Drone stuck

I took my drone on a trip North of my location, I managed to get it some km away, but then at the end of a string of hops, it can no longer see an portals. It cannot go forward and it cannot jump back to the portal from which it came as it cannot even see that portal.

How is it possible to be able to see a portal 630m north of the current position, but not 630m south of the current position?

Has there been a reduction in Drone visual range or is there something else going on?

Tagged:

Comments

  • Similarly I took mine on a route that included a random 700+ meter jump without me having a key for the landing portal.

    After running into a “dead end” further up-route where I could no longer see past 580 meters, I backtracked Using the same portals to where the landing was, and poof, the Long jump-from portal is magically no longer able to be seen but I can see where the link to it ends like a line with an XM pool around it, no portal there.

    So I am pretty much stuck too, unless I want to give up on any hope of a cross-country “cannonball run” via drone and just recall it.

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    The reason you can maybe see a portal one way but not another is because what you can see isn't based on a single distance. It's based on distance AND cells. So sometimes the furthest portal might be barely over 500 and another it's over 600.

    I can't answer the issue with seeing a portal at one point and then not seeing a day or two later (if you were at the exact same portal both times).

  • Normally, if you're able to fly to a Portal, you should be able to fly back to the previous Portal your Drone was at. There has been no change to the Drone range or visual range. However, there's a wrinkle in this if you use the following steps to view an area with a Portal Key in your inventory to fly a bit further: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/11100/a-way-to-push-the-drone-move-distance-to-up-to-1-km

    @5telios is it possible that you were looking at Portals in the area of the Portal you're currently at with a Portal Key before you moved your Drone?

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2020

    So is it supposed to move over 1km? Even though normally just show about 500m?

    But sometimes even is small jumps, arround 500-600m it isn't able to get back to previous. And having a key to go back isn't a option when you are 22km away in a location you never went.

  • @5telios @NianticBrian In my case I had no keys for any of the portals I hopped to/from.

    I called the drone to me during a shopping trip at a Swedish furniture store (Tm) in New Haven, CT, lobbed it from the parking lot there, and in a span of 2.5 days, hopped the drone successfully from Union Station to West Rock Park, made it as far as Woodbridge, CT before realizing I could no longer see past 540 meters.

    Upon turning the drone around to go back On a similar route to the way it came (taking one or two different portals but the rest were the same as the approach), I still wound up stuck at that one point on Regicide Trail. Again, no keys for access to a broader view.

    There might be something to the S2 cell theory.

    I’ve given up on that spot and recalled the drone, but will try from the Hartford area tomorrow to see if I can pick my done’s way across that battle zone unscathed and without keys for outside city limits.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    I actually had an instance where the portal only a few meters away from where the drone was located doesn't immediately show until 5+ seconds afterwards. I will have to check the cells as I noticed in Go they were a Stop and a Gym.

  • Novoca1neNovoca1ne ✭✭✭
    edited June 2020

    Know for a fact this is not true. My drone is stuck 30km from its starting portal. I cannot go backwards as the portal I came from has vanished. Portals ahead and either side also can't be seen but I can see XM clusters where portals are. Can also see links/field ending at two portals nearby. I have no keys to the area I'm in therefore can't try the trick mentioned in the link you provided. Spent days getting to where I am so a little miffed lol. Fingers hovering over the recall button however hanging out to see whether it gets fixed.

  • Not true. I have encountered 3 places in Brussels region where it is not possible to go back. I recalled my drone from "Moskee Dilbeek" because no portal is reachable from there. It was possible to go there from "Red Rabit Art".

  • 0X00FF000X00FF00 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My brother just got his drone stuck, unable to fly back to the previous portal.

    On a lark, we both dropped our drones off near the border to explore a city neither of us have ever played in, and neither of us have any keys to ANY of the portals.

    So yup, it's absolutely possible to have a one-way trip right now.


  • Well with all these stuck drones that im hearing about i think all models of drones need a built in "self destruct" option to cause damage and knock a portal into "burnout/reboot" mode from anyone else nearby using that portal to hack from or to obtain a drones blackbox, this self destruct option can get the drone out of the stuck area and maybe adds an extra hour to the counter for using a drone again but it does regenerate at the owners location.

  • 0X00FF000X00FF00 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We can ALWAYS have them return to us, with the only caveat that this doesn't reset their burnout timer.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sounds really overcomplicate. Just save in memory the previous portals (like the 3 previous) the drone was and always show it on the map (preferably marked somehow to avoid forgetting from were you came). This way we will always able to do a 180° and never be stuck.

  • kumachannekosankumachannekosan ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you have the destination portal key, you can move up to 1250m.

    In Japan ENL, it is called key boost.

    If you do not have a portal key.

    You can move the drone by 500m+S2 cells.

  • edited June 2020

    Numerous people have confirmed the 500m + S2 cell portal visibility. @tehstone has developed an IITC plugin that displays this very well (one edge case, literally "edge", but let's not go into that). So far I have seen numerous confirmation and no counter-example.

    If you move from one portal to another that is less than 500m away, you should always be able to move back.

    If you move from one portal to another that is over 500m away but less than 1.25 km away using key, you should always be able to move back, as long as you have keys to both the portals.

    If a portal is visible in your scanner but is over 500m away, you might not be able to return if you move to that portal. You should confirm with the plugin if it is important to you.

    The distance from one portal to another is unfortunately not shown in the scanner. There are numerous websites that will calculate the distance given two coordinates, which you can obtain from IITC or standard Intel (no scraping / ToS violation involved, it's in the URL when you click on "link" on upper right on standard Intel map).

  • i dont do easy solutions @Hydraulinski but i was basically turning the drone into a powerful xmp to knock out the portal abd returning to the users home lication but at a cost of an additional hour in the cooldown timer to make the explosion/self destruct worthwhile.

  • GottestalGottestal ✭✭✭

    1250m? Are you sure? I have heard that attempting to jump further than 1000m gives an error message and no jump.

  • kumachannekosankumachannekosan ✭✭✭✭✭

    How to do key boost

    The photo of the destination key is displayed on the scanner screen.

    On the drone screen, display the portal horizontally instead of directly from above.

    You should see the portal in the distance.

    (You can see the portal from 1250m to 1400m ahead, but you cannot move.)


    my Furthest Drone Flight Distance 127km

  • Snyda1Snyda1 ✭✭✭

    In my case, its a little more complex. But it works.

    I need to go though my inventory-choose the Key I want to jump to and "go" via key to that Portal.

    Then I go DIRECTLY into drone view and can see the portals that are not shown before.

    If i start zooming in and out they vanish again and I have to repeat the whole process.🙄

    After a few times, they keep showing. 🤷

    My route will work for 146 km with this 🤩 thanks

  • ItsutsumeItsutsume ✭✭✭
    edited August 2020

    @NianticBrian So can we get a word from Niantic about what the exact distance with and without keys is? I was able to make a 587m jump with no keys, but then couldn't make the next 535m jump with no keys (but I can see XM by that portal). What's worse is I can see a portal 565m away that I can jump to with no keys. Knowing what to expect would be great for planning drone's route without having to backtrack just because something somewhere is glitching. Thanks.

    And what the hell are "S2 L16 cells"?

  • JeroenixJeroenix ✭✭✭

    Old thread, but the OP's issue happened to me as well. Jumped from a portal to another, but couldn't get back when noticed I was going to a dead end. I made the jump TO it, but didn't see the portal when I wanted to go back. The portals were on the edge of the scanner, so they were almost at max distance away, I hade no portkeys and there was a prime update inbetween the jumps, so I thought they'd have changed the distance a bit.

  • @Jeroenix This thread - https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/11100/a-way-to-push-the-drone-move-distance-to-up-to-1-km - talks about these cells and distance and why you cannot jump back sometimes.

  • That'll explain things, thanks. I'll try the 'zoom in' trick mentioned there, when it happens again. But now I know it CAN happen, I'll jump with safety in mind.

  • I guess I'm out of luck after reading these posts. I'm from Boston and was visiting Vegas last fall. On the way home I had a layover is Seattle and I dropped my drone off at SeaTac airport. I was hoping to make it to Vancouver BC but got stuck in Everett WA and could not get further north despite weeks of trying. I made it 64KM from SeaTac. So, I then headed south. I made it back, basically not far from SeaTac again when I got stuck. Now, with respect to the posts, this has nothing to do with portal keys as I only have a few from the airport. I stuck bouncing between two portals and can't backtrack out of it like I have already done dozens of times. I've been stuck for 3 days and I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I'm going to have to recall it. Seems ridiculous that I can't backtrack.

    It's been in the Seattle area for over 3 months.... bummer!

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yeah, no way to Canada, I've tried as well. I've been meaning to do some tests to see if there are any ways out of a stuck drone outside of keys. I've wondered about any sort of notifications or otherwise. If you can, leave the drone there for a little longer and I'll see if I can figure a way out for you.

  • oscarc1oscarc1 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If a player performs an action at a nearby portal and you look at the portal from the activity tab, the portal will be cached just like a key, so with some luck you could jump if that portal suddenly appears in your Drone's view. Although this is very rare and reliant on local activity. It's nowhere near as good as having a key though.

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    I just tried that method for about twenty minutes and couldn’t get it to show. Key method works pretty well, so maybe I’m doing something weird. That was going to be my suggestion. Time that interaction for like 2am when use is lower in the US and see if we could make the jump happen.

    Otherwise, the only thing I can think of is someone trying to get a key to Boston, lol

Sign In or Register to comment.