1. I'm not talking about major changes. I'm talking about any changes. Besides bugfixes (offset by newly added bugs anyway). Since you went that serious into it, I'm taking your own example:
04/04/2013 Power cubes are now hackable
20/04/2013 Links contribute to portal defence (2 weeks later)
03/05/2013 Portal keys stored by distance from player + Now possible to "recycle" items for XM (2 weeks later)
21/05/2013 Can now view portal health and faction control on inventory portal keys + "portal is under attack" notifications (2.5 weeks later)
31/05/2013 ADA and JARVIS viruses now hackable, shield mitigation significantly boosted (1.5 weeks later)
10/06/2013 Link amps, heat sinks, multihacks, force amps and turrent mods all added (1.5 weeks later)
... What are we having in these same timespans now?
2. "while having multiple events" Events aren't even dev work. Dev work is to ensure that the new features which are being made can be adjustable to easily add calculations, scoring, etc, for those events. In my understanding, all new features (including Kinetic Capsules we got an event with) are built from ground up with event support. After that it should be only a job of changing variables -and not even by devs, but by event "department", via some internal service. Of course I don't know how exactly that works in Ingress team, but if devs are in charge of doing needed adjustments for events then Niantic is doing it wrong.
3. "just completing a swathe of new features" and still fixing bugs in them 1.5 months later, one each patch, nice. There's no time to rest. There's a game to reinvigorate!
4. "it's silly to desire to go back to that" I have never stated that I want to go back.
I don't want to wait MONTHS for slightest changes in the game. That's what I'm trying to communicate.
The Layers button now remembers your selected Layer, even after restarting the Ingress app.
We now show individual AP updates rather than bundled AP updates to better show earned AP, like +500AP for capturing a Portal and +250AP for fully capping it, on top of the +125AP for each Resonator deployed.
Bug Fixes
2.66
The Invert button on Intel Map enables Agents to flip or reverse the Portal History rings on a selected Layer. We’re aware of a display issue that occurs when choosing a different Layer with Invert still selected. In the meantime, deselecting then reselecting Invert should help.
Bug Fixes
2.65
Portal History is live on Intel Map, enabling Agents to show and hide unique Portal visits, captures, or Scout Controlled Portals and Volatile Scout Controller Portals. The Layers button will be added to Ingress 2.65 after all Agents have access to the latest update, which adds Portal History to the Scanner app*.
C.O.R.E. is an optional monthly subscription for $4.99 USD per month (or your local equivalent determined by your country’s exchange rate and app store pricing tiers). For more info, see our announcement here.
2.65 had some of the biggest features in a few months, 2.66 was fixing some of the bugs from that and adding additional functionality, and 2.67 was making other changes to the game.
If people keep telling them that they must put something big in every release, they'll stop making 2 week releases, because they don't have enough time to put something big in each one. That's how development works.
Additionally, the first half of 2013 was a big team with an app with next to no functionality, so of course there's going to be significant things in every build.
@NianticBrian having played with 2.68.2 a bit, the only place where I can find the Layer button appearing where it probably has no business to do so, is when you open the cube menu while in one of the Portal views. I assumed that the layer button should show up in the same set of places as the Compass (which is why it remains when you zoom out completely), but it appears when you open the Cube menu, without the Compass also appearing. And has no real purpose to be visible when recharging with a cube.
2.65 had some of the biggest features in a few months, 2.66 was fixing some of the bugs from that and adding additional functionality, and 2.67 was making other changes to the game.
In some alternate reality, here's how I imagine what could have happened for Portal History:
T-4 to T-7: Niantic makes an announcement: "In a few days, we'll be hosting a Field Test [at] Home, where we'll be testing an upcoming feature we're calling Portal History. Agents will be able to see portals they've previous visited and scanned highlighted on both the Intel Map and in the Scanner. We expect that there will be a few bugs and things that could use improving, so we're hoping to gather feedback before we make an official release."
T+0 to T+3: Field Test [at] Home is held. Agents make a whole slew of posts on the forums, with Niantic responding to some of the most frequent topics raised. … "Yes! We understand that Agents are looking for a feature to help them find new places to explore, so we are planning on adding a mode where we highlight portals you have yet to visit. We just didn't get a chance to implement it before this Field Test." … "You're sure you've captured that portal before? Oh, yeah! It proved to be quite a challenge to convert your history into something we could load efficiently, and unfortunately, we couldn't quite make it work for portals whose locations have changed since your last visit. We'll make sure to remind Agents of that when we officially release this feature." …
Comments
1. I'm not talking about major changes. I'm talking about any changes. Besides bugfixes (offset by newly added bugs anyway). Since you went that serious into it, I'm taking your own example:
... What are we having in these same timespans now?
2. "while having multiple events" Events aren't even dev work. Dev work is to ensure that the new features which are being made can be adjustable to easily add calculations, scoring, etc, for those events. In my understanding, all new features (including Kinetic Capsules we got an event with) are built from ground up with event support. After that it should be only a job of changing variables -and not even by devs, but by event "department", via some internal service. Of course I don't know how exactly that works in Ingress team, but if devs are in charge of doing needed adjustments for events then Niantic is doing it wrong.
3. "just completing a swathe of new features" and still fixing bugs in them 1.5 months later, one each patch, nice. There's no time to rest. There's a game to reinvigorate!
4. "it's silly to desire to go back to that" I have never stated that I want to go back.
I don't want to wait MONTHS for slightest changes in the game. That's what I'm trying to communicate.
2.67
2.66
Invertbutton on Intel Map enables Agents to flip or reverse the Portal History rings on a selected Layer. We’re aware of a display issue that occurs when choosing a different Layer withInvertstill selected. In the meantime, deselecting then reselectingInvertshould help.2.65
2.65 had some of the biggest features in a few months, 2.66 was fixing some of the bugs from that and adding additional functionality, and 2.67 was making other changes to the game.
If people keep telling them that they must put something big in every release, they'll stop making 2 week releases, because they don't have enough time to put something big in each one. That's how development works.
Additionally, the first half of 2013 was a big team with an app with next to no functionality, so of course there's going to be significant things in every build.
@NianticBrian having played with 2.68.2 a bit, the only place where I can find the Layer button appearing where it probably has no business to do so, is when you open the cube menu while in one of the Portal views. I assumed that the layer button should show up in the same set of places as the Compass (which is why it remains when you zoom out completely), but it appears when you open the Cube menu, without the Compass also appearing. And has no real purpose to be visible when recharging with a cube.
Want to say thanks for fixing the slow loading of alerts, in the Alerts Tab.
Thanks
I believe the layer icon also pops up when doing the onboarding and recursing. 😰
I'll have to wait another 16 million AP for the recursing part.
2.65 had some of the biggest features in a few months, 2.66 was fixing some of the bugs from that and adding additional functionality, and 2.67 was making other changes to the game.
In some alternate reality, here's how I imagine what could have happened for Portal History:
I feel like this differs from how Niantic wanted to approach things only in the sense of urgency with which collected feedback is actually addressed.
T-4 Niantic makes a post
T-3 the masses complain, why isn't it available to all
Niantic can't win....
Those should be at least differently coloured, since it can be easy emulated.
Maybe XMA is a step towards this testing