UkaAk6Tw

1Hi all, this is my first thread I’ve ever started on Reddit, so forgive me if my formatting and such is not perfect! I’d like to share the findings of my research into two elements of spawning mechanics: the longstanding mystery of biomes; and the effects of weather on a spawnpoint’s spawn pool. I believe I’ve finally solved the puzzle of biomes, for the most part (there are still some outstanding questions that require further analysis). Many thanks to the researchers who have shared findings on biomes in the past, including u/WoodWoseWolf, u/joshwoodward, u/Glarblar, u/bezoarboy, u/Nimleth, u/yourcalcprof, u/Shiranui85, and anyone else I missed; without their work I would not have been able to do so. And I suspect some of you have already solved the biome puzzle as well, considering how on-target you were. My findings are the result of analysis of scanner data I was given access to, including both data from October 2016 (pre-Halloween event) and data from 2018.
2
3As the user who shared his analysis of the electric biome described (his profile and post have since been deleted), there are three different types of biomes. First, there are macro-biomes. These include the well-known biomes and their variants dubbed Common, Mt. Moon, Electric, Ice/Ghost (the former Drowzee biome), Meadow/Grass, etc. As we have discovered with other elements in the game, Niantic utilizes S2 cells in delineating macro-biomes, specifically L14 cells. Each L14 S2 cell is assigned one of these macro-biomes, and by default any spawnpoint lying within a given L14 cell is assigned to the cell’s biome likewise. One of the big hints in identifying this fact is found in the spawnpoint ID, a unique value of every spawnpoint. In the older datasets I analyzed, this ID was stored in hexadecimal format, and in the newer datasets, it was stored in numerical format. In both cases, simply sorting the spawnpoint IDs in ascending (or descending) order, and plotting them on a map against the L14 S2 grid revealed they all are always grouped/ordered by the L14 cell they lay in, without exception. Furthermore, thanks to the findings shared by researchers here pre-Halloween’16 and the biomes and spawn tables they identified, I was able to likewise identify the biome of each individual spawnpoint. Overlaying the L14 S2 cells on the map of biome-coded spawnpoints revealed a clear delineation along cell boundary lines. Overlaying other level S2 cells, by contrast, showed no delineation along cell boundary lines.
4
5The second type of biome is the polygon area-bounded biome. Specifically, areas corresponding to certain tagged polygons from OSM data. From what I have gathered, Niantic has not updated the game’s OSM data used for influencing spawning (including nests and biomes) since January 2017. Examples of these biomes include Residential, Industrial, Parking Lot, University, Retail, and Building. In any givenL14 cell, spawnpoints that lay within the bounds of one of these polygons have spawn tables that differ from those that lay outside the bounds. Thus for any spawnpoint, placement within a polygon has “priority” over placement within a L14 cell. Things get a little trickier when a spawnpoint lays within multiple differently-tagged polygons, for example Retail/Parking Lot or University/Building, etc. Further analysis is required to determine which biome takes priority over another.
6
7Lastly, there is the water biome. Like the polygon area-bounded biomes, data used is taken from OSM-tagged water and waterway features. However, the water biome is unique in that it is not only applied to spawnpoints lying within water polygons, but also to any spawnpoints that lay within a short distance of these water features. This means that OSM water polygon features as well as line features result in spawnpoints being assigned to the water biome. The water biome seems to take priority over both of the above biome types. As far as I know, no other biome exhibits this behavior.
8
9The data used for analysis covers two distinct cities, one being a large suburban town where I reside, the other being a small city where I work (with only the older dataset available for the latter). Despite having an area encompassing 290 L14 S2 cells, only two macro-biomes were found in the suburban town: Mt. Moon and Common (the “Bush” variant as dubbed by u/Nimleth in his useful biome research thread). By contrast, the city encompasses only 86 L14 cells, yet 4 distinct macro-biomes were found in it: Mt. Moon, a Mt. Moon variant, Swamp (Water/Bug/Grass), and Meadow/Grass/Bug.
10
11In total, the following biomes appear in the suburban town: * Mountain / Mt. Moon / Clefairy [Macro] * Common / Bush-Variant [Macro] * Commercial [Polygon – landuse=commercial] * Industrial [Polygon – landuse=industrial] * Residential [Polygon – landuse=residential] * Retail [Polygon – landuse=retail] * Parking Lot [amenity=parking] * University [amenity=university] * Building [building=*] * Water
12
13And in the small city: * Mountain / Mt. Moon / Clefairy [Macro] * Mountain-2 / “Hills/Summit” [Macro] (where Aerodactyl spawns rarely) * Swamp / Water-2 [Macro] * Grass / Meadow / Bug [Macro] * Industrial [Polygon – landuse=industrial] * Retail [Polygon – landuse=retail] * Parking Lot [Polygon – amenity=parking] * University [Polygon – amenity=university] * Building [Polygon – building=*] * Water
14
15I know that at least two more macro-biomes exist in certain towns in my region, the Electric biome and the Ice/Ghost / Former-Drowzee biome. The other most often described biome, the Desert / Arid biome, is likely also a macro-biome, but I do not believe it exists anywhere in my region. There are also likely more variants of these macro-biomes, as has been suggested in the past, such as variants of the Common biome.
16
17I was able to successfully create biome maps for these areas, but there are still obvious complicating factors and significant challenges and obstacles to identifying all biomes existing in the game or doing any large-scale biome mapping. For starters, just the nomenclature for biomes is inconsistent and far from standardized. Niantic also adjusts the spawn tables (albeit often only slightly) with every 2-week nest migration. And of course, without access to a spawn record database from a scanner, it is not really possible to reliably or accurately map biomes or identify a biome’s spawn table (a human logging will end up with too small a sample size, too many “holes” in the data due to not being able to log everything, and more prone to error). On the plus side, knowing exactly what geographic boundaries determine biomes (L14 S2 cells and OSM objects) does help narrow things down significantly. All in all, in terms of actual game-playing usefulness, biomes may not really be that consequential anymore, especially with the addition of weather effects and frequent special events. I suspect that these factors account for some of the lost interest in fully understanding this fundamental game mechanic. Niantic’s crackdown on scanners which began in late 2016 led to a dramatic divergence in the research community and scanner community – those with the tools to do so were not interested in research and those who desired to know didn’t have the tools, unfortunately.
18
19One last note – an outstanding question is: what criteria are used in assigning a L14 S2 cell’s biome? It is clear that they are not randomly assigned, and have at least some basis in geographic and topographic reality, but they don’t correspond to any specific OSM features as far as I can tell.
20
21Now for part two: weather effects (this one should be pretty short at least!) on a spawnpoint’s spawn table. The easiest way to figure this out was to examine the spawn records of points in the water biome, during a period in which it did not rain. Since the water biome spawns exclusively water-types (plus Dratini as a rare spawn), I could clearly see what spawned at those points solely due to the in-game weather boost (as opposed to types which could spawn due to weather and also be a normal biome-spawn). The only noise to account for here was dual water-types, which luckily don’t make up the majority of water biome spawns.
22
23I found that approximately 25% of all spawns at any given water biome spawnpoint was due to weather boost. This leads me to believe that the weather boost functions in essentially the same way as a nest – a 25% chance for something to spawn that is not part of the biome’s spawn table. But instead of just one species being allocated 25%, a whole pool of Pokémon is allocated 25%. And instead of migrating every 2 weeks, “migration” of the weather happens hourly.
24
25Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope that some of you find this information interesting or useful!
26
27Edit: Formatting (sorry, still crappy)