I feel like a lot of people are afraid to use ghost pokemon because accidentally walking into walls
Oh but there’s trapped scarf!! You say
Yes but now we’re unable to hold another item, a ghost pokemon cant hold trap scarf, or stamina band or choice specs
Making them much less viable than most other pokemon, none of whom are threatened by accidental hunger damage
INTRODUCING THE REVERSE TRAPPED SCARF (it doesn’t have to have this name)
When in your inventory, ghost pokemon cannot walk through walls. (Eww but what if the ghost user wants to walk through walls? Do they have to leave behind their valuable item?)
Easy. When equipped it does nothing.
So it’s a trapped scarf when it’s unequipped, when equipped it doesn’t work.
The wording of the original post is a little confusing, but I think I understand what you’re getting at.
Using a ghost as your “main” runner of sorts means either dealing with accidental wall-crossing, or sacrificing the ability for ANY of your pokemon to cross walls, as well as a team item slot. So what you’re suggesting, is an item that works like a family item instead–granting the effects of a trapped scarf to ghost types while in the bag–while also cancelling its own effect if held.
It’s actually rather similar to something I was going to suggest–an item that functions as both a trapped and mobile scarf in one: the holder is granted the ability to cross walls, while everyone else is prevented from doing so.
I often switch between my “main” pokemon and a ghost to take shortcuts and the like–but I can’t do that when training an actual ghost due to the trapped scarf. So I can see the merit to a more convenient lategame replacement for the trapped scarf.
When I first read this, my response was honestly leaning towards “but conveniences have to have some drawbacks, or they’ll just become a mandatory meta”. But after thinking about it, I do think there’s already enough of a drawback with moving through walls that ghosts just can’t deal with sufficiently well. Trapped Scarf exists, but it imposes new drawbacks just to make movement without killing your belly easier to manage.
I’ll see what the other staff think about this idea, and how difficult its implementation might be. On paper it should be doable, but I never do seem to know with PMU. I kinda have to say, I do like the general idea though, so thanks for the suggestion~
I know we’re talking about PMU–in all its QoL-starved glory–but I have to admit to taking issue with this at a fundamental level. It implies a mindset of “we can’t make the game too convenient to play”–conflating convenience and challenge in a way I really don’t like. (Or I’m completely missing your point; feel free to correct me)
I think my main argument there is a matter of power creep. To create a better item that obsoletes an existing one is the very definition of it. If we just always made a better item every time someone wanted an improvement to a given scenario, we’d all probably be running around with team-held Cloud Nine items. You could probably imagine how ridiculous that might get.
I believe it might be a better step to improve the base condition of ghosts (e.g. by making them lose less belly in walls) than to create an entirely new item to bring up their condition. If that’s even possible, anyways, given PMU’s tech. But I’m still going to propose this idea to the other staff as it is still a step towards making ghosts feel more playable.
I think we’re looking at this from separate angles entirely; I’m not seeing anything to do with power creep here:
But maybe I’m just missing the point.
I can agree rendering the trapped scarf dead content isn’t ideal–so perhaps the improved replacement of sorts could be an endgame upgrade to the easily-farmed trapped scarf. That, or we could just buff the current one to function as described, and perhaps reduce its spawn rate to compensate. (It would probably need a new name though, as that’d be straying a bit away from the lookalike theming)
Reducing the penalty for wall-crossing probably isn’t the answer. Later in the game, zooming through walls and ignoring the dungeon’s topography is already powerful enough with full hunger drain–it’s just a pain to train that way until higher levels. That would absolutely be power creep–and on what is arguably already a dominant playstyle, to boot. Make no mistake, level 100 ghosts really don’t need a buff.
In an ideal world, I’d suggest something like a built-in feature of the client to toggle crossing walls with a button press. But of course, that’s harder to program than an item band-aid–so we have the current trapped scarf’s functionality.
As an alternative (or in addition), hunger damage could be made to scale to your HP as a percentage instead of a flat 5 damage per tick. Hail was changed at one point in a similar fashion, I believe, so it’s not an unheard of type of change. That’d ease the early game ghost (and new player lack of hunger awareness) problems a bit, and maybe cut into the late game meta, but I don’t think it’d be as fun having to stop more often.
I dunno. It’s certainly something that could stand to be changed in some way, but it seems like most (if not all) solutions we could implement would have a downside to them, whether it’s in the implementation being a lengthy process or in the effects shifting the balance too much at once.
I dont necessarily think we should or shouldn’t change meta.
I was just throwing out a potential solution to a hypothetical problem of (ghosts being underutilized) and see what kind of discussion comes out of it.
I could be very wrong. Seeds says lvl 100 ghosts are very powerful ( i dont have any ghost above lvl 40 so i could be just inexperienced )
So maybe they dont need any help. It’s just my experience that ghosts have major drawbacks (esp when mobile scarf exists)
So i wanted to throw out a possible mechanic that might make them more viable from my perspective.
If they’re highly viable then my argument is weakened. Thats okay.
Continuous power creep is a problem, but i don’t necessarily think each situation where we introduce a better item is a net negative. I still use affinity band in occasions where i might lose rare items.
I still use leppa berries and ethers when maxed versions exist (they’re cheaper & easier to find)
I feel like the power creep issue wont necessarily be an inherent problem (i think good implementation can avoid this)
I highly agree with seeds that we dont want any given strategy to become TOO convenient, lest it makes players feel obligated to use that strategy.
I just see this as a brainstorm of possible changes, because for me, it seems like mobile scarf beats out ghosts.
