Forum Thread

So recently a feature was added to the Pokeradar that allows you to freeze your chains so that you can go hatch other Pokemon. This in itself is not a bad feature and in fact something I hoped would be added during my 6 year absence from the website. However the way it was implemented is... Bad for lack of a better term.



This is a downright SCAM. Freezing the Pokeradar costs NUGGETS instead of the more accessible Pokedollar. For anyone somehow unaware, the only ways to obtain nuggets without the involvement of another player are to log into the website for a week strait, or to purchase them outright using real world currency. Pausing the Pokeradar using nuggets feels like the website's owner(s) care more for lining their own pockets rather than their player base. Beyond that, even if nuggets were easily accessible these prices for the amount of time granted is beyond ridiculous.

The news claims that this is a "small fee" when in actuality this couldn't be further from the truth. With a feature like this you would expect the times to be something like: A day, A week, A month and Until you WANT to continue the chain, but on Pokeheroes it's 50 nuggets for A DAY, 80 nuggets for THREE DAYS, and 150 nuggets to pause the chain indefinably. At these rates and for how little options are available it'd be cheaper to just break the chain and restart it; and that's not even the worst part of the features implementation. Immediately following the "small fee" the news (and caption within the image above) state(s) "depending on your chain's progress and for how long you'd like to take a break." which implies that the further along the chain you are that the amount of nuggets you're forced to dish out for these small breaks will only INCREASE the higher your chain is.

I'd like to end this complaint by asking a question...
If hatching eggs increases the already ludicrous amount of nuggets required to pause the shiny chain, why would anyone bother using this feature when they could just stop hatching eggs and get the same results for free?

I didn't expect it to be so pricey!
That definitely solidifies its purpose as just being for like, ditto or legendary hunts though.

I don't get how people complain about getting things that make our life more comfortable, but come at a prize.
Yes, of course Nuggets are very valuable, but as you can just buy them in the Item Market for PD, they are avaiable for everyone, it all depends only on how much effort you put into making PD.

Second, We have been 10 years on PH without being able to freeze the chain, and I don't think there has ever been a features to freeze chains in the main Pokemon Games. If you break your chain, your fault. So, why not just be happy that we get a feature that actually HELPS us, and is totally OPTIONAL?

I like to work in metaphors, so maybe this helps understand the situation: Imagine you've been living in a remote village for your life, and suddenly there's a bus-line (=freeze feature) that transports you to the nearest city, even though you could walk there. But taking the bus is easier and faster, but you have to pay for the ticket (=nuggets). If you don't like the ticket prize, you can still walk there.

Oh, and about the price: I have a Rhyhorn chain of 260, and if I want to freeze it for 3 days, it costs 260 nuggets, or 450 for unlimited time. So, the price isn't TOO bad. I dont think the features is meant to be used regularly, but more for like emergencies.

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I have stated my opinion on multiple comment threads but I'll leave it here for posterity's sake

I think the price is a bit high (would prefer if the perma-freeze was 200-300 nuggets at most), but I mainly don't understand why we can't start a second chain (even if the new chain can't be frozen) while freezing our chain. This limits this function to the following (but let me know if you think of anything else)

1. Accidentally adopted lab egg, but you already have 4+ egg storages, making this cheaper
2. Want to adopt another egg (ditto/legend in lab, 1OS newly released mon)
3. Clearing out egg storage for Lati@s hunt (I would include event hunts, but it's difficult to recoup 450 nuggets worth through only lab hunting for about 1-2 weeks)

For most of these situations, I can't see why people would need to freeze their chain for more than 3 days, let alone indefinitely. If timed properly (e.g. SCS, 2x day, event distribution day), one could probably clear the 3rd case in 3 days (but don't take my word for that)

I don't think this would be to broken due to the high cost (~900k PD) of chain freezing, limiting the profitability of chain freezing since you'd probably need lots of egg storages to make them worth the time, and continue hunting for quite some time to be able to break even.

I would frankly pay to be able to start a new chain, simply because I'm bored of this chain, and I think there are others thinking about pursuing legend hunts who would agree

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In the last year, due to the world's economy and global inflation, PokéHeroes' monthly expenses have risen by roundabout 20%.
At the same time, due to PokeHeroes' increasing age, activity has declined by roughly 20%.

+20% and -20% here, unfortunately, don't even out. Quite the opposite.

Now, PH is still doing well. Don't worry/stress about that.
But I want to make sure that it will continue doing well for not only the next year, but the next ten years to come. And for that, PH needs monthly income.

We can't raise premium prices nor flute prices. The way I know our user base, many would drive completely wild.
And I personally also don't want to raise these prices. I think they're fair priced, even though inflation would technically justify raising them. 8$ back in 'ye older days were a lot more than today.

Anyway. Point is: We need to have different sources of income, in the least invasive way possible.
Mirej described my train of thought perfectly: you didn't need this feature for the past 10 years, you don't need it now. It's completely optional, so I think it's a perfectly fair premium feature.
Some users think it's worth it, and so they'll buy it. Some others won't. That's perfectly fine. It's a convenience feature; it's no more necessary than it was a year ago. In the few days since its release, many more users have already bought it than I even expected. That's good for this site.

Let me assure you, though, that we always monitor prices and reevaluate them in the future. We need to make these decisions based on real data, however, and not based on a few "for me personally it's not worth it" anecdotes. So while your input is appreciated, we can't just make things cheaper/free/not require nuggets just because some users would want it that way. Because, as I tried to make clear, that works for a year; until we'd then have to shut down the servers due to insufficient funding.
I know the stats, I know the data, I know PH' finances. I'm doing the best I can best on these insights. That's my "job" here.

And one last thing: All money that PH makes goes back into PH (or is being put into savings for when the time comes where expenses are greater than income). Neither me nor the staff gets money from PH. We're not "lining our pockets", we're doing it in the best interest of this site. And I've been successfully keeping this site running for the past 10 years, so I'm hoping for some trust that I'll also manage to keep it running for the next 10 :)

thanks for this clarification, I do agree its mostly a convenience feature and this insight into the sites finances does address some concerns surrounding where the money from Premium goes

I still stand by my point that there is limited reason to freeze hunts for an extended period of time without being able to do new hunts

also, for curiosities sake, a friend told me a chain pause suggestion got rejected before

It was suggested before mega hunts, legendary dex hunts and many summon item/quest hunts were added :D
But interesting finding nonetheless.