"Bugs, Issues and Suggestions Thread V2.1 (0.55.0/1.25.0 Update)"

#PokemonGO: OK, so this is a fix to the update that was for this thread I made quite a while ago with new bug and without some old ones! :DI've cleaned up the language, and been more polite to Niantic and thrown less of my personal opinions into the mix.Notably; the failed loading of 0.51 was fixed* and terrible load times of 0.55 were fixed. And pokestops now turn purple after the fact if there was items dropped!Well done Niantic.Bugs;NetworkSAFETYNET;The main problem is that it is not fit for purpose. The reason for it being implemented is to make it more difficult for people to use GPS hacks, but people still can and it's relatively easy.The existence of SafetyNet in the game instead causes problems for legitimate users who have rooted phones for other reasons as they now either have to remove root or do some sort of work around which can be complex and problematic.It can also make the game unplayable for those who have unusual phones brands like xiaomi which comes 'pre-rooted' and so users who lack technical knowledge of unrooting would be unable to play the game.Lastly it increases load times for all users on android and the check happens every 30mins in game which can cause the game to hang for 20-30s whatever you are doing until it completes. (This hurts people trying to use a lucky egg as a SN check will inevitably happen within that time frame.)Double RequestsDouble item discards or item purchases can happen if you are on a bad network connection and the game sends a second request after not getting a response from the first and the server will treat each request as legitimate. (This needs checked for 0.55)Gym stage loads but without pokemon and hangs forever with spinning ball if you double tap the 'Go' button after selecting a line-up.Gym problems;Desync - You can dodge an attack, the game will show 'dodge' but you will take the full damage from the hit briefly after and then crediting you back health. The knock-on effect of this is known as the 'death-loop' where a pokemon will die where it should not have and keep on dying and reviving while you are unable to attack.ERROR: When a player adds or removes a pokemon while you are mid battle it can cause you to be ERROR'd out of the gym.1HP bug and other issues caused by a slow network. It can happen where the defending pokemon should be fainted but stays and attacks as the client hasn't confirmed the action with the server. Or mid fight the connection can be briefly lost and it seems as though the player can still attack. Once connection has been re-established damage can be unfairly applied to the player while the defender is healed for the damage done during the lapse (I believe the defender is often hitting with undodgeable attacks during this time.)Sightings/Nearby will empty itself on 1 failed update.The sightings updates every 10s (or so) but if 1 of those connections fails for whatever reason the entire Sightings/Nearby things goes blank and the game will tell you the pokemon 'fled' if you are currently tracking a pokemon.Failed encounter removes controls. Sometimes when tapping a pokemon, the pokeball spins, it loads and starts to zooming toward the pokemon then stops without giving back games UI forcing a restart.Spun pokestop says 'try again'. It can happen that due to a bad connection the player can attempt to spin a stop but this is not accepted by the server and the game displays a 'try again' message, often confusing due to speed caps not having their own error message.LagPhone hardware is capable of running this game at 60fps (we know this due to the bug). The problem is that the game at other times cannot maintain a constant 30fps due to being too poorly optimised.This lag can not only be an aesthetic annoyance but cause issues in game mechanics;Gyms; Lag spikes just as the defender attacks can slow down the game so the yellow flash is delayed and you can't doge.Pokeball throwing; Bad lagspikes and low framerates can reduce the distance you throw balls, this can make it extremely difficult in some situations to catch the very distance pokemon.The un-optimisation overheats phones which over time can damage the hardware.Memory LeaksAlthough in the 0.55 update there did appear to be optimisations it doesn't appear that things have improved yet. After a couple of hours of play 3GB RAM is almost entirely filled by PoGo forcing android to kill other background apps including music/podcast players.This is also what causes the game to crash in the background if you switch out to another app. Since PoGo doesn't free up RAM when asked by system it will be force killed.Sightings (old)Sometimes pokemon disappear when you get <70m of them. This bug really causes false positives of where the pokemon isn't.Un-ordered, meaning when you just have the line of 3 (in a split nearby/sightings) the 3 displayed could be the 3 furthest from you and least useful.Nearby (new)Drops specific pokemon at random (even when they're still there). This is different to the network issues of the game dropping ALL the pokemon from the list. Sometimes it will just drop a specific pokemon (possibly the one currently tracked telling you it fled but), if you continue, you may still find it at the pokestop. I can also confirm this isn't due to being near despawn time as it can happen just a few minutes after the pokemon has spawned.Due to the split feature we have a large unused space and the game may stop showing you any 'sightings' if there are 4 pokemon at a pokestop 700m away which is very frustrating for people in areas of low pokestop density. as tracking what you need is blind luck.AudioWhile it may be partly a Unity issue, this issue used to be far less annoying as it would only occur on game launch but now it happens every time you switch to the app. Audio getting quieter is NOT a fix.Adding a slider to the audio would also be a useful addition as trying to hear sound effects and 3rd party music at the same times leads to deafening sound effects in game.GPSThe accuracy can be completely off or even fail to find location at all even when other apps like google maps or JustGPS (an app not updated in 6 years) can manage to find location with accuracy.Drifting from a gym incur a 3min ERROR penalty, somewhat fixed as the distance you can drift and keep fighting has been increased but still arbitrary and unfair to make people wait.Distance tacking is far from perfect although to be fair it has been improved since launch.Entering a gym will reset current distance progress. detailsGymsDefender sometimes won't telegraph attacks, ie they won't show their little pre attack animation.Certain attacks (submission) can cause pokemon to disappear (minor graphical glitch)Special attack message blocked (heavily delayed) by effectiveness message.Sometimes dodging doesn't work when you swipe the game won't react (possibly lag related.)Option to disable (tone down) attack animations may help improve some of these issues. 0.55 has changed the animations but I am personally not seeing any performance benefit.Joining a gym battle with another person makes you take all the damage they have during that time, possibly wiping out one of your pokemon.Max power up level is only 39If you are powering up your pokemon in a legitimate manner the maximum level you can reach will be obtained when you are level 38.There are ways around this bug by abusing other bugs.Should it be counted as cheating if you are abusing one bug to get around a different bug?CurveballsRandomly don't count for some unknown reason. (the side theory is false FYI)Incense vs ClockThis is a bug where if your clock is set wrong incense won't spawn pokemonIt's somewhat understandable due to server/client timings being a rather complex thing but the fact that the user gets no feedback as to why their seeing 0 spawns is unfair.Graphical GlitchesZ-FightingUI scaling. Using something that's not 16:9 in portrait will make the game display badly or strangely, This won't be a problem for most people and could be argued as being outside of standard use case but more users are moving toward OS with split screen options where the game doesn't render well. The game also ignores DPI and font scaling information.Eggs appear as 2km in journal. Technically not a glitch but you know what I mean.Pokestops flicker between purple and blue. Party due to their fix for the stops not turning purple and definitely an improvement to how things were before.With the new gym animations Thunder seems to strike before the pokemon using it sends out the thunder.Healing a pokemon and scrolling past it on the list will visually re-set it's health bar to where it was before using the potion.Crashing on 0.55Some Android users are experiencing hard crashes on clicking their avatar and other are crashing while viewing badges.Other report crashing on catching pokemon.Some freezing again on app launch.Won't launch on iOS 9.2 although states "Compatible with iPhone® 5/5c/5s/SE/6/6s/6 Plus/6s Plus devices with iOS Version 8 - 9 installed" on the store page.iOS; Apply 2 normal potions to 2 injured pokemon at once. The game locks up every time. If you don't run out of potions, it will not lock up. /u/rstonexPoGo+ (help me update this for 0.55 I don't own a PoGo+!)Disconnecting.Icon staying on screen when it shouldn't.Issues;Team's working against themselvesGym sniping was fixed by adding a timer when a person defeats an enemy gym but this timer doesn't happen when you are training so players on your 'team' can take a place you worked for.Certain users use multiple accounts on different teams to find level 10 gyms, knock out the lowest pokemon, add 1,000 prestige and join the gym themselves.Selecting gym lineup is tediousThe current best idea I've seen to fix it; http://ift.tt/2hfV9eY credit: /u/ChrossomPrestiging lineup should only count CP of USED pokemon instead of the maxWould be even better if it only counted CP of pokemon X used to attack Y.Would make for more accessible/fun/quick trainingAuto lineup is strange and objectively bad in many cases.GPS spoofersThey make me sad. :(RNGMoves. Capturing lots of charmander, or walking a buddy a huge distance just to get Ember/Dragon Claw or capturing that very illusive 100%IV pokemon and getting it's worst possible moveset and essentially have worked toward what is now useless isn't indicative of good game design.Solving moveset upsets could be done by letting the user re-roll movesets for a cost, likely by spending candy/stardust. There is still the initial excitement and anticipation of evolving your newest pokemon but if it does turn out badly it's not the end of the world but, to get it 'fixed' the player still would have to put in work. This would leave the player with less of a '[rude-word] this' feeling and more incentive to continue playing and another goal to work to.Catching; Flee rates, we should be able to reduce the flee rate depending on how good our throw is, watching a pokemon you don't have yet flee on this first razz + ultra + curve + excellent can't be much more frustrating.Jumping/Attacking. The pokemon jumping after you release your throw seems cheap and is isn't great game design. A clean solution that still fits in with the narrative is some sort of 'tell' or telegraphing (similar to gym battle attacks) to make it a more skill and less praying to RNGezus.Nearby+SightingsThese two should optimally be in different tabs, sparse pokestops can be difficult and tracking down pokemon with the old tracker was genuinely fun as it wasn't simply checking for a stop and running to it.One of the best implementations; http://ift.tt/2gG3Snt credit: /u/MalkunoIt would also be helpful if it could show time remaining subtly by changing opacity as it would not ruin the feel of the game.They are named wrongly (I didn't say all these complaints wouldn't get pedantic.)I'm a passengerThere are real legal reasons behind the speed locks but those constant messages of 'I'm a passanger' no longer seem to serve a purpose. Especially as this message often occurs simply from GPS issues and the message can show no matter where you are in game.Switching out pokemon isn't smoothPokemon can't be switched out between defenders. This causes players to switch once the defender has been sent out inevitably taking hits. Especially as the first attack by a defender two in quick succession.Between fights a brief pause could be given, a chance to switch, then the 'GO'Repetativerepetativerepetativerepetative animationsThe animations have no problems themselves but their duration and their repetitive nature can get in the way of the game itself.From releasing a pokeball to the next menu appearing on a successful catch is ~12s added to that the rest of the menu's and their animations it is around 15-20s from a successful catch to getting back to the game.An option to speed up the animations to double would be very useful.Pokemon storage space will be too small for gen2Many players are close to the 1,000 hard cap for storage and with more species on the way this will become a large issue.While it would be reasonable for there to be the option to simply buy more space up to 2,000 a nice friendly gift from Niantic may be to increase everyone's space by 50% ;)SortingIn 0.55 sorting was changed so lower case all appear below uppercase as well as other changes. Sorting like this is archaic as unown.Sorting currently only supports a single direction (ie you can't sort lowest to highest CP)HP doesn't work. Don't you dare tell me 'but it's mean to work like that.' I understand it's sorting by % of HP but it would be expected to sort by max HP for those at 100%Healing/ReviveHP isn't visible while healingIt's quite slow due to the delay between healing each pokemon.Unexplained Game MechanicsAt no point in the game does it show or hint at how training is supposed to be done. Only by trial and error or by word of mouth through the community do we know that using half cp pokemon is the optimal method. Many people are training with their top attackers wasting time because the game doesn't communicate its mechanics properly.This probably isn't the only case of not communicating to the player how things are supposed to work but it does seem the most obvious or egregious case.No WakelockThe game screen will turn off and the game will become inactive if it's not interacted with as the game doesn't ask for the wakelock permission.There are simple workarounds for this such as the caffeine app but it should be part of the app itself to keep the screen on.I'm not sure if this is a problem on iOS.CaptchaSome legitimate players are being shown captcha.Not a large problem itself it was in edge cases like travelling large distance in an unusual manner but some player are getting quite consistent captchas.Others have a problem of unsolvable captchas due to the puzzle rendering half off screen and not being able to scroll sideways.Suggestions;POKEMON BOXESDefender/Attacker box auto generated. These will be the boxes automatically shown when going to a gym to attack/add a defender.Player can create own boxesEach box has colour (or icon) which would be viewable from ALL section as a mark next to each pokemon.Occupied gym viewingCoin collection notificationLonger pokemon namesNotes alsoMove types when picking for gymsAR for caught pokemon with additional camera options (flash/focus/zoom)Performance optionsResolution (I believe unity supports this)FPSModel detailGym animations toggleHome modeVERY slow passive bonus from being at 'home'. slow heal (not revive) or basic items?Locks GPS distance so people don't abuse GPS drift.Super low power mode + backgroundBigger bonus for harder catchesLure timerCatching screen quick buttons for razzGym being fought animation should show if it's been trained or battled.Training finish message is always "You Lose" unless you defeat everything. "Training Complete" or similar would be the most fitting phrase assuming the player beats at least one defender.Being able to filter what pokemon or pokestops appear on the tracker would help with a lot of the frustrations with the tracking system. A tracker filled with pidgey or rattata isn't very a-track-tive and being able to remove that one pokestop that you can't reach because it's in a really weird place across a river, up a mountain, the other side of a wall, on private property again would reduce clutter and make the current system more useful without it becoming 'broken'TL;DR This game has lots of bugs but with a few fixes in major places (network, optimisation) and some QoL improvements this game could be far smoother and more enjoyable. And Niantic do seem willing to help us in that direction, mass transferring being a lovely example. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2koOhgz