I miss Machina!
I know it was problematic for a lot of people and I understand why... the implementation wasn't great.
The flip side is that I was enjoying it tremendously. There was very little around my home but I'd managed to turn the town around my office into a well-tended Machina garden. Each day on my commute I'd take out a couple dozen red portals, leaving enough behind that it would grow back so that I could harvest some more the next day. Hunting it down also pointed me toward unique caps in areas that I hadn't explored, or newly-created portals that I'd overlooked... double onyx isn't going to pioneer itself. I also had fun on road trips because I would target towns that had an overgrowth of red and clean a lot of it out as I passed through.
I hope it comes back soon, albeit in a less problematic form. It gave me something new and interesting to do and I enjoyed that aspect of it.
Comments
If it grew like flowers instead of fungus we would probably almost all enjoy it.
Yep, they need to modify how it links, but the portals turning red should be a permanent fixture.
I really enjoyed having Machina around, and look forward to it returning in October
I understand some had issues with it's linking logic. With the main crux of the issue is based on the fact that it never decayed to zero until the CTRL Kobe Anomaly.
Something that can be adjusted such that it does decay to zero if it can't link anymore.
We can infer that with Machina returning in October, that a great deal of work is being done to add extra logic, and maybe enable it to field.
Machina should be based on activity in cells not the opposite where nobody is playing
@mortuus I think that one of the values of Machina is to give people in low-activity areas something to do.
Yes i know but it also means users in active areas have no machina, is that fair?
They need to provide a method by which players can manage Machina using strategy instead of brute force. So that areas who don't want it, can just fence it in and ignore it, and those that want it to grow can let it spread.
And the additional fun of disagreements of what to do meaning some people will take the strategy of destroying their opponents fences so that they have to fight to contain it.
More Strategic Activity = Win.
I'm still wondering if they multiplied without needing links. How that would affect gameplay if they just occupied neutral portals with no machina links
It would be better without links, or if links were generated based on recent activity in an area. If there hasn't been any activity nearby (for some value of nearby) for (like something on the order of a week, calculated in Niantic time) then red portals can link to nearby red portals with impunity. As soon as there's player activity in an area all linking stops until there hasn't been any for (period of time).
This would solve the problem of players in active areas being thwarted by aggressive red links. If a player started playing in an area that didn't have other agents then they would have something to compete against. The weakness would be that once a player had started attacking the red in an area they would only be able to destroy red portals but wouldn't have any links to smash... which seems OK to me. Even better would be if red could fight back if there was only one player in the area but maybe only attacking portals that had decayed more than 50%.
I'm sure there are some holes in this proposal but it would make it interesting for players in otherwise-unpopulated areas while not creating a nuisance in areas that have activity. Someone who wanted to protect a portal in an otherwise-inactive area would just have to keep it recharged to more than 50%.
Machina links in active areas are not much of a problem where I play. Players from both factions clear them regularly, and (unless they link two pita portals), they can be cleared with reasonable effort if they are in the way. The real nuisance comes from machina links in inactive areas that inhibit linking to active areas, and make it difficult to build even mid-sized fields (with edges of a few kilometers).
I think there is no solution that will make everyone happy. Some players consider machina as a nuisance, others enjoy clearing machina links and collecting the dropped keys for micro-fielding. Personally, I enjoyed the challgenge of making a strategic plan to clear a machina-infested area while building a multi-layer microfield at the same time.
Machina links don't bug me because I'm mostly a smasher but a friend of mine had a mid-sized layered field taken down recently and within an hour Machina had blocked the lanes. Another group of players near me were hatching a plan to keep Machina out of an area because they were so annoyed by it.
Different playstyles.
Problematic, made the game go dead for 6 months. I'm sure niantic felt the hit in the pocket. I only know one local player of 15 who pays for core anymore. My only gripe now is that they're bringing it back again. Need to accept defeat from the first 2 failed BETAs.
It seemed like that was the idea as it talked about factions using Machina. I thought a winning faction of an Anomaly might get to control it a bit, such as increased spawns of Machina near RES portals or Machina can field over ENL and such for a period of time.
People forget each reset of the machina has changed the mindset.
We initially had crazy links on links. That was until the clock anomaly.
Then, it was machina tracking within the scanner. We have been able to see how many portals it owns at any time with its profile.
Now we're in another lull after Control machina.
It's too bad Niantic doesn't tell us what's going on. Machina was a fun addition to the game and then they take it away. Their response time to new opportunities takes way too long. It feels like Ingress is going back to beta testing status and not ready for prime time. Which is really sad for a game in the mature life cycle stage. We finally get something new and for some reason it takes a month to fix it? I'm pretty used to Ingress not working correctly so I'm not sure why it shocks me. They are using the anomalies as an illusion so they can figure out if they want to keep machina it or not. Keep it.
Not knowing what is happening with Machina, is kinda the point.
And is quite normal for games to have features which players have to figure out
Am quite excited to see what is in store for us when Machina arrives next month
What annoys me about Machina totally disappearing is not being able to obtain any more stats towards the Reclaimer badge, until the next anomaly.
If Machina was going to be a 'part time' addition to the game, it should never have been a badged achievement.
I don't think even if Machina were to become a 'part time' addition negates a medal. Having it available for only periods of time is one way to keep the game fresh. It makes it more important to go after them when available. I have had fun with the previous iterations of Machina and am looking forward with a 'what will it do next' attitude to the next one.
Agree badge is there and yet they decided remove for next anomalies so they can figure out the next step for them which is fielding.
Having it as a badged achievement whilst being only 'part time' means it will take a lifetime to get to Onyx. With the amount of walking/cycling involved with the Reclaimer badge, makes it one of the more difficult badges to achieve.
There should have been a compromise with Machina. Not total disappearance at very short notice.
What @MJ78 said is doubly true since the thresholds for Reclaimer are the same as Liberator but there are far fewer opportunities for Reclaimer.
cell is too big.
i want to recliam and easy huge fields in 0 activity area are boring
what u mean cell is too big?
in the same cell you can have full activity never saw a red and whole area full red.
cells doesn't mean anything as player activity. And huge empty area are just easy huge field now. machina solved that so sad they killed it again
Yes thats why i think machina should also spawn based on activity, not just dead inactive areas where nobody goes ever. Strange logic why should i be punished if i want see red because im active? I hope niantic can find a balance for both situations and red can spawn.
If areas are inactive then why does it matter if machina spawns there? If nobody plays there who would it even affect? Fielding in inactive areas is boring anyway. If you have no opposition then you need machina. If your fields aren't being taken down several times a week then you need some kind of opponent. Stagnation is boring.
Why have Machina in an inactive area? It may be that there's a player there who just doesn't bother because there's nothing to do but microfield and wait a week. Machina also gives a brand new player a sort-of opponent to keep them engaged.
Machina in inactive areas can also create a sort of Machina tourism. I've certainly made detours on road trips to smash clusters of Machina.
They should spawn in both inactive and active areas how hard can it be
Look at machine lovers, they created one topic and communicate in it like any cultured people. Now look at those who hate red portals! They have generated more than 10 topics and continue to rage further. Even while the car was turned off. These are terrible people, I tell you.
By the way, Machine, come back as soon as possible! We are waiting for you!
It's no different than the tiered events badges. (which I complained about too because I knew Niantic couldn't host the number of events they wanted for onyx)
Intel Ops is still an absentee because the company went under during covid.
I'm surprised they reactivated the OPR Live badge in Kobe. Last event was before covid.