[Megathread] Pokemon GO

[Fencers]

huh that could explain why all the gyms around here started going to level 10 seemingly over night when they all never really got above 5 usually

In my city this tactic is being used to lock out gyms near parks that are off the main avenues. While the botters and spoofers have over taken nearly every gym on the avenues. 'Egg' squatting is common in certain areas too.

It's only on the north side of the city and in low density areas where 'honest' gym battling can occur. And it's still the worst return for your time unless one exploits or cheapens the gameplay interaction.

It's a really crummy situation.

[Nefarious Tea]

I work at a golf course, we have a pokestop in the middle of the second hole, and have people trying to walk to it frequently. Not only is it trespassing it is dangerous as getting a golf ball to the face isn't particularly good for your health. I put in a report to the dev, hope they move it.

In other news.....soulcrushing:

[image snip]

I've never seen or heard of a person getting hit with a golfball (although I'm sure it has happened) outside of it being played up for laughs in Happy Gilmore, but I definitely once saw someone I went to high school with kill a canada goose with a golf ball impact (accidentally, of course). I imagine if a person got hit in the head it would do some serious if not fatal damage.

Also, #rekt concerning the aerodactyl. On the bright side, if you caught one once, you can catch another in more or less the same place, even if it might be stupendously rare.

In my city this tactic is being used to lock out gyms near parks that are off the main avenues. While the botters and spoofers have over taken nearly every gym on the avenues. 'Egg' squatting is common in certain areas too.

It's only on the north side of the city and in low density areas where 'honest' gym battling can occur. And it's still the worst return for your time unless one exploits or cheapens the gameplay interaction.

It's a really crummy situation.

I wonder if you're aware of the irony and hypocrisy in you complaining about gyms being full of exploits when ten pages ago you were telling people they could like it or sod off when they were unhappy about living in rural areas with no pokemon/stops.

[Fencers]

I wonder if you're aware of the irony and hypocrisy in you complaining about gyms being full of exploits when ten pages ago you were telling people they could like it or sod off when they were unhappy about living in rural areas with no pokemon/stops.

I never said such. What I said was that living in a rural area did not give one license to cheat or exploit. Which is directly in line with what I am saying about cheaters/exploiters now- they are counter to the gameplay expression.

[Coldkil]

Basicallyt an IV checker in game? Literally another thing i couldn't care less about.

[Fencers]

IV checker in-game hopefully is accurate. Right now certain half levels are not accurately calculated. Which leaves you uncertain whether certain 'mons are prime for atk or def at a gym.

It will obviously be necessary to know IVs for trainer battling- the real show, so to speak.

Niantic need to turn attention to the cheaters and gym press system. It's rather counter to expression currently.

[Coldkil]

IV checker in-game hopefully is accurate. Right now certain half levels are not accurately calculated. Which leaves you uncertain whether certain 'mons are prime for atk or def at a gym.

It will obviously be necessary to know IVs for trainer battling- the real show, so to speak.

Niantic need to turn attention to the cheaters and gym press system. It's rather counter to expression currently.

Imho they should make the game playable everywhere and not only in definite dense places which are an infinite dimension more entertaining than barren ones.

Until they don't solve this, people will spoof/cheat and ruin the game for everyone. I suppose that trading would help a lot towards this but wasn't it lableled for 2017, at which time the game will be dead already.

EDIT: great concept and starting experience, terrible execution/long term play.

[Fencers]

Imho they should make the game playable everywhere and not only in definite dense places which are an infinite dimension more entertaining than barren ones.

Until they don't solve this, people will spoof/cheat and ruin the game for everyone. I suppose that trading would help a lot towards this but wasn't it lableled for 2017, at which time the game will be dead already.

EDIT: great concept and starting experience, terrible execution/long term play.

According to the Reddit for POGO there was a server side patch a day or two ago that made rural areas a bit more playable. I have not read the patch notes yet though.

I do think it is unfortunate rural players have a poor experience. However, I am uncertain what gameplay changes could be made with altering the basic function and design of the game. I also don't personally know much about Niantic methodology of design here- I never worked on a mobile game or any game inclusive to factors such as cells activity, geolocation and so forth.

I somehow doubt rural players will ever have the same experience as urban players in the end.

[Coldkil]

According to the Reddit for POGO there was a server side patch a day or two ago that made rural areas a bit more playable. I have not read the patch notes yet though.

I do think it is unfortunate rural players have a poor experience. However, I am uncertain what gameplay changes could be made with altering the basic function and design of the game. I also don't personally know much about Niantic methodology of design here- I never worked on a mobile game or any game inclusive to factors such as cells activity, geolocation and so forth.

I somehow doubt rural players will ever have the same experience as urban players in the end.

Agree. The point is that there are not enough gyms, not enough interest points, not enough spawns until you plan to take the car and run around hopping from place to place. While any decent city simply lets you get out, do stuf and have fun.

Personal experience: around my area there are definitely a good amount of gyms, but not that many stops. Hence until i plan to stop in a somewhat dense (3) and make circles there, nothing much else is to do. Always the same pokemon spawns that after the update are still not that vary (pidegly, zubat, rattata and weedle everywhere). I use to do running/walking sessions (even before the game) in a nice path alongside the river and i never got more than 3 spawns through all the path. Some stops are literally impossible to reach (i.e: in the center of a non-accessible area).
I have a gym and a stop at workplace (obv not reachable by my office) that are there because i know that there were two people playing Ingress and map is just based on that game.

I just (and i suppose many others) thought the game would have been a nice digression to have while walking from A to B or when i had some free time to just get out and walk/run - nothing about "competitive"/gyms and all that stuff. The way the game is currently working makes this basically impossible. Some pokemon will never sapwn here and until trades are opened i have no way to get them until i resort to gps spoofing to move way out of here.

[FelPlague]

well ive been banned, and from what i gathered from talking with them wanna know why?


i have 2 decives, a somewhat older phone with a huge battery (i got a battery extender on it aswelll so its bulky)
and my normal device
so i live in a small town, and im going away for the weekend... so i bring my bulky device... im in toronto catching lots of pokemon since its a big city....

meanwhile my mother at home (who plays it) has the same phone as me... finds my phone thinks its mine... and goes out to play... she opens it up and notices its me...


so niantic goes (HOLY SHIT this guy was just in toronto, and is now 2 hours away from toronto! and is at both locations at once! hacker!!!!)


and now im banned... level 23... in a rural area, maybe got 8 of those levels through toronto.... so... yeah i quit unless i get unbanned... im not doing all that again...


my family cottage was near a dratini nest, i remember spending all day catching those... and now its gone... i have tons of rare pokemon ive caught over the last month or so...


so i come home from my vacation confused what was going on with pokemon go and found out its cause i was temp banned, then perma banned... no email btw

[Fencers]

Oh no, the previewsame of the faction leader evaluations looks to be totally unhelpful bullshit.

Arrrgggh. Niantic, you sonsofbitches, aaarrrrrgggh! This is not what I needed or wanted- I hope it's all fake and the real evaluation tools will be like Silph Road.

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Yeah, so it seems the appraisal system is totally fucking useless. Game makes me want to vomit.

- - - Updated - - -

The level of disappointment I am feeling right now is borderline enraging. Why would they implement such an important feature to the core gameplay loop and have it so oblique and vague?

Telling me, "Wow that's a nice Pokemon!" which is supposedly code for "80-100%" IV rating or whateverthefuck.., argh. Goddamnit Niantic. That tells me nothing! It means nothing!

I need hard numbers. Cold hard stats. You have wasted my time and patience with this BS.

[LilSaihah]

According to the Reddit for POGO there was a server side patch a day or two ago that made rural areas a bit more playable. I have not read the patch notes yet though.

As a rural player I have gone on multiple 10ks and have not seen any appreciable difference between prior to this supposed patch and after.

[Coldkil]

As a rural player I have gone on multiple 10ks and have not seen any appreciable difference between prior to this supposed patch and after.

Basically my feedback.

[AeneasBK]

Well in less frustrating news, so far not noticed anyone "egging" a gym and I'm up to 118 Pokemon in my Pokedex The FB group for my cities Team Instinct players is actually livening up so looking to go out later this evening to meet a handful of peeps and catch a few gyms in our neighbourhood and get some dollar

Up to 28 Charmander candy for my perfect Charizard... Then I'll just need 400 or so more to max level

[Puremallace]

Only thing the new appraisal system is good for is determining quickly junk Pokemon and trashing them. Anything with "strong" in the wording still has to go through the IV checkers because "strong" could mean 80% or 100% which is a huge difference in gyms

[Aquinan]

I've never seen or heard of a person getting hit with a golfball (although I'm sure it has happened) outside of it being played up for laughs in Happy Gilmore, but I definitely once saw someone I went to high school with kill a canada goose with a golf ball impact (accidentally, of course). I imagine if a person got hit in the head it would do some serious if not fatal damage.

So far this year I've almost been hit 3 times marshaling the course, 2 players have been hit, and a bev cart girl was hit in the head (luckily bounced and hit the cart first) So it does happen, luckily no major injuries, but a full on hit to the head will def cause a nasty concussion or worse. So the danger is there.

[Seegtease]

According to the Reddit for POGO there was a server side patch a day or two ago that made rural areas a bit more playable. I have not read the patch notes yet though.

I do think it is unfortunate rural players have a poor experience. However, I am uncertain what gameplay changes could be made with altering the basic function and design of the game. I also don't personally know much about Niantic methodology of design here- I never worked on a mobile game or any game inclusive to factors such as cells activity, geolocation and so forth.

I somehow doubt rural players will ever have the same experience as urban players in the end.

It's not hard to change. Not only do rural areas need to be buffed, but cities need to be nerfed. You should not be able to fill your pokedex without traveling out of your city (not counting nation locked). It's pokemon GO, not pokemon SIT IN THE PARK ALL DAY. They can still make it based on cell usage, but it needs to be normalized based on usage in x km radius. The amount of pokemon in the peak cell area in my 2000 pop town should be the same as the amount in the middle of the busiest downtown, should be equal to the amount in a populated area of a suburb. They can and should do this.

[LilSaihah]

The biggest issue with the rural places is not the spawns, as you said, that's an easy fix by adding a higher minimum amount of spawns per X data usage. The real issue is pokéstops & gyms, there is no way in fucking hell they will be adding the required amount manually, it would take them forever even with a bunch of people working on it all the time… they need to come with a more automatic way to do it, the issue is coming up with one that people won’t simply exploit the shit out of it.

I had an idea for that
For your 100k Jogger trophy, you get a Pokestop that you can plonk down somewhere that's at least 100-200m away from any other stops/gyms

[Seegtease]

The biggest issue with the rural places is not the spawns, as you said, that's an easy fix by adding a higher minimum amount of spawns per X data usage. The real issue is pokéstops & gyms, there is no way in fucking hell they will be adding the required amount manually, it would take them forever even with a bunch of people working on it all the time… they need to come with a more automatic way to do it, the issue is coming up with one that people won’t simply exploit the shit out of it.

I don't see how they could. In some areas they are incredibly dense. The best way would be to impose limits based on density. Allow people to submit requests via forms, and there should be an automatic priority system to first add the ones that are in a least dense area. Ideally, this will eventually cause more even distribution (the ones in major cities that are already dense won't even be considered until the less dense requests are met first).

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I don't see how they could. In some areas they are incredibly dense. The best way would be to impose limits based on density. Allow people to submit requests via forms, and there should be an automatic priority system to first add the ones that are in a least dense area. Ideally, this will eventually cause more even distribution (the ones in major cities that are already dense won't even be considered until the less dense requests are met first).

And also allow a flagging system for people to flag inappropriate pokestops. Then those ones can be considered on a case-by-case basis. But adding new ones should be entirely automated.

[Jester Joe]

Oh no, the previewsame of the faction leader evaluations looks to be totally unhelpful bullshit.

Arrrgggh. Niantic, you sonsofbitches, aaarrrrrgggh! This is not what I needed or wanted- I hope it's all fake and the real evaluation tools will be like Silph Road.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, so it seems the appraisal system is totally fucking useless. Game makes me want to vomit.

- - - Updated - - -

The level of disappointment I am feeling right now is borderline enraging. Why would they implement such an important feature to the core gameplay loop and have it so oblique and vague?

Telling me, "Wow that's a nice Pokemon!" which is supposedly code for "80-100%" IV rating or whateverthefuck.., argh. Goddamnit Niantic. That tells me nothing! It means nothing!

I need hard numbers. Cold hard stats. You have wasted my time and patience with this BS.

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised you expected more. This is exactly in line with what has been in Pokemon games as of late for "IV/EV" checkers.

Onto my two cents about what's wrong with this game also since I don't see people addressing this often, and this is probably the most frustrating thing to me.

Go out and catch a 500 Eevee. Evolve it for 25 candies, and you can get a 1315-1365 Vaporeon. And generally speaking, Eevee isn't that rare.

Now, go out and catch about a 400 Nidoran. Spend all that time grinding 125 candies, and you'll end up with about a 1344-1581 Nidoking.

Sure, close in power, but in terms of investment? That's completely ridiculous. Same goes for Magikarp in a way, why bother investing so much when you can just keep evolving Eevees? Oh, but don't forget to name it Rainer, because a Jolteon will absolutely suck to get (1000-1050 CP).

Also fun fact, you best be getting a 700-900 Seel if you even want to stand a chance to break 1000. It's absolutely crazy.

[Nefarious Tea]

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised you expected more. This is exactly in line with what has been in Pokemon games as of late for "IV/EV" checkers.

Onto my two cents about what's wrong with this game also since I don't see people addressing this often, and this is probably the most frustrating thing to me.

Go out and catch a 500 Eevee. Evolve it for 25 candies, and you can get a 1315-1365 Vaporeon. And generally speaking, Eevee isn't that rare.

Now, go out and catch about a 400 Nidoran. Spend all that time grinding 125 candies, and you'll end up with about a 1344-1581 Nidoking.

Sure, close in power, but in terms of investment? That's completely ridiculous. Same goes for Magikarp in a way, why bother investing so much when you can just keep evolving Eevees? Oh, but don't forget to name it Rainer, because a Jolteon will absolutely suck to get (1000-1050 CP).

Also fun fact, you best be getting a 700-900 Seel if you even want to stand a chance to break 1000. It's absolutely crazy.

Yea, it's crazy how overpowered Vaporeon is. Someone at Niantic must have an unhealthy fetish for the thing. I mean, it's one of my favorite pokemon but like... it's not that great in the games. It shouldn't be able to shit all over pokemon it's weak against. Venusaur and Jolteon should be able to wipe the floor with it, but it dominates both utterly unless the Venusaur is 400-500CP higher.