Pokemon: GO

[Sudo_Nym]

So when do I get to actually encounter wild pokemon? Because I've been checking everywhere I go all day, and all I can figure is that Pokemon Go has decided there are no pokemon within 10 miles of my house, which would seem to make the game very pointless.

[Sudo_Nym]

They do show up in my nearby. They just never actually appear on my screen.

[Sudo_Nym]

They do show up in my nearby. They just never actually appear on my screen.

do you ever see any tufts of shaking grass

No. There's a spinner thing about three miles away, but no gyms or shaking grass visible anywhere.

[Sudo_Nym]

So I found some rustling grass near work. Spent my break walking around in it, but nothing popped up. So what do I have to do to actually encounter a pokemon?

[Sudo_Nym]

I feel like if I walk around for 10 minutes, and nothing comes up, that's basically the same as "nothing is nearby".

[Sudo_Nym]

This game is unfriendly to suburb dwellers

[Sudo_Nym]

So, I looked at cabd's graphic, and it doesn't provide instructions for what to do when everything in your nearby is at the footprints and remains at three the footprints after half an hour of walking.

[Sudo_Nym]

So, it doesn't matter whether I'm at work or at home, I have to be prepared to walk at least a kilometer to even maybe of a chance of potentially encountering a pokemon?

[Sudo_Nym]

How do I get incense? There are no pokestops near me, either.

[Sudo_Nym]

No, but most games rent server space from companies like Amazon that rent out their servers when not using them. You anticipate a huge launch, you temporarily rent out some extra servers, players flake out after launch, you ramp down. The options are available, they chose not to bother.

[Sudo_Nym]

At least you've been allowed to see a Pokémon.

[Sudo_Nym]

Wait, so you get candies for transferring pokemon to the professor?

[Sudo_Nym]

Not quite an accident, but still a weird thing that occured during Pokemon Go.

[Sudo_Nym]

If I evolve a pokemon, do I then need candies of the base type or the new type to power up/evolve it? I caught a lot of weedles on my walk today; if I evovle it, do I then need Kakuna candies, or can I still use Weedle candies?

[Sudo_Nym]

See, I didn't know that! Is there an evolution strategy, or should I just evolve whenever?

[Sudo_Nym]

I have a Flameon!!!!!!!!!!!

You mean Flareon, scrublord?

[Sudo_Nym]

I've seriously considered switching to buses to up my game.

[Sudo_Nym]

My entire neighborhood is apparently just Weedles and Pidgeys. Went to the closest thing Hazel Dell has to a downtown, caught some Eevees and Ghastlys there.

Finally hit level 5, have to figure out how gym battling works.

[Sudo_Nym]

Anyone found Mewtwo yet?

[Sudo_Nym]

Came to work today to find a gym had been added in front of my office. The engineering nerds I work with immediately took it over.

[Sudo_Nym]

Urgent news update: Gym in front of my office has been stolen by Instinct assholes. One of them has a 2000 CP Snorlax, the fuckers.

[Sudo_Nym]

Went to the park today, thinking that'd be a good place to look for pokemon. Nearby was literally empty across the entire park.

[Sudo_Nym]

No time now, but I think next time I pick a destination for pokemon hunting, I'll choose the mall.

[Sudo_Nym]

Am I missing out by not trying to press gyms? What if I don't want to be the very best, like no one ever was? What if catching them is my quest, and training them I could take or leave?

[Sudo_Nym]

So as far as I can tell, of the 151, the only Pokémon that haven't been found yet are Ditto and the 5 Legendaries, I think?

[Sudo_Nym]

And Tentacruel is OU tier, so watch out.

[Sudo_Nym]

I think most Pokemon have evolution states, but there are several that don't. Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee both are one-stage (although they got a pre-evo later), Tauros is one-stage as well. All the legendaries, also.

[Sudo_Nym]

I'm yet to find any electric, fire, or fighting types. Where do they spawn?

[Sudo_Nym]

Magmar and Electabuzz got pre-evos, though. Baby forms so that Pichu wouldn't be the only one of those.

[Sudo_Nym]

It worked for me with both Flareon and Vaporeon. Still a few candies away from trying it with Jolteon.

[Sudo_Nym]

My last few eggs have given me like 20 candies. Is that normal? I remember only getting ~10 candies with eggs before this, so maybe it was increased? I'm not complaining, at any rate.

[Sudo_Nym]

Why is Golduck called that when he is blue? Also, why isn't Golduck a Water/Psychic type?

[Sudo_Nym]

Golduck may be a combination of gold and duck. While Golduck itself is not colored gold, gold is often used in the Pokémon canon to symbolize the Psychic type: the Gold Gummi is the Gummi variety loved by Psychic-type Pokémon, and the Marsh Badge's Japanese name is "Gold Badge".

Golduck isn't a psychic type, though.

[Sudo_Nym]

Sudo now has 2 Pikachu. You don't have 2 Pikachus. If greatness is measured by number of Pikachus owned, then Sudo is the greatest.

[Sudo_Nym]

I learned it from a reddit thread, which suggested that it only works 100% with the first use of each name. After that, it's like 80% of success.

Speaking of supposed easter eggs and rumors, has anybody else tried out the upside-down catch? Supposedly, if you turn your phone upside-down (with the receiver to the floor) your catch rate goes up. I definitely have a better catch rate doing this, but it's certainly not 100%, and I can't guarantee that it's statistically significant.

[Sudo_Nym]

Sudo now has 2 Pikachu. You don't have 2 Pikachus. If greatness is measured by number of Pikachus owned, then Sudo is the greatest.

sry man i have 5 pikachu

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sudo_Nym]

I think psyche was making reference to the fact that Pokevision already exists.

[Sudo_Nym]

And I was not aware that you were not aware of that.

[Sudo_Nym]

I feel like I might actually know less, if that factors in.

[Sudo_Nym]

I think there was Poke Radar, but I think Niantic went after that, too.

[Sudo_Nym]

That's one of the reasons why there was such uproar against Pokevision getting taken down- people using that site but otherwise playing legitimately get punished, but the people who are gps spoofing and using bots to capture pokemon while they sleep are not getting punished.

[Sudo_Nym]

I feel like, given the lack of any sort of reasonable in-game tracking, it's acceptable cheating, at the worst. I'm still going out and actually walking to the pokemon, which is the essence of the game.

[Sudo_Nym]

Whenever I see a member of Team Instinct, I assume they had a sudden seizure on the team selection screen.

[Sudo_Nym]

Reck knows what's up.

[Sudo_Nym]

I play this game too. Am I allowed to post pictures?

No.

[Sudo_Nym]

Does the Halloween event include putting any of the tracking services back online?

[Sudo_Nym]

3330 6024 9856

I'm back in.

[Sudo_Nym]

So what's the deal with Raids/Trades/all the other new features I haven't seen since I stopped playing in 2016?

[Sudo_Nym]

So a Raid is just a bunch of people teaming up on a pokemon like in a battle? And then you can throw a pokeball at it?

Also, I live in an area without a ton of people. Can a raid be done solo?

[Sudo_Nym]

I have an alolan ninetails

[Sudo_Nym]

I walked around all day on Zapdos day, going from gym to gym, and didn't get a single Zapdos. I did get a 100% IV sunglasses Pichu, though.

[Sudo_Nym]

How do you get Ex-Raid passes?

[Sudo_Nym]

I mean that I went to the part of town that has like 5 gyms near each other; waiting for a Zapdos raid to trigger in one of them, and not one all day. Didn't even see a Zapdos. There was a Makahitu raid and a Alolan Raichu raid and a Registeel raid, but no Zapdos raids.

[Sudo_Nym]

Did you guys go at the wrong time maybe? It was only for 3 hours.

Possibly, but I got out of the house as soon as I was reasonably able to, and stayed out all day, so I'm pretty upset if I was screwed by timezones.

[Sudo_Nym]

So what exactly is the gameplay reason why raids don't just give you the pokemon? Because I don't have a group, so getting a difficult raid involves getting lucky enough to stumble upon a group already going for it; so when I do manage to take down a legendary and then don't get it because it breaks out of 10 Golden Razz+Curveball throws, it kind feels like I just got dicked over for no reason.

[Sudo_Nym]

Because I don't have a group, so getting a difficult raid involves getting lucky enough to stumble upon a group already going for it

Is your area not organized on Discord or something similar?

I have no idea. None of my friends play, and the only group in my city that I know of is the yellow teamers that drive through to take over all the gyms every two days or so, then a bunch of random solo guys. If there's a meetup group, I don't know about it, and wouldn't know how to find it except to get lucky on Google.

[Sudo_Nym]

Other than raiding, though, what does being in a group really do? Even solo, taking down gyms is pretty easy. Am I supposed to be trading?

[Sudo_Nym]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was, either. Finding them and getting involved is the hard part, though.

[Sudo_Nym]

I'm up in Vancouver now, so I'm across a state line but I'm still closer to Portland than Tigard is.

[Sudo_Nym]

I'm still super not into getting dicked over on raids. Just did another one, threw 12 "excellent" golden-razz curveballs, all 12 got immediately broken out of. I feel like if I do everything in my power to catch a pokemon, and get fucked because of the dice, maybe it's just not a good game.

[Sudo_Nym]

I know this is retreading old ground, but the "Passing all the skill gates on a raid, but you don't get the Pokémon because the RNG said Fuck You" is getting super old, and I started off hating it.

[Sudo_Nym]

I know this is retreading old ground, but the "Passing all the skill gates on a raid, but you don't get the Pokémon because the RNG said Fuck You" is getting super old, and I started off hating it.

It's weird, I haven't had this much trouble with those.

Are you using golden raspberries?

Golden raspberries and curveball throws, and Regirock is still bouncing out of the balls. I've now thrown just over thirty pokeballs at Regirock from three different raids, each one a curveball with a goldn razz, and still no catch.

[Sudo_Nym]

I get that it's random. My point is that being random to start with is bullshit.

[Sudo_Nym]

First of all, I disagree that throwing pokeballs is a "Challenge."

Second of all, the idea that you throw pokeballs to get pokemon is fine for pokemon that appear randomly on the map, because they have no barrier other than walking around until you find them. Raid pokemon do have a gate, though, which is that you have to beat the raid. Beating the raid is the challenge, especially for a guy like me who has to first travel to an area that has gyms, hope that one of the gyms has a raid, and that there's another group there I can latch onto to get past the raid. To then follow up that with "Well, you beat the actual challenge, now you have to hope the RNG is in your favor!" is an unnecessary annoyance, not a "bonus challenge."

[Sudo_Nym]

You're right, it's clearly my fault for living in a suburb with no other players. Niantic is right to screw me over for not living near where they put their gyms.

[Sudo_Nym]

If it doesn't make me want to kill myself, Psyche, is it even worth playing?

[Sudo_Nym]

I don't see what "There's groups in your area!" has to do with my argument that "RNG shouldn't exist on a skill-gated encounter".

[Sudo_Nym]

You're right, it's clearly my fault for living in a suburb with no other players.

I'm just responding to ^

I appreciate it, and I appreciate you sending me the link to the Portland discord, even though they don't appear to have a Vancouver group (or I'm blind). I can look into joining a group, but I'll still be annoyed every time I take down a Regirock and get screwed by RNG.

Because as part of your argument you detail how labor intensive it is for you to get to the encounter in the first place, and for the player playing the game with a community as the developers intended, this is not an issue. Getting legendaries, and getting multiple legendaries, is easy, and the RNG is a little inconvenient at most. Ergo, the solution to your problem is to get in with your community.

Part of my argument is labor intensiveness in getting to that point, but even still, it's bullshit to slap both a skill gate and then RNG on getting the legendaries. Niantic knows very well that not every player is going to have the ability, time, or location to get in with a community, so basing their game on the assumption that everybody can and will is a bullshit argument. I don't have a problem with them making Regirock difficult to take down, or impossible to solo. I'm only asking that they don't punish me when I do manage to take it down, which I feel is perfectly reasonable.

[Sudo_Nym]

Part of my argument is labor intensiveness in getting to that point, but even still, it's bullshit to slap both a skill gate and then RNG on getting the legendaries. Niantic knows very well that not every player is going to have the ability, time, or location to get in with a community, so basing their game on the assumption that everybody can and will is a bullshit argument. I don't have a problem with them making Regirock difficult to take down, or impossible to solo. I'm only asking that they don't punish me when I do manage to take it down, which I feel is perfectly reasonable.

But I'm saying that the way that you are trying to play is not the way Niantic wants you to play, and thus, they won't cater to play-styles like yours.

So Niantic wants to fuck over players who don't or can't find groups to play with, is your argument?

[Sudo_Nym]

I caught Mewtwo!

Congrats! On adjacent topic, I got Ho-Oh!

[Sudo_Nym]

Got a Shiny Ho-oh. And it's sexy as fuck.

Damn, congrats!

[Sudo_Nym]

So is there a distance limitation on trading? And is there anybody who wants to trade me something cool to complete the Celebi quest?

[Sudo_Nym]

Man, socializing is bullshit.

[Sudo_Nym]

So I found a group and went to the park, and did five Moltres raids. 50 pokeballs later I still have no Moltres to show for it. Maybe it's the depression talking, but I think I may actually kill myself.

[Sudo_Nym]

Yes, yes, and yes. I threw curveballs and used golden razz. Didn't always get great/excellent, though. Getting a group made passing the raid part easy but I'm still pretty upset that I don't have a Moltres.

[Sudo_Nym]

I have my fire, flying, and legendary medals (thanks Raikou).

[Sudo_Nym]

Went to Officer's Row, got an Articuno and two Zapdos. Still no Moltres.

[Sudo_Nym]

I've got a Kangaskhan, still looking for Mime and Farfetch'd, but I got a few 7km eggs in super incubators, so hopefully they pop. Still waiting on Moltres and Mewtwo, and then I've got a bunch of random pokemon that don't seem to spawn anywhere near me that I'll have to hunt for. I should also be able to pop my Mew quest today with a few berries, and I'm only about 30 grass/psychics away from completing the Celebi quest, so things are going pretty good.

[Sudo_Nym]

Niantic is claiming that it's a "teaser", not a "leak." Not sure if that's just a saving throw on their part, though.

[Sudo_Nym]

Frankly, inexcusable negligence by Niantic. I hope somebody was fired for this.

[Sudo_Nym]

Frankly, inexcusable negligence by Niantic. I hope somebody was fired for this.

Oh, is this the part where you try to save face by acting like you were joking all along?

No, I wasn't joking all along, only just now. That said, the original story I heard was that ditto appearing as the next mystic pokemon was a bug, and it only became apparent later that it was planned. So really, I'm not stupid because I thought it was a bug, I'm stupid because I trusted reddit.

[Sudo_Nym]

I propose that we have no cap, and you all stop being big babies about everything.