Any speculation that their lawyers told them it was too risky to have the game give directions where to walk (however indirectly). It's definitely a way to stop ppl from trespassing, for instance, where they could get hurt. Doesn't it also have more use warnings than before, too. That's the only non technical reason I can come up with.
The reason is tracking doesn't work and three steps that do nothing confuses people. when they get tracking working again the steps will be back.
This won't stop trespassing. Now there will be trespassing when the Pokemon isn't even there. Losing the 3 steps doesn't matter much, since it hasn't worked, but losing PokeVision site blows. My nearby only works when I open the app and is completely worthless once I move locations or things start timing out.
Catch rate is way lower and more Pokemon run away. It's impossible to hunt for anything and they banned tracking sites. What the hell happened to this game? It's like the last season Rockets level of garbage right now.
I'm the same level, but I've had so many more Pokemon break out and run in this weekend. Maybe I'm just unlucky right now. Doesn't help that the only to find Pokemon is to camp at lures.
Sorry, I agree with the second part. More seem to run. But it does seem easier to catch possibly because they aren't just breaking out of balls 5-6 times and they just run.
In my post, I asked about any non-technical reasons like legal. So no one is speculating that removing homing directions limits liability? I find that as possible as the technical reasons. Regarding tracking. It works as best as your phone can provide you with your accurate location. Location accuracy is hit and miss. If your location is accurate, figuring out the location and direction of Pokemon is done in phone using the Google S2 library for spheres. The three step glitch is related to invalid Google Map API key. That's all we know. That can be due to several reasons, one could be Google has to track map requests to an ID for billing purposes and hasn't quite solved a scalability issue with Niantic.
I read an article today that they were getting rid of it over concerns of trespassing and entering dangerous areas. I read another that said no official word has been handed down. They definitely are running sooner. So many have ran on one ball, and I don't think I've had more than 3 chances.
People trespassed because the homing directions led them to. Not just trespassing, but the app has other user warnings. With no more distances, you have no means to home in and thus no reason to run across the street or off a cliff. Hehe Hey, mind explaining the last part about nearby doesn't work? It's just a list of Pokemon in your grid now. Are you saying that list looks like it's getting corrupted?
No official word has been given on anything so the first article is all speculation. Not only that, getting rid of tracking is so far ahead of all the things they are doing right now I doubt much thought has been put into it. The only thing they have actively done is get rid of the pointless three footsteps under the Pokemon, told Pokevision to pack it in and added warnings when the game starts.
so the legal speculation is happening. If this sticks, they might later decide to allow companion apps for compasses if they can completely remove themselves from liability to the 3rd party app use
I find it hard a company would abandon a fan fav feature like tracking solely for technical reasons, when it still worked fine (and is very easy), but might have scalability issues ,,, to later turn it back on when running more smoothly. But who knows. Maybe that is the plan, to take something away, to later give it back as a new launch compaign?? Maybe DaDakota can chime in on how common turning off a key game feature is to later turning it back on to great fanfare...versus this being a legal issue.
The catch rate was lowered, try catching a lvl 115 weedle and see how he long it can take. The lower level pokemon run away more often now as well. Niantic wants you to buy more pokeballs hence the change.
that makes no sense. Pokeballs are basically worthless if what you were saying was true. Anyone who buys pokeballs is a sucker. Hit some pokestops.
I think most people buy lures or lucky eggs. Those are the only things that you can't really get at a pokestop.
For me, tracking was nice for the couple of days it worked, but not having it has made me realize how unimportant it is. Most Pokemon are plentiful enough that the actual need for tracking a specific Pokemon is negligible. The rarer Pokemon tend to be so rare that the odds of actually seeing them in the nearby feature is low enough not to make it worth much. Granted, I'm out in Cypress so maybe the rarer Pokemon pop up enough in other areas to make it worth it tracking them down.
Wasn't there a workaround whereby you just restart the app, and the distances came back? regardless, Pokemon is so great, because it has elements of more than one category of games. But the ones that truly set it apart in the Beta release, drove the high user rates, and still has major feature update potential are Geocaching and AR. Sure it has Tactical RPG elements and TCG elements, (can we say some FPS, too???), but so did the console versions of the game, no? I also firmly believe the geocaching/tracking of Pokemon is ripe for cool upgrades, so it isn't just losing this initial pokemon tracking, but giving up on the entire category of features. Geocaching and AR is what makes it so exciting/promising, and AR support is really in infancy vs geocaching. I find it hard to believe they give up on a defining feature unless this is because of Legal...which is sad. I iz sad.
