65 AP per recharge is unbalanced

InerasIneras ✭✭✭

We're back to the good old 15% daily decay rate. I was expecting the recharge AP to also return to 10. I wonder whether the decision to keep the recharge AP at 65 was deliberate or an oversight. Recharging still nets you more AP than capturing portals and creating control fields, which was supposed to be one of the reasons why the decay rate was reverted to 15%.


At a 5% decay rate, a level six portal, henceforth P6, was worth 585 AP per day. At 15%, it's worth 780 AP. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume there are three portals. You need at least three to create a single control field. Assuming you recharge three P6s every day of the week, the net worth is 12,285 AP.

If you decide you want to build, you must wait one week without topping up the resonators. Capturing a portal and deploying eight resonators will earn you 5,325 AP. You then link them three times to create a control field and get an additional 2,189 AP.

Let's compare the two. Recharging: 12,285 AP vs. Building: 7,514 AP. Recharging is 61% more efficient.


What are your thoughts? I am aware that there are agents who love **** AP and this is possibly the best way to do so during quarantine. I personally feel that the AP reward for recharging is too high and needs to be adjusted.

Comments

  • cheatchcheatch ✭✭✭

    AP has always been unbalanced and the game design needs a redesign

  • RostwoldRostwold ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2020

    You're assuming an unlimited supply of XM, which isn't realistic. Recharging a P6 every day for a week with a 15% decay rate takes a LOT of XM. Recharging enough P6s to have a significant impact on your AP is in reality somewhere between difficult and impossible due to the XM requirement, and that's without considering how slow and boring it is, 54k AP per hour if you're lucky.

    My view is that 65AP introduces an interesting tactical choice when visiting somewhere you don't normally go - choosing to install only level 1 resonators (the cheapest to recharge) for future recharge AP vs the risk of easily being wiped out.

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't think those calculations are right either, 61% on 3 portasl, OK, that's good, but how about you make the calculations on a 9 portal FanField? Sure fielding raises its score!

    Anyway, AP should be lowered at least to 25 AP.

  • RostwoldRostwold ✭✭✭✭✭

    From a storyline point of view, we're supposed to be controlling mind units for our faction. Looked at from that angle we should be trying to keep fields up by recharging; losing out on mind units by letting fields drop and then re-fielding for extra AP is arguably the 'undesirable exploit that should be fixed', not affordable recharging!

    Personally I think that post-covid keeping the 65AP would go some way towards having balance that allows recharging for AP to be a viable tactic but not dominate the game.... but we're a long way from being post covid at the moment, so my preference would be 65AP and 10% decay at the moment, tripling the decay rate encourages unnecessary outdoor trips.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    wow i havent thought about this, but i kinda feel that building should give more ap then tap to recharge tho...

  • InerasIneras ✭✭✭

    You only need 5,400 XM to fully recharge a P6 every day. You can get up to three power cubes per glyph hack. You can recycle redundant items. XM replenishes on the ground in about 25 minutes. You can use passcodes to get hundreds of power cubes. Ask your local community for trades or donations. The store is selling 10 cubes for 1,000 CMU if you have money to burn. I found that the supply of XM far exceeds the decay.

    I began using Hypercubes at around level 13 to farm AP by recharging. This was in early April. Recharging was so efficient even with a 5% decay rate that my hourly AP gain was above 200,000 without the APEX. I have since made approximately 30,000,000 AP, mostly from recharging with APEX running.

    Is it boring? Yes. I listened to podcasts. I recommend 30-minute shows because you'll know when to take breaks between APEX uses.

    Is it broken? Yes. With a 15% decay rate, this is too good compared to other forms of play. What's worse is a player can deny others from rebuilding. Imagine living in an area that is dominated by one faction and the portals are always at 100%.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2020

    But recharging won't increase my Engineer, Conector, Mind Controller, Liberator and Builder badges.

  • InerasIneras ✭✭✭

    Correct. My point is that because 65 AP per recharge is incredibly lucrative, an agent in your area can prevent you from making any meaningful progress by constantly recharging portals.

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    65- 520AP a portal to max out is nothing to sneeze at. It just means anyone taking it out has to use more stuff on it. Which actually be doing them a favor.

  • We're back to the good old 15% daily decay rate. 

    We are not yet.

  • InerasIneras ✭✭✭

    Some of us have been for a while. Which cell are you in?

  • Eastern US.

    Apparently it started on the 27th, not the 26th.

  • I think it started after 8 pm EDT in the 26th. I know that the portals I was hacking at 8:30 pm EDT burned out after 4 hacks.

  • I'm still recharging 5% on my nightly walk, so either they're fixing it one portal at a time for 8 million portals, or it's still broken.

  • It is possible that some portal decays are messed up, but most (all?) of the portals I see are definitely decaying 15% a day. Previously I had one portal that just doesn't decay. Sadly it was blown up and left uncaptured, so I can no longer tell if it's still in that happy state.

  • As of last night they hit the 15% mark. Maybe it took that long for the script to complete.

  • GrogyanGrogyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    I like the 65Ap from recharging.

    Would be nice for it to remain.

  • I also like it - I’m getting a lot of AP.

    Doesn’t mean it’s balanced though.

  • GrogyanGrogyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Like a lot of things in Ingress that have changed over the years in terms of gameplay.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    Meanwhile:

    The free Black Lives Matter beacons sweating hoping no one realizes they give 500 AP each.

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    Reload a couple portals an you already passed one beacon reward.

    There are 15 free beacons, reload 30 portals and that's it :D

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