"Adding a constant to the HP formula would go a long way towards balancing this game."

#PokemonGO: Hey y'all. Nick from Trainer Tips here. Today I uploaded a video explaining how a constant in the HP formula could really decrease the disparity between the Pokémon with the highest HP and the lowest. (The video, for those interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpHFA0vlMsI)I like coming to r/TheSilphRoad for a little deeper discussion, so here's the breakdown:The current HP formula isHP=(Base+IV)*CpM And with this formula, Pokémon at the high end of the HP spectrum are heavily favored. The Pokémon at the top benefit much more relative to those at the bottom. This adds to the problem of only a few Pokémon being considered top tier. Balancing HP makes many more Pokémon competitively viable. It also works to slightly reel in the disparity in CP so there isn't such a huge gap there either. With higher CP, many Pokémon would be more usable as gym defenders, and we wouldn't be forced to stuff every gym with Dragonite, Snorlax, and Vaporeon. Of course they'd still have the highest CP, so it would probably be that way, but the difference between Snorlax and, say, Nidoqueen wouldn't be as great.Here's a quick look at the range of Max HP in Pokémon GO:PokémonMax HPRatingChansey407OutlierSnorlax265HighestVaporeon217HighJolteon115AverageMagnemite51LowestDiglett28OutlierIgnoring Chansey as an outlier, Snorlax has the highest max HP: 265. In the video I didn't, but we'll ignore Diglett and Magikarp as low end outliers, making Magnemite & Abra the Pokémon with the lowest max HP: 51.That means the highest HP is 5x higher than the lowest, and 2.3x higher than the average HP.In the main series games, Snorlax's max HP is 524, while Magnemite's is 254. In this case, the highest HP is only about 2x higher than the lowest, and 1.5x higher than average.The difference is a constant in the formula that gets added after all the variables are calculated. If we added a constant to the Pokémon GO HP formula, the gap would shrink considerably.Level+10 is the constant used in the main series formula. It equates to 110 at max Pokémon level, which means every Pokémon's variable HP is increased by 110. This majorly benefits low HP Pokémon because the constant of 110 makes up a bigger percentage of their total HP. The constant accounts for about 20% of Snorlax's total HP, while it makes up nearly half of Magnemite and Abra's.So if we added a similar constant to Pokémon GO, the formula would look like this:HP=((Base+IV)*CpM)+Level+10 In GO, Max Level+10 equates to about 50—every Pokémon's HP would be increased by 50. Using the same examples as above, you can see the range gets a little smaller.PokémonMax HPRatingChansey457OutlierSnorlax315HighestVaporeon267HighJolteon165AverageMagnemite101LowestDiglett78OutlierSnorlax's HP is now just over 3x higher than Magnemite's and 1.9x higher than average. The range of possible max HP values is much smaller.If we used an even bigger constant, the range gets smaller still.HP=((Base+IV)*CpM)+(Level+10)*2 This effectively adds 100 to each Pokémon's HP, which is comparable to the main series constant.PokémonMax HPRatingChansey507OutlierSnorlax365HighestVaporeon317HighJolteon215AverageMagnemite151LowestDiglett128OutlierSnorlax's HP is now 2.4x higher than Magnemite's and 1.7x higher than average.Here's a link to my full spreadsheet comparing every Pokémon's max HP in the main series, with the current formula, and with both versions of the constant: http://ift.tt/2ddlZkl a constant to the formula has the added benefit of nerfing the bubblestrat, which I know a lot of people use, but it's clearly an exploitation of a poorly designed system.TL;DR: Adding a constant to the HP formula decreases the gap between the high and low ends. It gives every Pokémon a boost, with the weaker ones benefiting more so that there isn't such a huge disparity between the top tier and everyone else.EDIT: Lots of concern that this would make battles take even longer. Very true, but that's an easy fix. A change to the damage formula addresses that, but that's more work. Removing the double HP buff for defenders would shorten battle times even more than the HP change increases them. And as u/CptnSAUS suggested, reducing the final product of the formula by a set rate keeps maximum HP more in line with current values, but still benefits the lower end of the spectrum. I've added a column to the spreadsheet for this with the formula of HP+100*0.8. Here's a preview of how it works out:PokémonMax HPRatingChansey406OutlierSnorlax292HighestVaporeon254HighJolteon172AverageMagnemite121LowestDiglett102OutlierSnorlax's HP is a little higher than currently, but lower HP Pokémon still see a considerable increase. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2dBPM97