Peter...No clue. I don't understand how the game works and am too lazy to look up and hunt actively. What I do know is that it is semi fun, it sucks up your battery and the most disappointing thing on the planet is hatching an egg that has a fucking rattata in it.
@liquidsky Gyms and PokesStops were generated by users of an app by the same company called Ingress over a couple years Look up John Hanke for more info
In Ingress, you could submit a place to be registered for a stop from the app. Niantec then decides whether to put it in the game or not. Not sure how they decide on what is a gym or not. From what I heard, spawn rates are changed to a longer redrawn timer than what it used to be (by double) but what spawns where, I don't know. Maybe that github link will mention it...if you feel like digging around.
There's suppose to be a general guideline as to what is suppose to spawn where based on the pokemon type...water pokemon spawn near lakes or beaches, grass pokemon spawn in parks, fire pokemon....ummmm... This is somewhat true because you do see more of a type of pokemon in certain areas, and just less of a chance of other types rather than zero chance. You could argue against that but then why would I see water types in the heart of a dense city. It tells me their loot table lists a lot of pokemon in an area and based on a number of things like player level, time of day, location, and whatever else, the algorithm starts sorting and then it spits out the pokemon. Example: when I was just starting out, I saw tons of Zubats and Pidgeys (but more Zubats). When I hit 18, I saw less Zubats and a bit more variety in my neighborhood. I still see more Zubats than anything else, just not as frequent.
MOST, not all, but most gyms are at churches and post office. there is others... but if you stop by any post office or church 9/10 times it is a gym. (here at least)... usually statues, art installments, fountains, pretty much any nice structure can be a pokestop from what i have seen as well. the data pulled is from years ago though, as there is stops in town at places that were demolished 1-2 years ago.
They really seem to dislike the tracking systems people make. Just read the 2nd generation all got shut down too.
Here it is all random for gyms and such. Most churches or art installations are lures, but gyms are usually landmarks or parks up here. I'm finally over the 100 caught mark, and finally caught a Lickitung so I'm a happy camper. Plus I held down the Seattle Gum Wall gym for a bit today.
Yeah which is strange. If their tracking system worked.... I wouldn't want to use other systems. I'm still getting Pokemon that move from 9th to 1st then disappear, which is aggravating to say the least.
^^ More I think about it, that seems to be what it's about. Apparently if you were using one of them, it proved how useless the in game tracking is.
@liquidsky Yeah they all came from Niantic's previous Augmented Reality game Ingress which has been out for years. They're user generated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_(video_game)
Yep, the GitHub trackers are down thanks to a change in Niantic's API. Also the game scans the area for Pokemon on the map every 10 seconds now, which means if you're in a car you can drive by a Pokemon and not even know. I know they're trying to frazzle bots and trackers, but they're hurting players who are playing 100% fair. The complaints on the POGO subreddit from people who play while biking, riding the train, riding on a bus, or skateboarding are upsetting.
Tracking should definitely be Niantics number one priority, but who the hell could say since they don't have a community adviser and never say anything. The game has the potential to be one of the greatest achievements in gaming history, though it seems they might royally F it up.
Agreed 100%. The game in nearly unplayable in my area without tracking... Today I caught Weedles, Pidgeys, and Spearows. My prize catch was a Shellder. Meanwhile on the "nearby list" I saw Slowpoke, Squirtle, Goldeen, all these Pokemon I need for evolutions...
Yup, I had a Seel and two ghastlys. I need exactly two to get a Gengar...... Again from 7th and 8th position to 1st and 3rd and then gone. I walked for nothing
No idea what's going on. The tracker has never "worked" for me, but in the past if something I wanted showed up on the nearby list I'd just walk to all my known spawn spots. There's a few each by my house, and office. No matter what spot it was in on the nearby list I'd find it, and almost always it'd be in the middle as opposed to the first spot on the tracker. Now that doesn't work at all. Tried for a Nidorina at work, and a Scyther at home each to no avail. At least I put the last 4km on a 5km egg looking for Scyther. Just can't understand how they were blessed with such a smash hit, yet are actively trying to ruin it.
You know, Niantic has started to release some pertinent information and respond to public reaction about the changes -- many of the questions you guys are asking have been answered this week. For instance, they're shutting down all second party apps and sites that scrape their data because it was straining their servers such that they couldn't roll out the app in other countries (Brazil in time for the olympics).
I'm still trying to find an excuse to drag the boyfriendal unit over to Danbury, so then I can conveniently suggest we visit their park full of crazy Pokemon spawns...
I turned mine off until Sunday until my husband gets back from Gen Con, since he's using it while there, and he's finding tons of neat stuff we can't find here ;O; (Indianapolis)
Would you link that please? Found a Poliwhirl getting coffee this morning. First new jawn in a few days, but just completely random as it was not on the nearby list at all. Game has kind of turned into hold my phone while I walk places to hatch my egg, hit pokéstops if I pass them, and just maybe something cool will pop up every once in a while.
I don't buy the server drain honestly. If it were a drain issue, and they forced everyone to stop, why hasn't the game simply been fixed yet? They want to roll it out to new countries, but not even fix the issues for everyone else? Seems farfetch'd to me.
