A new “Dev Diary”, the developer diary about Pokémon GO has been released. It discusses the future of the game, particularly a section on bonuses that is currently a hot topic among players.
What is this Dev Diary about? In the developer diary on the Pokémon GO blog (via pokemongolive.com), various staff members from the Pokémon GO team discuss different aspects of the game. The main theme of the current diary is the seasons in the game.
For instance, Dan Thomas from the Game Design department writes about the ongoing “Season of Heritage”, which aims to spotlight various locations in the Pokémon world, such as during the “Dragon Spiral Descent” event. The remainder of the season is expected to focus on such locations, ultimately leading to the upcoming Johto Tour.
Experiences from the previous seasons should also influence the future. For example, during the Season of Mischief, there was a long-term Special Research around Hoopa, which could also become a topic in the future: “We learned a lot from that, and we are working hard to make the next Special Research, which spans an entire season, even better. In the meantime, we are trying a different approach with the Season of Heritage, which focuses more on the monthly rotating Limited Research and seasonal bonuses,” explains Thomas.
Bonuses are being addressed: The seasons are expected to be expanded in the future. This is also highlighted by Live Game Director Michael Steranka, who points out another aspect of the changing seasons: “For us, every new season is an opportunity to assess the current state of the game and derive changes and optimizations to improve it further,” says Steranka.
Now, they want to focus more in the upcoming seasons on “Niantic’s mission to encourage trainers to move outdoors, to explore their surroundings, and to engage socially with other trainers,” explains Steranka.
In this context, we are also reassessing some bonuses that were active in the last seasons. This includes the effectiveness of incense when standing still and the increased damage in remote raid battles. You may have noticed during the last Community Day events that we chose bonuses that encourage you to engage in social gameplay or local raids. Similarly, we want to encourage trainers all over the world with our seasonal bonuses to go outside and explore the world.
Michael Steranka in the Dev Diary (via pokemongolive.com).
And especially this paragraph is currently being discussed in the community.
Trainers fear weakened incense & remote raid damage
What is the problem? In Pokémon GO, there have been various bonuses since 2020, that facilitate playing from home. Originally introduced due to the pandemic, many players now see these bonuses as a fundamental improvement to the game.
It is important to note that in the current developer diary, only a reevaluation of the bonuses is mentioned, and not explicitly a weakening or removal. Nevertheless, players in the Pokémon GO subreddit are now concerned about the incense effectiveness and the remote raid damage due to the wording. They are instead suggesting other solutions:
- “Ugh, please not,” comments user Bogdwin (via reddit): “Don’t make incense less effective when standing still, but make it more effective when moving. Don’t reduce damage for remote raids, but add bonuses for physical presence at the raid, like extra damage or premium balls.”
- “They want us to explore, then let us find Pokémon nearby. I would visit a new location if I could see there’s a Snorlax or something exciting there… Instead, I only see two Metapod, four Pidgey, and the starters/Pikachu being featured,” thinks a user (via reddit).
- “Give me double candy for physical presence at raids (including XL candy) and I will be much more active,” agrees “brokeguydtd” (via reddit).
- “Incense should spawn a rare monster (Dratini, Salamence, etc.) for every X km walked,” suggests user “mwm5062” (via reddit) .
Not the first bonus discussion: Already in summer 2021, there was a big discussion when some “home bonuses” were taken away.
After Niantic reduced the interaction radius with PokéStops and gyms from 80 meters back to 40 meters, various community members wrote an open letter that garnered much attention and demanded the reversal of the change. Successfully: In the end, the radius was increased again.
What do you think of the topic? Would a change in bonuses bother you, or would it not be a problem for you? Tell us in the comments!
