Proposal for a new item: Factories

HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

This was buried in a comment thread and I wanted to pull it out as a separate discussion.

I propose a new item that can be purchased: Factories.

Factories would be short-duration pseudo-portals that could be set up anywhere, and would only last for 30-60 minutes. Factories would be useful for people who wanted to get together and set up a flash farm, perhaps in an area that didn't have portals or didn't have enough density for a farm. I suggest the following attributes for a Factory:

  • They would come pre-deployed with two R8s (I'm not sure if two is the right number)
  • They could not be linked and would not drop keys
  • They could not be attacked, battle beaconed, or flipped
  • Deploying a Factory would be visible on comm
  • A Factory could be decommissioned by the person who deployed it before the time expired

It might also be the case that a Factory could have a built-in fracker that could be activated by the deployer after the Factory was fully built and modded. It's easy to see the possibility for multiple types of Factories with different attributes.

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Comments

  • There are some agents who are denied high level gear simply by being the only one in their area, so this idea would be beneficial for them.

    I think Kinetic capsule programs for high level gear would be a better alternative though, but maybe only for resonators.

  • So, pay-for-home-portals?

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    I would imagine pay-for-home-portals would get expensive very quickly. If a Factory cost on the order of $2 and lived for half an hour...

  • harkonnnenharkonnnen ✭✭✭✭

    Always love ideas outside the box and possible new addons to Ingress, I mean its how the best ideas are eventually thought up. Cant say I'm a fan of this one though. If you set up a farm or drop some VR mods on portals to farm gear the point is you either have to leave it which means anyone could come along that week and also take advantage of it or you need to use a virus/s to destroy it. This also can mean checking maps to see what portals are around etc

    Also would take one of the fun aspect of events (assuming they come back eventually), need to stealth plan a farm far enough away that you can gear up before anyone from the other faction can nuke it or take advantage of it

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    You want to farm without any of the dangers of farming.

  • Given that you can fill your inventory in 10 minutes with 4 portals... $8 every few days is really not that expensive.

    So yes. Pay-for-home-portal.

  • that can be purchased: Factories.

    That sounds like pay to win/farm. 🤔

  • ToxoplasmollyToxoplasmolly ✭✭✭✭✭

    The proposed factories aren't anything like pay-for-home-portals. 🤨

    A fully fledged portal has value far beyond the gear that can be hacked from it. Namely, it can serve as an anchor for links and fields.

    The convenience of a home portal allows for keys to be acquired far more easily than with other portals, even without hack mods. More keys means more shenanigans. The convenience of a home portal also means that there is an on-site defender for a significantly greater fraction of the time than with other portals. This lends it a durability against attacks that other portals don't have.

    I mean, I already have a home portal. These factories are no replacement for it.

  • And yet, it's a portal that can be instantly made P7, upgraded to P8, and lasts long enough for people to farm it to excess. It can't be interrupted by the enemy, it can't be affected by anything but the team that created it.

    How is that in the spirit of the game?

    If you want to change the description, sure. Pay-for-immune-frack-farm. Either way... it's not a good fit for a competitive game. It's "Life is hard, make it easy".

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't even understand how people are still talking about this idea as if it even has merit.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2021

    I was thinking of it in terms of players in smaller towns, places where there might not be three or four portals in close proximity for a frack or where there might not be enough agents around to build 8s. I live in a dense urban area where gear grows on trees and we can snap our fingers and get a frack together at a nearly infinite number of locations. Heck, I live on a frackable cluster.

    I'm just not arrogant enough to assume that my play conditions apply to everyone else. I understand that different communities have different issues.

  • Indeed, small towns and rural areas have always been at a disadvantage in this game in terms of AP and medals, because of fewer portals, less MU and fewer players. However, depending on your playstyle, you don't really need level 8 items for playing ingress there. Fielding and destroying is possible with lower-level items. And if you want to build huge fields, you would anyway need to travel.

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