"[Idea] An easily implemented proposal for radically altering the gym meta if Niantic maintains CP as the ranking system"

#PokemonGO: Tl;dr,Assuming Niantic continues using CP ranking, random Type bonuses on gyms would boost a defender's matching Type Resistances and Type Moves which would also be the basis for bonuses to the Pokémon's final gym Rank Score. This would allow almost 50 non-Big 7 Pokemon to have situationally viable ranking placement compared to the current gym meta. While I was considering the effects that my proposed duplicate penalty idea would have on gyms (posted here), I also contemplated other potential gym ranking shake up ideas that could be implemented if Niantic chose to continue using it's CP number as it's gym ranking score. The Niantic design team implemented the unified CP metric as a core system and, regardless of how flawed it might be for gym ranking, I highly doubt that they scrap it for this upcoming gym update. Even if Niantic would be willing to move away from the unified CP system, they would need to approve such a fundamental change with the Pokémon Company which might be an uphill battle. The Pokémon Company wanted PoGo to be considerably different than the other Pokémon games and any big changes that might bring it closer to those could be met with resistance. Proposal OverviewSo, with the constraint of working within the CP framework for any changes, I would propose the following: Whenever a gym is defeated and resets to neutral, a randomized selection of Types (Rock, Fairy, etc.,) would be chosen for receiving Type Bonuses for the next occupying team. Other people have offered up the idea of Type bonuses, but the specific Type Bonuses I'm proposing would be for a defender Pokémon's;Species Type Resistances,Type Moves, andGym Ranking Score (using the CP number as the base score) Rather than altering the actual base stats of a Pokémon, this proposal, like my proposal about penalties for duplicate Pokémon, would leave the base stats (and by design, the true CP) unchanged. Of course, if Niantic wanted to apply bonuses to the base stats they could, but that could turn into a messy situation (e.g., overbuffing the defense and stamina stats of Blissey). It would likely be best to limit the total Active Gym Type Bonuses in any one gym to 5, with a minimum of 3. A range of 3 to 5 Type bonuses seems about right for getting a good mix of Types into gyms without overextending them and it would also probably be best to weight the randomness to something like 20 / 60 / 20, with 4 Type Bonuses being chosen 60% of the time and 3 or 5 Type Bonuses chosen 20% of the time each. Out of 18 possible Types, limiting any one gym to a random selection of 3 to 5 Type Bonuses would encourage a much wider selection of Pokémon as defenders. In order to prevent players with alt accounts from abusing the Reset-at-Neutral to get specific Type bonuses, I would suggest that there be a delay for the next reset, say, 4 hours, 12 hours or even just once per day. During that time, if a gym is defeated again, it would carry over the same bonuses for the next team. The details of the bonus proposals might seem complicated while reading through them, but the technical implementation would all be happening "under the hood". The relevant information that a player would need would be pretty simple to display and understand. To demonstrate, I've created a few mock-ups of the gym screens to give examples of the UI. Links will be in the Mock-up Screenshots section at the end of this post. Type Resistance Bonuses I propose that defender Pokémon species who are of the same Type as a Gym Type Bonus receive a boost to that Type's non-Neutral Resistances. You could think of the Resistance Bonus in a similar way as to how the current in-game Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) works; with STAB, an attack only receives the bonus if the attack is the same Type as the Pokémon species' Type. This proposal would be a Same Type Resistance Bonus (STRB) and only the Resistances that are Type specific (non-neutral) for a Pokémon Species' Type that matches the Gym Type Bonus would be adjusted. Another way to look at it; the weaknesses of a defender Pokémon who is of the same Type as a Gym Type Bonus would be strengthened to being Neutral Resistances, all of that Pokémon's Neutral Resistances would remain Neutral, and the Super Resistances become more Resistant. Since Resistances use a simple, tiered damage multiplier in Pokémon Go, applying bonuses to them could be a simple matter of raising the respective tiers based on the Type bonus. Basically, any Type Resistance that is not a Neutral Resistance for that Pokemon defender species shifts up by one tier. This would of course work with half tier bonuses, but for the purposes of this proposal I will use full tier bonuses for the sake of relative simplicity. For reference, the current tier breakdown:Resistance TierDamage MultiplierDouble Super Resistant (Dual Types)x0.80²Super Resistantx0.80Neutral Resistantx1.00Not Very Resistantx1.25Double Not Very Resistant (Dual Type)x1.25² Applying the Gym Type Bonus to a Pokémon's Super Resistance tier would move the Super Resistant multiplier from the x0.80 tier to the x0.80² tier. Dual Type Pokémon who have the same Super Resistances from both of it's Types would gain two damage reduction multipliers when both of those Types are active Gym Bonuses. Dual matched Types would give a defender's shared Type Super Resistances a final multiplier tier of x0.80³ which would be a new top damage Resistance tier, reducing damage received by almost half from attacks of those Types. If a Pokémon is a Dual Type species and both of those Types are an active Gym Bonus, any double weaknesses also gets a double boost, moving up two tiers from Double Not Very Resistant (x1.25²) to Neutral Resistant (x1.00). If a dual Type Pokémon only matches one of it's two Types to a gym Bonus Type, the weaknesses of the non-Bonus Type would still apply. So, in this circumstance, the Double Not Very Resistant (x1.25²) would receive only one bonus, moving the multiplier up by one tier to Not Very Resistant (x1.25). Here is an example to bring those multipliers into perspective, using an attack that deals 100 damage as a reference:Resistance Tier MultiplierFinal damageNeutral Resistant x1.00100Super Resistant x0.8080Bonus Super Resistant x0.80²64Double-Bonus Super Resistant x0.80³51Not Very Resistant x1.25125Double Not Very Resistant (Dual Type) x1.25²156 To be clear, the bonuses would be selective Resistance bonuses for only the species' Type weaknesses and strengths rather than to all Resistance tiers to prevent a Pokémon from becoming Super Resistant to most attacks. Choosing to boost the Super Resistances of a defender species that match the Type Bonus would be a nod towards the stacked multipliers that are part of the other Pokémon games. Neutral Resistances under this proposal would always remain Neutral. To illustrate, A gym has a Bonus for the Type, Fire. Fire Type Pokémon are Not Very Resistant to Water, Ground and Rock attacks so a Resistance bonus would boost those three Resistances to the next tier, giving that Pokémon a Neutral Resistance to those three Types. Conversely, Fire Type Pokémon are Super Resistant to Bug, Fairy, Grass, Ice, Steel and Fire attacks and the Fire Type bonus would also increase the defender's Resistances to those Types by a tier as well. Fire Type Pokemon have Neutral Resistances to the remaining 8 Types; Dark, Dragon, Electric, Normal, Poison, Fighting, Psychic, Flying and Ghost and those 8 Types would remain as Neutral Resistances with a Fire Type bonus. This gym also has a Bonus for the Type, Rock. Rock Type Pokémon are Not Very Resistant to Grass, Ground, Steel, Fighting and Water attacks so a Pokémon with the Dual Typing of Fire and Rock (i.e., Magcargo) would receive a double boost to the double Type weaknesses, Water and Ground, shifting ALL of that Defender's weaknesses to the Neutral tier. The Rock Type bonus would also increase the Super Resistances of Poison, Flying, Normal and Fire Types by one tier. As Fire is a repeated Super Resistance for both of the species' Types it would receive two Type Bonuses, reducing damage received from any Fire Attacks by almost half. Choosing a Dual Type Pokémon for a gym with matching Type bonuses would allow some Pokémon with highly exploitable weaknesses ( Gyarados says Hi! ) to become much better defenders in a Type Bonus gym. Boosting Type specific resistances would not make any particular Pokémon over-buffed as most players will not use ineffective attackers anyway, but it would certainly help those defender Pokémon with crippling weaknesses last longer than a few seconds in battle. In a Type Bonus gym, any attacking Pokémon that would normally be Super Effective with their Type attacks would do the same damage as a generalist neutral attacker against those particular Type species with a Type Bonus. For some who might be concerned about Blissey being buffed with this, consider that she only has one weakness, Fighting, and that players are commonly using other Pokémon besides Fighting Types to defeat her already. Fighting Types doing normal damage would still perform similarly with other generalist attackers at that point. Plus, Blissey would not receive the Type bonus for resistences in most gyms anyway due to the random selection of the Type bonuses; Normal is still only 1 out of the 18 Types. Type Moves Bonuses This proposed bonus would add extra damage to the base damage of any defender Pokémon's Moves that match the gym Type Bonus, even if the defender Pokémon species itself is not of the bonus Type. For the sake of argument, the extra damage in this proposal would be 20%. To continue our example of a gym with a Fire Type Bonus, A Typhlosion with the double Fire Type move set of Ember/Overheat would have the matching Fire Type bonus applied to both attack moves. With both the STAB bonus and the Fire bonus added to the base damage, Ember would deal 14 damage (10+2+2) and Overheat would deal an impressive 232 (160+40+32). If a Slowking with the move set of Confusion/Fire Blast is placed in a Gym with a Fire Type bonus, it would receive a bonus to the Fire charge move, Fire Blast. With the 20% bonus, it would boost the damage from the base of 140 to 168 giving a Slowking Fire Blast a damage output just a little under that of a non-bonus STAB Fire Blast. Adding an additional Same Type Bonus via a gym Type bonus would be similar to the 4th Gen ability, Adapatability, but applied to all gym defenders' attacks that match the Type rather than strictly STAB attacks. Extending the bonus to the non-STAB defender attacks via a Same Type Gym Bonus would allow many sub-optimal move sets to become much more useful and relevant than in the current system without detracting from the always beneficial STAB bonuses. Gym Ranking Score Bonuses As I mentioned earlier, I expect Niantic will continue to use their derived CP metric as their Ranking Score, flawed though it may be for such a task. So, for purposes of this idea, when I propose adding a Ranking Bonus I'm not proposing adding a bonus to any of the base stats of a Pokémon, only to the final CP number that is used as the gym Rank Score. Under this proposal there would be five possible cumulative Ranking bonuses that could increase a Pokémon's Ranking Score by 10% each, for a maximum combined Rank Bonus of 40%. Two of the bonuses would be mutually exclusive. First, there would be two potential bonuses based solely on the defender Pokémon's species Typing. If a defender Pokémon is of the same Type as an active Gym Bonus Type, that Pokémon gains a 10% Rank bonus. If a defender is a dual Type Pokémon species and both Types match two active Gym Bonus Types, that Pokémon would receive the bonus for both Type matches, raising the Rank Score by 20%. Second, there would be two potential bonuses based on a defender Pokémon's Move set, regardless of their species Typing. If a defender's Attack Move is the same Type as an active Gym Bonus Type, that Pokémon gains a 10% Rank Bonus. And if both of a Defender's Attack Moves are of the same Type as any Gym Bonus Types, that Pokémon receives a 10% Rank Bonus for each, again raising the Rank Score by 20%. Third, there would be a Type Specialist Ranking Bonus. This would be a 10% bonus for any single Typed Pokémon species that matches a Gym Type Bonus for it's species Type AND it's Move Types, meaning that only a Pokémon that is a single Type species with double STAB moves would earn this bonus. Continuing again with the Fire Type example; A 100% IV Typhlosion has a maximum True CP 2648 at level 39. Applying the 10% Rank Bonus for each Fire move using the example from above, Ember/Overheat, the Rank Score would adjust to 3178. Add the Defender species Typing match bonus and the Typhlosion would have a Rank Score of 3442. This Pokémon would also be a Type Specialist and thus gains an additional 10% bonus, raising it's Rank Score to 3707. A lower level, decent IV Typhlosion would be somewhere in the range of 3400-3500 for it's Rank Score with two Fire Moves under the Type bonus system. Slowking, to use the other example from above, at 100% IV has a max True CP 2447 and a single Type bonus for Fire Blast would boost the Rank Score to 2692. Depending on any other Bonus Type matching in the gym, Slowking's Rank Score could potentially reach 3426 with 4 bonuses . A decent IV lower level Slowking would likely have a Rank Score range around 2500 for one Type bonus to around 3300 with four applied Type bonuses. In the current CP meta for gyms, neither Typhlosion nor Slowking at max level and 100% IV are anywhere close to being relevant. But with Type matching, either of those at lower levels could be placed in a gym with matching Type Bonuses and rank higher than 5 of the maxed Big 7 that do not have Type bonuses. A Type Bonus ranking system would, by design, make gym ranking a much more varied process as it would make choosing gym defenders a situational decision rather than a singular CP ranking score decision. It tremendously expands the gym meta without nerfing the viability of the Big 7. Yes, the Big 7 are able to get bonuses just like the rest, but they would no longer be able to depend solely on their CP as a guaranteed high rank in a gym. With randomized Gym Type Bonuses even the highest CP Pokémon would be subject to being outranked by other Pokémon with better bonus matching. Potential Pokémon Defenders with a Type Bonus system Let's look at how the meta gets shaken up by implementing random Type bonuses to the Ranking Score, starting with analyzing the Big 7 since they define the current meta and would be the standard to compare with in a random Type Bonus system. There is limited overlap of Types among the Big 7 which would restrict the mutual Type Bonuses based on the their species Types and Move Types. With 18 possible unique Types, a gym would need to randomly select 4 specific Types to give some bonuses to all 7 of the Big 7 based on their species' Typing; Rock, Flying, Water and Normal. There is some overlap based on Move Types as well, but that too is limited. The best Move overlap would be Steel for one potential match each for Tyranitar, Dragonite and Snorlax. A reference Type chart for the Big 7: PokemonTotal Unique Types1st Species Type2nd Species TypeAttack Type AAttack Type BAttack Type CAttack Type DAttack Type ETyranitar4DarkRockDark (QA & CA)Steel (QA)Fire (CA)Rock (CA)Dragonite4DragonFlyingDragon (QA & CA)Steel (QA)Flying (CA)Normal (CA)Snorlax5Normal-Ghost (QA)Psychic (QA)Normal (CA)Ground (CA)Steel (CA)Rhydon4GroundRockGround (QA & CA)Fighting (QA)Rock (CA)Bug (CA)Gyarados4WaterFlyingDragon (QA & CA)Dark (QA & CA)Water (CA)Blissey3Normal-Normal (QA & CA)Psychic (QA & CA)Fairy (CA)Vaporeon1Water-Water (QA & CA) As the column for Total Uniqe Types indicates, Snorlax would have the most potential Type matching of the Big 7 with a spread of 5 unique Types out of 18 Types (so 5:18). Roughly speaking, the odds are that Snorlax would only be getting one unique bonus Type in less than 1/3 (~28%) of all gyms, two unique Type bonuses would occur in about 1/15 (~7%) of all gyms and three unique Type bonuses (the max possible bonuses for Snorlax) in about 1/80 (~1-2%). Of the Big 7 with 4 Unique Types; Tyranitar, Dragonite, Rhydon and Gyarados, you would have an expected ratio of around 1/4 to 1/5 (~22%) of all gyms where each would begin receiving bonuses. Blissey with 3 unique bonus Types would only begin receiving bonuses in 1/6 (~17%) of all gyms. Vaporeon, due to having only one unique Type, would be seen in only 1/14 (~7%) of all gyms. But, also due to the mono-Typing, a Vaporeon in those gyms would automatically have the maximum 40% bonuses. The same would of course hold true for the rest of the mono-Type species currently in the game; Flareon, Jolteon, Espeon and Umbreon. Assuming that Niantic implements the duplicate restriction as expected, the gym meta would most likely see the Big 7 getting spread out with only one or two in any one gym as players begin choosing the Big 7 more carefully for gyms that cater to their specific Types. In rare gym cases, maybe 3 or 4 of the Big 7 species would appear, but that likely means their bonuses are low as well due to Type spread. In some gyms it would be entirely possible that none of the Big 7 would even be making an appearance as players would be reluctant to place them without matching Types to earn bonuses. Having a high CP without Type matching would no longer be a sure thing for a high gym spot. For reference, the Big 7 at maxed Pokémon level 39 with 100% IVs would have the following potential Rank Scores with bonuses: PokémonBase CP/Rank10% Rank Bonus20% Rank Bonus30% Rank Bonus40% Rank BonusTyranitar36183980434247045066Dragonite35313884423745904943Snorlax3307363839694300n/aRhydon32543579390442294554Gyarados32343557388042034526Blissey31733490380741244442Vaporeon3112n/an/an/a4357 Keep in mind that this chart is only showing the absolute best case for each of the Big 7. Most players with Big 7 Pokémon are going to have variably less than perfect IVs and be less than level 38 (the current level required to fully max out a Pokémon) AND those Pokémon will have variable Type Move sets that would impact their Bonuses. A rough estimate of the differences between the best case scenario and the in-the-field state of the game, at least within the metroplex area I live, is about 200 CP. The higher Tyranitar are usually about CP 3400 or less, Dragonite around 3300 or less, Snorlax 3100, etc., etc. Those approximate real life CP scores are very comparable to a level 34 player's 100% IV, level 35.5 Pokémon of the same species, so I will use that as a baseline comparison for how well other Pokémon would fare relative to the Big 7 of the same level. Here are the Big 7 again, but with the scores based on 100% IVs at level 35.5: PokémonBase CP/Rank10% Rank Bonus20% Rank Bonus30% Rank Bonus40% Rank BonusTyranitar34343777412044644808Dragonite33523687402243584693Snorlax3140345437684082n/aRhydon30893398370740164325Gyarados30703377368439914298Blissey30123313361439164217Vaporeon2954n/an/an/a4136 For determining whether a particular non-Big 7 Pokémon would be competitive we just need to compare the Rank Score of similar level Pokémon to the high CP scores set by the Big 7 in the current meta. If any of the Big 7 are lucky with Type matching they will still secure the top positions in a gym, but as we will see when looking at other Pokémon the important tipping point for any of the Big 7 to remain in the top ranks of gyms will be at the 20% Rank Bonus (or 10% for Tyranitar and Dragonite). Any Big 7 in a gym that has a Rank Score less than 3800 will face stiff competition from other Pokémon that are able to maximize the Rank score with an accumulated 30% or 40% Rank Bonus. If a local area meta has higher or lower level Big 7 then the non-Big 7 of that area would also be similarly scaled so any comparisons should hold up pretty consistently. Based on the Big 7 chart, we see that a lower competitive score would be about 3000 which would put a Pokémon within range of outranking a non-bonus Blissey. So, that gives us a Rank Score range of about 3000 to 3800 for high gym rank viability. Let's see how other Pokémon fare. Each Pokémon in the following list has a highlight of either bold, or italics. Bold indicating a Rank Score within the 3000 to 3800 Big 7 competitive range and italics is a Rank Score that is potentially still serviceable for low end gym ranking with scores in the 2800 to 3000 range. To summarize, there are 47 Pokémon that can directly challenge the Big 7 for a gym Rank Score via bonuses and an additional 16 Pokémon that could potentially be in the lower ranks of a gym. You could make the case that a lot of the Pokémon on this list would not be good defenders, but the same can be said of most Pokémon that make up the current meta anyway. Everyone wants more variety in gyms and this goes a long way towards accomplishing that goal by giving players options. PokémonBase CP/Rank10% Rank Bonus20% Rank Bonus30% Rank Bonus40% Rank BonusDonphan2828311133943676n/aEspeon2805n/an/an/a3927Heracross27503025330035753850Golem27293002327535483821Exeggutor27293002327535483821Flareon2718n/an/an/a3805Machamp27042974324535153786Alakazam27022972324235123783Arcanine26572923318834543720Scizor26212883314534073669Pinsir25922851311033703629Ursaring2583284131003358n/aJolteon2555n/an/an/a3577Feraligatr25462801305533103564Muk25352789304232963549Ampharos25222774302632793531Kingler25212773302532773529Typhlosion25142765301732683520Charizard25142765301732683520Omastar25132764301632673518Gengar24512696294131863431Aerodactyl24412685292931733417Lapras24362680292331673410Venusaur24032643288431243364Porygon223832621286030983336Houndoom23672604284030773314Kabutops23562592282730633298Jynx23512586282130563291Tauros23282561279430263259Slowbro23232555278830203252Slowking23232555278830203252Cloyster23162548277930113242Crobat23082539277030003231Scyther23062537276729983228Poliwrath22852514274229713199Steelix22832511274029683196Kingdra22682495272229483175Hitmonlee22522477270229283153Nidoking22332456268029033126Tentacruel22212443266528873109Politoed22192441266328853107Vileplume22162438265928813102Sandslash21792397261528333051Nidoqueen21882407262628443063Miltank21642380259728133030Starmie21552371258628023017Blastoise21452360257427893003Kangaskhan2305253627662997n/aGranbull2284251227412969n/aClefable2203242325442864n/aPiloswine21382779256627792993Golduck21252338255027632975Victreebel21232335254827602972Forretress21182330254227532965Magneton20942303251327222932Magmar21102321253227432954Rapidash21082319253027402951Meganium20842292250127092918Tangela20672274248026872894Electabuzz20552261246626722877Weezing20432247245226562860Ninetales20192221242326252827Dodrio20012201240126012801 Further Thoughts and Tangential ideas This Type Bonus proposal could be seen as an homage to the idea of Type Gyms without restricting a gym to only those Types. It highly rewards matching to Types in a gym and it adds more gym accessability for lower CP Pokémon that should be considered good defenders but are hamstrung by the CP Ranking system or by having sub-optimal Move sets or both. When players are prestiging gyms, the bonuses to resistances and attack moves would not apply. And, as a stand alone idea, in order to streamline the prestiging process, I would propose that all Pokémon in the gym be equalized to the average true CP of all of the Pokémon in the gym (ignoring any odd outlier that wouldn't be able to naturally reach the average CP or that would drastically skew the average, like a Ditto, Shuckle, Pidgey, etc.,). This would allow a player to efficiently select a team of 1/2 CP prestigers and battle more than one or two defenders before hitting a steep CP wall. This also assumes that Niantic imposes a minimum CP floor or other means to combat the iterations of low CP stratting. During special events, Niantic could choose to have all gyms that change teams during the event have a guaranteed Type Bonus that matches the event. So for Adventure Week, as an example, all gyms would automatically have the Rock Type Bonus in addition to whatever other Type Bonuses are randomly selected. During special events, the Type Bonus of the event could also be applied to attackers that qualify; meaning, attackers of the same Type as the special event Type could gain the bonus to Resistances and any attack moves matching the Type could have the increased damage bonus. Niantic seems to be planning for frequent events and this would encourage more frequent gym turnover during the times when more players are engaged with the game. By moving to an adjustable Rank Score for gyms vs a static CP score, it opens up the possibilities for other means of Rank boosting. For example, a Pokémon that has the "Battles Won #" history could have a permanent boost applied to its Rank Score based upon that number, say 1% per "Battles Won". Or there could be temporary one time bonuses that a player could apply to the Pokémon they choose to place in the gym, e.g., a bonus for defeating an opposing team's gym. Or added Rank bonuses for a player's current gym defender when that player adds certain amounts of Prestige to that gym. Mock-up screenshots Sometimes visuals can help as examples of how this could be implemented so I've created some mock up images of how these ideas might be presented to the player. Here is a gym screen layout for displaying the Rank Score, any bonuses (or duplicate Penalties if implemented) and a couple of new icon buttons. One new button is for displaying the active bonuses (and any duplicate Pokémon penalties) and the other is a Help button that takes the player to that player's Team Leader for an explanation of gym mechanics. Here is an example screen for a Team Leader Help Screen after the player opens the Help icon. There should already have been an option like this and as such, a help screen should be considered a much needed stand alone idea for new players. Here is a Gym Bonus Screen displaying the active Gym Type Bonuses on a gym after the players opens the Bonus icon. As can be seen, there are two tabs; one for Bonuses and the other, Penalties, is where I've included my proposal for duplicate Pokémon penalties with the historic counter option. There would be a new gym only sort screen, here, that is available when choosing a defender for a gym. This screen would show what the Rank Score would be for the player's Pokémon if placed in the gym, along with the total adjustment for bonuses (and penalties if implemented). This would eliminate any confusion about what a player's Pokémon Rank Score would be if placed in the gym. The option to sort by Rank would only be available when interacting with a gym. On the Rank sort screen there is also another stand alone idea; displayed beneath the Pokémon are the Move set Types and the visual bars of the Charge Attacks to aid in choosing a defender based on Move set Types. And last but not least, a pop-up Team Leader screen that warns the player about placing a duplicate Pokémon (if duplicate penalties are implemented) into the gym and what the penalty would be if the player chooses to continue. Thanks for reading. Please, discuss. And if you see any errors, please let me know. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2qDgq2M