Impact of Game Board Rules on what people choose to nominate as waypoints

Cowyn2016-PGOCowyn2016-PGO Posts: 597 ✭✭✭✭✭

Up front admission: This is sorta an-in-between appropriate/not for these forums thread. I am a PGO player so I will only refer PGO game board as an example. You'd have to interrelate it to any other games inclusion rules.

What prompted me to actually post today I was at a park today. It had a few good nominations (Info Signs of Local Fish, a Pergola, and more) that I could have submitted... but I didn't bother since I knew the game board rules in the game I played (PGO)

PGO uses cells. S17 Cells for stops, and these nominations were all occupied. So I started thinking what if the hidden stops mattered too in the game I played. Would I have nominated these... and honestly the answer is: Yes

Using PGO as an example there are 64 Pokestop Cells in one larger Gym Cell. Gyms trigger on 2nd 6th and 20th Stop. But what if invisible waypoints didn't make it in the game but at least counted toward that total? Would I have nominated.. yeah....

Anyway, game board rules aren't really on button topic. But I was trying to make a larger point about how if you want to build the biggest lightship database you have to give the players some more motivation to spend time nominating.

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Comments

  • Duiomar-PGODuiomar-PGO Posts: 458 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Woah woah woah, non-ingress game board discussion? That's gonna be a locked thread.

  • 29andCounting-PGO29andCounting-PGO Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If only there were a way…

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,121 Ambassador

    Niantic would ideally prefer everyone who nominates to be “game blind” and simply nominate items that meet criteria, regardless of whether it will or won’t show up on one particular game, so that they have more Wayspots in the database for Lightship.

  • NorthSeaPoet-INGNorthSeaPoet-ING Posts: 895 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Not sure how true it is but apparently XM on the Ingress map has an effect on the spawns in Pokémon Go.

    There's an article about it here:

    XM appears more densely, usually, around portals in Ingress, so if XM does indeed affect the PoGo spawn concentrations, then Ingress portals would affect PoGo.

    Again, not sure if it's true, especially since the wayspot database is done via Lightship as opposed to Ingress.

  • Aeryle88-PGOAeryle88-PGO Posts: 440 ✭✭✭

    That's totally false: POI don't have any effect on the pokemon spawn.

    Some wayspot were created here since more than a year, and there is litterally no pokémon spawn auround them. (and that's a big issue, but it's pokemon go related)

  • TheFarix-PGOTheFarix-PGO Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭


    That used to be the case, but I don't know if that is true anymore. The XM spawn patterns were based on cellular use from back in 2012 (if not earlier) combined with portal locations and have never been updated to my knowledge. But a couple of years after Pokemon GO launched, Niantic changed that system, and more spawn points appeared that weren't tied to XM patterns.

  • Elijustrying-INGElijustrying-ING Posts: 5,482 Ambassador

    I’m not sure if there have been recent changes…..

    But looking at ingress only POI certainly matched very closely with spawn points. I haven’t seen these decrease but also haven’t checked new examples to see if they have effect.

  • Gazzas89-PGOGazzas89-PGO Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Last time they did an update on spawns I noticed one was exactly on top of a portal that wasnt in pogo that I had got added, but that was like a year ago that the last big update was that I'm aware of

  • Gazzas89-PGOGazzas89-PGO Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I said when there's big spawn changes, I don't believe there's been one for over a year, might actually have been early in the pandemic thats the last big one that I can remember. I dint mean nest changes or season changes, it's when they do full on spawn point changes. I've seen stops have more pokemon round them if there's portals in the same cell compared to pokestop only ones

  • Gazzas89-PGOGazzas89-PGO Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭

    ThE red curcel is one stop but 2 portals, it tenda to get a good few extra spawns than the blue circle does, though the blue circle is a post office, so should have more people at it than the 2 portals do

  • HankWolfman-PGOHankWolfman-PGO Posts: 4,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Pretty similar to how I feel. I prefer if it appears in Pokémon Go as that's the game I primarily play. I don't mind if it ends up in Ingress/Pikmin instead though, so long as it's actually useful to someone. If it's not going to appear in any game, I usually won't bother. The only exception is a series of mosaics I nominated back when the 20 metre rule wasn't in effect. As they're a series, I nominated them all, but because they're close to each other, they're taking time to go through the system one by one, and as the 20 metre rule has now been reinstated, 5 or 6 of them may not appear in any games. I still want them all in the database though due to them being a series (it would feel strange not to have the full set), in case other people see one nominated and think about submitting the others.

  • TrevorAlan-PGOTrevorAlan-PGO Posts: 998 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Out of the probably 200 or so waypoints I've created... I've only made 2 that don't show in Pokémon Go's board. 1 was moved by reviewers when it didn't need to be. And the other was just too good not to submit so I did it anyways.

    Otherwise since I only play PoGo that's all I submit for. I understand the concept of lightship and what the purpose is, but since PoGo (at the moment) has the most spread out requirement I only submit in empty areas. Which benefits everyone anyways since it makes a waypoint in an empty area, and is likely to show up in all games because of that. But there's basically no chance I will submit anything in an already populated area since it has no benefit for me and I'll never get to see it if it was approved.

  • Duiomar-PGODuiomar-PGO Posts: 458 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Around a third of what I submit are stops that will never show up in pokemon go but those stops will never be my priority so when they get randomly rejected I'm much less likely to go back there and deal with the hassle of resubmitting them. It's just not a great use of my time when I could be submitting a new stop that could actually benefit me. If niantic were to incentivize submissions properly then that calculus would change of course.

  • Elijustrying-INGElijustrying-ING Posts: 5,482 Ambassador
    edited May 2022

    Ah ha thanks for this post.

    I reviewed one of these yesterday and found it puzzling as to why someone would submit these which must be a maximum of 2m apart. This explains why.


    I also agree with the comments. I did have a ingress only one rejected - an interesting piece of art that was easy to miss. But it is not on my priority list of appeals.

  • Hosette-INGHosette-ING Posts: 3,469 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's interesting how different people approach this.

    My decision process is more like, "Oh hey! That's cool and it's not a wayspot yet. I'll submit it." I never seek out things to submit and I don't pay attention to geographic rules because I know that the games I'm playing today may not be the ones I'm playing next month. When I stumble across things that I think are cool and that also meet the wayspot criteria I submit them.

  • RandomExploit-INGRandomExploit-ING Posts: 948 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Im the same, even though I play the games less regularly.

    Annoyingly I had 2 recent acceptances where one was a trail marker and one is a nice trig point which I didn't think were that close but the trail marker went through first and the trig point second so won't appear in the games. Then Niantic rubs it in by showing it as the showcase picture...

    I wouldn't have a) wasted the nomination if I had known one wouldn't appear in either game and b) only submitted the better looking/more interesting POI.

    OP is right, game mechanics affects contributions/nominations

  • HankWolfman-PGOHankWolfman-PGO Posts: 4,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I did initially think about submitting one wayspot for the entire series, but each of the mosaics has its own unique thing that it represents about the area, and I couldn't really condense it all into one single description, so I decided to just do each one individually instead. My plan included making an Ingress mission to visit them all in order (it would be a short mission admittedly, but it would make more sense than some of the other local missions I've seen haha), but that won't work now the 20 metre rule is back, so yeah, that didn't turn out too great for me 😅

  • SeaprincessHNB-PGOSeaprincessHNB-PGO Posts: 1,607 Ambassador

    Perhaps the difference is you mention "stumbling across" things. I live in an area that changes constantly so there are a TON of things to add to my game still. I actively hunt Google maps satellite looking for things to submit and am constantly driving through random places seeking out things to add. I'm down to below 20 submissions and until yesterday (when 4.8 came out) I thought I'd never go above 20 again based on the rate at which I submit stuff. I'm not going to waste my time and precious submissions on things that I won't be able to use.

  • MargariteDVille-INGMargariteDVille-ING Posts: 2,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In my first couple years of nominating, I'd scour Google maps at night, and when I had a nomination slot, I'd travel at lunch or after work. I still refer to that map sometimes, when I'm looking for ideas and adventure.

    Yes, gameplay affected my nominations in two ways.

    First: I mapped potential nominations as spread out as possible (an area around 17mi by 20 mi) - so it would be less obvious to the local creepy agents (who had data scrapers), where I lived and worked. I set goals, like to get at least one wayspot in every park. It was a lot of exploring!

    Second: During the pandemic, Niantic added Ingress wayspot-hopping drones that could fly 1k max at a time. So I nominated many things (in that same 17x20 mile area) where there was more than 1k between wayspots, so my drone could fly thru. (Yes, I could have just deployed the drone when I drove over there to nominate, but that's missing the point, lol.)

    Of course, sometimes I just come across something and spontaneously MUST submit it. Everyone does that, right?

    My "Portals Discovered" says 306. I try not to think how many are awaiting decisions (too depressing).

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,121 Ambassador

    True. The Ingress dupe map thing is meant to come in the summer, so I wonder how that’ll work and whether it’ll show what’s on Pokémon GO too?

    If we had a game like (I know I keep mentioning this feature but @NianticTintino-ING has mentioned it too) Catan: World Explorers where the gameboard changed each season, you’d want to nominate everything to allow for a different gameplay experience every month or so. It would be great if gyms changed regularly for Pokémon GO, and perma-fields couldn’t last more than a few months as new things appeared.

  • Nadiwereb-PGONadiwereb-PGO Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Same. Similarly, if I come across an area with several potential nominations (this is fairly common in small villages where the church, main cross, World War memorial and post office are often clustered on the main square) and I have to choose, I choose the ones that would appear in both games, and after that the ones that would appear in PoGo. Before the nomination limit was increased, I never nominated Ingress-only Wayspots (I only play PoGo), now I do if I have enough nominations. But I can't be bothered to nominate something that nobody would be able to interact with, no matter how good a submission it would be.

  • TheFarix-PGOTheFarix-PGO Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2022

    Oh, I can see PoGo players going into another huge uproar if gyms were reassigned from "season to season". But I do think the concept is an interesting one.

  • Duiomar-PGODuiomar-PGO Posts: 458 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think the community wouldn't mind them shaking things up as long as the amount and approximate location of gyms remained the same, which in theory it would.

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