About Scout Controller
Hello everyone! I've opened this thread to discuss thenew changes about scanning portals. Where i live(brazil) it's extremely dangerous to stay in a front of a portal to expend 15 seconds to scan a single portal. I explain: some people play ingress inside cars, in a motorcycle or even by foot... when we expend 15 seconds in front of a portal , we're in danger two times: to be stolen or be questioned by local people
that for the most part do not know the mechanics of the game and as a result we may suffer hostility due to the high crime rate. I know that niantic needs reliable data to implement air in their games, but I ask that you study the mechanics of scans better in order to keep the gameplay safe and the quality of the material sent. my sugestion? a number between 7-10 minimum seconds per scan in my view would be sufficient. in recent research I realized that adherence to this new modality of ingress has been low, so I hope that niantic listens to one of the few scans enthusiasts. I recently won the silver medal but I seriously think it will be worth doing more scans in view of the work to improve this achievement
Comments
Well, maybe Niantic does not need portal scans in an area where it is dangerous to spend more than 15 seconds. Supposedly, these scans are for a future augmented reality game. Would you really want to play such an immersive game that in a dangerous area?
I wish you a nice day. Stay safe.
U will agree with me that don't exist a place 100% safe to play in the entire world... you could consider that following your line of reasoning, some people would have their game possibilities even more reduced and if niantic wants to get more players to do this job, it should look at all angles of the situation
If attempting to do scans is dangerous, please, don't attempt to do scans.
It is not a required part of the game, so stay safe and don't perform dangerous acts just for a badge. If it's not worth the danger, it's not worth the danger.
How can u even play the game if dangerous to scan, playing game is safe how u still use the phone interact at portals? dont feel forced to scan if not safe just dont do it.
Although I hadn't considered it before, safety is an important issue that Niantic obviously haven't considered.
I've done about 150 scans since the change to a 15 second minimum and can attest from my own experience that the length of time is far too long. Most portals don't need more than 5 seconds to be scanned, see below examples. The increased minimum time means you are spending more time at a specific portal, often just waiting there for the timer to finish so that you can move on. You're not adding data or gaining quality by standing there, you've already quickly done the scan and should be able to move on. But being held there means you are at the whim of the environment around whilst you wait. The weather, other people, or in the thread creator's case, danger.
It feels awkward enough to have to walk around an object to scan it, now it's even worse when you have to wait around at the portal until you can move on. I've had lots of people looking and glaring, probably wondering why I appear to be taking a video of a playground or random bench, I can definitely see the police questioning the activity. And when asked for proof of the 3D scans, what are we supposed to show them? Other than a badge increment and our name on the portal, there's no evidence that the video I took actually exists and does what it purported.
Niantic need to reconsider the minimum length of time, perhaps if they actually went out and did some scans themselves (I know Brian has, but has his experiences aligned with other players?), they might understand that the 15 second minimum is more of a hindrance than a benefit.
Some examples of portals where more than 5 seconds is unnecessary:
1. Information signs along a trail. Clearly I can't walk around the object due to the bushes, so I all I can do is walk past. Estimated time: 3-4 seconds.
2. An info sign within a fenced off conservation reserve. The sign is easily readable from the footpath, however, the reserve is fenced off with access only available to the council. As a passer-by, I cannot enter the reserve, but I can read the sign. A person cannot conduct a full 360 degree scan of this as they simply cannot access it. So a quick walk-by is sufficient. Time: 3-4 seconds.
3. A completely flat 2d tile mosaic embedded into the footpath. Literally one frame (or just a photo)) would be enough to generate a flat object with a single texture. Time: 1 second. What do we do with the other 14 seconds? Waste frames, waste data, waste time. This mosaic was also part of a large series of mosaics along a beach walking path, so this example was encountered many times (in fact the other examples were also quite prominent).
None of these areas or situations were dangerous for me, but adding that element and being forced to wait around does make the situation anxious.
Sure, it could be dangerous so we shouldn't it? Perhaps we simply shouldn't be going outside, the word is scary. We can minimise our own risks as much as possible, but when we are forced to wait at a location, that isn't necessarily a risk that we can control, the risks come from the environment. If we could do what we needed and moved on, we would be in control of the risks (excluding the whole "just don't do it mentality" others posted above).
The people doing scans understand this and can empathise. Scanning isn't something we need to do, hell it's not something that's even fun or rewarded, we do it simply for the badge. If Niantic want 3d data and give no reward (such as AP), then the least they can do is at least make the process streamlined and efficient so that the people doing the free labour can do it efficiently, without risk.
You have explained all that i've trying to say and i'm grateful that u've understood my point of view. Only people who've doind scans can comprehend what we're trying to say, and if niantic want more people doing this work, they should consider what we think, an ap reward or reducing minimum time scanning. I have a dream that someone at nia's staff could hear us.
There is nothing discreet about portal scanning. Today at my local mall I started scanning a "Feed a Fish, Make a Wish" aquarium kiosk. It's too big to walk around so I swipe my phone back and forth in front of it tilting it a different direction each time. People look at me like I'm crazy cause it takes 15 seconds to complete.
I completely agree 15sec is totaly rediculous. My scans havnt been any more beneficial since update if anything they are worse as i havnt the time to hang around for that length of time ( young kids)
Oh yeah, I can forget about stopping at every portal a d doing a 15 second scan with my wife and kids with me. The amount of embarrassment I would put on them while acting silly....
if aim high on this medal 15 seconds feels like forever and also doing many scans gives u zero ap in game or anything else....
At 5-10 seconds, it's easy to be discrete - you can give the appearance of framing a picture because that's the amount of time it takes most people to line up their composition. But 15 seconds is just awkward.
You mention some examples, where I doubt that a 3D scan brings any value to Niantic at all. Don't get me wrong, I also scanned many of them, and I agree that a few seconds are enough to justify upload some **** data for getting closer to a badge.
I'm honestly disappointed. Why the need to upload something if nobody else can view it? I personally redo my portal scans twice. 1 for upload 1 for memories just because the vids turned out really nice.
The idea that somebody else can be scanning some random object counts for scount points kind of diminishes it - oh well to each his own gamestyle.
If is this dangerous, don't do it. It's really simple. You are playing a game, and this should not be the priority in your life. You really think that 5 less second would increase your safety?
Scaning is a pretty useless feature that they want well done, and even 15 seconds is not enought to generate good data. If that's to much for you, just dont do it. You are not being paid, this does not improve the game in anyway and you have a lot of complains about it, so why are you doing it? A medal? Is it really worth risking your life and losting time with your family? You can take 5 seconds or 5 minutes, i bet they will still think you as a fool who stop it at every plaque (I know it for my own experience).
And as it was already said above, the goal is to have safe places to play, like public parks and plazas, aways from cars and stuff likes that. The risk of being robbed exists everywhere, why this would be a reason for them to accept **** scans that can't be used?
If you can't afford to spent 15s to circle arround the whole portal, that one is problably not even worthy to be scaned.
Until our lockdown started in the UK this week, I was quite enjoying going about scanning portals in sections of cities near me (Leicester and Northampton). It has been nice to revisit places I visited before, capturing new portals and spotting other potentials to submit.
Having done a fair number recently, I'm not finding the 15 second minimum too onerous. In fact, I often let the scan run for the full 30 seconds now. I've sometimes had to wait for people to pass before scanning, but it has only been awkward on a few occasions. I will admit that on a few occasions Niantic got a scan of the pavement near a playground rather than the playground itself, but otherwise my scans were useful as far as I can tell.
I very much agree with you, and while I dislike the change and prefer the shorter time, they must have found out that they aren't getting enough information to complete their purpose, and there's no way to differentiate between large accessible portals and small ones that can be completed in 7 seconds. If scans were worth a little AP we'd probably feel like it was more worth it.
I honestly never even considered it to be a problem, but it may be due cultural reasons and it drastically varies from country to country. in here, loitering is as common as going out to walk your dog. You see people texting on the plain street, lying down on public benches and even drinking and eating on the sidewalk on broad daylight, so just stopping for a minute to update a portal's image (or in this case Scan) is mostly ignored, with one or two raised eyebrows when a portal is in someone's private propery. Peope tend to take pictures of anything they see everywhere, and nobody cares.
More than once I've spend a couple HOURS farming keys if front of a fountain, a water tower, a bookstore or even a street graffitty and no one cares. Only once somebody called a local police officer to see why somebody had spent two hours walking in circles while taking pictures of every decorative bust near the civic center, and as soon as told them I was playing something "like Pokemon Go, but with pictures" they rolled their eyes and went on like nothing happened with just a "be careful and stay safe" as they "warning".
However, in contrast there are zones with VERY high crime rates where is not recomended, but practically shouted at you to never, ever pull out your phone out, because you can become an easy target as soon as somebody sees it (I heard of people who had to pass through some places like that daily, so they began carrying cheap decoy phones, knowing it was bound for someday be mugged), mostly near public transport bases or low income neigborhoods or rural areas.
So basically, in here you are either safe and you can do whatever you like as soon as it doesn't bother people, or you can't even play at all because you would be putting your safety at risk just by trying. No middle ground.
15 seconds each Scan seems like nothing compared to that, even if you will look a bit ridiculos walking around an oddly shaped ****.