Why is everyone whining you can't see nearby players?!
H4rdC4ndy
Posts: 83 ✭✭
Stop it! I am only playing cuz I DON'T WANT TO BE SEEN! Creepy stalker people! I don't care if you are on my friends or not! I don't want anyone seeing where I am! It's a game for adults and kids but. That doesn't mean you should be able to see people! If they want you to know there are consent option in Google maps or outside apps. Keep your stalking tendancies to yourself!
Best Answers
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Niantic LITERALLY made it so that you couldn't track others in Ingress for a reason. And that's the ONLY Niantic game where there's any viable argument of why to track others (you want to see where the opponents are so you can battle them). But it's a safety thing. There is no reason to see where others are in HP:WU.
With that said, I would like to see the ability to make a temporary group (say you have a local event) that only lasts for a certain amount of time. Any group members must be invited and able to opt INto the group and can leave any time. ONLY WHILE IN THAT GROUP can tracking be used. That could be fun for a local massive event, but I see no other argument for tracking needed.
TL;DR - I agree with you whole-heartedly.
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Yes an event or co-op option would be nice. And if you leave it auto stealths your activity again! That makes sense!
I'd like to see people in my Friends list on my Map if I'm standing next to them. Outside of that... 🤷🏻♀️
I've always wanted to see other players on the map, as well as 3d structures. I do understand the concerns surrounding the issue of tracking. I think a viable solution is possible. Toggle on/off 'visible on the map' mode or, give everyone an invisibility cloak they can choose to wear, or not. I think this can be resolved with limited liability. Give players the option, at least adult players.
It would be useful to know if there ARE any players nearby, but to know WHERE they are would be a huge privacy breach.
Maybe there could be a flag you could set when you are near a fortress like LFF/LFG in a MMO - an actual flag flying on the fortress to show that players wanting to team up would be good.
Fortresses and Greenhouses kinda do that already. If you see a Fortress wreathed green swirls, it means someone is or has recently been undertaking a Challenge there.
Greenhouses will also glow green if something is planted there, but depending on how long ago it was planted and/or has left to go will indicate id there is, was or may yet be, other players in the area.
As @Razorgirl mentioned, there are already some signs that indicate activity of nearby players - even the presence/activity of Dark Detectors could indicate that.
Directly showing the presence of other players would - from a technical perspective - require MUCH more data-activity. And - as @Craeft mentioned - it is a massive issue in regards to data-security.
For those who really would like to know exact location of nearby wizards and witches there is an app called Mauraders that shows the exact location of people who choose to share.
Use of anything like that breaches Niantic's ToS, @Overflow4487
Oh, I didn’t know that. I thought it was an external way to find friends. A dev can delete the name of the app I posted since I now can’t Edit my post.
@HPWUMicah
I have to laugh at this. I live in a rural area...not a lot of people. Fewer play WU. Last night i was in a park and jumped in a fortress. Just before the battle begun someone out of nowhere jumped in the fortress. I wish i knew where they were. Would have loved to have someone local to do fortress battles with. Sigh....at somepoint our loval wizards will unite.
I'm not shy when I'm not home but I mostly play from my apartment and so don't want anyone stalking me cuz they always see me in that area. But when out and about I talk to people and ask if they are also playing. Most are playing Pokemon and didn't know Harry Potter exist and got into the game later.
Is there discord groups for wizards unite. That's one way to find people and talk directly
@H4rdC4ndy I have seen some comments here and there about discord. Maybe do a search and see what comes up. I didn’t keep track of them. Hoping a local one will start up for me though.
I found a Facebook group for people playing WU in my city, and from there joined a discord they had set-up. You should go check Facebook out to see if a page has been set/up for your state or area.
@Overflow4487 has it. Particularly because Harry Potter is a child-friendly franchise, they're going to err on the side of caution about anything that allows location tracking. For people who do want to co-ordinate with local players, a search for "[myarea] Wizards Unite" on Facebook or "local wizards unite discord" on a general search engine should turn up some options.
I will note that the green glow on a fortress that shows your activity is visible to other players. I've walked up to a glowing tower and joined some other players before.
Or really! !t's that easy to make the visibility optional, so anyone who wants to be discovered for team-play will enable it when anyone who doesn't will leave it disabled.
@Leonidsh both present and in the foreseeable indefinent future this will not be an option. The only way for others to appreciate your presence is for you to place a Dark Detector, plant in a Greenhouse or activate a Fortress.
Wizards Unite is supposed to be centered on community. However, unless you are at the right place at the right time (when someone is in a Fortress, within 30 minutes of someone dropping a Dark Detector, potentially within a day of someone planting something, and they could just be passing through and planting for the achievement) you may not even know that someone else is playing in the area.
The forum is a potential way to find other people, however the Community part on this website seems to exist only in English and Japanese. (I first landed automtically on the French version of the website, went to check the "Communauté" only to land on an English-language forum. That is not going to work well here.
I have Facebook, but don't like it (way to go when it comes to privacy, and the only local group I can see had three people, nothing since early July) and have never tried Discord. Once more, the game is supposed to be about community, it is counter-intuitive to have to leave the game and look at other platforms to find other people playing the same game.
What about a local/town pinboard ? The game knows where you are anyway. Couldn't there be a "meetings board" somewhere in one of the landmarks where people could put up a note saying they are local and playing, which could be read from all over town ? You could limit typed input. Note creator's in-game name (like in this forum), a location chosen from the available ones, a date and time ? That would be a justification for those memos flying all over the place and yet barely appearing in Traces.
The only time I saw a lit up fortress it didn't last long and there was no-one around, so they had probably just left. I haven't seen many active greenhouses, and only two instances of dark detectors being up, in a month and a half.
@Leonidsh - Did you play Ingress, by chance, when there was an issue with players literally stalking other players, damaging their property (vehicles), threats, etc.?
I wouldn't expect to find a player tracker in any Niantic game in the near future.
I agree with the idea that this could be an absolute safety concern. The best thing would be to utilize Facebook, Discord, and the group finder here in the board.
Just today I saw an Inn with 3 dark detectors on it so I stuck around to get the free advantage of good spawns without having to place any myself. I didn’t see anyone around that I thought placed it. So I looked at the name on the dark detector and went and looked at the names in our discord and I saw a match. I messaged the guy, and he invited me over to hang out with him and his friend. They were sitting in a cafe near by.
So he decided to present me with his actual location and it was a consensual process using something outside of Niantic and we had a choice to respond or not. So I think going forward that is how we will need to try for making contact with other players.
I would like to see other wizards just out and about playing and in house colours no names and then vanished when they no longer in play or popped in to inns green houses and towers the latter would help encounters for team battles..