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I ATTAC

8 (15.4%)

I PROTECC

6 (11.5%)

Waiting on the third one

2 (3.8%)

Waiting on the third AND fourth one

1 (1.9%)

GET WELL SOON ZYGARDE

5 (9.6%)

I am a concientous objector and abstain from taking up arms

30 (57.7%)

Total Members Voted: 51

[Furtuka]

Pokemon Go is now out in Canada!

[SalmonGod]

Thanks to Pokemon Go, I learned lastnight that this exists in downtown Indianapolis.

Spoiler: The pokestop is labeled "Slinderman" (click to show/hide)

[Wiles]

Forgive my noobness, but I need some Pokemon go help!

I saw that it was released in Canada officially today so I thought I'd give it a go.

I did all the intro stuff, caught myself a Squirtle and decided to go for a walk to see what I could find. I braved mosquitoes and horseflies as I wandered on a path through the woods. I couldn't seem to find anything so I decided to take a walk down by the river instead. I didn't find anything there either, but I did discover the "nearby" button at that point. There was nothing on the "nearby" screen so I figured I'd have to get a bit more adventurous and leave my property.

I took a trip to a nearby village and I couldn't find anything there either, no pokestops, no pokemon.

So what am I supposed to do? I was prepared for the fact that there might not be any pokestops nearby, but I was surprised that there were no pokemon at all. Is my game broken? Or do I live in a pokemonless wasteland? 

[Girlinhat]

It may be that region data hasn't been fleshed out properly, so nothing is set nearby.  But you generally get a lot more everything near monuments/art, like museums, some zoos report each animal plaque being named, local folk art, landmarks, etc.  You ALSO get more pokemon in areas of high cellular usage, so shopping malls, apartment towers, etc.

[Wiles]

It may be that region data hasn't been fleshed out properly, so nothing is set nearby.

Hmmm. I wonder if this may be what the main culprit is. I've looked at screenshots of other people playing and it seems to show roads and bodies of water on their screens. Mine was just a vast field of green, even when I was walking along the largest river in my province.

[kilakan]

Yeah somethings wrong with either your region data or gps.  It should show a slightly more cartoony version of google maps for your area.

[Shadowlord]

I looked at reddit the other day and got the impression that that was normal if you aren't in a major metropolitan area.

Edit: About lack of pokestops and Pokemon, I mean


Can anyone justify a varying density of pokestops and Pokemon from a game balance perspective? It makes no sense to me to design a game such that it is unplayable if you live in a small town unless you commute to a megalopolis*, and even then, you'd still be at a serious disadvantage (e.g. In gym battles) compared to anyone who actually lives there.

* that just popped into my head, I didn't Google to check the definition because phone.

[Girlinhat]

"Metropolis" is the word you're looking for.

The 'real' reason is that Nintendo wants people to play together, as they believe multiplayer is the key to game survival.  You can see this in their product design, and PoGo is no exception.  I mostly play with groups of strangers, as we congregate to the same areas, it's pretty great.  If everything was everywhere, there'd be no encouragement to play together, you could just be anywhere and never interact.  As it is, the game runs rather well on the loose multiplayer of interacting with others, even if only in the most passive way of sitting near people who share the same interest.

This does mean rural areas suffer, and they're working to help with different spawn patterns and they're taking submissions for new pokestops/gyms, mostly themed at notable landmarks.  But the real 'meat' of the game will always kinda be city centric.  Though it doesn't have to be big.  The water tower a block away from my apartment is a pokestop.  Several stores in the downtown area are stops and gyms because they're 'historic' or they have that one hanging wooden sign that's unique from the others.  You can find things in a lot of places, and you can submit your own!

[kilakan]

It works based off of the ingress map (at least the original meat of it was, if what girlinhat says is right then it may have changed a fair bit with new additions).  https://www.ingress.com/intel  You'd need an ingress account to check your area but all of the circles on the map are either pokestops or gyms by and large.

That said, ingress points were player submitted... so you get towns with a population of 500 like mine that looks like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where me and a few friends submitted those points ourselves by and large because we play ingress.  This said I don't have a phone currently that's capable of running pokemon go so I can't confirm 100% but research and talking to other people who have played both confirm that what I say is true.


On that topic though, while I agree the multiplayer part of it for gym battles and such is great and all.... it does make very little sense that you can`t find any pokemon in the woods, only at walmart.

[Girlinhat]

They lifted the data straight from Ingress into Pogo, but then started adding to Pogo.  Pokemon spawns are based on XM pools in Ingress, which in turn are based on cellular usage in an area.  So Walmart is a great place because it's full of people with phones.  It unfortunately means that rural areas suffer though.  Hopefully, they'll start weighting it off the local area, so time square isn't 100% spawn rate while nowhere town hall has nothing - if there's nothing nearby it should make cell data count MORE, so that wherever you are has roughly the same spawn rate, as long as you find the hub area.

[SalmonGod]

I think it's just an unfortunate challenge to designing this type of game.  Landmarks are not in equal abundance in all places, and it's a lot of work to gather them all up.  I think the right answer would be alternative ways to gather items, besides pokestops and leveling.  Give people a random chance to discover items as they're walking or something, and make that chance relative to availability of nearby pokestops.

[kilakan]

yeah some sorta garenteed pokemon encounter, and or item every like... even 10 km would be amazing..... because it would give me something every time I bike to work haha.

[Girlinhat]

There may or may not be a mechanic right now that spawns a pokemon every 30 minutes, at 4 minutes past (like at 12:04 and 12:34).  Someone on reddit reported it, and I observed it once.  There may be a particular trigger condition for it, but I'm not sure.

[Sirus]

I looked at reddit the other day and got the impression that that was normal if you aren't in a major metropolitan area.

California seems to be fairly well mapped out, at least. Even in the boonies I can fire up Go and see outlines of the nearby buildings and the streets.

Of course, being in the boonies means that Pokemon are incredibly rare (I'm lucky to see a single monster in the nearby window, in many cases), but one thing at a time.

[Girlinhat]

Map data appears to be pulled off google maps, and should be fairly complete all over the place.  It's spawns that are placed in particular places.  So with that said, if you're seeing NO terrain whatsoever, even lacking water, that probably means your GPS isn't connecting right, or that the servers are overstressed.