Looking for opinions on current bonus bars

Hello everyone! This site has had a lot of discussion about the bonus bars since... well, the beginning of the bonus bars. I'm making this thread as a place to collect opinions on how the bonus bars are currently working, as I'm very interested in data, and also people's feelings towards the current system. I would also like to collect all the info about changes to the boosts/what Niet has said about the boost system in this thread, as it's currently a little all over the place and I would like to collect it to make it easier to view. This isn't a suggestion, and will likely not become a suggestion unless I feel there's enough evidence and support for any particular side. I genuinely just wanna hear how people feel about it in a general sense, as I only have my own point of view as a veteran player. I would like to hear from other veteran players, newbies, everyone in between! All opinions are welcome, no matter how 'experienced' you are! I also invite the general staff team and Niet to give any input. Helpful Info:

• Niet has previously stated that most bonus counters are intended to only activate every one to two weeks link
• The shinyhunt rawdata page lists every boost that was activated on a certain day, and gives a good sense of gaps between boosts. Natural activations are not differentiated from FabFri/MCW link
• From what I can see, we average 4,500-5,000 log-ins a day, with potentially less 'active' players. Numbers are likely higher on big boost days/events.

What I want to hear from you!

• How long have you been playing?
• Do you think the bars fill too quickly, too slowly or are alright as they are? Any specifics?
• Do you think the boost ranges are too strong, too weak, or just right? Any specifics?
• Do you think you are able to benefit fully from the boosts given? (ie Do you gain what you want from the boosts when they're active?)
• Should Fab Friday or the MCW boosts be changed?

This isn't necessarily a form, and I encourage you to write free-form if you want to! These are just some general points I would like to hear about, but feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you want. Even just a couple words about one bonus counter would be interesting to me! Lastly, keep things civil! I've seen how these threads go, and I understand the frustration from all sides. However, I want to keep this as objective as possible. I would recommend posting your personal opinion and leaving it at that. Please do not attack people if they have a different opinion to you.

Hi! I'm also really interested in data, and have played Pokefarm on and off for many years so I have a lot of thoughts on how the bonus bars have changed! I'm generally quite satisfied with how the bonus bars are right now in terms of how quickly they fill. We get bonus days pretty often! This wasn't the case back in PF1, where it seemed like a much larger deal when the bonus bar filled (mind you, my sense of time may have been warped back then, as I was ~12, and these are memories from 11 years ago). I think they're at a good place right now where it doesn't feel like bonus days are constant, but missing out on one isn't a huge deal, and waiting for one to come around is reasonable. As for the strength of the bars, the boost range for exp is just fine. Niet days need basically no tweaking, in my opinion. I feel this way about Ravyne and Shazi as well. Elta and Novan days I'm middling on, as I think the boosts could stand to be a little stronger on average. However, I am mainly making very large purchases using these counters, which is definitely not true for newer users. If the boosts do get buffed, I'd want the counters to be slowed a bit to prevent inflation. I...honestly don't exactly understand how the Sei bonus is calculated so have no comment. The fact that we get a shiny boost at all is amazing for someone who lived in the days before the pokeradar was accesible to free-to-play users. Garthic seems just fine to me, but isn't a counter I really use because I have over four million interaction points saved, and thus couldn't possibly run out any time soon. The Suriya boost...is hard to quantify. It doesn't feel like it does much, but I haven't actually collected data on drops during Suriya days or anything. Only seeing three scour results at a time, once an hour, makes it hard to really "feel" like you're getting anything. I think I'm able benefit from the boosts fairly well! I find it hard to fully make use of Shazi unless it's paired with a Niet day, but I think the element of randomness in whether or not that will happen is fun. I just don't personally have the time to hatch 200 eggs in a day without boosts (though Shazi is great for collecting wishforge evos from the shelter, and I can definitely adopt 200 eevee in like. An hour.) The currency days are easy to wait on for making big purchases as I mentioned earlier, and Niet and Ravyne days are literally always useful. The only time I can't capitilize on them is if I'm just too busy to play all day. Ravyne is probably my favorite boost, as I can pretty much singlehandedly obtain the gems for my closest WF upgrade in a day with a good Ravyne boost and some strategy. I haven't had any problems with MCW (though I've only been through two since my return from a three year hiatus), but Fab Friday has been a bit disappointing, in my opinion. This is really because of the vast difference in how useful the counters are. For example, Fabu activated the Eltafaz counter this week which would be great...if I had any GP purchases I needed to make. However, if Fabu activates Niet, Ravyne, or Shazi, I can literally ALWAYS make use of it. I can use Sei most of the time, and I've even done a spontaneous day-long hunt before because the Sei counter activated. In particular, Garthic, Novan, Elta, and Suriya activated by themselves just feels disappointing. Of course you can't win every week, but it seems to happen fairly often. It's not a total wash since the GP reward is nice, but I remember when Fab friday was FIRST implemented it was a lot more exciting and now it's just like...oh yea...friday again. I also think it'd be nice if the requirements for 200% were increased a bit, as it seems to get hit pretty handily every week from what I've seen. But those are just my opinions! While I've been around for a lot of the site, I've also missed a ton, and most of my memories are from very long ago, as I was most active in the 2012-2014 period, also largely on PF1. Overall, the bonus bars are a great system that I think has been implemented well, but I'm definitely not averse to tweaking them around as the site grows and changes. My main issue with them is the disparity in usefulness for the different bars; it would be nice particularly to see some kind of buff for Garthic, like more uses for interaction points.

bump also, i completely forgot to thank you for your reply torchiclove! thank you so much for your in-depth reply, it was very fun to read and very insightful :3

Sorry in advance for length! ;u; So, I've been playing since 2015 on here, and I had an account on PF1, though I don't remember much from there tbh. I've also taken a few long breaks, one that I came back from a few months ago! I can't really complain about the time it takes to fill the bars! I quite like that they're at a pace where they aren't exactly rare. Though I do think it would be nice if Niet's either didn't fill as fast, or if Shazi filled slightly faster, because while it wouldn't guarantee a shazi/niet day every time, it would be nice if they triggered together more often, since Shazi's bonus, at least if you have a higher pass, can seem a bit useless if you aren't hatching eggs fast enough, and then Niet's bonus on its own uses up your adoptions oftentimes halfway through the day or sooner. So if you have a chain and no memory stick, you kinda end up stuck unless you have the money to shell out for a bunch of daycare passes/lab reloaders/supplier passes and expedited delivery. Most of the boosts I have no problem with. It's nice to get a discount on GP or Credits (though once you hit 100 fields, discount or not they'll burn a hole through your wallet lol), shazi gives plenty of adoptions, Sei I can't actually speak on because I tend to have worse luck on Sei days lol (except for yesterday, which was an incredible luck day and I got two melans), garthic is just neat to have, especially when you mass click, niet can be a bit overwhelming but hatching eggs fast is nice. Now my problems begin with Suriya and Rayvne. In theory Suriya is great, and I've had good Suriya days! Butttt I think it could be implemented better. There's a combination of the fact that what you get from scours is already RNG, plus the RNG of the bonus itself that makes it a bit lackluster. And I don't think it gets much help from the fact that the way it's worded is a bit vague. I'll have to check what it actually says next Suriya day, but I know I personally had to look at the wiki to see exactly how it worked and what it was referring to, and I'm 24! Lol. I think with the way it's worded, it's easy to assume that the bonus inherently guarantees better scour finds. I think, at the very least, the lower end of the range should be increased. I'm on a lot, but I feel like especially for those who aren't, and therefore don't do a lot of scouring, having the percentage that low can just feel like a useless bonus, because they don't have as many chances to hit that 40% or so. Honestly, sometimes it just doesn't feel like much of a bonus, really. I don't think that one is up to par with the usefulness of the others. Aaaand Rayvne. Which I had no problem with previously... Except now the bonus has been nerfed and we get rng shoved into that too if it lands on a .5. 2.5 or 3.5 aren't as bad, though still an ouch when I really don't think the 4 needed a nerf in the first place, since getting gems is already a slow process, but 1.5 is... frankly ridiculous. Add to that the higher target that was introduced with that nerf, and if the Rayvne bonus lands on 1.5? Well, we've just put in more effort for less reward. It's almost insulting. With all due respect to Niet, his opinion when someone brought that up was "well yeah. That's the point of a nerf." Except, usually nerfs are one or the other. Same amount of effort for less of a reward, or more effort for the same reward. Not more effort for less reward or none at all. Because if the Rayvne bonus is at 1.5x, that means for approximately 50% of hatches that day, despite the effort users put into activating the bonus, there's no reward at all. That's just, frankly, not something that should be possible. Especially when so many gems are needed for badges. The minimum should be 2, as it was before. But yeah, as I mentioned, shazi is great but I don't really get the full benefit unless niet is also active. The same is true for niet, but to a lesser extent, since hatching eggs faster is a bonus regardless of whether you get to hatch extra ones too. Sei can be here or there, rng is rng, and at least yesterday I'm sure I fully benefitted from it lol. Garthic I actually get tons of use out of because I mass click, and more interaction points means more money bc albino radar! Suriya I honestly don't feel is worth it most days. Rayvne depends, and if 1.5, absolute no. Barely a benefit. Novan and Eltafez, neat for getting fields, DCP, etc. Can't really complain. As for fab Friday and MCW, I don't have many issues with MCW, but I do think it would be nice for Fab Friday to get a bit of a tweak. It just seems so disappointing very often. I don't know what to suggest with that one, maybe a higher interaction requirement, but the bonus activates at full, and if the bonus counter is filled as well, a second one activates at a random or low percentage? Probably too much, but hey, it would fix the disappointment of "fabulous Friday ended, time to see which bonus we- oh. :/" It would be nice if at least something was tweaked so it wasn't so disappointing so often.

bumpo