Why I am not at an Anomaly this weekend

starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

I know what you're thinking, and no it's not because of ticket prices. I think the timing of that decision was lousy and shows that Niantic still haven't a clue when it comes to their relationship with the players. But no, I have previously paid for "Rare" anomaly packs and I would have forked out the 15 notes even though you don't get much in return, because it's a minor cost compared to that of even getting to the Anomaly venue.

Actually, maybe 50% of the reason for not going is purely personal on my part, so I apologise for that. But I would most likely have made the effort if it weren't for three other things.

Inventory

I've had fun at every anomaly I've been to so far (eight of them), but what I really hate about going to an anomaly is inventory management. I'm the guy who usually turns up to an anomaly with far fewer than the required number of bursters (though usually up to double the number of ultra strikes) because it's so darned difficult to pare your inventory down to the absolute minimum and hassle your friends to hold a capsule or two (why aren't they at the anomaly too?) and then, in a town with frequent turnover of most of the portals, try to find some P8 to farm for the required kit. This time I haven't even got the ultra strikes because I foolishly spent them while on holiday in summer.

There's no real answer to this; if you want to go then it's just gotta be done. But I'd welcome a vault of the type that has been talked about various times in this community. What would be great, actually, is an "Anomaly standard" inventory that you can swap your kit for a couple of hours before anomaly start and then swap back for your original kit afterwards. That would possibly be a good way to put everyone on an equal footing during the game.

Crashes and restarts

I've used Ingress Prime since about a week after its public release nearly a year ago. During normal play, Ingress Prime crashes or locks up every 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I've had the app crash within 2 minutes of (re)starting it. During anomaly conditions I expect this to be much worse. I've played every previous anomaly with Ingress 1.x, except for the last one which I played with Scanner [REDACTED]. That scanner wasn't exactly immune to crashing, and of course it always crashed more during anomalies than during normal play. It locked up twice during the most recent anomaly. But that's peanuts to the crashing behaviour of Ingress Prime.

And the crashing would not be quite so bad if not for the interminable startup time of the app. On my phone it takes almost two minutes on average to start Ingress Prime. I cannot be standing around in an anomaly zone for two minutes doing nothing during what could be a crucial battle. When Redacted crashed it only took 20 seconds to restart it, and that was bad enough.

Server problems

The last two First Saturdays and the Field Test event were all plagued by server-side problems meaning that users could not take actions in-game or, in some cases, even start the app. I've experienced that problem just today when Ingress Prime crashed and then hung indefinitely on the startup logo. When I force-closed and restarted the app it did the same thing, so I force-closed it again and put my phone away for an hour, at which point the app did successfully restart. It would be so frustrating to spend money travelling to an event and then have this happen. I'm afraid I don't have enough faith in Niantic's infrastructure to trust my luck going to the very first all-Prime anomaly.

So there you have it. I hope I'm wrong and that you all have a smashing time, and maybe I'll be around at the next one (particularly if it's UK based).

Comments

  • GobiasGobias ✭✭✭

    It was fine. Client bugging out and server lag was comparable to the other 9 anomalies I've been to.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭


    huge problems in EU sometime... check your facts.

  • GobiasGobias ✭✭✭

    Will make sure to jump six hours into the future to "check facts", which haven't occurred yet, before I report on my actual experience in APAC next time 🤣

  • I didn't go to my nearest anomaly (2 hours away) because I am a lazy, lazy agent. I think the 3rd faction should be 'lazy gits who don't care enough'. We are legion.

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    Brooklyn, tech laggy but the people rule. Only got frozen out twice, but hack or deploy interminable wait times, my understanding is that pogo was the three hour time slot before anomaly. Dumb q, why not stagger weekends for pogo, Potter and Ingress?

    Give the proper amount of server space so that hack is at speed comparable to solo play on a random weekday night with zero to minimal bugs. That's all the community wants.

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