V-Wave once, and it was Rock on the very last day of the January TR (which I didn't team lead). I think we were 4th or 5th overall that month. In Feb I was on Ice and we never had an Ice-Wave, but there were two Rock waves and two Ground waves that week. Rock didn't win and neither did Ground. We weren't last that TR but we were 13th as Ice. Which was fine as it's about fun for me at the end of the day. March I was Poison, and we made jokes in the thread about the V-Wave because there were two Rock waves again as well as two Ice Waves, and with the ice waves we didn't even have a single egg that matched to try to chase it, but it didn't matter at all - we got first place and broke over 400k points as a team. Rock I think was third and I'm not sure where Ice was but the V-Wave didn't make a difference enough. And right now, I'm on Ghost and we don't have a V-Wave either, and we're in second place currently, behind Dragon who did have a V-Wave already this week. I think that maybe you could argue that a Dragon/Steel V-Wave is a bit more valuable as they are typically badges that are hard to grind and many people don't have them high enough to outweigh the V-Wave bonus but I don't buy it about that either - the Dragon team is just extremely motivated, they have a leader who really loves dragon types and they are doing a really good job. And ultimately, I feel like that is what really makes a team do well - is how well your leader can make everyone come together as a team because if they are really excited, it gets other people excited and then you feed off that motivation and snowball. And, truthfully, there shouldn't be any pressure to participate at all - it's completely optional, like everything else on the site. And to have tension or anger about the race at all - why? Is it exciting to win? Yes, it was awesome. But that's not the point of the TR to me. The point is to hatch things you maybe normally wouldn't (I didn't really plan to hatch any of the guys I've hatched this TR!) and to earn Z-Crystals through the team goal, and your personal goal if you want to. And even teams who are down at the bottom of the TR are still getting a full Z-Crystal from their team goal. I understand that it's something that people are very passionate about (as you can see I am) but I really do feel like the V-Wave concerns in relation to the TR in particular were overblown...which is ultimately the point of this extremely long post, hah, so thank you if you got through it ❤️ Regardless, I'm excited for the daycare update in whatever state it comes in, because I do love to melan hunt and I'd love to try some exclusives but it felt a bit out of reach with the amount of brain power I have some days, hah (I am not good about remembering to feed sweet hearts and even though I click a lot, it still feels bad to get 100 eggs maybe after 100,000 interactions). If we can, we should channel our passion into positivity - you get more flies with honey than vinegar after all. And tone is so hard online, oof - I try very hard to make my intent clear from how I type and it can still be hard to read. But we should assume positive intent from each other 🥰 Maybe that's me being an optimist, but I think at the end of the day all of us have the same desire of wanting the site to be the best it can be while also being balanced and fair regardless of how you play.

The whole "gigs needs gems" thing has probably been beaten to death already so I'll avoid bringing it back up. The one thing I do wanna say is, why natures? I understand that the idea was "personality compatability", but with the way natures are worded, that just doesn't make sense to me. Sure, Modest, Mild and Quiet mons would likely get along well, but would they really get along better with a Rash pokemon (same preference) than a Lax or Relaxed pokemon (different preference)? Calm, Gentle and Careful would get along, but Careful and Sassy be considered to have more "shared interests" than Careful and Timid. Although honestly, this is just a minor "flavour" gripe from me, but something I haven't seen brought up yet.

I wasn't gonna comment on this since it's a bit off topic, but it's a sentiment that keeps surfacing over and over again across the entire thread and I'd like to throw in my five cents. (and Raziya kinda posted a lot of the same thoughts while I was writing, but it's not like I'm gonna delete all this now so guess you get a TR essay double feature lol) I don't think V~Wave is ever gonna make or break Type Race. We had V~Wave on the best possible day, stacked with Niet, Sei, and the beginning of the type race (where there is typically the most activity), and yet it wasn't enough to bring us even near the top spot. Ghost hasn't had a V~Wave and they're #2, far ahead of every other team besides #1. I think the problems with the idea of Type Race run far deeper than mere mechanics, or even PFQ, and will likely never be truly balanced. The imbalance starts with the rotation. From what I understand, the rotation is randomly determined when an account is created, meaning each team is a random sample of all accounts that exist on PFQ. That might sound balanced, but it really isn't because not every account is equal. Many accounts are inactive and are never gonna contribute anything to the score, and others are very active players who have the time and resources to really push the score upwards. This should theoretically even out over time, but just like with unlucky and lucky chains, you're gonna get concentrations of both. And even one player can strongly skew the results of a type race. For instance, I alone am currently responsible for nearly 10% of my entire team's score. If we had 5 more players like me, we'd be the #1 team. But we don't, and it's not like I'm gonna go around forcing people to put in as much effort as I am. And there's likely far more inactive accounts than "super active" players, meaning you're occasionally gonna get teams that are "destined to win" while others simply have too many inactive accounts to work with. (And kind of tying into what Raziya said above, some players make excellent team leaders but you have no control over which team they end up on.) Balance would be pre-emptively checking the teams and moving players around to make sure no team is too stacked or has too much dead weight. Of course, that can't be done because it would ruin the predictability of the TR and people's long term plans. And yet, that's not even all. If Type Race was pure RNG then why do we consistently see certain teams at the bottom of the ranking, and why are certain Z-Crystals consistently underpriced? I think the answer was mentioned by someone in the thread before but... it seems certain types just don't command the kind of engagement in people to really push the score. Whether that be having high EHP eggs, appealing legendaries, or just a bunch of popular Pokemon, I don't think that's something that's gonna change because of a buff or two. If someone really loves Dratini, and has been waiting and preparing for their Dragon TR for months to hunt Dratini all week, they're likely not gonna change their plans last minute just because they didn't get a good V~Wave (although having a good V~Wave could help them squeeze out a few points, which in this case could admittedly have helped Dragon reach #1 over Ghost). Likewise, if someone wasn't really planning to do much for the TR, then a favorable V~Wave might encourage them to hatch a few more eggs, but how many points is the team really gonna get out of that? The V~Wave change could have skewed the results a bit, but not nearly as much as the RNG of team composition, or the fact that certain types just aren't as desirable as others. The people responsible for the bulk of the scores would likely be the ones least affected by it, since they already release hundreds of eggs into the shelter every day, and are going to be releasing even more after the rework. Tl;dr: I believe the TR results are more or less decided before the race even starts, and no one can really do anything to significantly change them other than perhaps pushing their team up a spot or two (and if they can, they're likely already doing it). As such, the TR is never really going to be "skill based" or competitive, and rather than worrying about the leaderboard, I think it's best to just enjoy it for the albino rate boost and the sense of community.

i haven't read all of the discussion here because i don't want to do that to myself. in fact i've only read a few of the inital pages. i just want to chime in on why the vwave and red gigaremo change in particular had such a sudden reaction. i'm sure this point has already been made but alas, maybe it'll help highlight it. they weren't outlined in the initial 2024 update plan post. everything else was. the change to breeding pair compatibiliy was listed. changes in exclusive rates were listed. filling the party with one button was listed. effects to pairs with the vwave as well as the additional red gig cost wasn't, unless i missed something major. if i did and i look like a fool, please point it out to me. i don't mean to be rude. i don't mean to be hostile. i just mean to say that sudden, percieved-to-be negative changes, are not going to have an immediate positive reaction if the community only has a week or so to adjust to it, when it would have taken months as mentioned to be mulled over by staff or months for the community to adjust to from the original post from 2023. looking at the vwave information again, yeah sure it is an overall buff, but the fact it wasn't mentioned at all prior to this made it a surprise no one was expecting. the red gigaremo too. i bought one to do my big kawotor hunt next month, and i won't lie- it did discourage me when reading it. i could have prepared and kept more gems spare had i knew it was going to be changed. (obviously this has been repealed now, but not when i first read the post.) (seconding what dalia said about berries btw. i have SO many berries, i don't use the garden aside from tourneys, i don't make pokeblocks and i very rarely buy accessories - using berries to power the gigaremo, or maybe using them to make a different consumable to power the gigaremo like pokeblocks (but perhaps requiring more than one berry) would make a lot more sense than using gems.) as far as i know this is the first update that's had a change not outlined in the inital 2024 update plans post in some form, so a sudden reaction questioning where it came from isn't unexpected.

As someone who was critical on parts of the update I do have to say I am sorry if my tone was harsh, I have a hard time conveying tone and even if it wasn't my intention it could have been harsh. I think a big part of the major outcry was the lack of the math in the original post, this community has a lot of people of different ages with different strong suits. Seeing the math layed out was helpful as someone who's not good at it and it helped me feel more comfortable with the possibility of the update even if i didnt say so, we also must realize that in different places we are taught differently so it's helpful to have the person implementing that changes to outright say the effects since they're the one doing the math. I do want to see something happen with the v wave but in regards to ideas I'm not sure what to suggest, if we're talking about gems needing more uses maybe we could have something to do with that? I'm not sure if those would work but maybe the v wave could add a chance of getting more gems from one egg if it matches, I've seen people in the thread commenting on how you only get one with each hatch on non bonus days so maybe this could balance it out. Not sure, just a suggestion as a non coder. Could also possibly make people feel better about using gems for other things. I also agree on berries having more uses, even the hard ones are easy to get due to scours and large gardens. Personally can grow over a hundred of certain berries if I need them