• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

Pokemon Go Discussion

Team_Lugia

New Member
I can't help but wonder if playing this game in Hawaii is going to be terrible or not due to a lack of Pokestops.

Ideally, you'd want to live in an area that has enough Pokestops in close proximity that you could walk between them and use them in a cycle, as I've heard it takes five minutes before you can reuse one.

It's not too bad in Hawaii actually. Of course it follows the same pattern where Ward or Ala Moana will have more pokestops than out Waimanalo. But I'm catching a good amount in Pearl City. I've already caught enough Magikarp to evolve it into a Gyarados (yay for lots of water nearby).
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
Between nearly halving the capture rates of all Pokemon (Yes, it's seriously that bad according to datamining) and shutting down Pokemon-locating tools while opting to remove the footsteps instead of fixing them, it seems like Niantic is trying to dig the game an early grave.

The former was really unnecessary when considering that there's already a random chance for your Pokeballs to veer off-course that scales based on the Pokemon's CP, and now it's almost impossible to find a Pokemon on the tracker.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
The former was really unnecessary when considering that there's already a random chance for your Pokeballs to veer off-course that scales based on the Pokemon's CP, and now it's almost impossible to find a Pokemon on the tracker.

Seems like the curve balls have calmed down since—or that it was an issue on the player's part in the first place, as opposed to an issue on the game's.

In any case, regarding the tracking issues, I sort of agree that it's a problem that sites such as Pokévision have opted to follow Niantic's wishes (although apparently, Pokéscanner still works), but on the other hand, it's also worthwhile to note that the steps were removed because tracking was already broken. Removing it is simply a means of disabling the whole shebang until they get it fixed. So it actually is coming back; we're just not entirely sure when.

As for why such an integral part of the game had issues on release, there've been rumors going around that the game was actually pushed out earlier than it should have (either to take advantage of the warmer weather for a good chunk of its audience or because people really could not stop whining that there was no news or footage). Take into consideration the fact that it was released a mere six months after the initial announcement, whereas the main games can take up to a year to come out. Also take into consideration that we're looking at a game created and released not by Nintendo or a Nintendo team but instead a company of literally only less than fifty employees. Sure, one could make an argument that the latter is, in fact, a problem, but having played Ingress, I kinda feel that Niantic is capable of putting out a decent game that works—if given enough time to do so.

The point is, though, that it seems like we're expecting Niantic to work exactly like Nintendo or any other gaming company with a high number of players, but they're just kinda ... not. And this is a completely different situation compared to anything else we've seen (well, short of anyone who's played Ingress for a long while, anyway). So sure, there's definitely a possibility that the game will be run into the ground pretty quickly from here on out. There's definitely a possibility that they're going to make a lot more mistakes. But there's also the possibility that, in light of what they're doing with how much time we're giving them for a company of their size, that it actually is going to get better but that we just have to be patient and not assume that everything Niantic is doing is going to suck or is designed to kill the game.

Idk, guys. I'm not saying that you're wrong for taking a pessimistic approach. I know that saying "maybe we should be patient and wait" is an optimistic approach, so it's not necessarily going to get better either. I'm just saying that it's really hard to say whether or not this game is going to jump off the metaphorical cliff and become literally unplayable. Like, some things, such as most of the server issues, have actually gotten better, whereas other things, yes, have gotten worse. So, yep, it's pretty much anyone's guess at this point, and those are my two cents on the matter.
 
Last edited:

Enkidu

Member
With the tracker now removed, it seems that the most reliable and consistent way to catch Pokemon is by camping the Pokestops with lures. I have already seen people at the Marketplace (4 stops) sitting on their camping chairs and drinking beer while playing pokemon go (or should it be now called pokemon sit?). According to Niantic, the tracker portion of the game "did not meet their underlying product goals" (whatever that means), so they removed it. That makes me think: what are their goals, wasn't the idea to make people stand and go (hence the name) search for pokemon? Call me naive, but I really really hope this is not about the money.

They removed the part of the game I enjoyed the most, which makes me sad and frustrated. I understand that for many, the game is still good. My friends still enjoy it. But for me, I think I will quit for now. I might return if the feature comes back. I still want this game to be the game Nintendo and Niantic promised.
 

Lexya428

Pokèmon Master
A couple of things. While out today, I did not receive any Nice, Good, nor Excellents. Which is odd because I usually hit at least one of them. Second, Rattata rates have gone up in my area. I hatched a Pinsir. I watched someone take over tree gyms from downtown. They were driving, obviously. When you stand in the middle of town you can see all three gyms. I'm pretty sure they yelled at me out their window. Why? People are annoying like that around here.

Also, 99% of people around here use their real name or their username connected with one of their social media accounts as the their GO name.
 
Last edited:

GreenApple

Cherish the Day
With the tracker now removed, it seems that the most reliable and consistent way to catch Pokemon is by camping the Pokestops with lures. I have already seen people at the Marketplace (4 stops) sitting on their camping chairs and drinking beer while playing pokemon go (or should it be now called pokemon sit?). According to Niantic, the tracker portion of the game "did not meet their underlying product goals" (whatever that means), so they removed it. That makes me think: what are their goals, wasn't the idea to make people stand and go (hence the name) search for pokemon? Call me naive, but I really really hope this is not about the money.

They removed the part of the game I enjoyed the most, which makes me sad and frustrated. I understand that for many, the game is still good. My friends still enjoy it. But for me, I think I will quit for now. I might return if the feature comes back. I still want this game to be the game Nintendo and Niantic promised.

Another thing you could try is the incense. Heard it works really well when running. If I ever get the time, I'll give it a chance and see what happens.
Otherwise I agree and hope that Niantic comes back with a better system that will not only return this core aspect of the game, but make it easier to understand and use. I'm really glad that they finally reached out to the community.

I still enjoy the game on a casual level. Eggs is a good way to go, too. That's pretty much how I've been progressing.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
With the tracker now removed, it seems that the most reliable and consistent way to catch Pokemon is by camping the Pokestops with lures. I have already seen people at the Marketplace (4 stops) sitting on their camping chairs and drinking beer while playing pokemon go (or should it be now called pokemon sit?). According to Niantic, the tracker portion of the game "did not meet their underlying product goals" (whatever that means), so they removed it. That makes me think: what are their goals, wasn't the idea to make people stand and go (hence the name) search for pokemon? Call me naive, but I really really hope this is not about the money.

They removed the part of the game I enjoyed the most, which makes me sad and frustrated. I understand that for many, the game is still good. My friends still enjoy it. But for me, I think I will quit for now. I might return if the feature comes back. I still want this game to be the game Nintendo and Niantic promised.

Er, they removed the tracker because it was literally broken. It's in the process of being fixed. That's literally what a tech company means when they say "this didn't meet our goals," and in any case, there was clear evidence that it wasn't working, thanks to the three-step glitch. Supposedly, as noted in earlier posts and threads, it wasn't super-accurate before the three-step glitch, either. Point is, there's no conspiracy here, yo.

(Just sayin' because, well, see the post above yours.)

Actually, yes, let's make this official. Can you folks please stop discussing the missing tracker as if it's definitely not coming back? This is misinformation, and we really don't need that right now. Not to be bitey about it, but really.
 
Last edited:

Mileron

Active Member
According to Niantic, the tracker portion of the game "did not meet their underlying product goals" (whatever that means), so they removed it. That makes me think: what are their goals, wasn't the idea to make people stand and go (hence the name) search for pokemon? Call me naive, but I really really hope this is not about the money.
It probably is. They didn't get as many people buying incense and lures as they'd hoped, and instead people are spamming Pokestops.

I'd be half surprised if they doubled Pokestop cooldown to 10 minutes.

Then there'd be even more yelling.

Another thing you could try is the incense. Heard it works really well when running.
I think someone on Reddit calculated that you need to be running 7.5 mph in order for the incense to benefit you more than sitting still with it.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
It probably is. They didn't get as many people buying incense and lures as they'd hoped, and instead people are spamming Pokestops.

I'd be half surprised if they doubled Pokestop cooldown to 10 minutes.

Then there'd be even more yelling.

Good to see people are reading my posts.

Again, for the third time, no one said the tracking is gone for good. They had, however, said it was broken (by acknowledging the three-step glitch) and that its performance is not meeting expectations because of that (as mentioned earlier). It is not a cash grab, and there is no conspiracy. Please stop encouraging that rumor.

To clarify, yes, you are indeed allowed to express negative opinions of the game or Niantic, but to avoid inducing panic or disrupting the community of the forum, please make sure you're not accidentally perpetuating misinformation. (I'd say the same about positive speculation, but it seems rarer to base speculation on positive news when it comes to the game. Nonetheless, to avoid sounding like a hypocrite, I'll just leave my own opinion up to, "We don't know for certain that they've taken tracking out for good," if that makes sense.)
 
Last edited:

Enkidu

Member
Sorry, I was not trying to be salty. And yes you are right, the feature will come back, probably in some other form tho. Niantic will eventually fix the game, they have to, the entire world is watching them now. However, we don't know when and the uncertainty, for some of us more impatient people, is devastating :p

And btw, and not to start a fire here, I do not consider the three-step glitch a glitch, but Niantic's early attempt to remove the distance calculation. The last update just made it obvious. So yes, maybe the tracker was not accurate, but it was not broken (apart from overloading the servers that is). I am not saying with this that there is a conspiracy of any sort and I understand why they did it. But you cannot expect that people won't start speculating and developing theories if Niantic does not communicate with us. Thankfully they are learning and have started to do so. It was unfortunately just too little, too late. The conspiracy theories were already out there :)

And now for the constructive part... I thought maybe, if they really want it to be more like the original games, they should fully embrace the tall-grass concept. As in the original games, the number of species that spawn in each patch would be limited, so that you at least know what to expect, which is good if you are hunting for a specific pokemon to complete the dex. The patches of grass could be made to match only public areas where it is safe to walk, and could even change to adjust to opening/closing times when it applies. That way you can limit the places where people will wander searching for pokemon. This would be more work, but portals in ingress were also built by the community, so it is not too farfetched.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
No worries at the first part. It's just that with the lack of communication, no one really knows what's going on anywhere, so it's definitely important to be extra careful about what's said and where our discussions go, as the last thing we want is for people to take rumors—negative or positive—as fact (especially given the fact that the way the game works is still not well-understood by the general population outside of maybe Reddit).

As for whether or not the three-step glitch is a glitch, on a technical level, it looks like you're right about that. Like, it's not technically a problem with the game (or they're not describing it as such—I mean, yes, this happened, but perhaps that's not entirely a good indicator of what they consider it to be), but it's still something they're fixing, seems like. Which is just something I'm saying to get the full newsy info out to people. Yep, Niantic took it down because it was confusing to users, so yep, I stand corrected about the brokenness. (For the record, though, if it helps further speculation, whenever Niantic is talking about the goals and philosophies of the product/game/GO/however they refer to it, they're usually talking about the whole bit about getting people to go out and explore the world. This is also kinda something you see in the SDCC clip linked just a bit ago.) So! Here's hoping that part of the discussion's less confusing to everyone other than the two of us. XD

That having been said! 8D When it comes to people thinking there might be a conspiracy, it's very true that people will say things and believe things and speculate regardless, usually based on info they receive and misinterpret (because there are a lot of people who are totes salty and will say anything to get people to not download the game/form their own opinions about it—which ngl is why I'm always on-edge when I see it happen here, although I pretty much let the salt go for the most part), on this forum at the very least, I'm trying to encourage freedom of speech with an asterisk. You're pretty much allowed to say whatever you want (so long as it's respectful towards other members of course), but if it sounds like it'll get people confused about what's actually going on, I'm definitely going to step in and try to kinda push the discussion away from the subject, just because you're absolutely right in saying Niantic's kinda weirdly dark in comparison with Nintendo (which in turn means we get less information about what's going on than we usually do with Pokémon news and releases). So the less rumors, the less confusion and the easier it is to cut through to and discuss the facts, in other words.

In short, I guess you could say I'm afraid folks will walk away from this thread taking something off Serebii as being gospel, so to speak, when we could very well be incredibly wrong. While, yeah, you get speculation all the time in the upcoming games forums (lmao, Sun & Moon), here, it's a little more dangerous because it is really, really difficult to get a good grasp on what's news and what isn't, and like you said, the conspiracy theories are out there ... in abundance, no less. D:

Sooooo ... yep. Tl;dr, I don't really mind if folks want to speculate in either a positive or negative light, but definitely, definitely back your stuff up (preferably with links) whenever you can. That way, folks can also update themselves and ensure they're on top of what's legit and what's not.

(Lmao, this sounds really lady doth protest too much-ish, but idk, here's hoping you all get what I mean. XD)

And now for the constructive part... I thought maybe, if they really want it to be more like the original games, they should fully embrace the tall-grass concept. As in the original games, the number of species that spawn in each patch would be limited, so that you at least know what to expect, which is good if you are hunting for a specific pokemon to complete the dex. The patches of grass could be made to match only public areas where it is safe to walk, and could even change to adjust to opening/closing times when it applies. That way you can limit the places where people will wander searching for pokemon. This would be more work, but portals in ingress were also built by the community, so it is not too farfetched.

That's an interesting idea, to be honest, especially in light of the evolution system. I mean, you usually have to catch Pokémon in bulk (and I'm not talking about just Magikarp here), and a lot of Pokémon are difficult for some folks to find. It'd definitely be handy to have them show up with some regularity in very specific spots. Like, I know there are nests, but according to the Googles, these might actually have the tendency to change. And even then, they might not actually be reliable sources of Pokémon either way in that going to them and running around will not guarantee that you end up with the Pokémon you set out to find.

Which is why I'm a little salty that I have not yet caught a Dratini, despite apparently living next to a Dratini nest up until the update.

In short, yes please.
 

Rakurai

Well-Known Member
I was living next to a Dratini nest, too, so having the update remove it makes me feel a bit sour.
 

yumenokage

faerie dragon ghost
sooo... I haven't actually seen anyone post a link to what Niantic actually said, so I'll do that now.
https://www.facebook.com/PokemonGO/?fref=nf
(Sorry, their facebook page is the only place I could find the whole thing. It's the top post right now, though, so it shouldn't be hard to find.)

From what they said about the three-step thing, it sounds like they are most likely planning on re-implementing some form of tracking, although if it will look anything like the current version is up in the air. To me, the little they said seems to indicate that they either plan on making it more accurate, or easier to use in some other way (or maybe just better explaining how to use it).

in other news, I'm still unable to log in since the update... I was planning on getting a new phone anyways, but it's still annoying. But on the bright side, maybe tracking will be back by the time I get my new phone, if a new update doesn't fix whatever issue is going on in the meantime.
 

porygonfan

Well-Known Member
I encountered a Pidgeot, Butterfree, and Squirtle today! I only caught squirtle, even with great balls and berries the other two ran away.
 

Sid87

I love shiny pokemon
Game is getting to be borderline unplayable with how difficult catches are now combined with how, by my experience, 20-25% of encounters just flee after one or two failed catches.

It's gotten to the point where unless something is a sure-fire catch (and even double-digit CP Weedles are taking 5 or 6 balls to get now, so virtually nothing is) or is something I really need, it's not worth even attempting to catch. I encountered a 300 power Nidoran last night and lost 10 PokeBalls and 2 Great Balls on it before I just said "screw it" and ran away from it.

When you combine that with the absurd amount of XP you need to go from level to level after LV20 and the pittance of Stardust and XP you get no matter what the CP of what you catch... this game is becoming less fun and more tedious.
 
Last edited:

GreenApple

Cherish the Day
I play the game casually, as I come and go about my day. Running errands. The catch rate glitch is a pain. I'm saving my Pokeballs for the Pokemon that I actually need. And focus the rest of my energy on hatching eggs. You get a greater return of candies and Stardust that way.
 

SBaby

Dungeon Master
Game is getting to be borderline unplayable with how difficult catches are now combined with how, by my experience, 20-25% of encounters just flee after one or two failed catches.

It's gotten to the point where unless something is a sure-fire catch (and even double-digit CP Weedles are taking 5 or 6 balls to get now, so virtually nothing is) or is something I really need, it's not worth even attempting to catch. I encountered a 300 power Nidoran last night and lost 10 PokeBalls and 2 Great Balls on it before I just said "screw it" and ran away from it.

When you combine that with the absurd amount of XP you need to go from level to level after LV20 and the pittance of Stardust and XP you get no matter what the CP of what you catch... this game is becoming less fun and more tedious.

All I can say is welcome to the world of online games. Most games where you play alongside other players in an online setting are more/less going to do this.


On another note, something that should surprise nobody:

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...gamers-seeking-to-enter-private-property.html

I'm pretty sure anyone that's played Pokémon Go knew this was coming sooner or later.
 
Last edited:

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
On another note, something that should surprise nobody:

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...gamers-seeking-to-enter-private-property.html

I'm pretty sure anyone that's played Pokémon Go knew this was coming sooner or later.

Lmao, yeah, I kinda saw this coming for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, while Niantic's issued plenty o' warning about not trespassing or committing illegal acts for the sake of the game, there are still plenty o' people on the players' list that just don't get it. Or they do get that what they're doing is inappropriate or wrong, but they're using GO as a convenient excuse. Either or.

And then second, of course, people will sue over anything. I mean, there are definitely ways to prevent people from trespassing. Putting up a sign, for one. Investing in security, for another. Contacting Niantic to have the stop removed from your property using the easily accessible support form, for a third. But it's really a lot easier for some folks to just go right for the court case because why not?

In truth, what's frustrating about all of this is that, well, the locations of stops and gyms are kinda Niantic's fault but not really. I know this is probably common knowledge by now, but a lot of the data for stops and gyms was imported from Ingress, which ran on a user-submission system. Someone not associated with Niantic actually submitted that portal to be used in the game, and that got passed on through to GO. This was hilariously a common practice in Ingress, where you'd create portals in your own home or on your own property so you wouldn't have to leave to play, and it's backfired in ways that whoever did it probably didn't even realize could happen. (Ingress is only a few years old, so if the property owner's been there for a while, then it's very likely they or someone in their house created a couch portal.)

Could Niantic have gone through each portal to verify whether or not it was a private residence/appropriate place? Probably not because, well, tiny company vs. literally billions of portals. There's no way any fifty-person team could tackle that kind of beast. Could Niantic have just launched the game with no stops and gyms and required people to add their own? Possibly, but that's how Ingress got started, and they were quickly so overwhelmed with portal submissions for a much smaller game that Niantic had to shut that down. Could they have just added stops and gyms at key tourist locations? Maybe, but then people in rural areas would've gotten more screwed than they already are. Point is, the way Niantic imported stops and gyms was actually the best way they possibly could have done it, but the problem is that the original portal submission system that generated the points that the stops and gyms are based on was so open and abusable that, well, it got abused into the ground. So you have tons of stops and gyms that aren't appropriate in the mix, and Niantic pretty much had no choice but to let them through. So where Niantic's blame really lies is in the fact that their original portal submission system was far too open, but given the nature of AR, even that's kinda arguable. (No one knows points of interest better than local players. It's just that some people are intensely bad apples.)

That having been said, it's kinda sad yet understandable that Niantic's under fire over this because, well, people on both sides are kinda stupid, ngl. You can tell people to "obey human world rules" and "do not trespass" and "do not abuse the portal submission system" all you want, but people can really be hilariously awful. I'm kinda of the opinion that this isn't really Niantic's fault or the fault of the game's nature as an AR. I mean, AR has so much potential to do some really cool things (like so), and Niantic's wonderfully passionate about that mission of uniting gaming with the real world. It's just that humans can get up to some serious shenanigans sometimes for no other reason than because we're kinda talented like that. XD

This isn't, of course, to say that all players are terrible people. The majority of GO players are actually rather reasonable human beings. It's just that there's always going to be that tiny, really silly minority, imo.

Aaaaand that's my ramble of the day.
 

Lexya428

Pokèmon Master
You know what, I'm going to sue the next person to knock on my door. Seriously people.
All I have to say to that man is he is going about it all wrong. Sure people shouldn't be trespassing and should be using the common sense, which isn't actually common. However, people need to also understand that they can't just go to court with every problem that arises. If he truly had a problem, he should have gotten into contact with Niantic and spoke to them directly or if his home was a Stop or Gym, then asked for it to be removed. On the other hand, Niantic needs to also focus on the people and what they want. They should also work on communicating to the public.
 

Class Zero

We have arrived.
Welp, I for one am glad that they're being proactive and fixing the tracker.
And honestly, if the tracker sites were disrupting the service in any way, by data mining Pokemon locations, or breaking the game's Terms of Use then I'm glad they were shut down also.

While their communication definitely needs work, as their current lack of communication leads to conspiracy theories like the ones posted by some here, their rapid response to the server issues and how they're not afraid to completely pull a feature to get it working ASAP are both encouraging signs.

People are taking this game way too seriously, it's a free app and as such you're not entitled to anything.. if the tracker doesn't work then wait for it to be fixed, they don't owe you a thing.

So yeah... I'm still having a great time, casually using the app when walking from place to place and catching any Pokemon I may encounter along the way.
 
Top