Pokemon Go is out now!!!

[Gwazi Magnum]

I'm not a fan of the increased difficulty.
Not when we're left with such little options to counter-act it rather than "Throw more balls and pray they don't flee".

Like in the games you had HP and status infliction's, which became a game in itself of timing, not going at them too hard etc.
In GO? You got the shrinking circles, pretty easy to get the hang of, and then 'nice throw' ratings. Something that seems to be very luck dependent on how your touchscreen chooses to behave.

So at the current rate, this increased difficulty really serves no purpose other than to be a ball and berry drain. Not that big a deal for city folks with pokestops everywhere, but a much bigger hassle for those of us in Sub Urban areas. And I can only imagine the horror of how bad it is for those in Rural areas.

 

[Kagayours]

I'm not a fan of the increased difficulty.
Not when we're left with such little options to counter-act it rather than "Throw more balls and prey they don't flee".

Like in the games you had HP and status infliction's, which became a game in itself of timing, not going at them too hard etc.
In GO? You got the shrinking circles, pretty easy to get the hang of, and then 'nice throw' ratings. Something that seems to be very luck dependent on how your touchscreen chooses to behave.

So at the current rate, this increased difficulty really serves no purpose other than to be a ball and berry drain. Not that big a deal for city folks with pokestops everywhere, but a much bigger hassle for those of us in Sub Urban areas. And I can only imagine the horror of how bad it is for those in Rural areas.

Yeeeaah I've noticed that the item drain is a bit of an issue. :/ It's why, unless I have plenty of extra balls, I often don't bother catching high CP pidgeys, weedles, etc. I'm only going to use them for evolution fodder, so there's really no reason to pour so many resources into catching the high CP ones. I might as well just wait till I find low CP stuff with nice green rings.

I mean, this is a strategy I pretty much always used when I was low on pokeballs, but I've found myself getting more and more picky about which pidgeys I catch...

 

[Razilin]

POSITIVE EXPERIENCES WITH POKEMON GO!



I was in Las Vegas this weekend.

Tons of Pokestops.

Tons of gyms.

Tons of new 'mons.

I caught many Ekans, a Growlithe, several Geodudes, a Ponyta (which I named after my wife, because she's cute like a Ponyta), a Poliwag, a Krabby, and some other stuff!

And I got, like, a dozen Poke-eggs in a single day from the different Pokestops in the Bellagio hotel.

In Vegas, you literally can't walk in a hotel and not hit about 5 Pokestops within a few feet of you.

 

[Minerva]

And I can only imagine the horror of how bad it is for those in Rural areas.

I don't have to worry about that.

There aren't even any Pokemon to catch here anyway!

 

[Boba Fit]

https://m.facebook.com/PokemonGO/posts/940141879465704

It took awhile, but we finally got something from Niantic.

They took the time to write that....and still told us nothing. We know maybe 2% more than we did... Lololol. It really made me laugh if I'm honest.

 

[Kagayours]

https://m.facebook.com/PokemonGO/posts/940141879465704

It took awhile, but we finally got something from Niantic.

They took the time to write that....and still told us nothing. We know maybe 2% more than we did... Lololol. It really made me laugh if I'm honest.

:/ I'd say they told us quite a bit, at least compared to how much they were talking to us before.

Let's go over this piece-by-piece.

They said that the 3-step display was removed because the original feature was "confusing" and "did not meet [their] underlying product goals". And they said that they will "keep [us] posted as [they] strive to improve this feature". Although this does imply that the original footprints tracking feature is actually gone, at least in the form that we knew it, it does seem like they're planning to include some sort of replacement for the tracking system, and that they're working on said replacement. ...Oorrrr maybe the "confusing" part was referring to the broken version of the radar, and they're just trying to fix the old one. It's a little bit confusing with how they worded it, I admit, but what we do know is that they're currently working on some sort of tracking feature for the game. Woohoo! That's quite an improvement over the patch notes for the last update merely telling us that they "removed the footprints", making us figure out for ourselves whether that would be a temporary thing or if the footprints were really gone for good.

They said that they were shutting down 3rd-party programs -- which we already knew, but it's nice to see an official notice from them about it -- and that the large number of people playing the game has made this an "interesting challenge" for them. Which implies, as many of us suspected, that they're probably overwhelmed by the huge success of the game.

They also said that they've been reading posts and emails about people's complaints about the game and the removal of features that people liked, and that they want people to know that they've been "working crazy hours" to keep the game running and launching it in countries that it hasn't released in yet, and that the reason they haven't been Tweeting much is because they've been so busy working on the game. These are things that I've been assuming was true just by giving them the benefit of the doubt, but it's nice to see an official comment from them, at least! They told us that they're aware that people are upset about things and that they're working really hard to keep the game going. That's good. That's a huge improvement over complete radio silence. Hell, the fact that they even explained why they haven't been sending out any Tweets suggests that they're aware of the criticisms they've been receiving about their poor PR, which is also a good thing.

They also said that they'll "do [their] best going forward to keep [us] posted on what's going on", which again, suggests that they know they've been doing a poor job with communicating to us, but they're working to do better at it.

I realize this comment isn't exactly a massive info dump that answers every tiny question that anyone could possibly have about the game and their plans for it, but, compared to the total silence we've been dealing with lately, this is a huge improvement!! And I really hope they keep this up. They said that they'd try to do a better job about keeping us posted, and I can only hope that they follow up with that. There's no guarantee that they will, but, I for one am hopeful.

In any case, the fact that they're showing some awareness of these issues and are making at least some effort to communicate is at least a step in the right direction, which I think is a really really good thing. o_o

Besides, if they're really super busy working on the game, do you think they have time to give us a super comprehensive run-down of everything they're doing? Not likely... As far as this one post goes, I'm pretty happy with what we got.

Edit: And, yes, I realize that a lot of their wording was really vague and not very straight-forward. I will acknowledge that their communication is still far from great. But, again, I feel like this is a good first step, and I feel like we'll definitely get more info in the future if Niantic follows up with their promise to "keep us posted".

 

[Razilin]

I EVOLVED A FUCKIN' RATICATE.

ITS INCISORS ARE AS LARGE AS MY PENIS.

 

[Sidhe]

https://m.facebook.com/PokemonGO/posts/940141879465704

It took awhile, but we finally got something from Niantic.

They took the time to write that....and still told us nothing. We know maybe 2% more than we did... Lololol. It really made me laugh if I'm honest.

Shit I'm just excited they actually confirmed they're working on a tracking feature.

 

[Kagayours]

So I heard that another possible reason why Niantic is going after 3rd-party tracking sites like Pokevision is because those sites were also putting extra strain on the game's servers. I'm not enough of a tech expert to say for sure that that's how that works, but it would make sense, as I'm not sure where Pokevision could've gotten the data that it had if not from the game's servers, and, whenever the servers were on the fritz, Pokevision would often be unreliable as well.

So, if all of that is true, then Niantic wanting to shut down those kind of sites and programs would be even more understandable. O_O

 

[Razilin]

I just caged a bunch of Rattatas. I'm gonna go evolve a few Raticates soon. Make sons of EXP and level the fuck up.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

I highly doubt pokevision added that much server demand. It'd be minimal compared to what millions of players put onto it.

 

[Kagayours]

I highly doubt pokevision added that much server demand. It'd be minimal compared to what millions of players put onto it.

Eh. Not if a ton of players are using it.

I mean, it probably would've needed to get data from the game's server every time you scan for pokemon, which you could do once every 30 seconds. Lots of people using Pokevision and scanning a bunch of times in order to get a good grasp of what's around them, not to mention the fact that Pokevision itself wasn't the only program out there like this and that there were a bunch of similar programs that also presumably needed to use the game's servers in order to pull up all that pokemon location data, and, well, I feel like all of that could add up.

I'm not saying that Pokevision would be enough to single-handedly fry the servers or anything, but, all things considered, I feel like there's still a sizable amount of strain that it could put on them. And given the fact that Pokemon Go's servers are finnicky enough as it is? I can really sympathize with Niantic about not wanting a bunch of 3rd-party services adding that extra weight...

In any case -- even if sites like Pokevision really didn't add that much server demand, there are still all the other reasons why going after all these services is fairly reasonable -- like how they supposedly violate the game's terms of use, and how using these programs could easily be considered cheating. So I still think Niantic is justified in shutting them down. *shrug*

 

[Kagayours]

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge all the craziest things I've recently overheard non-Pokemon-Go-playing passersby say in places that were filled with Pokemon Go players.

"Everyone's staring down at their phones. It's like the apocalypse."

That one got quite an eye-roll from me, for all sorts of reasons. But then there was...

"First Donald Trump and now Pokemon..." (and then the guy shook his head in a very "what has the world come to?" sort of fashion)

I... I don't even have any words for that second one. XD

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

"First Donald Trump and now Pokemon..." (and then the guy shook his head in a very "what has the world come to?" sort of fashion)

I... I don't even have any words for that second one. XD

I do. :3

 

[Poe Dameron]

So I saw this one at Haneda airport:

And this was right when she arrived for our fireworks/baseball date:

 

[Kagayours]

I have reason to believe that the Abbey Road crossing might be a pokestop.

I sure hope someone catches a Pinsir there.

 

[Boba Fit]

I wish I had more positive things to say, but Alas, Niantic has only given me more negative things to say.

Due to lawsuits, Nianitc is beginning to pull pokestops and gyms from private property. They completely removed all but 1 or 2 from the most popular spot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sent people in an uproar.

Secondly, it turns out that the pidgeys and rats that are really hard to catch, is a bug from their last update. The fact that you don't get xp from nice, great, and excellent throws is also apart of that bug.

Nerdist speaking the brutal truth.

It seems that whenever Niantic releases an update.......they bug something bigger than any of the things they fixed. COMBINED


Edit 1: I didn't even touch on the refresh time. I'm really about to just delete the game. lol

 

[Sidhe]

I can understand Niantic's choice to remove pokestops/gyms completely. It might be frustrating, but it's not Niantic's fault. I frankly won't be surprised if the gym at the hospital I work at gets removed eventually; the management is really upset about it. People take up pick-up/drop-off parking just to battle the gym, and come wandering through the facility to catch Pokemon. Considering we're a hospital, that's just not cool. There's a lot of privacy concerns there.

Yeah it sucks to have really convenient Pokestops and gyms removed, but that's what happens when you have them on private property and hospitals.

 

[Kagayours]

:/ I agree completely with @Opal. This is 100% understandable on Niantic's part. I'm sure any respectable company would've done the same under such circumstances -- hell, a company more competent than Niantic probably would've removed those stops and gyms much quicker than Niantic did. It sucks for the players, sure, but like... when all your game constructs are also real-world landmarks, some sacrifices have to be made when the owners of that land decide they don't want a bunch of Pokemon Go players crawling all over it.

In any case, I personally haven't noticed any stops/gyms that I frequent being removed, and I certainly wouldn't say that I'm ready to "delete the game". I still have a lot of fun with it when I play. I'm surprised your stance on that changed so quickly, @Boba Fit.

Also, I'm actually glad that the suddenly-really-hard-to-catch Pidgeys and Weedles are just a glitch. Like Gwazi said, having a difficulty curve that's completely based on chance feels really... cheap. And, to a player, it's just annoying, chews up all your pokeballs much faster, and lets rare pokemon get away from you. When I was under the assumption that this was an intentional design choice, I found myself growing increasingly irritated by it... in fact, it even seemed like a ploy to squeeze more money out of players, as making pokemon harder to catch would mean that players would run out of pokeballs faster and would be more likely to buy extras.

But!! If it's a glitch? That changes everything. I mean, yeah, sure, it's still annoying, but at least it's not supposed to be that way -- and it implies that Niantic will attempt to fix it at some point. Yes, knowing their track record, it could be quite a while till we see it fixed. But, it still feels a lot better than just thinking that this is part of the game now and that Niantic wants these common pokemon to be so hard to catch. >_>

Also, I would like to once again emphasize that this is a very small company working on a very big game. You want to complain about their bad PR? Fine, that's understandable and I'll totally agree with you on all that. Even with how busy they are, it can't be too hard to just write decent patch notes. BUT, when it comes to actually fixing the game? They are a small team, and I'm sure they're under massive pressure to get these bug fixes out as quickly as they can. All that being said, it's really unsurprising that these rushed bug fixes create more bugs. They only have so many programmers, who can only work so quickly.

The way I see it, you either get rushed updates that break other things, or you get no updates for quite a while, making the player-base continue to rage and think that Niantic's just sitting around twiddling their thumbs and ignoring these bugs -- or just demanding that they work faster. You can't have it both ways, folks.

 

[Kagayours]

And honestly, if players are really upset that certain stops/gyms are gone, they should take it up with the owners of that land who demanded that the stops/gyms be removed. And then hopefully they'll learn that the world is a bit more complex than they at first believed.

Seriously, what did anyone expect Niantic to do under that kind of pressure? Even if they could win lawsuits against these other companies (which is a huge "if", for all sorts of reasons), that would still just make Niantic look like a bully of a company, given the effect that this game has on landowners who have every right to complain. So, really, it's a no-win situation. Removing the stops and gyms was really the best thing that they could do.


I will say that it would be nice for them to start adding stops and gyms in certain locations -- which is what people have been asking for ever since the game's launch, given how barren rural and sometimes suburban areas can be. But, that's a much larger task for them, so I can understand why a small company like Niantic wouldn't be able to get around to it right away, especially given the fact that they currently have much bigger fish to fry.