Things I would pay for: Reducing Toil

HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

There are lots of things that I do in Ingress that are dumb, repetitive tasks that don't enhance game play in any way, don't require any sort of thinking, and are just boring repetitive labor. In my line of work we call those things toil and do our best to automate them away. Here are a couple of things that would be excellent toil-reduction features for me:

Recharging. Recharging is boring. Every day I walk through every key in my inventory, one at a time, and recharge everything that needs it. If keys are in capsules I have to take them out, recharge them, and put them back in. If I have keys in my open inventory I often have to capsule them, remove recharge-target keys from a capsule, go through them one at a time, put them back in the capsule, then unload the temp capsule with my open-inventory keys.

Potential solution: Let subscribers dump power cubes into inventory or into a capsule to recharge everything en masse without having to tap the screen 37 million times every day. If there's a gameplay advantage it's trivial, except perhaps during anomalies when it probably should be disabled.

Recycling junk gear: Hack a bunch of low-level portals and you wind up with a giant pile of X1-X4 or X6 or X7, whatever your threshold is for not wanting to waste inventory space. Maybe you don't want to keep any resos below R4, or you don't want to keep junk mods, or you don't want to hack keys right now. Different people care about different things.

Potential solution: Give players the option to automatically recycle, or not hack, certain items. I imagine that the UI would look something like this, where the bullet point represents an on/off slider:

  • Keys
  • Weapons below level [level dropdown]
  • Resonators below [level dropdown]
  • Power cubes below [level dropdown]
  • Common shields
  • Rare Shields
  • Rare Link Amps
  • Force Amps
  • Turrets
  • Common Mulit-Hacks
  • Rare Multi-Hacks
  • Common Heat SInks
  • Rare Heat Sinks

I may have missed some things, but you get the drift. I deliberately excluded VR items from the list because they get hacked so rarely that it doesn't seem worth the risk. Gameplay advantage: The only one I can think of is less time spent managing garbage in your inventory.


What else qualifies as toil that could be automated without creating a significant gameplay advantage?

Comments

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Favorite keys system and receive alerts only for marked keys, not every portal I have. Actually this should be a free standard feature.

    New mods and items exclusive for subscripted agents, allowing them to experience a new gameplay styles.

    1 Extra link output at every portal, or a mod that allow this.

    Extra range to portal hack (hack only).

    Extra range in the drone, however that's gonna work (if not already subscription exclusive feature).

    Discounts on everything at the store.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Hydraulinski Is there any toil that you would like eliminated from the game? Stupid, repetitive, mechanical stuff that could be easier?

  • KarM3LKarM3L ✭✭✭✭

    If recharging is boring then don't do it, relish the ap you get from recapping portal

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    @theimmc Oh, those are excellent! Thank you.

    @KarM3L I recharge for tactical and strategic reasons. I'm approaching a quarter million AP and couldn't care less if I never get a single bit. I just wish for a mechanism that isn't so tedious, and I would gladly pay a reasonable amount to have that.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sorry, I just threw random suggestions that now I see they're unrelated to you discussion.


    I do hate getting low level weapons and cubes. I would be extremely happy if there was a no weapon glyph, or if the quick hack button offered (or with the no key) a no gear option, to prevent output of everything leveled ( resonators, weapon, cubes and ultrastrikes) leaving us with just the chance of getting mods, capsules, flip cards and media.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    @hiryu Definitely yes to both the default command sequence. I've wished for (complex / no key) as the default tens of thousands of times. One-button full deploy would also be awesome, and would also probably reduce the load on Niantic's servers since it could be sent as one transaction rather than eight, or ten if you include mods. It could convey an advantage at anomalies and in portal combat situations if it was only available to some players but I think that could be solved easily enough-- one could just turn it on or off for everyone during anomalies.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2020

    I like the recharge mechanic. It keeps you on your toes.

    If you run low on cubes, you have to agonize over which to recharge and which you can't afford to.

    Recycling low level gear is also tactical, you can recharge stuff with it.

    I admit, at times it's annoying, when you are hacking a ton of low level portals, however i think on balance it's not such a pain.

    And of course you should wait for cooldowns, this is extremely tactical (like trying to get a key to make a backlink on fields before CP) etc.

    One button full deploy is lazy and tactically bad, put the highest res furthest from easy access. Only a person can do this. Auto deploy would result in non optimal deploy patterns.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    If I'm just deploying a bunch of wasteland like a downtown area then I don't care about optimal deploy... I just want to deploy and go. The current mechanism is so slow that I never fully deploy anything unless I think it's important.

    I hate the recharge mechanic because it's a waste of my time. It's not fun, it's just a grind. It's not about deciding what to recharge, but rather the boring repetitive button pressing involved in doing it.

  • ToxoplasmollyToxoplasmolly ✭✭✭✭✭

    One button full deploy is lazy and tactically bad, put the highest res furthest from easy access.

    On a day to day basis, I find "[putting] the highest res furthest from easy access" to be mostly pointless. The folks who smash "my" portals do not lack for gear, and the fact that they put a single R8 (or an R8 and R7 opposite to each other) in what they think is the most inconvenient spot for me drains neither my time nor my XMPs in any sort of appreciable fashion.

    The real reason I would not always use one-button full deploy is so that I can partially deploy the portal, glyph hack it for lower level resos, and then finish deploying it.


    I hate the recharge mechanic because it's a waste of my time. It's not fun, it's just a grind. It's not about deciding what to recharge, but rather the boring repetitive button pressing involved in doing it.

    Yup, this. I already use capsules vs. key lockers vs. active inventory to identify the portals that I freely recharge. "Spend these cubes recharging these keys. The details are unimportant. Just do what's possible."

  • Torron54Torron54 ✭✭✭
    edited November 2020

    The restriction on single person's deploy speed is at least partially designed purposely. It is the limit to how fast an agent can complete an in-game task, just like skill cooldown in MOBAs. If one can deploy 8 res in 1 sec, every portal that has someone standing there keep quick deploying it can stand one or maybe two agent's dps. Also the speed you are moving in will restrict how long a portal passing by will stay in your operative circle. That time window is variant according to your speed, whether car-gressing or walking. The time cost for certain in-game actions, cooperating with this window's length, reversely restricts how many action you can do in a certain speed and therefore which speed you will limit yourself in for maximum ap per portal.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2020

    @Torron54 What you say about limiting the speed or ability to do certain things is certainly true. Whether those limitations are good or bad is an entirely different discussion. It's rarely the case that people are deploying against opposition except in special events, though it does happen occasionally. If it only worked for neutral portals it should not shift the game balance appreciably... it would mostly be used by people who were walking around and building an area.

    It seems like full deploy in one fell swoop would be more efficient for Niantic than deploying resonators individually since it would be one round-trip transaction to the servers rather than eight separate ones. It would certainly be more enjoyable for (most) players... standing around and waiting for a server response doesn't really add fun to the game.

  • I like Hosette's theme of reducing toil. You all have great ideas.

    I am specifically interested in a game that gets me out running in different areas with game like rewards. I know some running apps exist, but Ingress has the most potential of all! It is really amazing. I have some suggestions that may be liked or disagreed upon. All of which should be available in a MODE, and only a unique MODE, because I know everyone has their own interests I don't want to bash the main game. So imagine being able to play in a mode where....


    1) Audio only

    First flaw of this game is having to have the app open at all. Players should be able to run around with the screen off, never having to touch their phone. I'm over 30 years old and I feel like quite a sketchy character walking around with my phone out looking at address signs and in alleys etc. Also having to hang around to "deploy", "hack", etc is a major waste of time. I actually don't want to have to touch or look at my phone at all.

    Imagine being guided by voice only. Not an annoying computer generated voice, a nice voice that you enjoy hearing. You only have to look at your phone/map once, when you start your run. From then on a voice guides you. "You're running low on XM, let's head down 1st Ave to grab some XM" ...."The resistance is hacking a portal 500 m south of your current location. Continue down 1st Ave."

    The voice is fun and energetic, almost like Zombies Run, but has a purpose rather than a story


    2) Pre-plan your route

    Shuffle through randomly generated routes, or pre-select which portals you want to nab on your run. Either way, you do all the screen stuff before you start.


    3) Automate EVERYTHING

    In conjunction with everything being audio based, everything should also be automated. There is no reason to touch your phone. You automatically hack a portal as you run near it. You automatically deploy your highest level resonator if the portal is vacant or owned by your team. You can pre-select your auto-deployment settings, or not deploy at all. It can all be written into your route plan (ie. if vacant deploy this, if occupied then hack, etc), but their would be defaults to reduce toil.


    4) 12hr cool down time

    People with endless time on their hands are currently dominating the gameplay. In this proposed 'running mode' players cannot hang around hacking and deploying. You run past the portal, you hear "You hacked the portal", and it's over for 12 hr. There's nothing else you can do here for 12 hr. You would then hear, "nearest portal is 200 m north, take your next left".

    5) Multiplayer

    If this setting is turned on, you can pre-select a distance threshold for instances which you agree to respond to. You would hear "an enemy is hacking your team's portal on 5th Street, run there now to redeploy".

    Since there is a 12 hr cool down time, there is no reason why a player should be hanging around there. So there wouldn't be too much loitering going on and we can all social distance.


    6) Multiplayer interaction

    There could also be a setting, to enable or disable, that allows you to attack enemies real-time. I understand the safety concerns hear, but hear me out. The closest you would have to be is 50 m to a real player, and they would have to be currently in a mission. If this setting was enabled, your current mission would be interrupted and you would hear, "an enemy is headed north on 5th street". You would hear, "You are gaining on them! Hurry up" or "They're getting away. You've got to speed it up". Simply, whoever has faster pace within 50 m of contact wins the 'attack' or 'defense'. Pace would be limited to 20 km/h to prevent other forms of transportation. The attack would prevent or freeze them from hacking or deploying on the next two portals they visit. They would still have to run past these portals to remove the freeze, time alone would not remove the freeze.


    7) Down time

    In players' down time, when they're home on the couch or waiting for the bus, players can upgrade/switch any of their deployments. But they cannot do any hacking or deploying via the drone. These can only be done outdoors during running mission. All of the screen watching / screen touching stuff cannot be done during running missions. In their down time, players can also create missions and links and things.


    I hope there are some active people out there who would benefit from a mode like this! I'd create it myself, but I don't have time for that project. I hope someone makes a game like this soon.

    Cheers.

  • jontebulajontebula ✭✭✭✭✭

    Nice good and fun avatars. I buy 2 avatars. Now i use the Niantic car and i can honk. 😀

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