[Idea] Intel Performance Tweak - Provide a static PoGo map
In discussions on the Intel map and performance, it was pointed out that Intel gets a lot of use from PoGo players with no interest in Ingress. There are even IITC plugins that completely wipe all Ingress information from the map and simply display the portals and their PoGo relevant information.
Since the map is available, but whenever a PoGo player loads it, they load all the Ingress information through the cache, there's a simple way to reduce the load on Intel, while also reducing the amount of contention for Ingress data.
Idea: Provide a static map that shows all POIs, with indicators for what each POI is represented as in each game.
That way, PoGo can see where all their Pokestops are, where the other POIs in those cells are, and everything they need to do to add more stops. HP:WU players can see where their Greenhouses, Inns and Fortresses etc are.
This map would be sourced from the POI database, not the Ingress active game data, and therefore would never need to force lock contention on the game. Since the map would be static, you wouldn't need to have PoGo gym ownership shown either, or whatever HPWU state is.
Yes, this would "reveal" all the locations of POIs to some nefarious third party, but Intel already does that.
But it would help lower Intel load, raise Ingress performance, and stop the Ingress team having to pay for PoGo users hitting their data.
@NianticBrian @NianticOfer @NianticCasey is this something that the PoGo team could implement so Ingress doesn't have to pay for it?
Comments
Providing a full separated map might not be what they have in mind, but if there was a way to request only the static data that would be great, instead of computing all the links, fields covering a region as well as the status of all the portals, return only the static data about the portals from a server with a long cache.
If that option was available then it would be possible to modify the Pogo plugin to act that way and all that people will stop being an issue for the performance.
That wouldn't move the cost away from Ingress and onto PoGo though.
Step 1. Modify the backend to provide this static map option in Intel. Goal: start cutting costs quickly. Hopefully short time development that
Step 2. Long plan. Meanwhile, start developing the Wayfarer map (yeah, the Wayfarer site would seem the better fit), take the lessons learned from Intel all along and provide it when it's ready, hopefully the static setting provided in step 1 helps to the Intel performance and cost while the whole new map is developed.
It's just up to them how they want to set the costs of the development. Surely they have statistics tracking the usage along the time, and it can be compared with Pokemon and Wayfarer events to try to match and check if there's any relationship and assert who should pay what.
Step 1 would take more effort than Step 2.
The POI map would literally be a simple view of a Map, with points on it that have meta data for what they are in each game. The development work would actually be trival.
I hope Niantic ban agents if they use the plugin. @NianticBrian
They could give 'credits' that allow access to the intel map/dashboard from in-game actions (linking/fielding).
Well, I don't know which of the 2 options would require more effort, I think that step 1 is simpler and that's why I'm suggesting it as a band aid to get something out "quickly" and with a long time goal of providing the map that should have existed in Wayfarer from the start.
If they think that this requires too much effort so it doesn't benefit them they will obviously ignore this suggestion, it's just that: a suggestion to try to get a quick patch that can help with the performance of Intel until a better solution is rolled out.
This is a cool idea, but when we complete the server move to the new environment, we'll be reducing Intels servers from hundreds down to about five. We're currently waiting on some game server infrastructure upgrades to enable this, but those should be rolling out shortly. As far as performance, we've already made a few changes which have improved performance for Intel (and backported those to the old server too) so it should be running faster now (as compared with October-ish) but we still have a few more performance tweaks to make once we switch to the new server environment. Not sure about how much faster it will get until I have a chance to measure it, but it should be faster.
They have this already. It's called the Mission Creator Tool.
Which again, is a tool that Ingress pays for.
And no, they don't have it, because the Mission Creator Tool does not tell Pokemon Go players where Gyms and Pokestops are.
Assuming that 5 can handle the same load, do you have any awareness of how much of that is from things like the PoGo bots that scan the map for new places etc?
Also, that's a pretty good job consolidating performance!
How about creating intel subsites ? I am neither a web page designer nor a developer and maybe subsites are not the correct term.
What i mean is something like
Intel.ingress.com/pogo ( the static view @Perringaiden suggests )
Or
Intel.ingress.com/intel/emea
Or /latam
Or /apac
Regional sub domains in order to balance the load and request less data each time a user visits the page. The original global view doesnt need to be removed of course but can be asked on demand.
Or the default landing page to be your current cell through gps findings and then to have a drop down menu to regions for users to select.This also may help quantification of requests per region
Sorry if the terminology is not correct. The main idea remains the same .
I cannot predict the cost of this subsites/subdomains
or
if the asset of a static pogo map offering can be a revenue for ingress originating from PoGo business entity of Niantic.
Thanks
@NianticOfer
I don't know that regional subsites for Ingress wouldn't create more load, because we create fields that span the entire globe. Fields from Hawaii to Denver and down to Ensenada would be part of APAC, North America, and Latin America. Either there'd be duplication of caching (depending on what one you started) or limitations on display.
I'm probably what they'd class as a "power user" but my view of the map is rarely limited just to where I am.
In real life terms how many users of the intel map actually are power users like you or actually interested in areas or fields thousands of miles away from their city cell or country?
20% 30 % or more?
As i see it if the majority are not power users they stress the system with useless data for them.
For sure if the user can "default" his landing page where he likes or needs it might de-stress infrastucture.Maybe i am wrong . If a PoGo trainer wants just to see the static view you are suggesting, and i agree, he can default it there. Also less data hungry session .
If there is a global event shards - like intel users will be able to change their default adjust their view accordingly
Just for comparison i play Ingress in Athens ,Greece 😀 A small country only in terms of size and population compared to US or UK or other european countries.
I suspect that The Pokémon Company doesn't allow Niantic to make a POI map for PoGO.
Do you have any source for that? The last I heard was that Niantic decided not to have a Pokestop map to save money, before it was a big hit, and they've never revisited that decision. Which is what this post is asking them to do, since it's Ingress paying the bill.
Hey @ofer2 @NianticCasey
Are any of our suggestions techically possible to be implemented? It would be good to know 😀
Renamed to @ofer2 again.
Thanks @Perringaiden There was no way for me to know.
Pretty much anything is technically possible. There doesnt really seem to be a need though. Once we switch to the new servers, as I said previously, the costs of the Intel servers should decrease drastically. Or was there a more specific thing you were asking about?
Cost was the original reason for the idea, but adding information regarding which portals are also Pokestops and Gyms (and WU stuff) would be one of those "nice to haves" for the other two games, if they're not getting their own map.
Simply being able to see where there are different Gyms would be a boon. Even more so, if it had things like Raid timers visible.
Thank you @ofer2 . I am happy that you answered and reviewed our suggestions. It is good to know that Niantic personnel read the forums ,pays attention to the agents suggesting things or spotting issues and bugs.
Should we await for an official announcement about any schedule (roadmap) about migration to the new servers ?