Suggestion: Third Faction

I've been playing a long time, on and off. A while back I dreamed about the game. (Surely a sign of addiction).

I was linking portals, and I went to use a Jarvis on Blue I planned to cut because of an errant link blocking a field. But instead of the portal turning Green, it went Red. I went back to the area view, and the Red was spreading via links to all my other portals. I tried to destroy the portals but my Bursters proved ineffective. I looked back at my inventory, and realized I was no longer Resistance... I was something else, something destructive.

And then I woke up.

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Comments

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think the game is in dire need of some sort of shake up. I don’t know if a third faction is it though. I do think it would be fun for a little while, but the novelty would wear off quick in my opinion. Further dividing communities that are either low on activity or non-existent at all doesn’t make sense to me.

    I could maybe see a third faction being a choice until you reach level 8 or something. And maybe the third faction could link under fields, etc (non-recursed folks). Sort of a longer on-ramp kinda deal

  • kiloecholimakiloecholima ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have a hard time seeing a third faction being successful. It would rely on a pretty significant amount of defections for the third faction to have a presence that could compete with the RES and ENL.

    In communities with strong faction loyalty, the new third faction is effectively dead-on-arrival and will rely on the trickle of new players choosing among three options. In communities with less faction loyalty, it would just splinter communities and leave everybody weaker. It's harder now to make farms than it was 6 years ago. Splintering communities like this would be the end of farms in many areas that are now hanging by a thread. Niantic would have to consider double 7s or double 8s as a permanent feature to remedy this.

    Then, assuming a third faction is able to build a presence, there's a good chance they will get crushed by the two stronger factions, essentially making it a two-faction game again.

    I do think there have been some interesting ideas that have been shared here as a "red faction" being a temporary state rather than a whole new faction that are worth looking into.

  • VenomousToadVenomousToad ✭✭✭✭✭

    There's not even enough players for one faction let alone a third

  • A third faction wouldn't work because it won't have the size and history required to fight against the already established factions.

    But it would be cool to have an event were agents could get infected and infect others through the portal system. RES and ENL fighting against a virus spreading in XM. This could bring back a bit of XF and would resonate with what's going on at the moment

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    A third faction wouldn't work now, and it probably wouldn't work well even if it had been done from the start. In many places you'd wind up with two factions teaming up to bully the third.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2021

    Do you think that is possible? An event wherein ENL and RES can have a temporary ceasefire and collaborate to fight against a virus? It's a good storyline and it goes with the current situation. Why couldn't we add a temporary Red faction as a result of the collaboration you suggested above?

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    what about a NPC faction that random infects portals and links ?

  • ShamellowShamellow ✭✭
    edited December 2021


    Yeah I see an XF event of this size happening. As long as your not forcing them to play together but just giving them a common ennemy.

    I don’t think think we could add a temporary red faction. It would only work if it’s not called « faction », (+fits in the storyline and is temporary).

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    If the word "faction" will not work for everyone, can we call it a "special forces or unit? " Will that description appeal to everyone?

  • PkmnTrainerJPkmnTrainerJ ✭✭✭✭✭

    We’ve had Dark XM appear in the past. That can be a thing to battle against.

  • If we’re in an event with a virus spreading I would suppose the more obvious would be to call them the Infected.

  • I don’t really know the whole storyline of Ingress tho. But I’m sure one of you guys can help with that :p

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    A third faction would just be a dumping ground for the toxic players who ENL and RES both don't like lol.

  • VenomousToadVenomousToad ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've been playing on my own for a while so I'd be all for a third faction of rogue players. But there just aren't enough players left to even try it. Interesting in theory though.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2022

    Looking at a different lens, a third faction can be led by the best mentors from both sides guiding new agents, creating hybrid skills or talents. Having an exemplar from those mentors gives new agents a chance to be creative and strategize instead of seeing examples from toxic players and cheaters out there.

  • ToxoplasmollyToxoplasmolly ✭✭✭✭✭

    That only works if Niantic hand picks the agents of this third faction, and does so without error. Otherwise, all bets are off.

  • In the game, Dark XM is sort of wishy-washy and sort of varies with whoever is directing the story at the time. In the anime, it's the same thing as Chaotic Matter and is a more dangerous analog to XM. While XM influences the mind, Dark XM/CM influences the body.


    In regards to the OP, I remember a suggestion a while back where Recursed players would be given the option during certain events to temporarily switch to a third faction for the duration of the event. They'd then be able to switch back at the end, to keep from permanently diluting the faction ranks. The upside is being able to temporarily shake up the faction composition, but I'm sure there are other balance issues that could arise.

  • kiloecholimakiloecholima ✭✭✭✭✭

    Or those running away from toxic RES and ENL communities.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    The infected agents can be called "The Infected." The combined forces of ENL and REs factions saving the Infected can be treated as special forces/units.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    Or.. all the nice agents will go red and the enl and res will be left with the toxic residue.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    But done right, because last time was a joke. Dark XM portals where just neutral portals, with no special features. It was like a player managed event where it was just counted how much neutral we captured.

    They've could at least changed the color to red, and capturing it would remove the red ornament.

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