Niantic announced
Pokemon GO started field test in Japan yesterday. While only Japanese Android players can take part in it, now many details are unveiled.
Each pokemon has their own qualities and has three different levels such as ordinary, legendary and myth. Pokemons have CP value, but we don’t know how it works. Maybe it is a catch point. The higher the numerical value, the harder it caught.
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Teams: Blue, Red, and Yellow seem to be confirmed. This also shows that you will not start out picking a team. This is different than Ingress and I think Niantic has made a smart decision on this point as they had a ton of players want to switch teams. This decision should minimize that.
Character Customization allows the following to change: Skin Tone, Hair, Eyes, Hat, Shirt, Pants, Shoes, Backpack. Details in the videos posted and here. Best video of customization - Seen in the background of this excellent video
Day & Night Cycle... Not much here but you can see the screens here(at the bottom).
Pokemon Moves - Limits Pokemon moves to 2. There are currently 232 moves found and as /u/poke_viki009 points out here that there are no status effects in the moves listed. This to me is a great indicator that battles will be greatly simplified from what we are used to. I also have not seen mention of an association between the listed Pokemon types and their corresponding moves. However, I find it is interesting that some of the moves have a "Fast" version which leads me to believe that speed plays into the battle mechanics somehow. The other interesting thing is that Blastoise has several moves relegated specifically to it, this might be a testing oversight that they originally were testing these moves with a Blastoise or that there are moves and maybe animations specifically for each pokemon.
Battle Animations - Something interesting is mentioned here which leads me to believe we might be able to see battles take place (even if we can't control them directly). There are several "animation" type names listed that don't match with anything in the moves list directly, but could be associated with moves such as "spark_trail" and "frost_breath_fast_hit". It could be an animation or an effect on screen.
VR Connection - There is information about Google Cardboard in the beta data leading me to believe that it might support Google Cardboard in the future rather than any other VR system, such as Samsung's Gear etc.
Pokemon - Currently
151 listed in the database and most of the sprites are here. They will have different types: None (Eggs...), Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Dark, Fairy. This leads me to believe that they are keeping themselves atleast open to expansion to other generations even if we don't get them at the start. There are 3 classes: Normal, Legendary, Mythic. This is probably having to do with how you would capture them, normal throw a ball vs event based pokemon. The most interesting thing here is their natures: Stoic, Assassin, Guardian, Raider, Protector, Sentry, or Champion. I am personally split on what these could do... either they could be titles on attacking or defending such as placement within the Gym (lvl 1 is Sentry,lvl 2-3 is Guardian, lvl 4-5 is Protector, lvl 6 is Champion)or the attacking team (maybe you can attack with 2 pokemon at the same time? Assassin and Raider). Now Stoic is the only one that leads me to believe it is actually natures that will affect the Stats (HP, Attack, Defense), Stoic will have an increased HP, Assassin - increased Attack, Guardian - increased Defense, Raider -increased HP & Att, Protector increased HP & Def, Sentry - increased Att & Def, Champion - increased HP, Att, & Def. This leads me to believe that pokemon are individuals and you will have a relationship with them. You might be able to even affect what natures they are by training them (see the actions list). The last thing to mention is that you can release pokemon. As far as starters... you get one it looks like. It might have tutorial like Ingress with a fake world to play in. Edit: Current Limit of 500 Pokemon.
Evolution - In one of the posts there is mention of stone and stone pieces. It seems to me that Fire Stones might need to be crafted or brought together to evolve certain pokemon. It also seems to be counting how many times you have captured a pokemon rather than how many you currently have in your bag. This seems to indicated that Evolution will be based on capture alone.
Eggs & Hatching - Sort of known, you take eggs with you and you walk around to hatch them. But it looks like you can hatch your eggs into different environments, this is from the "env" that /u/TheMegaExplosion doesn't quite follow. I think these backgrounds(toward the bottom) are the backgrounds for the hatching. This might lead to different natures coming out on the pokemon? Eggs Database information might give more away about the game then anything else. It has the following fields: KM Walked, KM Target, Origin, Height, Weight, Individual Attack, Individual Defense, Individual Stamina, Has Cp Multiplier, Cp Multiplier, Field Number. This leads me to believe that having a certain pokemon as the active one can increase your pokemon capture rate.
Trading - It seems to me that trading will all be done via data rather than bluetooth or anything like that. It has search, offer, response, and result listed as options for actions.
Items - Item Categories: None, Pokeball, Food, Medicine, Boost, Utilities, Camera. What is interesting here is the camera item, will you be able to take pictures with your own pokemon? Will you have to use a camera item to do that? There is also mention of "Recycle Item". This leads me to believe you can turn items into gems. List of items: Uknown, Pokeball, Greatball, Ultraball, Masterball, Potion, Super Potion, Hyper Potion, Max Potion, Max Revive, X Attack, X Defense, X Miracle (Interesting item - both stats up?), Razz Berry, Bluk Berry, Nanab Berry, Wepar Berry, Pinap Berry, and Special Camera. What is interesting to note is that the berries are only Pokeblock ingredients not berries that effect anything. Could this mean they wanted to use those for recycling items to get gems? Or are they some sort of crafting in the game? Or is it because they don't do anything in the main games so we cannot make any assumptions on their effects? Edit: Current limit of 1000 items
In App Purchases - 6 Different tiers and packages for Balls, Medicine, and Food categories in Small, Standard, and Large. It also has packages for Gems... this leads me to believe it will be based on the Gem currency and it will depend on what you Tier you are subscribed to on what price you are paying for the three different packages (in Gems). You get a discount for higher subscription tiers. I also think that gems will be accumulated in game.
Action List - Unknown, Catch Pokemon, Catch Legend Pokemon, Flee Pokemon, Defeat Fort, Evolve Pokemon, Hatch Egg, Walk KM, New Pokedex entry, Catch First Throw, Catch-Nice Throw, Catch- Great Throw, Catch - Excellent Throw, Catch - Curveball, Catch - First Catch of Day, Catch Milestone, Train, Search Fort. These are very interesting, some to note are Catch Milestone (probably linked to evolution), Curveball (how you throw effects catch rate?), and Train. You can train your pokemon... will this level them up? Change their nature? Upgrade their stats? Personally I think it will change their natures.
Gyms - I believe that it is 6 pokemon that can be stored at a Gym... if you look at the Gym icon on the map source you can see 6 platforms, which I believe you will have to battle 6 pokemon to take a gym from another team. I think each Gym based on what has happened there will reward capture/taking over gyms with Gym Points and Experience (player? pokemon?) which will help determine which team is winning on the global scale like Ingress's intel report. Other things to note here are they can be searched... does this mean you can find items there? Or is this more about the Pokestops and Forts have dual meaning now? There seems to be deploy and recall actions. You might be able to allow other players to deploy if you recall a pokemon stationed there. It looks like training is only done at the gyms however, as Gym Training is included in actions under Gyms. There is also "Gym Pope"s :D. Let me be your leader!
Battling - Seems to me there are 3 stats... HP (Stamina?), Att, and Def. They play into damage that can be reduced/increased by moves and items. It also leads me to believe battling is done with your input (might be just attacking a Gym and swapping a pokemon in to attack) "SWAP_IN_TO_BATTLE" is listed as actions.
Badge List: Distance Travelled (KM), Pokedex Entries, Capture Total, Defeated Forts (Gyms?), Evolved Total, Hatched Total, Encountered Total, Pokestops Visited, Unique Pokestops, Pokeballs Thrown.
In app Messaging - There are screens about it.
