Aurora Glyph Challenge may be my favorite event yet

vidiconvidicon ✭✭✭✭✭

Like a lot of people I was a bit down on it at first. I was going to do it, because that's what I do, but I expected to curse every minute of it. Much to my surprise, now that I'm almost halfway in, it's actually kind of great. Contrary to the other exploration-based events we've had, this one forces you to slow down, both to take the time to glyph, and to do multiple laps upgrading to get extra points. This is back to what made Ingress so much fun in the first place. Adventures on foot, not racing around trying to hit the hack button as fast as possible.

So thank you, Niantic, for this.

«1

Comments

  • ZennZenn ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    I have also found this challenge to be somewhat of an acquired taste. I enjoy it now more than when I started. Once I got into a groove... Its really begun to grow on me. With or without heatsinks.

  • TheFarixTheFarix ✭✭✭✭✭

    Shocker, I know. People just can't speed through this event, but have to take their time instead, which is why you see so many complaints that a 5 glyph hack count the same as a 1 and 2 glyph hacks.

  • SoylentGrienSoylentGrien ✭✭✭✭✭

    This. I found solo playing to be very inefficient on the first day and managed to get 177 playing pretty much the whole day. Second day I was travelling and didn't have much choice but got another 103. Today was with another player (who kindly gave me a lot of heat sinks) so we could do 1-2-3-4 within a few minutes and got 229 in just a couple of hours. Finished the day with 509.

    This challenge is actually a challenge for a change. Biggest problem is having to recycle so much low level gear! 🤣

  • Yes! This!

    For past challenges I always thought if even I can achieve the highest tier without struggling, the challenge is too easy. I like the fact that I have to put some serious thought and effort into it to get the gold tier. It is supposed to be a challemge after all.

  • TheFarixTheFarix ✭✭✭✭✭

    Challenging? The only challenge I'm finding is just keeping track of which portals I've hacked at which levels. But overall, I'm finding this challenge easier than the last one, just more time consuming. (And there is a greater potential for sunburn. Wear sunblock and protective clothing people!) But I honestly won't be going past "silver" for this event. For one, I still have to do a lot of traveling, and I can't really afford it. And two, I have all the gold badges I need. So this is a purely vanity endeavor and I honestly prefer the blue badge more than the purple.

  • This depends a lot on playstyle. I personally have a lot of other priorities atm, don't live in a city centre (although it's close enough) and don't get much opportunities to get together with my teammates due to work hours. Just drive-by hackings and one afternoon of banner play was all I needed for the myriad challenge.

    Different challenges require different playstyles.

  • Sagitario14Sagitario14 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    I totally agree to find that, but I'm in doubt because I fell in love with the Exo5 Controller.

    It's a event for pedestrian players, not to busgress or cargress. I love It.

    I conquered the Gold one in this morning.

    https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=-8.064091,-34.869616&z=18&pll=-8.063718,-34.871123


  • ZennZenn ✭✭✭✭

    god i hope theres a nemesis fielder badge... and its like 5k for purple.

  • CliffMCliffM ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    They did that for the Exo5 Anomaly, and it was 2000 fields. I would love for them to bring it back.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    Exo5 2k fields was great fun. I likely glyphed less than I have for the current event.

  • I hated every minute of playing for this badge. Now to be clear, I hate glyph hacking in general, but this was even worse.

    When playing Ingress I look more then enough at my phone, I like exploring, discovering new places (not just talking the talk, I've got onx explorer). But now I spent a weekend looking at my phone remembering stupid patterns instead of enjoying new places.

    Getting the 1000 was the worst grind I ever did in Ingress,

  • ZennZenn ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    yeah and A LOT of people were lamenting 2k requirement just like this current aurora challenge. personally i think the third tiers should be serious achievements.

  • CliffMCliffM ✭✭✭✭✭

    Definitely agree. I like these mini challenges, and I want it to be a challenge. I thought the Dark XM link was too easy. The last hack challenge was okay.

  • SoylentGrienSoylentGrien ✭✭✭✭✭

    I suspect they have more or less exhausted the possible challenges with the current metrics. Field Test next month might give some insights into new metrics and new challenges once Redacted is retired.

  • Wilde76AWilde76A ✭✭✭

    I would say EXO was still my favorite event badge, but I do really appreciate these event badges, keep em rolling! Thanks it's nice to break from the routine play to hit the game from a new angle.

  • KatthKatth ✭✭✭

    The challenge isn't bad and to get to 1k you actually have to invest quite some time into it. The one thing that annoys me so bad is that I have to recycle so many items and it feels unnatural to do so. This weekend I did over 500 unique glyph points and most of them on blue P8 portals. Sad thing is that most other people close also farmed those P8's and didn't need the gear. I've recycled over 500 X8 and probably about the same or even more R8 🙈

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    well it looks globally we will fail this bigtime.. we will as it looks top 26m or so vs the aimed goal of 36m :(

  • KatthKatth ✭✭✭

    Nobody needs the bonus anyway. If you glyph hack you get more than enough items. An increase of 33% output just means more recycling.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    I fail too see how u can see that getting 33% less is a good thing ? if u live in a big farm with plenty of p8 maybe u wont notice, but we others? we would gladly want to win globally to enjoy more output from hacking.

  • thesolothesolo ✭✭✭✭✭

    The challenge, to me, only worked well in times when I was able to find a mass of gray or opposite-faction portals and work them until exhaustion.

    There's no indication in scanner or on intel of which portals you glyphed or at what level, so you had to mentally keep track. If someone from the opposite faction killed the area while you were still working on it, you had to remember the level you were at and rebuild from there. It also messes up your teammates if you've already been to a place and made the portals level 3, 4, or 5, because now instead of getting 3 points per portal, they can only get up to 2 (assuming you made the portals high enough that they can bump to a 6; otherwise they can only get 1 point). And the mod slots quickly get filled up from people wanting to put down heatsinks.

    All of the mental gymnastics and the need to stop, glyph, slowly upgrade to ensure you don't go over L2,, glyph again, etc., is the exact opposite of the kind of movement I like in my gameplay. I traveled to different places for the number of portals, sure, but I had to dramatically slow my gameplay and my walking pace to meet the challenge requirements, which is not something I personally enjoy. I want Ingress to move quickly, and I physically want to move quickly while I play.

    Also, the "poisoning" of a portal once it's been hacked incorrectly is, in my opinion, needlessly cruel to people who have fine motor function issues or are just generally bad at glyphing.

    I think the spirit of the challenge was in the right place, but I think a few common sense changes to the rules or some form of indication would help it along dramatically.

    (Oh, and I found heatsink output dramatically down; I hacked dozens of VR items over the course of 1000+ successful glyphs, but a total of 9 heatsinks across all rarities.)

  • pitareiopitareio ✭✭✭

    I do like glyph hacking (7 times onyx translator) but I felt a bit the same. No previous event had me reach that level of "phone zombie" mode, rarely ever looking up, except maybe for crossing streets.

  • FYI it's been proven on reddit be it a bug or just a mistake describing event you can still retry and get the point after failing. Try it. Check your points. Fail. Drop Heatsink. Pass it. Watch your points increased by 1.

  • thesolothesolo ✭✭✭✭✭

    Good to know! I finished, but I'll relay to my teammates. 👍️

  • I did the first level. Hated it. In a town with about 350-400 portals it was going to come down to paperwork and how well I recorded which portals I'd been to before and which I hadn't. And repeating 2 more times. I did small clusters at a time and looped back around and upgraded.... But meh. I have better things to do with my time than track where I've been. Glyphs are great, but tracking my travels was the downside

  • AzhreiaAzhreia ✭✭✭✭✭

    Done and dusted. 1000 reached last night.

    And no, @SoylentGrien , they won't fudge the numbers. If we fail this challenge, we'll suffer the hack deficit

Sign In or Register to comment.