To whom may be concerned:
CONCERNING
POKEFIND'S POKEMON SURVIVAL
RECENT ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO ADDRESS THEM
A BREIF ESSAY
Written by: AlmightyPiLord
Disclaimer: This essay concerns events on/prior to the the date it was written: the 20th of October of 2018. Events after this date are not discussed.
People, staff, developers, and leaders of PokeFind. One of our gamemodes, Pokémon Survival, is dying. This is the gamemode that kindled my love for our dear server, and I, along with many others, and greatly concerned about its recent state. Months ago, PokeFind's survival was bustling with many players and an equally grand playerbase. Now, due to the many issues I will discuss in the below paragraphs, Survival's playerbase has dwindled to close to none. While the amount of players on Survival 1 once exceeded the supposed maximum amount of players, now there are rarely more than 20. In this essay, I will highlight some of the issues contributing to Pokémon Survival's decline.
1. RARE POKEMON
Let us begin with an issue spanning back all the way to Survival's release. Rare Pokémon in the wild on Survival are non-existent without being spawned in by Professor+.
So far, no wild rare Pokémon has been reported that has spawned in the wild unaided. In my time, I have heard only of four wild rare spawns in the community: Two Eevee and two Dratini. All of these were reported to be spawned in by a person of high staff. Currently I do not know of the reason why the Eevee were spawned in (Also, this doesn't really have anything to do with my main point, but one of the Eevee had a terrible nature and IVs), I heard that one of the Dratini was spawned in to celebrate Survival's full release, and I was there to confirm that the second Dratini was spawned in to appease Dratini worshippers who had erected a pixel art of the Pokémon. The last rare spawn was around the middle of June. Since then, not a single rare Pokémon has been reported to have appeared in the wild. And, as I stated in the beginning paragraph, not a single rare spawn has been reported in the wild outside of these forcefully spawned Pokémon. Many rare Pokémon still exist, however, these are only ones from eggs. I believe everyone hates this expression, including myself, but it really rings true: because of this, I believe Pokémon Survival is truly the most pay-to-win gamemode PokeFind has to offer. Not to mention, the lack of rare Pokémon in the wild makes exploring not as rewarding. Also, because of this, rare Pokémon that cannot be obtained from eggs (namely Farfetch'd and Kangaskhan) are entirely unobtainable. This also takes away another traditional Pokémon objective: Catching 'em all.
This issue has been pointed out by many players ever since I can remember, but a blind eye seems to have been turned as updates and updates have been raked out to other gamemodes (and very occasionally for Survival, but that is an issue for another paragraph), but no fix for rare Pokémon has been released.
I believe offering a fix for rare Pokémon after all these months may create an incentive for players to come back on Survival and explore its borders in the hopes of encountering one of these Pokémon.
2. LACK OF UPDATES
As previously briefly noted in the last topic, there have been a severe lack of updates and events for Pokémon Survival. So far, there have been no large updates for this gamemode. All we have gotten since Pokémon Survival's release are skinned Pokémon (Ex: Shiny, Aura, and the very recent Halloween Pokémon) and rarely spawning Trainers and Merchants. So far, there has been nothing new and exciting gameplay wise to be added. Also, since Survival's release, we've only really had one Survival exclusive event: the Tournament held around June. We have also had x2 EXP weekends and one wild shiny event, however, those were also shared with PokeWorld.
I will suggest perhaps adding the ability to craft battle items (Ex: Toxic Orb, Focus Sash) and maybe adding mini quests or challenges to the gamemode. I will be more than happy to write any quests for the server, if that is an issue. I will also suggest perhaps hosting another tournament and maybe doing a wild shiny/aura/seasonal event somewhere down the line. Also, adding gen 2 and/or 3 would surely revive the playerbase for a while.
There's another issue I want to address, but I'm not sure what category to put it under so I'll stick it here: the terrain. The wild world of Survival has been torn to shreds, and there is very little land left to claim. Perhaps a world reset is in order?
3. OVERALL NEGLECT OF THE GAMEMODE
This is, in my opinion, one of the largest issues plaguing not only Survival, but even Skyblock and PokeWars. I believe that all the other gamemodes have been neglected in PokeWorld's wake. Since PokeWorld is PokeFind's largest gamemode and typically the gamemode with the most players, it would make sense to perhaps show some favoritism, but what I have seen goes past favoritism to pure neglect.
I will take an example: Berries. A long time ago, berries broke on the PokeWorld server. The issue was reported, and was fixed in about 1-2 days. Over a month ago, I and many Survival players noticed that Survival's berries also did not work. I reported the issue. Other players reported the issue. They still don't work, more than a month later. Similarly, I reported a minor issue about Survival around that time: The items in the blacksmith portion of the shop were all jumbled up instead of being orderly like they were previously. Like the berries, the issue still isn't fixed.
Like Survival, other gamemodes have suffered the same fate. I have personally seen close to nothing for Skyblock besides the addition of Eevee months ago. Though PokeWars was given a fairly large update recently, this is the first one I personally have ever seen since I joined late April. This part is less of a suggestion and more of an observation.
Overall, this issue with Survival really begins to boil down to the assumption that PokeWorld is the only gamemode really getting much of anything. Updates and fixes for Survival seemed to be pushed aside in favor of glorifying PokeWorld. I believe the priority for all the gamemodes should be more evenly distributed. I suppose I don't mind if PokeWorld is given a little favor, but this is too much. It is very likely that this essay will be pushed under the rug, but I figured I would try anyway. Please consider this essay. Also, I'm sorry if I sound a little salty, but I quite frankly am. I figured that if I didn't assert this, nothing would change.
Thank you for reading.
-AlmightyPiLord
Last edited: Oct 20, 2018
