CONFIRMED: Increasing Hack Cool Down Horrible For Environment, Negatively Affects Health

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Comments

  • In my experience, the 90 sec cool down is enough for a portal scan or two, and eventually you will accumulate the 13 scans to frack the portal (upload 12 over WiFi and the 13th when you are at the portal). I doubt that the increased cool own will encourage more scanning.

    But why would any responsible player scan the sidewalk/bushes instead of the actual poi?

  • Jo0LzJo0Lz ✭✭✭✭✭

    Does anyone actually scan the POI then? Because the range of scans is ridiculously small, and most POI's are not nearly large enough to scan 30 seconds.

    I see couch portals with 500+ scans, I doubt they are from the actual POI at all. In TG groups, whenever the topic is scanning, it's clear to me that nobody bothers with actually scanning the POI, like me. The range in which you can start the scan doesn't even come close to being able to scan the actual POI, so I'm really curious how that works. :o

  • Jo0LzJo0Lz ✭✭✭✭✭

    BREAKING: Niantic does not listen to you players generally regarding gaming policy changes

    FTFY :)

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sometimes you don't get a choice. Someone was standing three feet away from me and shouting at me, and followed me (while still shouting threats) when I tried to walk away-- I was engaged with him regardless of whether I wanted to be. I stopped twice, looked him in the eye, and said, "I do not wish to engage with you, sir. Please leave me alone", but he persisted. Previously the same person had followed me when I walked away from him before I turned around and said "Please don't follow me... that makes me feel unsafe." The point is that this sort of harassment does happen.

    @SSSputnik He absolutely did not deserve "sir" but I prefer to remain civil even when, or especially in the face of someone doing exactly the opposite.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    yes ive had that happen too someone shout at me while defending my home portals, i mean who screams at someone? talk about freak, those people should not play ingress really sad that happens.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    @mortuus Some people think they've built the Great Pyramids rather than sand castles...

  • For me, the longer cooldown will mean more fast food, less shopping&cooking.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    @Hosette , having gone through that unpleasant encounter, in your opinion, would agents be placed in danger because there is a higher risk for the same type of encounter with other dangerous agents now that the CD hack time has reverted to three minutes? It doesn't take more than a minute or two for a perilous encounter to happen.

  • 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.

    False.

    Idling cars emit more damaging greenhouse gasses, and prior to the pandemic Agents would move to the next portal and come back instead of idling. The reduced time between hacks encourages agents to idle instead of making use of the 5 minute cooldown to go to other portals.

    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!

    False.

    Standing at a portal for 5 minutes was far rarer than you ****, because it was better to go to another portal and come back, especially for players in an environment where walking was feasible. The reduced cooldown encourages people to stand still and wait because it's not long enough to justify continuing to walk.

    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.

    False.

    The game was more popular when we had a 5 minute cooldown than when we had a 90s cooldown. There's zero evidence proving that the shorter cooldown increased engagement for new players or casual players, except for your own 'assumptions'.

    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).

    False... and wut?

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2022

    @Otrera35 In this specific case no because I was just smashing, but in general the longer one sits at a portal the more opportunity there is for a hostile player to get there to (annoy, six letter word starting with H and ending with S that the forum starred out) someone. I don't think this is a strong argument for or against longer cooldown times, though.

    @Perringaiden writes:

    prior to the pandemic Agents would move to the next portal and come back instead of idling. The reduced time between hacks encourages agents to idle instead of making use of the 5 minute cooldown to go to other portals.

    That is far from a universal truth. I certainly idled at portals when the cooldown was five minutes.

    The game was more popular when we had a 5 minute cooldown than when we had a 90s cooldown. There's zero evidence proving that the shorter cooldown increased engagement for new players or casual players, except for your own 'assumptions'.

    However, the psychological impacts of taking something away are different than the impacts of giving something. Increased cooldown time has definitely made me less interested in playing because I now feel like my time is being wasted.

    Post edited by Hosette on
  • edited September 2022

    Learn to not use layers. Because this is really the problem. Everyone has gotten used to having many keys to a portal, and shifted play from coverage to super layers. It's cheap, easy, and lazy.

     Please do your research before blatantly claiming something is false without any supporting evidence.

    That is this entire post, so I felt it necessary to respond with the same reckless abandon.

  • If you didn't need to wait for extra cooldowns, this wouldn't be an issue. It's completely a mindset that started when the More and Less commands were added, but got supercharged by 90s (or even 27s) cooldowns on portals. People I've talked to in chats spanning the globe expect to be able to get 7 or 8 keys for a portal before moving on. And having to wait 9 minutes or even 15 minutes to do that is specifically designed to discourage that mindset.

    Niantic has been making a lot of changes lately that lean into the concept that you should move from portal to portal, instead of wating at a single portal. They want a mindset shift back to what it was before all these changes made the game far more static.

    We got cursed with linking under fields because people complained about all the deep layering fields covering entire cities. This is another change to discourage that. You want a dozen keys to a portal? Gotta do what we used to do and spend an hour at the portal. It makes people choose to do it only when they have a good reason, and not as a standard method of play.

    Ever since glyphing, the game has become far more "Stand at a portal" and while I doubt they'll ever remove glyphing, they're making other reversions to move back to that older more mobile form. 3 minute cooldowns are a concession, they could have made it all 5 minutes.

    While I don't think the timing for the change was right, I think the change was something that needed to happen. My biggest worry in this is that the only players Ingress has left are the small group of die-hards, and a lot of lazy agents who started either in Prime or Covid, and won't survive the changes they're making. Not because the changes are bad, but because the playerbase is not the energetic and active group it was in the early days. People think layers and the field score are the only part of the game, and so many people play only from car that it makes the actual purpose of the game (Exercise and Exploration) fade into the background of toxic aggressive competition and out-spending the enemy on things like fuel.

    Then people decide to attack you on reddit for pointing out that Niantic needs to be paid for their work and the fuel people pay for doesn't actually help keep the game alive.

  • BreenzyBreenzy ✭✭✭✭

    You first post, and this comment are actually insane, bordering on conspiracy level.

    You genuinely think changing the cooldown will affect global warming and cause famine or food shortages?

    The amount of copium coming from you and others is truly incredible, you are throwing a galaxy level tantrum over a bloody game.


    Niantic, I take back everything I ever said about wanting you to be more active on the forums. Do not engage with these people at all.

  • Excellent. Glad you agree the cool down should stay as-is ;)

  • BreenzyBreenzy ✭✭✭✭

    No, 3 minutes is fine. Change your game play style or leave, you wont be missed.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    @Hosette , lingering too long in one portal to farm keys does pose a safety risk even though it's done covertly particularly if bad players are persistent with their mission of intimidating and stalking an agent. Just imagine what will happen when an agent captures a portal and adds farming mods. Activity is announced thanks to the COMMs, potential field plans or ops revealed which may lead to interruption of farming or fielding through an encounter with bad actors out there. Have you ever experienced being bothered by another agent while farming for keys or blocked during fielding? One solution such as the use of HS to negate the longer CD hack times does have unintended consequences here.

  • Yes. Current cool down is acceptable.

    I checked your stats - plz let them drop before hanging with the big boys ;)

  • My apologies, I was unable to edit a second time for some reason.

    I was trying to explain that, while I may not be missed, I hope you have an enchanting evening.

    ❤️❤️❤️

  • Having the current cool down AND using a heat sink. Good suggestion!

    Now imagine that same cool down extended for no reason... And a heat sink.

    Increased cool down equals increased risk (per your own logic).

    Open and shut case - do not increase the portal cool down - unsafe!

  • You're failing to support. You just argued against the OP's point that idling longer is bad.

    how can you honestly look at the backlash and the already decreasing numbers amd claim that this won't lead to even more agent apathy?

    The game is dying because the community is gone in many regions. Large fields are easy to throw because there are so few players, and players have leveraged that ease to increase the removal of other players, through easy, fast access to keys. Quantum capsules duping keys, Glyphing with More, and the rapid cooldown, mean that one person can farm as many keys as they want, quickly, allowing a single player to throw field after field after field, making it impossible for other players to play generally. Add in the "small" fielding under field, and people who want to continue to play despite the fields are encouraged to keep themselves small and meek, and just play in a tiny area.

    This all reduces the desire or need to coordinate, to reach out and build a community of support. Reduced cooldowns might only be a small "icing on the cake" to that effect, but it still increases the ability for people to be completely self-reliant and not need community.

    Ingress as a game is not "constantly shifting" except when other players on both sides are involved. As a solo game in an area with no other players, its repetitive and generally boring. You have to actively challenge yourself to do "weird or crazy things" because without other players, the game does not present any challenge.

    I'd have preferred some other changes before they increased the cooldown, and moved it to 180s for all portals but not because the increased cooldown is a bad change, but rather beecause the current breed of players is so indoctrinated that the game should be easy, that there's likly an irrational backlash.

    That part has already been proven true. The change is good, but the timing and the way they implemented it without any explanation is bad.

  • gazzas89gazzas89 ✭✭✭✭✭

    His first point isn't great, I think more likely people will turn their engines off, but thats dependent I suppose, but your reply of "drive to other portals while waiting" is horrible, it will be worse for the use of fossil fuels, it will be a waste of money etc.


    The communities are gone because the game/niantic haven't wanted to work with them to improve, they have done stupid things like this against what the overwhelming majority have wanted for no discernable reason. There is also the argument of larger fields being kept up, bit that was an issue before the hack timer, and more an issue that certain communities worked to keep them up and keep their own team dominant to the detriment of the game. The hacl timer being lower at keast meant gear to fight back, and with under field linking allowed, micro fielding was encouraged with hack timer being shorter. All this change will do is end that gameplay, end the gear balance and make newer players who are used to thos speed of gameplay chuck it.


    Also, theres that stupid idea that the gane being FASTER and MORE DYNAMIC is easier, artificially increasing waiti g time does not make a game harder, it makes it boring, it makes people turn the game off while waiting to do other things, which more than likely will lead to the other things becoming the main thing. This notion that reduced hack time = game easier is just not true, only a small sect of older players think this and have never been able to actually provide a decent argument as to how its easier, its just their narrow minded opinion.


    And finally, this change isn't good, it's bad, that's a fact, it's not an opinion, the amount of negative comments against it the amount t of people cancelling subscription, the amount t of people sayi g they won't play or won't play ad much, proves its bad

  • His first point isn't great, I think more likely people will turn their engines off, but thats dependent I suppose, but your reply of "drive to other portals while waiting" is horrible, it will be worse for the use of fossil fuels, it will be a waste of money etc.

    The concept that someone worried about climate change is already driving from portal to portal is a bigger problem than the cooldown. If people want to reduce greenhouse gasses, buy an electric car, or don't play in a way that requires this. That's why this proposition is an absurdism. The cooldown of a game is not the cause of climate change. The person choosing to do that is.

    This notion that reduced hack time = game easier is just not true

    It's literally true. Because it's a linear increase in speed. Time is the currency of Ingress, and handing a player more time to go to more portals is factually easier (to use your claim that facts can be proved).

    And finally, this change isn't good, it's bad, that's a fact, it's not an opinion, the amount of negative comments against it the amount t of people cancelling subscription, the amount t of people sayi g they won't play or won't play ad much, proves its bad

    If we read the suggestions made by many people here on the forums, the average player is very bad at separating "Make the game easy for me" vs "What is good for the game". The fact that the players are all angry that Niantic made the game less easy for them is not an indication that the change is "factually bad". It's an indication that players want changes to make things easy for themselves, and this isn't one.

    An example of this is the opposition to removing Quantum Capsules. A change that was created because of sponsors wanting an 'overpowered item with our name on it' (every sponsored item), has made the game significantly easier at the cost of undermining the exploration purpose of the game since you can easily duplicate keys. You no longer have to go to the portal to get lots of keys, just get given one and duplicate it forever.

    Another example is people wanting shields to go to 100% mitigation, or increase stickiness, because "Then I can defend better" is a horrible change but it's been a suggestion countless times. Increased defense generally results in static play and runaway leader effects, such as what happened when Aegis were introduced, then Quantums started reproducing them.

    Many players are very bad at realizing the full gamut of effects that a change can or will have. Backlash because they had their easy gravy train taken away is always going to be a massive outcry and dummy spits. It doesn't "prove" that the change is bad.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    I wonder if the change in CD hack time is really good for the game or really good for Niantic because it also allows more opportunity for a player to play the other game, PoGO while waiting for another 300 seconds to hack a portal. Thereby, generating more revenue. What good will come from farming those virtual keys and potential exploration while one's safety is at risk? It does make the game less interesting and less fun. Does anyone want to play the new Kirby game out there? :)

  • BreenzyBreenzy ✭✭✭✭

    When the hack CD was 300 seconds, i never played PoGo. I walked between the portals hacking. I would do a loop that generally took me 10-15 minutes depending on where I was, the cooldown was never even an issue. If I ever got to a point where I was almost done fielding and needed just 1 or 2 more keys, I would use a heatsink, for both the lower wait time, and the instant reset.

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