Ingress seasons

KonnTowerKonnTower ✭✭✭✭✭

Breaking this out from a previous idea thread, would be interesting to see something like this implemented to keep things fresh:


(CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS AHEAD): Ingress seasons

Instead of new player focus, instead engage stagnant agents with Ingress seasons instead of using years as the metric. Season 1, season 2, season 3, etc. Take a look at League of Legends or any competitive ranked PvP video game for examples. E-Sports has a pretty solid way of keeping players engaged, Niantic just isn't doing it quite right.

At the beginning of each season, all agents' get reset to level 1 and no stat medals, forcing some level of regular play to climb back through levels and obtain bronze/silver/gold/onyx action badges for the season(no, each season badge/AP requirements wouldn't be the same as today's long AP/badge grind, it would be balanced out). You can still have all-time badges/levels to track, but these would be secondary and not directly visible in the main page of a player's in-game card.

Season anomalies - There are different tiers of event participation(badges):

Bronze = global objective participation.

Silver = remote recharge rooms/cell-scoring participation.

Gold = in-person participation.

Bonus onyx/recursion style flair borders for any of the bronze/silver/gold medals you earn = Your faction won the anomaly event overall.

GORUCK: Offer cash prizes for teams/individuals competing in GORUCK and provide an additional medal border for their efforts. Use GORUCK as your E-Sports videos on-site at anomalies, defeating physical challenges to provide their digital teammates with bonus intel/benefits. You might be able to rope the fitness crowd into the game by doing this? I believe this was explored as an option during the Osiris series, but we should really be putting anomalies on twitch and other streaming/video platforms to drive social media. Niantic should host both factions in a facility and show both the faction planning/op rooms in a "mission command" type backdrop.

Higher levels of anomaly participation such as recharge/in-person should require an agent acquires both a certain number of season action badges AND/OR (open to debate) a certain number of attended player-based or Niantic-based community events (either in-person or remote) during the season. This would allow a sort of social currency to be developed and constantly replenished. Players hosting successful events regularly should then be rewarded by Niantic when it comes to titles like Vanguard, XM Ambassadors, faction point-of-contacts, free CORE subscriptions, etc. and be given additional consideration/fast-traacking for support tickets related to community problems. This would also help to build a sort of social scoring into each player's personal profile which could be utilized as a sort of vouch system, helping combat spoofing and other sorts of bad actors we all deal with.


Going back to talking strictly about agent stats, I would want to see player cards change in-game. Players could still have some tracking of all-time stats on their own and we would keep an all-time level and recursion status pegged to the existing 40mil AP standard, but agent effort viewed in player profile badges in the game should primarily reflect recent actions, not a blanket all-time tracker. There are quite a few agents out there who max out and then "rest on their laurels", sitting by the fireside controlling chats and talking about how good it was back in the day. When I click on a player card, I want to see this:

Top of agent card: Name, current level, and a small section where they pick a few badges/achievements to feature that are their favorites. Good place for bragging.

Section 1: show the last 3 seasons' worth of medals (bronze/silver/gold/onyx), max level obtained in the seasons, and each season's AP. I should quickly be able to figure out how active a player has been, what stats they get the most of, and if they have gaps in their play history (last 3 seasons). Provide a "see more" button to lookup a player which opens a web link to their profile, which has additional stats for all seasons, all-time stats, more in-depth loadout of stats (maybe like agent-stats?). Let people compare themselves to other players in graphs and standard distribution charts but don't bother putting all this into the game client. This top section would mean you could eliminate or hide the mess of stat tracking at the bottom of our profiles, or maybe make it a separate screen/web only. Maybe lock the advanced statistics tracking lookups to core subscribers only? (Let them pay for the extra database queries!)

Section 2: Bona-fides: Chronological badges of anomaly events followed by chronological badges of special events. Additionally, we should put FS/SS event participation in here in a meaningful way.

Section 3: Bio-card badges: Make it so every bio card is collectable, not retired. Make it so only certain bio cards are available for purchase during certain times of the year, and/or after someone has completed a significant milestone in their player development(all-time badges). It should be financially and logistically tenable for new players to obtain all bio cards in 3 years worth of time-in-grade, without forcing them to shovel out an exorbitant amount of cash. If you want, maybe make it so players who bought older/multiple bio cards of each character could choose which one to display as their primary when their player card is seen by others. Take a look at how League of Legends has playable characters, but each character has customizable skins that look different that players can pick.

Section 4: non-bio card badges: Holidays, fun badges, silly badges, etc.

Section 5: Mission badges

Comments

  • PkmnTrainerJPkmnTrainerJ ✭✭✭✭✭

    We already have Seasons (such as now being the season of Echo) and it could have bonuses in each season.

    Say, more likely to hack Heat Sinks or something this season or reduced distance on all KCaps.

    I’d like to see them lean in to that aspect but with a really blank events sheet the last few months I’m not sure they will.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    Agent logs in and see's they've been reset to Level 1 after they've been on the path to L16. They get p1ssed off, uninstall and never look back. That idea would only work if agents were given the choice to opt in. Even so, you opt in and the other faction doesn't...or your faction doesn't but you do, everything is solid your faction's color, so you can't level back up.


    Seasons might of been a fun thing back in 2013 to maybe 2018/2019. Now? It would reflect the same thing that the current mu leaderboard shows. The same few active agents.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    Also, you are requesting quite a bit of development for the game, when we have issues that haven't been resolved since redacted left, or even the ongoing 3+ years of laggg. I wouldn't want to try to do anything semi competitively with that laggg that we still have.

  • KonnTowerKonnTower ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think it's reasonable for a long term goal though.

  • IcyBlueHeartIcyBlueHeart ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2023

    Yes it does, some of us still enjoy the game, changes and all. It's a mixed bag for all of us, hate the increase in hack times, love the loss of key duplication, hate fielding under fields or any other combination of how the game changes impact you. If it leaves any player not liking the game any longer, that's sad, I encourage them to find an alternative that does please them. But the Ingress is going to die because it's no longer fun for me, the game should be shut down because I'm not having fun, and the game is over in general posts and threads are tedious at best. I think for any player, if it's over for you, bow out with dignity and perhaps a goodbye post. We will post comments about missing you, and then go back to having fun.

    Post edited by IcyBlueHeart on
  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    You're suggesting nothing new should be added because of supposed lag (which I'm rarely seeing bit but I still believe this could be location dependent)? That's a bit much.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    No, I suggested that they fix the main issues first, then add on new stuff. It's what most companies do with their software. Fix the big bugs, then work on new stuff. If your big bugs is what is causing problems, like lack of new users, lack of maintaining current users, or lesser sales, then you fix the big stuff first, then add in new features after the other stuff is fixed.

    I see lagg almost every time I'm out playing. Fully deploy a few portals, then it hangs when trying to deploy the next. Or it hangs when you are trying to glyph for keys. Other local agents often complain about it in our local chats. It's still happening.

    Peeking at your stats, your monthly stats are less than what I do in a week and I often feel like I've been lazy playing lately.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    You're in St Louis with a much different density of portals. My downtown area is perhaps a max of 200 portals before venturing to different areas and beaches along the coast. We have discussed this before.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have to drive 20 minutes to get to any large amounts of portals. Next excuse please!

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    and yet you spend the time to look at people's stats, you're slacking

  • GrogyanGrogyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm gonna make some unhappy about this.


    Seasons will not work for suburban and rural players, due to the shear lack of wayspots they can reasonably interact with in a short time frame

    We have "seasons" for Go Ruck and Anomalies, I do not see any changes happening to this.


    As for biocards as a collectable thing, they are still the same collectable thing as they were. The digital version of these were likely enable players to effectively collect and trade. However, Trading Post is closing down.

  • KonnTowerKonnTower ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2023

    I believe you could do this and scale the requirements per season down so it's reasonable. We're not talking about making every season 40m AP and the existing tier level requirements.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2023

    Yupppers, that 30 seconds to look at someone else's stats really takes away from the Ingress time...


    But sooo many grey portals in Downton Sarasota, FL. It's time to MOVE agent!

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    Threat assessment is important. Any new player in your box gets looked at to see how big a threat they are.

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