Again, I have no idea who most of these new things are, but I kind of like the Aron guy I'm seeing.

Not sure if it's a fluke or something Niantic actually thought about, but the Pokemon in my area do seem to match the actual wildlife at times. Mostly it's the spheal/seel/actual seals thing, but also zigzagoon/racooon, and the occasional teddyursa/black bear.

God forbid Pokemon ever makes a mock skunk.

Not sure why, but meowth likes to hang out in the local mall.

I actually saw an eevee the other day! Early gen pokemon seem to be so rare now with all the news guys about.

My growlithe is now at 45 candies. 5 more to go.

I was expecting that.

It's quite a tanky Pokemon, actually.

What an... interesting Pokemon. XD

Tanky is good, and at least it looks like something ... feasible. Not sure about a lot of the new stuff that happens.

I've had an on again off again relationship with this game.
Right now, it's on.

I'm enjoying the new field work--except that right now it's requiring me to achieve great and excellent Pokeball throws.
I've never done either with intent and most of the time I'm walking my two dogs when I play which makes throwing a Pokeball difficult enough regardless.

I like the research thing, too. I used an egg the other day and pretty much spent the entire time evolving the pokemon I'd been sitting on. I was hoping to go for another 7 day streak but it's miserable outside and not sure I want to bother to find the time.

And someone tell the pokemon to wander into my circle. I'm working right now and can't move around.

My main issue with the research is that I have to do raids on gyms, which is difficult because there are seldom any around me when I actually have time to play.
But I do like it for the most part.
Seriously, there is a raid battle about to start at one of the pokestops at the museum, but in order to battle it, I have to be outside, 5 feet from the door. But I'm at work, so I can't.

I'm not even battle ready, as in I have no Pokemon strong enough.
Though even if I could battle I as well don't get a lot of raids near me. I have a gym just down the street from my house but it's almost never a raid site.

So yeah, I have a raid research task I am unable to complete.

My thing with raids and gym battles is that I usually can't be bothered to stick around long enough to finish them. As long as I don't have to actually "win" in a raid, I suppose it won't be too much of an issue. I've also never really found out how the teams work.

Quiet: The teams are almost more for group/friend playing in my opinion. If you can put a pokemon on a gym that your team has control of you win pokecoins, which can be used for buying more items or avatar clothes, but beyond that they don't have much of a purpose.

And I don't think you have to win just enter the raid battle, maybe fight a little, then leave and it should count. I did the same thing in a regular gym battle and it counted.

I concur regarding the teams, thus far in my single player experience which is my entire experience, my team hasn't come into play at all.

Back in the early stages of the game, teams were a little more important I think, because you could "train" at gyms of your team and gym battles tended to be tougher, so having a team to battle with was easier. But they kind of did away with most of what makes the teams worthwhile.

I had no idea.
As I said I haven't battled yet so I've only interacted with gyms for their Pokestop function.

Can you really blame them for de-emphasizing teams? They were horribly unbalanced because a small advantage at the beginning made new players gravitate towards the stronger teams. The only way to fix that (short of allowing people to flip-flop between teams at will) was to make teams matter less.

RedRum: The gyms initially could be stacked with way more pokemon and you could use the same type, so teams would stack as many Blissey as possible in them.

I mean, I understand why they did it, but now that teams are pretty much meaningless, it's kind of like why bother with them at all?

What small advantage?

I thought teams was more to add dps to a raid, since I can't actually imagine beating some of these guys on my own.

I like that pokemon in gyms are now on timers, and it's first come, first serve. Low level people have a shot now, rather than just hoping to find an empty one.

I have a mission to evo or catch fire pokemon, which is very awkward when it's raining like crazy and I spend a lot of time on the coast. Though, there were some ponyta walking around today, in the rain, which I'd never seen before. I assume it might have had something to do with the research goals.

Can you only do raids with members of your team? I assumed that you could do it with anyone? I've never done a raid with anyone, so I'm not sure on that. But when finishing a solo raid, it looks like you get bonus balls for having members of your team, but it also shows the other teams, so I figured anyone can raid together...

I guess "party" would be a better term, or group. I see the little group codes in the corner, which I assume is for people wanting to fight a raid together.

Which, kind of again, brings up the whole "teams are pretty much meaningless, so why not get rid of them?" question.
I mean, there's the whole possible argument of "to make it more fair so a certain people can't take all the gyms all the time and everyone has a chance to be on a gym" but in that case, just put a cap of like only 2 or 3 pokemon on gyms at any given time and call it good.

I mean, yeah, the previous team situation was very unbalanced and it could suck if you had joined Instinct instead of Mystic or Valor, but it actually encouraged people to work WITH their team. And, while they didn't last long, I saw, fairly regularly, higher level members working with new members to try to get them on gyms.
Now, unless you're a mega-newbie, you can pretty much handle gyms solo. No teamwork required.

I'm referring to raids at this point. I mean, how am I supposed to take down a raid boss when I can't even dent it before my team faints?

But again, can't you do raid battles with members of other teams, or does it have to be one specific team at a time? Because it seems to me that as long as they all use/have the same raid code thingy, the actual team they're on doesn't seem like it should matter.
As I have no friends to raid with, same team or otherwise, I can't test this theory.
But if team is irrelevant to raids, then...

That's my snag. I don't know how they work, mechanically, so I've never been able to try.

According to my google search, you can do raids with players from any team, so other than meager team bonuses on gym pokestop discs and possibly extra balls to catch the raid pokemon, teams aren't really that important.

Mostly that red is a more popular color than blue or yellow.

Wow, suddenly I feel lame because I haven't battled yet.
I believe my strongest pokemon right now is a Quilfish with a CP of 700-800.

EDIT:

Make that a Ryhorn at a CP of 800.

Ugh.
Just got home from a trip to the park and grocery store with my stepdad and niece. I caught at least ten Pokemon and lost a few (escaped the Pokeball and fled) and didn't achieve a single 'Great' or 'Excellent' throw.
Damn it, I got a random chance 'Excellent' throw not long ago but it just had to be BEFORE I'd gotten the 'get an excellent throw' assignment. It just needs one and I can't even manage a 'Great' throw!

I just made level 18.

Agreed, the research has increased my motivation to play.

The research only temporarily motivated me. Now I'm back to just sort of playing randomly when I feel like it. Mainly because of the raid one. I have literally not had the time to do a raid battle in like 5 months. Why do they suddenly think I'll be able to do 2 of them any time soon?

As I mentioned, I don't get riads much where I go even if I had a battle sufficient team which I don't.

Okay, so ignore my previous rant. Thanks tk the snow mucking up the gps just enough and my boss being gone, raid battle tasks done. Thankfully they don't require that you win the raid.

I like the research so far. I'm amazed right now because I've had a guy in the local gym for a couple days now. Someone local must be checking in and boosting up everyone now and then, as I saw the hearts fill while I was out walking.

I did the 'great' throw one alright, mostly with easy pokemon.

Nice! People here don't generally bother boosting pokemon on gyms, which sucks. I think my longest streak (not counting the almost 8 days one when it was like 15 below zero so no one was out doing gym battles) has been maybe 32-ish hours.

He's still there! 3 days now, and looking quite happy so someone came by again.

Funny how gaming can make life just a little bit more fun. I'm working on a paper right now, and have no plans to go out today, but I'm on a 4 day streak! Can't really justify leaving the house in the rain to go walk to the gym, and I'm not especially inclined to. Enter my sister in law who asks if I can go pick up her niece from school later. Huzzah! A justifiably productive excuse to leave the house and get game points! (and to not stay out too long because she want's to come straight home).

So, I got my first full stamps on the field research....AND THE BIG REWARD WAS A CHANCE TO CATCH MOLTRES AND I GOT IT!
Thankfully those operate like a reward stamp card instead of having to be a streak or I'd have had to start over a few times on getting them.

He's still there. Someone is taking care of this gym, I'm too short on berries to do much.