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Anyone else still playing this pleasing game?

My interest was on the wane until the latest major update. It just felt like everyone else had endless stack of the very hardest Pokémon, and gym battles became a remorseless grind.

But not so much anymore. Yes, if a gym is fully loaded it takes three or four solid battles to clear it out - but now there's a cap of 6 Pokémon, all of which must be unique types, the battles are far, far more interesting. And as the defenders end up weaker and weaker, I find it oddly pleasing to smash them down to a more manageable level.

Raids are also a winner for me. I can 1 and 2 ratings on my todd with little difficulty. 3 and 4 necessitate finding another group of nerds to give it a good kicking. Just came back from one on my lunch break, where around 16 players mobbed a Tyranitar. Suffice to say it went down like a sack of spuds, and I've crossed another one off me list!

I've not played it in maybe a month or so. It seemed to just keep going downhill so much sadly.

I'd say it's much improved.

Raids can be a laugh. You can typically solo a 1 rated, and some 2.

Best reward from that is Rare Candy - it's essentially a blank. When assigned to a Pokémon it becomes a candy of their type, so we've got a reasonable alternative to walking ridiculous distances.

The new gym system is fantastic. Raids do a good job of getting people to meet up again and the whole system is definitely a lot more fun. I like that knocking opponents out of gyms is rewarding for them and the system in general encourages participation more than turtling. Things like Stardust being available without having to be strong enough to get into the gym are big improvements for the casual audience.

There are definitely flaws. Right now the timer makes working together to take down a gym randomly punishing for a player. The inability to collect reliably mixed with the cap on coins per day makes some frustrating returns, but for the most part coins are far more plentiful for everyone. Raid passes are a bit too expensive for the coin cap and the return on Stardust is pretty miserable.

Overall though, the system is a lot healthier and supports a much larger pool of players. I do fear that the raids are a little pay to win-more and lean towards being a whale hunter system, but the system as a whole is more cooperative and makes high tier players less problematic.

It's a big improvement all around. It's not strong enough to carry the game forever as most players are pretty done with Gen 2, but it will make collecting the Gen 3 Pokemon a far better experience.

Getting half as much coins is kind of annoying. I wish they'd put it back up to 100, and then slow down some gains by either putting it on a curve (get a coin after five minutes, second after another ten, third after another 15, etc capping at around 30 minutes per coin) or just flat make it slower at night where you only get one coin per twenty minutes after dark. Hit two or three gyms after midnight on my way to my overnight job and they'll hit my cap. Anything more than that is wasted effort. Much easier but also much less rewarding than the old system.

As for Raids, I like them, but there are too many imho, and they need a way to see if people are waiting before you join. High enough level I can do ones and twos with ease solo. Can't Quite get a three. Have only see a single other person fighting a raid at the same time as myself. So yeah, lower the number of them, and give the egg an extra hour before it hatches, so you have more time to plan if you so desire and a less diluted pool of players available. Also let people fight a raid they've already beaten but with zero rewards so they're at least available to help others who need it.

I'm really curious to see how the five difficulty legendary raids work out when those release however.

I don't really understand the raid thing. I tried it a couple of times at the weekend and mostly all it did was lag out and crash the app.

I've had a couple of smol issues with Raids crashing, or the attacks landing late - but since the last update at the weekend I've not had any problems.

Another fun new item is the Technical Pad thing. Lets you change the quick or charge attack for a single Pokémon. Doesn't let you pick which it changes to, but useful for making a given Pokémon less duff in a fight.

Haven't gotten one of those yet myself. They either only drop from the higher difficulty raids or are just quite rare from the lower diffuculty ones.

Yeah. I got two when we ganked that Tyranitar.

It's pretty useful!

Yeah, the TMs are an enormous help. Anything the game can do to allow players to improve their existing Pokemon rather than try to catch and raise a new one from scratch really improves the game as far as I'm concerned.

I still play, but i'm not hugely into it. It's just a bad game, with a lot of flaws.

I'm sick and tired of having to walk 6km to hatch a 2km egg.

I haven't participating in a raid yet. The new gym thing is kind of weird.

Gave it another go, yet to try raids by finally the 4k dragonite brigade that dominated the station I had to change trains at on the way to work is gone. Which is great cause I was basically only playing this to and from work.

Its definitely not a game I'd suggest playing in a really active manner. It's super fun as an AR reward system on top of your daily life that encourages getting a little exercise, but seems like it would get old rather quickly if you tried to race to the level cap or something like that. I primarily treat it as an enhanced FitBit that helps encourage me to go explore some places I don't get to very often.

Yeah, it's a pseudo-fitbit for me mostly. Even if all that is is taking a walk around the block to the nearest pokestop and back, it's still something I'm doing that I wouldn't normally do.