The craze for the newest gaming phenomenon, Pokemon Go, doesn’t seem to fade anytime soon. And the creators of the game are also working very hard to make the gaming experience better with each iteration. Niantic Labs has issued a new update today and it introduces a number of minor bug fixes, warnings and some new test features as well(feeling excited!?).
Due to the online-offline model of the augmented reality based game, Pokemon Go has seen a lot of people travel to places unknown. They have even trespassed on others properties to catch that Pikachu they’ve been tracking for the past 10 minutes. To avoid the same, Niantic has now built-in a couple warning dialog boxes into the game. Once you power up the game, you’ll now see a warning saying something along the lines of – ‘Don’t trespass while playing Pokemon Go’ or ‘Don’t play while driving’.
And this point drives us into the newest warning that has been included into the game in today’s update. The game now shows a dialog box if you’re in a vehicle and going too fast, and the only way to make this disappear is to confirm that you’re a passenger. Niantic doesn’t want you put yourself in danger by trying to catch’em all while driving.
It has also fixed the frustrating bug that made it difficult for trainers to catch Pokemons. It has also fixed a bug that prevented Nice, Great, and Excellent Pokeball throws from awarding the appropriate XP bonuses, says Niantic in the blogpost. It has also made improvements to the accuracy of the curveball throw.
But, the one feature update that everyone has been waiting for is finally being improved and currently being tested with a subset of users.
Yes. We’re talking about the faulty ‘Nearby Pokemon’ feature. The Pokemon tracker whose ‘three-step’ count feature was removed in the previous update, has been given a facelift in today’s update. And there’s now two segments of this tracker — one is called ‘Sightings‘ and the other ‘Nearby‘. It doesn’t matter if you’re a part of the test group or not, you’ll be seeing the Sightings view, where Pokemons now have grass behind them. It now actually shows you which Pokemon are in your general area, rather than showing you a random Charizard which isn’t even there.
But — and mind you, this is a big BUT — if you’re a part of the small test group, then you’ll have access to a completely redesigned Pokemon Tracker. The test group has got the opportunity to mess with the new ‘Nearby’ UI, reports NeoGaf user Toki767. In this new tracker, trainers can now see the picture of a nearby Pokestop where they can find the tagged pocket monster. Sounds and looks very useful. Here is a GIF depicting the working of the same:
In addition to this, other features that have been added or updated in today’s release are as under:
- Fixed achievements showing incorrect Medal icons.
- Enabled the ability for Trainers to change their nickname one time. Please choose your new nickname wisely.
- Resolved issues with the battery saver mode on iOS and re-enabled the feature.
- Added visuals of Team Leaders Candela, Blanche, and Spark.
So, if you’re a regular player or one who had given up on the game due to the tracker, then this is a good time to grab the latest update and get back to catchin’ them all. Also, the gaming phenomenon has already brought in heaps of revenue($200 million to be exact) for the developers within a month of its launch.
