The Pokemon GO Thread: Coming to iOS and Android 2016

[Johnny Boy]

As soon as I saw Candela, I knew I made the right choice.

[Doctor MK]

With only a few days until its intended release, Pokemon GO Plus has been delayed from late July to September for... reasons

 

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/07/30/the-new-pokemon-go-update-has-killed-nearby-tracking-completely/#6c0f05171787

You can re customise your trainer, and lock pokemon to prevent trading it buut, the tracking feature is gone.

To top it all, Pokevison's got a C&D .

[Patticus]

Half the fun is supposed to be getting out and seeing what you can find, so I can understand why tracking has been banned.

Is trading in now, then? Or are they just preparing the ground?

[Badnik Mechanic]

1 hour ago, Patticus said:

Half the fun is supposed to be getting out and seeing what you can find, so I can understand why tracking has been banned.

No it isn't.

Mindlessly wandering around hoping something other than a rat and a pidgeon isn't fun.

But seeing where the pokemon pop up and trying to get there or walking to their nests hoping to grab a good one is. 

[Nepenthe]

Tracking was a feature Niantic put in themselves. They intended for people to have some sense of where Pokemon were, to have an adventure with meaningful resources at your disposal, to know if you were going in the right direction and scrambling around if you weren't, which was especially fun with friends. The problem was it was borked, mainly since the footstep indicators of distance could be totally inaccurate.

Enter PokeVision, a website that essentially did the same thing as Niantic's tracking with the added feature of showing exactly where on the maps Pokemon were within a certain area and how long you had before they despawned. Considering the existing problem of lower density areas not having anything of value 99% of the time, especially PokeStops which allow you to replenish Pokeballs, PokeVision was basically essential for these areas to reasonably enjoy the game. Without tracking of any sort, there is that much less reason for rural people and suburbanites to play. You can literally wander around for hours and not get anything you wouldn't find just sitting at home.

Granted, I partly understand why PokeVision was stopped. It used Niantic's server data and was causing that much more of a strain. However, completely removing both options for play was a dumb-ass idea, especially since Niantic's radar had a few features that worked such as directional pinging where you knew you were going in the right direction of a tracked Pokemon when its box radiated green. Iterative updates that fixed it while leaving PokeVision up, or hell just aping PokeVision's code since it actually worked, would've been the smart thing to do. 

On top of that, communication has been abysmally non-existent. The game launched without meaningful instructions to the hunting features or gym battles, causing a lot of confusion and untold losses in time and resources. Requests for extra Pokestops in areas that need them as a result of people having the audacity to not play Ingress and establish Stops beforehand are going unanswered. On top of that, they've yet to really do anything about people fooling the GPS in order to catch high level or rare Pokemon in places they're nowhere near, and those are the people who I feel are ruining the game the most, not the basic population who found a tracker that actually worked.

This game harbors the essence of what a real life Pokemon adventure would be like. It's a great idea for potential of massive longevity. But Niantic has been doing a fucking awful job at handling the game every step of the way, and if anyone were to just drop the game now I wouldn't blame them.

[goku262002]

Niantic Explains Pokémon Go Changes (Kotaku)

To quote a commenter on Kotaku:

Quote

That is like 80% PR bullshit, 15% trying to pretend to be human and likable, and 5% useful information but not really.

So basically a typical marketing approved communication.

 

[Johnny Boy]

Well as of yesterday, there was an update that makes the tracking system a lot better by showing nearby Pokemon at poke stops (with irl pictures of said stops). Only certain accounts have this since its in the beta phase and it's showing up for me. What about you guys?

[Nepenthe]

I'm not nearby any Pokestops right now, but my UI has changed to include the update: The text now says "Sightings" and there's a grass icon behind the Pokemon showing up. If I go anywhere today I imagine it'll give me the option to view Pokemon at any stops.

Also, the GPS seems like it got bugged in the process. Had about 1 km on one of my 5 km eggs after doing some walking around at the mall. Drove home from there and went to bed, then woke up to an egg with 4.3 km on it and a message saying I was going too fast and must be driving. Lol thanks?

[SolFlint]

I saw that I have the Sightings change after reading about it on Serebii. I live only near two pokestops, and the pokemon in range only show grass behind them.

Hoping this will work out better than what they had previously and won't increase server load again. :S

[Patticus]

The new tracking system is useless if you're not near a Pokestop, by the way, making play outside of towns and cities almost impossible. The exact opposite of how Pokemon is portrayed in literally every other piece of media.

[Badnik Zero]

Can I ask what levels people posting in this thread are at, and generally what your day to day activities are to reach higher levels? I think I average about 20-30k exp a day from eggs hatched and pokestops. I ride a lot of buses to work and the stop and go motion of the bus makes it really good for egg kilometers, and I get off the bus at night several stops after my stop to walk back an additional 2-3 kms. I try to visit at least one park on my way home. About to hit lvl 24. I also stopped using lucky eggs a bit back and now evolve my dudes on the spot.

How do you guys find the gym system to be working out? I just recently realized I've been doing friendly matches all wrong. Training at friendly gyms is for Pokémon weaker than the opponent, and I was using my strong ones. For example since you can only use one Pokémon in friendly matches, it gets worn down on lower lvl guys until it falls to the higher lvl Pokémon in the gym. This is a waste of potions because the reward will be only 200-300 prestige points, and your Pokémon has to go back many times to open a new slot. However if you defeat the first let's say 1200 CP guy with only an 800 CP guy using type advantage, your underdog victory nets up to 800 prestige from a Pokémon you probably don't use. Plus, because of lower level he is probably less costly to heal a couple times. I feel like even some high level trainers don't even know this, because I see them stacking newly captured gyms with Pidgeys to give other friendly players an opportunity to jack up the prestige. Was anyone else confused about gym battles like this?

[TCB]

Time to rise this thread from its grave...Because we're finally going to Johto (among other things).

Quote

It has been confirmed that the rest of the Johto Pokémon are to come to Pokémon GO later this week. This update includes more Pokémon, evolutions, new methods of encounters, new berries and more customisation options for your Pokémon. 
First, Pokémon may act differently when you're battling them
Next, with the new Berries, a Nanab Berry will slow a Pokémon's movement and a Pinap Berry will double the Candy you receive on capture. We'll bring full news on when it comes so be sure to check back.

 

 

 

[Meta77]

The hype for this game died months ago honestly

[Johnny Boy]

At long last, I can finally evolve my scyther. Time will tell if this will revive the hype for the game though.