I've basically stopped playing, it doesn't fit into my lifestyle and I'm not willing to change my lifestyle for the sake of this, not all that great game. Basically there's never a time in my life where it's easy and convenient to stock up on items like pokeballs
I don't live in walking distance of any pokestops and I only work within walking distance of one. The game became rationing the few pokeballs I had and weighing whether the pokemon I was looking at was worth the balls it would take to catch. That's not fun. I don't live in a place where I can go anywhere without a car and I'm not making special car trips for a f2p app.
Lucky Eggs seem to be the only thing worth buying, though?
I don't actually need any lucky eggs at the moment, since I only use them when doing an evolution blitz and those are pretty rare. (I'm level 21, have blitzed twice, have three eggs left.)
So what's a good purchase? I'm thinking of saving for the backpack upgrade, as that's the only limit I've run into so far.
Possibly incubators. Hatching eggs is one of the better sources of both XP and candies, with a decent chance of adding something new to your pokedex, too. If you care about leveling, time them so they all hatch at the same time and pop a lucky egg just before that happens.
Backpack upgrades are a nice convenience, but probably not super necessary if you keep your stash of revives and regular potions near zero.
I'm super unimpressed with my egg hatching results, and hatching is worth peanuts compared to evolving. Perhaps it works out better if you have a lot of incubators? I don't keep close enough track to time the hatching (I'm biking half of the time).
I seem to oscillate between running out of pokeballs and having a full backpack. I think I'd rather have a permanent upgrade to backpack—assuming that's still a problem—rather than an ephemeral, 3-use incubator.
I'm curious to know if the potential hatched pokemon are of even statistical likelihood. I'm still in the market for 50% of what could potentially hatch from any of the three egg types, yet feel I'm let down more than 50% of the time.
Well pokeballs are an item that you're not ignoring if you're trying to catch them all, even vaguely.
I live in a city. If I take my phone out for five minutes anytime I walk anywhere ever, I'll get enough balls to catch whatever I want. I have like 100 balls right now just from occasionally, idly, hitting stops just for said balls while I'm sitting in my office or walking somewhere for lunch.
Ah, lucky you, I'll just keep my ear to the ground to get me some of that city monies. I could already commute there if I wanted. Just gotta get the fancy job.
The Plus adds features taht should be in the app to begin with (namely, background tracking of eggs/buddy pokemon). If someone gave me one for free, or it went on sale for fairly cheap, I'd throw it in my pocket and keep it charged.
the thing just uses a CR2032 coin battery, so no need to charge it. I agree that it's insane that walking tracking isn't built in to your phone or existing smart watches/fitness trackers. Walking long distances with the app open is annoying at best.
My usage of the app has fallen off immensely, but I'll keep it installed and pop it open when I go somewhere interesting or when I walk my dog.
On one of the GeekNights episodes, Rym, you mentioned your runs not counting because you were going too fast? The cutoff for the app is 20 mile per hour, so I think something else was going on. I've heard of people who had long distances not count because the app checks distance infrequently. For instance, running on a track basically doesn't count. All about dem straight lines.
The app updates your location roughly every 5 minutes, and uses a straight line between update points to determine the distance you traveled. So the location tracking is pretty shit.
Well, except for your buddy, actually. It seems to update the buddy walking distance more frequently than the egg walking distance.
20 mph is 1760 feet per minute. If it updates every 5 minutes. Your best bet is to move exactly 8800 (or 8799) feet in under 5 minutes, then stay still until it updates. Then repeat.
The only problem there is GPS reliability. If it loses your signal, you may jump around, and you'll get the "you're going too fast" message. It doesn't log your distance if you went too fast at any point in that update window, AFAIK.
It's definitely best to walk in a straight line for the exact duration of the tracking window. That would be maximum efficiency. Circles are terrible.
I got a lame wrist strap thing so I could play without having to carry or pocket my phone. It's like having a power rangers watch thing. I now want to yu-gi-oh duel people and send them to the shadow realm.
I ran several 10ks over long linear distances with the app running and got negligible tracking on my eggs. That was when I basically stopped with the eggs forever.
It was not 20 mph. It was 20kph. That's a HUGE difference. Units are important. However, it seems they have reduced it in subsequent updates, so it's probably even lower than that.
I am totally on board with the "the app is a buggy piece of crap" line of logic, but I had assumed the walking cutoff would be tied to the "you are going too fast" alert. I can tell you that as recently as ~2 weeks ago, the speed alert would pop up immediately as soon as car reached 20mph (my wife was driving, I'm not one of *those people*). It did this multiple times, always at exactly 20mph.
Following its latest update, if the game detects that you’re in a vehicle traveling at more than 30 mph (48 km/h), Pokémon will stop appearing in your area.
Following its latest update, if the game detects that you’re in a vehicle traveling at more than 30 mph (48 km/h), Pokémon will stop appearing in your area.
I guess their clever idea of making people tap a button to prove they aren't driving didn't work out the way they'd hoped.
Liability. American legal system will go after Niantic if someone crashes while trying to catch a Poke. Because apparently people making stupid decisions is not a good enough place to stop the blame train.
Comments
I don't live in walking distance of any pokestops and I only work within walking distance of one. The game became rationing the few pokeballs I had and weighing whether the pokemon I was looking at was worth the balls it would take to catch. That's not fun. I don't live in a place where I can go anywhere without a car and I'm not making special car trips for a f2p app.
Backpack upgrades are a nice convenience, but probably not super necessary if you keep your stash of revives and regular potions near zero.
But definitely backpack upgrades if you frequent Pokestops and keep collecting the all the items.
I seem to oscillate between running out of pokeballs and having a full backpack. I think I'd rather have a permanent upgrade to backpack—assuming that's still a problem—rather than an ephemeral, 3-use incubator.
I like hatching eggs because of dust and more candy for the types that I really need candy for.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Comics/Pa-comics/n-xmQS5/i-GHwRVsq/0/2100x20000/i-GHwRVsq-2100x20000.jpg
My usage of the app has fallen off immensely, but I'll keep it installed and pop it open when I go somewhere interesting or when I walk my dog.
On one of the GeekNights episodes, Rym, you mentioned your runs not counting because you were going too fast? The cutoff for the app is 20 mile per hour, so I think something else was going on. I've heard of people who had long distances not count because the app checks distance infrequently. For instance, running on a track basically doesn't count. All about dem straight lines.
Well, except for your buddy, actually. It seems to update the buddy walking distance more frequently than the egg walking distance.
It's definitely best to walk in a straight line for the exact duration of the tracking window. That would be maximum efficiency. Circles are terrible.
Also I guess my friend recorded a podcast with me and we kinda talked about the game, though it's pretty garbage. http://onyxedgestudios.com/the-high-files/2016/09/16/the-tao-of-pokemon-go/
Same night I later got punched in the face by strangers.
Those runs were tracked just fine by Strava.