What sets Ingress apart from other games
Just some 3AM ponders here (pardon if this is all too corny for a read). I started ingress in early 2016 but my run was short due to lack of time, I begun again a year ago and I haven't loved a single game this much since childhood gameboy (I loved pokemon so much that I visualized them walking aside me back in the 90's). And it's beyond amazing that as an adult I can re-experience that level of immersion for something again.
Let's start with how it felt coming back, which I think is pretty significant. I remember it took quite some time in 2016 to figure out and get into the flow. When I returned, I feared a lot that things would've changed, so much that I would need to relearn everything again, but that fear was false. Even though prime is now a thing, the basics were still the same, it was welcoming and easy to pick up with the initial memories in place.
This leads me to my realization tonight: A good game does not need to be changed. A lot of modern games are plagued with fancy new features and attempts to patch what those inclusions broke in the balance, it becomes a frustrating chain of waiting for a fix instead if just enjoying playing a game. These reasons are why I haven't really enjoyed games in a decade anymore, but ingress is different.
The second thing: I will name it after the glyph sequence "Simple Message Complex Idea". Like chess, the rules are simple, but the gameplay is so much more complex. In fact there is much more in terms of strategy to learn that I don't think I will ever stop learning. I don't think words can express how diverse the strategic side can be, do I even comprehend it all at this early stage?
But there's also so much more than just gameplay, the community aspect is... incredible, you get to meet people, you get to go to new places - perhaps together with new friends. I've always loved team games, although always craved for an opportunity to play those games with people who put a certain amount of passion in (you know, the level of serious where you give your best and treat losses as a learning opportunity, and respect your opponents instead of screaming at them) - and somehow ingress seems to attract that sort of people (which seems almost miraculous for a modern game).
This is only a fraction of the reasons, I've also enjoyed digging the investigation, the tesselation puzzles were amazing, glyphs are fascinating, I love discovering potential portals, taking pictures for existing ones, going to difficult locations... generally just having a reason to go to different places, ingress excels in being a location based game (unlike any of the other ones).
For a summary I'd just want to express how thankful I am that ingress exists in this time I'm living and I hope it will stay and give the same incredible experiences to more people alike!
(but do fix the bugs still)
Comments
Threads like this one usually don't get much attention...
Ingress is a single most influental and life changing game in my life. It means to me more than all other games combined. I'd say ~90% of my social life today is with people I met thanks to it.
And I'm deeply saddened by Niantic's (mis)handling of Ingress community and turning people enthusiasm into labor. These kind, clever and creative people deserve better.
I play all three of Niantic's games to some extent, and for me Ingress is head and shoulders above the rest because there are elements of both strategy and creativity that don't exist in the other two games. I love that I can create art projects in Ingress, like field art or a link star, or even dropping things in the ground in patterns. (An opponent once left a large set of L1 bursters piled on top my couch portal. I returned them to him in the form of a smiley face outside his window.) I love that I can study the map, make plans, and execute them alone or with friends, and that those plans might involve a few blocks for a few states or countries. I love that I have excuses to go to new places.
The community aspect is wonderful, and I've met so many incredible people. That is perhaps the best thing about the game.
The thing that sets Ingress apart from Niantic's other games for me is that at the end of the day I can point at the map and say, "I accomplished that." Maybe it's building a neighborhood or making fields or smashing up a bunch of the other faction's stuff, but it's an actual tactical or strategic thing that I accomplished. With the other two games I collect things or work on checklists, but in Ingress I leave my footprint on the map.
I've been playing since January 2013, while other games such as Magic the Gathering has enabled me to have some of the oldest friends that I still keep in touch with.
Ingress has also been the only game where I have gone on fantastic trips around the country with friends. But also overseas, with counties that I'd probably never would have visited. Going on a holiday for a weekend and see a city and all it's nooks is more than ordinary travelling provides.
I completely agree with @Hosette on the post. Strategy, creativity, exploration, team work or solo, community events, outdoor activity and exercise. And the best thing is - you are the “hero” in your own story. It is not like watching some avatar running and jumping on a monitor screen. It is you! Outside ... in the real world which offers so many great cities to visit and ancient places to explore. The concept, game mechanics, simplicity and yet complexity of game is brilliant.
nia could learn a little in terms of community engagement and communication. But then - it is a free game. So unless I pay for something - I cannot expect a high level of “after sales support and communication”.
But the concept remains brilliant and ingress so far is the best game I have ever played. By far. And long may this continue. 6 years in ... and I still spend 10h yesterday outside playing and exploring a town close by I never spend much time in before.
"Simple Message Complex Idea".
Yup, it's easy to learn and difficult to master. I'm still figuring things out after years of play.
My favorite part, compared to the other Niantic games, is the sense of place. It matters if you get a portal on top of a mountain or on an island so there is always a reason to explore. .
You are short-sighted comrade. I'll give you an example. There is a Rubik's cube, a simple Rubik's cube 3 * 3, it would seem that there is no need in changes, play it and that's it. But no, unlike the original model from the 80s, the mechanism was radically redesigned, instead of wearing stickers, durable plastic inserts were added. High-speed Rubik's cube models also appeared. And there are also very interesting modifications with magnets inside.
And some people even managed to make Rubik's cubes not only 3 * 3 but also 4 * 4, 5 * 5 and even reached 11 * 11 squares. So what? Has this offended at least one Rubik's cube owner? Someone started yelling - give me back my stickers and remove those damn magnets with which the rotation has become smoother now? No, no, and again no, everyone happily continues to twist this wonderful puzzle and gladly accept every innovation that improves the gameplay. And you say no changes are needed, let everything remain as it is ... I have nothing against the author personally, but I have never seen such a level of conservative snobbery in any other game. Even chess players are ready for change and have come up with many types of chess.
@GreenVam for your argument to make sense you would need to demonstrate that the majority of classical chess players actually prefer a round chess game with 3 players instead of the classic one with 8x8 and 2 players. Just because something is invented does not mean it takes off and surpasses the original on popularity.
I doubt many rubrick cube lovers will argue against changing the actual mechanics or make up of the 3x3 cube to make it run smoother. But the question would be how many players and lovers of a 3x3 cube will be happy to permanently and consistently change towards a - for example - 6 colours - 5 ball tower puzzle or a 4 colour pyramid?
as far as I know the 3x3 cube is still the most popular of them all. And circular chess for 3 is not as popular as the traditional chess. But that is just speculation on my part. Not got any actual statistics etc.
I have not seen a single store selling exclusively the classic model of the Rubik's cube. But I've seen puzzle shops for all tastes. In such stores you can find wooden puzzles, metal puzzles and picture puzzles, and mechanical puzzles. And everyone there can find "their jewel". But our conservative players want to play triangles without possible options. And they want this only for themselves, spitting on the needs of other players who want something new. It is a fact. They don't care that new players are attracted by regular content updates. They don't care about the fate of the developers who need to feed their families.
It is important for them that the game remains simple and unchanged like a rock.
Unfortunately in your examples the original concept never got replaced by a new redesign.
So to extrapolate this we have the original concept (Ingress) and then the radical redesigns (Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite).
We don't have to completely replace the original concept. It can coexist.
The ingress concept can be supplemented with many other components. Many of this has been suggested by me and other players on this forum.
Hah, it's fine if it doesn't get much attention. I just wanted to get the thoughts out somewhere. People rarely talk about good things and it can be healthy to remind ourselves about why we are here. It can be pretty overwhelming to constantly hear complaining, even though they are usually small things or people who picked up the wrong game.
From my perspective, if there currently aren't people at niantic who can (or perhaps the people have no energy) it's better that ingress is simply upkept until proper good things can come - instead of potentially harmful changes. Being from the generation where every new change somehow makes things worse, it's peaceful to have something that stays for longer than a little while.
I think you may have missed the point in the message - I was praising the game mechanics and concept. I'm not against the game engine being improved, working smoother with less bugs and ideally less power & hardware demanding than the original - this would've been the ideal outcome of prime and in some aspects I believe it has at least somewhat succeeded.
Although material mechanisms are much easier to improve, materials are unchanging. Unfortunately digital platforms are ever changing: the failures of an operating system may lead into compromises with code and therefor bugs in a game (to put in simple). They need constant work, and without enough resources (which may as well be having the right people or matter of luck), us users may not really see progress. We just see different bugs as result of developers managing to upkeep the software on the changing platform they can't avoid.
In a similar boat, Grogyan. Started this game December 2018 so I only know Prime, after a steady but sometimes unfulfilling run at Larps, Tabletop RPG and Magic: The Gathering. Learning curve is not bad, it just helps playing somewhere build, takedown, and farm are readily possible.
Building and erasing I derive pleasure from. Planning trips, improvising fields from nothing, and forcing reaction from other agents who haven't been pushed for a while.
And yes, please fix the bugs, make the only enemies you have flesh and blood (no spoofing) without Xerox copies (multiaccounting pieces of SHAFT) and I will enjoy it more.
Tell me what exactly do you mean by the words - makes things worse?
Core differences between Niantic's other games and Ingress:
The game itself is quite elegant in it's rules, even things like how many resonators you can deploy, which causes teamwork to be essential. But it doesn't need to be complex, because the players make the game what it is.
People aren't getting bored with Ingress because it's the same thing over and over.
People are getting bored with Ingress because they're doing the same thing over and over by themselves.
Your example is inaccurate.
The proposals in other threads are more akin to requiring everyone to use an 11x11 cube instead of being able to play their 3x3 cube. Adding things that fundamentally change the game, does not allow people to continue to play how they did.
One example is frackers.
For those who never played before 2015, without frackers, there was far more incentive to make permanent farms of 20 or more portals, instead of just fracking 3 portals. There was a whole set of strategies for building and defending the farm based on number of links (aim for 5 per portal, layering was weakness, etc), how shields were arranged (back when it was 10/20/40, no AXA) and where to place Force Amps and Turrets (hit them on the thoroughfare so they were past the farm before having XM again).
And Flash Farms weren't silent affairs where no-one could talk while they farmed. They were 20-portal laps where you had one lap where people were loudly calling out for deploys and building, and then 3 or 7 laps of single tap hacks while chatting at a leisurely stroll. No-one stopped to glyph and there certainly wasn't a lot of standing around in one place.
Adding frackers fundamentally changed the farming aspect of the game, because you no longer could find people who wanted to play that way, since it was 'inefficient'.
So you can't claim that people can "play how they want" after changes are made. Because often those changes prevent them from playing how they want.
"Intel and COMM - You can talk to other people and you can see what's going on around you."
Two forces are fighting, one with the other, and everyone knows who, where and how they are fighting. Don't you think this is stupid? If you want to defeat the enemy on the battlefield, you must be hidden and invisible, like a ninja, or like James Bond, but for now they tell us that we are secret agents, but in fact there is no secrecy as such. this is stupid idiocy, contrary to the plot. If there is a struggle, especially with the enemy, and even more so for the fate of the world, knowing where each soldier of your squad is is not just stupid, it is potentially dangerous. Even Pokémon do not know who and where is at the moment.
"Two teams in direct opposition"
Especially during FS, there is the fiercest fight between secret agents. Or when we transported shards together. I can see the headlines "In a fierce battle between resistance and enlightenment for the fate of humanity ..." I may be verbally expressed like an idiot, correct me if I am wrong.
"PoGo could be played with 1 team"
If you look at the latest events, then one command is "enough" to win in ingress. Well, if you also look at the fact that in many cities, due to the outflow of players, it is already problematic to collect players for one command (even to create a level 8 portal), then it is quite possible that soon those of us who remain in the game will have to fight against a computer algorithm and not against living opponents. Remember my words, when this happens, the outflow of players from the game in many regions is simply catastrophic.
"Only Ingress has a real "What I do directly disadvantages my opponent", which causes people to want to team up."
It used to be like this, now, when in a city with a population of 200,000 there are 2-3 players a day, one cannot say that the game lives, blooms, and...
"even things like how many resonators you can deploy, which causes teamwork to be essential"
As I already said, in many cities it is no longer possible to gather a bunch of people to make a level 8 portal. And this is not a problem for the players. This is a problem of the game, the game is not capable of luring most players beyond level 5-6. I am looking at statistics for my region. Many simply do not understand for what purpose they need to draw triangles, and what kind of two heads it was at the beginning of the game. And one player directly told me that playing the "beta version" in which they did not even make a normal background for the earth and sky, and tugging at neon trinkets causes nausea and could potentially lead to epileptic seizures, in general, is not worth it. Personally, I also consider all these neon flickers to be superfluous, there is no sense from them, and it looks in the style of the 80s.
"People are getting bored with Ingress because they're doing the same thing over and over by themselves."
Quite right, in return without receiving any moral or sensory reinforcement from the game.
What will an ordinary player have if he draws a triangle, for example? Respect from other players that gets boring over time? Profile badge like a scout? And when there are more than 20 such badges ???
In other games, achievement is always rewarded with something new that was not there before, or at least the symbolic "100 gold coins for which you can buy a new helmet or armor." With us, these are either items that can be obtained by simply hacking the portal, or another figure in the statistics.
@GreenVam you always know that people are desperately clinging to their last straws in an argument when they have to state in bold that something is a fact which clearly is not.
nobody in here has any objections to ingress offering the occasional special event. Everybody is quite happy with improvements to the game in terms of code, servers etc whatever is technically required to make Prime run smoother and be a better experience for the players.
I would argue that a lot of proper ingress players would be happy to have some sort of monthly subscription fee to ensure a guaranteed income for the devs you appear to be do concerned about. I stated I am happy to pay even a daily fee to play. Because I play a lot and love the game. And I want nia to make a success of it.
But what you have failed to demonstrate is that a significant change from the current core game mechanics and beyond the huge already available variation of ingress would actually reduce the pressure on the developers and would create a long lasting and sustainable improvement.
To use your analogy with the puzzle store and ingress being a 3x3 cube .... if you do not like the 3x3 cube it is very easy to change. Open app store and download the puzzle and play you like. Do not expect all others to throw away their 3x3 cube and play only with the wooden puzzle you may prefer.
Now if nia decides to introduce flash shards as special event - perfect. Or maybe a period in which a field requires 4 or 5 corners but gives more AP ... perfect. Or any other event for a week or so - people will likely give it a try. But that does not mean that the core of ingress needs to change permanently just because you want it.
Since you appear not to be in favour of ingress and triangles, can I honestly ask to which extreme have you taken the game and all that it allows?
How many anomalies, mission days or FS have you organised? How many local or national/international field ops have you organised? How many xfac field art events have you organised? How many banner missions submitted and what type? How many portals have you submitted and explored?
Because you accusing people of being selfish and not wanting change just for themselves would only be sensible if you have taken all of the above to the absolute limit and got nothing more to achieve in ingress for yourself.
This is what I'm talking about, we need innovation and not disproportionate enhancements of old functions.
Imagine a slot modifying a portal to a farm, defensive or offensive structure. How do you like the novelty? New! But if it is done correctly, without any kind of "get a portal with an already installed shield or with an already installed radiator" And imagine the portals gaining strength? Imagine different types of resonators that give bonuses to attack defense or the chance of falling out of rare items, eh? What do you think? Only once again I say this must be done competently. Not getting out of the way of the overall gameplay.
Fine customization of portals, it sounds tempting!
In my experience the biggest problem is not ingress being the limiting factor. But exactly as @Perringaiden said above - it is players doing the same thing over and over by themselves.
As somebody who has been playing for 6+ years, I still find aspects of the game I want to explore. Still some field art ideas, field ideas, portal submission ideas, homogenous fields etc. And the last badges to chase. And normally I have more ideas to keep the game interesting for me than I got spare time. So completely agree with @Perringaiden statement. If you are bored with the game then change your game.
Don't you think this is stupid?
No, it's specifically what makes it good. Knowing your opposition is far better than a random faceless non-opponent. The skill lies in being able to use distraction, misdirection, and subterfuge despite your enemy knowing you.
Especially during FS, there is the fiercest fight between secret agents. Or when we transported shards together.
No-one is debating that events are good and we all want them back. That's not what your posts have suggested though.
If you look at the latest events, then one command is "enough" to win in ingress.
Nonsense. Firstly there is no such thing as "winning" in Ingress. I know towns that were solidly blue and went green. And towns that were solidly green and went blue. There is no un-defeatable opponent, unless they're cheating.
It used to be like this
Agreed. And changes like you're asking for, are what made us drift away from that.
As I already said, in many cities it is no longer possible to gather a bunch of people to make a level 8 portal.
You're right in that assertion. But the problem is not the gameplay. It's the fact that the game client is limiting, badly written, and has a 3 star rating.
This is what I'm talking about, we need innovation and not disproportionate enhancements of old functions.
No, we need the base system to run well and not be a painful experience to use, before we look at new features. When the UI continues to give people headaches, they will continue to stop playing.
Quite right, in return without receiving any moral or sensory reinforcement from the game.
And herein lies the problem.
Ingress is not like other modern games. It's far more like chess, or Go, or even Zork. It is a well balanced and solidly designed game where the players and their community generate more of the emergent gameplay than anything the developers can do. The developers primary role is to provide the platform so that it runs smoothly, the UI is easy to use, and the gameplay remains engaging without the pain of interface issues.
Ingress is not and never was designed to be a "Shiny Hunt". If that's what you want, stop playing Ingress and start playing PoGo. Since you seem to not want that, you need to stop and think about what you're missing from the game.
Ingress is not in a lull because the gameplay is boring. Far from it, the gameplay can still be just as engaging and exciting as it was in 2013. The difference is the community has dwindled. Ingress is not being pushed by the developer, the Prime UI has not excited people and the company seems deaf to the issues that the players see in it.
Instead of fixing the usability to allow things like low signal play, they add drones. Instead of reducing graphics performance so that more devices can smoothly run the game, they add fireworks that increase pixel counts.
You are attacking the wrong issue here. Changing the underlying gameplay of the product will not bring back long term players. Adding new features that unbalance the core game, will not bring back long term players. Making the game smooth, enjoyable to use, and good performance in the environments where players actions can inspire others, is what will bring the community back. Making the game UI good enough that the rating in the app store once again pips over the 4+ mark, will bring new players to the community.
Adding more sparkles will simply attract people who demand more sparkles, and lose the people who inspire others to get more engaged.
You are attacking the wrong problem with the wrong solution.
Well said. It is quite amazing. I am on my 4th run to lv16 and just realised that AFTER my 3rd recursion nia introduced a free apex with every level to lv8. So you already get your “100 gold coins” to use that term. Or in ingress terms your 2500 CMU. And still not happy?
Because that is a problem with all the fancy shiny hunt games - players always want more for less. Today it is one Apex. In a few months shouts will be heard that is not enough.
Shiny rewards will not bring players out to play for any length of time. Personal targets will, friendship or sense of exploration will. And you do not need any shiny rewards for them.
I actually think the Apex was a good purchase item. I never realized it actually got awarded until I hit 15 the second time (taking it lazy).
The double AP for a price concept is good because most people who are chasing AP are not really doing it to "win" etc so pay-to-win is less of an issue.
Check out this highly spiritual cartoon. The creature shown in it is a refined example of a player taking recursion after recursion ...
And it’s a pity that some people do not know how to do anything other than walking in the same trodden circle.
You didn't answer the questions.
Since you appear not to be in favour of ingress and triangles, can I honestly ask to which extreme have you taken the game and all that it allows?
How many anomalies, mission days or FS have you organised? How many local or national/international field ops have you organised? How many xfac field art events have you organised? How many banner missions submitted and what type? How many portals have you submitted and explored?
"Since you appear not to be in favour of ingress and triangles, can I honestly ask to which extreme have you taken the game and all that it allows?"
I've tried everything the game gives. He also took part in special operations and did many other things, attracted new players, and so on.
"How many anomalies, mission days or FS have you organised?"
Of all the events listed, I only like anomalies. I consider other events useless. And yes, I advocate that, apart from anomalies in their standard form, and micro anomalies procedurally generated by the game around the globe, there are no other events where the spirit of rivalry between factions is killed. As on the first Saturday, sworn enemies met, shook hands and almost kissed each other. Toads should fight the Smurfs, but not try to make friends with them, at all kinds of events.
How many local or national/international field ops have you organised?
Only the day before yesterday I did such an operation. So don't worry. With this, I'm fine. But I'm tired of the monotony of the special operations being carried out. There is a triangle, there is a triangle and that's it. And after the enlightenment lost its purpose in the form of shapers, it became generally sad to play
How many banner missions submitted and what type?
Missions do not help protect our world and do not represent any benefit for the victory of my faction, according to their fighting qualities, they are useless. This is not a mission to destroy the enemy's portal network or capture territory, this is a mission to add pictures to your profile. I think like an agent of a secret organization and not like a child playing a game.
How many portals have you submitted and explored?
I lost count for a long time.
I've been playing since my second year medal. Was in both factions and was pumped 3 times, 12 levels. I'm already sick of the monotonous drawing of triangles. And I'm only here because there is no other game about the confrontation of two or more groups of people in the real world.
Yes, yes, balanced, to such an extent that here and there cries are heard about the uselessness of shields and defensive modifiers. Read the forum.
Why do you think that only your 1 vision of the game is 100% correct? Aren't players and dying communities signaling that a conservatively snobbish approach to gameplay is killing the game?
Ingress is dying for lack of fresh ideas to help revive the game. It is dying because a crowd of militant snobs "who know better than anyone else about what the game should be" lash out at developers trying to implement something new. Let's add drones? Nooooooooo snobs screaming, drones will **** the game, let's add beacons? Nooo nooo screaming snobs we don't want it. In exactly the same way, representatives of many religions screamed when the first cars drove through the streets, which were called the wagons of the Devil.
Now I will tell you the unfortunate fact.
Take another look at the leaders of the playmarket, in the top there are applications in which new content is added every month. New heroes, new design, new features and game mechanics. Not like in ingress, we fixed one mistake and added a dozen new ones, and moved the menu button half a pixel up.
People want changes, and since there have been no changes in ingress for years, many people simply leave the game, leaving in the community admirers of "classic taste and divine unchanging aroma".
I repeat once again, this is a PURE FACT!
The only pure fact is that you are rather evasive in answering questions in details and are happy to generalise all players doing recursions or not agreeing with you as snobs or being boring. And that you are promoting a rather toxic relation between both factions.
Ever watched a football game or any competitive sport? You try to beat your opponent during the game. But you shake hands and hug after and share a drink and some stories later.
Ever asked yourself if your rather confrontational approach to xfac relations may be part of the problem why in your city not so many players are sticking with the game?
And obviously you are agreeing that ingress is special and very different from all other games. Because if it would not be special - you would have found a game that offers what you are looking for. But because you cannot find another game that gives you the confrontational real world feeling you are looking for - you want ingress to turn into just another shiny hunt game which are all obviously not meeting your expectations
Since you claim that you are thinking ‘like an agent of a secret organisation’ and are looking for real world confrontation, maybe consider cage-fighting or something else which fits your extraordinary skill set.
If you want something new and challenging .... you could look at setting up some challenging, inspiring and community building xfac event. Treasure hunt, helping a charity organisation, baking some cakes and free hugs for everybody. And improving the life of others less fortunate than yourself. Maybe then you will realise that ingress is far more than a game between opposing sides ... and not between enemies as you described.
I am a person who welcomes logical reasoning and a sober approach to the community around me. I do not mind someone taking a recursion weekly, walking in a closed circle performing this "ritual". but I also want these people not to be against reasonable innovations in the gameplay that would be pleasant to some of us. But no, those who are unable to understand why, according to many players, the game needs evolution and development, they just do not accept opinions that are different from their own. Even Niantic cannot tell them anything. And because of this, the game will soon be rated 2.0 and then completely disappear from the playmarket.
I am not for toxic communication between players, I am for the game to be truly competitive, and not like it is now, any newbie, having seen enough about peace and friendship on the first Saturday, tells all the secrets to the enemy.
If you like logical reasoning, then here are two facts for you.
a) if you got a newbie who is spilling the beans to the opposing side during a FS - that is the problem of their faction not informing and guiding the new player ahead of an FS. Maybe you could invest your extraordinary skill set of being an intelligence/spy mastermind to anticipate that behaviour by new players, guide them and use it to your advantage.
But that is not the problem of the FS or nothing against the actual idea of FS for community building.
b) nobody of the hardcore players are against reasonable innovations. There may be a bit moaning, but no dedicated hardcore player will stop because of reasonable innovations. New mods, being able to upgrade mods, maybe special resonators, or different specialisation paths for agents, or tiered benefits for each recursion - all off that are reasonable ideas which are likely to find support. But just throwing lots of freebees, shiny things at the game or wanting the game to change completely away from current triangles - is not considered reasonable by most. If people want that - there are plenty other games which will tick those fast pace and shiny options.
There is a reason why some ingress onyx badges take years of game play to achieve. Because ingress is designed as long term game. Not like a shiny treasure hunt which is maxed out in a few weeks.
I am not really interested or concerned about the score in the play store. No game I ever loved or played a lot ever had a great score. Word of mouth is far more important for getting long lasting and dedicated players to ingress in my experience.
My friend, you've finally started thinking in a direction that suits almost all categories of players! It's good that you consider new types of portals or resonators to be possible innovations. I also believe that the game should not be full of sparkles, but should have really rich functionality, advanced but nevertheless simple and understandable tactics as in the same chess, or algorithms for solving a Rubik's cube.