the whole rollout was never really thought out, in my opinion. I feel like every person who started scanning right off the bat has been burned again and again. Like introducing the controller badge and nothing from earlier counting towards that badge. I stopped scanning when I hit 500 on the scout controller badge and refuse to do more because just around the corner, better rewards are waiting. So why do any now when my efforts will likely be better rewarded down the road? Like, now they’re offering AP... So wait, all those scans I did several months back, those were freebies? Yep... No more outta me...
I don't see how it can be considered abuse wasting one minute of playtime, about 1% of battery life, and about 30mb of data in enchange of less AP than a half deployed portal, sometimes less than a glyph hack.
Aside from the fact that unlike a glyph hack, there's a far higher limit without moving, I guarantee someone will work out how to fake upload.
And Niantic is famous for not spotting it's unintended consequences. Like I said, I wonder how this will be abused, in the same way that battle beacons are the new new flipcard and speed AP tool.
Pokémon GO players are given a reward now for scanning gyms from tasks. Makes sense to do the same for Portal Scans on Ingress. Even if it’s more AP for more time scanned, so 500AP for minimum time, and maybe 700AP for a full scan?
I refuse to portal scan. Its a way for niantic to get us to do free labour for them that they will then sell on for a future game. If there was a great reward for doing 1 I'd be semi ok doing it (like submitting portals at least rewards with a portal if it passes) but a small amount of ap to stand around for 15ish seconds in bad weather is not worth and has no gameplay reason to do either. Was made worse imo when they charged people to.do it for a pogo "event" meaning people were having to pay to do niantics job for them to sell later on, one of the worst money plans I've ever seen
The AP reward definitely needs to stay, given the amount of effort that goes into doing this work (as it's not gameplay), something needs to be given in return to the players. I could be out making fields or whatever and earn 100x more AP in the same amount of time as it takes me to scan 50 portals. The payoff is severely unbalanced.
I've been scanning since the beginning, will get to Onyx Scout in about 1 month's time and I'm 1/4 of the way to Onyx Scout Controller now. I don't care what Niantic will do with the imagery, along with the majority of the playerbase I have zero care for the AR aspects of their games. I just scan portals for the badges.
Also the Scout Controller 30 day metric needs to go, I wasted about 20-30 scans this weekend just to get enough scout points to claim the controller because somebody else already owned it.
Thank you for your suggestion. We're going to keep the 500 AP for each successful Portal Scan upload to match the 500 AP granted for successful Portal photo uploads.
That is good news. I am probably one of the top scout controllers in the UK but I essentially stopped due to our Covid lockdown and the fact that it's getting too dark too soon. This will be a great motivation to getting back to seeking out new portals to scan as our restrictions are lifting somewhat.
That’s great to hear. Thank you @NianticBrian . Any chances that you and your team will also consider increasing the scan limit from 200? Scout Controller is a daunting challenge and it was certainly nice to have twice as many scans to over come an existing controller with more than 1 Scout Controller point on a said portal.
What about some AP for the first time you became scout controller of each portal? Will garantee that player will focus is uniques rather than 200 every week from the closest of their homes.
Why are you like this? Why do you have to be a contrarian about every damn thing? Can’t you just let people enjoy things?
Besides, there dozens of more effective ways to level up bots, and no one cares. Tagging grey portals is an easy 625 AP, and is a hell of lot faster and easier to automate.
I really don't see this as a useful thing for bots to do. First of all, you can't scan until you're already level 8. Second, as @MoogModular pointed out, you are limited in the number of scans you can do, which means you're at best getting 400k AP every 2 weeks. If someone wants to cheat there are dozens of other ways to level up much faster, and frankly with less likelihood of getting caught by Niantic (I'm assuming they are doing some QC on scans and would notice someone abusing it to the level required to get substantial amounts of AP).
And besides, Niantic really shouldn't be designing AP based on cheaters. Cheaters are gonna cheat. When you think about a real player, 500AP is about the right amount of reward for spending about 30 seconds (15 second scan, plus time to process) out in the field to contribute to Niantic's database. That's 60k of AP for an hour of concerted scanning. I can usually count on a minimum of 100k per hour of intensive gameplay in a portal-dense area without tricks or double AP or APEXes or anything. So it shouldn't discourage anyone from playing normally, but it will give a reasonable return for doing a scan.
Comments
For a short term event, the impact is time limited.
For all time, I'd wonder how easily it would be abused.
the whole rollout was never really thought out, in my opinion. I feel like every person who started scanning right off the bat has been burned again and again. Like introducing the controller badge and nothing from earlier counting towards that badge. I stopped scanning when I hit 500 on the scout controller badge and refuse to do more because just around the corner, better rewards are waiting. So why do any now when my efforts will likely be better rewarded down the road? Like, now they’re offering AP... So wait, all those scans I did several months back, those were freebies? Yep... No more outta me...
Abused? How?
I don't see how it can be considered abuse wasting one minute of playtime, about 1% of battery life, and about 30mb of data in enchange of less AP than a half deployed portal, sometimes less than a glyph hack.
Aside from the fact that unlike a glyph hack, there's a far higher limit without moving, I guarantee someone will work out how to fake upload.
And Niantic is famous for not spotting it's unintended consequences. Like I said, I wonder how this will be abused, in the same way that battle beacons are the new new flipcard and speed AP tool.
Pokémon GO players are given a reward now for scanning gyms from tasks. Makes sense to do the same for Portal Scans on Ingress. Even if it’s more AP for more time scanned, so 500AP for minimum time, and maybe 700AP for a full scan?
Manually or by spoofing or some other method, abusing this won't be worth the time wasted. So much easier to just capture a few portals.
By scanning you can make 100k AP every two weeks (if this rewards continues) Wich can be done in a few minutes by regular gameplay.
I refuse to portal scan. Its a way for niantic to get us to do free labour for them that they will then sell on for a future game. If there was a great reward for doing 1 I'd be semi ok doing it (like submitting portals at least rewards with a portal if it passes) but a small amount of ap to stand around for 15ish seconds in bad weather is not worth and has no gameplay reason to do either. Was made worse imo when they charged people to.do it for a pogo "event" meaning people were having to pay to do niantics job for them to sell later on, one of the worst money plans I've ever seen
I did for the medal, but dont want to do it. Its just boring and takes a lot of time, for basic ly nothing
The AP reward definitely needs to stay, given the amount of effort that goes into doing this work (as it's not gameplay), something needs to be given in return to the players. I could be out making fields or whatever and earn 100x more AP in the same amount of time as it takes me to scan 50 portals. The payoff is severely unbalanced.
I've been scanning since the beginning, will get to Onyx Scout in about 1 month's time and I'm 1/4 of the way to Onyx Scout Controller now. I don't care what Niantic will do with the imagery, along with the majority of the playerbase I have zero care for the AR aspects of their games. I just scan portals for the badges.
Also the Scout Controller 30 day metric needs to go, I wasted about 20-30 scans this weekend just to get enough scout points to claim the controller because somebody else already owned it.
That's assuming the tech on your phone will support it. For too many people the answer is it doesn't.
Thank you for your suggestion. We're going to keep the 500 AP for each successful Portal Scan upload to match the 500 AP granted for successful Portal photo uploads.
That's great news! Thank you :D
Will you be be applying the AP bonus for all past scans too? To reward those of us that have committed to scanning from the beginning
Great news
Thank you
That is good news. I am probably one of the top scout controllers in the UK but I essentially stopped due to our Covid lockdown and the fact that it's getting too dark too soon. This will be a great motivation to getting back to seeking out new portals to scan as our restrictions are lifting somewhat.
That’s great to hear. Thank you @NianticBrian . Any chances that you and your team will also consider increasing the scan limit from 200? Scout Controller is a daunting challenge and it was certainly nice to have twice as many scans to over come an existing controller with more than 1 Scout Controller point on a said portal.
and what about those that will scan their feet etc to gain some extra ap, how will this work ??
good new !
The limitation of scans seems to be what is limiting abuse. The past event being a litmus test.
400 scans with 1000 AP is 400,000 AP every two weeks. Doesn't seem very beneficial if you're abusing it for AP.
What about some AP for the first time you became scout controller of each portal? Will garantee that player will focus is uniques rather than 200 every week from the closest of their homes.
I guess we'll find out how many bots have Scout now.
Why are you like this? Why do you have to be a contrarian about every damn thing? Can’t you just let people enjoy things?
Besides, there dozens of more effective ways to level up bots, and no one cares. Tagging grey portals is an easy 625 AP, and is a hell of lot faster and easier to automate.
I really don't see this as a useful thing for bots to do. First of all, you can't scan until you're already level 8. Second, as @MoogModular pointed out, you are limited in the number of scans you can do, which means you're at best getting 400k AP every 2 weeks. If someone wants to cheat there are dozens of other ways to level up much faster, and frankly with less likelihood of getting caught by Niantic (I'm assuming they are doing some QC on scans and would notice someone abusing it to the level required to get substantial amounts of AP).
And besides, Niantic really shouldn't be designing AP based on cheaters. Cheaters are gonna cheat. When you think about a real player, 500AP is about the right amount of reward for spending about 30 seconds (15 second scan, plus time to process) out in the field to contribute to Niantic's database. That's 60k of AP for an hour of concerted scanning. I can usually count on a minimum of 100k per hour of intensive gameplay in a portal-dense area without tricks or double AP or APEXes or anything. So it shouldn't discourage anyone from playing normally, but it will give a reasonable return for doing a scan.
Nice. Thanks.
That's great news!!!😁
Thank you!😘