Trekker is a flawed measurement

I started the FT event with 2,089km walked in my scanner. With four minutes left before the end of the event, my scanner rolled over to 2,092km and I thought I had completed all of the requirements. However, once the event ended and I got my results, I found out that the measurement was precise down to 10m, and that I was almost .5km short of the minimum. How were we supposed to know the measurement was going to be this precise without being told, and how can we possibly know whether we’ve hit the necessary stat if the badge statistics are so imprecise? If trekker will be used as an event stat in the future, there needs to be an event-specific number in the Ingress profile so we don’t miss out on badges we should be getting.

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Comments

  • I agreed, the tracking of KM was extremely flawed, walked the exact same distance as a fiend and he had about 1km further on his tracked stats 🤦🏼‍♂️

  • TheFarixTheFarix ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2019

    That is because distance is calculated between actions and not how much you actually walked. From my understanding, even collecting XM is considered an action. So if one person absorbs the XM, their distance form their last action is calculated. But the person following closely behind will not get an update because there was no more XM to absorb. Even refilling your XM bar with power cubes will throw the tracking off because you end up absorbing less naturally spawning XM.

  • Hi @TheFarix yeah I know how it's calculated, been playing long enough.

    The Prime issue is that if the server didn't die/prime have issues of have completed it with no worries. But I spent about 45 mins trying to get it to work.

    Only getting the above info every once in a while when it would feel like it...

  • TinderbiscuitTinderbiscuit ✭✭✭
    edited September 2019

    I also had this issue. I’ve posted in the events support section about it. I ran the whole 90min event and made up about 12km according to my iPhone fitness app. It registered only ~2500m which, despite finishing 1st for hacks and 5th for deploys rules me out of any badge at all, let alone elite. I fired bursters on corners, dropped and collected items, hacked and deployed to avoid missing any distance. I am absolutely gutted about it. :(

  • MorganzaMorganza ✭✭✭✭✭

    Trekker is a deeply flawed measurement to begin with, and there were significant bugs in how it was tracked yesterday. Many many people reported getting far less Trekker credit for the event than their fitness apps recorded, even taking into account the between-actions corner-cutting.


    However, most people at my event were periodically checking their official event stats on the Niantic event page; that was how I realized with 35 minutes to go that I'd only gotten credit for some 2100 meters of Trekker and it was "time to move". (I ended up with 3900 meters counting; not sure how I got nearly half my Trekker right at the end.)


    Hopefully the post-event push of makeup badges will include Elite badges for those that earned them.

  • subonjasubonja ✭✭
    edited September 2019

    +1 for flawed trekker. Used prime. Paid for It, because I had not met the 3km requirement, although elite / completed in other categories. Others used Redacted, and it tracked properly. I did it right too- hack each portal along the way, but it didn't count correctly. Really hope that Niantic relooks at each of those who didn't get it, and give them the proper badge. 🤞

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    They should remove trekker if its this buggy and flawed....

  • They way trekker is implemented is flawed and also not safe. When walking, biking and so one should not be focusing the phone.

    I seen that trekker can give relatively correct result, but only when there are actions happening all the time, like collecting XM. This requires constant eyeballing of the phone and definitely against the safety "rules" that NIA itself emphasis "Stay aware of your surrounding".

    At the moment I don't see how trekker could be used in a game event (similar way like in the field test), if the event is time limited to few hours.

  • Trekker credit is very frustrating. Jogged 17.7 km (11 miles) yesterday. I hacked, captured, upgraded, linked and fielded along the way. I did it safely - stopping at the POI as needed before moving on. Kept the phone open to Prime the entire way. I only got credit for 2 km.

    I don't expect to get credit for the entire distance as I know I don't run completely straight lines between each portal, but how can it only be 2? Similar experience the week before and many other times.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    hm 2km only doesnt sound right.. u should have atleast got 10km min.... i dont know... they should add adventure sync.... thats the only thing that could help like this.... if u walk 20km u should get more or less 20km and not 5km......

  • .5 km is about a half of a mile 1/2 mi.

    That would be a good ways off of your target.


    (why am i commenting?)

  • I used to run - training for marathons. I recall that running would not count towards trekker, even if I was hacking and doing other actions along the way. I think the speed (even at an average running speed) was above that which was allowed for it to count for trekker.

  • Most of the content of this post has been invalidated now, as they changed the method for calculating Trekker kms when they introduced the Kinetic Capsule.

  • Oh nice - I've searched but can't find the details. Do you know what the change was (or where to find out)?

  • Although Adventure Sync has not been added to Ingress, we have also made improvements to how distance walked is calculated consistent with other Niantic games (when Adventure Sync is disabled).


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