We really need a mechanic that helps us find other local players. Everything currently is so restrictive that it's near impossible to find others unless you already know them.
I definitely do not condone, in any way, the ability to track other players or locate them on the map. I actually don't even condone a general chat function (like in Ingress). But we're not even allowed (on these forums) to discuss specific social media groups. And then there are those who don't even have/use FaceBook (as an example).
In short, there's no base networking platform implemented. Might I suggest, at the very least, Fortresses in various areas with "rally flags" or something that indicates to others in that area, "Hey! This is a good place to meet!"?
Also, a mechanic for being able to communicate with those on your friends list would assist (again - not a general chat function... friendslist only).
While I COMPLETELY understand the CYA aspect of these forums and of the game as a whole, we need to put some ideas out there about how to streamline the networking aspect or simply not call it "Community" day.
This felt like a more appropriate place for your feedback since it's definitely focused on the improvement to the app. When it comes to finding other local players, there's a whole subsection of this community dedicated to posting local meetup groups and events, in case you haven't explored there or started a post for your local area, that might be a good place to start. Many other players look to Slack, Discord or Telegram chats, Facebook groups, local subreddits, etc. to organize their local groups.
Regarding your idea about "Rally Flags," this is already sort of implemented already. A Fortress and Greenhouse that's being used will light up green on your Map for ~15 min after someone has engaged with it. This could be a good way to locate other players especially on this upcoming Community Day.
Hey @HPWUMicah - Definitely a better place but was replying in real time. You get it. hehe
I'm aware of that subforum but it doesn't really help whittle down to locale. It's kind of a hodge-podge.
I COMPLETELY understand and agree the outside sources. The problem is that with the restrictiveness of these forums, it's kinda tough to know when we've crossed a TOS line. Like, is it ok for me to say "Contact me on Twitter at: __"? or would that be considered not game related and therefore "warning worthy"? I try really hard to follow the ToS but sometimes I honestly just don't know.
As for the Fortress thing... I TOTALLY get that. I've actually been trying to use that as an indicator, but it's not effective. I get there and there's no one there. What I meant by "rally flag" was the possibility of implementing an indicator for community day only as a MAIN fortress (ideally in the most "dense" area) so that players could say "Oh. Ok. That's where the majority of people are going to meet" regardless of fortress interaction. With that said, I'm definitely not naive to the infrastructure that would entail. I don't think it's feasible for this upcoming event, but something that could be discussed with devs on how to implement something like that (with player input) for the future.
It would be REALLY helpful to have an adequate OFFICIAL map (much like Ingress Intel map) because I'm finding it MUCH more difficult to find others in my area with this game than I ever did with Ingress.
I think it's worthy of brainstorming with the understanding that nothing like that can/will be implemented before the 08-10 event. Thoughts?
I would love some updates like @Craeft is mentioning. I mostly solo fortresses because I simply have no choice. There’s no way to contact local players to say meet here at this time. Even locals who I now have on my friends list in game. While I’m ready for this coming community day, I don’t know if I’ll get to enjoy the community perks.
Counter-Question: how did the local Pokemon-Communities came to be - given that that game ALSO has no official maps, no ingame chat, no "there's currently another player here" (aside from "lock modules")?
That being said, @Morgana4 makes a good point. Reaching out to others AND being available to being reached out to should always be a choice. Whichever feature is used to connect people should always only connect those who WANT TO connect while allowing those who don't want to to be left alone.
@Lucoire - I don't think anyone said, indicated, or otherwise implied that any type of contact should be forced on anyone. The only purpose of the map is to locate POIs and route plan. It's simple, let's take the fortress flagging idea. Flag it both on the in-game fortress avatar (heck, a literal flag is fine) and on the map. Then the person who wants to continue alone on community day sees it and says, "Ok... I'll skip that one for the next 3 hours." But, as people are so fond of pointing out to me when I ask for something to make the gameplay better for disabled people (I get told, "this game is to get out and exercise and walk) and even though I typically prefer to just head out on my own, one could easily say a main point of this game is community interaction. While I agree with that point, I also don't think it should be forced upon everyone. In fact, I wish they'd remove the "Complete 3 with 3 others" achievement.
As for PoGo - It had a much bigger community pool so statistically, people were more likely to meet. It didn't require the use of the primary resource (pokeballs / spell energy) at gyms so people were more likely to stay longer thereby increasing the likelihood of interaction, when there was a battle going on at a gym the indicator (battle animation above gym) was real time, people left pokemon at gyms and were told when their pokemon were being attacked ( a secondary real time layer of indication), resource allocation was more efficient (gyms and pokestops gave pokeballs) reducing the number of stops a player had to go between just to be able to play thereby, in turn, condensing the area in which players could meet.
Agreed to all the comments here re finding local/friends/groups, especially for community day. AZ Scottsdale here and have yet to find anyone to meet/group up or even randomly find at fortresses.... about to hit Lvl 27 Auror and can’t imagine where I might be had I had some group assistance. I mean, this IS wizards “UNITE”, right? lol :)
@PsychoCPA - Off-topic... I'm jealous of you. I worked for an entertainment company in Tempe for a while (back in 07) and designed lights for Three Dog Night in Scottsdale. I so miss it down there.
Back on topic... understanding the need to maintain privacy and protect player security, there has to be a way to allow others to get together and meet up that doesn't hold Niantic liable. Personally, I think the best way is here on the forums, but not everyone knows about the forums or cares about game forums.
@Craeft I somewhat disagree on the "PoGO didn't have resources to manage"-notion. Pokemon has Potions, Revive-Items... and those ABSOLUTELY limit your ability to fight an enemy gym for longer amounts of time. And in the beginning of PoGO there was absolutely a lack of both potions and revive-items - a theme that was significantly reduced once people had a bigger inventory.
In short, no. PoGO had a similar issue as WU-Energy.
But you're right in a similar regard. PoGO had a bigger audience. In my Area the PoGO-Community was founded by a core of Ingress-Players who created some form of "Business cards" to advertise a Community-Platform. And the WU-Community was built on the already successful PoGO platform. Both of those tendencies grew based on actually meeting people BY ACCIDENT.
I didn't say that it didn't have resources to manage... but they were all a lot easier to come by than they are in WU and usage was less (again gym/pokeballs vs. fortress/energy).
Now, maybe. In the beginning, they were not "easier to come by". And again, the resource to use at gyms isn't pokeballs but POTIONS and BERRIES. Get your facts strait.
You didn't need pokeballs to operate in a gym (nor did you technically need potions or berries - except the occasional health and/or revive). Whereas with WU, you need energy.
In addition, you could get pokeballs from gyms (unlike WU where you can't get energy from fortresses)
Amen @Craeft! So sick of scrolling to post after post in this forum and reading @Lucoire berate yet another person with his superiority complex.
@HPWUMicah@HPWULola Can the admins please look into this? Idk how useful it is to flag another person’s comments but @Lucoire has been extremely condescending to multiple users on various discussions and continues to do so unchecked. He seems to consider his opinions superior by default because he is “high level” and disregards any statements or suggestions made by “low level” wizards and witches. It’s insulting to continue being dismissed by someone who has designated himself as an expert and looks down upon all others in the forums.
@Craeft To catch pokemon in the wild, you need Pokeballs and (maybe) berries. Pokeballs are easy to come by and have been easy to come by since the launch of the game.
To defeat enemy faction gyms you need pokemon of sufficient strength, potions (as you can't put pokemon into gyms that aren't at full health) and (maybe) revives - as well as (maybe) Berries to feed your Pokemon once they're in the Gym to help them defend. Potions of sufficient strength and revives (especially in the beginning) have been quite rare. Berries have been somewhat rare (compared to Pokeballs)... so of the 4 Resources of Pokemon GO, only Pokeballs are easy to come by - while Potions, Revives and Berries aren't.
In WU you need Energy for both "Trace"-Encounters as well as Fortresses (and maybe potions). And Energy is provided by EVERY building except for Fortresses.
WU only has 2 resource to manage (Energy and Potions), while PoGO has 4 (Pokeballs, Potions, Revives, Berries) - pretty much all of those resources depend on the density of POI in your area.
As for the "get your facts strait", I'd like to apologize. I seem to have misunderstood your point... and I still don't fully understand it.
As for the "finding local players"... I'm undecided about that. On one hand, the game needs a "local" community that supports each other, on the other hand, the game is about the "statute of secrecy" and keeping the wizarding world a secret - so it would somewhat contradict itself if it made "reaching out to muggles" too easy.
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We really need a mechanic that helps us find other local players. Everything currently is so restrictive that it's near impossible to find others unless you already know them.
I definitely do not condone, in any way, the ability to track other players or locate them on the map. I actually don't even condone a general chat function (like in Ingress). But we're not even allowed (on these forums) to discuss specific social media groups. And then there are those who don't even have/use FaceBook (as an example).
In short, there's no base networking platform implemented. Might I suggest, at the very least, Fortresses in various areas with "rally flags" or something that indicates to others in that area, "Hey! This is a good place to meet!"?
Also, a mechanic for being able to communicate with those on your friends list would assist (again - not a general chat function... friendslist only).
While I COMPLETELY understand the CYA aspect of these forums and of the game as a whole, we need to put some ideas out there about how to streamline the networking aspect or simply not call it "Community" day.
Hi there @Craeft,
This felt like a more appropriate place for your feedback since it's definitely focused on the improvement to the app. When it comes to finding other local players, there's a whole subsection of this community dedicated to posting local meetup groups and events, in case you haven't explored there or started a post for your local area, that might be a good place to start. Many other players look to Slack, Discord or Telegram chats, Facebook groups, local subreddits, etc. to organize their local groups.
Regarding your idea about "Rally Flags," this is already sort of implemented already. A Fortress and Greenhouse that's being used will light up green on your Map for ~15 min after someone has engaged with it. This could be a good way to locate other players especially on this upcoming Community Day.
Hope that helps!
Hey @HPWUMicah - Definitely a better place but was replying in real time. You get it. hehe
I'm aware of that subforum but it doesn't really help whittle down to locale. It's kind of a hodge-podge.
I COMPLETELY understand and agree the outside sources. The problem is that with the restrictiveness of these forums, it's kinda tough to know when we've crossed a TOS line. Like, is it ok for me to say "Contact me on Twitter at: __"? or would that be considered not game related and therefore "warning worthy"? I try really hard to follow the ToS but sometimes I honestly just don't know.
As for the Fortress thing... I TOTALLY get that. I've actually been trying to use that as an indicator, but it's not effective. I get there and there's no one there. What I meant by "rally flag" was the possibility of implementing an indicator for community day only as a MAIN fortress (ideally in the most "dense" area) so that players could say "Oh. Ok. That's where the majority of people are going to meet" regardless of fortress interaction. With that said, I'm definitely not naive to the infrastructure that would entail. I don't think it's feasible for this upcoming event, but something that could be discussed with devs on how to implement something like that (with player input) for the future.
It would be REALLY helpful to have an adequate OFFICIAL map (much like Ingress Intel map) because I'm finding it MUCH more difficult to find others in my area with this game than I ever did with Ingress.
I think it's worthy of brainstorming with the understanding that nothing like that can/will be implemented before the 08-10 event. Thoughts?
I would love some updates like @Craeft is mentioning. I mostly solo fortresses because I simply have no choice. There’s no way to contact local players to say meet here at this time. Even locals who I now have on my friends list in game. While I’m ready for this coming community day, I don’t know if I’ll get to enjoy the community perks.
We also need an "Introverts Day" to celebrate the happy loners and shy players that prefer to take on fortresses alone.
We are out there in huge numbers but you'll never see us as we hide behind trees, park benches and play under the cover of darkness at 2am.
Please? 🥺
@Morgana4 considering how hard it is to find other players, isn't everyday an introvert day? 😁
Counter-Question: how did the local Pokemon-Communities came to be - given that that game ALSO has no official maps, no ingame chat, no "there's currently another player here" (aside from "lock modules")?
That being said, @Morgana4 makes a good point. Reaching out to others AND being available to being reached out to should always be a choice. Whichever feature is used to connect people should always only connect those who WANT TO connect while allowing those who don't want to to be left alone.
@Lucoire - I don't think anyone said, indicated, or otherwise implied that any type of contact should be forced on anyone. The only purpose of the map is to locate POIs and route plan. It's simple, let's take the fortress flagging idea. Flag it both on the in-game fortress avatar (heck, a literal flag is fine) and on the map. Then the person who wants to continue alone on community day sees it and says, "Ok... I'll skip that one for the next 3 hours." But, as people are so fond of pointing out to me when I ask for something to make the gameplay better for disabled people (I get told, "this game is to get out and exercise and walk) and even though I typically prefer to just head out on my own, one could easily say a main point of this game is community interaction. While I agree with that point, I also don't think it should be forced upon everyone. In fact, I wish they'd remove the "Complete 3 with 3 others" achievement.
As for PoGo - It had a much bigger community pool so statistically, people were more likely to meet. It didn't require the use of the primary resource (pokeballs / spell energy) at gyms so people were more likely to stay longer thereby increasing the likelihood of interaction, when there was a battle going on at a gym the indicator (battle animation above gym) was real time, people left pokemon at gyms and were told when their pokemon were being attacked ( a secondary real time layer of indication), resource allocation was more efficient (gyms and pokestops gave pokeballs) reducing the number of stops a player had to go between just to be able to play thereby, in turn, condensing the area in which players could meet.
Agreed to all the comments here re finding local/friends/groups, especially for community day. AZ Scottsdale here and have yet to find anyone to meet/group up or even randomly find at fortresses.... about to hit Lvl 27 Auror and can’t imagine where I might be had I had some group assistance. I mean, this IS wizards “UNITE”, right? lol :)
@PsychoCPA - Off-topic... I'm jealous of you. I worked for an entertainment company in Tempe for a while (back in 07) and designed lights for Three Dog Night in Scottsdale. I so miss it down there.
Back on topic... understanding the need to maintain privacy and protect player security, there has to be a way to allow others to get together and meet up that doesn't hold Niantic liable. Personally, I think the best way is here on the forums, but not everyone knows about the forums or cares about game forums.
@Craeft I somewhat disagree on the "PoGO didn't have resources to manage"-notion. Pokemon has Potions, Revive-Items... and those ABSOLUTELY limit your ability to fight an enemy gym for longer amounts of time. And in the beginning of PoGO there was absolutely a lack of both potions and revive-items - a theme that was significantly reduced once people had a bigger inventory.
In short, no. PoGO had a similar issue as WU-Energy.
But you're right in a similar regard. PoGO had a bigger audience. In my Area the PoGO-Community was founded by a core of Ingress-Players who created some form of "Business cards" to advertise a Community-Platform. And the WU-Community was built on the already successful PoGO platform. Both of those tendencies grew based on actually meeting people BY ACCIDENT.
I didn't say that it didn't have resources to manage... but they were all a lot easier to come by than they are in WU and usage was less (again gym/pokeballs vs. fortress/energy).
Now, maybe. In the beginning, they were not "easier to come by". And again, the resource to use at gyms isn't pokeballs but POTIONS and BERRIES. Get your facts strait.
Umm... That was my point.
You didn't need pokeballs to operate in a gym (nor did you technically need potions or berries - except the occasional health and/or revive). Whereas with WU, you need energy.
In addition, you could get pokeballs from gyms (unlike WU where you can't get energy from fortresses)
My facts are straight.
Check your attitude.
Amen @Craeft! So sick of scrolling to post after post in this forum and reading @Lucoire berate yet another person with his superiority complex.
@HPWUMicah @HPWULola Can the admins please look into this? Idk how useful it is to flag another person’s comments but @Lucoire has been extremely condescending to multiple users on various discussions and continues to do so unchecked. He seems to consider his opinions superior by default because he is “high level” and disregards any statements or suggestions made by “low level” wizards and witches. It’s insulting to continue being dismissed by someone who has designated himself as an expert and looks down upon all others in the forums.
@Craeft To catch pokemon in the wild, you need Pokeballs and (maybe) berries. Pokeballs are easy to come by and have been easy to come by since the launch of the game.
To defeat enemy faction gyms you need pokemon of sufficient strength, potions (as you can't put pokemon into gyms that aren't at full health) and (maybe) revives - as well as (maybe) Berries to feed your Pokemon once they're in the Gym to help them defend. Potions of sufficient strength and revives (especially in the beginning) have been quite rare. Berries have been somewhat rare (compared to Pokeballs)... so of the 4 Resources of Pokemon GO, only Pokeballs are easy to come by - while Potions, Revives and Berries aren't.
In WU you need Energy for both "Trace"-Encounters as well as Fortresses (and maybe potions). And Energy is provided by EVERY building except for Fortresses.
WU only has 2 resource to manage (Energy and Potions), while PoGO has 4 (Pokeballs, Potions, Revives, Berries) - pretty much all of those resources depend on the density of POI in your area.
As for the "get your facts strait", I'd like to apologize. I seem to have misunderstood your point... and I still don't fully understand it.
As for the "finding local players"... I'm undecided about that. On one hand, the game needs a "local" community that supports each other, on the other hand, the game is about the "statute of secrecy" and keeping the wizarding world a secret - so it would somewhat contradict itself if it made "reaching out to muggles" too easy.