Double the deploy limit for level 5 resonators from 2 to 4

slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭
edited July 2019 in App Feedback (Archive)

With the upcoming Myriad rewards period where each agent will be able to deploy twice the usual limit of resonators, this got me thinking again about the current limits.


Currently the best an agent can build by themselves is a level 5 portal. Two agents can build a level 6. Three can build a level 7, and it takes eight for a level 8. All of these are fine. But when you're the only agent working in an area, you're really concerned with what you can do yourself, which is build a level 5 portal.


To build a level 5 portal by yourself (and I'm purposely only considering level 4-8 resonators), you need one of the following combinations:


8/7/6/6/5/5/4/4

8/6/6/5/5/4/4/4

8/6/5/5/4/4/4/4

7/6/6/5/5/4/4/4


Something these have in common is that they require more 4s on average than 5s, unless you have plenty of 7s and 8s to waste. But when you hack the resulting portals, you're mostly getting 5s with a couple 6s and 4s thrown in. This results in a problem I'm sure many agents are very familiar with - a huge excess of level 5 resonators and a lack of 4s. It seems backwards that a level 4 resonator is much more valuable to a high-level agent than a level 5 resonator, and much harder to obtain if you're fully deploying and you want your resulting portals to be as good as you can make by yourself.


So my proposed solution is simple. Double the deploy limit for level 5 resonators to 4 per agent. A single agent will still be only able to build a level 5 portal. Two agents will still only be able to build a level 6 portal. Nothing really changes except solo-agents not needing to constantly recycle hundreds of level 5 resonators and not needing to resort to weird things like deploying only 7 resonators (to get to level 4), hacking, then deploying the last resonator.


Single-agent deploy patterns for a level 5 would look something like this:


8/7/6/6/5/5/5/5

8/6/6/5/5/5/5/4

7/6/6/5/5/5/5/4

7/6/5/5/5/5/4/4

6/6/5/5/5/5/4/4


Much less reliance on 4s, much more reliance on 5s - the most commonly obtained resonator. The 4s you obtain normally from hacking level 5 resonators will be much more likely to sustain your building without needing to resort to unintuitive tricks.

Comments

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    I dont see how this would change anything ?

  • Totally agree!

  • To get more resonators 4 what I do is deploy resonators but without completing all the slots. In this way the portal has a level 4 and hack it. The possibility that the portal gives me resonators, energy cubes and level 4 bombs increases incredibly. It's my trick for to quickly increase the amount of resonators 4.

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭
    edited July 2019

    Yes, but then you're getting lower level cubes and lower level weapons, plus leaving a lower level portal for your teammates who might come by later.


    I'm planning on fully deploying a bunch of portals today - my inventory is something like 90 R7, 170 R6, 80 R5, 170 R4. And I can guarantee by the end of the day I'm going to have 250 R5s and be out of everything else.

  • You know you can use the 4's you get from Chamaleon's trick on the same portal? Did you also know you can fully deploy with R1's?

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭
    edited July 2019

    I don't have R1s sitting around when I'm deploying on portals to field. Yes I know there are workarounds, but the point is that they should not be necessary. It's because of bad design (which can be easily fixed) that all these workarounds exist.


    R4s should not be more valuable and versatile than R5s to a level 8+ agent.

  • vzdrncekvzdrncek ✭✭✭

    Deploy from 8 to 5 resonators to the slots, make hack and add a pair of any 1-4 resos, I do this automatically if needed.

    Doubling of 5 or 6 (to 4 per portal) will decrease the meaning of all 1-4 resos. I don't see any problems with current deploy rule...

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭

    1-4 resonators do not need to have meaning. They are low level gear. 1-4 weapons and 1-4 cubes do not hold any significance either for a high level agent which is totally fine.

  • Torron54Torron54 ✭✭✭

    Completely agree. I have recycled more than 500 of L5 resonators last week so now I have to keep my couch portal L4.

    Although many of you guys in the comment would list various methods you have developed to avoid the L5 res problem. Yes you can have your "smart" solutions. But if we can just get rid of the problem why don't we?

  • vzdrncekvzdrncek ✭✭✭

    It's not a problem. It's a feature of the game. Recycling unneeded resonators is a routine too

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭
    edited July 2019

    Having to intentionally build even lower-level portals in order to build a L5 portal, which is already a low-level portal, doesn't seem like a very good feature to me.

  • EngrishEngrish ✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2019

    Load out the portal with resos L5 and below, complete the circuit. Then upgrade those L5's to L6's, then upgrade the lower level resonator of your choice with L5 resos. THEN you can upgrade those L5's to the L7 and L8 and lastly upgrade the last of your lower level resos to L5. You just deployed L5 resos six times!


    PS. You get deploy credit with this towards your badge, NOT AP.

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭



    Then you need to have level 3 resonators on-hand, and twice as many level 4 resonators. That solves the problem of getting rid of level 5 resonators but makes the problem of needing annoyingly-obtained low level gear even worse, which is the real problem.

  • This argument is missing some factors. While as far as what level gear you receive from an L5 portal is not affected by it being either a 8-7-6-6-5-5-4-4 or a 8-7-6-6-5-5-5-5, that doesn't mean those two portals are entirely game equivalent. The one with 4x 5 has a longer outbound link range. Not huge but with LA, SBUL, and VRLA that is a huge difference. If I recall correctly, it should also zap back harder, though probably not significantly so. It also doesn't have the two weak points that can be exploited when you're limited on time and/or weapons but the only objective is to make the portal unlinkable.

    So I highly disagree. It should not change.

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭

    I don't think those would be significant advantages that would affect gameplay. Portal defense nowadays is very limited, especially if the attacker's goal is just to **** one resonator. Killing a R5 vs a R4 isn't significantly more difficult.

    99.9% of links are nowhere near the distance limit, and if you're linking anywhere close to that you'd just use link amps or get other agents.

    With no good way to get an abundance of low level resonators just to fully deploy a single L5 portal, that seems like a bigger issue.

  • EngrishEngrish ✭✭✭✭

    I still don't see a problem with the current deploy amount, if you are worried about collecting to many L5 XM items with a lack of lower level ones then just make a low level portal and leave it as such. You need L3/4 resonators then keep a group of portals at those levels and farm away. I've done that since the beginning of Ingress and still do. Best way to start off getting low level items is reduce a portal to gray, glyph hack it and deploy all the L1's and/or L2's you get, glyph again and repeat. Easy peasy.

  • slalomzslalomz ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    Needing to purposely build low-level portals as a solo agent, which requires you either to not fully deploy or to bring low-level gear, is not good gameplay. Just because there are workarounds doesn't mean it makes sense.

    Two agents playing together don't have this problem. They're each deploying 8-7-6-6 or 7-6-6-5 and then building a level 6 portal, which replenishes most of the resonators they are using.

    How about they change R6 and R5 so you can only deploy one of each and R4 and R3 so you can only deploy 2? You'd still be able to make a L5 by yourself (8+7+6+5+4+4+3+3), a L6 with two agents, and a L7 with three - just like now. But it would be even more annoying to carry the inventory around for fully deploying a portal. You don't see any problem with that? You can still farm your R3s by doing counter-intuitive tricks but it's still not good gameplay.

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