I've discussed the Routes feature in Pokémon Go and many of its associated aspects and quirks a couple of months ago. I've also mentioned in last month's event rollup that the feature has had some improvements applied to it, so now there is the need to discuss that. Obviously, the improvements are to eliminate some of the quirks, and that has indeed happened; however, it seems certain other quirks still remain, and that means they are still a pressing issue. Both of them still do need to be addressed regardless.
Route selection and initiation still occurs by way of the associated section in the Nearby tab pop-out. The process is no longer as finicky as before and should be smooth, making the feature more practical. When selecting a Route, "marching triangles" now appear on the path to indicate the direction to take, even as the Route direction is reversed (if possible for the Route); reversed Routes also count as separate Routes from the respective starting point. One concession is that the "Official" section for the Route list is now eliminated, which may mean that it may not be ready for "prime time" yet, even if the feature overall is as such.
On the other end, Route completion is now no longer automatic when a Trainer reaches the proximity of the end point; the completion has to be manually declared by tapping the Route icon just above the Nearby tab, selecting the option, and confirming the popup. This was implemented likely to avoid false completion detection if the start and end points are close together or even the same (for a loop Route), but more likely to allow Zygarde Cells to be collected - in fact, one or more of these often appear at the ends of Routes, and the popup message does address the issue, as the Cells cannot be collected once a Route is completed. Route color markers are now also rather varied, with 10 possible colors to indicate them.
Most importantly, now many more Trainers are able to create Routes. After being limited only to the "special" Trainers, those of Level 48 also became able to create Routes, before being progressively lowered to 45, then 42, and now 40 at present. This means a good proportion of veteran and quickly progressing Trainers are now able to create Routes, and this should mean lots of variation in turn. Since this is a creation process, however, it is not likely that the process will be extended to Trainers of lower levels, at least significantly; it may be extended to Level 38, the current minimum for PokéStop nominations, but perhaps no further than that. Still, the variety of Routes that comes out of the current group should be sufficient.
Then there are the quirks that still exist. Going back to Zygarde Cells, even with good visibility of the screen, sometimes they are not spotted at all until Pokémon Go is restarted, which shouldn't be a "last resort workaround" of sorts, although this may help with missed Cells along the way. Similarly, starting Routes shouldn't require workarounds like restarting, switching to other apps, or turning off Adventure Sync to deal with them not starting even at the start point. Pausing during Route creation is also still an issue as it just does not seem to work, at least for me. These quirks may still be critical to address.
After a couple of months of being live, the Routes feature in Pokémon Go seems to have shaped up with improvements, even if they seem rather spotty and leave some things (the quirks) to be desired. For a feature that has become somewhat important in different ways, the less-than-perfect quality of it may become a detractor in some ways despite all other things being just fine, if not close to perfect. Yet, it's still a way of laying down new exploration paths... and perhaps also the paths to its own improvement.
One year ago: Means of Venturing for Trainers
Two years ago: One Girl Is Company, Two Girls Are...
Three years ago: Official Representative Pokémon for Regions
Four years ago: (Not) Sparkling Names
Five years ago: My Town, Pokémon Town
Six years ago: What's in a Name?
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