AP for Portal Scanning - incentivize longer scanning, instead of requiring it
Recently, the Scout Controller badge was updated, and along with it the requirements for scanning Portals. I welcome the changes where we get more scans every week, and lowering the requirements for the Scout Controller Onyx Badge. I think the minimum 15 second Portal Scan is ill-advised.
I think the minimum Portal scan should be lowered back to 5 seconds, because some things just don't need 15 seconds. You could incentivize longer scans by putting AP to it. Basically award 100-200 base AP for every scan, but let agents earn more AP for longer scans, up to 500 AP. This would be in keeping with other Ingress actions, especially glyphing - you get more AP for more complexity, and you get more points for "succeeding".
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I feel @NianticBrian really needs to think over Portal Scanning in it's entirety. I know there have been a lot of complains over portal scanning and a LOT of agents don't like it. I know we haven't been given any information on as to what Niantic aims to do with the data it gathers from our scans. I understand the unknown makes only a very few agents interested in scanning. Personally, I really enjoy scanning and that is one of the reasons I keep critiquing the changes that need to be implemented.
I love the idea of Scout Controller. It has gotten me to appreciate the portals I scan. I take time to actually look at the physical objects instead of just staring at my scanner planning my fields and link orders. Thanks to Scout Controller, I have put in so many photo/description/title edits to try and improve the portal network to the best of my capacity, and I would like to keep doing so but the following reasons make it a little demotivating to continue:
It would be nice if Brian could engage in an active community discussion about this on the forum but that may be me asking too much based on how little interaction/communication we have had since Andrew Krug left.
This is the best idea I've heard yet.
I’ve hit 501 unique scans and roughly 750 scans total. I’m not even sure if AP would be enough to get me scanning anymore. Maybe someday when we actually know what they’re used for but even then, will it affect gameplay? Doubtful. Kinda seems like I’m putting in work with no return, especially now that I have the badges/medals. Super hard pass....
15 seconds is much to long for stuff you can only scan one side of if it's small. I can only walk so slow lol. 10 seconds as the min would fit okay; still awkward as heck in public though.
Cool. They've given it to PoGo now so we can just drop it since it's so hard.
My suggestions were not so we can drop it. It was to IMPROVE what we have. You may not enjoy scanning but I do. Wayfarer access was given to PoGo players as well, doesn’t mean we have to just drop it. 🤦🏻♂️
Even Pokemon Go players don't care about scanning, see this Reddit thread's comments lol
It just shows how out of touch Niantic is when they are so trying to push this function so hard and the communities of both games outcry how bad, pointless and unrewarding scanning is.
Myself, legally without further information on how the data is used, is essentially theft of an artists work, or a regional landmark.
Those that followed the nightmare of using photogrammetric models for 3D printing a few years ago will know that the "3Dness" of something, has legal ramifications.
Such that, the only legal things we can scan are information boards and walking track markers, and that's just boring especially when it we do not know how it will be used.
My point is that your suggestions were largely about how it's painful and there's no incentive. For Niantic there's very little incentive to invest in making it incentivized for Ingress, because PoGo has all the players. Push comes to shove, and PoGo always wins.