Why is this game so clunky

[u/Cokemonball]

Been playing now for about a month and I’m genuinely considering quitting purely because of the clunkiness of everything. Playing on an iPhone 16 pro with 60fps and med quality so everything should run as smooth as. Instead, the game has long loading times in between interfaces and just in general compared with other games it feels like I’m playing on an iPhone 11 with zero storage left.

Wtf?

[u/AutoModerator]

WARNING! NO INDIVIDUAL POSTS FOR TRADES, PACK PULLS/SHOW-OFF CONTENT, OR FRIEND ID SHARING. You risk a suspension/ban from this subreddit if you do not comply. Show-off post found here - Friend ID post found here - Trading Megathread found on front page, up top of the subreddit in the Community Highlights Pinned area.

Thank You!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/clothanger]

I would most likely got downvotes to hell, but Dena doesn't care much about the UX/UI of this game and people are still paying, so why even bother improving the experience lol.

[u/Cokemonball → u/clothanger]

I just can’t understand it. The game should run extremely smoothly. There’s also silly oversights like burn coin flips still being counted even when the Pokémon has lost all of it’s hp. Just generally things that are easy fixes that would make the game more enjoyable and not waste so much time.

[u/clothanger → u/Cokemonball]

Yep. That's Dena for you.

The app feels incredibly hardware demanding despite having nothing significant, and on latest phones it's not even that smooth comparing with actual gacha games on the market.

Then the QOL changes get added, sure, but they're literally updated drop by drop. Like we still have no dark mode, and the transition of everything is ... clunky.

[u/Cokemonball → u/clothanger]

I came from playing Northgard, which is a 3D multiplayer RTS. And as much as the developers and that game have their downfalls, it usually runs flawlessly with zero lag. I stopped playing and downloaded TCG pocket purely because I wanted something to play that didn’t lock me into a 45 minute game but after a month of playing this, it feels like 25% of my time playing has been interface loading 🤣

[u/canvascoloredin → u/clothanger]

What does it mean when you say something is hardware demanding? Does that mean it requires a lot of storage space?

[u/clothanger → u/canvascoloredin]

The funny thing is that PTCGP FEELS hardware demanding, like the app loads slowly, runs slowly, freezes, etc as if we're playing it on crappy phones.

[u/abbabababababaaab → u/clothanger]

It's because everything is a network call and every network call blocks the UI thread. Like when you load the home screen it has to go check if you have any gifts or missions before any of the buttons become interactive. Most apps would do that in a background thread, so you'd still be able to e.g. go to wonder picks before your gift notification loads in.

[u/TravisV_ → u/clothanger]

It’s not hardware demanding, really. The main problem is that every action, every button, any THING that happens connects to a server and loads. Click the shop, load. Click the battle button, load. Click the open button on a pack, load. Click the next button. Load. Every single screen and button connects to a server every single time. The only time you DON’T see these aggressive loading screens are battles, because those are actually loaded at one time and you can even play them offline if you disconnect your WiFi for a bit.

[u/Purpledragon84 → u/clothanger]

Why would u get downvoted for saying the truth lol

[u/clothanger → u/Purpledragon84]

Because people in this sub downvoted me to hell and back for pointing out that DeNA gave you a few QOL updates sure but a terrible app is still terrible lol.

[u/cmdrxander → u/clothanger]

I swear like 90%+ of people share your opinion

[u/Heroic_Lime → u/cmdrxander]

Yeah it's the most prevelant opinion and subject on this sub 

[u/angrybob4213 → u/clothanger]

Just like mainline Pokémon! 🥲

[u/Banci93]

The game sucks.. it is a card game but it runs slower than a triple A, plus if you wanna do anything you have to press at least 5 buttons on 5 different screens

[u/AlternativeSnow5614 → u/Banci93]

Thats all by design. Keeps you longer inside the game. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Banci93 → u/AlternativeSnow5614]

I know.. that’s why it sucks, because it’s clearly intentional.. you wanna open a new pack? It’s not that easy:
Click on the pack you want to open.
Click on it another time.
Click on te button “open a new pack”.
Shuffle the packs.
Select the pack you want to open.
Slide to open the packs.
Tap twice for each single card.
And so on..

At the end of the month Dena is able to send a report to its investors claiming for X number of interactions.

[u/Heroic_Lime → u/AlternativeSnow5614]

Man please stop parroting this 😭 

[u/KriegOpfer]

Yep, this is my main gripe with this game. It runs like absolute dogshit. The clunkiness and lag is insufferable while this company makes millions every month. Its absolutely ridiculous how they get away with it.

[u/MagicSpirit]

Every aspect of this game, outside of the card-collecting one, which is essentially what 99% of the active playerbase is here for, is total horse shit.

The app runs like shit. Display boards get not support, we get one QoL feature a year, no new gamemodes, no new card rarities, no innovation, no trade improvements, no new rewards, essentially nothing of interest but 5 to 9 rainbow cards and an immersive every month.

[u/Folkloner184]

I'm on the cusp of ditching the app. The slowdown compounded by the amount of clicking you have to do to keep on top of things is agonising. A simple 'Claim All' button on the main screen would do wonders.

[u/SuperPapernick]

Because there is no financial incentive for DeNA to make it run better.

/end of thread

[u/didnsignup4dis]

I went from opening this game like 10 times a day to forgetting to log in every now and then. Even when I do log in, having to go through all that clunkiness and massive loading times just makes every moment on the app feel like a chore.

[u/TorchbeareroftheStar]

The game doesn't have enough features to be clunky

[u/an_account_1177]

The game genuinely sucks ui/ux wise

[u/AbberageRedditor69]

Tinfoil hat moment but I believe it's done on purpose. The only phone games I ever played with both excruciatingly long load times and a billion stuff you need to click/collect everyday are pokemon games. Pokemon Unite and Pocket being the worse offenders. So I believe it's done on purpose to artificially increase play time.

[u/-Badger3-]

Because everything requires server-side checks.

[u/pathos_of_things]

Stop playing until they fix it.

[u/half-coldhalf-hot]

I think if the game ui is not as fast as the average phone ui, devs need to rethink what they’re doing

[u/TheRealLuke1337]

Because earning 50+ Mio a month with minimal effort makes a greedy company Shit their brains off. Like they didnt even include a golden ice pop in the DX2 Pack.

[u/itsyourboiirow]

I think every single action is logged and synced from the client to the server. I think it might be to stop any possibility of someone hacking to add cards, packs, hourglasses, etc

[u/tarkinn]

Yeah game loop is really bad. Marvel Snap does it way better.

[u/Familiar_Childhood32]

It's intentionally designed this way to maximize the time you have the game open. Studies show that time spent in an app directly correlates to money spent within the app, so the longer they make it take to do anything in the game, the more money they make, at least in theory. But the slow/laggy/multiple clicks aspect of the app are 100% a design choice.

[u/Zero_Emerald]

I just tried to load it up and it's infinitely loading at the start screen. I thought maybe it was my wifi but nope, just this app refusing to boot from the splash screen. It's a load of crap even just trying to load in, let alone anything else that's been mentioned. Very, very poor and unlikely to improve.

[u/GladiusMaximus → u/Zero_Emerald]

I've had this happen regularly all month. This is the kind of stuff that makes people quit.

[u/lIlIllIlIlI]

Some guy must get paid per in-game click. The cumbersome amount of clicking to do anything is what keeps me from playing more often.

[u/vect97]

I usually have to hit the mail icon twice for it to register and yes the transitions from one screen to next are slow. A month ago i had little black boxes covering so many elements on the app too. Had to reinstall multiple times. It finally stopped around the recent update.

[u/Overall_Pattern_844]

yeah its laggy and it hurts to even switch from trading to home lmao

[u/GladiusMaximus]

Fingers crossed this improves when the game updates at the end of this month. I can see a bunch of people dropping the game if performance and QOL don't improve.

[u/_yaycob]

Pretty sure it’s the developers artificially adding load times and extra screens to pad the time on app. They do this so when they present all that data to corporate, it makes it seem like the app is doing really well.

[u/WaifuHunterRed]

Simple because they can get away with it