Pokemon Go roadmap involves more than new creatures

Team leaders, legendaries and game improvements are planned

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We all know how popular Pokemon Go is right now, even with the server issues and bugs. But in addition to making those issues a priority, developer Niantic has revealed a few more details on what it plans for the future of the game.

John Hanke, head of Niantic, revealed to a San Diego Comic Con audience (via Comicbook.com) that each team will soon have a leader that will pop up and offer tips and other information. Team Mystic will have Blanche, while Team Valor gets Candela and Team Instinct gets Spark. "You will be hearing from them in a variety of ways," Hanke said, but didn't offer any specifics about any particular benefits.

In addition, he said that the team has plans to improve training and ways to stop the constant poaching of gyms. He also said the team wants to make PokeStops more interesting, possibly even creating PokeCenters where players can heal Pokemon instead of using potions. And then there is trading.

"Trading is not in Pokemon GO today, but it's something we're working on bringing to the product. Don't get too excited - we need to make sure we can keep the servers up first!"

Hanke acknowledged all the server issues and said the team was not prepared for the game's popularity. "We weren't provisioned for what happened," he said, adding that they added more servers immediately, but that caused some bugs, such as the three-step problem that has all "nearby" Pokemon shown as three steps away instead of their actual distance.

As for the Legendary Pokemon, Hanke said those will be coming, but the company wants to complete worldwide rollout of the game first. The game launched in Japan last week. He also said that these Pokemon also have certain allegiences. "They're kinda aligned with the teams, and we might have something to announce about the teams soon," he said. The legendaries right now are Mew, MewTwo, Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno.

"There are a certain set of Pokemon in the game right now. There are some rare ones that haven't showed up yet that will be showing up. And there are some other ones in the universe, it's something we're excited about continuing with in the coming years," Hanke said.

Ditto is also not in the game because it is more of a breeder than a battler. Breeding is something that Niantic has thought about. "Interesting idea - we've not been working on it, but there has been some discussion about it," he said.

In closing, Hanke offered some advice. "Always spin, use the lucky eggs, and keep in mind the spirit of the game."

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