How can they fix gyms?

This app has plenty of problems, but the one that chafes me the most is how messed up the gym system is. It only takes 1-2 people with decent Pokemon to knock down a gym no matter how high its level. Training it up is much more work, especially when someone drops a 2000 snorlax or dragonite on a Lv 2 gym. But really though, the turnover is so frequent and with spoofers, no gym stands for more than a few hours at most.

I understand it's a casual game and players can't be bothered with chipping away at a gym, but I'd seriously like to hold a gym for 24 hours before its up for grabs. And the most annoying part is another team swooping in to claim a gym that you just knocked down.

How do you think niantic can fix these mess?

It would be nice to alert any allied teams nearby that their gym is being taken over.

Someone on the reddit board made a great suggestion of making gym tiers based off of player level.

quoting from reddit page

I think that there may need to be some kind of Tier mechanic for gyms.. Like splitting up the gyms into 4 different ranges for each of the ten level differences. 0-10, 1-20, 21-30, and 31-40. It seems like a tier system would help with spoofers even right now, as they would all be stuck and alone, or only fighting each other. It would also help people who are progressing and want to feel a sense of accomplishment when they hit the next tier/challenge.

First off, there needs to be a grace period when the gym goes gray that only the victorious trainer (s) can drop pokemon in it.

Secondly, I think the application should notify you when someone attacks a gym you're defending and you should have the option to manually fight back yourself. If you miss the notification or choose not to fight, then the AI fights like it does now. You're still limited to your only pokemon whereas they have their full 6.

Thirdly, put in 1/4 and 4x effectiveness. Immunities I can sort of understand as there are some scenarios where they MIGHT be broken, but even then the battle timer should more than cover those scenarios.

Just my take. I'm sure I missed something but those are definite pain points for me.

I like an idea some one had on Reddit, where once you have beat a gym the winner has 5 minutes to claim the gym before anyone else can, that way you won't get gym sniped

Atmaboy posted...

This app has plenty of problems, but the one that chafes me the most is how messed up the gym system is. It only takes 1-2 people with decent Pokemon to knock down a gym no matter how high its level. Training it up is much more work, especially when someone drops a 2000 snorlax or dragonite on a Lv 2 gym. But really though, the turnover is so frequent and with spoofers, no gym stands for more than a few hours at most.

I understand it's a casual game and players can't be bothered with chipping away at a gym, but I'd seriously like to hold a gym for 24 hours before its up for grabs. And the most annoying part is another team swooping in to claim a gym that you just knocked down.

How do you think niantic can fix these mess?

I'm actually 3 hours away from holding 3 seperate gyms for the full 22 hours...that chump hypno came limping home an hour or so ago...the trick is to take them build gyms with a team

I have given this no thought, but I would like it if they made it more like the games

instead of a max of 10 defenders per gym that you can whittle away 6v1, do a cap of 3 groups, with caps of 4-4-6. you only gain/lose prestige by beating the entire group, instead of a single poke, but the prestige change is much more drastic. first 2 groups are like, the fodder fan boys that hang out in the gym. and the 6 team is the leader. you cannot challenge the leader until regular trainers are down

same goes for training, but make it a full 6v6/4, and allow them to challenge leader

Easy changes that would do the gyms good:

Cut the animation time of special moves or up the damage.
Increase the xp for training at your own gyms to justify beating face and blowing potions.
Increase the xp for training against high level pokemon of your same team in a similar vein.

It's fine that offense dominates gyms. They're not meant to be held easily. They're not meant to be held at all.
But you should get more for the activity of building the gym than you currently do.

I say 1 minute would be plenty for a victorious person to take over. 5 seems too long
While it's nice to have my pokemon actually be able to take over gyms (just got a 1000cp tauros at level 21....knows iron head), it does seem rather easy but the exp at this point is crumbs to what we need.
To add to that, it's great for casuals that the exp jumps, but holy crapt it is annoying.
Do people actually care about medals?
I think that it's a pain of some moves are nerfed. I get this isn't main game and niantic, but is it that bad that moves keep their attack power? Hyper beam and solar beam are right where they should be, but iron head at 30? It already loses flinch (i believe?) And not that great of an offensive type.

I know there is a tier, but it's nice seeing my much weaker parasect taking it to a vaporeon and jynx going at it w/dragonite

In general they need to tilt the balance more in favor of the defenders, imho.

In addition to simple attk/def changes to enact this balance some tools that could be helpful for gym defenders include the ability to check which gyms their pokemon are currently defending, the ability to view the gym info screen for gyms that they are defending (to see gym level and other supporting pokemon), and the ability to enable notifications when gyms that they are defending are under attack.