Scout Controller Badge tier requirements ridiculously high

PangarbanPangarban ✭✭✭✭✭
edited July 2020 in General

The new badge for Scout Controller has been announced, with the following tiers

Bronze: Scout Controller on 100 unique Portal

Silver: 500 unique Portals

Gold: 1,000 unique Portals

Platinum: 5,000 unique Portals

Onyx: 15,000 unique Portals


These numbers are ridiculously high for two reasons:

  1. We only get 200 scans per two weeks. That's a maximum of around 5200 per year (if we manage to use all of them).
  2. There is no guarantee that if you scan a portal you will be the scout controller of it. So if you are going for this badge, you will need to make several scans on each portal in the hopes that you have made enough scans. I suggest that in a reasonably busy area you may need to scan each portal 3 or 4 times to be sure.

Given those two facts, a player who does manage to get out and scan 15,000 unique portals would probably need 10 years to get this medal to onyx.


Part of the problem is that @NianticBrian believes the Pioneer onyx is 30,000 portals, but in fact it is only 20.000. May I humbly suggest that he looks again at these numbers and reduces them to something attainable?

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Comments

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    it must be 1 onyx badge / country.... lol

  • jontebulajontebula ✭✭✭✭✭

    Way we have limit for portal scanning when we dont have no limit for catch unique portals? Please remove the limit for portal scanning @NianticBrian

  • TheAuraStormTheAuraStorm ✭✭✭✭

    Hi @NianticBrian, first of all thanks for being open minded to our feedback, it really goes a long way.

    Out of curiosity, the comment you quoted where you said you would look at the stats and may consider a change, is it possible to do this to an existing medal, or would you have to remove the badge and re-push it, like what happened with the visual glitch of the standard medal showing as locked to those who earned the ‘elite’ on Hexathalon Field Test medal?

    I only noticed as I earned two medals after it was initially pushed and when the badge was fixed, it was added to the top left of my scanner.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    The tiers remind me of the ridiculous of the onyx Seer versus platinum Seer (500 to 5000!, 10x difference).

    I have a little bit over 12000 uniques and I've been to several anomalies - Philadelphia, DC, St. Louis, KCMO, Atlanta, and a big chunk of cities in Florida since 2013. There's a difference between a chore and setting an accomplishment. Portal scanning is something we have yet to see the potential and it's going to be limited by design automatically.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    These tiers would have been ok for a drone badge travel or hack Portals imo instead, one portal scan badge was enough, whats next a third scan badge??

  • grsmhikergrsmhiker ✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    Also I'll be honest as someone who (after more than 4 years of gameplay) is very close to onyx pioneer and explorer, and who has traveled to multiple states/countries/continents in pursuit of that goal: both of those badges all but require cargressing. I know we're not supposed to play and drive, and there are alternative methods like bus/train or even walking, but we all know that many (if not most) players in pursuit of these badges do so by car.

    To scan a portal, I have to park the car, walk over to the portal, scan, and get back in the car. In the time it takes to do that for one, I could have kept driving and hack/claimed 20 uniques. Maybe I could walk up the street and scan all 20 portals, that realistically (assuming they are all scannable) would take 20-25 minutes minimum.

  • TooLegitToExistTooLegitToExist ✭✭✭✭

    Another badge i will not put effort in, any chance i would get Scout and Scout controller badge locks hidden from my profile


    honestly the profile page needs a makeover and make it controllable as it ruined my OCD so bad for so long

  • PangarbanPangarban ✭✭✭✭✭

    I really like the Scout Controller concept. It's nice that they've done something a little more creative than "do the same thing on x unique portals". However, the badge tiers need to be set to attainable numbers.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    yes i rather have a visit unique portals with the drone badge, atleast thats gameplay and more fun...

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    I feel a bit interested to see who has been recharging the most on separate portals. If we're going to provide stats on portal scans within a 30 day period - you might as well see who has been recharging where.

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    This badge just show how disconnected from the game Niantic is. Also, counting OPR badge, this is 3 badges for "Niantic Workforce" now, so it's not just that they are disconnected, they don't even care about it, we are just free workforce.

    Next feature: pay to refill scans so you don't wait up 2 weeks.

    #GetReal

  • AkceptorUAAkceptorUA ✭✭✭✭

    And we need more and more indicators for unique portals...

    Unique hack, capture, drone hack, scout controller - how to remember all those??

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭
  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Scout Controller can be an indicator

    Just you're limited to the past 30 days

    #JustNianticThings

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    So I just found something else. There's a portal I submitted for removal because it no longer exists but now denied the request. How am I going to scan a portal for a building that's been torn down?

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    either don't scan it or scan what's there instead....

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    You know you will already have double onyx in scout before you're even close to onyx in scout controller?

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