Pokémon Go!

[Pixel]

I'm thinking of getting a new phone at some point that can play it. Does anyone have any recommendations? I've only ever had cheap shitty prepaid nokias, so I don't know anything about data plans or whatever. Do you have to buy the actual phone, or just pay monthly?

/noob

 

[Lex]

I'd advocate for a pay monthly plan in the UK. Buying a decent phone outright can cost about £500 and PAYG SIMs aren't what they used to be. You can get plans that are about £30-£40 per month with no upfront cost for the phone, just make sure it has a 1GB data plan (most do).

As much as I despise Apple, I've had iPhones since the iPhone 4. Currently got the iPhone 6S Plus. They're just smooth and functional. If you want to do anything remotely hackey (like play emulators), go with Android. You can jailbreak the iPhone and do the same thing but it kinda defeats the purpose of having one.

 

[Strangelove]

some contracts will include the cost of the phone in the price, so you'd be paying for the phone monthly along with your regular bill (that's how i got my phone). something like this will probably need a good data plan (it uses google maps so if you download your area's map beforehand it might save on data usage?), but someone who knows more about it can probably tell you more about that. you can get unlimited data plans though, you'd just have to go look at some plans and find one that best suits you.


how does it calculate the distance needed for egg hatching? like, is it the pedometer or does it use gps to track actual distance? can i walk around my house and hatch one? all the cheats talk about turntables and i don't have one of those anymore


also i caught one of those purple spiky round monsters from my house, now i want the purple round ghost that it says are around here

also the professor is kind of hot in a dilf way
hot dad prof

 

[Lex]

I'm pretty sure you need the app open for the distance to count, because I've travelled crazy amounts by foot over the past week and it has literally 0.09km covered. Which is nuts. I think it uses a step counter, I'm unsure. I know you can "cheat" by using a turntable, but I don't have one XD.

 

[Strangelove]

i have managed to get .2 km on a 2km egg

they really ought to change that because having the app open is a dumb idea

 

[Cthulhu]

Spoiler: Story of the or a guy behind the first MMO, everything related to Maps, Ingress, and Pokemonz Go, spanning liek 20 years

 

[Tennyo]

Spoiler: lol

 

[Shademp]

Pokémon GO has been decoded - Lots of data and strategies confirmed

 

[Pixel]

I really like the game so far. I walked about 10 km today, which I wouldnt have without the walk being gamified. Caught 5 Eevees around Belfast castle. I'm not sure where to get rasperries, havent found any yet. Also power saving mode freezes my game, so I cant use that. :/

 

[ultima espio]

When someone uses a Lure and you can't get to it:

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Pokémon GO: why very few people will ever “catch ’em all”

“Once you hit [the] mid 20s, you will start to notice even the most common of Pokémon have an abnormally high chance to evade capture. In no scenario should a 10cp Pidgey/Ratatta/Weedle be able to avoid capture from a lvl 29 Pokémon trainer, much less avoid it 5-8 times in the same battle (no exaggeration).”

Considering the need to use such large numbers of Pokeballs to capture even the most trivial Pokémon, combined with the “astronomically high” XP required, Riggnaros states “From level 29-30 I went through over 1000 Pokeballs. Literally. I cannot stress how ridiculous this would be for someone playing w/o spending coins on Pokeballs (ie playing the game f2p – which is the majority).”

Oof.

That being said, a player in the U.S. has become the first to catch 'em all (sort of).

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Honestly, the only thing worth getting from the store are storage upgrades. I got something like 250 Poké Balls while wandering around downtown today and having extra storage and just ditching other (healing) items you don't need as much helps. I don't really spend much time in Pokémon Gyms aside from just getting a spot to get a little bit of in-game cash.

Basically prioritizing what you want to do helps (catching them all, leveling, fighting at Gyms, etc), and while you CAN level up faster via various tactics, it's probably better to just go about things normally if you just want to collect them.

Insofar as the massive XP curve, Ingress' XP literally doubled every level. It was set to cap at 8, but eventually they opened it up to 16 and people STILL hit it. Leveling is all to give even hardcore players a REALLY high end goal, and it meant that most folks won't get there for a long time, which helps to stretch things out while they build up other big events and things for the game, rather than having the player base run wild with level imbalancing, etc. and running out of things to do.



After my wandering today, I used a Lucky Egg and finally did a bunch of Evolutions I'd been saving and it netted me 29,000 XP in 14 mins, and pushed me up to 21. Ultra Balls theoretically make things easier, but as soon as I hit Lv20 today, I ran into a CP 1053 Clefable. Razz Berry + Ultra Balls = all three broken and it ran away (devastating my excited little heart). Apparently Curve Balls help with your chances, so I've been practicing them and they actually seem to make things easier in almost every respect.

Managed to find a bunch of other cool Pokémon, and I'm now at 90/92 in my Pokédex (because of that Clefable and a 109 Onyx that took a Razz Berry + Great Ball and instantly ran earlier this week).




X

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Getting to LV 20 is obviously not all that difficult. I'm almost to LV 12 with casual play. It's the stuff beyond that (especially after the mid-20s) that's clearly not been planned well.

Also, yes, curve balls help immensely, especially when using Razz Berries. Personally, I never throw anything but curve balls because there's no reason not to (they aren't that difficult with a little practice, and they significantly improve your chances of capture).

 

[Tennyo]

They probably didn't anticipate people would level up so fast.

 

[Shademp]

What is this? A Pidgeot for ants?!

- Sauce

Some of the Pokémon weights and heights are, indeed, just ridiculous.

 

[Pixel]

I guess they have to keep it competitive so new players arent left in the dust. And they can add more pokemon and features while people are still grinding away.

 

[Strangelove]

i only just made it to level 5 but i also haven't left the house since i first downloaded it

there's three pokestops just down the road but i can't reach them by going to the bottom of my garden so. i guess i'm not going to be getting those any time soon

i only managed to hatch this 2km egg by making sure i had the app open when i was walking around the house and sometimes just shaking my phone while i was sat down doing something else

(does the screen need to be on to hatch eggs? because that is the worst idea ever, srsly what were you even thinking when you did that)

 

[Pixel]

There's a power saver mode in settings, but it makes my game freeze when its on, so I dont use it.

 

[AvecAloes]

Yeah, I've been having issues with that lately, too. :/

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Getting to LV 20 is obviously not all that difficult. I'm almost to LV 12 with casual play. It's the stuff beyond that (especially after the mid-20s) that's clearly not been planned well.

I'm curious why you say it hadn't been planned well. It takes a VERY steep curve upwards, but that serves a lot of purpose, and I don't see any reason it's problematic:
• Hardcore players can't swiftly leave others behind, and make Gyms completely unbeatable to newer players. Even the starting stats of Pokémon from Eggs cap at a certain point, which means players bringing up super high CP Pokémon HAVE to rely on grinding and sinking a lot of Stardust into those specific Pokémon, which takes a lot of time.
• Gaining levels doesn't provide any significant benefit to players past Lv 20 with the acquisition of Ultra Balls, so the uptick literally doesn't affect casual players looking to just catch new Pokémon.

Like with Ingress, just because level progress slows down significantly doesn't mean it isn't meant to do that.




X

 

[X-SOLDIER]

SDCC News so far:

• Trading and Customizing Poké Stops is being worked on: https://twitter.com/nerdist/status/757324218425970692
• There're more Easter Eggs like the Eevee hack: https://twitter.com/nerdist/status/757325490096963584
• Team Leaders revealed (wonder what they'll be used for) https://twitter.com/PokemonGoApp/status/757328428169322496



X

 

[Claymore]

Awesome news. I'm still a rookie in this game but would absolutely love to be able to trade. The customizable pokestops is intriguing. I wonder exactly what that entails?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Getting to LV 20 is obviously not all that difficult. I'm almost to LV 12 with casual play. It's the stuff beyond that (especially after the mid-20s) that's clearly not been planned well.

I'm curious why you say it hadn't been planned well.

Because less reward -- or even the same reward -- for more work is poor game design.

Especially when the equivalent of killing a slime/MP/Bite Bug/rat (depending on the game the analogy is being made to) is now suddenly a chore in which it feels like the first obstacle the game presented you with is now capable of decimating your equivalent of a LV 99 party in FFVII.

You can't appeal to the notion of keeping casual players around with that kind of shenanigans going on. They'd say "fuck this" -- I know I would.

EDIT: To summarize, when it stops being where you can throw a Pokéball at a 15 CP Caterpie or a 20 CP Pidgey without a care in the world, the game is fundamentally broken. To say nothing of fun factor.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Getting to LV 20 is obviously not all that difficult. I'm almost to LV 12 with casual play. It's the stuff beyond that (especially after the mid-20s) that's clearly not been planned well.

I'm curious why you say it hadn't been planned well.

Because less reward -- or even the same reward -- for more work is poor game design.

Just to clarify, the actual level rewards are still much, MUCH greater than the previous ones as you progress:

EDIT: To summarize, when it stops being where you can throw a Pokéball at a 15 CP Caterpie or a 20 CP Pidgey without a care in the world, the game is fundamentally broken. To say nothing of fun factor.

To shorten my reply & address your edit: you never stop being able to throw Poké Balls at 15-20 CP things without a care in the world – That doesn't change. I'm always glad to see them, because I know it's just a simple Poké Ball toss away from Stardust, Candy, & XP.

It's the 100-200 CP Pokémon that are the ones you're more commonly running into (at least at my level) and having some more... issues with. They're a lot more annoying because at that point pretty much EVERY Pokémon you already have is going to vastly outclass them, so you're just catching them to trade them to the Professor, but it's much more difficult to do so. So, it does get much harder in that respect, because you're running into higher CP Pokémon more commonly (because your level allows you to), and they're a ballache to catch, despite being vastly below what most of your other Pokémon are, so they feel a little less worth the effort, despite the fact that you would've been more in awe over them earlier.

This is especially because, unlike before, you're likely to just spam Poké Balls at them, because they're not worth the Razz Berries, Great Balls, or Ultra Balls to try to make them an easy catch, because you want to save those for the REALLY tough Pokémon, or the Rare Pokémon.




X

 

[Marcus]

I still enjoy catching Caterpies, Weedles and Pidgeys regardless of their cp because of the aforementioned Stardust, Candy and XP but also because they're easy to evolve which in turn gives you more CP.

Pokémon like Zubats and Spearows have become more of a ballache, especially Zubats as they're an absolute cunt to catch but I still catch them as chances are I'm going to evolve one into a high CP Golbat.

Now, if I could just get some more 10km eggs that would be nice, Only got my second one today and I've been playing it daily for a month.

Also anyone outside the US (more specifically UK) ran into any nests yet?