To read this letter with formatting, please visit docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR9hrPDpcNUZFr...
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Dear TiMi Studios, The Pokémon Company, and The Pokémon Company International;
We are not happy with the state of Pokémon Unite. We want to see Pokémon Unite succeed. We love the 10 minute game play loop of matches, we love playing as Pokémon, however there are aspects within the game that are severely lacking.
Pokémon Releases - Balance Related with Zacian & Comfey examples
Pokémon on release, especially Pokémon that have not been on the Public Test Server are frequently overpowered. They are more often than not: over tuned numerically and/or overloaded mechanically. Zacian is an example of both. Zacian has an abundance of extra stats because it is supposed to be disadvantaged by having one less item slot. However the amount of extra stats is too high, causing it to be over tuned. For being overloaded, we can examine Zacian’s basic attack and Sacred Sword. Zacian’s basic attack consecutive hits has four effects - Slow, Self Heal, a gap closing leap and a cooldown reduction mechanic.Ignoring the damage aspect, Sacred Sword gives Zacian the ability to become unstoppable, receive +20% Attack stat increase, 15% Defense piercing, have on demand Damage reduction, and apply a hindrance/crowd control through a stun and a slow. In both of these, the user has a single input, whether that is a repeated input for the attack or a single button input for Sacred Sword. Ignoring its initial bugs, Zacian being overpowered created an extremely low skill floor in order to win. At the same time, the nature of Aeos energy consumption, positioning and cooldown management create a high skill ceiling which leads to not all Zacian players being equal, some being able to entirely dominate games in a fashion that is unfun to play as or play against.
Pokémon being released underpowered can also exist or underperform. Comfey was both. On release, Comfey required effort to gather full flowers for Floral Healing (it was also not explicitly clear on how to detach from allies from descriptions in game alone.) Comfey’s detach and attach mechanics allow Comfey to have other useful interactions such as jumping into a brush for vision off an allied Pokémon or jumping in front of an enemy projectile to block it using the invulnerability Comfey receives. Comfey did also have very little agency because of the reliance on an ally to attach to and thus Comfey’s success rate was also tied to the skill of whom Comfey was attached to. Comfey received changes that lowered the skill floor and over compensated the lack of agency by being safe and highly sustainable to whomever Comfey attached to, to a state where it felt unfair to play against Comfey. Comfey’s existence will cause more problems in the future if more Pokémon are released or are patched that make the Pokémon too strong. It is imperative that release Pokémon are balanced before considering Comfey and Comfey should be slightly underpowered in order to avoid this scenario.
Releases of over performers make the game feel “pay-to-win” because of the first week being gems to purchase.
Pokémon Balance - Frequency and Heavy/Light handedness of Update
There is also an issue with discrepancy on how to handle over performers and under performers. Over performers, especially new releases are often not changed while under performers sometimes receive knee jerk reaction changes. Unite does not have frequent enough changes in comparison to the number of games playable during that balance given the number of games that can be played during the major balance patch windows excluding bug fix patches. We can examine these issues using Zacian and Comfey as references- Comfey as a knee jerk, too many changes and Zacian as too slow, not enough changes.
Comfey released February 2. Comfey then received changes as part of a patch that was near explicitly Comfey changes on February 14 making arguably too many adjustments that made Comfey unfun and unfair to play against. As stated earlier, Comfey underperformed due to a high skill floor and reliance on allies; Comfey was not given enough time for the player base to learn its complexities across effectively two release dates - Aeos Gem release and Aeos Coin release. This resulted in an underperformance and a misanalysis on Comfey needing changes, in particular to healing values and stun duration of Magical Leaf. Comfey likely did need adjustments, however the number and magnitude of adjustments Comfey received was unreasonable given the less than 12 day window.
Zacian was released February 26 and a very necessary bug hotfix was released March 3.
[This hotfix would arguably never have been necessary if Zacian were put on PTS or there were a focus group such as the Mathcord contributors (https://discord.gg/4BssTu4g7p) / Unite-DB (https://unite-db.com/), content creators and/or professional players playtesting beforehand.]
A tweet that same day (March 3, 2023) then noted that Zacian would continue to be monitored (twitter.com/PokemonUnite/status/163172871460526899....) Zacian received its first actual balance change 32 days later on April 4. However, unlike the knee jerk reaction of Comfey whose changes were high in volume and numerically, the changes for Zacian were not enough to bring Zacian to an appropriate level of play. Zacian’s balance delay can possibly be attributed to the fact that Zacian’s Weald event lasted until March 26 however, the results on ladder pick and win rate and the community’s persistent statements and complaints regarding Zacian even soon after the March 3 hotfix speak for themselves that Zacian was a major mistake.
Bugs
Pokémon Unite is very bad with abusable match breaking bugs- not fixing them or not noticing them before being deployed. For instance, during season 10 high ranked Masters 5-stacks/groups were being matchmade with all sorts of opponents including Veteran or below 5-stacks/groups. In combination with the bug for Zacian and its overpowered state, a record high approximate 7500 master ranking was achieved, the highest ever. This matchmaking issue could have been a new algorithm or a bug- the player base will not know without developer communication.
The Mathcord, Unite-DB, and competing players will report these bugs and advocate for not sharing bugs that give a distinct beneficial advantage that can ruin the ranked ladder or competitive experience. While some of these associations have a potential line to contact, we ultimately do not always have responsive feedback from TiMi and end up playing a game of telephone with TPC, TPCi and tournament organizers. Zacian’s Sacred Sword bug for instance was discovered including the fix to the bug however still took a couple days for the fix to go through even when capable of directly pinpointing what needed to be changed to fix the bug. No one wants to win or lose a match because an ally or opponent respectively abuses an unintended behavior. We have a public test server (region locked, console locked) that will occasionally have a questionnaire for feedback on a new Pokémon, but players on the server are not always capable of finding or reporting bugs since their primary incentive is to play the newest addition.
Competitive Integrity and its effect on Game Balance - Frequency of Update, Bugs
The inconsistent timing of patches often leaves both competitive and casual players frustrated- waiting several weeks just for the problem Pokémon at the time to potentially not even be changed. For example, Zoroark, Zacian, Urshifu and Dodrio were all untouched in the most recent patch (Patch 1.9.2.8) and having no idea when the next patch will come demotivates players who want to climb the ranked ladder. Competitive players are often left worrying about patch timing, as patches too close to tournament dates can invalidate preparation with balance changes or with bugs being introduced causing Pokémon to be banned. Pokémon bans (while much appreciated and necessary for competitive integrity) can then also lead to skewed ladder statistics, as the best players will stay away the banned Pokémon - skewing the winrate downwards.
Communication
On December 21, 2022, we received notification that Pokémon Unite had a new producer unite.pokemon.com/en-us/news/pokemon-unite-produce... Since then, we have heard nothing new from the development team. We as a player base, do not know if our concerns and issues with the game are being heard. Players have opted to quit the game due to the frustration with the game’s balance and the player base that gets matchmade. The game’s lack of balance loops back to the frequency of updates and lack of knowing when updates will occur. Patches also frequently have undocumented changes (such as the jump pad vision), which can erode player trust. As far as frustrations with the player base goes, we would prefer to address those issues separately as those are linked more to in-game tutorial systems.
Pokémon Unite can be immensely popular to spectators however there seems to be very few eyes on competitive Unite. During the Pokémon World Championships in 2022, we had in game notifications that directed players to check out the broadcasts. It would be nice to have in-game notifications for the regular competitive season (UCS, ACL, etc) as well; this could indirectly improve the player base since there would be more attention brought to how to be successful in Pokémon Unite. The player base would also also benefit from having better feedback avenues in a more easily searchable location. Many are unaware that there is a dedicated forum at community.pokemon.com/en-us/categories/pokemon-uni... which is where patch notes have been relocated from the main website https://unite.pokemon.com/en-us/news/.
Conclusion
The problems with new releases, consistent bugs, game balance, and lack of communication have brought Unite into one of its worst states to date. While there are more issues at hand, these four are the biggest concerns as a community. Community sentiment is broadly negative towards Unite, with Twitch and YouTube viewership numbers taking noticeable hits in spite of a brand new event and new patch. We- as players, creators, and Pokémon fans- want to continue to see Unite thrive, but the current direction and state of the game will not allow that to happen. Thank you for your time reading this letter and we look forward to hearing your response.
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