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[Deleted member 231381]

Where are the people who said Niantic would never fix tracking because they were incompetent?

If you live rurally, this has made no difference (other than eliminating ghosts from the list). I don't know about "never" but I'd put quite good money on "for a rather long time".

 

[hirokazu]

We want the game to work as well as it did when it released. I've seldom met somebody who posts so much but is so uninterested in hearing what the other party has to say. We've been excessively clear about this.

I've been playing since day one and the game has never worked as well as it does now. Okay, you had the footprints, but the rest of the Nearby was broken as shit, particularly since it didn't purge despawned or out of range Pokémon and the update interval was too long. The new Sightings does that now, update interval is just 10 seconds. The trade-off is no footprints.

 

[Cudder]

Then maybe they should pay attention to the warning and not play the game while driving?

That's what I mean dude. An extra dialogue box that you simply have to click off isn't going to persuade people who already play while driving to NOT play while driving.

 

[Lijik]

My experience is way better. Sure there's less Pokémon showing on the radar now, but from what I understand it's because it now doesn't show Pokémon that really aren't there anymore unlike the old system. So in other words now what you see on the radar, are Pokémon that actually are nearby, no more, no less. And I've caught way more not-so-common Pokémon now than before the update. When before it was like 1 uncommon vs. 30 common Pokémon. It's now more like 1 uncommon vs 15 common Pokémon in the same period of time spent walking (and I go basically the same routes every day).

My experience was only finding two Rattattas out in the wild during a half hour session and the only stuff in the radar being an assorted mix of 3 commons. Used to be able to just be able to boot it up and find at least 2 pokemon instantly, and some uncommons nearby if I walked around.

People in the OT have been posting way better experiences than Ive had so I dont know if its just bad luck on my part.

 

[Conkerkid11]

I've been playing since day one and the game has never worked as well as it does now. Okay, you had the footprints, but the rest of the Nearby was broken as shit, particularly since it didn't purge despawned or out of range Pokémon and the update interval was too long. The new Sightings does that now, update interval is just 10 seconds. The trade-off is no footprints.

I would rather know where Pokemon are with the occasional Pokemon showing up who has likely despawned by now than knowing what's nearby every 10 seconds and not having the slightest clue where they are.

 

[hirokazu]

I would rather know where Pokemon are with the occasional Pokemon showing up who has likely despawned by now than knowing what's nearby every 10 seconds and not having the slightest clue where they are.

Serious? You never knew whether the Pokémon were even there. You can pretty much just use the same technique as before right now, and you can be sure the Pokémon is there, not out of range or already gone.

On the balance of things, the current client is better, and there'll be no question when the new Nearby rolls out (except rural players, sorry).

 

[Killer Queen]

fuck that's MUCH better

Seriously. Might start playing the game again

 

[mugwhump]

Now they're adding an inferior tracking method, and all the fanboys are saying it's better than before.

Whether it's inferior or superior depends on where you live, I should think. For players like me who have pokestops, I think it's better. For rural players it's worse than the tracking at launch (when that was actually working). But you also have to consider the issue of player safety with the old tracking system, which might have led players into dangerous areas, or onto private property where they'd get shot at by Florida Man. At best the old tracker would create bad press; at worst it could lead to serious accidents (and lawsuits).

The old tracker was probably unworkable because of that, but the new system can potentially be made to work for everyone, when/if new pokestops are added to rural areas in the future. So I disagree with your statement about it being strictly inferior.

 

[plutoknight]

Whether it's inferior or superior depends on where you live, I should think. For players like me who have pokestops, I think it's better. For rural players it's worse than the tracking at launch (when that was actually working). But you also have to consider the issue of player safety with the old tracking system, which might have led players into dangerous areas, or onto private property where they'd get shot at by Florida Man. At best the old tracker would create bad press; at worst it could lead to serious accidents (and lawsuits).

The old tracker was probably unworkable because of that, but the new system can potentially be made to work for everyone, when/if new pokestops are added to rural areas in the future. So I disagree with your statement about it being strictly inferior.

I mean, is it possible that they're going to combine this with the 'Sightings' feature -- 'Sightings' being pokemon in the 'wild'/rural areas and "nearby" near the hotspots?

Both combined should be okay?

 

[Red]

That's a great solution.

 

[Bear Force One]

That's a great solution.

Only if you live in a place with a lot of Pokestops. The old tracker was still superior.

 

[Acerac]

Weren't you going to put me on ignore?

Also you're aware that I can understand your point but not agree with it, yeah? That that is a thing?

What's the point of ignoring people? Your posts still show up, it's not a very well implemented feature. When you're averaging 20+ posts a day it's tough for me to not see you around.

When it comes to understanding but not agreeing, I get that. That's where I get to with the vast majority of people I discuss things with on this board. Not you though, you're different.

At some point you just have to admit that nothing Niantic does will make you happy.

You claim to understand our point and you say this? Excuse my skepticism.

I've been playing since day one and the game has never worked as well as it does now. Okay, you had the footprints, but the rest of the Nearby was broken as shit, particularly since it didn't purge despawned or out of range Pokémon and the update interval was too long. The new Sightings does that now, update interval is just 10 seconds. The trade-off is no footprints.

Footprints is the part of nearby that allows me to track pokemon...

All you just told me is that the only thing that worked is the thing that mattered. -_-

 

[Conkerkid11]

Serious? You never knew whether the Pokémon were even there. You can pretty much just use the same technique as before right now, and you can be sure the Pokémon is there, not out of range or already gone.

On the balance of things, the current client is better, and there'll be no question when the new Nearby rolls out.

This isn't the same thing. You've got nearby Pokemon who are located on top of Pokestops, and you've got sighted Pokemon who are somewhere near you, but there's no way of knowing their direction. Sighted Pokemon is what Nearby was one week after launch when it was broken and always showing 3 steps.

In what way is that better than it was at launch?

Whether it's inferior or superior depends on where you live, I should think. For players like me who have pokestops, I think it's better. For rural players it's worse than the tracking at launch (when that was actually working). But you also have to consider the issue of player safety with the old tracking system, which might have led players into dangerous areas, or onto private property where they'd get shot at by Florida Man. At best the old tracker would create bad press; at worst it could lead to serious accidents (and lawsuits).

The old tracker was probably unworkable because of that, but the new system can potentially be made to work for everyone, when/if new pokestops are added to rural areas in the future. So I disagree with your statement about it being strictly inferior.

Okay, so you're suggesting that this new system will eventually be better than the old one, but at the moment is not. But what is the likelihood of them ever introducing new Pokestops into the game? At the moment they're focused on removing them. Right now your opinion regarding this new system is based entirely on a hypothetical situation where Niantic adds more Pokestops to areas that aren't heavily populated cities, and the fact that you already live in one of these areas.

How many players were endangered by this game because of the previous nearby system? I heard the story about someone finding a dead body, and then the one about the people who walked right off a hill. The dead body discovery is actually a positive, and it's really difficult to unintentionally walk off a hill. Not everything should be catered toward idiots. This game was advertised as an exploration-based game. Walking to a Pokestop because the game says there's a Pokemon at it isn't exploration.

That's a great solution.

Not really, especially when it's not a solution. There wasn't a problem to begin with.

 

[hirokazu]

This isn't the same thing. You've got nearby Pokemon who are located on top of Pokestops, and you've got sighted Pokemon who are somewhere near you, but there's no way of knowing their direction. Sighted Pokemon is what Nearby was one week after launch when it was broken and always showing 3 steps.

In what way is that better than it was at launch?

You completely ignored that the Pokémon might not even be there. You ignored that the refresh rate was much lower. You're fixated on nothing but the footsteps.

I get the impression that a lot of people just like to bitch and whine. It's a freaking service, they're making continuous improvements to it based on feedback. They broke something with the game. "This is terrible, Niantic are the worst!" They make improvements on the game. "Not good enough, Niantic are the worst!"

And everybody who are able to use the new tracking somewhat are fanboys somehow. Seriously, if the service is that bad, just stop playing.

 

[Vanillalite]

It's actually rather smart if you think about it.

The logic is that it will make people converge on a pokestop, ideally to socialize.

Further showing a doubling down on the fundamental idea that Pokemon Go isn't so much about going as it is being.

Sucks, but it's obvious Niantic isn't gonna change their core design philosophy now.

 

[Conkerkid11]

You completely ignored that the Pokémon might not even be there. You ignored that the refresh rate was much lower. You're fixated on nothing but the footsteps.

I get the impression that a lot of people just like to bitch and whine. It's a freaking service, they're making continuous improvements to it based on feedback. They broke something with the game. "This is terrible, Niantic are the worst!" They make improvements on the game. "Not good enough, Niantic are the worst!"

And everybody who are able to use the new tracking somewhat are fanboys somehow. Seriously, if the service is that bad, just stop playing.

Pokemon not being there and the refresh rate being lower doesn't have anything to do with what the previous tracking system was about. Yes, it could have used the improved refresh rate that this new one has. That was an obvious fix that they would have needed to make. That doesn't mean they needed to get rid of the ability to actually know where you are relative to the Pokemon you're looking for. Like I've already said, I would much rather know where Pokemon are and occasionally run into one that's not actually nearby because of the refresh rate than have the refresh rate be quicker and not know where the Pokemon are.

I didn't ignore that at all. You just completely ignored the content of my post.

This isn't an improvement over what we had at launch. They haven't improved the game at all since launch, they've only slowly improved the servers.

 

[dity]

What's the point of ignoring people? Your posts still show up, it's not a very well implemented feature. When you're averaging 20+ posts a day it's tough for me to not see you around.

When it comes to understanding but not agreeing, I get that. That's where I get to with the vast majority of people I discuss things with on this board. Not you though, you're different.

I don't remember if it was you or another in a previous Go! thread, but I remember someone claiming they would put me on ignore multiple times. And yet none of the usual suspects here have. Look, it's not my fault if you don't want to put me on ignore but also have some personal beef with me. I got no beef with you.

Also I don't want you, or others, to keep sitting there typing away at how I don't understand when I've admitted mutliple times that Niantic needed better communication, that having tracking back in the game would be cool, and that I've lived most of my life rurally. I still live in a relatively small place, but it happened to have a bunch of Ingress players thanks to the nearby university. You don't listen back to how I respond at all. The same people who come into these threads and want to butt heads will claim I have no idea what living rurally is like, and that I must live in a city. Cut the bull about understanding if you're not going to do so in kind.

You claim to understand our point and you say this? Excuse my skepticism.

There are some people who will just never be happy. The goalposts have been moved many, many times. At first the general consensus seemed to be that Niantic needed better communication and that the community would be happy if they told us what their future plans for the Nearby feature were even if they took down Pokeavision. But then they communicated, and that response apparently wasn't good enough despite them saying they were working on something new. Then they admit there's bugs in the game but people act like there's some grand conspiracy afoot. Then they fix most of the bugs and introduce a new tracker with some people testing a Pokestop-oriented one and oh no, now the game is even worse now somehow.

Despite Niantic communicating a lot now, releasing regular app updates to fix problems, and combating server problems the game is somehow the worst it has ever been? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[mugwhump]

Okay, so you're suggesting that this new system will eventually be better than the old one, but at the moment is not.

Not exactly. I'm suggesting that, at the moment, for some players the new system is already better, and for rural players it's worse. It can potentially become better (or at least as good) for everyone later on. I for one like knowing that I won't be sent on a wild goose chase, that the pokemon will actually be somewhere accessible, and that I might get to socialize with other players converging on the same location.

But what is the likelihood of them ever introducing new Pokestops into the game? At the moment they're focused on removing them. Right now your opinion regarding this new system is based entirely on a hypothetical situation where Niantic adds more Pokestops to areas that aren't heavily populated cities, and the fact that you already live in one of these areas.

And your opinion is based on a hypothetical situation where they don't add more pokestops, and the fact that you live in a rural area. I already acknowledged the subjective element regarding whether the new system is better or worse at the moment.

Unfortunately I don't anticipate them adding more pokestops in the next few weeks, since Niantic is clearly swamped. But I do think they will. They had submissions open briefly at launch (probably receiving more than they could sift through in months), and they indicated at comic-con their desire to make pokestops a bigger part of the game via customizing them. And the lack of them is driving rural players away, as you've stated often. Not exactly good for business.

At the absolute minimum, rural areas will be getting more sponsored pokestops, which might very well happen in the shorter term.

How many players were endangered by this game because of the previous nearby system? I heard the story about someone finding a dead body, and then the one about the people who walked right off a hill. The dead body discovery is actually a positive, and it's really difficult to unintentionally walk off a hill.

How many does it take for it to be a valid concern? Not many. And outside of dangerous situations, there's the issue of trespassing, which can be seriously annoying for people having their property tramped over by players trying to track something down. But if you want more examples:
Teens get lost in cave
Illegal border crossing
Man [allegedly] threatens trespassing players with knife
Woman gets stuck in tree
Old man gets lost inna woods and stuck in a mud pit
Players arrested after trespassing into zoo
Florida man shoots teens looking for marowak and tauros

Not everything should be catered toward idiots. This game was advertised as an exploration-based game.

I agree about personal responsibility, but that's not really the world we live in. If there's a chance more incidents could happen and Niantic could be held responsible, they don't really have a choice. They have to play it safe. Why do you think they're accepting and approving removal requests for pokestops and gyms, despite not having the manpower to verify the legitimacy of said requests? Because if there are pokestops at holocaust memorials, or sacred sites and cemeteries, or dangerous industrial areas, those stops have to go, even if it means legitimate stops get removed too.

Walking to a Pokestop because the game says there's a Pokemon at it isn't exploration.

I disagree, I've discovered a lot of interesting spots around me by going to pokestops.

They haven't improved the game at all since launch, they've only slowly improved the servers.

Well, that's blatantly false. At the very least, they've balanced movesets, added customization options, made battery saver work, and fixed a multitude of bugs.