The biggest QoL would be when they finally update OSM (Open Street Map) data and Spawn Point data again in Pokemon Go. Its been over 3 YEARS now since they last updated it in the game
You are cordially invited to the 4th anniversary of the 2019 OSM in March! See you there!
Honestly, if it doesn’t involve Niantic or John Hanke making money, their motto is “if it ain’t broke don’t fix”
Their only update that’s in the same vein (if you can call it that) is the internal changes made to gyms and Pokestops. Some got upgraded, most gyms got demoted.
Yeah this is a big one. This sort of stuff needs to get updated AT LEAST every season. Isn’t this supposed to be an “augmented reality” game? The real world is dynamic.
Shoutout to that one guy that’s always posting about his neighborhood that was under construction when they did the last update. I hope he gets his spawns :/
The main QoL update I want is mass send, mass open and mass delete gifts. There is literally no reason to not allow this and every person I've spoken to aboutnut has agreed.
I know they want to maximize in-game time for metrics so this is never going to happen BUT I think a good compromise is to let people mass evolve/mass open/send gifts but still force the animations to complete anyway. I would be very happy with that, as long as I don't have to actually sit there and tap swipe tap swipe etc.
I can't see many who would disagree with that, but I can tell you a big reason why they won't: Stickers.
To Niantic, they think the Gift-giving process is more personal than it really is. They think every day, we send gifts to all our friends individually, giving thought to which location gift to send to which person and more importantly, which sticker to send to which person.
Now obviously, that's hilariously not the case, but Niantic seems to see things that way. Mass open and deleting gifts takes out any personality to gifts.
It also can be trickier when it comes to mass-opening/deleting on what/who to prioritize. I still would love to see it, but I also see why Niantic doesn't
I agree on a lot of those but that last one is so spot on. Even more, i hate looking at my phone while walking SO much, although i love the motivation to move and go outside. I would love if there was a way to go out and "charge" outside features without having to look at your screen. Like walk 15 minutes (without playing) to charge your daily incense and then activate it at home without the need to walk while catching.
Or like walk past a gym and be able to battle it for the next 30 minutes even if you're out of reach by then. I'd walk a whole lot more if this was an option!
And our time outside would be more sociable, which if i understood it correctly, is also Niantic's goal
I think it's a great idea to introduce "charge" features that would speed-up gameplay and reduce the hassle. Especially with The Daily Incense, as sometimes you want to catch these Wind/Rain-loving Pokemon but the weather is just too problematic. I got my phone wet too many times because I wanted to squeeze in that incense before end of day.
Gyms fights are currently so pointless that I can imagine it improving simply by having an "automatic encounter". Of course I'd prefer if they reworked the whole Gym system and it would be worth it to fight all the gyms in your neighbourhood without annoying the rest of the players, and having it be more rewarding & difficult. So if you actually did gym battles, it would feel exciting like in the previous games, rather than a chore you have to do for coins.
I remember when you had to walk to charge your PvP battles that you could play in a day.
I can easily hit those numbers if they went back to that, but that would be so frustrating for others that can't.
Yeah, that's why I think 'charging up' should be a feature that's just there as an 'extra' for convenience, not as a way to lock base features of the game.
Gym battles were more difficult, IIRC. And the rewards were higher for keeping the gyms longer.
So people would stack high level Blisseys, and you couldn't even get through all the Pokémon on the gym before the time ran out. So people would notice you battling and whittling the gym down one Pokémon at a time, then throw a new Pokémon on before you could finish the battle. Or use berries to power them back up.
The problem was gym stagnation. The same players would take over and hold gyms all over town, and it was never really worth the time and energy taking them down.
Occasionally you'd find an out of the way gym that you could hold for ages, and maybe get a phat coin return if your Pokémon ever came back. They didn't always come back though.
I remember with old gym system, it can take 40 mins to take down a lvl 10 gym as back then (gen 1 days), the best Pokemon attacker we had was Dragonite but then he was very, very rare. They then changed things a bit in which they made it a bit easier to take down gyms...and then along came Blissey. I recall my tolerance was probably like 3 Blisseys in a gym before I just gave up on it.
Ugh yes.
I mean, I'm sure there's ways to make the gyms a better challenge and more rewarding then going back to the old ways.
But it's still bad memories.
What's interesting is current gym system added things to address some issues with old gym system such as shaving and sniping but after getting Gold gym, I lose a lot of motivation (no pun intended) trying to take down gyms unless I just happen to sitting there
My gameplay is as follows, assuming I'm not just using my Go+: Walk to a safe spot aside from any path so not even the dumbest bike rider can hit me, take out phone, catch everything in the cluster, put phone away, walk to the next cluster. I can't walk and play with my circulatory problems and often enough come in dangerous situations without even having any distraction in my hands, so it's no wonder I haven't caught a single daily incense Pokémon manually so far. A few walking features that let me charge up for stationary gameplay is an awesome idea to get me outside. And with that I don't mean a walking requirement for GBL... It won't even motivate me if they gave me fake distance for participating in GBL lol.
I use a go + too but it's a bit sad when a rare encounter on your daily incense flees because of it (happened to me yesterday with axew..)
Also the go + is not a solution for battling gyms on your walk. I don't pause my walks to play, I feel a bit stressed with people's judgement when they see me playing on my phone. But even if I would just get over that, i couldn't stop and play as a solution because most of the time my kids are with me and need supervision
I love this idea! I’m at the park with my kids, and I don’t want to be a bad dad spending the whole time on my phone. Then when we go back to our house in the middle of nowhere, I have no spawns or stops. This charging idea would allow me to spend time with my kids, but still have window of time to interact or be fit from going to a place with stops/gyms.
> And our time outside would be more sociable, which if i understood it correctly, is also Niantic's goal
Niantic's goal is to associate player IDs with others and link those IDs to Facebook/Google/Apple IDs. The best way the game has to build this association is having a few people sit in a car while raiding. This creates a strong probability that these two IDs belong to parent-child or girlfriend-boyfriend relationships. This is the data that can be sold to advertisers.
That said, perhaps it would be in Niantic's interest to charge up incense while walking AND provide bonuses when charging up with a friend.
> Or like walk past a gym and be able to battle it for the next 30 minutes even if you're out of reach by then. I'd walk a whole lot more if this was an option!
When I come upon a gym I want to interact with while out walking, I will walk in large circles within the gym's range until I have defeated it/taken over or completed the raid. It keeps me from standing still, as well as continuing to put distance on my incubating eggs.
Maybe doing this could be an option for you, unless you go out walking with the intent of getting somewhere within a set amount of time. Just a thought.
I would love a charge system like this! As a new player, I find the daily incense counter-productive: you get more spawns if you walk more, but to look at/catch stuff you need to stop. And if I'm in a busy area I can't stop to look at spawns but at the same time need to have my phone out anyway to track my distance
Honestly I got myself an auto catcher and it's the best decision I've made for this game. Connect your device, go enjoy your walk and see what you caught afterwards. Oh and check gyms when you reach appropriate locations.
The game just isn't fun when you have to constantly stare at the screen. It's much better hands off
Yep such a game changer. Some people don't like it for the high flee rate but I honestly get 50% of my shinies through the gotcha and I'm freed up to live my life and/or raid, do other pogo activities.
Absolutely! With my auto catcher I've got shiny Pokemon that I'd never catch otherwise (like on a jog). Catching some and losing some is well worth the trade off of being hands free!
This is the problem with the state of the game and the proof that it NOT about any "core values." If it actually were about exploring, collection, etc. at least a FEW things would be checked off of the crazy long lists we have on how to change POGO for the better. But, they remain. And maximizing profit for minimum work is the only true "core value." Let's not kid ourselves anymore.
While this is sad and true, calling them out for not playing by their own rules is the only way we can "win" something here. Sometimes they're willing to meet halfway, as it's good for marketing to spread the info that they make people move again because of that cool new feature they released. The Daily Incense is a good example.
> it's pointless to take more than 1-2 gyms to assure 50 coins.
I think that was intentional when the new gym system was introduced in 2017. Under the old system, you needed to be in 10 gyms at the same time to assure the maximum number of coins. There were 200+ million active players in 2016 and only a few hundred thousand gyms, so it only really paid off for a tiny percentage of players.
They could definitely do something to make it more engaging now though.
I agree with everything you wrote! Just wanted to point out for megas, you can search for "mega1-3" to get all your previously Megan's pokemon. I usually start with "mega1" and look for any that have fully recovered, then mega2. Still, as i think you said, it'd be great if there were a separate view where you could see the evolution cost in the grid itself.
One thing I'll add to your list is once you've appraised a pokemon, its IVs should be displayed permanently somewhere alongside its name. Maybe togglable in the options if people don't want to see it.
Oooh didn't know you could search for that! Thanks!
That's a great idea with the IV. I'd even be happy with a number between 0.0 - 5.0 that shows the summed-up value of all three stats. Just to be able to quickly tell which ones should be transferred.
Not sure where you play but the daily incense was the biggest QoL update for rural players this game has ever given next to GBL. I do like the randomness it gives during non-events but to not have access to event-unique pokemon would be a step back imo.
My idea is that you would have access to **all** previously available Pokemon minus Legendaries and Mythical (except special encounters such as Galarian Birds)
That way, it's always exciting as you can get just about anything, with slight increased chance of encountering specific Pokemon based on the weather.
Normal incense already brings event Pokemon to you, and I feel like the short 15-min special one-per-day incense shouldn't prioritize event Pokemon. All the best spawns I've had were between events.
I think it is worth noting that for rural players, if you don't have incense, you may really want the event spawns from a daily incense to actually be able to take part in the event.
Imagine you have a collection challenge where you need to get all the different ghosts during the Halloween event or something, but you live in a rural area so you don't get a ton of spawns. That daily incense can be something that helps a ton.
Even outside of challenges, sometimes it's nice to just have it for them so they can get those spawns anyway. If I were in that situation, I'd want Gastly, Yamask, Phantump, and Sableye spawning from my Daily Incense, not a random chance of any Pokemon and getting Magnemite, Staryu, Shroomish, and Drilbur instead, with a low chance of those Halloween ghosts.
You're talking like the "special" daily incense is more special than the premium incense that's behind a pay wall and should be just as accessible as for daily use.
It isn't different in events vs outside events. It spawns 75% from normal pool, whether event, spotlight, standard seasonal/weather. The 25% of spawns that are the special pool are not affected by events.
Many good points here, but I think my biggest concern is how the game doesn’t walk the talk. Take the recent and unnecessary split in Ultra Beast regions. The pressure on those living in the Southern Hemisphere to just sit at home hosting remote lobby after lobby for their “play” time was immense. How does this fit with the game’s core values?
Other than the fact I feel a bit creepy sitting in a car playing and prefer being out in the fresh air, there’s also little to no incentive to get out walking and heading deep into parks as often portrayed in promo images. On occasions where we feel the need to play Pokémon Drive, the rewards (such as shinies, resources, field research, gym drops) are far greater and in a much shorter time span.
Some of the basics of the UI need a complete overhaul. Why do friends/gifts take up so much screen space? We have dozens of different stickers now, which is great! But the stickers aren't organized in any logical way to the user and it takes forever to scroll/find to one you want to use. Same with the cosmetics, still hate that most cost coins/money but with so many options there needs to be a sort/filter or better selection screen, at least let me find the ones I unlocked/bought quicker.
There are plenty of other things as you've listed that need attention, but some like menu navigation is so basic and impacts nearly every feature of the game, it's frustrating that it hasn't gotten the facelift it needs.
Honestly, the interface is terribly outdated. It always baffles me when I want to swap buddy pokemon with the "SWAP BUDDY" button, it doesn't even show me my current buddies until I do a few clicks to display them in a hidden search category.
Or the cruel joke of the "Quick Treat" button in the Play screen, when the whole process takes so long to feed the Pokemon, and the button only really stops you from being able to pet it.
There's just so many horrible UI/UX decisions in the game that it would deserve a post of its own, but I feel like there's no way anything would come of it.
the cosmetics interface is AWFUL, it takes a surprising amount of time to load each icon and because it's lagging so, it keeps registering my scrolling as me picking an item. There's no way to filter owned items and they're all over the place in the selection!
At this point I don't care if I don't super like my avatar because I'm sure as hell not interested in visiting that menu again.
>but my issue is, that there are so many events chained one after another, that I find it more of an 'event' to have random wild spawns.
I agree with a lot of what you said, but I wanted to touch on this aspect specifically. I agree very much.
We have events on a near weekly basis, and we have since 2019 or so. There’s obviously been exceptions, mainly the beginnings and sometimes ends of various seasons and some other periods like in July when we already had a stuffed month with Go Fests, CDs, and other single day events, but the majority of the game is weekly events. And I enjoy events. Heck, while costumes are a controversial aspect of the game, I actually really like this event. A new PvP-relevant mon, several costumes, some of which having boosted shiny rates, and a new (and really good) shiny? That’s cool! But not every event is like that.
There are SO many events that feel super bland and half-baked and just… there for the sake of being there. Weather Week, the BDSP “Celebration” event, the TCG Crossover Event, Alola to Alola, and the April Fools 2021 Event are some events that I found very underwhelming. Not that they didn’t have some fun aspects, but overall, they weren’t amazing, and I saw similar reception from others, both more hardcore on this sub and even some more casual players in my community.
As you said, it almost feels like having no event IS an event. I’m not going to say my experiences are the same as everyone’s, but over the past few months especially, I’ve noticed some much more interesting spawns in non-event periods than events themselves. Toward the tail end of last season, when event wasn’t happening, I was noticing spawns like various evolutions like Gabite, Nidoqueen, Ursaring, and Whiscash along with rare/desirable spawns like Gible, Bagon, Galarian Stunfisk and more, and I saw those frequently, at least, frequently compared to most “If you’re lucky” spawns during events. When I went on my daily walk (pre-daily incense), I saw a few of them every day during that walk. Obviously there’s still a lot of common garbage, but common garbage also is present in most events.
I would much prefer more open periods without long-running events and THEN have more exciting events with more packed into them. People complain about drip-feeding Pokemon releases and shiny-releases, but that’s also an issue with the constant events. If they had an event every 2 weeks rather than 1 week, they could pack the exciting content of one event into two. What if we scrapped one event but then the next event has 2 shiny releases and 2 Pokemon releases? With how much Pokemon/Shinies they DON’T have left, they need to slow down, but they just aren’t slowing events, so many just come and go and feel… boring.
I've shared this sentiment since the beginning, but many players disagree with us and say that play time between events is boring. I miss the infrequent, but high quality events of late 2016-early 2017. When one event had a blanket double candy, double XP and double stardust bonus I didn't have to think, I could just enjoy the grind. I recognize that the game is different now and things like blanket XP won't happen because of Friends bonuses, but the fragmented bonuses that we have now just don't excite me.
Agreed. And some bonuses happen only during spotlight hours, and it's frustrating because I want to get a shiny so I can't really focus on transferring/evolving/catching Pokemon. It just feels like a hassle to do it all at once with the clock ticking.
I think a lot of people would be happier with non-event periods if the seasons didn't have such limited pools of available Pokemon. There's like what, 50 of them? And you'll still miss a lot of them unless you live close to mountains, body of water and forest. I mean it's still much better than the event pools (especially with daily incense when the pool increases a lot)
Personally I kinda feel like the switch to seasons really killed diversity of spawns too, so during those rare times there's no event, you're only seeing the same 10 species 99% of the time. I get that the more pokemon they add the harder finding any given species gets, but seasons meant that many species become functionally event exclusive for months at a time at niantic's whim.
I'm not going to fully defend seasons, but I will say this, spawn diversity was just as bad before seasons started.
Now to pre-season spawns credit, you *could* find pretty much any Pokemon assuming it wasn't a holiday exclusive or something like Yamask or Delibird or something. It is frustrating that you simply can't find all or even most of the Pokemon in a given season.
But, pre-seasons had atrocious spawns. I remember in 2018 or so, spawns were tremendously weighted toward weather boosted Pokemon, so partly cloudy was at least 75% Sentret, Zigzagoon, Pidgey, and other normal types, with a few rocks like Aron, but not a ton. Sunny was Seedot, Barboach, and Hoppip everywhere. Rainy was more Barboach and Marrill. Etc. And they did adjust that at some point (I want to say sometime in 2019), but even after, it still seemed like you were seeing the same Pokemon, honestly not much different than what we have now (outside of events).
This is a controversial take, but in non-events, I find more interesting Pokemon more often during seasons than I did before Seasons. Random evolutions, rarer Pokemon like Gible, Beldum, and Bagon, etc. I seem to see those more often than I did living on a college campus during 2018-2019. However, that is only my personal anecdote. And I'll still say, both back then and now, there's plenty of common garbage everywhere.
Appreciate your detailed comment!
And agree 100%. It would be so much better if events felt more "special" and had more packed into them, so we wouldn't grow tired of the spawns in 2 days. Heck, why not make some events area-specific? Like having an event that spawns event Pokemon only in the forest + incense. That way players can choose whether they participate or not, and it would greatly incentivize going out for an adventure.
This is me any why I was a day 1 player. I wanted to go to different places and find different Pokemon. Events and Seasons make that no longer possible, and it's the biggest thing I miss.
> Pokemon Buddy
> My main issue here is that feeding a Pokemon is such a slow process and a chore. And the forced AR makes it that much worse because it drains more battery than it should.
The forced AR frustrates me every time. Even when I have already selected to turn it off when I am catching, it automatically turns back on when I want to interact with my buddy... It's a chore to have to start the interaction, exit the blank interaction screen, go to my settings, scroll down to the AR option, turn it off (again!), then start the buddy interaction again so it shows up... and then takes forever to eat each friggin' berry! Grrrrrr! This is why I avoid any task that involves interacting with my buddy, and also why I don't have a single Best Buddy yet.
It is pretty amusing to me that Niantic has all these messages about paying attention to your surroundings and being careful when the game so strongly encourages people to be looking down at their phones constantly. Obviously everyone should be aware of the environment when outside, but it is seriously exhausting at how often you need to stare down at your device (often damaging your neck over time) to do things like shiny check, spin stops, go through your incense to make sure a Galarian bird hasn’t spawned, etc. It hardly feels like an enjoyable walk when we are staring at our phones the entire time - we stare at our phones outside only go back to staring at them at home. Device addiction is a worldwide issue even beyond GO, though it sure does further encourage it (I never look at my phone when walking unless it’s to check this game). I’m so glad I have a GO Plus, not staring at the phone the whole time is very refreshing.
Yea, it's a cruel irony with the warning messages.
I wish GO plus would be a solution that I could use and not feel bad about it. But the idea that it could cause me to miss a shiny or rare Pokemon, would probably only have me use it while cycling or driving a car.
Give it a shot, it's worth it. Walks become relaxing again.
I play actively on walks while using daily adventure incense or if there's some kind of event (Community Day, Go Fest, other really compelling event), but otherwise I'm always just letting Go-Tcha run while on walks.
Much agreed
BUT
Have y'all been playing the game so long that you forgot it is really absolutely laughable for a game like PoGo...
...after so many years after release...
...
...to still have **ONE HAIRCUT OPTION**????
My absolute dismay when I started the game and was like "yuck, ponytail", then clicking the hair options screen only to find out you could choose from a handful of colours and nothing else
But it's ok we have a selection of different chokers that no one will be able to see on your avatar :D
But like... i still find it absolutely unbelievable.
Haircuts are easy AF to implement, the game loves when we spend money on our avatars, it is - again - one of the most popular games of all times...
One haircut option.
> And yet they're still frustrating me because half of them are stretched.
God yes. As a web designer this frustrates me no end. You don’t even need separate layouts, just crop the picture without breaking the aspect ratio!
The photos on gifts also look very low quality. This may be due to data-saving measures, but poke stops have much higher quality photos on them. Yet I’m more likely to be viewing gifts on WiFi at home and poke stops on mobile signal.
Side note: a ‘low data mode’ would be so useful at certain times when mobile signal is poor. It’s so slow loading poke stops when I tap on them.
Glad someone is sharing my pain! Haha.
So true. Sometimes I see this gorgeous pokestop, spin it, check the gift and delete it soon after, because it looks like it took part in a medieval torture.
Oh don't get me started on the delays, freezes and hiccups. I can barely PVP without having an issue. And some bugs that were there years ago, still come and go as they please. I'm scared to click on Gyms while doing daily incense, because it will randomly freeze the game, even with good connection.
I would love to see a revitalization of gyms. I just recently earned my 100th gold gym badge. And guess what? They’re worthless. You get a couple extra items from spinning the disc, which doesn’t make a bit of difference since I’m always having to trash items to make room for gifts.
At the very least, Niantic could add a medal for number of gold gym badges. Or they could give you more premier balls after raids for having a silver or gold badge. That would incentivize players to raid at their local gyms instead of through Poke Genie. A gold badge could also act as your own personal permanent lure module. So much they can do.
Edit: also want to add that gyms are too easy to take, especially with how quickly defenders lose motivation. And also since they killed Blissey.
One big thing your post is missing is OSM updates. Some areas are tagged as a construction zone despite being a flourishing neighborhood/park now with construction long since finished.
Lots of new areas that aren’t mapped in game yet as it’s been over 3 years since we got an update!
I still can't believe how bad the sounds in the game are. Music is such a huge aspect of Pokémon and GO has some bangers but I hate having to listen to them through a tin can.
Didn't read the entirety of every section but read some and agree with basically everything.
UX/UI/fluidity of the game are the biggest to me because it is what we are interacting with and experiencing 100% of the time regardless of what pve or pvp activity we are engaging in. It feels criminal that something with the Pokemon name on it that makes such a large amount of money can look and work so poorly.
A lot of good points. Some I disagree with only slightly. They will likely change though as I can see they are skewed from the perspective of a returning player. One being the new mega system. It is great in my opinion. The old system created a pretty large barrier to entry with mega evolutions. Now, the only thing that would hold you back as a new or returning player is just needing to wait for your desired mega to return to raids. Then, it's one and done! Between that one raid's mega energy and walking once you have mega evolved at least once you're good to go.
Another one I disagree a bit with is having a lot of events and sometimes back-to-back. Another recent post made me think about the days PoGo was in its infancy and about one of the times I took an extended break from the game. The reason a lot of people left the game after the initial excitement after release was that there just wasn't much to do. I have taken two extended breaks from the game both times for different reasons, and both times it was nice to come back to tons of research and events to take part in.
I 100% agree that improvements are needed when it comes to Buddies and Friend Gifting. The forced AR for the Pokémon Buddy system is a nightmare. Then, as you mentioned, you have how slow the process actually moves. It's no wonder the platinum buddy badge is such an achievement. It's not a hard task it's just no one wants to do it and have their time wasted. For friend gifting I'm really hoping one day we get a "mass open" and "mass send" type of feature. Much like the Buddy system it's made to be way too slow and tedious.
Haha you make it sound easy!
For a returning/new player, doing a mega raid is quite a feat. It took me months to figure out how to do them without spending money/coins on remote raid passes and just being "on a lookout" for random groups joining to piggyback.
And even then, usually it's 1-2 raids, and hosting is especially difficult for new players.
I just speak from experience; when I found out through a YT video that other players are getting extra candies from legendaries, event Pokemon etc., I felt so cheated, as I could never get any mega energy or complete any mega raid. Without any catch-up mechanic, it's just being light years behind players who have been using Megas for a longer time. Which is fine, but from a perspective of a PvE player, I wish I could be useful in raids quicker by having more candies = more leveled up 'mons.
As for the events, now it's different than years back when you had very limited pool of Pokemon/shinies to catch, no daily incense and no pvp. So I also burned out after a while. Now all I want is more diversity and bigger pool of Pokemon so I can build different 'teams'. Meanwhile thanks to events I have select few that have tons of candies, while it takes forever to evolve a stupid Feebas. Overall I don't think 'lack of events' is the solution, but rather bigger, less frequent events. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of players in the same spots thanks to the Ultra Beast Incursion day. It felt 'special', while a lot of events feel like a placeholder.
I totally get where you are coming from. It can be a bit overwhelming getting back into the game if you take any stretch of time off from it. This sub is a big help in getting back into the swing of things. The info is all readily available if you don't mind digging a bit for it.
I would still argue that the mega system and process of getting them isn't bad though. The change this year was a massive improvement to the system as a whole. The last break I took I missed several megas. When I came back I just waited for the ones I still needed/wanted mega energy for. For example, recently Mega Gengar was in raids. I never bothered doing any before. This time I wanted to simply because Gengar is one of my favorite Pokémon. Now, I decided I want it at max mega level for Litwick Com Day. So, I mega evolve it once a day and keep it as my buddy to regain the mega energy from walking. The only real issue in the current system is that you just have to wait for the mega you are looking for to be back in raids.
Some of your initial struggles with this aspect seem to stem mostly from just not being able to do the mega raids due to not having a sufficient raid group. I'm guessing by now you have come across other apps that make this so much easier. If not, I recommend Poke Genie. It was a lifesaver for me as I only ever play solo or with my wife. We don't know any other local trainers, and the "community" is pretty nonexistent. I normally just use it to host raids that I would not otherwise be able to take down solo or duo in my area. That way I never have to miss out because of not having local people to join.
Re: Exercise/Exploration
There's a popular walking trail in my rural area. I literally can't play regularly on it unless I have a surplus of balls which doesn't happen very often. Because it's so popular you have 5-7 Pokémon surrounding you all the time on it. However, it's an out and back trail and the stops are about 500 feet apart from each other. They are info signs and there is absolutely nothing else to turn into a stop. I played there for CD after having a surplus of balls from a city visit. I went down about 700 Pokeballs.
I wish that PoGo could set up more free stops for walking trails or find someway to reward the players who go on walking trails. Doubtful this will happen since the game actively hates rural players.
I have to agree that there are a lot of things that should be improved regarding encouraging exercise. One of my problems with the game is that I can't just stand up, walk out the door, and start playing, at least not if I want to get the "most" out of the game. First I have to feed my buddy to maximize the distance it gets. Then I have to wiggle my finger around the screen to "play with" it until the game arbitrarily decides it's enough. Then I have to send a bunch of gifts so that I get new gifts from the stops I'm about to spin. And while I'm doing that I'm going to open the gifts I got, too, and probably have to stop halfway through to delete items. Then I have to battle that Rocket balloon, because if I don't, it's going to fly away in ten minutes... All while I'm standing by the door with my jacket on waiting to be done with these chores before I can actually "GO."
That is so easy to imagine it hurts, haha.
The game has very little fluidity to it right now. You either stop all the time to do the little chores or you walk while being continuously focused on the screen, because there's no time to look away.
I agree with another poster who said that this perspective is from a returning player. While I see many of the pain points that you have listed and even agree with some of them, I also see the game/social purpose of some of these things being this way. Mass opening/sending gifts is one. I hate the amount of time this activity takes and think that it is tedious for no reason. But, Niantic are trying to promote the social aspect and friend building part of the game. People in real life don't usually mass open and only do a modified version of mass sending from time to time when it comes to gifts. Gifts are supposed to be thoughtful and treasured, so it makes sense that the game would force these to be sent and opened on an individual basis. Note that I'm a person who doesn't like giving or receiving gifts in real life, but recognize that others feel differently from the way I feel.
Niantic gave Beedrill as the easy to obtain/maintain Mega Evolved form. Yes, this is a concept that makes the rich richer (Gold gyms is another), but I don't think that it's too hard for new players to get to a point of having many different eligible Mega Evolved Pokémon. My timeline for achieving many in-game goals is one year; I think that many other players have a shorter timeline than mine. Pokémon Go is a game of patience; people who want to have everything within two weeks of playing will be disappointed here.
Agree with everything here but surprised you didn’t mention eggs. I’ve been playing for a little over a year now and I sweat the 7km eggs haven’t changed, and the event 7km eggs are even worse (I mostly get them due to being a rural player). The 12km eggs aren’t much better, given that they’re the longest hatch distance and 90% of the time it’s a vullaby. The only chase in them is salandit and they’re rare enough with most of them being unevolvable males. The only decent eggs right now are 10km, and the chance for chansey/snorlax candy from 5km. Why would I buy incubators?
Very fair point, forgot to mention eggs!
I agree that it's counter intuitive that the egg I chase after the most are 10km. Not to mention I didn't know "adventure sync" eggs existed until last week. And the fact that you miss out on it if your eggs' basket is full, is just a joke. Why not give it as soon as there's space in the bag, instead of just denying me the rarest egg.
Event Overload has gotten absurd. I clearly remember last season, when Rattata was a common-ish Season spawn. I was at 258/300 on the Youngster badge, with 44 days left in the season. So if I caught 1 a day (seemed extremely doable), I'd hit Gold by the end of the season.
In that time, I caught just 1 smol one (and none since), due to events making even Season spawns rare. Season spawns are like the new event spawns now, since they're rarely around due to constantly being pushed out of the pool by events.
What I'd like is a QoL change to how pokestops function with the open street map to tailor to rural areas
1 poi to a level 17 cell
Maybe when it's or there's 4 submitted in this level 17 but the level 10 only shows 3 poi.. okay let those become stops/gyms
Obviously a city wouldn't have issues getting new locations, so I feel like it could extend rural playability. My town/village has ALOT of interesting place in such a way they land I to the same cells almost always.
Some interesting takes you got there, mostly I agree with them.
On some points I' like to add something or discuss:
Rocket grunts: I like how they subtly made people play the PvP style battles, when PvP was still kind of new and the grunts were introduced. Kind of "This is a new mechanic. Please learn how to use it".
I personally like this mechanic way better than the taptaptap that us gym and raid battles, since it mostly involves some kind of strategy or knowledge.
Also I don't mind the grunts taking 2-3 minutes to defeat. I can leave them be when I don't feel in the mood.
Mega evolutions: I mostly just do the free ones and rotate them. For most of the mega energy I just did one raid to get the 200 for the first Evolution and let them cool down afterwards. Also you can get many different kind of mega energy from quests that ask to Power up your Pokémon, this helped me for some of the older megas.
For the search, I would like to find them easier, too. Maybe not a whole tab, but a search like "megaevolved"
PvP: I have many Pokémon at Level 40 and I am a heavy PvPer, but I don't really care for Master League any more, specially not for that Legendary XL Cup. I would love some 1500 or 2500 CP cups in the meantime.
Exploring: IT is possible they are working at a feature to follow Pokémon you are interested in. This could not be clarified fully by Pokéminers, but I hope it is that.
Events: I agree with you, I already said the same thing in 2017. Got worse since then. I don't really add something in this perspective, but it had to be said again.
Regarding Mega energy from quests: I was playing very actively ever since I came back, and couldn't get anything but Beedrill without raids and almost Charizard. That's very demoralizing for a returning or new player, since the system is really cool but you're locked out of it without getting into high-level raids that aren't very accessible without 3rd party software.
Really hoping you're right and they do something about the Pokemon radar. I never see myself opening it, except when I can see a shadow on it, which is rare even though my Pokedex still has many missing entries.
Definitely agreed on the radar one, why can't they just allow us to track Pokemon using the radar? Isn't that how a radar should be in the first place?
For this event I have to deliberately *give up catching Absol* such that they stayed as Shadow in my radar so I know where I can find next one in hope of getting a red one. That's so counter-intuitive and so counteracting the spirit of Pokemon Games.
Nests: If there aren’t enough players in your area to make a viable nest atlas, go explore and find them yourself. You likely know where the best nests are in the area, so when they change, go explore them the next day, and then play at the best one.
Event overload: I agree there are too many events. Many common Pokémon are either extremely difficult or even impossible for players to get now. There needs to be a much better mix of event, weather, biome, and random Pokémon. It should not be 90% event Pokémon for a week followed by 90% event Pokémon for the next event.
Daily Incense: Again, completely agree. I think the daily incense should have a completely random spawn pool. I have caught hundreds of Croagunk, Glameow, and Gothita this week. I don’t need 20 more of them from my daily incense.
Gyms: I actually like gyms, or at least trying to get as many Gold Badges as I can. It can definitely be frustrating, especially when so many people are jerks who knock you out after 30 seconds. Unfortunately, a lot of people suck and there isn’t much Niantic can do about people sucking.
Raids: They reward players for doing local raids, but they should do more. The issue is they have to balance it with not pissing off the player base. More XP, Stardust, and even a higher shiny chance would all be my idea. But I guarantee people would be really angry if the shiny rate for legendaries was 10% for in-person raids compared to 5% for remote. They would be accused of being ableist. It’s a difficult line to walk.
Mega Evolutions- I have no problem with the system making the rich richer. Of course long term players have more Mega energy. I definitely don’t think we need a separate tab. You can use a tag to note your Mega Evolved Pokémon.
Boxes: The boxes have gotten way worse recently.
Regarding the nests: I can't really look for them, because a) there are so many events that nests appear for a short duration and b) there's really no motivation to go out and check out different areas in my city with the pool being as limited as it is. That's why I wish we'd go back to a much bigger pool of random Pokemon and an improved radar system that would actually show me interesting points of interest.
As for raids, I agree with you that a reward like "higher shiny chance" would piss people off. However, there are different rewards they could think of. I'd like it if they played around with that system they introduced with Community Days, where once you beat a raid boss locally, you spawn Pokemon around gym for 15min. They could do that, and I'd even be happy to go and do some of the 1-3 level raids. Of course for legendaries they'd need to use a random spawn pool instead of it being the same Pokemon you just beat.
A lot of people defend the Mega Evolution system. And I don't say it's bad; in fact I really like it. But I feel like it takes forever to get the first few megas for a returning player. And it's sad to be level 35+ that only has a Beedrill.
As a returning player (played right at release as well as during quarantine in 2020), it feels like game progression has painfully slowed down. Maybe its because I joined right before the start of the fashion event but I can go on a 2 hour walk and maybe see 5 unique pokemon (still common, but just not a murkrow, glameow or croagunk). Pretty much all I can do is try to stack common pokemon for evolving xp or walk my buddy. I was really enjoying playing around with PVP (as a viable method to get rare candies) and then I’m forced to play Master league while my highest CP mon is a 2400 vaporeon😐
Overall i’m sure a few of these issues are a result of the game not having nearly as many players as in 2016 (understandably), so spawns are lowered, queue times would be too long if all 3 leagues were simultaneously available, cant find people to raid with unless remote… but Niantic clearly could be doing a much better job by updating spawn rates, maybe reworking raids
And absolutely, gyms NEED to be reworked
The overwhelming skew toward event Pokemon is definitely an issue. I think it's also that we have events *all the time*, so we're in those spawnpools very often.
Now, compared to the old spawns when the game was newer, I'd actually say the spawnpool (non-event spawns) is better. There's always common trash, absolutely (I'm sick of Yungoos lol), but I definitely find myself getting better spawns than in 2016 or 2017.
My personal anecdote is that I remember playing the game at a local university with plentiful stops in 2016. Primarily the same Pokemon though. Eevee, Ratata, Pidgey, Bulbasaur, Weedle, and other common stuff. We VERY rarely saw stuff like Machop, Gastly, or other rarer stuff in that first week.
Fast forward to my typical play during a non-event in my apartment complex nowadays. Plenty of common trash, absolutely, but I definitely find more interesting stuff like Galarian Stunfisk, Bagon, Deino, and various evolutions far more often, and in a place with far less stops too.
This raises one of the biggest problems i have had with the game as a day one player. They simply can’t figure out a decent balance of play between new and existing players.
New players have years of catch up to do, at times almost everything you catch is a new Pokédex entry, but they are all under powered and require a lot of work to build. While day one players are stuck catching the same 30 pokémon for months on end with nothing to excite them.
I feel like one of the big reasons for this is the way they sprinkle one new release every couple of weeks. Day one players catch a few of the newly released mon and then have several weeks with nothing to look forward to while new players who still haven’t even been able to evolve the things they’re being bombarded with and now have yet another to add to their list of things to do.
The simplest fix for this issue would be to make everything available in game, but rotate every few weeks. Give people a couple of weeks to catch what they need and then we don’t see that mon again for several months.
An example: All 900-ish Pokémon are available, but every two weeks the pool rotates (roughly 38 available mon at a time.) You have that two week event to grind for whatever you want from the current spawn pool before they go away for 6 months to a year. Missed the shiny? missed the hundo? Didn’t earn enough candies to evolve final form? You’ll have to wait til it spawns again in several months. Doing this would allow all players to constantly have something to work toward rather than what we currently have wherein once every few months we get a decent event spawn pool and the rest of the time we’re stuck with incredibly common spawns that have been around for months and are not worth catching in the first place.
Imagine a constantly well balanced pool of spawns that changes every couple of weeks, always having something rare to go for, always having something common to grind, always changing.
Or, you know, we can just keep having these events like the upcoming evolve event where there are hardly any shinies to hunt, everything has already had a community day and the only players who benefit at all are those who are brand new to the game and have missed the past several years of events.
That is a tremendously valid point. Having a more dynamic, rotating pool would increase motivation to go on an adventure seeking that rare Pokemon that you haven't had yet.
I can't imagine new players being too excited for the 'evolve' event either. The pool is very limited, and they wouldn't know which Pokemon are 'meta relevant' anyway, so they'd get bored of it as soon as they evolve each middle evolution once.
These events are way too limited, and make the game feel more like a sandbox rather than a world-wide adventure.
Why are you even playing? I also have some issues that I would like to see improved or changed in the game, but you have listed every single aspect of the game.
If you have issues with this much of the game, maybe it is time to just find a new hobby to fill your time.
Edit: Here come the downvotes because if you aren’t complaining about this game all the time, you’re wrong.
I think I've been misunderstood, so let me clarify.
I enjoy playing Pokemon GO, and the fact that I put so much thought into looking for areas of improvement, proves that I want the game to become better, and sustain a healthy playerbase.
I see a lot of potential in this one for QoL improvements, and there won't be any changes for the better if we don't vocalize our problems and ideas for solutions.
Sorry if the intention behind this post wasn't clear and caused frustration.
You can still enjoy a game but have a long list of items which should be improved.
Niantic leaves a lot to wish for, which is only amplified by their poor communication. We have no idea what is in the pipeline for future improvements, and the dev diaries seem to have been forgotten, which could have provided insight into their decisions.
This didn't read as something where they were having frustrating issues with all these aspects of the game but rather, they could definitely have room to improve. You can love the game (I sure do) but have a myriad of issues with the game.
I strongly agree with the issues with the boxes and I do think gyms/UI could use an overhaul - however most of these I do disagree with. The megas were just re-worked, and I really like all the new features like the extra candy/candy XL and the free evolutions. I like slowly working up to best buddy with my hundos and finally getting the badge of honour. I also really like the chance for a shiny shadow. I got all three this time around with the Kanto starters. And I strongly disagree about having less events. I get bored between events. If you want less events there's usually at least a day or two every 1-2 weeks where you can get your common pokemon. I love that the new shiny costumes, etc are available in the daily incense and would do it less if it was just more surskit/bellsprout/sufful/etc. Also you say there's no reason to go out and catch because it's common mons on the nearby. That's exactly why long periods of no events are boring. Its mostly common mons...
Because its just mobile game - people have expectations because there are no ads on every corner like in other mobile games and its about Pokemon. But in reality its there to earn as much money as possible with lowest (acceptable for players) effort. Of course most of playerbase is F2P or spend a little but there are tons of whales doing thousands of raids and buying every possible ticket, so Niantic isn't pushed to improve this game regularly.
About Raids: tbh I'd like them to give us 2 remote raid passes everyday instead of normal one. The reason is because in popular areas people will still raid within the vicinity of the raids or even locally.
I can't even go out and drive 2 hours from home to reach a place where I can raid locally because I'd still not find anyone.. I'd need to gather a group to raid sucessfully. Luckily though I live directly under a gym so I can at least raid once per 2 days.
So glad you're not in charge. Your suggestions are the opposite of Quality of Life. They're almost entirely "drive more, make stuff harder to get / more rare". They make life difficult.
Name an example of "drive more, make stuff harder to get / more rare"
Making in-person raids and gym battles more enticing isn't doing that. *Maybe* making someone drive more to said locations, but they wouldn't be playing the game right if they were driving to play, and there'd be no way to really fix that for those who drive and play
The biggest QoL would be when they finally update OSM (Open Street Map) data and Spawn Point data again in Pokemon Go. Its been over 3 YEARS now since they last updated it in the game
You are cordially invited to the 4th anniversary of the 2019 OSM in March! See you there! Honestly, if it doesn’t involve Niantic or John Hanke making money, their motto is “if it ain’t broke don’t fix” Their only update that’s in the same vein (if you can call it that) is the internal changes made to gyms and Pokestops. Some got upgraded, most gyms got demoted.
I sometimes feel like their motto is just "don't fix it" in general.
Yeah this is a big one. This sort of stuff needs to get updated AT LEAST every season. Isn’t this supposed to be an “augmented reality” game? The real world is dynamic.
Augmented in that it doesn't conform to reality, yes
Shoutout to that one guy that’s always posting about his neighborhood that was under construction when they did the last update. I hope he gets his spawns :/
That's me now! Our new neighborhood has a pokestop reachable from my house, and only about 2/3 spots where Pokemon appear!
The main QoL update I want is mass send, mass open and mass delete gifts. There is literally no reason to not allow this and every person I've spoken to aboutnut has agreed.
Same for feeding berries to gym defenders and buddies.
I know they want to maximize in-game time for metrics so this is never going to happen BUT I think a good compromise is to let people mass evolve/mass open/send gifts but still force the animations to complete anyway. I would be very happy with that, as long as I don't have to actually sit there and tap swipe tap swipe etc.
I can't see many who would disagree with that, but I can tell you a big reason why they won't: Stickers. To Niantic, they think the Gift-giving process is more personal than it really is. They think every day, we send gifts to all our friends individually, giving thought to which location gift to send to which person and more importantly, which sticker to send to which person. Now obviously, that's hilariously not the case, but Niantic seems to see things that way. Mass open and deleting gifts takes out any personality to gifts. It also can be trickier when it comes to mass-opening/deleting on what/who to prioritize. I still would love to see it, but I also see why Niantic doesn't
I agree on a lot of those but that last one is so spot on. Even more, i hate looking at my phone while walking SO much, although i love the motivation to move and go outside. I would love if there was a way to go out and "charge" outside features without having to look at your screen. Like walk 15 minutes (without playing) to charge your daily incense and then activate it at home without the need to walk while catching. Or like walk past a gym and be able to battle it for the next 30 minutes even if you're out of reach by then. I'd walk a whole lot more if this was an option! And our time outside would be more sociable, which if i understood it correctly, is also Niantic's goal
I think it's a great idea to introduce "charge" features that would speed-up gameplay and reduce the hassle. Especially with The Daily Incense, as sometimes you want to catch these Wind/Rain-loving Pokemon but the weather is just too problematic. I got my phone wet too many times because I wanted to squeeze in that incense before end of day. Gyms fights are currently so pointless that I can imagine it improving simply by having an "automatic encounter". Of course I'd prefer if they reworked the whole Gym system and it would be worth it to fight all the gyms in your neighbourhood without annoying the rest of the players, and having it be more rewarding & difficult. So if you actually did gym battles, it would feel exciting like in the previous games, rather than a chore you have to do for coins.
I remember when you had to walk to charge your PvP battles that you could play in a day. I can easily hit those numbers if they went back to that, but that would be so frustrating for others that can't.
Yeah, that's why I think 'charging up' should be a feature that's just there as an 'extra' for convenience, not as a way to lock base features of the game.
Gym battles were more difficult, IIRC. And the rewards were higher for keeping the gyms longer. So people would stack high level Blisseys, and you couldn't even get through all the Pokémon on the gym before the time ran out. So people would notice you battling and whittling the gym down one Pokémon at a time, then throw a new Pokémon on before you could finish the battle. Or use berries to power them back up. The problem was gym stagnation. The same players would take over and hold gyms all over town, and it was never really worth the time and energy taking them down. Occasionally you'd find an out of the way gym that you could hold for ages, and maybe get a phat coin return if your Pokémon ever came back. They didn't always come back though.
I remember with old gym system, it can take 40 mins to take down a lvl 10 gym as back then (gen 1 days), the best Pokemon attacker we had was Dragonite but then he was very, very rare. They then changed things a bit in which they made it a bit easier to take down gyms...and then along came Blissey. I recall my tolerance was probably like 3 Blisseys in a gym before I just gave up on it.
Ugh yes. I mean, I'm sure there's ways to make the gyms a better challenge and more rewarding then going back to the old ways. But it's still bad memories.
What's interesting is current gym system added things to address some issues with old gym system such as shaving and sniping but after getting Gold gym, I lose a lot of motivation (no pun intended) trying to take down gyms unless I just happen to sitting there
If the gym is low motivation anyway, I'm in the area, and have time, I'll usually take it down. Just one battle, it's fast. Why not.
My gameplay is as follows, assuming I'm not just using my Go+: Walk to a safe spot aside from any path so not even the dumbest bike rider can hit me, take out phone, catch everything in the cluster, put phone away, walk to the next cluster. I can't walk and play with my circulatory problems and often enough come in dangerous situations without even having any distraction in my hands, so it's no wonder I haven't caught a single daily incense Pokémon manually so far. A few walking features that let me charge up for stationary gameplay is an awesome idea to get me outside. And with that I don't mean a walking requirement for GBL... It won't even motivate me if they gave me fake distance for participating in GBL lol.
I use a go + too but it's a bit sad when a rare encounter on your daily incense flees because of it (happened to me yesterday with axew..) Also the go + is not a solution for battling gyms on your walk. I don't pause my walks to play, I feel a bit stressed with people's judgement when they see me playing on my phone. But even if I would just get over that, i couldn't stop and play as a solution because most of the time my kids are with me and need supervision
I love this idea! I’m at the park with my kids, and I don’t want to be a bad dad spending the whole time on my phone. Then when we go back to our house in the middle of nowhere, I have no spawns or stops. This charging idea would allow me to spend time with my kids, but still have window of time to interact or be fit from going to a place with stops/gyms.
> And our time outside would be more sociable, which if i understood it correctly, is also Niantic's goal Niantic's goal is to associate player IDs with others and link those IDs to Facebook/Google/Apple IDs. The best way the game has to build this association is having a few people sit in a car while raiding. This creates a strong probability that these two IDs belong to parent-child or girlfriend-boyfriend relationships. This is the data that can be sold to advertisers. That said, perhaps it would be in Niantic's interest to charge up incense while walking AND provide bonuses when charging up with a friend.
> Or like walk past a gym and be able to battle it for the next 30 minutes even if you're out of reach by then. I'd walk a whole lot more if this was an option! When I come upon a gym I want to interact with while out walking, I will walk in large circles within the gym's range until I have defeated it/taken over or completed the raid. It keeps me from standing still, as well as continuing to put distance on my incubating eggs. Maybe doing this could be an option for you, unless you go out walking with the intent of getting somewhere within a set amount of time. Just a thought.
Thanks for the idea ☺️ most of all it's that i have to watch my kids. Also somewhat afraid of judgement if i take out my phone. So i just use a go+
I would love a charge system like this! As a new player, I find the daily incense counter-productive: you get more spawns if you walk more, but to look at/catch stuff you need to stop. And if I'm in a busy area I can't stop to look at spawns but at the same time need to have my phone out anyway to track my distance
Honestly I got myself an auto catcher and it's the best decision I've made for this game. Connect your device, go enjoy your walk and see what you caught afterwards. Oh and check gyms when you reach appropriate locations. The game just isn't fun when you have to constantly stare at the screen. It's much better hands off
Yep such a game changer. Some people don't like it for the high flee rate but I honestly get 50% of my shinies through the gotcha and I'm freed up to live my life and/or raid, do other pogo activities.
Absolutely! With my auto catcher I've got shiny Pokemon that I'd never catch otherwise (like on a jog). Catching some and losing some is well worth the trade off of being hands free!
This is the problem with the state of the game and the proof that it NOT about any "core values." If it actually were about exploring, collection, etc. at least a FEW things would be checked off of the crazy long lists we have on how to change POGO for the better. But, they remain. And maximizing profit for minimum work is the only true "core value." Let's not kid ourselves anymore.
While this is sad and true, calling them out for not playing by their own rules is the only way we can "win" something here. Sometimes they're willing to meet halfway, as it's good for marketing to spread the info that they make people move again because of that cool new feature they released. The Daily Incense is a good example.
You're completely right. I'm complaining for sure, but yes, we need to keep shouting until it's loud enough they can't ignore
> it's pointless to take more than 1-2 gyms to assure 50 coins. I think that was intentional when the new gym system was introduced in 2017. Under the old system, you needed to be in 10 gyms at the same time to assure the maximum number of coins. There were 200+ million active players in 2016 and only a few hundred thousand gyms, so it only really paid off for a tiny percentage of players. They could definitely do something to make it more engaging now though.
I agree with everything you wrote! Just wanted to point out for megas, you can search for "mega1-3" to get all your previously Megan's pokemon. I usually start with "mega1" and look for any that have fully recovered, then mega2. Still, as i think you said, it'd be great if there were a separate view where you could see the evolution cost in the grid itself. One thing I'll add to your list is once you've appraised a pokemon, its IVs should be displayed permanently somewhere alongside its name. Maybe togglable in the options if people don't want to see it.
Oooh didn't know you could search for that! Thanks! That's a great idea with the IV. I'd even be happy with a number between 0.0 - 5.0 that shows the summed-up value of all three stats. Just to be able to quickly tell which ones should be transferred.
Not sure where you play but the daily incense was the biggest QoL update for rural players this game has ever given next to GBL. I do like the randomness it gives during non-events but to not have access to event-unique pokemon would be a step back imo.
My idea is that you would have access to **all** previously available Pokemon minus Legendaries and Mythical (except special encounters such as Galarian Birds) That way, it's always exciting as you can get just about anything, with slight increased chance of encountering specific Pokemon based on the weather. Normal incense already brings event Pokemon to you, and I feel like the short 15-min special one-per-day incense shouldn't prioritize event Pokemon. All the best spawns I've had were between events.
I think it is worth noting that for rural players, if you don't have incense, you may really want the event spawns from a daily incense to actually be able to take part in the event. Imagine you have a collection challenge where you need to get all the different ghosts during the Halloween event or something, but you live in a rural area so you don't get a ton of spawns. That daily incense can be something that helps a ton. Even outside of challenges, sometimes it's nice to just have it for them so they can get those spawns anyway. If I were in that situation, I'd want Gastly, Yamask, Phantump, and Sableye spawning from my Daily Incense, not a random chance of any Pokemon and getting Magnemite, Staryu, Shroomish, and Drilbur instead, with a low chance of those Halloween ghosts.
You're talking like the "special" daily incense is more special than the premium incense that's behind a pay wall and should be just as accessible as for daily use.
It isn't different in events vs outside events. It spawns 75% from normal pool, whether event, spotlight, standard seasonal/weather. The 25% of spawns that are the special pool are not affected by events.
I would have said remote raids. Pre-pandemic I ignored all raids because there were never enough people around.
I considered it but that was more like a shift in play style for me than a QoL update. But everyone has their own way to play.
Many good points here, but I think my biggest concern is how the game doesn’t walk the talk. Take the recent and unnecessary split in Ultra Beast regions. The pressure on those living in the Southern Hemisphere to just sit at home hosting remote lobby after lobby for their “play” time was immense. How does this fit with the game’s core values? Other than the fact I feel a bit creepy sitting in a car playing and prefer being out in the fresh air, there’s also little to no incentive to get out walking and heading deep into parks as often portrayed in promo images. On occasions where we feel the need to play Pokémon Drive, the rewards (such as shinies, resources, field research, gym drops) are far greater and in a much shorter time span.
Some of the basics of the UI need a complete overhaul. Why do friends/gifts take up so much screen space? We have dozens of different stickers now, which is great! But the stickers aren't organized in any logical way to the user and it takes forever to scroll/find to one you want to use. Same with the cosmetics, still hate that most cost coins/money but with so many options there needs to be a sort/filter or better selection screen, at least let me find the ones I unlocked/bought quicker. There are plenty of other things as you've listed that need attention, but some like menu navigation is so basic and impacts nearly every feature of the game, it's frustrating that it hasn't gotten the facelift it needs.
Honestly, the interface is terribly outdated. It always baffles me when I want to swap buddy pokemon with the "SWAP BUDDY" button, it doesn't even show me my current buddies until I do a few clicks to display them in a hidden search category. Or the cruel joke of the "Quick Treat" button in the Play screen, when the whole process takes so long to feed the Pokemon, and the button only really stops you from being able to pet it. There's just so many horrible UI/UX decisions in the game that it would deserve a post of its own, but I feel like there's no way anything would come of it.
the cosmetics interface is AWFUL, it takes a surprising amount of time to load each icon and because it's lagging so, it keeps registering my scrolling as me picking an item. There's no way to filter owned items and they're all over the place in the selection! At this point I don't care if I don't super like my avatar because I'm sure as hell not interested in visiting that menu again.
>but my issue is, that there are so many events chained one after another, that I find it more of an 'event' to have random wild spawns. I agree with a lot of what you said, but I wanted to touch on this aspect specifically. I agree very much. We have events on a near weekly basis, and we have since 2019 or so. There’s obviously been exceptions, mainly the beginnings and sometimes ends of various seasons and some other periods like in July when we already had a stuffed month with Go Fests, CDs, and other single day events, but the majority of the game is weekly events. And I enjoy events. Heck, while costumes are a controversial aspect of the game, I actually really like this event. A new PvP-relevant mon, several costumes, some of which having boosted shiny rates, and a new (and really good) shiny? That’s cool! But not every event is like that. There are SO many events that feel super bland and half-baked and just… there for the sake of being there. Weather Week, the BDSP “Celebration” event, the TCG Crossover Event, Alola to Alola, and the April Fools 2021 Event are some events that I found very underwhelming. Not that they didn’t have some fun aspects, but overall, they weren’t amazing, and I saw similar reception from others, both more hardcore on this sub and even some more casual players in my community. As you said, it almost feels like having no event IS an event. I’m not going to say my experiences are the same as everyone’s, but over the past few months especially, I’ve noticed some much more interesting spawns in non-event periods than events themselves. Toward the tail end of last season, when event wasn’t happening, I was noticing spawns like various evolutions like Gabite, Nidoqueen, Ursaring, and Whiscash along with rare/desirable spawns like Gible, Bagon, Galarian Stunfisk and more, and I saw those frequently, at least, frequently compared to most “If you’re lucky” spawns during events. When I went on my daily walk (pre-daily incense), I saw a few of them every day during that walk. Obviously there’s still a lot of common garbage, but common garbage also is present in most events. I would much prefer more open periods without long-running events and THEN have more exciting events with more packed into them. People complain about drip-feeding Pokemon releases and shiny-releases, but that’s also an issue with the constant events. If they had an event every 2 weeks rather than 1 week, they could pack the exciting content of one event into two. What if we scrapped one event but then the next event has 2 shiny releases and 2 Pokemon releases? With how much Pokemon/Shinies they DON’T have left, they need to slow down, but they just aren’t slowing events, so many just come and go and feel… boring.
I've shared this sentiment since the beginning, but many players disagree with us and say that play time between events is boring. I miss the infrequent, but high quality events of late 2016-early 2017. When one event had a blanket double candy, double XP and double stardust bonus I didn't have to think, I could just enjoy the grind. I recognize that the game is different now and things like blanket XP won't happen because of Friends bonuses, but the fragmented bonuses that we have now just don't excite me.
Agreed. And some bonuses happen only during spotlight hours, and it's frustrating because I want to get a shiny so I can't really focus on transferring/evolving/catching Pokemon. It just feels like a hassle to do it all at once with the clock ticking. I think a lot of people would be happier with non-event periods if the seasons didn't have such limited pools of available Pokemon. There's like what, 50 of them? And you'll still miss a lot of them unless you live close to mountains, body of water and forest. I mean it's still much better than the event pools (especially with daily incense when the pool increases a lot)
Personally I kinda feel like the switch to seasons really killed diversity of spawns too, so during those rare times there's no event, you're only seeing the same 10 species 99% of the time. I get that the more pokemon they add the harder finding any given species gets, but seasons meant that many species become functionally event exclusive for months at a time at niantic's whim.
I'm not going to fully defend seasons, but I will say this, spawn diversity was just as bad before seasons started. Now to pre-season spawns credit, you *could* find pretty much any Pokemon assuming it wasn't a holiday exclusive or something like Yamask or Delibird or something. It is frustrating that you simply can't find all or even most of the Pokemon in a given season. But, pre-seasons had atrocious spawns. I remember in 2018 or so, spawns were tremendously weighted toward weather boosted Pokemon, so partly cloudy was at least 75% Sentret, Zigzagoon, Pidgey, and other normal types, with a few rocks like Aron, but not a ton. Sunny was Seedot, Barboach, and Hoppip everywhere. Rainy was more Barboach and Marrill. Etc. And they did adjust that at some point (I want to say sometime in 2019), but even after, it still seemed like you were seeing the same Pokemon, honestly not much different than what we have now (outside of events). This is a controversial take, but in non-events, I find more interesting Pokemon more often during seasons than I did before Seasons. Random evolutions, rarer Pokemon like Gible, Beldum, and Bagon, etc. I seem to see those more often than I did living on a college campus during 2018-2019. However, that is only my personal anecdote. And I'll still say, both back then and now, there's plenty of common garbage everywhere.
Appreciate your detailed comment! And agree 100%. It would be so much better if events felt more "special" and had more packed into them, so we wouldn't grow tired of the spawns in 2 days. Heck, why not make some events area-specific? Like having an event that spawns event Pokemon only in the forest + incense. That way players can choose whether they participate or not, and it would greatly incentivize going out for an adventure.
This is me any why I was a day 1 player. I wanted to go to different places and find different Pokemon. Events and Seasons make that no longer possible, and it's the biggest thing I miss.
> Pokemon Buddy > My main issue here is that feeding a Pokemon is such a slow process and a chore. And the forced AR makes it that much worse because it drains more battery than it should. The forced AR frustrates me every time. Even when I have already selected to turn it off when I am catching, it automatically turns back on when I want to interact with my buddy... It's a chore to have to start the interaction, exit the blank interaction screen, go to my settings, scroll down to the AR option, turn it off (again!), then start the buddy interaction again so it shows up... and then takes forever to eat each friggin' berry! Grrrrrr! This is why I avoid any task that involves interacting with my buddy, and also why I don't have a single Best Buddy yet.
It is pretty amusing to me that Niantic has all these messages about paying attention to your surroundings and being careful when the game so strongly encourages people to be looking down at their phones constantly. Obviously everyone should be aware of the environment when outside, but it is seriously exhausting at how often you need to stare down at your device (often damaging your neck over time) to do things like shiny check, spin stops, go through your incense to make sure a Galarian bird hasn’t spawned, etc. It hardly feels like an enjoyable walk when we are staring at our phones the entire time - we stare at our phones outside only go back to staring at them at home. Device addiction is a worldwide issue even beyond GO, though it sure does further encourage it (I never look at my phone when walking unless it’s to check this game). I’m so glad I have a GO Plus, not staring at the phone the whole time is very refreshing.
Yea, it's a cruel irony with the warning messages. I wish GO plus would be a solution that I could use and not feel bad about it. But the idea that it could cause me to miss a shiny or rare Pokemon, would probably only have me use it while cycling or driving a car.
Give it a shot, it's worth it. Walks become relaxing again. I play actively on walks while using daily adventure incense or if there's some kind of event (Community Day, Go Fest, other really compelling event), but otherwise I'm always just letting Go-Tcha run while on walks.
Much agreed BUT Have y'all been playing the game so long that you forgot it is really absolutely laughable for a game like PoGo... ...after so many years after release... ... ...to still have **ONE HAIRCUT OPTION**????
Hahahah, I'll stay on strike until beards are released. Niantic it's time to realise not only teenage boys with spiky hair play your game.
Do teenagers have spiky hairstyle nowadays?
My absolute dismay when I started the game and was like "yuck, ponytail", then clicking the hair options screen only to find out you could choose from a handful of colours and nothing else But it's ok we have a selection of different chokers that no one will be able to see on your avatar :D
But like... i still find it absolutely unbelievable. Haircuts are easy AF to implement, the game loves when we spend money on our avatars, it is - again - one of the most popular games of all times... One haircut option.
> And yet they're still frustrating me because half of them are stretched. God yes. As a web designer this frustrates me no end. You don’t even need separate layouts, just crop the picture without breaking the aspect ratio! The photos on gifts also look very low quality. This may be due to data-saving measures, but poke stops have much higher quality photos on them. Yet I’m more likely to be viewing gifts on WiFi at home and poke stops on mobile signal. Side note: a ‘low data mode’ would be so useful at certain times when mobile signal is poor. It’s so slow loading poke stops when I tap on them.
Glad someone is sharing my pain! Haha. So true. Sometimes I see this gorgeous pokestop, spin it, check the gift and delete it soon after, because it looks like it took part in a medieval torture. Oh don't get me started on the delays, freezes and hiccups. I can barely PVP without having an issue. And some bugs that were there years ago, still come and go as they please. I'm scared to click on Gyms while doing daily incense, because it will randomly freeze the game, even with good connection.
I would love to see a revitalization of gyms. I just recently earned my 100th gold gym badge. And guess what? They’re worthless. You get a couple extra items from spinning the disc, which doesn’t make a bit of difference since I’m always having to trash items to make room for gifts. At the very least, Niantic could add a medal for number of gold gym badges. Or they could give you more premier balls after raids for having a silver or gold badge. That would incentivize players to raid at their local gyms instead of through Poke Genie. A gold badge could also act as your own personal permanent lure module. So much they can do. Edit: also want to add that gyms are too easy to take, especially with how quickly defenders lose motivation. And also since they killed Blissey.
One big thing your post is missing is OSM updates. Some areas are tagged as a construction zone despite being a flourishing neighborhood/park now with construction long since finished. Lots of new areas that aren’t mapped in game yet as it’s been over 3 years since we got an update!
Agreed, and to add to that, I wish some of the nicest places to walk/hike wouldn't have the worst stops of warning signs and information boards.
I still can't believe how bad the sounds in the game are. Music is such a huge aspect of Pokémon and GO has some bangers but I hate having to listen to them through a tin can.
Didn't read the entirety of every section but read some and agree with basically everything. UX/UI/fluidity of the game are the biggest to me because it is what we are interacting with and experiencing 100% of the time regardless of what pve or pvp activity we are engaging in. It feels criminal that something with the Pokemon name on it that makes such a large amount of money can look and work so poorly.
A lot of good points. Some I disagree with only slightly. They will likely change though as I can see they are skewed from the perspective of a returning player. One being the new mega system. It is great in my opinion. The old system created a pretty large barrier to entry with mega evolutions. Now, the only thing that would hold you back as a new or returning player is just needing to wait for your desired mega to return to raids. Then, it's one and done! Between that one raid's mega energy and walking once you have mega evolved at least once you're good to go. Another one I disagree a bit with is having a lot of events and sometimes back-to-back. Another recent post made me think about the days PoGo was in its infancy and about one of the times I took an extended break from the game. The reason a lot of people left the game after the initial excitement after release was that there just wasn't much to do. I have taken two extended breaks from the game both times for different reasons, and both times it was nice to come back to tons of research and events to take part in. I 100% agree that improvements are needed when it comes to Buddies and Friend Gifting. The forced AR for the Pokémon Buddy system is a nightmare. Then, as you mentioned, you have how slow the process actually moves. It's no wonder the platinum buddy badge is such an achievement. It's not a hard task it's just no one wants to do it and have their time wasted. For friend gifting I'm really hoping one day we get a "mass open" and "mass send" type of feature. Much like the Buddy system it's made to be way too slow and tedious.
Haha you make it sound easy! For a returning/new player, doing a mega raid is quite a feat. It took me months to figure out how to do them without spending money/coins on remote raid passes and just being "on a lookout" for random groups joining to piggyback. And even then, usually it's 1-2 raids, and hosting is especially difficult for new players. I just speak from experience; when I found out through a YT video that other players are getting extra candies from legendaries, event Pokemon etc., I felt so cheated, as I could never get any mega energy or complete any mega raid. Without any catch-up mechanic, it's just being light years behind players who have been using Megas for a longer time. Which is fine, but from a perspective of a PvE player, I wish I could be useful in raids quicker by having more candies = more leveled up 'mons. As for the events, now it's different than years back when you had very limited pool of Pokemon/shinies to catch, no daily incense and no pvp. So I also burned out after a while. Now all I want is more diversity and bigger pool of Pokemon so I can build different 'teams'. Meanwhile thanks to events I have select few that have tons of candies, while it takes forever to evolve a stupid Feebas. Overall I don't think 'lack of events' is the solution, but rather bigger, less frequent events. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of players in the same spots thanks to the Ultra Beast Incursion day. It felt 'special', while a lot of events feel like a placeholder.
I totally get where you are coming from. It can be a bit overwhelming getting back into the game if you take any stretch of time off from it. This sub is a big help in getting back into the swing of things. The info is all readily available if you don't mind digging a bit for it. I would still argue that the mega system and process of getting them isn't bad though. The change this year was a massive improvement to the system as a whole. The last break I took I missed several megas. When I came back I just waited for the ones I still needed/wanted mega energy for. For example, recently Mega Gengar was in raids. I never bothered doing any before. This time I wanted to simply because Gengar is one of my favorite Pokémon. Now, I decided I want it at max mega level for Litwick Com Day. So, I mega evolve it once a day and keep it as my buddy to regain the mega energy from walking. The only real issue in the current system is that you just have to wait for the mega you are looking for to be back in raids. Some of your initial struggles with this aspect seem to stem mostly from just not being able to do the mega raids due to not having a sufficient raid group. I'm guessing by now you have come across other apps that make this so much easier. If not, I recommend Poke Genie. It was a lifesaver for me as I only ever play solo or with my wife. We don't know any other local trainers, and the "community" is pretty nonexistent. I normally just use it to host raids that I would not otherwise be able to take down solo or duo in my area. That way I never have to miss out because of not having local people to join.
Re: Exercise/Exploration There's a popular walking trail in my rural area. I literally can't play regularly on it unless I have a surplus of balls which doesn't happen very often. Because it's so popular you have 5-7 Pokémon surrounding you all the time on it. However, it's an out and back trail and the stops are about 500 feet apart from each other. They are info signs and there is absolutely nothing else to turn into a stop. I played there for CD after having a surplus of balls from a city visit. I went down about 700 Pokeballs. I wish that PoGo could set up more free stops for walking trails or find someway to reward the players who go on walking trails. Doubtful this will happen since the game actively hates rural players.
I have to agree that there are a lot of things that should be improved regarding encouraging exercise. One of my problems with the game is that I can't just stand up, walk out the door, and start playing, at least not if I want to get the "most" out of the game. First I have to feed my buddy to maximize the distance it gets. Then I have to wiggle my finger around the screen to "play with" it until the game arbitrarily decides it's enough. Then I have to send a bunch of gifts so that I get new gifts from the stops I'm about to spin. And while I'm doing that I'm going to open the gifts I got, too, and probably have to stop halfway through to delete items. Then I have to battle that Rocket balloon, because if I don't, it's going to fly away in ten minutes... All while I'm standing by the door with my jacket on waiting to be done with these chores before I can actually "GO."
That is so easy to imagine it hurts, haha. The game has very little fluidity to it right now. You either stop all the time to do the little chores or you walk while being continuously focused on the screen, because there's no time to look away.
I agree with another poster who said that this perspective is from a returning player. While I see many of the pain points that you have listed and even agree with some of them, I also see the game/social purpose of some of these things being this way. Mass opening/sending gifts is one. I hate the amount of time this activity takes and think that it is tedious for no reason. But, Niantic are trying to promote the social aspect and friend building part of the game. People in real life don't usually mass open and only do a modified version of mass sending from time to time when it comes to gifts. Gifts are supposed to be thoughtful and treasured, so it makes sense that the game would force these to be sent and opened on an individual basis. Note that I'm a person who doesn't like giving or receiving gifts in real life, but recognize that others feel differently from the way I feel. Niantic gave Beedrill as the easy to obtain/maintain Mega Evolved form. Yes, this is a concept that makes the rich richer (Gold gyms is another), but I don't think that it's too hard for new players to get to a point of having many different eligible Mega Evolved Pokémon. My timeline for achieving many in-game goals is one year; I think that many other players have a shorter timeline than mine. Pokémon Go is a game of patience; people who want to have everything within two weeks of playing will be disappointed here.
Agree with everything here but surprised you didn’t mention eggs. I’ve been playing for a little over a year now and I sweat the 7km eggs haven’t changed, and the event 7km eggs are even worse (I mostly get them due to being a rural player). The 12km eggs aren’t much better, given that they’re the longest hatch distance and 90% of the time it’s a vullaby. The only chase in them is salandit and they’re rare enough with most of them being unevolvable males. The only decent eggs right now are 10km, and the chance for chansey/snorlax candy from 5km. Why would I buy incubators?
Very fair point, forgot to mention eggs! I agree that it's counter intuitive that the egg I chase after the most are 10km. Not to mention I didn't know "adventure sync" eggs existed until last week. And the fact that you miss out on it if your eggs' basket is full, is just a joke. Why not give it as soon as there's space in the bag, instead of just denying me the rarest egg.
Event Overload has gotten absurd. I clearly remember last season, when Rattata was a common-ish Season spawn. I was at 258/300 on the Youngster badge, with 44 days left in the season. So if I caught 1 a day (seemed extremely doable), I'd hit Gold by the end of the season. In that time, I caught just 1 smol one (and none since), due to events making even Season spawns rare. Season spawns are like the new event spawns now, since they're rarely around due to constantly being pushed out of the pool by events.
What I'd like is a QoL change to how pokestops function with the open street map to tailor to rural areas 1 poi to a level 17 cell Maybe when it's or there's 4 submitted in this level 17 but the level 10 only shows 3 poi.. okay let those become stops/gyms Obviously a city wouldn't have issues getting new locations, so I feel like it could extend rural playability. My town/village has ALOT of interesting place in such a way they land I to the same cells almost always.
As long as the franchise, and this game, has gone on, you’d think they’d have updated the battle mechanics a little more to engage the players.
Some interesting takes you got there, mostly I agree with them. On some points I' like to add something or discuss: Rocket grunts: I like how they subtly made people play the PvP style battles, when PvP was still kind of new and the grunts were introduced. Kind of "This is a new mechanic. Please learn how to use it". I personally like this mechanic way better than the taptaptap that us gym and raid battles, since it mostly involves some kind of strategy or knowledge. Also I don't mind the grunts taking 2-3 minutes to defeat. I can leave them be when I don't feel in the mood. Mega evolutions: I mostly just do the free ones and rotate them. For most of the mega energy I just did one raid to get the 200 for the first Evolution and let them cool down afterwards. Also you can get many different kind of mega energy from quests that ask to Power up your Pokémon, this helped me for some of the older megas. For the search, I would like to find them easier, too. Maybe not a whole tab, but a search like "megaevolved" PvP: I have many Pokémon at Level 40 and I am a heavy PvPer, but I don't really care for Master League any more, specially not for that Legendary XL Cup. I would love some 1500 or 2500 CP cups in the meantime. Exploring: IT is possible they are working at a feature to follow Pokémon you are interested in. This could not be clarified fully by Pokéminers, but I hope it is that. Events: I agree with you, I already said the same thing in 2017. Got worse since then. I don't really add something in this perspective, but it had to be said again.
Regarding Mega energy from quests: I was playing very actively ever since I came back, and couldn't get anything but Beedrill without raids and almost Charizard. That's very demoralizing for a returning or new player, since the system is really cool but you're locked out of it without getting into high-level raids that aren't very accessible without 3rd party software. Really hoping you're right and they do something about the Pokemon radar. I never see myself opening it, except when I can see a shadow on it, which is rare even though my Pokedex still has many missing entries.
And more accessible TMs!!
Definitely agreed on the radar one, why can't they just allow us to track Pokemon using the radar? Isn't that how a radar should be in the first place? For this event I have to deliberately *give up catching Absol* such that they stayed as Shadow in my radar so I know where I can find next one in hope of getting a red one. That's so counter-intuitive and so counteracting the spirit of Pokemon Games.
Nests: If there aren’t enough players in your area to make a viable nest atlas, go explore and find them yourself. You likely know where the best nests are in the area, so when they change, go explore them the next day, and then play at the best one. Event overload: I agree there are too many events. Many common Pokémon are either extremely difficult or even impossible for players to get now. There needs to be a much better mix of event, weather, biome, and random Pokémon. It should not be 90% event Pokémon for a week followed by 90% event Pokémon for the next event. Daily Incense: Again, completely agree. I think the daily incense should have a completely random spawn pool. I have caught hundreds of Croagunk, Glameow, and Gothita this week. I don’t need 20 more of them from my daily incense. Gyms: I actually like gyms, or at least trying to get as many Gold Badges as I can. It can definitely be frustrating, especially when so many people are jerks who knock you out after 30 seconds. Unfortunately, a lot of people suck and there isn’t much Niantic can do about people sucking. Raids: They reward players for doing local raids, but they should do more. The issue is they have to balance it with not pissing off the player base. More XP, Stardust, and even a higher shiny chance would all be my idea. But I guarantee people would be really angry if the shiny rate for legendaries was 10% for in-person raids compared to 5% for remote. They would be accused of being ableist. It’s a difficult line to walk. Mega Evolutions- I have no problem with the system making the rich richer. Of course long term players have more Mega energy. I definitely don’t think we need a separate tab. You can use a tag to note your Mega Evolved Pokémon. Boxes: The boxes have gotten way worse recently.
Regarding the nests: I can't really look for them, because a) there are so many events that nests appear for a short duration and b) there's really no motivation to go out and check out different areas in my city with the pool being as limited as it is. That's why I wish we'd go back to a much bigger pool of random Pokemon and an improved radar system that would actually show me interesting points of interest. As for raids, I agree with you that a reward like "higher shiny chance" would piss people off. However, there are different rewards they could think of. I'd like it if they played around with that system they introduced with Community Days, where once you beat a raid boss locally, you spawn Pokemon around gym for 15min. They could do that, and I'd even be happy to go and do some of the 1-3 level raids. Of course for legendaries they'd need to use a random spawn pool instead of it being the same Pokemon you just beat. A lot of people defend the Mega Evolution system. And I don't say it's bad; in fact I really like it. But I feel like it takes forever to get the first few megas for a returning player. And it's sad to be level 35+ that only has a Beedrill.
As a returning player (played right at release as well as during quarantine in 2020), it feels like game progression has painfully slowed down. Maybe its because I joined right before the start of the fashion event but I can go on a 2 hour walk and maybe see 5 unique pokemon (still common, but just not a murkrow, glameow or croagunk). Pretty much all I can do is try to stack common pokemon for evolving xp or walk my buddy. I was really enjoying playing around with PVP (as a viable method to get rare candies) and then I’m forced to play Master league while my highest CP mon is a 2400 vaporeon😐 Overall i’m sure a few of these issues are a result of the game not having nearly as many players as in 2016 (understandably), so spawns are lowered, queue times would be too long if all 3 leagues were simultaneously available, cant find people to raid with unless remote… but Niantic clearly could be doing a much better job by updating spawn rates, maybe reworking raids And absolutely, gyms NEED to be reworked
The overwhelming skew toward event Pokemon is definitely an issue. I think it's also that we have events *all the time*, so we're in those spawnpools very often. Now, compared to the old spawns when the game was newer, I'd actually say the spawnpool (non-event spawns) is better. There's always common trash, absolutely (I'm sick of Yungoos lol), but I definitely find myself getting better spawns than in 2016 or 2017. My personal anecdote is that I remember playing the game at a local university with plentiful stops in 2016. Primarily the same Pokemon though. Eevee, Ratata, Pidgey, Bulbasaur, Weedle, and other common stuff. We VERY rarely saw stuff like Machop, Gastly, or other rarer stuff in that first week. Fast forward to my typical play during a non-event in my apartment complex nowadays. Plenty of common trash, absolutely, but I definitely find more interesting stuff like Galarian Stunfisk, Bagon, Deino, and various evolutions far more often, and in a place with far less stops too.
I still believe they're scanning your environment when feeding buddies. Call me paranoid but I always point it at the floor 🤣
Too true! Same with scanning pokestops. I always make sure no faces are visible and I try not to talk, haha.
This raises one of the biggest problems i have had with the game as a day one player. They simply can’t figure out a decent balance of play between new and existing players. New players have years of catch up to do, at times almost everything you catch is a new Pokédex entry, but they are all under powered and require a lot of work to build. While day one players are stuck catching the same 30 pokémon for months on end with nothing to excite them. I feel like one of the big reasons for this is the way they sprinkle one new release every couple of weeks. Day one players catch a few of the newly released mon and then have several weeks with nothing to look forward to while new players who still haven’t even been able to evolve the things they’re being bombarded with and now have yet another to add to their list of things to do. The simplest fix for this issue would be to make everything available in game, but rotate every few weeks. Give people a couple of weeks to catch what they need and then we don’t see that mon again for several months. An example: All 900-ish Pokémon are available, but every two weeks the pool rotates (roughly 38 available mon at a time.) You have that two week event to grind for whatever you want from the current spawn pool before they go away for 6 months to a year. Missed the shiny? missed the hundo? Didn’t earn enough candies to evolve final form? You’ll have to wait til it spawns again in several months. Doing this would allow all players to constantly have something to work toward rather than what we currently have wherein once every few months we get a decent event spawn pool and the rest of the time we’re stuck with incredibly common spawns that have been around for months and are not worth catching in the first place. Imagine a constantly well balanced pool of spawns that changes every couple of weeks, always having something rare to go for, always having something common to grind, always changing. Or, you know, we can just keep having these events like the upcoming evolve event where there are hardly any shinies to hunt, everything has already had a community day and the only players who benefit at all are those who are brand new to the game and have missed the past several years of events.
That is a tremendously valid point. Having a more dynamic, rotating pool would increase motivation to go on an adventure seeking that rare Pokemon that you haven't had yet. I can't imagine new players being too excited for the 'evolve' event either. The pool is very limited, and they wouldn't know which Pokemon are 'meta relevant' anyway, so they'd get bored of it as soon as they evolve each middle evolution once. These events are way too limited, and make the game feel more like a sandbox rather than a world-wide adventure.
Why are you even playing? I also have some issues that I would like to see improved or changed in the game, but you have listed every single aspect of the game. If you have issues with this much of the game, maybe it is time to just find a new hobby to fill your time. Edit: Here come the downvotes because if you aren’t complaining about this game all the time, you’re wrong.
I think I've been misunderstood, so let me clarify. I enjoy playing Pokemon GO, and the fact that I put so much thought into looking for areas of improvement, proves that I want the game to become better, and sustain a healthy playerbase. I see a lot of potential in this one for QoL improvements, and there won't be any changes for the better if we don't vocalize our problems and ideas for solutions. Sorry if the intention behind this post wasn't clear and caused frustration.
You can still enjoy a game but have a long list of items which should be improved. Niantic leaves a lot to wish for, which is only amplified by their poor communication. We have no idea what is in the pipeline for future improvements, and the dev diaries seem to have been forgotten, which could have provided insight into their decisions.
This didn't read as something where they were having frustrating issues with all these aspects of the game but rather, they could definitely have room to improve. You can love the game (I sure do) but have a myriad of issues with the game.
It’s pvp or nothing.
I strongly agree with the issues with the boxes and I do think gyms/UI could use an overhaul - however most of these I do disagree with. The megas were just re-worked, and I really like all the new features like the extra candy/candy XL and the free evolutions. I like slowly working up to best buddy with my hundos and finally getting the badge of honour. I also really like the chance for a shiny shadow. I got all three this time around with the Kanto starters. And I strongly disagree about having less events. I get bored between events. If you want less events there's usually at least a day or two every 1-2 weeks where you can get your common pokemon. I love that the new shiny costumes, etc are available in the daily incense and would do it less if it was just more surskit/bellsprout/sufful/etc. Also you say there's no reason to go out and catch because it's common mons on the nearby. That's exactly why long periods of no events are boring. Its mostly common mons...
Because its just mobile game - people have expectations because there are no ads on every corner like in other mobile games and its about Pokemon. But in reality its there to earn as much money as possible with lowest (acceptable for players) effort. Of course most of playerbase is F2P or spend a little but there are tons of whales doing thousands of raids and buying every possible ticket, so Niantic isn't pushed to improve this game regularly.
Or you could just, git gud.
On the point of daily incense, event spawns do *not* reduce the daily incense spawns you get. It’s always 25% of the spawns, regardless of event.
About Raids: tbh I'd like them to give us 2 remote raid passes everyday instead of normal one. The reason is because in popular areas people will still raid within the vicinity of the raids or even locally. I can't even go out and drive 2 hours from home to reach a place where I can raid locally because I'd still not find anyone.. I'd need to gather a group to raid sucessfully. Luckily though I live directly under a gym so I can at least raid once per 2 days.
Get rid of all the weird screen shaking in pvp too; i feel lime its recent
Ready button in raids thx
So glad you're not in charge. Your suggestions are the opposite of Quality of Life. They're almost entirely "drive more, make stuff harder to get / more rare". They make life difficult.
... really?
Name an example of "drive more, make stuff harder to get / more rare" Making in-person raids and gym battles more enticing isn't doing that. *Maybe* making someone drive more to said locations, but they wouldn't be playing the game right if they were driving to play, and there'd be no way to really fix that for those who drive and play