Field Test Medal For All Participants

2

Comments

  • expediterexpediter ✭✭✭
    edited September 2019

    Thank you for making it right. We also totally understand that it was a test and things were expected to go wrong. But thank you for understanding our issues and giving us the credit (medal) for the work done.

  • Good decision, as a Android 10 user forced to use prime I had many difficulties but thanks to the self tracker I could see hacks and glyphs got lost for about 20 minutes (for me at least) so I adjusted. However others did not notice this and I saw several RES agents that were definitely covering 3km (running) and denied their badges which seemed very unfair. There did appear to be a load balancer issue, it seems there was at least 1 server that wouldn't accept any actions, but would show you what was going on (the field of play was shown but you could do nothing) as an outsider it appeared the only way to resolve this was to force the load balancer to assign you to a working server by rebooting the phone. Once you were on a working server the gameplay was fine (other than 1 agent not being able to glyph media portals, but could other portals?). That said I was with several other agents that when Prime was switched out of memory (to look at the progress website or map) they reloaded pointed at the 'bust server' and phone reboots started (just restarting Prime never seemed to fix it) That's how it appeared from where we were on the ground anyway it could all be timing and perception I guess. No on using redacted around us had problems so presumably different infrastructure.

  • Thanks !

  • Hi Nia, that is great step forward to people, who really have technical problems with Field Tests. But if all... OK... ALL contestants get badges, it would be a little bit not loyal for people, who hardly try to get Elite medal and running around city. Would you recalculate results? Or would you at least Inrease Elite gap fro. 10% to 15% etc.? Because this is really not loyal who tryharding. It looks like they did the same job as people who just hack starting portal and drinking beer in bar.

    Also there is a question about artifacts. There was a little misunderstanding about this part of competition. Some people (smart ones) just trying to farm artifacts on one point while other decided each blue circle portal can give just one media. So it looks like some people spend a lot of time to get all special portals to get Elite bages (maximum amount of medias, because visiting all portals). But in case you can farm it with fraker, I'm asking myself why we have so much special portal? Why the hardest part of Field test become so easy? From my point of view it should be JUST one media per agent per special portal from during event. Agent should NOT have more then one unique media from the portal. And medias in field test should be the thing which push agents run across all territory. Not just staying and farming.

    Best Regards,

    HaploUA.

  • It would actually be very unfair to all those participating if everyone would get a medal. It's not like one or two people weren't there. It's a lot more! In Bydgoszcz, Poland there were 269 player registered, but only 193 were actually on site. So 76 people registered, but don't deserve the medal.

    Yes there were problems with Prime, but the problems started only after a few hacks. And you could start Prime again after a few trys. If you didn't get any artifacts within 90 minutes, then you weren't trying, you weren't there.

  • Well, things are expected to go wrong anyway. LOL. I hope NIA will really use the data and feedback to improve Prime.

  • Good save Niantic but please next time put some more effort into the elite badges' design.

    I actually tried to get the normal badge bc I think it's much prettier but counters went crazy I walked 2kms more than the person I was next to... for the entire event!

  • We told you a lot of rude words yesterday, and therefore I am obliged to thank you for the fact that you fortunately corrected ourselves

  • I went for elite Trekker badge and we all know how that went down.

    Thankfully the normal one is the better looking one so everything went well there. Maybe next time design the elite badge with a magenta-white or magenta-black gradient (like Myriad and Aurora badges) instead of a boring one-color, one-shade fill that looks like a ripoff of bold Picasa and Aperture Science's logo.

  • simurghsimurgh ✭✭✭
    edited September 2019

    Yes, please double check for this to apply only to those onsite. Whether or not someone hacked the check-in portal during check-in time should be relatively simple, but I'm hearing lots of reports of results emails being sent to those who never showed up, etc.

    Post edited by simurgh on
  • Your derision of agents who have disabilities is not welcome. It is not your place to determine who can and cannot walk.

  • MorganzaMorganza ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's way different than any other recent Ingress badges and looks like it's a first stage design mockup, but at least it's not blue.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    I believe this was a big missed opportunity to have a ranked badge.

    Regular for everyone who attended the event (check-in hack).

    Rank2 for those who complete the objective.

    Elite1 for those who became elite in one category.

    Elite2 for those who got 2 or more elite.

    Full elite for those who got all 6 elite.

    This would had increase greatly the competition.


  • Pushing the base badge to everyone is the easiest solution from a technical standpoint. This means they only have to push one badge to the web-based rsvp list without needing to consult the game history logs, which, for the scale of an online AR game, might be quite time-consuming beyond running some scripts. Historically speaking, this is the preferred solution for NIA as demonstrated in past Anomalies where second and third waves of badges were pushed to participants but the missing AP bonus and faction score had never been retroactively applied.

    But who knows? Maybe they turned on active logging for this particular event and could isolate the data block from the rest with relative ease. It is, after all, a field test and a demonstration of this damage control capability would certainly inspire some confidences in case something go wrong in the future.

  • I understand what might be the easiest technical solution. However, when reading other players comments (not just in this forum but also in other forums), it seems clear that the easiest solution might not be the best solution to satisfy all players. Would it be too much to solve the problem in the right manner with a little bit more programming effort?

    Some people worked very hard during the event to achieve elite status in one or more categories. I think they have deserved a consideration for their efforts in the form of the elite medal for the event.

    The message of the support team does not clarify entirely what will happen. In my opinion, it does not specify the solution applied for the issue in detail. The message refers to "the in-game Hexathlon medal". To me, that sounds somehow that there would be only one type of medal, like for an anomaly. It is also mentioned that it will take time until the end of next week. So, the question remains if they work on an appropriate solution to satisfy everyone? The outcome of the solution might also have an impact on the participation of agents on such events in future.

  • MrPhyzyxMrPhyzyx ✭✭
    edited September 2019

    Please consider tiered badges for all events that would ensure that even participants unable to complete all objectives due to their ages or physical limitations receive some type of recognition for the effort, travel and expenses.

    The frustration of my wife's (and others) glyphs/trekkers not counting correctly... leading to me earning a badge and her missing it; was quite upsetting. I realize not everyone wins a marathon, but they are issued a number and finishing time as a mark of participation.

    In fact, she had resolved to quitting Ingress all together before the correction announcement... and if the wife quits... guess what happens with the husband! Lol

    The event has great potential, Niantic just needs to hire some more competent planners... why is everything so poorly executed? (Rhetorical)

  • As players are frustrated about how the event went, some players even considering to leave the game, it seems to be crucial to handle the outcome of the field tests in the right manner.

    As it seems that a one-solution-fits-all-problems approach does not work, players would need something different to be compensated correctly for their efforts. Acknowledging the issues and rewarding the players is the right first step. Providing them with the solution/reward they deserve is the second step.

    Unfortunately, we can only wait for an official statement with more details and answers to the important questions raised by players here.

  • Just a thought, but maybe the badge for agents in the grey area should be a different color.

    Participant - unique color from the other two

    verified achieved goals - blue & green

    top tier - purple

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