I over-buffed Melanistic Pokémon...

After running more numbers on the effects of the Übercharm, it's quite apparent that it is too strong. The way it and the Long Chain Bonus work is to "upgrade" a Shiny to a Melanistic, and the current state of things is that, assuming a max level Albino Radar, plus Z-Crystal, plus Long Chain Bonus, the odds of a Shiny being "upgraded" can be as high as 1 in 3. This is far too high. I am therefore proposing and planning the following nerfs. And yes, I'm calling them nerfs, there is (almost) no part of this that can be considered a buff. I know nerfs are disliked in general, but this will be for the benefit of the game's balance and hopefully its economy. - Reduce the Übercharm from 8x to 4x. Accordingly, reduce its price from 250 ZC to 150 ZC. - Remove the scaling bonus applied to the Long Chain Bonus that begins at Champion Rank and is further boosted by Arceus Rank. - Rework the Arceus Rank bonus to a simple "+10% additional Melanistic Chance", narrowing the gap between those with Arceus Rank and those without.

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I am also considering some adjustments to the Holon Research Tower, where Shinies/Albinos/Melans can be traded in for Delta Points. I would like to hear opinions on what could be changed about it. The main idea I have at the moment is to allow an option to choose a specific Type for your Delta. The base price would be around 10x the standard "random" Delta price, however there would be significant discounts for Types that would already have increased odds in the first place. To give an example, the V~Wave gives a 20% chance of getting that particular Delta Type, so it would cost maybe 4x the standard price. This means it will still be cheaper than just going for the random option and hoping for the best (on average it would take 5 Deltas to get the V~Wave type). Similarly, if the parents are of different species then there is a 40% chance of inheriting a type from the parent whose species is different from the Egg. So breeding a Shinx and a Buizel would tend to yield Delta-Electric Buizel and Delta-Water Shinx. The corresponding types would be priced around 2x the standard price, since on average it would take 2.5 Deltas to get the corresponding type. If multiple types qualify, the price would be higher. Okay, it's not quite as simple to describe as it was in my head, but the point is you'd be able to pay more DP to pick the Type you want, and it will work out to be cheaper on average than randomly hoping for the best. An additional idea I've seen requested is the ability to actually trade Delta Points directly. I'm afraid "directly" isn't really possible, but what I could certainly look into doing is adding items that you can buy for DP, trade, and the recipient can then turn them in for DP again. There may be some decay involved in this (similar to Big Gems in the Wishforge) but this would enable trading of DP! As mentioned above, I'm open to suggestions on other adjustments that could be made.

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The Melanistic Chances update is currently pending. I'm open to feedback but I must emphasise that this change will be good for the balance of the game. Like I said, I know nerfs are hard, but they are (sometimes) necessary for the long-term benefit of the system.

Update: Following feedback, I think I agree that it would be better to make smaller steps. So I'm planning the following order, to be handled one by one over the next few weeks. - Bring the Übercharm down from 8x to 4x. - In response to feedback, take another look at the Shiny chances and see what options there are to slightly increase them. - Look into making Delta Points able to be traded. As mentioned above, this may come at a cost but will be much more convenient. - Delay the changes to the Long Chain Bonus for now, and figure out later if the changes are actually needed. Signs point to "maybe, but maybe not." I will of course continue to be reading your comments and feedback, and adjust our course accordingly.

Update 8/Mar: I'm digging into the code related to hatching Eggs, and my goodness it's a mess! But that's to be expected, really, as it's one of the oldest code files in the game... Anyway, time to actually put some numbers to things so that more informed decisions can be made. Radar: Shinies cap out at 1/600 for non-HM, or 1/200 for Hypermode users. Pokémon of the Day: 10% boost Shiny Charm: Doubles the chance Sei power: varies, but when playing with max chances and max Sei power then it doubles the chance. So realistically Shiny chances cap out at 1/100, which honestly seems reasonable to me. As for Albinos... Radar: Max level provides a base chance of 1/120 Z-Crystal: Doubles the chance So basically they're 1/60, which means that after all the updates that got made... they're more common than Shinies, which wasn't intended to be the case. Finally, Melanistic Pokémon... Assuming ideal Shiny and Albino chances, it's 1/100 * 1/60 = 1/6000 Arceus Rank + Long Chain Bonus: x2.5 chances, so 1/2400 Übercharm: x8 chances, so 1/300 As I mentioned somewhere, the chance of a Shiny being "upgraded" to a Melan (or, to put it mathematically, P(Melan|Shiny) = P(Melan) / P(Shiny) = (1/300) / (1/100)) is 1/3, which is far too high. This is why I believe change is needed. I actually think the best first step is actually to tackle the Albino chances. I don't know when they became more common than Shinies but that's definitely not the intended way of things. So I'd like to halve Albino chances first. This keeps Shinies at 1/100, which I'm happy with. Albinos then cap out at 1/120, I'm actually thinking they should be more rare than that but I'll accept opinions and feedback on that. Melanistics will indirectly be halved, and at this point 1 in 6 Shinies could be "upgraded" to Melanistic. That still feels too high to me, but the biggest feedback I've received is "make small steps and see what happens". I'm sorry for the repeated changing of plans, but at least it's still in the talking phase and not a repeated chain of hasty game updates like last time! Please let me know what you think of the proposal. We can find balance together!

I can't seem to help but make multiple updates at once, but here we are... - The base Albino rate has been halved. - You can now trade in Delta Pokémon for "Base price", which is 20% of the cost of Delta-ing that species. - Shinies can be traded in for "2x Base price" (up from "Base price") - Albinos can be traded in for "3x Base price" (up from "2x Base price") - Melanistic Pokémon are unchanged at "200x Base price" I would like to make a couple of comments regarding the feedback I have received. Most of it is excellent and I'm thrilled at how much communication there has been with the community over this. However, without wanting to direct this at anyone in particular, I must point out that just because I don't agree with you and implement everything you say, doesn't mean I'm ignoring or not listening to you. Every single post in this thread has been read and is being considered, even if I don't come out and explicity/specifically reply to you. But at the end of the day, I will take the action that I believe to be best for the game at the time of making the decision. Further updates can then refine that course of action. Nobody here is being ignored. Additionally, it has been pointed out that I seem to be neglecting the free-to-play people. I'm not; you're being considered too; however it's important to balance things so that those who do pay for upgrades don't completely eclipse everyone else. That's why the calculations I showed were based on that. For the free players, Shinies max out at 1/600 and Albinos were 1/120. That massive discrepency is the primary reason why Albinos are so much more common overall than Shinies right now. With this update, Albinos have gone back to 1/240, which is still significantly more common than Shinies. One future update I'm considering is whether to allow free-to-play users to chain to 39 on the PokéRadar instead of 38, which would bring Shiny chances to about 1/400 instead. I'll be thinking about it. That being said, please do remember that free-to-play players are NOT excluded from using premium items. Through gameplay it is possible to get desirable items and currency and trade them to the paying players in exchange for premium items. Many players get their Hypermode in this manner and I admire their efforts. Likewise, you can trade for a Shiny Charm, or get them from the Marketboard, and use the free GP from events like Fabulous Friday and Contests to keep them charged. No effort goes unrewarded in this game. I will be continuing to monitor the numbers and of course your feedback. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Stats are still being collected. I don't yet have enough to really show off, but give it another week and I'll be able to publish a graph over on the Stats page. I must again re-state that while individual experiences definitely impact how you as players enjoy the game, it is the aggregate whole that defines things like the market. It is specifically because I over-catered to the individual experience that the market crashed. This was most notably seen when Tournaments were first introduced, I set the prices of the Prize Shop based on individual experience, completely forgetting to consider that people can and will trade for Tokens. Thankfully I was able to rectify that before things crashed horribly, but it was still a harsh lesson to learn. That being said, I do want to ensure that individuals can still enjoy the game, of course I do. But that is going to require shifting the balance until we find the right system. With that in mind, I'm proposing a couple of changes. I'd like to make this happen within a couple of weeks, but we'll see how things go with feedback and such. - Übercharm nerf: reduce its bonus from 8x to 6x. - Free user Shiny buff: increase max PokéRadar chain from 38 to 39. - Shiny Charm buff: increase its bonus from 2x to 2.5x The PokéRadar change effectively represents a 50% increase in Shiny odds for non-Hypermode users. It brings their base shiny odds from 1/600 to 1/400. For comparison, Hypermode users get a base shiny chance of 1/200 from the PokéRadar alone. As a tangential ramble, I'd like to comment on the state of Shinies in general. Specifically the fact that players have come to expect shinies to be handed out left and right. I encountered a shiny Shellos in Platinum and it was exilerating (even if the colouration itself was a bitter disappointment). And in the 14 years since that event I have never encountered another wild Shiny Pokémon. Until today, when playing Legends Arceus on stream, and I ran into a Shiny Bidoof. It didn't feel special, it didn't feel earned, it was just like "hey you've caught a handful of Bidoof, here have a shiny one." I wanted to just knock it out and move on to something I actually deserved, but... well, I'll still take a free shiny I guess! In fan-games it is not uncommon to see Shinies being obtained quite easily, to the point where - as I said at the start of this ramble - players feel entitled to Shinies. I firmly believe that no, they should remain rare and special as the rare mutation that they are. Because when every Pokémon is special, none of them are. As always, I am continuing to read every post here. However, recent animosity has discouraged me from responding. Please do not make assumptions and accusations about me, my staff team, or any of our character. Especially not when trying to use such an accusation as justification for why we should listen to you. It does not make for healthy communication. I am still listening, but it is difficult to do so when baseless attacks are made against us. Please be rational and reasonable, and I will be the same. Thank you.

The whole idea of becoming Arceus, keeping your rank, is to get that boost. That's why (most) Arceus players participate in the tourney. If that boost is gone, what is really the point on having Arceus besides having it in the trainer card?