Three years on from Portal Scans coming in to the game, do you do any Scans?

PkmnTrainerJPkmnTrainerJ ✭✭✭✭✭

Niantic are pushing Scans in their titles to build a 3D VPS map of Wayspots and trying to tighten things up a bit by not allowing those who contributed “bad” scans to get rewards from it (at least in the other game)

We are also seeing how they want to use it in Ingress.

It’s no Scanner Crates but it seems like it may be a nice extra thing. Do you do any Scans at all, do you not bother? Will the new feature, or a different feature, encourage you to scan more or start scanning?

Comments

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    still waiting on the technology to be shown

  • GrogyanGrogyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    I regularly incorporate wayspot scanning when I am out playing.


    I certainly don't go scanning every single wayspot.


    What I do if I know I am not in my general play area, such as travelling down country, is scan before I leave, and scan something when I arrive. If nothing else it is my 2FLA.

  • GrogyanGrogyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Classic Chicken and egg problem.


    Can't be shown something if the thing hasn't had enough scans.

    Maybe like yourself, leaving the scanning work to others so that when the tech arrives, can make a judgement call if you want to participate or not with scanning.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's quite an assumption as I have done scans. It's been 3 years. Let's see how this technology looks.

  • KarM3LKarM3L ✭✭✭✭

    Lost interest when uploads failed, few months back, time to start scanning again...


  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    There are more fun things to do scanning isnt one of them, i have yet to see how ingress will benefit from all this data, is more to use it for niantics future games and apps

  • liyu1liyu1 ✭✭✭

    first only to have the badges. and then only to trigger battle beacons for anomaly badges. So now not 😂

    But there are players who scan the same portal(s) (and not even wp or hp) over and over again even when already having the scan badge on onyx (and probably double or more onyx 🙈). i dont get this 🤷

  • KhatreKhatre ✭✭✭✭✭

    new feature is useless and waste of time if it does the same than normal glyphs .

    i'll continue to scan until i got controller medals with wings 🤣

  • starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

    I scan if I happen to be out in a place with new-to-me portals with sufficient time to spare (which is not that often). However, last time I tried that it didn't work at all so it seems the system is unreliable. Since then the crash-on-meshing bug seems to have been fixed (it made me download a new copy of Niantic Lightship AR), but when I tried a scan just now the first one failed with no meshes or hexagons whatsoever; I restarted the app and then it worked. Maybe a restart is what I needed in December and I just didn't think of it.

    There are also a fair number of portals around here that I haven't scanned, but again I'm waiting for (a) the weather to improve and (b) me to actually have time to do it. Also there is the issue of many of these points of interest being surrounded by people, and I don't really want to film the people or get into an argument about why I am filming stuff (already had that two or three times - one of them called the police or at least pretended to do so given that I never saw an actual police officer).

    The new Overclock feature isn't going to make a difference to whether I scan or not (and neither do the automatic BBs and Frackers).

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've got something like 6,000 scans in at this point. I used to be meticulous with them, excited about the hype Brian was building around the technology, but going on three years (something I mentioned in a post elsewhere in the forums recently), I have little interest in anything besides working on my scout controller medal when it's convenient. Sidewalks and roadways are all Niantic gets at this point. I remember, in the early days, scanning statues and historic buildings, hoping to provide tens of scans that could be turned into something pretty cool. But, burned out and kinda over chasing a carrot at this point. If the stuff ever makes it to Ingress and I still play the game, maybe I'll revisit scanning with purpose, but for now, gonna need more than a once a year update....

  • joecainjoecain ✭✭✭✭✭

    I will continue to have 0 portal scans and will not consider it *until* the overclock feature is released *and* it offers some hack advantages over regular/glyph hacking.

    Until then I refuse to work for free for niantic to build out their lightship network for their other games, and I urge other agents to consider doing the same.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭

    I have done portal scans before but won't do it now because I don't want to work for Niantic pro bono. Doing portal scans requires time, money, and resources. Would rather do something else productive.

  • KhatreKhatre ✭✭✭✭✭

    so you also don't nominate POI nor do wayfarer reviews ?

    everything you do in ingress is free labor for their mapping 😅

  • AkakunAkakun ✭✭✭

    I scanned a pigeon on a low-quality pokestop from pogo. They rejected my report despite being against TOS (pokestop is basically a fish stand from a supermarket), so I gave them a low-quality scan instead. Plus, I got a Poffin in exchange. And after seeing what they're going to do with remote passes i'm not willing to do more free labor for them.


    As for Ingress, I think the most of my scans were for triggering BB from the last anomaly. But hey, those were legit at least.

  • joecainjoecain ✭✭✭✭✭

    Portal nominations and reviews have a direct benefit to ingress and ingress agents, in the form of new portals to explore and visit. Same goes for missions.

    Until proven otherwise (in the form of an actual shipped/released/usable feature), portal scanning is sending data one-way out of ingress to niantic's other properties.

    Please prove otherwise if you disagree.

  • Otrera35Otrera35 ✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2023

    I don't nominate POI or do wayfarer reviews. I have a life outside this game. Besides, people who do pro bono work for Niantic are probably either the following: (1) retired; and/or (2) unemployed.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    I dont see how scans will add anything in terms of gameplay ? AR ? just huge battery drain nothing else

  • HAHAYIKESHAHAYIKES ✭✭✭

    I usually just scan the ground. I feel really weird walking around any area recording a video while people are also there walking around.

  • FargrimFargrim ✭✭
    edited April 2023

    I’ve just returned to the game and I have been doing scans on portals near me when convenient. I wanted to try a new way of interacting with this game because it has mostly remained static since release 10 years ago.

    I honestly don’t see why we can’t get some CMU for submitting these. Like many have said, we are doing pro bono work for Niantic. PoGo players get premium currency just for engaging in the Gym mechanic. I think we are way past due throwing a bone to Ingress agents in the form of CMU for engaging with new systems that reward going to places on foot and one that provides VALUABLE data to Niantic.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    I do the minimum amount of scans I have to.

    Why?

    Because I like playing and often need to play on low signal portals. Having to upload/download a large point cloud for a low signal portal is something I never want to have to deal with when every byte is hard to come by. We already take a lot of steps to mitigate data usage on these and now Niantic appear to want us all to have fast data connections. Just no.

  • I scan and I don't really get the negativity around it as "free work" since literally all your gameplay generates free information about where you go.

    I'd scan more competitively if the scout controller was guaranteed a key from hacks of that portal.

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    You don't get it? Everything else in the game brings something to the game. Nominate a portal, you get a new portal in the game. Review portals, you help others bring new portals into the game.

    Scan a portal.....oh, wait, that gets you nothing. This was added three years ago. They've been dangling a carrot in front of us for three years and there is absolutely nothing in the game, as of yet. There isn't even a promise to add something. We could be doing these scans and we never even get the courtesy of seeing it in use, unless you download their latest toy in the form of some game that is nothing like Ingress. Everything else in the game "gets you something." Scanning, nothing.

  • IPXMIPXM ✭✭

    Portal scans have been nothing short of Niantic wanting the players to do more work for them in exchange for a stupid badge. I tried one, got rejected and realized how stupid it is to waste time on. Niantic gaslights ingress players to make us work for them while also paying them for the extra "privileges". I MIGHT consider scanning if it resulted in something like earning more CMU to spend in their store.

  • joecainjoecain ✭✭✭✭✭
  • Neku69Neku69 ✭✭✭✭

    I slowed it down since it burnt my phone's motherboard xD

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