GO How are you currently finding the game?

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Can't find shit for shit and I'm way behind curve. The fact the riding a bus and catching anything I can while pass is more rewarding than actually trying to track stuff says something about how unintuitive the tracking system is. If I had a better understanding of it and it's reliable and the CP cap is manageable I'll change my tune pretty quickly.

 

[Life]

Although I'm enjoying the game I'm getting very frustrated with the amount of times the game keeps freezing while in the middle of catching Pokémon. It's cost me four captures now and I'm getting annoyed with the amount of times I need to refresh the app for it to still not work.

Also I would agree that an easier way to find the Pokémon would be MUCH appreciated. I get that part of the fun is tracking them down but honestly it gets annoying after awhile and I've tested it to see how long it takes for footprints to go away and the results I've gotten are absolutely random (sometimes it was twelve steps, sometimes 25+, and others it didn't change after running for two blocks).

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Although I'm enjoying the game I'm getting very frustrated with the amount of times the game keeps freezing while in the middle of catching Pokémon. It's cost me four captures now and I'm getting annoyed with the amount of times I need to refresh the app for it to still not work.

Also I would agree that an easier way to find the Pokémon would be MUCH appreciated. I get that part of the fun is tracking them down but honestly it gets annoying after awhile and I've tested it to see how long it takes for footprints to go away and the results I've gotten are absolutely random (sometimes it was twelve steps, sometimes 25+, and others it didn't change after running for two blocks).

The reason for that inconsistency is twofold: the way the mechanic works at 3 steps and the app's refresh rate. Here's the gist of it: when you turn on your app, it searches for Pokemon within 225 meters (a rough estimation, may be more or less). 3 footprints means the Pokemon is within 150-225 meters of you, 2 footprints is within 75-150 meters, 1 footprint is 40-75 meters, and 0 means within 40 meters (AKA within your character's "bubble" that you can activate pokestops and gyms from and within which Pokemon spawn).

This shows potential for inconsistency already - if you are standing 76 meters from a Pokemon, it could take you just a couple steps to get it to go from 2 prints to 1 print, or if you walk in the wrong direction, you might be walking for 74 meters before you hit 3 prints. However, 74 meters is hardly an excessive distance - the real problem is when you are trying to find a 3 step pokemon. Once a Pokemon appears on your nearby queue (meaning that you were at one point in time within 225 meters of it), it will disappear from the queue only under one of the two following conditions: 1)as you move, you enter the range of new Pokemon who are closer to you than the Pokemon you are tracking, pushing said Pokemon further down the queue until it is pushed off altogether, or 2) you are now more than 500 meters (almost 1/3 of a mile) from the Pokemon. This feature is likely implemented to prevent the queue from becoming barren, making it seem as though your area is still populated in order to keep up the illusion that Pokemon are everywhere despite the fact that while you walk along a stretch of road it is possible that literally no Pokemon are in the immediate vicinity. This means that if you are around 150 meters (just on the border of the 2 and 3 step markers) and both a) you walk in an incorrect direction and b) there are not enough new Pokemon in your direction to replenish your queue, you will walk for up to 350 meters (around a quarter mile) before the Pokemon disappears from your nearby queue, leading to frustration. The best way to solve this problem is to simply close the app and reopen it if you feel like you've been walking too long - this means that your phone will perform a fresh scan, displaying only Pokemon actually within 225 meters of you instead of up-to-500 meter "ghosts".

Another contributing issue is the app's refresh rate itself - you move faster than the gps can track you, especially when running, biking, or driving. Thus, even when searching for Pokemon in a 1 or 2 print radius, you can experience weird issues when your phone connection is slightly laggy. Let's say you're at 2 steps from a Pokemon. Your position is point A and the Pokémon's position, point B, is in front of you and to the left. You are walking in a straight line and eventually come to a point C such that point B is directly to your left. At this point, the footstep counter decreases from 2 to 1. Now, you have no way of knowing the correct thing to do is to take a hard left, so you continue in a straight line - but alas, you start running and/or your app starts to lag a little bit. It is entirely possible that you travel 76 meters before the GPS and refresh rate catch up to you, resulting in the display saying "1 footprint" even if you are out of that range. It can even cause jumps such as 1 footprint going directly to 3 or, if you are in a Pokemon dense area, it can even cause the Pokemon to disappear from the queue entirely despite being at 1 or 2 prints instead of 3. This problem can ALSO be solved by closing the app and reopening it while standing still to give the GPS a chance to reorient itself and let the scanner give an accurate distance estimate of the Pokemon from your current location instead of the location you USED to be in when the app last refreshed.

Tl;dr when hunting for a Pokemon and you feel like you've been walking too long with no change in the print counter, stop where you are, close the app, and reopen it. If the Pokemon you want is now further away than it used to be or gone entirely, turn 180 degrees and go back the way you came for a little, then close and reopen again. Repeat until you pick up the trail again.

Also, one last thing: helpful instructions on triangulating a Pokemon to prevent that "should've taken a hard left" scenario I used in my last example:

 

[dragon_nataku]

I think my biggest issue with the game are those "rustling grass" areas. I keep going to them, and they are supposedly "guaranteed" to contain pokemon, and I never get any at those spots.

 

[Pilup99]

I don't know if this is the place for this, but has anyone else noticed that some Pokémon have this blue "aura" or something behind them, while the others do not. Can anyone explain this?

 

[Peachy]

I gave it another shot and I still can't see the appeal, and at this point I'm so far behind the pace of other players that I might as well give up completely. It's just not for people that live in rural areas, or dominated by highways. It sucks because I want to like it, but the app feels like it's constantly working against me and refuses to give me higher powered Pokémon so I can't challenge any gyms at all. I just feel like it's leaving me out by design.

 

[Life]

@-Glory Blaze- Thanks for that post! I was hoping someone would come along and explain the mechanics. '^^

And another reason I figured might be causing the lag is due to my phone's internet connection, which admittedly is not the best. It works fine whenever I'm close to Wi-Fi but while running about it does lag a lot, so I'm sure it's both a problem on my end and on the server's end.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

I might have more fun with it when I move to college in a month or so. Right now, I can't really go out. My parents would be like "Why are you wanting to spend time outside so suddenly?" It would just be so foreign to them!

It's a cute game, though. Not really anything too deep, but it is fun. I await the day when we start getting Pokemon that exist beyond G1.

Are you saying you don't play often because you're embarrassed of what your parents will think? If this is a game that you feel you'll enjoy immensely, you should try not to let those things get to you, otherwise you'd miss out.

 

[SUP3RN0VA]

I don't know if this is the place for this, but has anyone else noticed that some Pokémon have this blue "aura" or something behind them, while the others do not. Can anyone explain this?

I believe that 'aura' is placed on Pokémon that you've most recently captured. When you sort your Pokémon by recent capture, you'll notice the Pokémon with the blue auras are all placed together.

 

[Jolty94]

It started off really rough for me as I'm the in the UK and I made a US apple ID to download the app, it was terrible at first (these past two days), almost every time I would catch a Pokémon it would freeze upon capture and kick me out, it then wouldn't load back up. It's released here officially today so hopefully I won't have any more problems. My battery packs are charged and I'm about to head out

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

Ive been having more fun with it when Im able to get out. Ive found a fair few Pokemon and am interested in trying to fight the gym near me. I am interested in getting out to play it more now so hopefully the weather will cool down a little and I can.

 

[dragon_nataku]

I like the sheer variety of Pokemon that show up at uni. I've found all of the starters there, a Tangela, Pinsir, Scyther, a bunch of Dratini, poliwag, and I'm pretty sure these eggs that hatched Jigglypuff, Onyx, Shellder, Abra, Staryu, and Cubone came from there. I've seen Gastly sillouhettes in the mornings but I can't go around chasing literal ghosts when I've got class so I don't have one yet. :\ Currently at 48/150 on my dex.

 

[Serpentsounds]

It has certainly encouraged me to be a bit more active...and creative. I've taken to cruising around on this thing:

Spoiler

 

[Zexy]

It's really nice to play when I vist nearby towns/cities but it is very bad for the place I actually live in, only 1 Pokestop in the other side of town and very few Pokemon in the queue.

 

[Aulos]

Are you saying you don't play often because you're embarrassed of what your parents will think? If this is a game that you feel you'll enjoy immensely, you should try not to let those things get to you, otherwise you'd miss out.

I remember when I walked into my parents room when I was a kid they were discussing how much they hated Pokemon.

I don't particularly blame them, as they must have spent a ridiculous amount of money on the cards, which were nothing more than a fad. Nevertheless, here like 16 years later, I still keep my continued interest in Pokemon to myself.

 

[King Robert]

My mom and sister started playing it.

 

[~ Blazing White Yang]

Not the biggest fan. The ‘best’ thing about GO has been the social experience of being able to talk Pokemon with strangers, but that to me says more about the strength of this brand and its community than the actual quality of the game...GO has been buggy and unstable at times, it devours battery life, its missing core components [in its current state] like trade and local battle, and the growth system is very counter-intuitive to me. As a game, its not that great in my opinion.

As for getting outside...I actually find my phone to be kind of a distraction to the walks [about my neighborhood and University] that I was already taking. And the GO Plus sounded like a really cool idea to track Pokemon without the Phone, but...Then I saw that $35 price tag :/

 

[ZxCv]

I'm with ~ Blazing White Yang tbh. Not a fan.

As somebody from a rural area, I find it extremely difficult to get out there and get involved. Gyms and Pokéstops are a distance and to be frank, they're not worth the effort of walking there. Likewise, with them being so far apart I have yet to find another person playing the game. And when I do find somebody, what am I meant to say or do? You can't trade, you can't battle and if you meet at a gym tough luck since all your pokémon are under levelled.

The game itself, as has already been put, drains battery life and it's unreliable. I can't count all the times it's frozen up on me as I'm trying to catch a pokémon.

 

[Zexy]

I've experienced GO in both rural areas and cities and I have to agree that it's not that nice of a game if you are only able to play in rural areas. Although when living in a rural area, it is quite possible you will have to visit a more populated area at some point because there are things you need to do that can't be done where you live; it is in those times where you can try to grasp the chance and play GO in between for maximum efficiency. It makes travelling away from home nicer in those cases.

 

[ZxCv]

Yeah, I can imagine the game is better in urban areas. More people, more stops, more Pokémon. I'd be surprised and disappointed if it was any other way. Whenever I go down to London, I'll definitely give it another go then, if only so I can experience the game in full. Hopefully, by then trading and battling will be implemented so those who are noobs at the game with lower levelled Pokemon from rural areas can potentially gain a leg up to make up for the disadvantage.

Although, I will admit if I was going to an urban area I would have other priorities on my mind than walking around with my phone out searching for Pokemon