"The coin reward system still isn't balanced, and the 50 coins per day limit isn't just reducing the income of the lucky ones"

#PokemonGO: TL;DR Read the bold parts. :)In light of the post "As someone who has been collecting 100 coins a day, I have to say that the new system of 1 coin every ten minutes and a 50 coin a day maximum is much better" by /u/solowkey, I decided to write up my own. Because I can't say I agree.I'll start with a quick summary about myself to put everything into perspective: I'm level 38. According to my badges, I have walked 3575km, caught 27995 Pokémon, visited 32347 Pokéstops, hatched 1376 eggs, won 3435 gym battles, and trained 3704 times. I used to collect 100 coins almost every day, and I have never spent any money on Pokécoins. I'm not the kind of person to spend money on a free-to-play game, and I think the way "free-to-play" is implemented in Pokémon GO is great: By putting in the effort to earn coins, I could gain access to anything others might have spent money for. A little more slowly, maybe, but I never felt left behind by the paying players. I may have hatched fewer Pokémon, but level-wise I—Cut to the chase already.Okay okay, sorry. Last week's changes in Pokémon GO have brought a lot of exciting new things. New gyms, raids, bonuses for visiting more Pokéstops. But I'm less than happy with the daily coin limit being lowered from 100 to 50. Not only does it translate to a premium raid pass every two days, or one incubator and two premium raid passes per week, but for players like me I think it's also taking away a lot of incentive to really play the gym game.So you're just another spoiled brat privileged player complaining about the privilege being taken away. Previously, some players were lucky if they could collect 20-30 coins per day!Yes, I have been privileged. Very much so. I'm on the dominant team, live in a city with plenty of spawns, Pokéstops, and gyms, have access to active as well as more stagnant gyms, and can get to all of it on foot. On the other hand, I've also spent a lot of time fighting and prestiging gyms, and often I've added a little more prestige than I needed to just add a Pokémon for myself.I welcome changes that reduce the discrepancy between the lucky ones and the less lucky ones. But I firmly believe that more effort should be rewarded with more coins. If Niantic had a problem with people collecting more than 50 if they put in the effort(!), why did they not cap the income at 50 long ago? It's a shame that collecting 100 was virtually impossible for some. Niantic is trying to level the playing field now, but reducing the coin maximum isn't fixing anything in my opinion.The core problem with the old system was that the number of coins wasn't only limited by the effort you put in and the daily cap, but also external factors, like the area you live in. There's an inherent imbalance in rewarding gyms for being held longer regardless of whether the surroundings (i.e. number of other players) allow it. If rewards were given out only for fighting at gyms and adding a defender (no matter how long it stays there), things would be a lot more even between areas. (It might put the majority team at a disadvantage though, so a combination of attacker rewards and time-based defender rewards would probably be best. Yes, the idea for rewarding people for fighting has been brought up many times before.)With the new system, the problem is alleviated by removing the "Collect" mechanism that works only once every 21 hours, and the 1 coin/10 minute ratio helps players in high-turnover areas a lot. However it makes things too easy for people in areas like mine, which is why I think Niantic also lowered the daily coin limit. But this isn't really a solution, it's fighting symptoms. Niantic could just remove F2P coin rewards completely and say "we finally fixed the problem!". I'm sure players wouldn't agree.Niantic may have reduced some discrepancy between areas, but the new system still is not balanced at all. In high-turnover areas, people will still have to invest a good effort to get 50 coins. Or so I believe, but I would love to hear some first-hand opinions. In my area, all I need to do is place a single Pokémon in a strategically chosen gym in the evening, so that it comes back the next day (plus a few backup gyms to be on the safe side). I feel like I can exhaust the full F2P potential of the gym game with virtually no extra effort, and there is little incentive to go beyond that. Yes, I can feed berries, but the measly 20 stardust per berry and the tiny(?) chance of an extra candy just don't seem enough. With an hourly limit of 10 berries, the stardust you can earn per hour is equivalent to catching two more Pokémon!Be constructive. What would you propose?Decrease the number of coins a Pokémon earns in a gym over time. Award 1 coin per 10 minutes for the first hour or so, and 1 coin per hour after that. Restore the 100 coins per day limit. This way, players in high-turnover areas can earn coins even if their gyms are short-lived, at the same time players in less active areas don't just get the maximum number of coins by having single a Pokémon in a gym overnight. Going back to the old coin limit restores more of the "more effort = more rewards" effect.In addition, the field could be levelled for minority-team players by adding bonuses for attacking gyms, like many others are proposing. I also like the idea of converting excess coins to stardust that /u/Teamfrag has suggested.I have also thought about whether it would make sense to increase rewards for high-turnover areas, depending on the average time a Pokémon spends in a gym, for each gym separately or a smallish area. This could also solve the problem, but I'm afraid making high-turnover gyms more valuable would only invite more people to battle there, potentially leading to a vicious cycle.You're forgetting the rurals. Like everyone.Not exactly, the limitations of rural play are just more difficult and can't be fixed by tweaking the behavior of gyms, which was my focus here. :) I hear Niantic has further opened the Ingress portal submission system, which would hopefully mean more Pokéstops for rurals. Maybe Niantic could also create some "virtual" Pokéstops that aren't based on user submissions, but on OpenStreetMap features (like some spawn points are already based on OSM footpaths). OSM has lots of different "amenity" attributes, from drinking water fountains to libraries. But I digress.You wouldn't be writing this if Niantic had left the 100 coins limit alone.Yes. Guilty as charged. It was the whole reason I started to put so much thought into this subject.But maybe Niantic is just going to change the coin maximum back again.Yes, I consider it likely Niantic is still tweaking the numbers. The fact that the support page no longer states the exact maximum might be an indication that they're aware that some are unhappy with the lowered limit and that they may change it again. The point is that they seem to be listening to what people say. So here I am, starting a discussion on the status quo, because the people who are better off than before won't be the ones to critisize it much, just like I wasn't before.I would be curious to hear other people's thoughts. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2tbNF2x