Pokémon GO has been updated!

[Phoenixstarz]

Niantic have always been very poor with their communication, they clearly don't have a decent PR department which may be part of the fact they haven't been big enough up to now to really need one. Surely though working with Google and Nintendo they would have been told that things will go wrong and you will need to get information out quickly to calm the situation down.

 

[Afterglow Ampharos]

A map is far superior to a three-step Nearby system.

Even if Niantic eventually get the footprints on Nearby back working properly, that system is utterly flawed. It does not help you know which direction to head in, leading to wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out where it is.

Even that three-ring trick graphic that people have been sharing around will lead to the Pokemon de-spawning before you reach it in time.

 

[Squirrel]

Is the entire patch actually live yet? The balance changes for moves seem to have happened already (my Lapras' Blizzard has boosted up to 100 power) but I can't seem to find anything like the customisation option yet?

 

[CoalCraft]

I'm probably in the minority but the original '3 step bug' and now the removal of the footsteps altogether makes absolutely zero difference to me. I only ever played the game by having it open while I walked my normal routes - I don't really go on dedicated Pookewalks, and I just collect whatever I find along the way. I certainly never used PokeVision or anything like that.

I also don't understand how the tracking difference in this update makes anything worse. Before, everything showed three footprints no matter how close or distant you were, now it shows 0 footprints... What's the difference? It's no more or less helpful.

I really like a lot of things in this update - customisation with a few new clothes options, medals, quicker transferring... And I feel like the whole app is faster and smoother with the servers handling everything beautifully.

 

[Irisasborisas]

It's good that they updating game, but I waiting for bigger updates like 3 steps tracking fix. becouse it's almost impossible to find pokemons :(

 

[jstaylor62]

Compass Tracking has been broken with this update! You can no longer select a Pokemon in the nearby and track it ... they didnt just remove the three-step graphics.

 

[Sirindu]

A map is far superior to a three-step Nearby system.

Even if Niantic eventually get the footprints on Nearby back working properly, that system is utterly flawed. It does not help you know which direction to head in, leading to wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out where it is.

Even that three-ring trick graphic that people have been sharing around will lead to the Pokemon de-spawning before you reach it in time.

Nothing at all was wrong with that system when it worked. It gave people a chance to learn the basics of triangulation. I hope they bring it back in its original form.

 

[Limey-chan]

Anyone else noticed that since the update 'Nice' and 'Great' capture bonuses aren't working? Or is it just me?..

 

[Afterglow Ampharos]

Nothing at all was wrong with that system when it worked. It gave people a chance to learn the basics of triangulation. I hope they bring it back in its original form.

Well, reportedly:

We don't even have any sort of time frame as to when the tracking system will be fixed. The latest update actually removed the footprints altogether, presumably to reduce frustration from confused players, a move which suggests that the fix isn't coming any time soon. Without any reliable way to find the Pokémon they're looking for, the majority of high-level players now have very little reason to play.

Anyone else noticed that since the update 'Nice' and 'Great' capture bonuses aren't working? Or is it just me?..

Nice and Great was only appearing 1/2 or 1/3 of the time I hit dead-center, even PRIOR to the update.

 

[Sirindu]

Well, reportedly: We don't even have any sort of time frame as to when the tracking system will be fixed.

Yes, I think it unlikely they'll bring it back simply from a programmer's standpoint. Everything I've read suggests the server load is just too great to do it the way they did. Unless they rewrote code to make it so more data was uploaded to the user's phone per area, rather than every refresh being hosted on the server, it seems more and more unlikely.

 

[Limey-chan]

Nice and Great was only appearing 1/2 or 1/3 of the time I hit dead-center, even PRIOR to the update.

The text is appearing just fine, but i'm not getting the bonus exp added for actually hitting them :/

 

[Squirrel]

I feel like the game is running so much smoother now. The menus look very crisp and everything feels a lot more responsive. I'm not at all a fan of the Pokémon breaking free text they added and the 'nearby' menu looks a little ugly now but those are the only real problems I have. Battles are feeling a fair bit more balanced and I'm a big fan of the new Pokémon transfer button; it feels a lot quicker to mass transfer now.

 

[Hiidoran]

Most of the graphical updates I'm pretty happy with, but I'm pretty upset they took away the XP bonus for everything but the curve ball. I only tried that for like a day and gave up on curve balls entirely after that.

Something else I've noticed since the update: when the game is running a little slow, GO will just completely forgo the ball animation. The Pokémon will either just instantly break out, or you'll instantly get a 'gotcha'. Kinda ruins the fun there.

 

[Squirrel]

Most of the graphical updates I'm pretty happy with, but I'm pretty upset they took away the XP bonus for everything but the curve ball. I only tried that for like a day and gave up on curve balls entirely after that.

Do we know if the exp removal was intentional? I feel like it's already hard enough to level up at a good pace - not sure this was at all necessary...

 

[Phoenixstarz]

My current theory is that niantic didn't expect people to level up so fast, I expect that the playtesters probably didn't put in the time that some players are (I'm not criticising, since they weren't going to keep their accounts then they wouldn't have been trying 24/7) I think this would also explain why the game gets a lot more frustrating the higher level you get since they probably didn't get enough feedback from that sort of level

 

[Captain Gizmo]

I don't know if this happened to anyone after the update, but when I see a Pokemon on the map and I capture it, the info of the Pokemon suddenly becomes one of a completely different Pokemon. Like for example, I see a Drowzee on the map, I capture it, and it shows I got a Pidgey with Pidgey candies instead.

 

[HazardousGaming]

I just wanted to write a little bit about the nearby list update. Everywhere i read about it people are given Niantic so much grief about it. Personally, I'm glad the third party sites got taken down. While the three-step bug was happening, people got too spoiled from being able to know exactly the pokemon's location. That's not the point of the game, and if you're mad about not being able to know exactly where they are then drop it, uninstall the app, and go on with something else. The developers at Niantic are busting their chops to deal with all these issues, and for the temporary fix they instilled the game, for me, is doing great. Tracking pokemon right now is just as easy/difficult as it was before the footprint system messed up. Which after reading a few articles about it, the footprint system was server intensive and I'm glad it's gone, at least for that factor. If you are upset with the new update, please don't go being belligerent to the developers. Find somewhere to peacefully vent your frustrations, and then have some patience. Things will get better, but it takes time; also, positive feedback. Anyway, I'm just tired of people slamming Pokemon Go cause their expectations are too high. Just calm down a bit, world.

 

[Afterglow Ampharos]

Tracking pokemon right now is just as easy/difficult as it was before the footprint system messed up.

It's objectively not. Before it messed up, we had a gauge for distance: 0 units, 1 unit, 2 units, 3 units away. Now we do not.

In theory right now we have one way to determine distance: relative to the other 8 Pokemon in the Nearby tab. We can watch what position they move to in the list of 9. But this isn't accurate at the moment. Sometimes Pokemon are listed in the incorrect order, sometimes Pokemon are on the list that have long since de-spawned.

We also have no way of determining direction, unlike the nice arrows that were advertised in the initial promotional video (I realize that was an April Fools, but still, it was a useful system). And let's face it, in a real-world setting, it's unrealistic to expect your players to be able to find Nearby Pokemon without giving them some clues as to what direction to go. You don't have to go so far as to give them a map and destination like Pokevision did, of course, but at least a clue.

Before someone replies with the three-ring triangulation guide graphic: yeah, I've seen it and there's two problems with that. 1) By the time you've done that whole process, the Pokemon has despawned. Their time counters aren't very long. 2) No footprints means no rings.

 

[Jefries]

Well although at first I actually didn't feel anything about the new update but now this is really the worst update it has gotten. I don't know what was the 3-step glitch because I didn't get it since I have like 2 weeks without getting out because of something. But seriously it annoys me that there is nothing to measure distance between me and the Pokemon I want except for the first is the closest and the last is the furthest I believe that one is still on. Not only that I feel like there is less Pokemon appearing in my area although I have less use the app because of that. And I saw a thread of the catch rate going down and seriously a Strayu broke out of my Pokeball 3 times and it was green cp 69 like seriously.

 

[Afterglow Ampharos]

But seriously it annoys me that there is nothing to measure distance between me and the Pokemon I want except for the first is the closest and the last is the furthest I believe that one is still on.

Mm, I feel ya. I'm not convinced even that is working right. Pokemon in that list aren't always listed in the incorrect order, and some of the listings have already de-spawned but are still showing up on the list.