[Gameplay Request] Adjust Decay to 14% per day

Something that's been key in Ingress for years, and always been annoying to people is the precisely 7 day decay rate. Because of this, if you don't visit an area more than once a week, you lose the portals there unless you hold onto large numbers of keys.

For many people, the result has been "I have 900 keys in my inventory!"

However, in an effort to encourage people to "go outside", changing the decay rate by only 1% would allow people to visit a given area on the same day each week. For example, you have a hobby you do on an evening in an area. After the event is over, you build up the fields in that area. Next week you come back for the same hobby. After the event, you're delayed chatting to some friends, and by being 1 minute later than you were before, all your portals have died and you have to rebuild.

If the decay was 14% instead of 15% per day, you'd have all your portals at 2% health remaining. Not much, but just enough that you can recharge them while walking around instead of having to hold keys and then recharge from your couch.

Much is made of the fact that the game has become a "Recharge at home" endeavour, and part of the reason for that is the fact that you can't maintain a regular behavior without having to rebuild.

Exactly 7 days means that if you want to recharge without holding keys, if you're only in an area once a week, you need to do it earlier and earlier each time, until you can't do it any earlier and the portals die. Having the slight adgjustment means you can maintain a regular schedule of "Do this on this day of the week" and recharge the portals in that area instead of having to rebuild.

It's only a slight change, but it would encourage far more people to actually use their inventory for other things besides cubes, and get more people recharging portals through exercise (sweeping up XM) and hacking (and recycling the overflow) than sitting on the couch and bemoaning the fact that there aren't enough passcodes to keep their hypercubes topped up.

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Comments

  • eigoodeigood ✭✭✭

    Nope.

  • joecainjoecain ✭✭✭✭✭

    Only thing worse could be Joecain proposing it.

    Maybe niantic would ban me here like those coward vowel chat mods did.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    So, what happens if an agent has a full-time job or starts a full-time job and then doesn't have time to recharge those portals? Spend their weekends rebuilding those portals instead of relaxing. It will be viewed as a chore and may drop or forget this game because it is like a wash, rinse, and repeat cycle. Then, we lament that there are not enough players for this game.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't mind the proposal except the extra day decay rate for regional players.

  • Same thing that happens now...? This would not stop people being lazy and sitting on the couch. But it would provide a more enjoyable option for many players to get exercise back in the game. This change makes it easier to recharge, but yet again, you're objecting because of who proposed it, instead of thinking about the proposal. Recharging from the couch already is a boring chore that people forget or simply don't do.

    Congratulations on not thinking again.

  • If Niantic makes "Fielding over an area increases decay of the portals" it would be a good way to balance control of when the portals come down. Want to recharge it once a week, just do so. Want it to come down faster, put a field over it for a few days so it falls before the end of the week.

    The combination of the two would help regional players manage their play area.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    I recharge when I remember to. It's such a chore. (25 mill in last month alone)....

    Be nice to have some automation here, like "Always recharge these keys if I have spare cubes" but that's off topic.

  • edited October 2022

    The trick is providing good reasons to go out into the world, without making all the lazy "Gib me more cubes" people from starting a mob.

    (I checked, 8 mil in the last month, but I recharge by walking around my local area and just let stuff I've built elsewhere fade away, because I don't want to keep the keys and it'll be gone by the time I get back there.)

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think you still have to go out, not much point having a lit portal unless you use it. (Well, that's my thinking anyway).

    I always link all the things, so constantly need to hack for more keys.

  • Given people's discussions here, and on various chats, once something is built, "the only way it should require in person is if someone attacks it". Recharging is king now, and many people only leave the house to get more cubes. Would be nice to be able to efficiently recharge on a schedule in person, instead of having to hold onto keys if you only are in an area on a given night.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022

    Well, we go out and have long walks without having to play the game, and it is more enjoyable too because we get to encounter friendly people and local wildlife IRL. Besides, why would we risk tripping onto something when our eyes are glued to our phones during our walks by playing this game? It increases the person's risk of a fall or accident resulting in a head injury. Congratulations for not thinking out of the box and placing agents' safety at risk. What's enjoyable about having a head injury anyway? Plus, Niantic will have more liability issues too. Exercise shouldn't be the only reason why this game can be played; that's an old excuse.

  • Did you just suggest that Ingress players should choose to not go outside because of liability issues? Wut?

    This suggestion helps make recharging easier, while making it easier for people do that while getting exercise. If you want to sit on the couch, this doesn't in any way stop that and it makes it easier.

    Seriously, you're just arguing crazy now because you haven't got a good thing to argue about.

  • I don't mind the suggestion at all. I am a rural player who depends on portal decay to gain AP and, most of the time, always end up recapturing everything in my small town on the 8th or 9th day anyway so I don't think reducing the decay rate by 1% would halt my progress at all. If anything, the extra time might provide me with more leeway to better plan my walking and fielding route.

  • maRschinemaRschine ✭✭✭
    edited October 2022

    This game is not about sitting at home and recharging, and not about making a quick rush around in your portals to recharge them all B4 they decay. I'd love my cluster to decay twice a week. 😏

    The next player will wish the decay stopped at bad weather, so Link the decay rate to weather.com or something. Lol

  • Perhaps @Otrera35 should refer to themselves in the third person instead?

    ;)

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's not even arguing. It's just to get a reaction.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022

    Not really; it is better to walk outside without playing the game. One doesn't need to justify getting exercise for the existence of this game. Isn't it that in 2014, a 16-year-old player in Brazil died after being hit by a bus while playing? What about in 2015, when an Irish player fell into the sea and drowned while trying to capture Poolbeg lighthouse at night? Other awful incidents also occurred in another Niantic game, PoGo.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    Excuses, excuses, excuses, quit whining.


    Decay is just fine. We don't need to extend it any. If you can't recharge your portals once a week (if you want to keep them whatever color you are), tough taters, it's gonna decay. Go capture them again and gain some AP. Sheesh.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022

    Not really whining, it's just that Niantic doesn't have a really good reason to entice new players to its existing games. It needs to come up with a new and better campaign. Remember when we had all this hyped-up ad? Only to find out that the Transformers game was terminated? While PoGo is also losing a lot of top players according to a commentary made by Brandon Tan. See the link below.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HljcLVXAxAU

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZO_7wjODHQ

  • Couple of points here:

    1. The suggested change is a minor quality of life improvement that in no way makes it harder for anyone who doesn't benefit from it. It's a "No-loss solution". Only a handful of rural players who may rely on the decay because they don't have opposition, would be negatively impacted, and the new 'experiment' should help offset that when they implement it.
    2. You literally started arguing against a thing that wasn't proposed, then when it was pointed out, you changed tack to claim that all Ingress players can't walk straight. In a game whose primary goal is to get out into the world.
    3. Now you're saying you're not whining, and Niantic needs to change the game to make things interesting, while simultaneously attacking any minor QoL changes that would make the current playerbase just a little bit happier.

    Ingress won't attract new players, until the current playerbase is shored up and has a bit more community again, because that was always the big reason new players stayed.

    The priorities for the Ingress team right now, in order should be:

    1. Rebuilding the community. Gameplay changes to encourage existing players to go outside and meet each other in person, lots of events globally that bring people together (not one event in one city per quarter), and generally stabilising the players that they do have right now.
    2. Game performance and stability. The lag is one of the big turnoffs for new players, and many will not continue long enough to meet others in the community if their personal game feels bad.
    3. Play designed to block activity. Large city covering fields, intentionally starbursting over areas from inacceessible portals, harassment of players, difficulty of gearing in small populations etc. These need to be addressed in ways that make people more able to simply walk out the door and play some Ingress whenever they're able and eager.
    4. And the last, and definitely lower on the list for rebuilding the game, but still important, the cheating. Not just spoofing but all the other parts of the cheating like multi-accounting and multi-faction players, backpacks, KC hacks etc. New players will not encounter these as cheating in most places early on, so it's less of a new player issue, but once they get into the community the first thing they'll hear is other more established players complaining that the other team cheats. And that's a real negative for retention if all you hear from others is bad. So in order to make communities complain about cheating less they have to actually address it. For the most part it isn't as bad as people **** in most areas, but the impression that new players get is very negative.

    So basically, as someone who attacks anything that isn't their one and only demand, you're not doing anyone including yourself any favours. Until they address the decline of the community directly in gameplay, all those wonderful "New things!" will not happen, because they don't have the playerbase to provide the funding to make the new things, and they're simply in maintenance mode while the game dwindles.

    Essentially, your reaction to this post is part of the problem. Stop attacking small QoL tweaks because of a knee-**** reaction to reject anything that isn't your own idea.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    Is there even a dedicated Ingress Team or is it on life support? I initially asked a question about recharging portals, and you replied rudely because my comment was not aligned with "your" ideas. The bottom line, the slogan "time to move" for this game has lost its appeal to some players because it is not enjoyable to walk with your eyes glued to the game. Better to walk and enjoy nature and decompress rather than be occupied with the game. What's the point of addressing the problems above when you know that Niantic doesn't listen to its players and its surviving communities?

  • edited October 2022

    I initially asked a question about recharging portals

    No, you proposed a completely inaccurate strawman that allowed you to act indignantly against an idea that wasn't even proposed.

    Better to walk and enjoy nature and decompress rather than be occupied with the game.

    I really think if this is the plan here, then your end goal is to reduce your play time to minimal amounts, and just walk and enjoy nature. Your arguments stem from the idea that you must play Ingress, even though playing Ingress is both a danger and an imposition to you. This is a free-to-play mobile phone game with the purpose of getting you outdoors.

    If you just want to go for a walk in the park, please do. It's healthy and good for you. You don't even have to open the Ingress client to do that, you can just go and do it.

    For those of us trying to actually play Ingress however, changes are needed that take people off the couch and back into the world. It's not a concept that has lost it's appeal. Exploration and outdoor movement are the core elements of the game. It's like saying chess has lost it's appeal, and they should remove the restrictions on piece movement and remaining on the board.

    If Ingress has lost its appeal for you to the point that recharging on the couch is your preferred activity, maybe Ingress is no longer the game for you. Instead of dragging it to a place where only you enjoy it, perhaps consider one of the thousands of other "sit on the couch" mobile phone games that exist out there. They will probably be more enjoyable and less of a burden on your health and safety.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022

    @Perringaiden , didn't propose something indignant in my previous comment. You just have a cantankerous reaction to whatever I say. At least, not all veteran agents have the same reaction here which is why there is still a little bit of saving grace in this forum. . Ingress also lost its appeal because the spark isn't there anymore. It's just we can't find someone as good and fun to go against as that Dallas agent. Anyway, chess sounds good after a walk. Meet you out there! 😉

  • Unsure why @Perringaiden got so many dislikes on his 'improve player base' comment. THOSE ARE THE KEYS to improving player numbers.

    A few years back a 'cabal' of posters decided that anything they posted was being "dislike bombed" and therefore grouped up to repeat the process to anyone who didn't agree with them. Sort of like the usual Ingress reaction of "They're doing this thing I can't prove, but I know, so I'll do it back" (even though the initial group isn't doing it).

  • Well, some ideas are good, but this one is nope, nope, NOOOOPE.

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