![Niantic Is Testing A New ‘Nearby’ System For Pokemon GO [Updated]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/09/lriss7xk6h9vz9bmszlh.jpg?quality=75&w=640&h=360&crop=1)
The most wanted feature in Pokemon GO is back, at least for some users.
Pokemon GO now has a new update, and it changes the following:
![Niantic Is Testing A New ‘Nearby’ System For Pokemon GO [Updated]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/09/hl5o9jhwggdcv1ybffnv.jpg?quality=75?quality=75)
The biggest and most interesting change has to be the new Nearby system, which is now named “Sightings”:
![Niantic Is Testing A New ‘Nearby’ System For Pokemon GO [Updated]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/09/scupo2yyxbeve99uaiim.jpg?quality=75?quality=75)
UPDATE 1:56PM: Actually, this image from neoGAFFer Toki767 seems to be the real new Nearby system. It actually shows you a picture of the Pokestop where you can find a creature! Very useful.
![Niantic Is Testing A New ‘Nearby’ System For Pokemon GO [Updated]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/09/en0qccbziznnwqfm45n8.png?quality=75?quality=75)
And here it is in action. It tells you where to go!
![Niantic Is Testing A New ‘Nearby’ System For Pokemon GO [Updated]](https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/09/syxibgvjczzkchsk5equ.gif?quality=75?quality=75)
For most players who don’t have the new Nearby system, “Sightings” only highlights Pokemon in the immediate general area, rather than teasing you with critters that aren’t actually nearby at all (previously, these monsters were marked as three footprints away). Also, now there’s grass. Yay?
This new system showcases fewer monsters than before, though as commenter Professor Dog pointed out to me, it does get rid of duplicate creatures. That’s a plus. Reports online also indicate that this new system update its monster list more often than the older one, which is good. It means that, while you will have to do some wandering to capture something specific, hypothetically you aren’t flying blind for as long as before.
Despite some improvements, I’m in disbelief that they have kept the system this vague considering that nobody could figure out the previous one. But hey, this isn’t permanent. It sounds like Niantic is still fiddling with finding a new system to replace the old “Nearby” one, and that eventually they will settle on something better. In the meantime, this test will give them lots of feedback to work with.
Also fixed: Battery saver is back, and the game is now awarding the appropriate amount of XP. Hooray!
Comments
26 responses to “Niantic Is Testing A New ‘Nearby’ System For Pokemon GO [Updated]”
Maybe they should have done this before releasing the game.
I guess the unexpected popularity at launch caught them off guard and their old system just couldn’t keep up with it.
I’ve spent years playing ingress, and even some of the largest managed ingress events have been smaller than random masses of people showing up at a park.
At least they are (sort of) listening to player feedback and trying something new.
Hard to fathom some of these on paper, but will wait to hear how it goes out in the wild as well.
The XP bonus not being passed on when a great/nice/excellent throw occurred was a huge issue, so glad that was sorted.
I’m hard up trying to understand the IV ratings in this game, are there any ways to properly work out how it all works in layman’s terms? For example I don’t know when I should stop powering up a perfect IV spread, if at all. I wouldn’t put it past the developers to mess with those under-the-hood numbers with these updates either, given what we’ve seen already with move pools.
No poliwag yet? They are everywhere!
Just let us access pokevision until you fix your shit ffs.
I’d prefer a stable game over people being able to cheat to be perfectly honest.
I don’t consider it cheating when niantic’s so called tracking system is so broken it’s beyond a joke.
Use of those services are against the TOS. Fact. What you consider doesn’t matter in this case.
Oh, so what Niantic’s customers think doesn’t matter because what we want is against their TOS.
Maybe they’ll care when everyone’s stopped playing their game because of their stubbornness and inability to fix their tracking system.
Correct. The fact that you think it is OK does not matter because it is clearly against the TOS.
I bet the people who had to wait longer before it was launched in their countries are real happy about it too. /s
I still say the removal of any decent tracking is a business decision.
Can’t find those elusive pokemon? Buy a lure!
Well pokevision is a 3rd party app that gives you a huge advantage over other players not using it. That is pretty much the definition of cheating.
It provides much more information than Niantic ever wanted to display (even when there tracking worked). The objective was that you need to go out and explore to find pokemon, hunt them down in the wild. Not look at this and go directly here within this time frame to get this pokemon.
So playing using a site like serebii to find the location of pokemon or what pokemon appear on what routes in a full pokemon game is cheating? Or using guides to do quests faster in WoW or another MMO is cheating? Get off your high horse.
When it is connecting directly into the game servers and using that data then yes I consider it cheating.
This isn’t using a guide to say you can catch a graveller on this route, it is hitting the game server to say that there is currently a graveller at this location for the next 10 minutes.
The crowd sourced guides and location information is still there and totally unaffected by this change.
I think the whole point was to find them yourself.
I’ve been doing weekend outings with friends to different places in Melbourne and discovering pokemon we havent caught yet or stocking up at PokeStops.
And with the updates i think they have moved Pokemon locations around and the times they appear so thats the point of going out and exploring
But thats just the way i play with my group, each to their own for how to play
I am kinda surprised people are still playing this lol.
Yeah, gave up after the first week or so. It’s just not fun
Yeah it felt too much like a chore. That and everyone else around my lvl were catching all sorts of cool Pokemon and I was getting dick all so I deleted rather quickly.
As far as I can see, the radar shows fewer monsters because it now actually removes pokemon from your radar after they despawn. This is a big improvement for mine, it means you can’t wander the neighbourhood searching for a pokemon that doesn’t exist anymore.
You should have tested out the “Sightings” a bit further before reporting. It’s a vast improvement over the nearby list.
The pokemon now update much faster so any that have despawned or are far away now actively drop off of your list. These previously stayed on the list, creating confusion as to whether the pokemon was actually nearby or a few km away or had despawned.
By walking around now and seeing when they drop off the list you can determine where they are. It’s as if every pokemon is “2 steps” away, around 100m. Gives you a fair idea of how to find them pretty quickly.
Would you mind elaborating? Or doing another test?
This is probably in part me looking for news I *want* to hear but yeah any more info you can give would be appreciated.
Elaborating on what? Thought I was clear enough.
Ack, apologies I figured you had the special settings that they seem to be allowing some users to play around with.
Seeing as the UI appears to have changed for everyone, but the update says the tracking feature is only being tested by a subset of users I dare say that you are not one of them and shouldn’t be complaining. Wait until it becomes apparent exactly what the test tracker looks/behaves like.
Click bait-y title. You’ve done 5 minutes testing and announced it’s worthless. For anyone interested Reddit is going through the update as usual:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/4wsrgx/pokemon_go_update_20160808/
So a quick gander at the thread show that the people on the new tracker system can select pokemon that have a pokestop background and the game will point to that particular pokestop. There’s no way to tell if it’s around the pokestop or on the way or direct line, but it seems like a good start. It doesn’t really help the suburbia/rural situation at all though.