If you need keys then there is a request key function when glyphing. There's hack mods to aid in the number of hacks and time of hacks. The game is easy now when it comes to getting gear. People keep forgetting how the game used to be. It actually used to be challenging. Now it's not even close to being a challenge. With the new kinetic capsules it's even easier. Reverting the cool down timing isn't a big deal. It's going to happen today and it's fine.
Untrue, because they are not reverting it to before the pandemic. That alone suggests there is enough data to rethink, they just messed up the balance more by differentiating between the two factions.
There was no issue with the low cooldown, and saying 'the game was on easy mode' is just plain nonsense. If anything is making the game 'easy mode' it's linking under fields, the ever growing number of (low quality) portals and APEX/Battle beacons. Add CORE and the 500+ inventory slots and the argument against keeping the 90s cooldown is just an opinion.
The game was more fun with 90seconds cool-down. The VRHS/VRMH portals were more fun to farm. The amount of activity is already heavily declining and I'm not in favour of dropping it even more, but that is exactly what will happen.
The cooldown was 90s and that was fine, the vast majority of players liked the reduced waiting game, especially outside of big cities. But you do you, just don't slam people for enjoying the game less due to the increased waiting time.
This shouldn't have any affect on the declining playerbase. There's less players now than at year 2 and it has nothing to do with the hack timer. As it is I'm almost the last player left on my team in a large city. Covid changes didn't hurt or help that either. There's a lot of reasons everyone quit. Slowing down hacking never comes up in either regard. Yes the game is super easy now. It hasn't exactly encouraged activity. There's bigger issues than that.
The game is full of cheats. So many multi accounters and spoofers. It's one of the reasons so many people left. I've caught so many people playing with multiple phones. It's just the way it's played now. They haven't addressed it yet, no reason to think they ever will
I’m not sure if there is even a realistic way to address it, but it’s a big reason I’ve recently cancelled CORE and stepped away from the game. Walking up on people with multiple phones in their hands and obvious use of multiple accounts (it’s my dAuGHtErS AcCOuNt!!!) to create leverage just ain’t fun anymore. You can’t keep up with people when they’re using four or more accounts. Then, with Niantic unable to address ongoing lag issues making it impossible to defend, just kinda lose interest. So, they can fight with someone else for the time being. I might jump in for events with medals, otherwise, no interest at this point…
So did some fielding this morning, now that the cooldown has reduced. Fielding is less fun now.
What usually took about 45 minutes to farm enough keys for a few BB rethrows (usually 3-4), now took 1.5 hours for enough keys for 2-3 BB rethrows. The game is of course still playable, and the changes make heat sinks a little more valuable.
I have a cluster of 5 portals in one spot, yesterday I could loop between hacking them without waiting. Now I glyph hack all 5 and have to arbitrarily wait 30 seconds for the first one to cool down again. I like the concept of cool downs, but having to wait this long just means a lot of time is wasted. This also means less time to dedicate to Ingress, which means less use of Battle Beacons and less money going to Niantic.
The cool down change definitely affects those that maximise their AP, MU, links or fields, so considering to drop some nice stacks as they aren't worth keeping anymore. Which also means free-to-play would increase, as the value of CORE goes down and the need to buy Battle Beacons becomes redundant.
For those saying to use heat sinks, I do. I use Very Rare Heat Sinks, and still have to wait an arbitrary time. When compared with yesterday, it was a lot more efficient and enabled more gameplay, now time is wasted and there is less gameplay and less overall engagement.
For those talking about 'easy mode', the challenge is still the same (glyphing or getting keys), so that difficulty hasn't changed. It's now arbitrarily prolonged, which doesn't make it easier or harder, just wastes time. I found myself playing other games or doing other stuff while waiting around, as it's not worth it to walk to another portal (especially when already in a cluster or the next one is 500m away).
So what change will this effect to Niantic, at the end of the day, less money. People have already dropped CORE because of this, and now it'll take more time to throw fields, which means less keys for Battle Beacon usage, which means less money spent on Apexes and Battle Beacons. As well as reducing the overall engagement of players, so less time is spent on Ingress.
Also, the change of replacing Battle Beacons to Kinetic Capsules is so useless. KC's just eat up mods, which I would rather use to deploy to work on Engineer. Would suggest to add some programs to create mods if KC's are to be useful. Otherwise up to my ears on VR gear already.
Niantic have done a great job undermining its userbase and devaluing the game. Can't wait to see what stupid decision comes next.
Just my two cents based on this morning's experiences. Interested to see what other's experience / feedback is.
I mean even with the idea of 5 minute cooldown there was a reason why portal mods were created to shorten the time and add the number of hacks before cooldown. The mods were added not even a full year into Ingress. It was something definitely looked at for any amount of pacing regardless of density.
I dont like the reset cooldown at all. Guess one get will get used to it sooner or later. Still Im dissapointed with the fact that niantic didnt hear the comunity out. As far as I have seen, people still used heatsinks even when cooldown were 90 sec, I sure did.
With the new cooldown I fear many of the opposit faction will start new backpacks in our colour, to farm our portals with since the cooldown is much lower. (My faction is the only one that can build p8 were I live)
Some in the comunity didnt like to shorted cooldown, but they didnt stand around and waited five minutes to play the game as it was before the change. Please bring back 90 sec cooldown, or make it 60 sec 🤣
The mods were always a choice between hacking gain and defensive capabilities though. Meaningful decisions that had to be made. Since they've raised the shield values, that meaning is far less now, and with the 90s even the other side of it was meaningless.
Games without meaningful decisions and actual challenges are generally boring.
Pretty much the same here. The changes don't really do much to grow the player base and it's been on the steady downcline since prime went live. Couple that with the lag and the lack of support for cheaters and the game has been devalued. Slowly pulling back and a week or two from finishing. It's been a fun game but without active players it's not the same.
There's still tumbleweeds all over my area. Glad for you you're in an area that is not negatively affected by all the other BS then. But don't speak for others and other areas.
Comments
"The alternative to waiting is walking, which is the point of the game."
Thank you so much for the suggestion. I will try this.
Like the concept but bots will abuse it :(
Then whats the issue?
If you need keys then there is a request key function when glyphing. There's hack mods to aid in the number of hacks and time of hacks. The game is easy now when it comes to getting gear. People keep forgetting how the game used to be. It actually used to be challenging. Now it's not even close to being a challenge. With the new kinetic capsules it's even easier. Reverting the cool down timing isn't a big deal. It's going to happen today and it's fine.
Untrue, because they are not reverting it to before the pandemic. That alone suggests there is enough data to rethink, they just messed up the balance more by differentiating between the two factions.
There was no issue with the low cooldown, and saying 'the game was on easy mode' is just plain nonsense. If anything is making the game 'easy mode' it's linking under fields, the ever growing number of (low quality) portals and APEX/Battle beacons. Add CORE and the 500+ inventory slots and the argument against keeping the 90s cooldown is just an opinion.
The game was more fun with 90seconds cool-down. The VRHS/VRMH portals were more fun to farm. The amount of activity is already heavily declining and I'm not in favour of dropping it even more, but that is exactly what will happen.
The cooldown was 90s and that was fine, the vast majority of players liked the reduced waiting game, especially outside of big cities. But you do you, just don't slam people for enjoying the game less due to the increased waiting time.
That alone suggests there is enough data to rethink
More likely, the 180s was a concession to the people who would rage about losing the 90s cooldown, rather than carefully considered metrics.
They raged anyway.
Obviously, he wants a more challenging and rewarding task while waiting for the 5-minute CD. He has a valid point.
This shouldn't have any affect on the declining playerbase. There's less players now than at year 2 and it has nothing to do with the hack timer. As it is I'm almost the last player left on my team in a large city. Covid changes didn't hurt or help that either. There's a lot of reasons everyone quit. Slowing down hacking never comes up in either regard. Yes the game is super easy now. It hasn't exactly encouraged activity. There's bigger issues than that.
You heard it here. No fun allowed because of bots.
the fact that people cheat is no reason for change. They should address the cheats.
but since they don’t even make gps lock impossible and won’t punish it says a lot about their policy.
The game is full of cheats. So many multi accounters and spoofers. It's one of the reasons so many people left. I've caught so many people playing with multiple phones. It's just the way it's played now. They haven't addressed it yet, no reason to think they ever will
I’m not sure if there is even a realistic way to address it, but it’s a big reason I’ve recently cancelled CORE and stepped away from the game. Walking up on people with multiple phones in their hands and obvious use of multiple accounts (it’s my dAuGHtErS AcCOuNt!!!) to create leverage just ain’t fun anymore. You can’t keep up with people when they’re using four or more accounts. Then, with Niantic unable to address ongoing lag issues making it impossible to defend, just kinda lose interest. So, they can fight with someone else for the time being. I might jump in for events with medals, otherwise, no interest at this point…
So did some fielding this morning, now that the cooldown has reduced. Fielding is less fun now.
What usually took about 45 minutes to farm enough keys for a few BB rethrows (usually 3-4), now took 1.5 hours for enough keys for 2-3 BB rethrows. The game is of course still playable, and the changes make heat sinks a little more valuable.
I have a cluster of 5 portals in one spot, yesterday I could loop between hacking them without waiting. Now I glyph hack all 5 and have to arbitrarily wait 30 seconds for the first one to cool down again. I like the concept of cool downs, but having to wait this long just means a lot of time is wasted. This also means less time to dedicate to Ingress, which means less use of Battle Beacons and less money going to Niantic.
The cool down change definitely affects those that maximise their AP, MU, links or fields, so considering to drop some nice stacks as they aren't worth keeping anymore. Which also means free-to-play would increase, as the value of CORE goes down and the need to buy Battle Beacons becomes redundant.
For those saying to use heat sinks, I do. I use Very Rare Heat Sinks, and still have to wait an arbitrary time. When compared with yesterday, it was a lot more efficient and enabled more gameplay, now time is wasted and there is less gameplay and less overall engagement.
For those talking about 'easy mode', the challenge is still the same (glyphing or getting keys), so that difficulty hasn't changed. It's now arbitrarily prolonged, which doesn't make it easier or harder, just wastes time. I found myself playing other games or doing other stuff while waiting around, as it's not worth it to walk to another portal (especially when already in a cluster or the next one is 500m away).
So what change will this effect to Niantic, at the end of the day, less money. People have already dropped CORE because of this, and now it'll take more time to throw fields, which means less keys for Battle Beacon usage, which means less money spent on Apexes and Battle Beacons. As well as reducing the overall engagement of players, so less time is spent on Ingress.
Also, the change of replacing Battle Beacons to Kinetic Capsules is so useless. KC's just eat up mods, which I would rather use to deploy to work on Engineer. Would suggest to add some programs to create mods if KC's are to be useful. Otherwise up to my ears on VR gear already.
Niantic have done a great job undermining its userbase and devaluing the game. Can't wait to see what stupid decision comes next.
Just my two cents based on this morning's experiences. Interested to see what other's experience / feedback is.
I mean even with the idea of 5 minute cooldown there was a reason why portal mods were created to shorten the time and add the number of hacks before cooldown. The mods were added not even a full year into Ingress. It was something definitely looked at for any amount of pacing regardless of density.
I dont like the reset cooldown at all. Guess one get will get used to it sooner or later. Still Im dissapointed with the fact that niantic didnt hear the comunity out. As far as I have seen, people still used heatsinks even when cooldown were 90 sec, I sure did.
With the new cooldown I fear many of the opposit faction will start new backpacks in our colour, to farm our portals with since the cooldown is much lower. (My faction is the only one that can build p8 were I live)
Some in the comunity didnt like to shorted cooldown, but they didnt stand around and waited five minutes to play the game as it was before the change. Please bring back 90 sec cooldown, or make it 60 sec 🤣
Well, long cooldowns back and our local city was buzzing with more players than usual with a lot of activity.
Please move on.
The mods were always a choice between hacking gain and defensive capabilities though. Meaningful decisions that had to be made. Since they've raised the shield values, that meaning is far less now, and with the 90s even the other side of it was meaningless.
Games without meaningful decisions and actual challenges are generally boring.
Pretty much the same here. The changes don't really do much to grow the player base and it's been on the steady downcline since prime went live. Couple that with the lag and the lack of support for cheaters and the game has been devalued. Slowly pulling back and a week or two from finishing. It's been a fun game but without active players it's not the same.
There's still tumbleweeds all over my area. Glad for you you're in an area that is not negatively affected by all the other BS then. But don't speak for others and other areas.