CONFIRMED: Increasing Hack Cool Down Horrible For Environment, Negatively Affects Health
Hello! It's me, Cyclebiff - Enlightened agent, MENSA member, philanthropist, and Coachella-valley renowned Sous-chef.
With the upcoming changes September 30th to portal cool down (90 seconds to 300 seconds), I feel it prudent to note the negative impact this will have to Ingress game play:
- Increased usage of fossil fuels - As before the pandemic, many agents that cargress will idle longer at portals, which will lead to an increase in harmful environment-damaging green house gases.
- Discourages healthy lifestyle - For the health-conscientious player (runners, cyclists, etc.), encouraging players to stand for nearly 4 more minutes is anti-productive to exercise. This is a horrible message to send to our children!
- Decrease in agent interest - Not only will these changes lead to a negative game experience, I fear many agents will quit the game entirely due to boredom of waiting.
- Damaging to our natural food resources - Complimenting #1, increased green house gases will potentially contaminate this winter's brussel sprout crop and Asiago cheese production (due to the contaminated/lower quality alfalfa).
I cannot think of any positive reasons to increase the cool down, but if anyone has any actual reasons, please chime in.
Please do *NOT* increase the portal cool down!!!!!!
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Comments
Can add in health and safety to an extent, with adverse weather conditions requiring to stand outside more in pita places, could lead to more issues. Sta ding still for 15 minutes in the freezing cold is still safer (and more comfortable in general) than half an hour or more
I have spent more than enough time in rain and traffic fumes or awkwardly in front of some stranger's house, waiting for portal cooldown. 90 second cooldown was an improvement, this change makes things worse again.
Destroying brussel sprout crops is a positive aspect.
Never liked brussel sprouts :) But I think I changed my mind lately about the increase in hack time because I can get rid of my MHs and HS too from my inventory. Who knows, my group can probably play football/rugby again just like the Ravens out there. Still cheering for the Cowboys though because when they start having fun, that's where the magic begins :)
It will be good for your social life because just like another agent pointed out in other threads, you get to meet other agents while hacking. Take it from him who speed- dated other agents...lol
I think Niantic's reasoning is to discourage "dirty hacking" the opposite faction's farm, and encourage agents to destroy the opposite faction's farm instead. Maybe Niantic thought that farming the opposite faction, instead of **** it, is like win-trading.
However, that logic only holds up when the factions have equal strength. If one faction has 10 agents for the other faction's 1, that 1 becomes even more disadvantaged with this change.
Enemy portals already give less gear. The underdog already struggles to get enough to do any significant damage (or, they stop bothering to try). That underdog may be able to build a fiendly L6 with a pal, but if they're far outnumbered, the other faction will be along shortly to neutralize it. Yet, hacking enemy portals will take forever to get gear.
Plus, with us all becoming addicted to apps and instant gratification, we have the collective attention span of a gnat. Maybe I need to hack for cubes or bursters, but look! Something shiny!
Yeah, in my area, there was about 4 or 5 active res players. It took 6 months to build an l8 farm for us, which, to be fair, was kept alive for about 4 months. But, on the opposite side, there's literally 4 players with about 5 home portals, and a 5th agent less than half a kilometer away (who also has 4 home portals). They can have it all level 8 within a few hours, so all this time change (ignoring the 90 seconds and just the split faction hacking) does is makes it better for them and worse for us. At least before we could "dirty hack" (as it's a waste of time amd resources taking out those home portals) off of them, now it would eveb be worth that
If anything the time between hacks should be extended. People need a mental break between hacks. That's absolutely no reason to hack faster. It's bad for your joints too. Increasing the timing will encourage the four players left in the area to talk to each other between hacks. No reason to rush things like this.
I agree that the additional cooldown for dirty hacking (or, the way I see it, opportunistic hacking) will exacerbate the situation in areas where one faction is dominant. This seems like an overall negative for game balance.
"Discourages healthy lifestyle - For the health-conscientious player (runners, cyclists, etc.), encouraging players to stand for nearly 4 more minutes is anti-productive to exercise. This is a horrible message to send to our children!"
Try walking around the park, do a loop of the portals, Don't just burnout a portal before moving to the next one.
Not everyone plays in a park. #Drivegress is coming back!
What other agents? ;(
Yes, but the argument from OP was specifically targeted at people who do play in a park.
Use a heatsink if driving.
Another counter argument to the CD changes is that an agent takes down a portal controlled by a rival agent and tries to get keys afterward. Then, the irate rival agent harasses and stalks the other agent. Niantic will likely say report to the local authorities.
You have a serious issue. Contact police. Don't complain about it in the forums. Niantic is still NOT the police. Every other post by you is complaining about the opposing faction. Do you not have any police in your area? Do you not understand how to contact them?
Why do you keep bringing up this weird story that is your unique experience?
and if it's not that story, it's going to be something that is unrelated to them
@MoogModular , what's the common denominator with the others? Sweepers. Anybody needs a chimney sweeper :)
typical Texas fashion it seems
@MoogModular , great job for going low out there. One really can't buy class nowadays.
The word “park” never appears in the OP. Going for a bike/walk/run doesn’t imply a park or the convenience of portal clusters.
I can think of many local walks/runs/rides where portals are each 1 km or more apart, especially if you are planning to build an optimal MU multilayer field.
This is also confirmed: increasing hack cool down would negatively impact my sanity.
Then use a heatsink...
If you want to rapidly hack a portal multiple times in a short amount of time, use a heatsink.
Its not unique but no need to go on about it. I've been followed quite often. Once with their front bumper just about touching my rear bumper.
I recently had an opposing-faction agent actively following me around, and continuing to pester (wow, the forum censors h-a-r-a-s-s?!) me after I looked him in the eye and said, "Sir, I do not wish to engage with you. Please leave me alone." This stuff does happen.
Don't think he deserved a Sir..
who says u must engage with someone?
I agree with you. It's like people forget what it's like to be a passenger in a car/taxi/bus in a really portal dense part of town. Where there is no time between hacking portals ... I sweat after such a hack session. Or when you have 6 portals in range and have heat sinks on .... Would stumble out of the gazebo at my local park after 6*16 p8 glyph hacks .... Woah would be brain fried....
But why do people who have the capacity to do more be negatively affected?
I mean I get what you mean, but in my area there is only one other player actively playing, and he's the opposition. Why should I be forced to interact with players because I'm waiting to hack again? And do you go 'Sorry, next hack' in the middle of the conversation?
I mainly farm portals for keys, in the 90 seconds I'm waiting, I throw away gear I don't want/need (level 5 **** mostly). I saw your post that you have issues managing inventory, but that is a problem I really don't have. The stuff I want I keep in capsules, and I just 'swipe select all' and delete; very simple and straightforward. I don't need 180 seconds to do that.
I'm sure Niantic is pushing this, hoping people will scan in the meantime, which is just plain stupid; scanning the sidewalk/bushes is not something I find productive, and since it's not affecting the game in any way, useless.
I love your idea about keeping the gear you want in caps ... I do that a lot as well.
Just obviously not as well and I'm a key hoarder.
Yeah, I have 823 keys in Inventory, of which of course 600 are in lockers.
Right now I'm forced to clean up though, going back to 2000 inventory cap. :P