This post will be pretty long as I’ve tried to go into detail in each suggestion I’ve made. These will differ in ease of implimentation depending on the nature of the feature. I understand that resources are limited and don’t expect all of the following to be actively considered.
So as you may or may not know, over the past 11 years or so I’ve been in and out and around PMU. I was there on day 1 of PMU7, and in 2020 the game has improved a lot more than I would have expected it to. That being said, a lot of the features are antiquated - and were so even in its initial release when compared to other MMORPGs. I feel that PMU would benefit from paying attention to some common MMORPG features - those have had years of funding and professional work - instead of trying to focus solely on Pokemon games which are by and large not multiplayer experiences in the same way. Here’s a few suggestions I (and I’m sure others ahead of me) thought of.
Note: I apologise if I don’t respond to any comments, I’m not someone that really likes forum discussion much
Removal of Overworld HMs
HMs as a form of progression locking has been outdated for a very long time now, and I personally believe that hauling around an HM slave when your party is locked to 4 Pokemon instead of 6 is a huge pain. While it’s sometimes circumvented by having an assembly outside of some dungeons, it’s a clumsy way of getting around an ultimately time-wasting system.
The game already has progression-locked tiles, which can be implimented in more areas to prevent new players from accidentally stumbling into high-levelled dungeons. As for access points and obstacles, if those were to remain in order to avoid changing too much, items which perform the functionality of HMs could be added (or merely carrying the HM itself could be enough), whilst allowing for the option of a HM-user to remain in the party instead. This isn’t a perfect solution either, as inventory space itself is very valuable.
A bit more work then could be put into a neater solution, a progression-locked ‘key’ system, where, based on whether or not the player has completed the HM-giving dungeon, they could simply press the regular attack or another interaction key in order to smash a rock or climb a wall, etc. This way, progression doesn’t always result deadweight lingering in a user’s team or inventory.
Fly and Fast Travel Functionality
The one exception to the cumbersome HM rule is Fly, which is far more helpful than intrusive. The use of the sky map is a little rudimentary, but it’s a charming and fun map in itself and I’m sure some players would hate to see it go. But within the sky map, I’d suggest adding further options on where to land from a menu, such as various landmarks from each of the regions to allow for a little easier navigation.
Pushing further than that, the option to fast-travel to a dungeon entrance from a list of dungeons you’ve previously beaten would be a major time saver, especially when it comes to doing missions. This way, you have to put in work to earn the ability to fast travel to a location. Players unlocking these by being ‘carried’ through a dungeon is a potential exploit of this system, but honestly I don’t feel like that would be much of a problem if certain players choose to do so - as the benefit is the same as being carried through a dungeon regularly, only it cuts down on time in the future when they can do it themselves. Allowing people to play the way they want to, even if it conflicts with the way you would like to see a game played, is quite common in MMOs anyway.
In addition to this, certain dungeons could be unable to be accessed by fast travel (think dungeons with special limits or areas, ones that could not be physically flown to), so that it’s easy to keep the harder to access dungeons from being quickly grinded out.
Managing Items and Recruits
While the bank and assembly have search functions, it can still be a bit of a nightmare to sift through them in search of something you need. A sort feature could benefit both.
As for Pokemon, there’s already some level of indexing involved, and implimenting a sort by Number (national dex number) should already be possible, as would sorting them alphabetically by their nicknames. Sorting by order recruited may or may not be possible - as when you release a recruit, that slot in your assembly is taken up by the first new recruit after you have released that Pokemon. In any case, if it can be added it would be a good option as well.
If you wanted to expand on a more complex search system, things such as searching by ability or moves could be added, but I don’t personally think that’s a necessary step.
Now for the bank and inventory. Beyond alphabetical sorting, items will need to be tagged - which I think would benefit the game in a lot of ways. A tag would be what ‘type’ of item it is (a TM, hp restore, food, etc), and being able to sort the bag and bank by type would make casually browsing or using items in a dungeon much easier. If an item has multiple purposes, its tag could be the highest ‘tier’ of tag (see below). The item order I’d propose would be (this is off the top of my head sorry if I miss a category or two):
Currency
Keys
Thrown Items
HP/Status Restoration
PP Restoration
Misc. Non-Held Consumables ( X Attack, Type Berries)
Orbs
TMs
Held Items
Passive Boost Items (Family items, globes etc)
Eggs
Hopefully tagging would open the potential for more user-friendly features such as searching the bank by item type, or being able to sort with a custom order applied.
Differing Control Suggestions and Custom Keybinds
As many have pointed out before me, PMU’s controls are quite uncomfortable and awkward. While you get used to them, even after years it still feels very clunky to me. You essentially have to stop moving if you want to use the mouse to switch to the chat bar. Thankfully other mouse-clicks are bypassed by existing keybinds, but I feel as if PMU’s default control scheme needs to be switched around.
A classic suggestion would be switching the movement to WASD. This allows the right hand to be free to control the mouse if needed. 1234 remain as switching to the Pokemon in those slots.
To use moves, the user holds the arrow keys or ZXCV to preview a move’s range, and the Space Bar to fire. Space Bar would remain the regular attack. This would make it a little harder to use moves whilst running - a solution to this is allowing the user to toggle an ‘autorun’. Essentially, a player could click an easily accessible button on the UI or press another key to turn running on and off, instead of just holding a key to run, which frees up a finger in tense situations, but allows for an easy switch back to slower movement if needed.
Another suggestion would be entering a keybind to switch to the chat box, instead of needing to click it, which is rather awkward at present. I’ve seen this feature in other games and it keeps the flow of dungeoning and communication much smoother. Additionally, allowing players to set particular item use to their own keys would be useful, as menu navigation like in the turn-based PMD games does not compliment the real-time gameplay of PMU.
Of course, if players don’t like the new control scheme, giving them the option to input their own with an additional menu would be much appreciated I’m sure. Allowing players to customise their own controls allows for far greater accessability. While there is a round-about way to change controls presently, a more obvious and easy way to do so would be much preferred. While the current default may be fine for some, I’ll say that playing for a few days is already giving me wrist strain!
Thanks for reading!
