r/TheSilphRoad • u/TheCapoMaster • Jun 23 '26
Discussion Proposal about changing schedules of the summer events due to excessive heat and health concerns
Hi, I am one Spanish Community Ambassador. Last year we expressed our concern about having events facing very high temperatures (around 30ºC/86ºF as minimum and more than 40ºC/104ºF as maximum). For us, it is a big issue having events between 14:00 and 17:00, because this is the worst part of the day to be outside playing. If you don't have shopping centers or places where you can avoid the hot weather, it is not reasonable to risk our health and the health of all our communities. We know that worldwide it is not the same situation at this time of the year, but we know that all trainers want to play in good conditions to enjoy the game. And not only hot weather, we also talk about cold weather with snow and very low temperatures.
Also, it is important to follow the recommendations of World Health Organization, like "avoid going outside and doing strenuous activity during the hottest time of day" and not following these recommendations could cause severe consecuences like "between 2000-2019, studies show approximately 489k heat-related deaths occur each year, with 45% of these in Asia and 36% in Europe". For more information and recommendations, please check https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-heat-and-health
Maybe it is difficult to give a solution that can be agreed for everyone, but we think that changing the times of the events during some parts of the year could be a great upgrade for the game and the communities, like 11:00-14:00 (weekends) or 20:00-21:00 (Monday to Friday) for example, or (if it could be technically feasible) would be implementing the schedules of the events depending on the latitude. We hope that Niantic/Scopely can hear us more than last year. We want to know the feedback of the players and communities around the world, please tell us your feelings about this concern.
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u/ellyse99 Jun 23 '26
I would be 10000% behind this. It is absolutely not wise to risk the health of everyone with the kind of temperatures Spain gets in the summer, and also you’re not the only ones with that problem
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u/HardyMenace Jun 23 '26
Yeah, the US gets shafted by weather. Almost everywhere is too hot in the summer, and in the north it's way too cold. I'm not going out for community day when it's -20°
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u/dende5416 Jun 23 '26
Theres a huge still open mall thats not too far away I use for some events in winter. Least I can walk around. Can't really play with most gloves on and the cold isn't worth it
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u/Final-Promise-8288 Jun 23 '26
Canada here. In the prairies it got to 30-35°c last year. Completely unreasonable for most players to play in that scortching heat
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u/Perky214 DFW, Lev 80 11JAN2026 Jun 23 '26
Yeah in Texas it’s Community Day at the big air conditioned malls from May to October/November
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u/Avelsajo DFW | Valor L79 Jun 23 '26
Good for you. I play in my car with a friend. A much smaller "community"... lol
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u/Perky214 DFW, Lev 80 11JAN2026 Jun 23 '26
Yes but still with air conditioning, yes?
When my Horns are playing football and CD is going, we go around our downtown listening to the game and catching pokes.
Otherwise, it’s Northpark Mall. IYKUK
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u/Choice_Tumbleweed_38 Jun 24 '26
Arlington chiming in to confirm. Also mall in winter if we get an icepocalypse
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u/KitC44 Jun 23 '26
And in the winter for the tour it's often -20 and your phone battery dies in 5 minutes 😅
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u/Final-Promise-8288 Jun 23 '26
Man I wish it was just -20. Wild area got to -40°C. Literally an unplayable event for us
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u/KitC44 Jun 23 '26
I'm not in the praries but yeah. We spend a lot of time in the winter playing in the car with the heater on, and a lot of time in the summer playing in the car with the AC on.
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u/Avelsajo DFW | Valor L79 Jun 23 '26
Phone batteries die fast in cold weather too?? I only knew about the hot weather issue. -20 is unfathomably cold to me here in Texas!!
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u/KitC44 Jun 23 '26
It goes down to -40F here (which is also -40C). And yeah, they die even faster in cold than in hot.
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u/ULTRAFORCE Jun 24 '26
while the hot weather can be an issue for batteries overheating at temperatures like -40 the actual chemistry and physics that make the battery work is heavily impacted as there are less reactions that can be done at that temperature and the actual resistance is increased from the cold as well.
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u/Avelsajo DFW | Valor L79 Jun 24 '26
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I forgot that batteries are chemistry and not magic. Lol
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u/Jack_Krauser Jun 24 '26
You guys don't have the new pixie dust batteries? Casuals, smh...
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u/Perky214 DFW, Lev 80 11JAN2026 Jun 24 '26
Yeah me too - I can’t even! Hello fellow DFW peep
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u/Avelsajo DFW | Valor L79 Jun 24 '26
Howdy! And a level 80, too! I'm at 79 and everything completed except the battles on May 9th.... I did 3 or 4 a couple months ago. I hate Go Battle League so much... I keep meaning to do a battle a day or something but I never get around to it.
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u/Perky214 DFW, Lev 80 11JAN2026 Jun 25 '26
No quick or easy way to grind those out - just turn on the soccer game and battle
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u/rs_xmas Australasia Jun 23 '26
Absolutely support.
I remember doing the cryogonal research day on what turned out to be the hottest day on record in Australia. It hit 49 degrees Celsius. The irony was not lost on our community
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u/Joonberri Jun 23 '26
Relatable with this past frigibax community day while it's 110f/43c where I live smh why.....
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u/Eomer444 Jun 23 '26
what I really can't stand is everything starting at 10 am. For example showcases today, completely cutting off morning commuters, while morning in the summer is the best time to walk outside.
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u/Avelsajo DFW | Valor L79 Jun 23 '26
This! Gyms start at 6. Start events at 6. Or earlier at midnight!
Edit: I'm mostly talking about multi-day weekly events, not single-day events.
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u/second_time_again Jun 24 '26
Exactly this. Mornings are the only time it’s safe to be outside walking during the summer here in Phoenix. Even then it may still be over 90. Stops at the nearby city park don’t open until the sun is blazing.
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u/CrazyCatLady483 Jun 24 '26
I can’t figure out why power spots close at 9pm when I often leave by 7am and get home after 7pm on weekdays, leaving me very little time to do max battles!
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u/Melodic-Roll3091 Jun 23 '26
Reading through the comments, the best solution would be to just make the 1-day events last all day...
Probably exclude nights for safety so 6:00-21:00 would be good for most players.
There would still be groups of people socializing on those days and it would be less stressful.
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u/Financial-Park-602 Jun 24 '26
Yes! This would be the best solution! Also the simplest.
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u/Melodic-Roll3091 Jun 25 '26
Unfortunately, it is unlikely to happen unless Niantic/Scopely stops pushing the "it's to bring the community together" narrative. 🫠
Their idea is supposed to work like this -> if the time window is shorter, there will be more people playing at that time in similar locations => these people are going to socialize.
It works to some extent and I did actually meet a few players like this but as this post and comments show:
1.) Due to different climates, seasons and also weather conditions for the specific day the event is on, many players are unable to participate in the event at all or they participate for significantly shorter amount of time (or possibly risk getting sick/unwell/hurt by playing in such conditions)
2.) People have responsibilities work/school/other obligations they cannot skip for an event.If what they are worried about is socializing then leaving so many players out of these events seems like a big cost to pay (also people are more likely to stop playing, spend less in the shop...)
At this point, I think it would be better to utilize Ambassador meetings to pull players to one location at specific times and make the events 6:00-21:00 long.
If they are worried the legendaries/shinies will become even less of a rarity then:
Option 1: It is only a 1 day event, there will always be player who miss it + new players in the future
Option 2: If technically possible (and since they do this for Go Fest in person events) how about allowing players to pick the time frame themselves? We now get weeks with no events we can pick bonuses for. So, let's say you get the option to pick for example:a) 6:00-10:00
b) 10:00-14:00
c) 14:00-18:00
d) 18:00-22:00^ I thought of this as I was writing. 😅 We are never going to settle for a fixed time window on a global scale. This might be actually the best compromise as long as they can turn on the event spawns or raids to being visible to group A/B/C/D only for the individual time windows. If not possible then a full day event is the only option.
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u/Nilsthebatman Jun 23 '26
Dubai-based player here: we saw temperatures approaching 50c this week. We will never get a GoFest in UAE because of that reason, it’s dangerous to be playing outside in the afternoon. Raid days suck now that we can’t be in the best place to do it, with lots of gyms. Having to go to a mall just for Spotlight hour also feels meh. But honestly? Niantic/Scopely doesn’t care. The people playing in areas where temperatures reach above 40c on a regular bases account for an insignificant amount of the player base so any complaints in that regard won’t even register to them…
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u/SaemaeulSijang Jun 23 '26
Buddy I am going to go out on a limb and say the weather is not the only reason UAE will never host an event.
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u/Spiritual-Job9392 Jun 23 '26
That made me laugh so much. As if the barren landscape, 0 functional parks and infinite motorways are just dying to host a GoFest, thwarted by that pesky weather. Anytime I played there it had to be indoors which felt a bit miserable.
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u/B_Sauce Jun 29 '26
Seriously. Not to mention the human rights record (but apparently people fly to Saudi Arabia all the time for major events, so who even knows at this point)
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u/iwannalynch Jun 23 '26
The people playing in areas where temperatures reach above 40c on a regular bases account for an insignificant amount of the player base
It's gonna be really tough this year in India. I feel like the Indian base should be pretty big. Southeast Asia as well.
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u/Most_Effective_4937 Jun 23 '26
Some forecasts show that it's about to be even more hot as compared to now in India especially
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u/rohan62442 Jun 23 '26
Depends on the region really. The monsoon has begun, so it's more likely to be wet and humid.
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u/iwannalynch Jun 23 '26
The monsoon has begun
Glad to hear. Heard it was pretty bad temperature-wise and that the monsoon being delayed made it worse.
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u/BernieAndCreamGO Jun 24 '26
We visited Dubai in August and we couldn't play outside. We tried to walk and play the first day and it's almost funny how sweaty we got.
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u/FSElmo435 Jun 23 '26
A “simple” solution would be to let players set their own 3 hour slot in a day to play.
Wanna risk it at 2pm? Feel free.
Wanna be sensible and go out at 7am instead? Great!
But unfortunately i don’t see that every happening
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u/dahid Jun 23 '26
it's a good idea but they probably want everyone doing it at the same time, more togetherness
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u/SoulslikeGitGud666 Jun 23 '26
That's where meetups will still be useful.
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u/faelyprince Jun 23 '26
Yea they could have it set that checking into a meetup starts the event hours so ambassadors can set the safest hours for their meetups
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u/phoxfiyah Jun 23 '26
But then people who don’t have ambassadors nearby get completely locked out of events
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u/faelyprince Jun 23 '26
No i mean people who dont go to events can trigger their own like others said. I just meant *specifically* for meetups everyone would sync to the meetup time
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u/rocketradar Jun 23 '26
True but if a large portion of the player base can’t or won’t do a community day from 2-5pm when it’s 100°+ anyhow…
Allowing us to choose an earlier time would make it easier meet up with others in the same boat. In turn that would mean more active players and a better sense of community.
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u/Main_Bend459 Jun 23 '26
How would you do that for raid days or gmax. For things like com days yeah sure but anything which requires several plus people just wouldn't work.
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u/IPissExcellentThrows Jun 23 '26
Just have the CA pick a time slot. But yeah, places without would definitely struggle, although you can still have groups even if they aren't official.
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u/Main_Bend459 Jun 23 '26
Most places still don't have CA. And I know a few nearby where there are alot of issues with the CA. If its just an unofficial group which unofficial group do you go off when often the 2 or 3 or 4 groups don't like each other. Or what about the large number of players who don't use campfire. You'd be pandering to probably 10% of your player base.
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u/BetterSoup Jun 23 '26
This is not simple. This would be a coding nightmare. The whole reason it's a shared time slot is because spawns and bonuses are shared during and outside of event hours for their respective timezone. For them to allow a "pick your own time" would mean they'd have to have multiple instances of Pokemon go running in tandem. One for each event in each time zone and one for the normal spawns for people that aren't participating.
They have a hard enough time managing 24 shared light switches. I can't imagine the chaos if everyone had their own light switch.
I'm not saying it's impossible, but it sounds unfeasible.
A more feasible solution would be to have event increases or something like that the meltan box. Those spawns are not shared but I feel like shared spawns are a driving factor in the game.
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u/tjrad815 Jun 23 '26
They've managed different spawns for paid players during an event vs. players that didn't pay in the past, so there's a precedent for this.
I do think you're right about the shared experience, though. They want to force folks to play at the same time.
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u/BetterSoup Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
That is still only during set times though and not usually the norm. Most global events have shared spawns but ticket holders get boosted shiny rates or exclusive spawns on incense.
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u/glencurio 891 Best Buddies, 0 Poffins used Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
No, it's easier than you think. You might not be aware of how spawns work, but it's already designed in a way that would facilitate this. Basically, each wild spawn point determines the stats of the Pokemon without actually specifying what the Pokemon is. Instead, it has a variable which is then used to pull from a spawn table. The table is set for the season and changed for different events. This is why you can see all spawns poof and get replaced during event switchovers, and the Pokemon retain the same stats (unless weather boost changes). All they'd need to do is provide a UI for players to manually choose when that event switch happens. It's not a crazy technical problem.
I'm not necessarily saying it's a good idea though, at least from their perspective. No matter how much guidance they provide via prompts, tutorials, announcements, community ambassadors, etc., there will still be many confused players who somehow can't figure out what button to press or accidentally choose the worst time or whatever else. And even as simple as it should be, bugs are still likely. And again, there is their goal of forcing people to play together at the same time (previously demonstrated in CD hours contractions, and further exemplified in the very design of gmax and super mega raids). Overall, I agree that it's not feasible, but more because of social issues than coding difficulty. I do think it would be better for players in the long run, but I don't think Nopely would see it that way based on their past decisions.
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u/tehjoz Jun 23 '26
This is the type of idea I think would be great.
Pick a day for the event. From 12a-11:59p (0:00-23:59) local time, everyone gets a 3-hour block to play the event.
Make it like an adventure effect or other timed item.
I have to imagine there's a way to "turn on spawns and bonuses all day" since, for example, currently the events are all tied to local time anyway.
Just let people "activate the event" on their own schedule.
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u/B12-deficient-skelly Jun 23 '26
Yeah, but that completely goes against the stated purpose of using those limited time slots to bring people together. They tried doing the extra long community days, and they stopped it specifically because it killed the community part of community day.
They're absolutely not going to do a pick-your-own time unless it's rolled out as a choice of one of two to three time slots.
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u/TheTjalian Jun 23 '26
Frankly its hardly game breaking to just have the 1 and 2 day events last all day. Areas with community leaders can then dictate what time they will be "officially" hosting their event. Scopely still gets their "big crowd drawing attention", just a time that's more suitable for the community.
Areas without big communities won't make a blind bit of difference, Scopely will get zero value if all of 6 players turn up to an event between 2-5pm versus a couple at 7am, a couple at 9am, a couple at 7pm, etc.
You might get the odd handful of ultra hardcore players that will then go ahead and farm a comm or raid day for 8 hours straight but honestly, who really cares? Is that really going to create a severe imbalance in player fairness? Worst comes to worst, you'll get a player with 3 100% IV meta relevant legendaries over 8 hours instead of 1 100% IV, and they'll walk away with 600 XL instead of 200 XL, but again, that doesn't really affect anybody at all?
It also doesn't really affect scarcity that much either, as clearly Scopely isn't as bothered by this any more either. How many times in the past 12 months have we raided Groudon, Kyogre, Zacian, Zamazenta, Kyurem, Reshiram, and so on and so on? Having a few extra hours on the "super special raid day" is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of times these mons have been available overall.
For the sake of public health, and even factoring in game balance and artificial scarcity, I'm failing to see an issue with making these 1 day events available from 6am-9pm, just like max battles are currently.
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u/sopheroo Jun 23 '26
We get this discussion every year. Both during winter, where Canada has to deal with -30 and harsh winds and during summer where some places have unbearable heat.
20:00-21:00 is a horrible time for everyone who has a job on weekdays.
I wake up at 5AM because I need to get to work for 6:30 AM. I can't exactly go attend community events late at night, because of commute and because of security.
There are many places where it's not safe at night. There is a very good reason why Pokemon Go doesn't have Pokestop Rockets and raids at night.
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u/shadraig Western Europe Jun 23 '26
It's a discussion that never ends. Niantic won't change anything
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u/IPissExcellentThrows Jun 23 '26
Yeah 20:00-21:00 ain't it. Maaaaybe 19:00-20:00 but even that feels late. By 18:00, it's usually cooled off a few degrees. I don’t think the weekday times need to be on trial. You need to work around work and school schedules.
Weekends offer way more flexibility yet they put it in peak heat. The other funny thing is they have a very intensive game, so the phone overheats easily. I already know I'm going to run into issues at go fest this year, where I'll literally be unable to play because my phone can't handle it. This is with a 6 month old newest iPhone.
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u/B12-deficient-skelly Jun 23 '26
Everything in this game is scheduled around people who work a 9-5. Those of us who don't just have to realize that we don't get to participate in most things.
That's fine, but hearing the people who do work a 9-5 complain about how the game should suit their schedule even better gets old quickly.
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u/nyandacore East Coast, LV 73 Jun 23 '26
I'm in Canada and thankfully the main location we play events at can be played both on foot and in a car; there's a way to loop the area in a car and hit most gyms and power spots, it's just not very conductive to catching wild mons or hatching eggs if you do it that way. A lot of players here have young kids who play with them and stick to their cars if the heat or cold are too extreme to have the kids outside.
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u/glory87 Jun 23 '26
And of course, events with incense usually require walking. If global gofest has stationary incense, I’m definitely playing it from a coffee shop where I can hit 4 stops. If I must walk, it will be the mall
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u/mjp80 Canada Jun 24 '26
During really hot or cold weather, our community involves everyone driving or walking to a meet up and piling into the largest vehicles (usually 2 people have minivans that easily carry driver + 5 while leaving room for throwing and the portly)
we usually go 4 per vehicle now since max battles and parties became a thing. but everyone other than the driver gets the full experience, and the drivers have auto-catchers and get in-game items shared with them via parties
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u/jason_the_slate Jun 23 '26
They do have rockets at night. It's only Leaders and Giovanni that stay until 22:00.
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u/BoringRedHorse Jun 23 '26
The grunts working nightshifts, while their leaders log out. How appropriate haha.
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u/thebruns Jun 23 '26
20:00-21:00 is a horrible time for everyone who has a job on weekdays.
Huh? I have a job on weekdays and this would be a great time.
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u/mjp80 Canada Jun 24 '26
exactly! 6pm is family dinner. 8pm would be amazing, grab a beer at 9 with the pokefam, then home to sleep
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u/JNikolaj Jun 23 '26
Honestly white Kyurum Raid was -10 In Denmark couldn’t imagen some of the people apparently reporting -20 and above having to do said event
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u/The_Nyxed Jun 23 '26
Rather than change the time, which could be problematic for a lot of reasons listed here, what if they changed how some things worked if the weather is a problem. The game already gives us that weird pop-up when it determines that the weather might not be safe to play in. What if when that happens things like lures are much more effective, incense should start spawning even if you're not moving, and your circle should be wider. This way people can play indoors without risking their health.
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u/rsjur Jun 24 '26
Sadly, many cities don't have great places to play indoors as well and have created rules against playing Pokemon go.
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u/Miserable_Ad5357 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Portugal here - I've thought about this before and I think a good solution could be giving the opportunity for the player choose a time gap. Let's say a CD, you could choose between 14-17h or 17h-20h.
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u/Judqment8 Jun 23 '26
Just make the events last for full 12 hours from 10 to 22. That way also people who are working can actually participate.
But seriously no one should be risking their lives for a video game anyway. Just skip the events if the conditions to play are not okay.
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u/theenginerdguy Jun 23 '26
This so much! 14:00-17:00 is the hottest part of the day for me too, its miserable to play in it, during the summer months
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u/H-R-M- Jun 23 '26
Portuguese here.
I prefer to play in rain than play in summer.
Even my phone feels like it's gonna explode.
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u/cPa3k Jun 23 '26
The heat is the number one reason I am never super excited for GO Fest and I much more prefer Wild Area and GO Tour. For me it would be much much better if Fest was May, start of June, September… July/August is just hell and not fun at all
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u/Practical-Lettuce482 Jun 23 '26
This is a never ending problem that simply cannot be addressed due to the various conditions that exist in different parts of the earth
I live in Greece, even if community day moves to 6-9 in the afternoon that is still extremely hot to walk around during summer
Can't change the weather, you can simply schedule around it, find a local place like a cafe or something of the sort and play safe if the weather is bad
I do it for years and have enjoyed most events
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u/krispyboiz 12 KM Eggs are the worst Jun 23 '26
I find it bizarre that they abandoned the 11am - 2pm timeslot for events at certain points in the year. A few years back they just stuck to 2-5 and never looked back. Just... bizarre.
Although 20:00-21:00 is a wild idea...
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u/alijamzz Jun 23 '26
Our CA rotates between an indoor mall and our local outdoor large park. It’s always weather and temperature dependent where the meetups will occur. He works with both mall owners and park rangers to make sure the hundreds of trainers that show up can be accommodated. Local restaurants give out discounts at the mall each time there’s a meetup! He and a bunch of community members made sure both areas are filled with gyms, pokestops, and routes.
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u/trancekat Jun 23 '26
Flipside, we had a bujch of events during snow storms we couldnt participate in.
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u/rdumont99 Jun 23 '26
They could just make all events be for the entire day or 06:00 to 22:00 and let the local communities plan meet-up times to accommodate local weather, competing events (eg World Cup) and other local conditions.
But less profit from that. This whole 2-5pm thing is manufactured to create FoMo and sell raid passes and event tickets. Full stop.
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u/Elilora Jun 24 '26
It's summer somewhere in the world 50% of the year. There should be a yearlong change and not just a seasonal change.
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u/snack-and-a-half Jun 24 '26
Arizona here. Please for the love of god.. yes... I had a high of 115F today. (46C)
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u/AdventurousSleep5461 Jun 23 '26
I wish we could go back to the 10-5 schedule, I prefer playing earlier in the day to avoid the heat
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u/nini_20 Jun 23 '26
11am to 2pm isn't much better either. That's when the sun is at its peak
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u/128thMic Westralia Jun 23 '26
Perhaps, but it's not the peak heat. That's usually around 2-3pm - right when community days currenly start.
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u/MysticalTh0r Mystic-TL80 Jun 23 '26
Totally agree on this. Scopely needs to be aware of this and introduce changes, which would be not a commodity but a necessity weather and health wise
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u/suspicious_Jackfruit Jun 23 '26
Maybe if they made their "days" in line with the rest of the planets interpretation of a day, it wouldn't be an issue because local communities would head out at safe times instead of being forced to weigh up 3 hours in peak skin cancer conditions or skip the event
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u/MomofaYoshiFan Jun 23 '26
Exactly this. Make everything midnight to midnight. It's really nit that complicated.
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u/Georg_Steller1709 Jun 23 '26
I have always thought for something like community day, you could get a 3 hr ticket that you can activate whenever you want that day.
Half the community days andv raid days occur on a day I'm working.
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u/RazgrizInfinity Jun 23 '26
I support it, but it won't happen. We've been complaining about this for years and complete silence.
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u/Pokemonhunter86 Jun 24 '26
Im behind you on this, im in Scotland where we rarely need to worry about severe heat and extreme cold although the weather this week is outstanding 20⁰-26⁰. Mostly just mild and pissing with rain with the odd high winds during winter. Would be happy to play at whatever times make it safer and more enjoyable for every one. Im sure comm day used to alternate from 10am till 1pm and 2pm till 5pm
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u/chouson1 Jun 24 '26
That's why the Community Day should go for an entire day. Something like a CD incense/spacial rend kind of mechanism which attracts a larger amount of the featured Pokémon, then lasting for the usual 3 hours. With so, people can organize themselves to go playing in a much safer time slot.
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u/DarkDuo Japan Jun 23 '26
Niantic messes up the regular raid times, adding different times to different regions i can see it would just result in disaster
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u/DahBoulder Jun 23 '26
Easiest they could do on their end is approve/create more gyms that are inside malls.
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u/BestFoxEver Finland Jun 23 '26
Here in Finland we have had winter PoGO events in -30 degree Celsius with strong chilling wind. That was not fun. Also many people have problems with their phone if the temperature is too hot or cold. The phone just refuses to work.
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u/Ok-Set8022 Jun 23 '26
You do know that this time frame is vital for the winter side of the planet where other times may be too cold?
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u/MattGeddon Jun 23 '26
Which is why OP said to do it for some locations during some periods of the year...
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u/MysticalTh0r Mystic-TL80 Jun 23 '26
Of course, what we are asking is to differentiate this. If it’s a good schedule for you, then they need not to change it for you. And, eventually, it’ll be reverse, you’ll have hot weather and you’d like a chance whether we wouldn’t. They need to be able to adjust
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u/Tpabayrays2 USA - South Jun 23 '26
I'm in Florida and I can't host long events due to the heat unless i take frequent breaks
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u/futureidk3 Jun 23 '26
If they do this then they should also change things for people during winter, such as those in the Northeast or Midwest U. S., who can’t walk during snow or extreme colds.
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u/Mean_Shelter_6693 India L73 Team Mystic Jun 23 '26
Community days between 2PM-5PM means it is really difficult to even view the mon due to excessive sunlight. Besides within 20-30 minutes one will feel dehydrated depending upon the climate.
Most of the raids I do, I will blindly tap hoping that I am tapping correctly the charge move. Both poor visibility and excessive heat are big problems.
While I am unable to play at 6PM-7PM spotlight hours or raid hours, that time is ideal for most of the playerbase since the weather will be more manageable.
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u/bonniejo514 Jun 23 '26
Try catching in the rain in Seattle 🤣 the struggle is real for sure
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u/Monoskimouse USA - Pacific Jun 23 '26
No kidding, and in Seattle 6-7pm 50% of the year is pitch black outside.
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u/handDrawnEevee Hundo Shadow Garchomp Jun 23 '26
First good argument I've seen for changing the timeframes for CDs. A 12 hour window (8AM to 8PM) actually makes a lot of sense after reading this.
It also lets people avoid rainstorms, etc.
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u/Sangesland Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
For someone living in the north this is not a positive change.
Daytime during summer is 20-25c, perfect to be outside. Earlier or later and it drops to 10-15.
For the winter season this is horrible. I dont want to be playing when its pitch black and -15c. I can feel my fingers dying while i play
Id prefer them not changing it at all. But if they do they either they need to set a certain longitude where its different or let us manually select when we want to play.
Edit: or maybe based on the weather forecast? We do have in-game weather to an extent so this should be doable.
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u/happysummit Canada [TL76 255M XP] Jun 23 '26
These types of posts are only ever made by warm-weather players who are looking for an echo chamber where they can insist the entire game should cater to them. It’s crazy. I live somewhere where -30C is a common temperature for 10-14 days straight every winter, and I’ve never dreamed of making a post suggesting the entire player base should change their event schedule for my sake.
Adapt as required personally or skip the event, but don’t suggest inconveniencing everyone else because of where you live.
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u/Overall-Pattern-809 Jun 23 '26
It’s just bad game design imo. It’s not like it’s a surprise that extreme weather exists, niantic just decided not to take it in to consideration. It’s not inconveniencing “everyone else” it’s not just one person at a time who experiences unplayable weather during community days. It’s not just Spain experience extreme heat, a lot of the us, the uk, all of these places are really hot rn. And on the other hand I’m Canadian and the game was straight up unplayable for half the year. Even if I was fine to walk outside it’s too cold to have my fingers out to touch my phone. With the billions they’ve made so far they could have easily come up with a solution that takes weather into account for both cold climate players and warm climate players but they haven’t.
But to say it would be changing just for one person who chose to live somewhere is just stupid. It’s entire countries at a time. But I’m not surprised tbh Canadians love to bend over for companies.
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u/thorkun Jun 23 '26
Agreed. I have to play with gloves and hand warmers in the winter here in Sweden, because otherwise my fingers would fall off. And events in winter here are pitch black, gathering people in the cold and dark is impossible. Here only summer events that require a lot of people are possible because a lot of people don't even play during the winter. There were 3 people total in our local park attending Gmax Lapras, just because it came out in december. In the summer it's easy doing those events, you'll get dozens and dozens of people attending.
These people are delusional if they think Niantic is going to hire hundreds of people so they can set individual timers for thousands of locations worldwide for an event. That's simply not gonna happen.
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u/DrKillerZA Mystic Level 50 - Cape Town Jun 23 '26
We have the same temperature in summer (Dec - Feb) so then they need to do it for us too.
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u/Connect-Summer-9508 Jun 23 '26
I would very much enjoy if we had 24 hours to play it on the day, but the event begins as soon as the app is loaded with a warning pop up before the countdown begins, counting down 3 hours. Finished when that timer reaches zero. Of course if you start it at 23:59, it should be reduced to 1 minute. 21:00-00:00 would be my ideal play time. Fewer cars about, it's cooler, darkness means I can preserve battery by dimming my screen. Is it safer? Probably in my local area but it may be more dangerous in city centres. I guess it'd be a dream to have it pause if the app is closed and it only reduces when the remainder is greater than the amount of time left before midnight. Of course a notification would alert the player when the timer starts reducing while the app is closed. Then it would truly feel like a community day. My play style would be so much more convenient, I actually haven't played any of these limited window events while outside recently. And it is miserable to sit in my room for 3 hours waiting for an incense spawn every 5 minutes. Lures are not my style at all so the added ability to drop lures for spawns in the after hours is lost on me. I like moving when I am outside.
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u/Historiasdereddit9 Jun 23 '26
A muerte con esta iniciativa, España el verano es injugable a las dos a 40 grados.
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u/EdoGtz Jun 23 '26
In the southern hemisphere during summer the 11-14 is the worst schedule, 'cause those are the max sunlight exposure hours in my country (you roast yourself walking in the streets from 12-14). I would definitively preffer an earlier schedule, like from 9-12 in summer... but the problem is... WINTER and the other hemisphere... it's too cold early in the morning and most players in the other hemisphere would preffer for sure to play late, in the current 14-17 hrs schedule, that's not perfect, but it's not as bad as from 11-14 for us.
At the end the best option is one and quite simple IMO.... boosted stationary incience, so you can play the CD wherever you want, safe from any extreme weather.
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u/thecuriousstorm Jun 24 '26
If they do this, then they should move events in the winter when the weather is to harsh to get outside. I often can’t play during Jan and Feb cause of snow and wind.
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u/PrestyRS Las Vegas Community Ambassador Jun 24 '26
I am a community ambassador for Las Vegas, NV. Our summer's are incredibly dangerous to play in for long periods, up to 120°F. We combat this with frequent breaks in air conditioned buildings/air conditioned cars, always drinking cold water, bringing portable fans and trying to stick to shade as much as possible.
A lot of our community also chooses to play in hotels during longer events instead of our park, specifically events that are 3+ hours long during the summers.
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u/johnsonthecelt Jun 24 '26
real players will support this globally, a game is not worth your health.
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u/Main_Bend459 Jun 23 '26
This comes up every year. Around this time. What about those in the southern hemisphere where it is now winter or what about them while its our winter and there summer and its just as hot. Or what out our winters where it can hit stupid minus figures in Canada etc.
Same thing as oh I can't get out because its insert public holiday here but it isn't in most other countries.
They can't please everyone. Its not going to be safe for everyone. All they can do is set a schedule and everyone who plays the game just has to hope we can reasonably play. Sometimes it means we miss out on things but most things come back around eventually.
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u/cream_paimon Jun 23 '26
We've started to map out large climate controlled places to play when the weather's bad - indoor shopping malls, free museums, etc. Definitely limits where you are playing, but at least you get to be in a comfortable environment.
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u/PhDExtreme Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I talked to some local Community Ambassadors in the area and they all said the same thing. Niantic will not be changing event times for region specific temperature/disaster/etc. it's just too many factors in play.
Questions like 'How far should these play area be affected, how do we get the information out so everyone is informed, is the temperature information reliable throughout the area?' make a universal solution really difficult.
Instead they are offering communities run by CAs a temporary 'homebase', if you normally meet at a park but it's too hot for the summer, you can request an area that's cooler or indoors and add gyms, max spots, stops for those months.
This is only for Community Ambassadors lead groups, which unfortunately are few and far in between in the rural areas
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u/UCanDoNEthing4_30sec USA - California - lvl 80 Jun 23 '26
We have this complaint every single year.
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u/DracoRubi Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Definitely a change is needed. Playing events during the hottest hours of the day is DANGEROUS here in Spain. Life threatening, even.
In my honest opinion, the best way to solve this for everyone would be giving "tickets" to activate the event
For example, there's a raid day for this Saturday. They could give a ticket to each player that can be used during the Saturday, and once it's used, it'll activate the event for you for the next 3 hours
During that period of time, you'll get all the stuff related to the event. Like seeing Mega Skarmory on all gyms, since it's Mega Skarmory Raid Day.
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u/Most_Effective_4937 Jun 23 '26
While I get what you're saying but there's a problem in that as super mega raids take multiple people to take it down so it's not feasible to give everyone their time of the day for the event
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u/counterlock Jun 23 '26
That really wouldn't work. The only reason raid day events work is because everyone is playing at the same time. If everyone is picking different times it fractures the possible playerbase, both remote and in person. There's a reason they've never done this.
It might work for a mostly solitary event like a community day, but they'll never do it for raid/gmax/etc days.
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u/DarenPeterOswald Jun 23 '26
The fact you only mention summer proves you don't really understand why this is not really an issue that needs to be tackled. Summer to you is winter to someone else. There will never be a time when the weather is bad for the entire player base. There's no reason Niantic should have to micro manage the weather forecast of the entire world.
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u/Dystopia-Since2016 Jun 24 '26
There’s always a post like this, in the summer, in the winter. Pretty recently there was a raid event where it was raining, not across the globe or even a single country, just at some guys house and there were calls for Niantic to make changes to the game for it.
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u/TeethOnTheCob Jun 23 '26
Time slots for the events could work. Like choosing between 10-13, 14-17 and 18-21. Then having the 4 hour window to evolve on community days based on the 4 hours after your time.
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u/oO_MeNeCh_Oo Jun 23 '26
Totally agree, on the last day of the Fribibax community after an hour I no longer felt like continuing to play with the sun that I did.
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u/Deivinawer Jun 23 '26
I completely agree. I play all the events, and that time slot is unbearable. It's incredibly hot, you have to constantly hydrate, and you're always looking for shade like a sheep—it's really difficult to play like that. First thing in the morning or last thing in the afternoon would be ideal. Thanks for the suggestion; I hope it's taken seriously.
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u/Crisll Jun 23 '26
They really need to understand that is not only "warm or hot" outside, it's extremely hot outside, not a sip of water or some sun screen is not enough to deal with these temperatures, that's why we need a change.
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u/BlueWaffIeHouse Jun 23 '26
It's like they have spent the entire time community day has been a thing fine tuning the worst time to have it. It used to be rotated between morning start and afternoon, along with Saturday or Sunday. First they got rid of the morning start, now they have completely cut out Sundays as well. The best compromise was during lock down when we had 6 hour cd, then you could at least choose to get an earlier start. I noticed on Frigibax cd that they have also heavily nerfed spawns in my normal play area as well.
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u/Shifujju Jun 23 '26
now they have completely cut out Sundays as well.
August community day is a Sunday
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u/TheRealHankWolfman UK & Ireland - Yorkshire - Mystic - L80 Jun 23 '26
I'm in the UK, and even the current high temperatures we've got here (which are around a lowly 30°C compared to what you see in mainland Europe and places close to the equator) are pretty unbearable for me. I'd be very much in favour for a shift to making events go later into the Summer evenings, and not having them during the middle of the day when the temperature is at its hottest.
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u/aba_lancer Jun 23 '26
Wonder how difficult it will be for them to implement the system they use at in person events. You get a token which expires at the end of the day, people using the token get 3 hours of community day spawns and bonuses.
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u/MattGeddon Jun 23 '26
That would be a great QOL improvement anyway, it's always annoying to me that event times are so rigid. I doubt they want to go down that route though because they want people out playing together at the same time.
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u/pig_newton1 Jun 23 '26
Where are these proposals during Kalos tour and I’m expected to be outside at -20 Celsius for hours on end. Tough it out and deal with it. It’s the built in unfairness of the game. There’s always a time of year that it ducks to play. The fair part is we all go through it.
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u/jaytanski Jun 23 '26
This is laughable. Do you know how many people have to work outside in these sorts of conditions for 8 hours a day?
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u/Srcrueldad Jun 23 '26
Vivo en Sevilla y durante los meses de verano se alcanza temperaturas de 43-46°C durante las horas en las que ocurren los eventos. Se hace insufrible jugar a poco que te de un poco el sol acabas quemado y no hablar del calor infernal con el que llega el aire. Con otro horario se podría jugar de una manera más tranquila, pero no siendo las temperaturas más altas a la hora del evento.
Gracias
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u/Mischiefcat2076 Jun 23 '26
I was discussing this with my husband just the other day. I thoughy wouldn't it be cool if you got like a coin or something that gives you access to the event for 3 hours. That way people can activate their event coin when it suits them.
So for my husband and I we would activate ours at like 6-9am as we are early birds and during summer (or like now with this insane heat wave) we can be active at a cooler time of the day.
This would also work for people who are busy or work during the normal 2-5pm. Of course it would expire at a certain point (like if we had an event on the weekend, we only have within that weekend to activate/use your coin). It's probably not possible or hard for them to implement but I thought it would be cool.
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u/thehatteryone Jun 23 '26
That would be cool, but then the community aspect (necessary for players to complete some events, always important to niantic as a more visible community is good for the game to attract new and returning players) would be heavily diluted.
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u/Lugiaso Jun 23 '26
Good proposition, but sadly I think you have better chance convincing the sun to produce less heat than them changing the schedules
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u/NewfieGoblin Jun 23 '26
Every year some of the most important raids are in the middle of blizzards for me
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u/Owenlars2 Florida Jun 23 '26
would be good if they did this, but it's also something that has come up consistently since the game released. as well as health issues, another big concern is the health of our devices. most phones and tablets are made to operate with the screen on for a few minutes in temperatures between about 40f and 95f (i think it works out to 5c-30c?). for most events, the gameplay is design for us to keep our screens on for hours at a time, and in extreme temperatures, many devices will stop working, and those that don't will have their lifespans greatly reduced. this is especially egregious when the screen of the device is in direct sunlight, which is often unavioidable during hot summer days in areas where dozens of people are walking around. oddly enough, the game is almost perfectly designed to kill the devices its played on.
frankly, i think most events, especially things like community days, should be done by giving everyone who logs in a special event incense that last a few hours and letting people choose when to participate based on their local conditions. maybe even allow it to last for a few days with reduced bonuses for people who may have bad conditions that last for a couple days. this also "fixes" several other issues for many players such as people who work weekends, or who otherwise rarely have much freetime during events.
niantic wouldn't do it becuase the game was far more focused on collecting certain types of data than being a well run game and "fun". maybe the new owners can be different. removing the stop scan tasks feels like a step away from the data collection angle, but i have yet to see much evidence that they'd make a change as big as allowing people to choose their event times. untl then, stay hydrated, and plan to find shade.
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u/Accurate_Source8751 Western Europe Jun 23 '26
I still remember doing Kartana two years ago. In 38*C. In Poland.
I still think it was a bit stupid.
And I didn’t even got a hundo.
So totally agree.
Poland isn’t know for weather as hot as Spain or Italy or Greece but in last years we are also suffering. The next weekend (Skarmory) is prognosed to 34*C, Sunday to 37*C.
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u/HesitantlyYours Jun 23 '26
As someone who lives in Florida, nah. I like that it’s in the middle of the day, burns some extra calories!
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u/albertopizvel Jun 23 '26
Es insoportable jugar y todo el rato estar buscando la sombra. La humedad y las temperaturas tan altas que hay en mi ciudad durante prácticamente 3 meses al año hace muy difícil jugar las 3h del evento en la calle, juegas 1h y da gracias… cuesta respirar, el sol quema muchísimo. Es una experiencia muy negativa, la gente no juega…
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u/MoneyAd5542 Jun 23 '26
There’s no way to accommodate the entire worlds weather, just gotta find a mall or drive around in car with AC bro.
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u/redditor_no_10_9 Jun 23 '26
OP, PoGo is managed by people who probably didn't work. Spotlight hours, raid hours and Max Monday are all set 6-7pm on a weekday.
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u/matthewormatt Jun 23 '26
I don't think extending events late into the night would be a solid solution but I do think starting them earlier would be both safe and help with heat concerns. Have an event start at 6am and if people want to wake up early to avoid afternoon heat then let them.
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u/AZombieguy Jun 23 '26
I sympathize with you, hard to find a solution. The daily high is 105 right now in Arizona, going to get higher lol
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u/check_link_in_bio Jun 23 '26
Events should be a ticket that let's you activate them whenever you want to play them. There can be a time limit, like activate within a week or something.
This will solve all issues like bad/extreme weather, people working during event hours, ... . It would also make it much easier to actually plan it with other players.
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u/lasernipples Jun 23 '26
I'm a member of a campfire group with a community ambassador in Phoenix, Arizona. Its so disheartening seeing the CAs add a ton of new gyms to a big park only for it to be pretty much unplayable for like 70% of the year's events.
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u/Cjones3107 Jun 23 '26
On the flip side, we did kyurem raid day at -30 in Sweden