Pokémon GO

[Kong Wen]

I just had a brief opportunity to use the game while out on my evening walk. I was stalking what looked to be a Snorlax in my neighbourhood when all of a sudden it became night time (even though the sun was still up) and all the poker men went to sleep. All that was left was caterpillars and worms.

One of my main problems with the game so far is that once you initiate combat, there's no way to change your mind. You either have to catch the poker man, or close out the app to reboot to the main screen. There should be a flee/leave option. I've also had near-constant freezing every time I catch a poker man.

[The Shoemaker]

I just had a brief opportunity to use the game while out on my evening walk. I was stalking what looked to be a Snorlax in my neighbourhood when all of a sudden it became night time (even though the sun was still up) and all the poker men went to sleep. All that was left was caterpillars and worms.

One of my main problems with the game so far is that once you initiate combat, there's no way to change your mind. You either have to catch the poker man, or close out the app to reboot to the main screen. There should be a flee/leave option. I've also had near-constant freezing every time I catch a poker man.

Yeah it froze on me at least 7 times today while catching a Pokemon, among other times.

I wonder, did the time change (like did it just turn 6pm), or did you have it open before hand and opened it back up when walking? I imagine it takes a few seconds to get the up to date information.

[kawaiipikachu]

One of my main problems with the game so far is that once you initiate combat, there's no way to change your mind. You either have to catch the poker man, or close out the app to reboot to the main screen. There should be a flee/leave option. I've also had near-constant freezing every time I catch a poker man.

There should be a symbol in the top left corner or something that looks like a guy running, that should be a flee button.

I don't know why you want to flee when you can transfer the Pokémon to the professor for the leveling up candies.

I had fun going out for walks including with my father to hunt down some Pokémon & items thou I still yet to level up enough to beat the local gym down the street.

Also so far I have yet to find any dead bodies while out for my walks.

Pokémon go is more or less the perfect game to be a tourist in you own town.

[Kong Wen]

There should be a symbol in the top left corner or something that looks like a guy running, that should be a flee button.

That's only been there in one (1) of the poker battles I've ever fought. You're saying it should be there all the time? I guess they should fix that.

I don't know why you want to flee when you can transfer the Pokémon to the professor for the leveling up candies.

Because sometimes the game glitches out and makes it impossible to catch poker men, so fleeing (if it were an option (it wasn't)) and closing the app were the only options.

One time I was trying to catch a Zubat and he glitched out and spun around the screen / moved behind me? No matter how I oriented the phone, I couldn't find him, but I was stuck in combat with him with no way to catch him and no option to leave.

Another time, I was trying to catch some worm, and he broke out of the first poker ball I stuck on him, but when he broke out the whole screen was just his face! And then the game couldn't detect where I was throwing poker balls to try to catch him again, because the field of view was only his face, so no matter how accurately or lightly I threw balls, they wouldn't register. Again, no way to catch him and no way to flee. I guess they should fix that.

After that Snorlax, I did see a few more poker men in my area that I wasn't able to find. Saw a Meowth and a Jigglypuff at home. They might only show up in the morning, so I can look for them tomorrow. A Clefairy appeared on my desk when I got to the office this morning, so that was convenient. There's actually a poker stop right outside my office windows, so I get to milk that throughout the day, although no one has lured it yet.

[Niahak]

I've also run into constant freezes, usually right when I've caught a Pokemon. This app straight up destroys my battery, as well.

Lots of freezes here, too.

There's a not-well-documented Battery Saver feature you can access in settings (click pokeball, settings in upper right, check 'battery saver' checkbox).

By tipping the phone upside-down (top of phone angled towards the ground), the screen will go dark and the game stops rendering stuff. The phone will still vibrate when pokemon are nearby and you will still get 'steps' for your eggs, but the battery usage is cut to about 1/3 of normal. If the screen turns off completely, the game will stop running - but if you set your screen auto-off time to something absurd like 10 minutes, it's a handy feature.

[The Shoemaker]

One time I was trying to catch a Zubat and he glitched out and spun around the screen / moved behind me? No matter how I oriented the phone, I couldn't find him, but I was stuck in combat with him with no way to catch him and no option to leave.

Another time, I was trying to catch some worm, and he broke out of the first poker ball I stuck on him, but when he broke out the whole screen was just his face! And then the game couldn't detect where I was throwing poker balls to try to catch him again, because the field of view was only his face, so no matter how accurately or lightly I threw balls, they wouldn't register. Again, no way to catch him and no way to flee. I guess they should fix that.

After that Snorlax, I did see a few more poker men in my area that I wasn't able to find. Saw a Meowth and a Jigglypuff at home. They might only show up in the morning, so I can look for them tomorrow. A Clefairy appeared on my desk when I got to the office this morning, so that was convenient. There's actually a poker stop right outside my office windows, so I get to milk that throughout the day, although no one has lured it yet.[/quote]

From what I've seen, when the game glitches out it stops responding to all input, so I don't know if a flee button would even work in this instance :/

[Kong Wen]

From what I've seen, when the game glitches out it stops responding to all input, so I don't know if a flee button would even work in this instance :/

Nah, in those two cases it was responding to input. I could throw as many poker balls as I wanted. And when I touched the giant worm face, it showed the glowing rings indicating that I could try to catch it, but the poker balls would disappear as soon as they were thrown. Flee would have been perfect.

[Kong Wen]

I thought I'd give battery saving mode a try after Niahak's post, and I ran into two new errors. One is that the screen will get stuck in darkened mode, even when I raise the phone. I can still back out of the app to do other stuff on the phone, but when I switch back to the game it's still a darkened screen and I can't interface with it. The second is that sometimes the game will just stop accepting input while on the main screen. I can still see my avatar walking around, but I can't click on anything, can't get into the menus, etc. Both of these scenarios require the game to be fully closed out and rebooted.

[Niahak]

I thought I'd give battery saving mode a try after Niahak's post, and I ran into two new errors. One is that the screen will get stuck in darkened mode, even when I raise the phone. I can still back out of the app to do other stuff on the phone, but when I switch back to the game it's still a darkened screen and I can't interface with it. The second is that sometimes the game will just stop accepting input while on the main screen. I can still see my avatar walking around, but I can't click on anything, can't get into the menus, etc. Both of these scenarios require the game to be fully closed out and rebooted.

Are you running on iOS? I'm on Android, and I've seen the second issue but not the first.
I have to close the game often enough anyway that battery saver mode is still worth it. I think it's not quite as buggy as it was earlier in the week, though - I hope it's because they've made server improvements.

[Kong Wen]

Are you running on iOS? I'm on Android, and I've seen the second issue but not the first.

I'm on iOS. Ultimately these issues don't matter much. But it can be annoying if I'm trucking along on a walk and can't check out Poker Stops or get into fights because my screen is stuck in battery save mode (and I'm not going to stand around while my game reboots). At least I imagine the steps still count.