A question that needs to be asked. Battle Beacons and Win Trading.
I don’t want to open a can of worms with this, I understand that the term was removed from the TOS. Either way people of opposing factions liaising to farm AP is against the spirit of the game, whether considered cheating is a matter of opinion and whether any listed actions of cheating (multi accounting) are performed to support these actions.
Anyway...
If I deploy a Battle Beacon (BB for short), which is intended to be a battle between factions:
Do I deploy one and hope a member of the opposing faction comes along to join?
Do I deploy a BB when I see a member of the opposing faction nearby, so they can come along?
Can I invite people to participate in a BB war, at a particular place & time?
Can I co-ordinate with others as to who deploys a BB on specific portals?
Can I only liaise with my own faction and get a small group together to play with BB’s?
Outside of the “Win Trading” questions, there are a few others.
If there is a group of agents from both factions participating in a BB war, the winning faction gets a hacking output bonus, surely that’s pointless as the players of the losing faction won’t allow a high level portal and/or hacking mods, they would just neutralise it, and the battle continues after the BB has expired.
Are there any benefits to the BB’s? I see there is a stat for times participated, will a badge be introduced, is it worth it for the AP?
As much as people don’t seem to like the comparison, this is similar to raids in Pokémon Go, but when successfully completing a raid, the attendees receive in game items that have a use. Could there be a kit prize of items for the participants of the winning faction? This would have to be done properly as it would be very much pay to win, but maybe the first hack would generate a unique kit bundle, similar to the restock portal at an FS, some mods like Shields, Spikes, Hacking Mods & Soft Banks or other R/VR goodies like ADA, Jarvis & Hypercubes. This would show a clear reason to participate.
The price. It’s something Niantic has never seemed to find a balance on. £4 for essentially 4 flip cards seems a waste of money, especially as you cannot earn CMU, it is all paid for. I am happy to pay any amount when I see the value, at the moment I just don’t see it at that price point. I was expecting a free bundle in the store, to give people a sample and an opportunity to share feedback from their experiences, but nothing of the sort.
I think the Battle Beacons have they potential to spice up gameplay that is getting stale, but this needs to be respectful to the delicate balance of the game, well communicated and worth the cost to agents. Thanks
you remove the competition, you change the basis of the game and the reason we play. might as well make a whole new game completely. there will always be cheating as agents are people with different morals and values. there will always be rule breakers. To make money, you need to provide your customers with what they want, without a product wanted, you are not in business.
My suggestion would be to listen to your customers. find out what they want, reach out to the ones who left (as you have their emails) and ask, why they stopped playing, what would entice then to come back.
But we like the BB. Maybe you should see what other players want? You want to make 100% of the players happy? An illusion, cause that ain't happening, ever!
A beacon is a paid item that is a fracker with a small battle for the portal going on before getting valuable items. This item does not cause any mini anomalies, it is just a battle for the portal, which often happens in cities and without launching such beacons. Such a battle does not bring any advantage for the faction, and can be won by the trivial number of helicopters that have flown together or the number of account bags with a full inventory available in the cheater's inventory. Therefore, the honesty of such a battle is undeniably highly questionable.
And this fracker is also useless for obtaining items, since before receiving there is a battle on which you need to spend items several times or even tens of times more.
That's why I'm against beacons. They are not tied to the plot, they do not act as full-fledged raids (like in Pokemon Go). The lighthouse is essentially a battle for a portal with a fracker that lights up after the battle. What prevents agents from arranging the same battles without a beacon ??? Nothing. In our city, go to any home portal and you will see regular battles in the same spirit, with a bunch of helicopters, using bags, remote recharging of the portal, etc.
But rather, now that the work has been done there's no point removing them from the store where someone somewhere might like to purchase them. They've been written and done, and while they have some known issues, none are so desperately critical that they break the game. For now free BLM beacons protect from a Battle flip for 4x as long as an inoculation does, and so there's no point in not having them available.
Leave them in the store, where no-one is likely to buy them, and then get on to more worthwhile development.
I think it's another strategic decision that needs to be figured into the calculus. Yes some players would use it as an excuse to play heads I win tails you lose on a BAF, others would go let's have our own game where we determine winner by anomaly style factors ( this would be better in a Covid free world).
In this scenario, BB it's a fracker that the rival faction have a chance of prevent it.
Thinking this way, BBs should have a bigger waiting period before it starts (like 15 minutes at least, with a warning to nearby agents), be cheaper than frackers, and have better output. This way you don't even have to combine or ask rival faction to join, they will on their own. And if they don't, you can enjoy a fracker portal.
do you even read posts? it's literally an explanation why we're not getting competitive events. spoofers have too much of an impact in those, and since it apparently can't be controlled we're getting non-competitive events which are less harmed by them (at least both factions are equally disadvantaged by it)
Comments
A question that needs to be asked. Battle Beacons and Win Trading.
I don’t want to open a can of worms with this, I understand that the term was removed from the TOS. Either way people of opposing factions liaising to farm AP is against the spirit of the game, whether considered cheating is a matter of opinion and whether any listed actions of cheating (multi accounting) are performed to support these actions.
Anyway...
If I deploy a Battle Beacon (BB for short), which is intended to be a battle between factions:
Do I deploy one and hope a member of the opposing faction comes along to join?
Do I deploy a BB when I see a member of the opposing faction nearby, so they can come along?
Can I invite people to participate in a BB war, at a particular place & time?
Can I co-ordinate with others as to who deploys a BB on specific portals?
Can I only liaise with my own faction and get a small group together to play with BB’s?
Outside of the “Win Trading” questions, there are a few others.
If there is a group of agents from both factions participating in a BB war, the winning faction gets a hacking output bonus, surely that’s pointless as the players of the losing faction won’t allow a high level portal and/or hacking mods, they would just neutralise it, and the battle continues after the BB has expired.
Are there any benefits to the BB’s? I see there is a stat for times participated, will a badge be introduced, is it worth it for the AP?
As much as people don’t seem to like the comparison, this is similar to raids in Pokémon Go, but when successfully completing a raid, the attendees receive in game items that have a use. Could there be a kit prize of items for the participants of the winning faction? This would have to be done properly as it would be very much pay to win, but maybe the first hack would generate a unique kit bundle, similar to the restock portal at an FS, some mods like Shields, Spikes, Hacking Mods & Soft Banks or other R/VR goodies like ADA, Jarvis & Hypercubes. This would show a clear reason to participate.
The price. It’s something Niantic has never seemed to find a balance on. £4 for essentially 4 flip cards seems a waste of money, especially as you cannot earn CMU, it is all paid for. I am happy to pay any amount when I see the value, at the moment I just don’t see it at that price point. I was expecting a free bundle in the store, to give people a sample and an opportunity to share feedback from their experiences, but nothing of the sort.
I think the Battle Beacons have they potential to spice up gameplay that is getting stale, but this needs to be respectful to the delicate balance of the game, well communicated and worth the cost to agents. Thanks
They should be cheap enough to be usable during FS. Maybe $1 will work or include into the time-limited FS bundle
you remove the competition, you change the basis of the game and the reason we play. might as well make a whole new game completely. there will always be cheating as agents are people with different morals and values. there will always be rule breakers. To make money, you need to provide your customers with what they want, without a product wanted, you are not in business.
My suggestion would be to listen to your customers. find out what they want, reach out to the ones who left (as you have their emails) and ask, why they stopped playing, what would entice then to come back.
When Niantic listen on agents and remove Battle Beacon from Prime when lots of agents dont like to have it in Prime? @NianticBrian
But we like the BB. Maybe you should see what other players want? You want to make 100% of the players happy? An illusion, cause that ain't happening, ever!
There's no reason to remove it now the work is done. Otherwise you're wasting the development time twice.
A beacon is a paid item that is a fracker with a small battle for the portal going on before getting valuable items. This item does not cause any mini anomalies, it is just a battle for the portal, which often happens in cities and without launching such beacons. Such a battle does not bring any advantage for the faction, and can be won by the trivial number of helicopters that have flown together or the number of account bags with a full inventory available in the cheater's inventory. Therefore, the honesty of such a battle is undeniably highly questionable.
And this fracker is also useless for obtaining items, since before receiving there is a battle on which you need to spend items several times or even tens of times more.
That's why I'm against beacons. They are not tied to the plot, they do not act as full-fledged raids (like in Pokemon Go). The lighthouse is essentially a battle for a portal with a fracker that lights up after the battle. What prevents agents from arranging the same battles without a beacon ??? Nothing. In our city, go to any home portal and you will see regular battles in the same spirit, with a bunch of helicopters, using bags, remote recharging of the portal, etc.
My point was not that they're "good".
But rather, now that the work has been done there's no point removing them from the store where someone somewhere might like to purchase them. They've been written and done, and while they have some known issues, none are so desperately critical that they break the game. For now free BLM beacons protect from a Battle flip for 4x as long as an inoculation does, and so there's no point in not having them available.
Leave them in the store, where no-one is likely to buy them, and then get on to more worthwhile development.
I think it's another strategic decision that needs to be figured into the calculus. Yes some players would use it as an excuse to play heads I win tails you lose on a BAF, others would go let's have our own game where we determine winner by anomaly style factors ( this would be better in a Covid free world).
In this scenario, BB it's a fracker that the rival faction have a chance of prevent it.
Thinking this way, BBs should have a bigger waiting period before it starts (like 15 minutes at least, with a warning to nearby agents), be cheaper than frackers, and have better output. This way you don't even have to combine or ask rival faction to join, they will on their own. And if they don't, you can enjoy a fracker portal.
what has that got to do with wanting the XFAC events to stop, and serious competition between factions to return?
do you even read posts? it's literally an explanation why we're not getting competitive events. spoofers have too much of an impact in those, and since it apparently can't be controlled we're getting non-competitive events which are less harmed by them (at least both factions are equally disadvantaged by it)