And what do you think about the beacons?

GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
edited February 2022 in General

I remember in childhood I read the book about the bear and traffic light.

In the forest where everything without rules have been going to now, one day, a modern and beautiful traffic light appeared. The bear took and brought this mechanism from wide road and the animals came running to the traffic light to see, well, what kind of innovation is. The bear clarified that now everything will go to the rules in the forest, and that the traffic light thing is extremely useful and innovative. But the beasts began to object to the bear, frankly without understanding why they need this device. The wolf said that he made no sense to stop when he chases the hare, and the hare stated that I could not follow the traffic light. The hedgehog said that the traffic light is nonsense, and he needs a current and wires, and if the traffic lights cannot correctly switch colors, then the beasts are not worth spending time. And all the animals were responsible in such a spirit.

And recently in the messenger of telegrams I came across the conversation agents about the beacons, which reminded me of that fairy tale about the progressive bear.

One agent frankly did not understand why (playing triangles) he should stop in front of this thing, spend his bombs on it, and fight for a completely unnecessary portal.

Another agent did not understand why if he rides to cover the whole region, he should also give time and this incomprehensible device with numbers. Especially if the agent has no time.

The third agent asked people and how the beacons are described by plot? And how do they help enlighten or resist in combating each other?

Another agent sincerely did not understand why he disclose his identity in front of unknown by whom, being with him or her under the same portal.

The next agent had the idea that how it happened that only paid beacons could be seen in small cities.

Each one agent upset the fact that there is nothing original in the ingress and make it more similar to Pokemon Go.

And I see more questions more and more every day. Many can not understand how the concept of the beacon fits into the drawing of triangles. What do you think on this issue?

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Comments

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    @GreenVam Other things that don't fit with the drawing of triangles: Character/decorative badges, portal scanning, missions, Apex boosts.

    I would argue that beacons have more value than those things because they do have an impact on the playfield.

  • I remember in childhood I read the book about the bear and traffic light.

    I'd love to hear more about this, but Google comes back with exactly zero results. Do you have a link to the story you could share?

    One agent frankly did not understand why (playing triangles) he should stop in front of this thing, spend his bombs on it, and fight for a completely unnecessary portal.


    Another agent did not understand why if he rides to cover the whole region, he should also give time and this incomprehensible device with numbers. Especially if the agent has no time.

    Battle Beacons serve a different purpose than fielding. If anything they serve the opposite purpose: BBs provide a reason to get together for friendly competition, while fielding is used to remotely assert dominance over other players. These aren't intended as something you incorporate into your day-to-day gameplay, but as an extra activity when you have a group of players around for First Saturdays, Second Sundays, or Mission Day celebrations.

    The third agent asked people and how the beacons are described by plot? And how do they help enlighten or resist in combating each other?

    "We do not know the full scope of the Battle Beacons yet, or the effects that they might have on our world. However, based on preliminary analysis, it appears as though this construct enables Sensitives to inject Portals of their choice with their own energy. Seeding messages and knowledge into Exotic Matter used to be the exclusive province of the Exogenous. But with the Exogenous gone, and this new NIA tech in people’s hands… that torch has been passed on to us now."

    ~ from the playtest announcement. Battle Beacons were mentioned a few times in the plot as a way to show Humanity better grasping and controlling XM in a post-Exogenous world.

    Another agent sincerely did not understand why he disclose his identity in front of unknown by whom, being with him or her under the same portal.

    Getting together to meet other Agents is as old as the game itself. Again, this is a feature intended for when you're gathering with other agents.

    The next agent had the idea that how it happened that only paid beacons could be seen in small cities.

    I'm a little confused by this one. What do you mean by "only paid beacons" in this case? All Battle Beacons are either paid for, given as part of CORE/event giveaways, or deployed by NIASection14.

    Each one agent upset the fact that there is nothing original in the ingress and make it more similar to Pokemon Go.

    Did they complain about this while talking about Battle Beacons, a feature completely unique to Ingress with no parallel to Pokemon Go? Is that not just a little ironic?

    And I see more questions more and more every day. Many can not understand how the concept of the beacon fits into the drawing of triangles. What do you think on this issue?

    Short answer: it doesn't, in the same way Missions don't fit into drawing triangles, and First Saturdays don't fit into drawing triangles, and shards don't fit into drawing triangles, and Anomalies don't always fit into drawing triangles (to the point that they often restrict drawing triangles within Anomaly zones).

    I think that Battle Beacons, at their core, are actually a really good jumping-off point. They are Portal-specific scoreboards that can be used to keep track of certain metrics during events. My only problem with them is that the devs decided to give them very specific rules instead of a way for players to customize them to make their own. Imagine if, when deploying a Battle Beacon, you could also do the following:

    • Adjust the warm-up time on a scale of 0-10 minutes, so you can decide exactly when the battle starts.
    • Adjust the number of rounds. Want one long round, or four short rounds? You decide!
    • Adjust the point value of each round (e.g. 1 point per round, increasing point values per round)
    • Adjust the scoring metric of each round. Maybe it's Portal control at the end, or number of links made to the Portal during the round, or number of fields created from that Portal.
    • Allow up to 4 other nearby Portals to be measured in each round, to encourage player movement.

    Battle Beacons, like Drones (another Ingress-only feature btw), represent such a good opportunity to let players customize their playstyles, but so far haven't lived up to their potential imho.

  • GreenVamGreenVam ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2022

    This children's fairy tale was written back in the days of the Soviet Union. It can be found upon request "бездельник светофор". in the picture tab of the Google search engine, you can also find a picture book. I will not give a direct link here, so as not to violate copyright.

    And now for everything else. I will express my opinion.

    1. Beacons are essentially Pokemon Go raids in which we attack the portal and not the Pokemon. The mechanics are very similar.

    The plot is not clear why we are obliged to attack this particular portal.

    2. What will we get for this victory? A little bit of dubious fun, wasting useful consumables that, with the departure of most players in many small towns, are especially valuable.

    3. Another attempt to make both factions friends. It is hated by many old and experienced players who prefer not to see the face of a hated opponent once again. This is in my opinion and in the opinion of many of my friends another attempt to make the game look like Pokemon Go, and it kills the uniqueness of the game.

    4. The absolute uselessness of beacons to defeat the enemy. Ingress is a competitive game in which the enemy, according to many players, must be defeated, destroyed and stopped at any cost. If you don't have this, and another blue-green helicopter didn't get you... Then.... You just don't understand what it's all about. Perhaps you are still lucky.

    5. Beacon battle absolutely does not fit into the main concept of dominance on the game map.

    6. They are unlikely to appear in remote small towns, and they already cause only envy and hatred among those agents who live 2-3 people in remote and small towns. It would be nice if they were included on an ongoing basis as raids in Pokemon Go, around the world. So no... It's not happening.

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