"Candy/Stardust Created The Content Issue, Not Gen II’s Absence."

#PokemonGO: TL;DR we need to ditch candy and stardust for a new Pokemon leveling system that combines buddy walking and battling.Given all the angry tweets and snarky posts we have seen recently regarding Gen II’s release, I just want to cover the actual issue (though this has been brought up many times before). Because the same thing is going to keep happening before it should.Gen II has less Pokemon than Gen IThough Gen II will bring 100 new Pokemon to the table, there will only be 36 fully evolved Pokemon that are new (I’m ignoring the Pokemon that do cannot be evolved for this post). It will be possible to have acquired the candy you need to evolve 12 of those already (ignoring the evolution items since we don’t know how they work yet). Thus, we will only be receiving 24 wholly new evolutions to complete.Gen II, for the aforementioned reason, will not sustain the attention of the player base for as long as Gen I did. People will most likely be able to complete the Gen II regional dex in less time.Despite having new Pokemon, only the evolutions are new content, because that is the end goal; the final evolutions are the Pokemon you will be using when you battle.Stardust and Candy are to blame here. And unless this is fixed (maybe the new evolution items will be a step towards this), every future Generation will have this problem.Here it is: the game is designed so that you can progress without ever having to use the lower stage evolutions and/or base forms.What we need is an individual-specific XP meter combined with the buddy system.Allow me to explain. Dust/candy no longer exist. Instead you need to buddy with the Pokemon you wish to evolve, walk with it, and battle with it. When you’ve walked a certain distance, and accumulated enough XP from battling, then it can be evolved to the next stage. This system takes the emphasis off catching everything you see, and hones in on working with what you have. By doing this, the true content potential of Gen I would have been unlocked. To catch them all, you would have needed to use them all (or most of them unless you found a higher stage in the wild).Leveling Pokemon independent of trainer level is important.In the main games the Pokemon you battle regularly with will be stronger than wild encounters.When you accumulate candy, it can be applied to any individual of that species. The same goes for stardust, but it is even more general since you can catch any species to acquire it. Inevitably you will find a higher level Pokemon in the wild, and the one you already caught is now disposable.In the main games the concept of having a starter was relevant, because it was a Pokemon you would have to begin your journey with, one you could use to battle and forge a bond with. On the first playthrough of the game your strongest Pokemon may very well be your starter if you used it the most. In PoGo, your starter is your weakest Pokemon. It is far easier to catch a better Pokemon than it is to power up your starter to a usable level.If the current system changed for Gen II, it would be extremely difficult to train up lower stage evolutions against the current Gym Meta. But not attempting to switch to a new mechanic of evolution and leveling will perpetuate the content issues we are currently seeing. So, I think something needs to be done. via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2kAEBxq