Changing Around Some Pokemon Ranks

Hey, URPG members! Here's a quick announcement to bring you up to speed on some more changes! Up to now, there have been quite a few Pokemon whose usability in URPG (particularly the Battle Section) didn't quite match up to where they were Ranked. In other words, there were some pretty high-ranked Pokemon that were simply not very good competitively, and some Pokemon that were ranked a bit too low in ratio to their battling potential, especially with the addition of Mega Evolutions for quite a few of them. In light of this and other factors, we have decided to change around the Rankings of certain Pokemon to make some easier and some harder to obtain.

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What we have tried to do, mainly, is maintain a 1:1 ratio of Pokemon moving up in Rank and those moving down. There are a few exceptions such as the new Easiest-Rank Pokemon, but these were deemed necessary. Finally, there are still a few oddballs that were left where they are (such as Relicanth in Complex). We fully recognize this, and will most likely move these Pokemon down in the future when there are more Pokemon to replace them. We simply wanted to maintain a good ratio of easy-to-obtain to hard-to-obtain Pokemon.

Anyway, tl;dr, here is the list of Pokemon that have changed Ranks. (A "+" denotes a Pokemon that has been moved up. A "-" denotes a Pokemon that has been moved down. Only Castform has shifted more than one Rank, moving from Complex to Medium):

Newly Easiest Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Ledyba -
• Spinarak -
• Sunkern -
• Unown -
• Wynaut -

Newly Simple Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Weedle +
• Slugma -
• Spoink -
• Cacnea -
• Barboach -
• Spheal -
• Chingling -
• Bonsly -
• Pansear -
• Pansage -
• Panpour -

Newly Medium Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Kakuna +
• Nidoran Female +
• Nidoran Male +
• Exeggcute -
• Ledian -
• Ariados -
• Sudowoodo -
• Sunflora -
• Wobbuffet -
• Delibird -
• Stantler -
• Lotad +
• Seedot +
• Plusle -
• Minun -
• Illumise -
• Wailmer -
• Spinda -
• Castform - -
• Sealeo -
• Starly +
• Buizel +
• Mime Jr. -
• Venipede +
• Maractus -
• Emolga -
• Stunfisk -
• Bunnelby +
• Fletchling +
• Dedenne +

Newly Hard Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Slowpoke +
• Exeggutor -
• Mr. Mime -
• Murkrow +
• Gligar +
• Magcargo -
• Ralts +
• Sableye +
• Mawile +
• Meditite +
• Electrike +
• Grumpig -
• Cacturne -
• Whiscash -
• Chimecho -
• Drifloon -
• Buneary +
• Chatot +
• Whirlipede +
• Cottonee +
• Darumaka +
• Minccino +
• Alomomola -
• Heatmor -

Newly Complex Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Beedrill +
• Abra +
• Gastly +
• Shiftry -
• Wailord -
• Feebas -
• Walrein -
• Floatzel +
• Drifblim -
• Lopunny +
• Phione -
• Cinccino +
• Litwick +
• Diggersby +

Newly Demanding Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Kadabra +
• Slowbro +
• Haunter +
• Scyther +
• Slowking +
• Honchkrow +
• Riolu +
• Gliscor +
• Scolipede +
• Lampent +

Newly Merciless Pokemon:

Spoiler

• Gengar +
• Scizor +
• Lucario +
• Chandelure +

In addition, some changes were made to Starter Pokemon availability.
The following Starter Pokemon are now choose-able:
Feebas
Happiny
Axew
The following Starter Pokemon are now unable to be chosen:
Scyther
Riolu

Note that some evolved forms of Pokemon whose Ranks were moved did not move themselves, as we deemed them to be fine where they currently are (for example, we did not move Lombre and Nuzleaf to Complex despite Lotad and Seedot moving up to Medium).

Important notice:
Any Art or Stories currently awaiting grades or curations will go by the old Ranking system. These changes only apply to Art/Stories submitted after this announcement. You should be denoting what Rank the Pokemon you Write/Draw for is anyway, so this shouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, any uncompleted works-in-progress will have to go by the new ranking system. Only completed works are unaffected.
Also, expect Park Ranks to be changed soon as well. More information on this when the announcement is made. Finally, Mart and Berry Store Pokemon prices might change in the future as well, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.

Expect updates to the Ultradex, Art threads, Story threads, and the Starter thread in the coming weeks!

(No, there is no new ref.)

 

Wait, I'm super confused. Obviously there's a new ref, but it's really hard to figure out who from your post. Is it a puzzle? I FREAKING LOVE PUZZLES.

On a more serious note, I'm glad to see y'all are going back and re-evaluating things like this. I agree with most of the changes, with one exception for a specific group of cases:

Pokemon in popular "categories," such as "First-route Normal/Flying type" that got moved away from the other Pokemon in that group. This refers to Pokemon like Weedle and Fletchling, who both moved up a rank. I think in these cases, it's more valuable to keep them with their brethren, because that's what new players will expect to see. I agree that power-level-wise, their evolutions are a step up, but I think cases like this are good times to throw new players a bone. After all, we didn't rank Magikarp based on Gyarados.

There are a few other very high-demand Pokemon whose new ranks I disagree with, but I'm betting y'all have had more than enough heated discussions on those by now. The only change that jumped out as really not making sense was Minccino hopping up a rank.

 

I know we discussed this a bit over Discord, but I did want to also share the justification on the forums. For Pokemon such as Weedle, Fletchling, and Bunnelby in regards to new players: they are still very much obtainable to new players. Simple and Medium rank are very attainable especially considering the leniency a player gets upon their first story or art submission. Even without that. I think it's important to acknowledge that these are good Pokemon (better than the other ones who are grouped with them). Groups like "Regional Bug" or "Regional Bird" are good as general guidelines, but they shouldn't be carved in stone when there are some Pokemon in the group that are clearly better than the others. Also, there are still plenty of good low-ranked Pokemon new players can get and use.

As for some high demand Pokemon that moved up, many of them could have gone either way in terms of staying where they were and moving up. The fact was, though, that there were many Pokemon that really needed to move down like Heatmor and Castform, and we were really trying to preserve a balance so that there were still higher-ranked mons for people to strive for, rather than just a massive downward flux of Pokemon among the Ranks.

In the end, I think you'll agree that overall the rankings make a lot more sense now. There is definitely room for more tweaking in the future, but at least most of the oddities have been addressed and hopefully people will accommodate themselves to these changes as time goes on. If there's ever a Pokemon you really think you dont have a fighting chance at obtaining, we have a great community of people willing to help you out!

 

At what point can we apply this to "regional starter"?

 

No complaints here, I've learned to pick my battles (still fighting for battles =P). That being said, does that mean we're changing the stress of focus off of game related factors (rarity of the mon, catch rate) to ranking and moving it more towards battle efficiency ranking? Are changes to the Park ranking being discussed? Was this list just off of what you guys think are strong or are there other reasons behind it (i.e. why did Weedle move up and not Magikarp even though both got Megas)? What effect do staff think this will have after making better mons harder to get? Are we looking to make it harder for players to compete, or is this meant to incentivize story deals and those who are willing to write for this stuff?

Again, none of this is meant to be a complaint (I'm fine with the changes), just trying to get an idea of what the Staff is looking to do with this and what all these changes are headed towards.

 

Probably not all of them,, especially since some Park ranks have been different from Stories the entire time.

 

Ahhh missed that, thanks!

 

Berry Store changes done!
Castform Master --> Super
Drifloon Master --> Hyper
Abra Hyper --> Master
Pachirisu added to Normal as there was no Electric type.

 

Some Park changes. Note how many of them didn't change. Most of them already fit comfortably in their range, even with the new changes. Others stayed because it works out better for that section and/or that rank. Some remain easier to get in the Park as a perk or just naturally, as MCR has always been less than stories.

New updated location list can be found on the Info Hub.

Changes were made to the following:
Nidoran F and M up to Uncommon (9k) from Common (4k)
Exeggcute down to Uncommon (9k) from Borderline (15k)
Exeggutor down to Borderline (15k) from Intermediate (25k)
Sudowoodo down to Borderline (15k) from Intermediate (25k)
Castform down to Borderline (15k) from Intermediate (25k)
Sealeo down to Borderline (15k) from Intermediate (25k)
Murkrow up to Borderline (15k) from Uncommon (9k)
Sableye up to Borderline (15k) from Uncommon (9k)
Drifloon down to Borderline (15k) from Intermediate (25k)
Mawile up to Borderline (15k) from Uncommon (9k)
Meditite up to Borderline (15k) from Uncommon (9k)

 

I have just updated the dex, together with the new updates for forme change Pokemon which resulted in moveset changes. /late

changelog | The Ultra Dex

 

@Ataro;

Kirlia still needs to be changed to Complex Rank (30-40) since that was missing in the update list.

 

Done!