Ingress

Making Ingress Better – Part 1

There are already Part 2 and Part 3 available as well.

So, folks, Ingress is already 2.5 month old (still in beta!). After playing a while I can already point out some things, which I, as a player, would be glad to see fixed or enhanced.

I am pretty sure that many of these will find their solution as the game evolves, but nevertheless..

Let’s start with the basics.

 

1) And here is the first catch — Ingress is… pointless at this stage.

 

Please hold on and don’t shoot me with a fire hose!

Yes, currently there are not many people with Level 8 and there is something to fight for. But what’s next? Perfect illustration of the game process is this one 🙂 You can find animated gif here

Ingress Blue Green

In my opinion, some kind of team achievements should be introduced. Game goal is to capture more Mind Units than opposing team. So, big fields should be awarded with much more “team points” than small ones.

Next, there can be some kind of recognition for keeping fields and portals in your team’s hands. For example, “defended portal for 7 days = team gets XXX points + extra points for those, who helped to recharge that portal, upgraded resonators etc.”  Or, “kept field with XXX MU alive for 7 days = teams gets XXX points etc.”

Isn’t it logical? Otherwise, I believe, most players will simply be bored as soon as they reach Level 7 or 8. At the same time, new will come and as Google needs GPS tracking data, then it does not matter, whether players are veterans or newbies.

 

2) Cheating.

 

Ingress Cheater

Ok, I know it is eternal problem with almost any game. Still all these GPS spoofing bastards and account sharing players should be reported and banned quickly and with no mercy. New methods for discovering them should be implemented.

Methods should be strict, because many people will quit playing, as they do not want to spend their time and money (check Ingress costs!) competing with those sitting in front of the computers and getting 200 000 AP in one hour.

What do you think? Share in comments!

To be continued…


Ingress: Whole London Is Green


Another remarkable Ingress achievement, this time by Enlightened team.

They managed to cover the whole London! And London is actually a major European city, so covering it with a green field can be a bit of discouraging for Resistance.

No one is able to make any links now inside this field (except those from the corners to the inside portals), till it is crushed or decayed, but anyway, good coordination and big symbolic meaning.

Ingress London

Ingress Field In Central Russia


This is massive thing in the Ingress game world — huge Resistance field in the middle of Russia. Seems, this field is the main reason for astonishing Blue domination. It is 79% at the moment.

If it was created without cheating, then these guys really rock. Good example of how things should be done in Ingress.

Ingress Russia

Ingress Demographic Survey

Ingress Demographic Survey

Ingress game becomes more and more popular. For some weird reason it is still beta (for more than 2 month now), but it is not very hard to get an activation key if you really want it. Try to submit more than one email on Ingress website and cooperate with your friends if anyone receives more than one.

There are numerous Google+ and Facebook communities, IRC chats and so on, where codes pop up form time to time. Usually, you are required to solve some kind of puzzle and sometimes they are very easy. Also, artworks can bring attention and one of Niantic folks can send you access.

And still number of players is already high enough to perform a distributed survey and here are results for 1,572 people. For example, check these ones, which look quite interesting:

  • 88% have seen places they wouldn’t have seen otherwise
  • 74% of people had met fellow players in real life
  • 29% made new friends
  • 74% have driven their cars (not very environmentally friendly game 🙂 )
  • 2% conducted air travel (!!)
  • 5% cheated in one or another way
  • 46% used spare battery. Continuous 3G + GPS + screen on = battery drains faster than Superman flies.
  • 16% bought a new device to play. Yes, game can be played on older devices, but often lags.

Full survey can be read here – The Demographics of Ingress. Plenty of data, but charts are easy to understand. There is a link to the raw dataset to make own graphs and charts as well.

Wondering, if there is an iPhone version planned anytime in the future? I’ve heard that many happy Apple fans are not so happy anymore, as world goes crazy and they simply cannot.

Ingress Iphone

Time to grab an Android smartphone and choose your side wisely. Enlightened or Resistance?

HackIngress – New Ingress Intel Map?

HackIngress – New Ingress Intel Map?

Update 03/06/13: As HackIngress is not live yet, try Ingress Total Conversion script. It has many useful functions that turn original Intel map to a superweapon.

 

Ingress gamers have probably noticed that there is a mysterious website appeared – HackIngress. It has a countdown message probably just to boil the expectations 🙂 6 days is left for something.. BIG? There is a commented CSS code on this page which gives some clue:

I have bypassed the Niantic Mainframe and have begun a subnet for much improved OPS. As I am ambivalent toward any faction, these tools will help all agents in reverse-engineering these shaper technologies. The NIA will invariably try to shut this down, but I have established numerous exit and entrance nodes within a private TOR in the background. NGOs will not shut me down. Stand by for further instructions and more information.

And then it was updated by:

My identity is compromised, but it is inconsequential. Who I am is irrelevant; the cause will proceed as planned. Niantic withholds, from both factions, the necessary tools to reveal the shaper purpose. Agents need better methods and utilities to accelerate our understanding of their intent and purpose. There will be no knockdown.

Looks like website will contain more advanced version of Ingress Intel map. And… here is some evidence! If screenshots are not faked, then they show us some new options like Total Fields, Total Portals, Link Distance and Portal Key availability.

Not sure about Total Portals and Fields, though. Probably, number of those for the given area? Click for a full size

HackIngress Map 4   HackIngress Map 3
HackIngress Map 1   HackIngress Map 2
 

Question – is it a new turn on the whole Niantic puzzle or some talented guy(s) has found a way to drastically improve user interface and the list of available options for Intel web map?

Anyway, this update is very long-awaited by many players. I will post later a list of all bugs and possible enhancements (marked by myself), which could be done by Google to improve this game.

Ingress – New Word In Game Industry

Ingress Extendiality

As you probably know, Ingress is a new augmented reality game from Google. It is currently in beta-status (since the middle of November already) and access is by invite only. Nevertheless, there are already many players in this battle across the globe and their number increases every day. Now, watch the trailer, it’s worth it.

Legend is the following: there are some kind of aliens, called Shapers, who influence our world through invisible portals and Exotic Matter (XM). Theoretically, this influence is positive; it is “enlightment” and is thought to be responsible for human creativity and talents. But not everyone thinks that we need such mentors and therefore two fractions exist – Enlightened and Resistance.

Interesting fact: full story behind it is still unknown, every day new “episodes” and facts are unveiled on Niantic Project website and what is more intriguing, these stories influence game logic sometimes. Everything looks like some sci-fi TV series, nice job, Google!

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