Extendiality

Those of you playing Ingress game probably want to build a better strategy, while attacking bunch of enemy portals, don’t you?

There is a special web tool, which makes it quite easy to plan future attacks and simulate the results of using XMPs. It is called IPAS – Ingress Portal Attack Simulator and is totally web-based application.

There are huge customization options. You can set each individual resonator, place its location around the portal, put shields, if any. Then choose XMP, place “yourself” in the field and fire!

The result will be calculated for both Portal Health and Resonator percentage. Multiple formulas can be used for the result, though I am not sure, which one is the most realistic.

Another interesting feature is the heatmap for the chosen XMP. It shows the damage area and colors it according to the radius around your firing position.

The only thing this application lacks, IMHO, is the calculation of player’s XM energy level. As you know, firing XMPs costs you XM and the higher XMPs the more energy it consumes. This can be critical in the field.

But it is already a valuable tool for every serious player, whether you are Enlightened or from the Resistance.

Another Ingress Hangout with Niantic employees has occurred recently. As you remember, the previous one revealed many interesting facts about the game and its future development.

This one is no difference, check out some of the most interesting points.

• Ambitious plan to have 1 billion gamers. Way too much, I think 🙂
• Social networks are closely monitored for valuable ideas. Keep posting with corresponding hashtags.
• IITC related AP discrimination does not exist. But Niantic still discourages users from TOS violations.
• API is on its way. It will have option to create custom missions (eagerly waiting for this).
• Balancing is still being calibrated to ensure that game stays exciting for both factions in all areas.
• No iOS at the moment, will take quite some time.
• Local MU score is on its way. There is really no need for global as no one cares.
• Niantic considers some role-play options for the Ingress. Different roles, which can include fighters, defenders, farmers etc. My thought — this should be changeable after some period of time or anytime.
• Idea of exchanging items is also quite strong. Probably, via NFC or some other way?
• NFC based missions — link players for some period of time to collaborate.
• Niantic is not really Google. They work independently, using Google’s resources and support.
• NIA is an actual US agency and government was questioning Niantic on “what the hell you’re doing there??” 🙂

Just to remind that there should be extra invites available for L2+ users and current waiting time for email invite is around 3 weeks.

Here is English field report from Ingress Resistance team in Belarus, regarding that huge blue cover last week.

Report can be read here.

Well done! Good example of brilliant cooperation and dedication to the game. As far as I can see, people really planned it and travelled to exchange keys etc, so if you accuse them in cheating, please provide some evidence.

Another remarkable Ingress achievement. This time Resistance team captured a huge territory in Northern Europe.

As you can see, half of the Baltic sea, countries of Estonia and Latvia, half of Lithuania and Belarus, huge part of Russia — all covered with blue.

This happened in just a couple of hours and means either remarkable example of international cooperation or tremendous cheating activity. Yes, unfortunately, we cannot eliminate this possibility.

Would be nice to read field report, describing this game episode and its tactics.

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Update: Operation codename: Baltic Fog. True, Ingress app in those areas should look very “foggy”.

And yes, looks like all legit: carefully planned, no cheating evidence. ~10.3 million MU in total. Whoah!

Update 2: Some reports show that at least Lithuanian part of the field could be cheated.

Update 3: Roberts Romanovskis from Resistance Latvia team shared some info on how operation was planned. People were really travelling between countries — Russian girl visited Belarus and Latvia, Latvian team member in turn went to Estonia and passed keys other keys to Swedish players via Tallinn.

“Planning was 6 days. 6 days was undergoing preparations, key transportation, disturbing link destruction, deception site link building. From the beginning it seemed that 6 days is not possible, but when went to work and saw that the people came forward with their own ideas and solutions.

It became clear that the ideas on behalf of all the possible and feasible.

 It became clear that the ideas on behalf of all the possible and feasible. I am one of many who were invited to participate in the event.

Thanks to all involved! We did it! I am 100% percent I can say that Latvians play fair, as well as Estonians, as well as the Belarusian, Russian. Most were coordinated by direct agents of the Belarusian and Estonian and Russian friends.

Our Latvian agent was in Estonia to help build the site. Helping to Latvia, the girl had come from Russia, Moscow, after having special traveled to Minsk. Was thought to also send agents to Kaunas, but had transportation problems. Involved in more than 35 people, it’s a lot and hard work. Coordinate, transported to think about backup options, if that can fail.

But we managed.

I can tell you, that in Liepaja began to panic as half an hour before link could not understand that the key to Sweden was trapped in the right, no communication with the Swedes. A huge surprise to us was that the Swedes were at midnight in our portal. Certainly keys were mixed, but they managed.

Stress was huge.”

 

As you have probably already heard, Ingress Intel Total Conversion script development has been shut down as it violated Google TOS.

Amazing. I would hire that guy (Stefan Breunig) to Niantic Labs straight away, but they forced him to shut the project down? The plugin, which was extremely popular and far more advanced than the original map.

But good news is that project is still alive! It is now in open source phase and latest updates can be found here.

 

Of course, Niantic can think of something else to block the data flow, though this can be difficult as plugin works on the client side and just transforms information in a different way. In other words, data for all these awesome features is already coming from Niantic servers, but is not implemented in the original Intel map yet.

Probably, Google just wants to slowly roll these features out, but it is still not an excuse to ignore and bull the creator of such a useful plugin. I believe, this contradicts with Google’s promotion of open-source and transparency (take Android system, for example).

Fouth post concluding your suggestions of how to make Ingress better. Got some interesting feedback to share. Previous are here, here and here.

 

9) Ingress mobile app

 

• Come on! It is so awkward, everything is messed up. Thanks God, we have at least a basic filter, but this is clearly not enough. Here are some ideas:
• Portal keys should be filtered by Own faction / Enemy Faction / Neutral. Passkeys are used to recharge and link, I do not care about those which do not belong to me at the moment. I am just wasting my time going into it and checking, whether I am able to recharge or not.
• Portal keys should have indication of portal level charge. Again, I want to pick up those, which really need my precious XM, right? 🙂
• You should be able to trade not needed Resonators and XMPs for the ones you need between own faction’s members or/and with system. Exchange rates can be established, for example, 5 * XMP L1 for 1 * XMP L2. Exchange can be done in person via NFC chipsets (many smartphones already have it). This ensures that game’s “socializing aspect” is still kept. Also, this became important when the 2000 limitation was introduced.
• Auto-hack. This is a bit contradictory as makes Agents’ life easier. But logic is simple: many people hack nearby portals while driving and trying to do it at the same time could lead to car accidents. Yes, their own fault, but I still hope Google introduces this feature.

 

10) Notifications

 

Suggestions include:

• Notification of the attack. Currently, notification is sent only if resonator is already dead. Something like “Hello, your entity is destroyed, enjoy your meal!”. While you still can try to switch on Ingress and recharge left resonators, in most cases, it is already useless.. So, there should be an option to request notification every time there is an XMP blast around.
• Sound / vibration notifications for COMM chat. Some users find it useful, why not?
•  Widgets for mobile desktop. These can include current XM level, AP, MU controlled in given area, etc. Can be an issue with server load, but anyway worth mentioning.

 

To be continued…