That won't happen for political reasons I won't get into. The US had over 98,000 cases yesterday, a single day record which has been broken a few times already this week. I'm enjoying the 10 minute drone hacks, perhaps that could stick around until it's safer to go out again.
As much as the US gets news about it, other countries have been experiencing records as well. We are in the flu season and the start of cooler weather which adds to the headache.
Totally agree, wasn't trying to diminish what has been happening around the world, was responding to the post about Niantic making these decisions based on whether or not the US shuts down. I'd hope Niantic would take more into consideration than just that.
You are still allowed to meet up with people so.long as social distancing and under a certain amount of people are there, thats all within some.countries guidelines. As is just now though, places are going into lockdown which does allow exercise but no meeting up, or for example In my country, Scotland, not allowed to leave health board area, but have free reign in the health board area so long as gatherings are kept to a minimum, so then some of the older bonuses, like 2l8 resos would be OK. And the decay rate could be dropped a bit in general again, maybe not to what it was, but a middle ground, so that agents can still charge without relying ont he drone to give a cube as often
Please make Ingress a more casual and less competitive game for the duration of the pandemic (and remember, please, that will include months while everyone gets a second shot & it takes effect). I am really tired of an advantage being given to the players & factions with the most activity while we're trying to avoid getting people together & trying to keep people closer to home more often. 🤷♂️
At the 50,000 foot level, my best argument goes like this:
* At present in so many locations, with hospitals full & community spread of Covid-19 rising, NIA encouraging a more competitive game is immoral & unethical because it requires more people to gather to make 8s - and to go further, more often. While a team isn't required to have level 8 portals of their color, gameplay & competition strongly encourage it over a span of a few months.
* Requiring a gathering of 8 when gatherings of 10 are illegal & trips are supposed to be essential in much of California is not good, even if you allow for a bias towards NIA's main location.
* Reducing miles traveled & the usual incidents that happen sometimes during gameplay is a public good right now. Do you know someone that hit a deer during an Ingress trip somewhere? I know more than one, and that kind of hazard should be reduced right now in so many places.
* If NIA could localize their balance & gameplay mechanisms, they could reasonably adjust this to increase turnover and competition in areas where it's safer.
* Instead, people are going further more often to wipe out the other team's 8s because fewer people are willing & able to make farms. This provides that strong advantage. It also invites more efforts at reciprocation.
* If NIA - a billion dollar company due mostly to Pogo - were public, their shareholders, stakeholders and partners would not be receptive to this because of the PR risk. If their current stakeholders or media in major markets were more aware, there could be a surge of interest & publicity. "Pogo maker drives players to go out in Pandemic" or such, perhaps?
* There is an argument that Ingress has always involved a level of personal risk, but this is akin to saying that because driving is a personal risk, why bother with seat belts or airbags? Indeed, the auto manufacturers had to be legislatively required to include airbags because pure competition without societal concerns rendered them "too expensive". In this case NIA as the regulator needs to act.
* I am told Pogo modifications have been fully reinstated.
* NIA should, at a minimum, bring back double deploy 8s, lower decay and innate MH.
* They should further reduce competition & encourage casual play, maybe even disable cell scores for the duration. We can postpone the Olympics, maybe we can postpone a cell score. ;)
* Perhaps some serious thought should be given to the way speedlock & other mechanisms work to make things safer.
First off, Cell scores can NOT be disabled... many cells have changed hands many times over the years, and to nullify a Cell Streak at this time would turn MANY players off the game. Some of us ONLY play for the Cell scores, and the Streaks which go along with them.
Secondly for a portal to become a L7 right now only requires 2 players. Yes, a L8 portal still requires 8 people, But as many players are still able to go out and get groceries, shop, and the like; this is not a reason for double 8s to be brought back. Ya really only need One L8 player to deploy on the farming portals and then they can freely leave for social distancing.
As for Pogo, the have made changes, but Pogo is a collection game vs Ingreas at the core being War game between 2 sides. To take the Competition out of the game changes the entire point of the game to completely pointless.
One of the things that Niantic could do would be to increase the interaction range like they've done in PoGo. Yes, I understand that there are strategic side effects to this, but it would also increase options for people to come together for farms safely. Farms would be much safer if everyone could stay far away from each other, ideally in their cars.
I play in a pretty competitive area, have level 8 portals within walking distance of my house and I’ve probably seen agents.....five times this year and I definitely don't gather around a flag pole to build portals, lol. This game doesn’t require gatherings, at all. I don’t mind the covid bonuses or changes, but pleading your case by making it sound like the game requires groups to gather is pretty weak. You have more chance of getting covid going to get groceries or filling up your gas tank than you do playing ingress, get outta here...
Secondly for a portal to become a L7 right now only requires 2 players. Yes, a L8 portal still requires 8 people, But as many players are still able to go out and get groceries, shop, and the like; this is not a reason for double 8s to be brought back. Ya really only need One L8 player to deploy on the farming portals and then they can freely leave for social distancing.
Double deploy doesn't change the result from two players.
But it halves the requirement of players for 8s.
Personally I'm not bothered if they keep the cell scores, and keep the higher decay, but with the current playerbase, making a P8 in many areas requires organization and people to travel outside their normal play. That's literally not what is needed right now.
Both Europe and the US are seeing higher case rates than when the original changes were made. There's no real justification to claim that we don't have the same need for increased safety as we did back in May.
Honestly, I think double deploy was a better decision than increasing activity radius. 4 people can easily distance around a set a portals where 8 is starting to stretch it. Giving the greater range might be nice, but it still means that 8 people are more likely to travel further, when travel is the thing we least need.
@Perringaiden I don't think the two changes are mutually exclusive.
If you're building one portal then there is often plenty of space around it. If you're building a small cluster then there is often a fairly small area from which you can hit all of them.
That's true. Though if they bring the MH change back, it reduces the aperture of time people need to be in the same place. Maybe give monthly free frackers for a while so that people aren't crowding to use the same fracker.
It seems to me like a lot of the arguments against or disliking are in favor of a particular localized topographic condition / gameplay condition or individual risk assessment & tolerance.
If NIA could localize the gameplay and still achieve balance, that would be nice and also solve some real issues like gameplay in closed areas or off-hours.
Since they can't - or can't afford to now in terms of time, manpower, development & data complexity, I personally don't care if a given person likes the changes. I care about what's best for the most people, and how things are incentivized. <3
Well...we only have 2 covid bonus now and that is the reduced cooldown as well as double 7 deploys. Feels normal now aside from that. Just no more slow decay, that was torture af and no more double 8 deploys, that was boring.
Double r8 during pandemic is not the answer so i hope they dont bring it back, u can play without p8 portals dont take them for granted as long as covid is active.
Seems to me from here like the opposite happens - with more 8s closer to home, there is less effort to destroy them because they're quickly rebuilt by locals and IMO there are more casual players active. Gray faction is the clear winner for the past couple years so I'm thinking about activity in the long term.
Without double 8s, some people travel farther and destroy any 8s they find because they know the other side won't rebuild as easily now. So why penalize people & teams less willing to travel / gather / risk? Why incentivize extra risk? I get the "play smarter / harder / work together better" arguments but now simply isn't the time for that in many, many places.
@mortuus "don't take them for granted"? There just won't be any here given the imbalance. So then we definitely feel pressure to equalize one way or another.
PS: I don't "like" this, I have felt that way about double 8s & Calvinball many times under normal circumstances. But this is what I think is fair, just, and needed for now.
Personally, I'd like the double r8s back, as it stands just now, in my city, building l8 portals is pretty much impossible, since ethe about of players needed cant be met with travel restrictions in place, so what happens is people instead choose to ignore the restrictions and go give each others (mostly enl) portals l8 resos to try and get to l8 portals. There isn't even any good arguments against double l8 resos bei g allowed other than "dont want it" or "its fine in my area". As the op stated, cases are getting worse now than when the pandemic "bonuses" came into effect, so of things are worse, then its totally reasonable to put things back to that way
The MH change increased the amount of a time people could spend in one place. The thing that reduced the time was the reduction in cooldown time, which is still in effect.
advantage being given to the players & factions with the most activity
That's how Ingress works, for better or for worse, pandemic or not.
But anyway, Ingress is a game. Niantic is not forcing anyone to play. No one needs to play. No one is going to miss out on something exclusive by not playing (see also: lack of individual medals for the Eos Protocol). Individual responsibility has been, and still is, a thing.
The reason to modify the rules is to sustain interest in Ingress until the pandemic is over. We didn't "need" drones because hacking Portals from our couches is a core aspect of the game (it's not); we "needed" drones because they help us sustain our Sojourner streaks without constantly venturing out into a plague-ridden world.
* NIA should, at a minimum, bring back double deploy 8s, lower decay and innate MH.
* They should further reduce competition & encourage casual play
If the goal is more casual play… strictly adhering to safety measures for the pandemic takes care of that well enough. The real effect of these changes is to sustain (some) pre-pandemic modes of (competitive!) play.
Comments
I hope not. I think everyone already learned the precautions.
I'm thinking more places are going into lockdown, so can't even leave the house. Amd most most places still don't allow more than 6 people to meet
I think if the US goes into lockdown, then they’ll reimplement them. Otherwise they do not care.
so then they should not go out just to play ingress and must obey local laws, nobody is forced we have drones now.
That won't happen for political reasons I won't get into. The US had over 98,000 cases yesterday, a single day record which has been broken a few times already this week. I'm enjoying the 10 minute drone hacks, perhaps that could stick around until it's safer to go out again.
As much as the US gets news about it, other countries have been experiencing records as well. We are in the flu season and the start of cooler weather which adds to the headache.
No one should be meeting for games.
Totally agree, wasn't trying to diminish what has been happening around the world, was responding to the post about Niantic making these decisions based on whether or not the US shuts down. I'd hope Niantic would take more into consideration than just that.
The UK is about to go back into lockdown for 4 weeks (maybe longer, who knows?) and I doubt that’ll change anything.
I would think the biggest playerbase is in America, so as long as they are still getting revenue there it’s fine.
Pokémon GO players will buy the remote passes, and keep the income ticking over.
You are still allowed to meet up with people so.long as social distancing and under a certain amount of people are there, thats all within some.countries guidelines. As is just now though, places are going into lockdown which does allow exercise but no meeting up, or for example In my country, Scotland, not allowed to leave health board area, but have free reign in the health board area so long as gatherings are kept to a minimum, so then some of the older bonuses, like 2l8 resos would be OK. And the decay rate could be dropped a bit in general again, maybe not to what it was, but a middle ground, so that agents can still charge without relying ont he drone to give a cube as often
Hi,
Please make Ingress a more casual and less competitive game for the duration of the pandemic (and remember, please, that will include months while everyone gets a second shot & it takes effect). I am really tired of an advantage being given to the players & factions with the most activity while we're trying to avoid getting people together & trying to keep people closer to home more often. 🤷♂️
At the 50,000 foot level, my best argument goes like this:
* At present in so many locations, with hospitals full & community spread of Covid-19 rising, NIA encouraging a more competitive game is immoral & unethical because it requires more people to gather to make 8s - and to go further, more often. While a team isn't required to have level 8 portals of their color, gameplay & competition strongly encourage it over a span of a few months.
* Requiring a gathering of 8 when gatherings of 10 are illegal & trips are supposed to be essential in much of California is not good, even if you allow for a bias towards NIA's main location.
* Reducing miles traveled & the usual incidents that happen sometimes during gameplay is a public good right now. Do you know someone that hit a deer during an Ingress trip somewhere? I know more than one, and that kind of hazard should be reduced right now in so many places.
* If NIA could localize their balance & gameplay mechanisms, they could reasonably adjust this to increase turnover and competition in areas where it's safer.
* Instead, people are going further more often to wipe out the other team's 8s because fewer people are willing & able to make farms. This provides that strong advantage. It also invites more efforts at reciprocation.
* If NIA - a billion dollar company due mostly to Pogo - were public, their shareholders, stakeholders and partners would not be receptive to this because of the PR risk. If their current stakeholders or media in major markets were more aware, there could be a surge of interest & publicity. "Pogo maker drives players to go out in Pandemic" or such, perhaps?
* There is an argument that Ingress has always involved a level of personal risk, but this is akin to saying that because driving is a personal risk, why bother with seat belts or airbags? Indeed, the auto manufacturers had to be legislatively required to include airbags because pure competition without societal concerns rendered them "too expensive". In this case NIA as the regulator needs to act.
* I am told Pogo modifications have been fully reinstated.
* NIA should, at a minimum, bring back double deploy 8s, lower decay and innate MH.
* They should further reduce competition & encourage casual play, maybe even disable cell scores for the duration. We can postpone the Olympics, maybe we can postpone a cell score. ;)
* Perhaps some serious thought should be given to the way speedlock & other mechanisms work to make things safer.
First off, Cell scores can NOT be disabled... many cells have changed hands many times over the years, and to nullify a Cell Streak at this time would turn MANY players off the game. Some of us ONLY play for the Cell scores, and the Streaks which go along with them.
Secondly for a portal to become a L7 right now only requires 2 players. Yes, a L8 portal still requires 8 people, But as many players are still able to go out and get groceries, shop, and the like; this is not a reason for double 8s to be brought back. Ya really only need One L8 player to deploy on the farming portals and then they can freely leave for social distancing.
As for Pogo, the have made changes, but Pogo is a collection game vs Ingreas at the core being War game between 2 sides. To take the Competition out of the game changes the entire point of the game to completely pointless.
One of the things that Niantic could do would be to increase the interaction range like they've done in PoGo. Yes, I understand that there are strategic side effects to this, but it would also increase options for people to come together for farms safely. Farms would be much safer if everyone could stay far away from each other, ideally in their cars.
Fully disagree down to each word of this post.
I play in a pretty competitive area, have level 8 portals within walking distance of my house and I’ve probably seen agents.....five times this year and I definitely don't gather around a flag pole to build portals, lol. This game doesn’t require gatherings, at all. I don’t mind the covid bonuses or changes, but pleading your case by making it sound like the game requires groups to gather is pretty weak. You have more chance of getting covid going to get groceries or filling up your gas tank than you do playing ingress, get outta here...
Isn't there already enough space in just over 5000 square meters around every portal?
Secondly for a portal to become a L7 right now only requires 2 players. Yes, a L8 portal still requires 8 people, But as many players are still able to go out and get groceries, shop, and the like; this is not a reason for double 8s to be brought back. Ya really only need One L8 player to deploy on the farming portals and then they can freely leave for social distancing.
Double deploy doesn't change the result from two players.
But it halves the requirement of players for 8s.
Personally I'm not bothered if they keep the cell scores, and keep the higher decay, but with the current playerbase, making a P8 in many areas requires organization and people to travel outside their normal play. That's literally not what is needed right now.
Both Europe and the US are seeing higher case rates than when the original changes were made. There's no real justification to claim that we don't have the same need for increased safety as we did back in May.
Honestly, I think double deploy was a better decision than increasing activity radius. 4 people can easily distance around a set a portals where 8 is starting to stretch it. Giving the greater range might be nice, but it still means that 8 people are more likely to travel further, when travel is the thing we least need.
@Perringaiden I don't think the two changes are mutually exclusive.
If you're building one portal then there is often plenty of space around it. If you're building a small cluster then there is often a fairly small area from which you can hit all of them.
That's true. Though if they bring the MH change back, it reduces the aperture of time people need to be in the same place. Maybe give monthly free frackers for a while so that people aren't crowding to use the same fracker.
It seems to me like a lot of the arguments against or disliking are in favor of a particular localized topographic condition / gameplay condition or individual risk assessment & tolerance.
If NIA could localize the gameplay and still achieve balance, that would be nice and also solve some real issues like gameplay in closed areas or off-hours.
Since they can't - or can't afford to now in terms of time, manpower, development & data complexity, I personally don't care if a given person likes the changes. I care about what's best for the most people, and how things are incentivized. <3
No please, enough with double r8.
What the point to have l8 portal everywhere ? especially when you're not supposed to travel to use those infinite x8...
That's just make agents play more to take down those l8 hp/wp
Well...we only have 2 covid bonus now and that is the reduced cooldown as well as double 7 deploys. Feels normal now aside from that. Just no more slow decay, that was torture af and no more double 8 deploys, that was boring.
Double r8 during pandemic is not the answer so i hope they dont bring it back, u can play without p8 portals dont take them for granted as long as covid is active.
Seems to me from here like the opposite happens - with more 8s closer to home, there is less effort to destroy them because they're quickly rebuilt by locals and IMO there are more casual players active. Gray faction is the clear winner for the past couple years so I'm thinking about activity in the long term.
Without double 8s, some people travel farther and destroy any 8s they find because they know the other side won't rebuild as easily now. So why penalize people & teams less willing to travel / gather / risk? Why incentivize extra risk? I get the "play smarter / harder / work together better" arguments but now simply isn't the time for that in many, many places.
@mortuus "don't take them for granted"? There just won't be any here given the imbalance. So then we definitely feel pressure to equalize one way or another.
PS: I don't "like" this, I have felt that way about double 8s & Calvinball many times under normal circumstances. But this is what I think is fair, just, and needed for now.
Personally, I'd like the double r8s back, as it stands just now, in my city, building l8 portals is pretty much impossible, since ethe about of players needed cant be met with travel restrictions in place, so what happens is people instead choose to ignore the restrictions and go give each others (mostly enl) portals l8 resos to try and get to l8 portals. There isn't even any good arguments against double l8 resos bei g allowed other than "dont want it" or "its fine in my area". As the op stated, cases are getting worse now than when the pandemic "bonuses" came into effect, so of things are worse, then its totally reasonable to put things back to that way
The MH change increased the amount of a time people could spend in one place. The thing that reduced the time was the reduction in cooldown time, which is still in effect.
Too many words to say nothing.
Go out and play if you are safe or stay home to be safe.
Nothing more to say, don't put your life in danger just to play a game.
Use your brain and put your priorities in order.
Please!
advantage being given to the players & factions with the most activity
That's how Ingress works, for better or for worse, pandemic or not.
But anyway, Ingress is a game. Niantic is not forcing anyone to play. No one needs to play. No one is going to miss out on something exclusive by not playing (see also: lack of individual medals for the Eos Protocol). Individual responsibility has been, and still is, a thing.
The reason to modify the rules is to sustain interest in Ingress until the pandemic is over. We didn't "need" drones because hacking Portals from our couches is a core aspect of the game (it's not); we "needed" drones because they help us sustain our Sojourner streaks without constantly venturing out into a plague-ridden world.
* NIA should, at a minimum, bring back double deploy 8s, lower decay and innate MH.
* They should further reduce competition & encourage casual play
If the goal is more casual play… strictly adhering to safety measures for the pandemic takes care of that well enough. The real effect of these changes is to sustain (some) pre-pandemic modes of (competitive!) play.
Ridiculous.
You don't need to gather people to play ingress. You also doesn't need p8 or p7 to play.