CAL (Compartmental Access Level) Issue

Background

Last weekend RES put up a BAF over Melbourne Australia. It was around 15-20 layers (sorry forgot to keep count). A few days after the BAF, I drove up north from Melbourne to clear the spine (4+ hours drive each way). Since it was school holidays my wife and on of our children (both lapsed ingress agents) drove up with me.

 I was killing the field inside out grabbing uniques, full deploying and hacking as I went up the spine.

 The southern most spine portal was around 100km drive from the northern spine portal.

 When I attacked the outer most portal (link to portal), I got a CAL error.   It may be worthwhile to note that the second last spine portal was only about 50 meters away and I could attack that no problem.

 

I tried to report the CAL error via support but my in-game support was stuck on a ticket I reported in August about Adventure Sync, which was fixed in a later update. It turns out the ticket was never cleared. I could not figure out how to start a new ticket.

My wife and son were also there. My wife had not played ingress in more than a month. She may have opened the scanner and hacked a portal earlier in the day but that was about it.

When she attacked the CAL restricted portal it was fine. No CAL message. She destroyed the portal and I could then capture the portal without a CAL issue.

Issues

  1.  Why could I attack a portal 50m away from the CAL portal and still get a CAL block?
  2. What does an agent do if they already have an uncleared  ticket (like me) and hit the CAL issue?
  3. Why are old tickets not getting cleared? Is there anything agents can do this clear resolved tickets?
  4. Why do I, who has played almost everyday for the past few months get a CAL block while my wife who has not played for the last few months may except may be an odd hack not get a CAL issue?

Possible Solution

Niantic has a lot of information about me. Recursed twice, 167M lifetime AP, 60 (real) mission days, 42 (real) NL events, 16 anomalies on the ground (excluding BB only anomalies) among others. These stats, should be enough to confirm I am a real agent. The fact that I regularly play all around the world (having completed a MD in each continent) should be obvious if CAL is based on historical agent data.

Even if this was not the case I had been peeling the BAF inside out for a good 15+ layers without a problem. The last portal only ~50 meters away from the second last portal should not be a problem. If I was doing this by myself it would have been a 4+ hour drive (one way) wasted.

This is no more frustrating than driving 4+ hours to put up a field only have it killed by a fake agent. In my experience majority of BAFs were not spoofed down. But from my sample of one, evey/most legitimate attackers are getting hit wit a CAL block.

It seems the CAL approach has just shifted the frustration from builders to attackers. More than that an occasional frustration for builders have turned in to a guaranteed frustration to attackers.

I suggest Niantic establish some sort of hard-to-achieve, secret (if do desired) base line profile (eg. recursed, X in-person events, over a 100M+ AP etc) where the CAL restriction does not apply.  Otherwise you are going to end up with lots of very frustrated agents.

I am happy to provide additional detail if needed.

11
11 votes

Active · Last Updated

Comments

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Bumping this, we have a level 16 Agent running into CAL lock every other Thursday like clockwork. His own long links he throws will CAL lock him out of his portal.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Like clockwork he's CAL locked.

    Bump.

  • This has begun to happen to me as of today. Exactly the same issue. I have been chipping at layers of a huge BAF over Lincoln Nebraska, so I have hit these same portals numerous times. I'm not quite as active as he is but I am still active enough that a CAL block should ever hit me. IGN CableBill13. We have had a few other issues here locally lately and have seen no resolve from NIA. This has caused us (both factions) to loose some of our most tenured agents, as well as stunting the growth of new agents as well. This may be the last straw for me as well. It is more than frustrating to put together a build and, either not be able to start it once you take the time to travel to the portal. Or get progressing with your planned build and have a wrench thrown into it by a CAL block. Especially when, as i thought, this was put in game to protect against spoofing. Maybe have the system look at where and when your prior interaction with a portal was. A quick resolution to this issue would be appreciated.

    I attached shots of the portals I hit today that gave me the error.

    I am playing on a Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Screenshot of my phone info included as well.




  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Bump again, still Bi-weekly CAL locks.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Bump, like clockwork

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Once again, he's locked, and has now submitted his 17th biweekly support request.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Bumping again for the bi-weekly CAL lock for the 18th time in a row for a player with one of the largest square km fields in the world currently.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Guess what time it is, that's right bi-weekly CAL lock


    This makes 19, nine-****-teen times in a row our Agent has been CAL locked.


    @NianticVK seriously, how has this not been flagged yet. We are starting to suspect that our Agents account has been maliciously tampered with by someone on Res with contacts on the inside

  • Thanks for sharing this, @theChandi! I've passed this on to the team to look into it. I'll get back as and when I get an update. Appreciate your patience!

  • Sorry about the delay, @Nysyr! I've shared it with the team. I'll circle back soon.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    zzz he's locked again

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    lol

    lmao


    Yeah he's locked again. 22 times in row.

  • isorhizaisorhiza ✭✭✭

    My wife sometimes suffers from this CAL issue when she is recharging remote portals. The worst issue she experienced was last summer. We travelled to a remote island to help a BAF operation and she could not attack or throw link because of the CAL issue. I want compensation for her travel expenses ;-( After the CAL was introduced, famous spoofers are still active, and many serious players are suffering troubles. Really ridiculous system. NIANTIC should take down the system.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    Agent in question is still receiving bi-weekly CAL locks like his CAL is resetting to zero, and he's unable to recharge his own portals and links.


    @NianticBrian @NianticVK @bobdobbz can someone please take a closer look at his account because this is getting ridiculous. He's had to file over 30 CAL tickets since this started. If someone actually reads this please let me know so I can DM the agents name.

  • NysyrNysyr ✭✭✭✭

    And now your CAL screen is broken.


Sign In or Register to comment.