Single post in 2024 Update Phase 2: The Shelter

A couple thoughts about the whole "shelter vs lab/fishing" thing, from someone who loves both the shelter and the lab... fishing less so. I love shelter hatching for shiny hunts, and I love lab hatching for unlimited eggs on Niet/Ravyne days. But the big question I have, is, how do new players feel about the gameplay experience of the shelter compared to the lab? Compared to fishing? From what I remember of the time when me and my friends were new players, a big appeal of the shelter was the sheer amount of options, of being able to search through to try and find your favourite pokemon, and how excited we would get when we found legendaries (and even my first shiny!) in the shelter. Something I've seen a fair bit in this thread is how dex completion is one of the "primary" goals of the site, with "endgame" content like shiny hunting boosts logistically placed behind dex completion rewards. And yes, the shelter does definitely make that easier! Something I wonder about, though, is if the "enjoyable" part of the shelter making dex completion easier is because the alternatives just aren't as "enjoyable"/fun? I've seen a fair amount of people who find dex completion a slog in the official games, and the official games have a lot more interactive of a playstyle than a clicker game like Pokefarm Q. I personally LOVE clicker games, to the point where I've been actively playing up to four at once(!!) but I'm very well aware that I'm an outlier in this. A lot of the friends who I've referred to PFQ have all eventually stopped playing because clicker games just aren't their style, and that's fine!! The thing is, though, for people whos primary enjoyment is not of clicker games but of collecting all kinds of Pokemon, I can see why the shelter would be a clear favourite. You get to adopt anything you can find in there, in comparison to the lab, which offers just as wide of a selection, but only four eggs at a time, you have to wait for a new selection, and if you aren't as familiar with Pokemon or the egg descriptions on this game, you might not know what you're getting. And honestly, as Nintendo keeps adding more and more Pokemon to the official games, there's just more and more you have to do to complete the dex, and with that, there's more and more possible eggs in the lab that lessens the chance of getting something you want. And I'll give you context here so nobody can take me out of context, yes, these are both important parts of the game, yes, the shelter is overpowered and needs balancing. I dunno, I'm just reminded of the mainline games, and of other peoples' ideas for their own fan-made regions, where progression seems a lot more "linear". If you like normal and flying types, you know you'll encounter one on the early routes, grass and bug types are usually found in forests, water types are found on beaches, etc. You have a "direction" for where to go, there's a sense of progress and moving on, you can "categorise" the mons into their routes so you can prioritise route by route, so you can feel like you're making progress on smaller goals on your way to complete the big goal of "catch 1000+ pokemon". And that brings me to fishing. I love the idea behind fishing. I love that the progression makes sense, you know what you're getting (water pokemon) and you know what you're working towards (rarer/stronger water pokemon). As a late-game player who doesn't have a lot to gain from fishing, and also someone who personally prefers the clicker gameplay to fishing minigames, it tends to bore me a little bit, but that's fine. Nothing can be for everyone, and I love that. I think a couple pages back, Niet rather sarcastically said, "That the solution to people not liking the fact that I'm encouraging people to use more of the game's features is to add still more?", and I know I'm probably responding to a very rhetorical question here, but here's my very genuine response: Maybe! I can't speak for everyone, and I can't speak for sure, but if the complaint stems from "I don't find these other features fun", maybe if a variety of additional features were added, there could be "something for everyone." To bring myself back to my original point... how do new players feel about the gameplay experience? How do new players feel about the various features? Do they feel as if the other gameplay features are adequately engaging/rewarding? Does the intended gameplay focus of dex completion feel possible, inspirational, motivational, challenging, grindy, too broad? If the shelter took the fun out of dex completion because it was too overpowered, does the "nerfing" of it also take the fun out of dex completion if you don't find the currently-existing alternatives enjoyable? These aren't the kinds of questions I can answer myself, given that I love all aspects of Pokemon, I love collection and completion, I love a good challenge, and I do find the clicker gameplay loop genuinely fun. But hopefully, if you've read this far, it's given you something to think about.