'Pokémon Go' Updates With Avatar Customization, Removal of Footstep Counter, and More

[NufSaid]

It has gotten much harder to catch Pokemon. I am dropping 200 CP with a great ball...even with a nice throw.

My concern is that they are making it harder to catch things to need more balls to need more real spending.

PS my advice is spend $20 upgrade the bag and get some great eggs. Don't buy Pokeballs but find a hive of Pokestops.

 

[Rafagon]

A little annoyed that they just removed the footsteps instead of fixing them but at least they pushed other fixes instead of waiting for the steps to be fixed.. They can't win really

Yeah, that really sucks, they couldn’t fix a feature so they just trashed it entirely.

Apple’s done that before. They couldn’t guarantee that Secure Empty Trash was actually secure on SSDs, so they took the easy way out and simply got rid of Secure Empty Trash on El Capitan.

I don’t care for this practice. It’s like going to a doctor, saying “Hey, doctor, my arm has been hurting for weeks.” So he simply goes and amputates your arm. The pain is gone, can’t argue with that, but so is your arm.

 

[JohnApples]

Okay, is the nearby list at least in order? Back when the footsteps worked it very reliably was, upper left is the closest, bottom right is the furthest. Or is it meaningless too just like the three footsteps we had before?.

As far as I can tell, the list is not in order. And if it is, it's VERY unreliable. List showed a Drowzee and Pidgey both at the very end of the list, with Eevee, Paras, and Krabby all in the top row. Drowzee and Pidgey appeared next to me. Never saw the 3 in the first row by walking around.

 

[CIA]

Well the CIA will be pleased

Not really.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Did they remove the cancerous IAP model and improve the gameplay elements it affects? Of course not.
Did they remove the invasive stops/gyms? Doubt it.
Would like a good pay-once Pokémon game for iOS.
Will not be fleeced by intentionally crippled mobile games.
#BoycottIAP

Guild of Dungeoneering was nice to see, on the other hand. Make a clever game and charge for it directly.. what a crazy notion.

I'm level 22 and haven't spent a cent. You can *choose* to use IAP but you can enjoy the game fully without it at all.
[doublepost=1470033160][/doublepost]

It has gotten much harder to catch Pokemon. I am dropping 200 CP with a great ball...even with a nice throw.

My concern is that they are making it harder to catch things to need more balls to need more real spending.

PS my advice is spend $20 upgrade the bag and get some great eggs. Don't buy Pokeballs but find a hive of Pokestops.

I think the RNG in the game is just a bit *too* RNG. It wasn't just with this patch, I've seen greens while I've been level 20+ that get out of balls repeatedly and run away and then I've seen oranges that I capture with a single normal pokeball. I've also tossed a razz berry and used an ultra ball and had the mon escape and instantly run. I think they'll probably tighten up the random ranges as they catch their breath and have more time for fine tuning.

 

[joemod]

I think the RNG in the game is just a bit *too* RNG. It wasn't just with this patch, I've seen greens while I've been level 20+ that get out of balls repeatedly and run away and then I've seen oranges that I capture with a single normal pokeball. I've also tossed a razz berry and used an ultra ball and had the mon escape and instantly run. I think they'll probably tighten up the random ranges as they catch their breath and have more time for fine tuning.

What I noticed is that the pokemon hitbox has changed. A throw that would before hit a pokemon now goes either over or under it. Before the patch I had never threw 20+ pokeballs to hit a pokemon - notice not catch, just hit.
Also it seems more sensitive now to the movement of my finger.

 

[vooke]

It has gotten much harder to catch Pokemon. I am dropping 200 CP with a great ball...even with a nice throw.

My concern is that they are making it harder to catch things to need more balls to need more real spending.

PS my advice is spend $20 upgrade the bag and get some great eggs. Don't buy Pokeballs but find a hive of Pokestops.

To this advice I will add; hatch the 2KM eggs first,then the 5KM and finally the 10KM. This increases your space and you can always add more eggs from pokestop.

I've spent nothing and I'm in level 15 in about 20 days in a country () the game is yet to be released

 

[marty1980]

Will someone explain to me why, when looking at a Pokemon (not in pokedex- the other view) why is there a big empty white box under the (assumed) capture date and just above where the "transfer" option used to be (before this update)? The white box is still there after he update and I've been curious whether it shows anything for anybody else. Nobody I know has seen anything in that box.

[doublepost=1470063327][/doublepost]Your backpack can carry 350 items... Yet paying real-world money only adds 50 more. That's F*n ridiculous and a waste of money.

I am simply picky about my Pokestops. I get what I need and dump what I don't. Since I don't battle at gyms often, I can easily rid myself of potions.

 

[CarlJ]

Will someone explain to me why, when looking at a Pokemon (not in pokedex- the other view) why is there a big empty white box under the (assumed) capture date and just above where the "transfer" option used to be (before this update?

The big white box sometimes has a piece of a map, showing the area where the Pokémon was caught (via a large circle in the middle of the box). It was working initially, then went empty white for a while, then came back briefly, and has now gone away again. Presumably it'll eventually come back to stay.

Your backpack can carry 350 items... Yet paying real-world money only adds 50 more. That's F*n ridiculous and a waste of money.

The additional 50 stacks. Thus, if you buy it three times, your capacity will be 500. I felt like throwing Niantic some money anyway (since they've given me so much entertainment with Ingress), and now my bag capacity is considerably higher.

 

[marty1980]

The big white box sometimes has a piece of a map, showing the area where the Pokémon was caught (via a large circle in the middle of the box). It was working initially, then went empty white for a while, then came back briefly, and has now gone away again. Presumably it'll eventually come back to stay.


The additional 50 stacks. Thus, if you buy it three times, your capacity will be 500. I felt like throwing Niantic some money anyway (since they've given me so much entertainment with Ingress), and now my bag capacity is considerably higher.

You paid $6 for 3 minuscule updates to the backpack. Glad that works for you. This is just an extension of my hatred for in-app purchase prices and how developers abuse customers this way. You don't see it that way and find justification in your spending. Good. Don't let my opinion detract from your enjoyment. I just can't justify giving developers this type of money for this type of content.

I expect the game to continue to make it more difficult for people to enjoy without spending real-world money. At that point, I will quit the game which is super sad.

I would rather have paid $10 for Pokemon Go as a full experience, then be constantly begged to make my experience better because the core that is free isn't enough.

I'm fine with what is here now but if I was more interested in battling at the Gym, I'd be upset with the current limits and even more offended at how little that $2.00 increases the backpack. On top of this is that I would have to pay that for every member of my family since we use the game as a bonding exercise.

The future of this game is worrisome because there will be more and more pushes towards in-app purchases and the game will become less enjoyable for me because of it. The limiting backpack is already an annoyance I will only tolerate for so long. Not saying that the app will fail. Just saying I won't want to play anymore if the app follows other, similar free-to-play tropes.

 

[0098386]

You paid $6 for 3 minuscule updates to the backpack. Glad that works for you. This is just an extension of my hatred for in-app purchase prices and how developers abuse customers this way. You don't see it that way and find justification in your spending. Good. Don't let my opinion detract from your enjoyment. I just can't justify giving developers this type of money for this type of content.

I expect the game to continue to make it more difficult for people to enjoy without spending real-world money. At that point, I will quit the game which is super sad.

I would rather have paid $10 for Pokemon Go as a full experience, then be constantly begged to make my experience better because the core that is free isn't enough.

I'm fine with what is here now but if I was more interested in battling at the Gym, I'd be upset with the current limits and even more offended at how little that $2.00 increases the backpack. On top of this is that I would have to pay that for every member of my family since we use the game as a bonding exercise.

The future of this game is worrisome because there will be more and more pushes towards in-app purchases and the game will become less enjoyable for me because of it. The limiting backpack is already an annoyance I will only tolerate for so long. Not saying that the app will fail. Just saying I won't want to play anymore if the app follows other, similar free-to-play tropes.

You sound like an ideal candidate to give the main games a go. You give Nintendo £30 and you get a full game that is playable in single player only, with no location or data necessary. I'm not a huge fan of mobile phone games either, I find a nice mix of Go and main Pokemon games gives me a fix.

 

[Durentis]

I'm level 22 and haven't spent a cent. You can *choose* to use IAP but you can enjoy the game fully without it at all.

Many people are playing Pokemon without paying a cent. It is most definitely not pay-to-win. The PokéStops and Gyms are all Ingress portals, submitted over the years by Ingress players, and removing objectionable ones will take actual review/research by actual humans. You might not have noticed, but Niantic kind of has their hands full right now. They'll get to it as they can. If folks are trespassing or behaving poorly, how about blaming the people who are showing poor judgement rather than the game. Your level of righteous indignation suggests that either you have not really played the game, or you simply are so outraged by the mere thought of IAP that you can't discuss its use rationally.

Those living in urban areas (like me) can, in fact, choose to play for free and do so fairly successfully by leeching off of lures placed by others who pay. But make no mistake.. someone is paying for successful play. Alternatively, you can spend the next 50 years trying to catch them all.

The "full game experience" is intentionally crippled in order to force you to buy consumable shop items. It can still be fun. It's certainly addictive. But as a whole, it's nothing but a cash shop interface released by lazy and greedy game developers that happens to have a Pokémon skin. And if you buy shop items, you are supporting the continued creation of inferior games.

Yes, this game, as all such games using this model are, is pay-to-win. The ability to play for free doesn't rule out pay-to-win. Having access to all features eventually doesn't rule out pay-to-win - time is a significant factor and, in fact, the very factor that makes this model so successful for companies. Any game that takes money for time and/or in-game items is pay-to-win by definition.

I'm well aware of where the stops and gyms come from as well as Niantic's support pages. Not relevant and not excusable. Game developers are responsible for their content.

Blaming people is irrelevant to my dislike of the effects of the IAP model on mobile gaming in general. But you're not wrong that this game has brought stupid criminals out into the open who bear full responsibility for their actions. Holding people accountable for their own actions goes without saying.

I spent the first day playing it to get a feel for the gameplay, both with and without incense, but the shop, given the history of numerous other such games, speaks for itself. I'm not outraged, I'm disappointed in the general direction that mobile gaming has taken. Disappointed in some companies that I thought were ethically above this sort of model for cashing in. You feel that I can't discuss things rationally? heh

I gave thousands of dollars to GGG largely for their ethical mtx model. I will not pay $1 on Pokémon GO or similar games using this cash shop model. Now, Path of Exile isn't the same game as it was when I started but it is still a good game and they have made millions from focusing on good gameplay and engaging directly with the community. People throw money at them with no in-game advantage. See the difference?

I also gave several hundred pounds to a small film company I had previously never heard of in a country I've never visited because they seemed to be driven by passion into doing something awesome. You can continue to support it here, for a short time, if you like.

I also try to support other positive and/or awesome things while avoiding such negative things as driving (gas/pollution) and wasteful products.

The things we spend our money on are supported by us and flourish. Things that aren't supported are starved of money and disappear. If enough people predominantly support good things, the world gets better.

I will not support the creation of inferior games intended to fleece rather than entertain gamers.

What do you support?

You could just get a 3DS, they can play all the main Pokemon games except Gen 2. I personally don't bother much with mobile phone games but I find Pokemon Go loads of fun and a nice distraction from the main games, with it's IAP and all that.

I've considered it. Ultimately I feel like mobile gaming has moved to phones/tablets and buying other devices is like cluttering a kitchen with specific gadgets like a grilled cheese press instead of using general tools like pots, pans, and knives. Perhaps the gadgets do a better job, or a similar job more conveniently, but I don't feel like they add sufficient value to their cost and clutter. I think I'm done with buying specific game systems to play a few specific games.

Nintendo seems to be aware of this shift in thinking or I doubt they'd be exploring iOS/etc currently. I can only hope that their inevitably upcoming mobile games focus more on selling well designed games and not consumable cash shop items.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Those living in urban areas (like me) can, in fact, choose to play for free and do so fairly successfully by leeching off of lures placed by others who pay. But make no mistake.. someone is paying for successful play. Alternatively, you can spend the next 50 years trying to catch them all.

The "full game experience" is intentionally crippled in order to force you to buy consumable shop items. It can still be fun. It's certainly addictive. But as a whole, it's nothing but a cash shop interface released by lazy and greedy game developers that happens to have a Pokémon skin. And if you buy shop items, you are supporting the continued creation of inferior games.
<snip>
I spent the first day playing it to get a feel for the gameplay, both with and without incense, but the shop, given the history of numerous other such games, speaks for itself. I'm not outraged, I'm disappointed in the general direction that mobile gaming has taken. Disappointed in some companies that I thought were ethically above this sort of model for cashing in. You feel that I can't discuss things rationally? heh
<snip>

As I said, level 22 and not a cent paid. Also 84 pokemon discovered. And I'm not spending a great deal of time playing either (I take it with me on evening walks/runs). Sure, some people are paying for items via IAP, fine. My point is that at a relatively high level without huge amounts of invested time (e.g. there aren't counters disallowing you from doing anything for five minutes unless you spend coins and I'm not a kid able to spend an entire summer break playing) I'm proof you can be competitive and have a lot of fun without treating it like a slot machine. I know numerous other players as well also have a lot of fun and not spending anything. Your absolutist position is causing you to miss out on great entertainment. Continue your boycott as long as you like but you're only impacting yourself.

I don't see anything as "crippled" here.

 

[CarlJ]

I would rather have paid $10 for Pokemon Go as a full experience, then be constantly begged to make my experience better because the core that is free isn't enough.

I'm fine with what is here now but if I was more interested in battling at the Gym, I'd be upset with the current limits and even more offended at how little that $2.00 increases the backpack. On top of this is that I would have to pay that for every member of my family since we use the game as a bonding exercise.

I understand the frustration with free-to-play and I won't deal with games that have $-bypassable cooldown timers. But for something like this, I figure that you could blow $20 easy at a movie theater for 2 hours of entertainment, I don't mind throwing a third of that at Pokémon as an entertainment expense.

To be clear, I haven't seen anything in the game even remotely resembling the begging/prompting in other games. Have you?

And if it's a bonding exercise, is $2 (times X people) really that much? Again, how much would it cost to take the family to a movie for two hours or to an amusement park for the day. Perspective. In addition, the bag upgrades are a fixed cost, not a consumable.

I'm a longtime Ingress player, have walked hundreds of miles because of it, and have met some good friends and really cool people through the game, so the game has been of considerable real-world benefit to me. Ingress didn't even have IAP until this past year (it was entirely free - we figured they were collecting map data, turns out it was for PoGo and maybe future games - and the IAP they did finally offer were just above the "different colored hat" level - I happily spent $5 there too, like a lot of other players who wanted to give something back to our new favorite sport). Looking at what they did with Ingress, and their likely now strong desire not to kill the goose that is currently laying golden eggs, I don't expect they're going to turn the screws very hard on PoGo. Will some players spend a bunch? Sure, that happens everywhere. But you can have a lot of fun playing without paying anything.

Of interest, inventory management has always been a big part of Ingress; we don't look at it as a failing, it's just part of the game: do you need those portal keys more than you need all those weapons? How much of each (and everything else)? The inventory cap is 2,000* items, everything goes in one common pool, and hard decisions need to be made. One of the items you can have one or more of is a capsule - basically a bag, just for organizing (items in it still count towards your inventory cap), and you can drop items for others to pick up. It's not uncommon for players to meet up and trade or give away gear (trade because you have a surplus of shields, say, and are low on weapons, or give away to make more room in your inventory or simply help a fellow player out). I've seen players give away capsules of high-level gear to newer players just to welcome them to the game. It's a nice community. No guarantees, but something like this (gear trading as well as critter trading) could come to PoGo in the future.

*: (one of the IAPs they offer for Ingress is "Key lockers", which each can hold 100 portal keys without those keys counting against your inventory, but the key lockers can't be exchanged or dropped, you can't use the keys without cycling them out into your normal inventory, you're not allowed to have more than 5 key lockers, and a set of 5 costs $5 as a one-time purchase - it basically made the hardcore players really happy, but has little effect on gameplay.)

 

[WiseAJ]

You can also get the bag upgrades/etc for free without paying anything if you keep taking over gyms and collect the defender bonus coins. It might take several days depending on how many in your area you are able to hold onto at one time (I can usually only get 2-3 at a time) but its doable.

 

[0098386]

I've considered it. Ultimately I feel like mobile gaming has moved to phones/tablets and buying other devices is like cluttering a kitchen with specific gadgets like a grilled cheese press instead of using general tools like pots, pans, and knives. Perhaps the gadgets do a better job, or a similar job more conveniently, but I don't feel like they add sufficient value to their cost and clutter. I think I'm done with buying specific game systems to play a few specific games.

Nintendo seems to be aware of this shift in thinking or I doubt they'd be exploring iOS/etc currently. I can only hope that their inevitably upcoming mobile games focus more on selling well designed games and not consumable cash shop items.

Ah that's a shame. I don't think Nintendo would do something like take their huge games to iOS, in the history of iOS gaming I've only seen something of equal scale and quality make the leap - Monster Hunter. And that didn't fare too well. Mobile's are just a different beast I guess and I think Pokemon Go is perfect for iOS, just as the main adventures are on their original systems. Of all things Nintendo is great at knowing what games to put where (though it wasn't Nintendo who made Pokemon Go).

I don't see it as adding clutter. I mean, I've got shelves full of books but I don't consider buying a new one adding a new 'gadget', as they are. It's just part of entertainment and I wouldn't want to limit my enjoyment. (But I have both a PS3 and PS4 hooked up to my TV because I find media playback better on a PS3, and games better on PS4!)

 

[Eldiablojoe]

That sounds like the page where Google is asking you "is it okay that we give the game access to these items from your profile?"

At the bottom of that Google page there should be a button labeled something like "Accept" or "Allow". Click on it and you can start playing.

[doublepost=1470101690][/doublepost]

That sounds like the page where Google is asking you "is it okay that we give the game access to these items from your profile?"

At the bottom of that Google page there should be a button labeled something like "Accept" or "Allow". Click on it and you can start
playing.

Nope- no sign of an "Accept," or "Allow" button.

Here's the link it sends me to:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/61416?hl=en

 

[Mercifull]

I've been looking at some screenshots of Pokevision and i can sort of see why Niantic has killed off the API.

This image I just took of Google image search but it's good at explaining my point.

You can see literally hundreds of Pokemon in the area, filter by specific types and go directly to the ones you want. This takes all the fun of exploring out of the equation.

Below, however, is an artists impression of my experience of using Pokevision in my town of around 26,000 residents.

I would often load up the site and scan my area. It would only find half a dozen or so pokemon which were often only Pidgeys, rattatas and weedles. Sometimes the nearest pokemon would be 20 minutes walk away. How do Niantic expect people in rural towns to play this game?! Without Pokevision I am now wandering around aimlessly. I recently went on a 40 minute walk to the park and back form my house and didn't see a single pokemon. There may have been one only a short distance away but I'll never know because the tracking ability in-game doesnt work and there no scanning sites available.

 

[twocents]

That's what the "rustling leaves" are on the game map.

In theory yes, but in playing they are too ambiguous. When I started out I thought you tapped them to reveal the Pokémon then figured out it means one is nearby. It's like playing hot and cold, but instead someone is saying "and"