Less MU on outer Fields

Why is that in some places when I am making multi layer fields, that my inner fields may be larger than my outer ones? I layered over a city once, had about 80k on one point, moved further out and the outer layers were around 70k. Anyone know why this happens?

Comments

  • SoylentGrienSoylentGrien ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's based on the population density where the portal is. The density data is years out of date.

  • The population density data being outdated doesn't explain why sometimes, a bigger field will give fewer MUs than a smaller inner field. Not everyone will have seen this happen, but it's not that rare.

    Niantic only knows exactly how MUs are calculated, my guess is this phenomenon is an artefact of an algorithm made to calculate a score quickly for fields of any size, from the smallest triangle in your neighborhood to intercontinental megafields. Most probably something to do with S2 cells.

  • It's not based on the population density of portal nodes. On Reddit someone did an experiment putting up a field over a city with the nodes in rural mountains with zero population. It has large MTU while a similar field from the same nodes over mountains had low MTU.

    It comes down to how the algorithm approximates MTU of partially converted s2 cells. I can't find the experiment, but here's a discussion:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Ingress/comments/ag0mq5/less_mu_but_bigger_field_size_how_is_that_possible/

  • Do your outer fields cross the cell boundary? I've found fields that cross the cell boundary into a cell with a lower overall population get impacted by this phenomenon.

  • liyu1liyu1 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2019

    i thought there were cells with different MU density. And depending on how much your field covers cells with more or less density it gives you more or less MU. If you're bigger field goes a bit in a cell with less MU density it gives less MU (as far as i understand). It calculates all cells that your field cover (even a tiny bit)

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