"[Suggestion] Make Raids Occur at Predictable Times"

#PokemonGO: Currently raids occur at a random time with a random raid boss. I’m not suggesting any changes to the random raid boss (I wouldn’t mind though if it was predictable as well), but making a suggestion to have raids occur at a more predictable time throughout the week. For example, if a raid starts at 7:23am on Monday, you can expect there to always be a raid there every Monday (except for ex-raid lock).Finding and coordinating raids is hardUnless you live in a city with a lot of gyms, finding raids can be difficult. Then you run into the problem of coordinating the raid with people. Sometimes it’s very last minute so it requires more time for people that can’t make it do the raid. This is a common reoccurrence especially with the death of a lot of illicit raid maps (not all are dead, just many) raiding has gotten much more difficult. Making raid times more predictable makes it much easier to coordinate raids.Why the same time every week?Every week is the most logical and straightforward pattern for most people. Everyone goes to work or have other routines usually on a weekly basis, this makes it easier for someone to do a raid on a consistent time every week.Ex-Raid system has some good partsAlthough the ex-raid system is controversial, one thing everyone can agree on is that it allows you to make arrangements in advance. This allows you to leave for work earlier to make that raid, take a later lunch, or take that few extra blocks out of the way knowing there will be a raid there.Why not just give us raid maps Niantic?The 2 biggest problems is the work it takes and the risk with such a product change.Coming from a software engineer background, I sympathize with Niantic. To release a raid map, it takes a lot of work, especially at Niantic scale. Doing a raid map takes away resources that can be spent on something else. I’m sure a raid map is on the roadmap, but they can only do so much at once, so it usually takes a lower priority over something such as a battle system rework.Even assuming that Niantic has unlimited labor resource and money, the biggest risk is they can never take back the feature if there are any unintended consequences. One of the features that Niantic has taken away was the so called 3-step icon used to help track Pokémon on your nearby. Once people get use to a useful feature you can’t get rid of it, such as THAT unspoken bug. There are many theories about why Niantic removed it, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure Niantic wants to avoid another controversial moment like the removal of the 3 steps again. This could happen again with a raid map, which could be why we haven’t seen it yet.Niantic gets an undo buttonNiantic could just start implementing what I proposed and never say anything. The community would of course catch on, but the casual player wouldn’t really notice it. This means they can just go back to random if this idea doesn’t work. But if it works, they can justify putting more resources on it to improve it and make it better over time for everyone, including the casual player.It’s Less WorkI have no knowledge of how Niantic does their development or full infrastructure, but I can speculate that this is less work than exposing a raid map to the public. This is a behind the scene change, similar to tweaking the ex raid, which doesn’t require as many people involved to make a change.Sponsors Will Love This FeatureNiantic is a business at the end of the day. They need to be able to work with their sponsors and make them happy to get them to continue the sponsorship. For example, right now Starbucks is struggling to get people into their store for their late afternoon hours. This is one of the reasons in the US you see promotions that run during this time. Niantic could tell Starbucks they’ll have raids going on at this time. Raids are what really get people to the gyms, not the current gym system. By doing this Niantic just sent additional traffic to Starbucks during an off peak time.This could fix clock blockingClock blocking is when there is a raid occurring while an ex invite goes out, making the current raid ineligible to receive ex invite. Niantic could fix this by having ex raid gyms never have raids during ex invite time. Although this is considered a hacky fix, it should work.Why not make it hatch X every week at Y time?As a player, I would love to know that every Tuesday at 1:02 pm there will be a level 5 raid. However I’m sure Niantic wants there to be some randomness in the game to keep things eggciting similar to random spawns, random IVs, random egg hatches, etc. This would be similar to the spawn point mechanic where every hour where a Pokémon will spawn in the same place, but it’s something different every single time. Lastly, it ensures that during the Dark Regi Raid Period, people will still go check out the raids hoping for an Alolan Raichu or Marowak, instead of a Registeel.tl;dr Having predictable raid times is better for everyone. It allows people to better accommodate it in their schedule. It’s makes sense for Niantic to make both their players and sponsors happy with this change, while hopefully not taking away too much from their existing projects.Make this happen Niantic via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2LuMtAr