[Idea] New Play - Subscription Based Game
I have not been following all of the discussion regarding the idea of a subscription possibly being added to Ingress so I apologize if this has already been covered. Additionally, I wish there was a better way to submit ideas privately with the company instead of this public forum, but this is the way it is now.
My basic idea is to use CM purchasing as the power to fill a CM tank which discharges at a predetermined rate even while the scanner is not being actively used. The tank could be a snap-in on the side of the screen so that it is always visible to the player and they would know when they would have to refill it. The nice thing about this is that there would not be a time period committal (such as months) for the subscription, you just pay for what you want to use.
To take this a step further, another path would be to create a new scanner that only ran on CM for which subscription based play was its sole use and it did not cross play with the regular scanner except for the store purchase of CM.
If we were to take from the Lore that there are other universes out there where things may have not gone so well for the researchers and somehow one was able to create an unstable CM / Dark XM link to our world and leave some clues to a different scanner that linked only to that universe. A completely different company (or so it would appear) could be offering a download for the new scanner and give a select few the chance to help save their world.
The app opens to a seemingly useless screen, technical but broken. It would look similar to the current Prime interface but in the beginning it only detects a faint glow of dark XM and an object. Once the object is collected, the user agrees to some legalese statements and then accepts the install. The object snaps into an energy bar on the side and glows subtly with the orange of Chaotic Matter.
From there, to get the scanner to work, the agent can go to the store and buy CM or use existing CM they already have in their account. Once powered up the world is different but the same. Blue and green are still there but portals phase in and out, Dark XM is everywhere and more powerful than regular XM. The fabled "third faction" exists here but it would really be ADA or Omnivore gone mad. You fight to claim territory and portals the same but you can link to each other now in co-op connections. You constantly fight the AI as it tries to dominate the planet. This way the action doesn’t go “stale” while you wait on the other faction. You need to actively fight and defend to take back this world and not just sit around while you hold portals indefinitely.
Current elements and activities can still bleed across both worlds and sometimes actions in one could appear to affect the other. Missions are translated into tech infiltrations of the AI to collect their super-weapons which could be things to destroy massive fields, booby trap portals, or cause portals to phase out temporarily so they cannot be captured and linked.
I doubt any of this will really go anywhere, but I wanted to share my thoughts at least.
-Sundermeyer
Comments
Good thoughts, main concern is how many in this day will be on the map for a paid only version.