This Week in Pokémon Go News

[inkstone]

Happy Friday, trainers! Here are some game-related highlights from the past week...

• Pokémon Go has launched in Central & South America. Just in time for the Olympics! I bet a lot of athletes and spectators are relieved. ¡Bienvenidos!

• In addition to the changes caused by the update from last weekend, there are several reports that the pokémon type spawning at in-game nests have changed. (source)

• Niantic posted another update on their FB page. One of the topics addressed was the missing battery saver feature caused by the latest update on iOS. They removed it due to buggy behavior for some users but that it should be returning soon. I know some community members noticed this, so hopefully the wait won't be long! (source)

• They're also aware of the bug that doesn't give you accuracy bonuses when you're supposed to get them (I've been missing these!) and that increases the chances of pokémon escaping (I really noticed this during my last morning pokewalk). (source)

Any other PokeGo bits of news from your neck of the woods?

Comments

[yuuago]

I'm really glad they're aware of the escape-bug. Hopefully it'll get fixed soon. It's making walks so frustrating.

Nothing new going on here, except that I've been seeing pokemon on the tracker that never showed up in my area before (Vulpix!!) which is exciting... even if I haven't actually encountered any of them yet.

[inkstone]

Yeah, Venonats used to spawn in the forest outside my neighborhood but it's now Machops!! I'm so excited. Machop is super cute. I also saw the shadow of a Muck (I think) for the first time today. Didn't actually encounter it but that was pretty exciting!

[kittydesade]

Wait, the escaping thing is a BUG and not a tweaked feature? That explains so much.

I'm working on a stats compilation for evolves and pokestops! Might be another week before I get enough data to get them out though.

[havocthecat]

Seriously, right? I know it's supposed to get harder the higher level you are, but it's also SO FRUSTRATING to have a great throw and then it up and breaks out of its pokeball.

[malnpudl]

This is driving me bonkers! I'm delighted to have reached the 20+ levels, but holy moly, when very modest CP Pidgeys and Weedles are uncatchable, there's something really wrong. I felt like I was being punished for leveling up. I'm deeply relieved to hear it's a bug and that it's going to be fixed.

[inkstone]

Yeah, I think they overtweaked something. It's supposed to be harder to catch things when you level up, but not like this. My great throw with a great ball should not be having such dismal results.

[storme]

My wife and I travelled by train to a town in the next county just to go catch Pokemon there. It was an excellent trip; the town has two central pokestops which are lured 100% of the time by players and which are constantly surrounded by players (sitting on the pavement or parked in cars nearby) because the spawns there are so varied and interesting and it is just a constant flood -- every new spawn is different, and so you end up staying because otherwise you might miss something you don't have already. I caught so many pokemon I ran out of my very carefully-hoarded stash of pokeballs (all three types). I ended up transferring 170 pokemon when I returned home a few hours later.

Some places really are just incredible spawn points, it seems! And I saw not a single Pidgey, Rattata or Zubat the whole time...

[inkstone]

That sounds lovely!

[malnpudl]

My very favorite thing about post-update game play is that even in my wee rural hamlet where I used to have to restart the game many times during a 45-minute walk, I can now complete an entire walk without the game ever freezing and needing a restart. This is awesome! Makes playing-while-walking a lot more fun.

I had given up using the battery saver mode because it always resulted in a forced restart sooner or later (often sooner) and I'd had some really painful losses -- like a new type that I only ever saw that one time and it froze in mid-catch. ARGH.

It'd be nice if I could use the battery saver option and trust it to work. But at this point I'll be skeptical about it and probably wait until other people have reported on any future fix that gets rolled out.

Also: Thanks so much for the news! Much appreciated!

[inkstone]

Thanks so much for the news!

No problem! I think Niantic finally hired a PokeGo community manager, so I'm taking advantage of the increased communication!

[cyphomandra]

I am another one thrilled to hear the escape thing is a bug - it's so frustrating!! I have been tossing razzberries and great poke balls and still taking many, many throws to get anything (and if I'm doing this on a bus I miss all the pokestops due to being locked in endless combat).

I am unsure which of this, the battery saver or the footprint locator I most want fixed first, tho..,

[inkstone]

Yeah, I know it's harder to catch things the higher level you are, but this is ridiculous. It also seems like once it starts glitching like this, it keeps continuing--like you can't catch anything.

[ephemera]

echoing all the "oh - that's a *bug*!" comments - I figured it was a feature of levelling up!

[inkstone]

They do break out more and run away more the higher you level up, but this is extreme.

[recessional]

Yeah before the bug started I got the sense that part of why they did that is because you had HIGHER LEVEL POKEMON to catch, and more of them, not because CP10 should suddenly be escape artist!

[monanotlisa]

Hehe. Yes,

Echoing everybody here -- SO GLAD THEY WILL FIX THAT JESUS CHRIST.

[darjeeling]

Thank you for the update!