Have Community Days had their "best" days?

Pokemon GO PoGo Discussion
#1

Rather than shove this thought into the current CD thread I’ll post this separately. Some points first:

  1. I’m not saying CD’s should stop
  2. I’m not saying I don’t still enjoy them
  3. I know that they have a place
  4. I know they’ve been holding back some stuff due to Covid
  5. I know there will be some immensely popular CD’s in future (I’ll come back to this shortly)
  6. I acknowledge PVP is a very popular thing, even though I hate it
  7. I’m not saying a good CD *must * create some new superbeast that renders all others obsolete

But, having thought about it, these seem to be the conversations around every CD now:

  1. This is useless for PvE (or on odd occasions, this is a way of releasing a move for an upcoming mega)
    2 . This is an arguable at best improvement on PvP (cue examples of how if you pair CD candidate with b and c and but moves x and y, z is better because, followed by examples of how it then loses against p,q,r and s now)
  2. It’s Covid, they’ll get back to better stuff soon (that’s mainly me and a couple of others)

But, thinking back on the 2018, into 2019 CD’s everything could be an upgrade because we had less generations out, nothing has a “special/elite/signature” move and we could improve with almost every starter, albeit Blastoise had to wait for the mega, but they did so shiny/sunglasses which made it special.

I thought about the last what I would call “proper” CD which was Rhyhorn. We got RW Rhyperior which I love. But in truth, what choices are left now? There’s pretty much a very strong strong legendary of every notable type, with usually 2 or 3 more legendaries and generally stronger non-legendaries out now, which there weren’t in 2018 and so, you just can’t keep making each CD make something great any more. The pattern/problem is there to be seen in the back half of 2019, long before Covid arrived.

But, with that said and here comes a bit of a whinge from a PvE player, why then are we getting marginal PvP CD’s every month using the excuse that “because Covid” when it’s unlikely any PvE CD bar a few will be no more or less likely to make people play?

Anyway, vaccines are well underway and well done to the UK’s abysmal government for ensuring the Covid vaccine delivery is ahead of pretty much everyone so that you can use it as a shield against all the underhand law-breaking you’ve done in the past.

So, let’s assume by Jan 2021 most countries can safely call Covid “on the way out” and we could get back to the old-school CD’s. What could they do anyway? We know a few could be hugely popular:

  1. Gible
  2. Litwick
  3. Deino
  4. Shinx
  5. Riolu

We know the first one will happen, you could give Garchomp hyper beam and people would still go bananas for Gible CD, probably Litwick, Deino in some far off day and maybe the other two again for popularity.

But ultimately, how many CD’s can truly change the game like 2018 did? Many 2018 CD’s only changed the game for a few months before they were surpassed, whether by another CD or a new release. So, really, all we can hope for in the majority of future CD’s is that they go for some candidates that offer interesting alternatives, that bring something new into the competitive bracket for both sides of the game.

I’m open to any ideas, alternatives and suggestions that can change this, but truthfully, I think it’s just a fact of where we are in the game that Community Days are no longer what they were, it couldn’t stay that way, so there’s more of an onus on niantic (yes, I know, good luck with that) to make Cd’s more interesting.

#2

And this all because of shadows ;)
Seriously, i think they gonna introduce a few new moves, but yes, if you only count PvE, the days where every second month a really great CD there was, are over. And won’t come back.

Btw, why shinx? And what new move could chandelure get? Axew would be great, btw. Or making gigalith viable. Or braviary. Or the regionals! But all of them nothing groundbreaking (!) in PvE i guess. Just a bit more usability. But that’s fine imo.

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#3

I was thinking the same this morning.

Generally I believe PVE has been abandoned. We use to get kyogre for the 7th day catch, now we get frillish!!!

I think any pokemon with potential to make it into the top 3 of their type (excluding shadows) will draw interest, even repeats as now we need XL candy.

Fighting: Timburr, Riolu, Machamp
Ice: Swinub, eevee
Dragon: Axew, Deino, Dratini, Beldum
Ground: Excadrill, Rhyperion
Magnet: Metagross
Rock: larvitar, rhyperion
Flying: ??? you could pick anything with an overpowered mon
Fairy: Togetic, gardevoir (again, overpowered move to compete with dragons)
Normal: Snorlax, chansey, lickitung
Ghost: Litwick, gengar
Dark: Larvitar, Litwick
Psyquic; Probably Mewtwo is too overpowered for interest

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#4

Frillish is much much better than Kyogre in my view! I’m not a hardcore PvP player, but just don’t like Kyogre’s feeling, always use Kingler, Swampert, Empoleon and Feraligatr when water types are needed in raids.

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#5

Shinx is a fan-favourite mon, and hasn’t been available in the wild, so that will be interesting. Luxray can have Thunder Fang as exclusive move. Chandelure needs 2-bar Inferno (comparable to Dynamic Punch) to become a reliable fire attacker (too risky using Overheat). Gigalith and Vanilluxe with Weather Ball of their respective types are welcomed. Eelektross with Wild Charge isn’t bad either, not outstanding though. For flying type I’d like to see Staraptor than Braviary, with Fly.

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#6

I know @Elastic_Space has partially anwered the question but I picked not only what could be amazing PvE performance-wise, but rarer and/or favourite pokemon that would create the same buzz that used to acccompany most CD’s back in 2018. Their move doesn’t have to raise them to a new level, but many people don’t have a shiny, or even have one at all. Your Gigalith example is perfect, I’ve got a shiny one but can’t recall ever using it, so even if it didn’t match but could just see RW Rhyperior or Rampardos within sight, I’d use it for fun in Raid Hour or on a T3. That said, a two bar, not underpowered, move for Chandelure might help in certain scenarios. The way people split hairs on the PvP side, transferring that to PvE I’m not convinced it’s a requirement of CD’s to improve stuff - as you’ve said, just give it a different or more usability.

I know we’re differing on shadows but I still say that shadows are too expensive and unless you’re very fortunate with IV’s , too rare to raise a team of 6. So a CD would give a chance to fill one of slots 3-6 in your team with something new. I’d definitely throw a shiny shinx or shiny chandelure into my team.

@carodavide I know that’s puzzled me, although I suppose now remote raiding is a thing, giving away more legendaries as research rewards would impact sales so there’s a potential answer.

But yes, that’s the other answer for Cd’s is to make them interesting for XL candy, so reruns of past favourites would be good.

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#7

It never occurred to me that shinx was rare, having several shinies and two hundos. Maybe I was just lucky (no real grinder here) but for sure, shinx was not one of the real rarities. Plus the competition in the electric field is more than fierce. But thanks for clarifying!
About shadows, i use them and to me it’s fine and i think we have the same opinion, just wanted to echo the other side :D (which has its arguments as well of course).
Maybe we also need another grass CD? Honestly, we don’t have great shadows, roserade hasn’t got the very best moveset and no good legendaries in sight. Would welcome a new tangrowth or lilligant or exeggutor or chesnaught move.

About splitting hair in PvP: there it’s simply more useful. One second more or less in PvE really rarely matters, while in PvP it decides over win or loss. But using some of the stuff which we usually don’t care about (like gigalith) would be cool.

#8

Tangrowth already has best of the best PvE moveset, what do you expect? The only better grass charge move than Power Whip is the starter exclusive Frenzy Plant.

#9

I expect nothing. Just delete that comment out of your head :)

#10

How do you know this? What I know is that anything popular and/or meta relevant are in and will continue to be in raids and eggs. There is no reason for Niantic to have popular CD’s where everybody gets good pokemon for free when they can have everybody spend money hatching and raiding non-stop.

#11

There’s a dratini spotlight hour, so not completely on point. Question is more: when will that future be?

#12

“There is no reason for Niantic to have popular CD’s where everybody gets good pokemon for free when they can have everybody spend money hatching and raiding non-stop.”

To avoid losing players? L

I am not sure how the "free to download but with in game purchases "works but I am not sure everyone enjoys the pay to win (save to lose) type of games.

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#13

Spotlight hour is only an hour. There is only so much XL candy that you can get in an hour. My point is that whether we get good community days or not, most good things will be in raids and eggs.

#14

Of course. But this is not preventing “good” community days in the future. Your previous post sounded like. And of course niantic makes money with the CD as well…

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#15

I work on the logic that eventually, as with everything, it’ll get its turn in the spotlight. I think my logic works more on the level of “why wouldn’t niantic do a gible/deino/litwick/axew day?” in the end. There will come a point where those of us who hatch eggs have several of whatever comes in eggs and no longer care (Lucario for me is a case in point - I’ve got a lucky shiny, and a hundo both a l40 and loads more sitting around for trades etc, it’s a non-event for me) but those who don’t hatch eggs won’t spend the money on incubators anyway. So why not use the big name to really ramp up some excitement in the game.

If you keep stiffing players in the long term, they fall away. Whales are their cash-flow, but whales also depend on there being others in the game to play with/against etc. If I play this game and know my chance of ever seeking a working Garchomp are nil, well I’ll probably get bored at some point. If I know it’s coming sometime - particularly Garchomp as it has a mega, then I’ll maybe hang on.

If you kept playing and all you caught every day was weedles, you’d get bored, but the chance, that slim chance of something better is what keeps you out there. Same works on the longer game too.

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#16

Apologies, I thought you were a bit more negative on the shadows than me. I agree on the grass front, although I must admit a lot of stuff having Grass Knot and no access to FP already makes life difficult - I don’t know the game well enough to know what else might be out there as a viable new move.

I’d quite like a borderline broken poison or bug move, something that brings two really cool looking sets of pokemon back into viability, they don’t have to go to any megas, although that would limit their scope but why shouldn’t I think differently to “bug, check, not hundo, bin”. Why not use a poison or bug type for something, they’re generally underpowered to start with so it’s a viable option instead of doing, say, another fighting or rock move that then over-powers something that’s currently well balanced.

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#17

Niantic has already milked enough for those so-called better mon. If they keep doing so, most players will eventually lose their interest. At least for me, I won’t be more excited with a Gible/Deino CD than a Roggenrola/Vanillite CD now.

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#18

Yep, especially bug has potential! Yanmega, yea, armaldo yea. Accelgor? What’s that thing anyway?

#19

Would someone fill me in a little on the halcyon CDs of 2018? I only started playing at the beginning of 2019 and thought I was booping animals on the head for 6 months before I started playing. For me Community Days are fun because of the extra dust and if I get a guy with a cool move that’s great and if not, I’ll get an ETM from battles so it’s copacetic in the end.

#20

To add to your point, Niantic also sells plenty of boxes, tickets, etc. around community days so I don’t think keeping stuff raid/egg exclusive is necessarily much more profitable than giving them a CD (or similar highlight event).