'Pokémon GO' News: Niantic Updates EX Raid Battles Following Players' Request
Niantic recently released a patch specifically to update "Pokémon GO's" EX Raid Battles as it took its cue from the players' requests.
Months following the launch of Raid Battles on "Pokémon GO," Niantic announced that there would be several changes made that would improve the title's gameplay.
In the official announcement, the developers said: "We've been carefully reviewing your feedback and will be making a few changes to the feature in response. These improvements will not require you to update your app, but they will impact your gameplay."
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The said changes concerned a special feature of the title's gameplay called EX Raid Battles, which only trainers with invitations could participate in.
The announcement mentioned a few points but it seemed the patch will greatly change the playing experience. For example, with the update, players will now only encounter EX Raid Battles happening in Gyms found at parks and "sponsored locations."
Meanwhile, the game update will also make players with a high-level Gym Badge receive more chances of getting asked to join EX Raid Battles located in select Gyms. The same rule applies to players with a higher number of completed EX Raid Battles.
Niantic also improved the gameplay so that the EX Raid Battles will not overlap with the standard Raid Battles. The developer explained: "EX Raid Battle start times now take into account popular Raid Battle times at that Gym."
Per the trainers' request, Niantic will also start issuing in-game notifications if a scheduled EX Raid Battle has been canceled. But on the plus side, the developer will reward trainers with Stardust and Premium Raid Passes for every event that will not push through.
Niantic also revealed: "Over the course of the EX Raid Battle field test, much of the feedback we received was focused around how Trainers are chosen to participate in EX Raid Battles."
The developers used to "randomly" select Trainers who would be invited to EX Raid Battles. With the recently released patch, Niantic explained: "We're able to give Trainers who actively engage with the Gym where the EX Raid Battle is taking place and those who have invested more time into the Raid Battle feature a better chance of being invited to participate."
"Pokémon GO" is a free-to-play augmented reality game that was released on July 6, 2016 for devices running on Android and iOS.
