Favorite Addition: #IngressYear9
NianticThia
Niantic › admin
in General
Amongst all new investigation technologies delivered in the past 12 months, which one is your favorite?
Favorite Addition: #IngressYear9 242 votes
Scanner News Feed
1%
3 votes
Portal History
53%
130 votes
C.O.R.E. Subscription
8%
20 votes
Hackstreak
4%
10 votes
Dronenet Layer
2%
7 votes
Mission Day Second Sunday
5%
14 votes
Key Locker Expansion
6%
15 votes
NL-1331X US Summer Tour
0%
Adventure Sync
16%
41 votes
Portal Scan Meshing
0%
2 votes
Tagged:
7
Comments
Portal history, no doubt.
Was a feature asked by people since ingress day 1. 👍
Scanner News Feed - Honestly kinda forget this is even here. A little red dot indicating there is something new might be helpful. Don't use it, ever.
Portal History - game changer and my vote, yet, still incomplete until y'all can figure out how to fix the drone layer and give an inverse option
C.O.R.E. Subscription - neat, I think, for the extra 500 spots and monthly bonuses, likely cancelling after the year nine bonus comes through
Hackstreak - I have been digging this, though I forget about 2 or 3 days a week and hack a L1 portal
Dronenet Layer - in my opinion, a failed attempt at giving agents what you think they needed. No one needs to see other drones and having them sent home the day after you return home from a vacation is just lame. Cool, I'll drop it again on all these portals I've visited a hundred times around my house. Please fix this.
Mission Day Second Sunday - it's kinda made missions neat, kind of ruined the idea of what the originals were and just a bit of a reminder of how much effort you've put into missions in the past few years (none).
Key Locker Expansion - until I can recharge from key lockers, I don't really use them much
NL-1331X US Summer Tour - this was fun, but also, don't really understand the point. I drove two hours to meet a couple new faces, get a couple fresh medals for my scanner and then drive home. The cafe didn't want people standing in front of their place so I ended up leaving once that was announced.
Adventure Sync - pass for me, don't feel comfortable having Niantic track me even when the app is closed. You can have my health data, but not my every move, sorry.
Portal Scan Meshing - "leverages Niantic Lightship Real-Time Mapping to better show Agents on newer devices what has and hasn’t been scanned" - what does that even mean? Am I supposed to be seeing scans from previous agents? I haven't seen anything like that, I would dig that though, will keep my eyes open.
Latency - You forgot one feature. The one that allows attackers almost free reign to take down full shielded L8 portals without any response from defenders. The feature that slows down reso placement.
Hackstreak was a nice touch. I usually play this game intensively for a few weeks and afk for a month or so. Been playing like this for years. Maybe I just don’t love this game enough to keep hacking every single day. But it’s great to see my weekly (and weakly) commitment still being counted towards a medal. And the stakes are much lower. If this streak failed, in less than a week I’ll have a new one.
I liked the format and feedback @ZeroHecksGiven provided, so will do the same of my viewpoint:
Scanner News Feed: Useless, never use it, never look at it, don't care. I get my news through other sources (mostly Telegram).
Portal History: Excellent addition, would be nicer if it was inverted or had the option to be inverted. Needs to show portals the drone has visited.
C.O.R.E. Subscription: Nice bonus, but nothing much worthwhile in this. Now that we are paying customers, the expectation is that Niantic would do more and have better services, but this never happened. So more and more, it seems like a waste of money.
Hackstreak: I hack multiple times per day anyway, so don't notice the hackstreak. The bonus output is nice though.
Dronenet Layer: As above, needs to show portals that the drone has visited. Otherwise it's pretty much useless.
Mission Day Second Sunday: A fun excuse to make more missions and do more missions. I like it, especially when it's not strictly NIA missions.
Key Locker Expansion: Nice addition, I missed out on the previous 6th key locker, so being able to get it now has been great.
NL-1331X US Summer Tour: Not US based, no comment.
Adventure Sync: Nice addition, too early to give longer time feedback on this. But so far so good.
Portal Scan Meshing: Too new, haven't tried it, no comment.
Overall some good additions and some useless ones, probably better if Niantic consults with the player base firstly and spends resources on useful / wanted features - especially bug fixes and latency issues. Though we could just as easily make a list that is 10x longer based on the issues faced this past year lol
Here's hoing we'll see a roadmap for the next year ;P
Latency +10000000
Missing portals approved +1000000
Portal history definitely. Though it is still incomplete, we need unique drone visits on the drone layer.
Also a shoutout for MD/SS. That would have been my second choice.
Okay, let me leave a review too.
Scanner News Feed - This function is useful only for very novice players who found the game themselves, and not through friends already playing, do not know what Pokemon GO is and do not subscribe to the Ingress account on Twitter or Facebook (honestly, I do not know what is there . Haven't used Facebook for a thousand years.) About 6 years ago, I was such a player for a couple of months, after which I was taken to a local chat on Telegram, which I still use today.
Portal History - An incredibly useful feature that has probably been awaited since the introduction of the Explorer and Pioneer medals in the game. Although, if, on the contrary, the portals that we have not visited were highlighted, it would be even a little more useful.
C.O.R.E. Subscription - It's nice to see how the monetization of the project is progressing. Quite useful bonuses for actively playing. Regarding the additional 500 inventory spots, there hasn't been a single anomaly so far to test how much 500 additional bombs could affect the outcome of the game, so we just have to test that. Well, I would also like to have regional prices for subscription and CMU. The cost of $5 in many countries can be several times higher than in the United States. Imagine that in America you would pay for a subscription not $5, but $15 or $25. A big difference.
Hackstreak - I constantly forget about doubling items for the first hack of the day, so I would like something to remind the agent that he hasn't hacked portals that day. Some red dot in the corner of the screen, for example.
Dronenet Layer - I know a few people who like to hunt for other people's drones and knock them off portals, so this feature is very useful for them. Otherwise, it's just nice to see other players in the scanner. At least their drones. But personally, I don't use drones.
Mission Day Second Sunday - In my opinion, these events diminish the value of the original MD medal. Mission Day is months of organization, hundreds of people and organizers who, if lucky, can at least recoup the costs of the organization, because it is very expensive. So if there was a separate medal for Second Sunday, it would be a totally wonderful event.
Key Locker Expansion - I don't keep enough keys to use at least one free Key Locker from the 5th anniversary of the game, but it's nice that now players with 6 keylockers no longer brag about how long they have been playing the game.
NL-1331X US Summer Tour - It's good to see live events come to life again. Even despite the fact that NL has not come to my country even once in all 9 years.
Adventure Sync - I can only say that this feature is better than without it. My kinetic capsule is happy.
Portal Scan Meshing - My phone doesn't support portal scanning at all, so I can't say anything about that.
For next year, I'm just waiting for the live events to return. And a storyline that's been silent for too long.
portal history is the best addition so far.
Figure I'll also go for this format, offering my thoughts on each feature...
Scanner News Feed: pretty much useless for me as I get information from other channels. I don't mind it being there though, if it helps players who are less connected keep up with what's going on, great.
Portal History: maybe the best feature that has been rolled out in years.
C.O.R.E. Subscription: the 500 extra spots have been helpful. I might not need it after I finish gr1nding (really? you censor this word?) some badges. But I'm all for keeping the lights on for Ingress, so I may be charitable and keep it. Seriously though, do better with communication and fixing critical issues if we're going to pay you.
Hackstreak: I like it. It's helpful for using that first hack of the day for key farming. It (along with the drone) has also encouraged me to go for a new personal sojourner record, though I'm still more than a year away from that.
Dronenet Layer: you guys swung and missed here. It should function the same way the other layers function, show us our history with uniques.
Mission Day Second Sunday: in 2018, I had platinum. I was ready to go for onyx. Ready to drive across state lines or fly places to get it. Then Mission Days slowly disappeared, only paired with anomalies and then not at all. I'm determined to get onyx and I appreciate being able to work on this badge again. It's been a good temporary solution until we can have real Mission Days again.
Key Locker Expansion: not impacted since I already had six, but I'm all for leveling the playing field by giving agents another chance to get a sixth.
NL-1331 Tour: visit the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic USA plz.
Adventure Sync: no opinion. I may enable it at some point to see if I like it and can trust it.
Portal Scan Meshing: also no opinion. I'm not really a fan of scanning. The only reason I've ever done a scan is because you've lured me with wolves medals. I like wolves. Unlocking it was painful. I might go for the better looking silver badge if I'm feeling masochistic enough.
Portal history. It took almost 9 years but here we are...
I'll detail my vote just a bit by ranking my appreciation of all the options below
Portal history without doubt.
Probably the best update since l11 to 16 have been added
I would have voted portal history, but CORE with keys shown on Intel plus the other benefits I think outweighs.
Review:
Scanner news feed - ok for those not in communities.
Portal history - very useful, long asked for.
CORE - Keys on map is very useful and makes planning and collaboration much easier. Plus the other benefits, plus helping keep Ingress running. Winner.
Hackstreak - Meh, we have Sojourner. The extra hack output is nice on that first hack. Hardly game changing.
Dronenet - I hate drones. They cause in faction angst and holding breath on Niantic introducing legalised spoofing. Should be removed.
Mission Day - Nice, approve. However they should not supplant old mission days pre covid.
Key locker expansion - Made me a bit peeved. I already had extra key locker as reward and this devalued that.
NL Tour - Irrelvant as not in USA. Also the swag handling and badge issuance was attrociously handled.
Adventure Synch - Jury still out in my mind on this.
Portal scan meshing - Just why? If mesh data is ever integrated to Ingress it better be able to be disabled so in low data environments we can still play. (BGAN, hard data portals). Also irrelevant- my Samsung S21 doesn't support it.
All in all. A good year for feature improvements, though some were unneeded or unasked for.
Big issues like lag, missing submissions, better communication are big black marks.
Also, you forgot portal crosslink allowance on spoofer restores. This is very good.
Sorry but these "innovations" were not presented in the plot. And besides, they are useless for most players. Let's consider all the innovations in order.
1. Scanner News Feed is absolutely illogical from the point of view of the ingress Universe. An experienced programmer makes such a bookmark in a few hours, if not faster.
2. Portal History is a useful function of which we would be happy to during the time of the old scanner.
3. C.O.R.E. Subscription - buggy and non-working function in the smartphones of many agents, which also did not use much popular.
4. Hackstreak - Again the function that was not written in the plot, and which does not affect the victory over the enemy. This is not a large-scale update with a bunch of new content, well, as in other games.
5. DRONENET LAYER - Better Ask what percentage of players enjoys drones daily???
6. Mission Day Second Sunday - Instead of developing a competitive part of the game you make the second Sunday. What's next? Third Wednesday and the Fourth Thursday ???? When will we again be the reason to fight against each other ??? I think developers, forgotten what the main mechanic game.
7. KEY LOCKER EXPANSION - Bravo is ingenious! This is the function of the century! Let's write it in merit. What about Capsule for storage media?
8. NL-1331X US Summer Tour - a trip to several towns ... This is not a worldwide event. For most players it is useless.
9. Adventure Sync - useless for most function not affecting game mechanics.
10. Portal Scan Meshing is another useless and incomprehensible, which, by the way, does not work at the overwhelming majority of agents.
CORE sub for me, though Portal History is a very close second. I'm happy to monetarily support the game with the CORE sub. I've been playing almost daily since I started playing in 2015, lots of new and great friends. Helping keep the game going through the CORE sub is a perfect fit, for me.
I'd vote for Portal History, except that without an "invert" option in the scanner, the feature epitomizes "so close, yet so far." I want those layers to highlight portals I have yet to visit or capture, not the portals where I've already been.
Guess I might as well comment on all those new additions:
News Feed: Mildly useful at times, but there’s only so much news to see. Better to have it than not though, so I’ll take it.
Portal history: Incredibly useful for finding those unique visits & captures, plus it’s cool to be able to look back at just how many different places I’ve been to. 10/10 best addition to the game! Unique drone visited layer next perhaps?
C.O.R.E. Subscription: Personally I’m not a big fan of subscriptions. Not everyone has the means to maintain these, even at cheap costs. That said, the benefits are nice and the cost isn’t unreasonable. But it does seem like the profits could be used a bit more effectively. The servers still lag way too much for having this new income source that should help with getting solutions.
Hackstreak: Minor feature but a nice one. Makes for some great moments when getting double / triple very rare items!
Dronenet Layer: I have mixed feelings about this one. Hunting enemy drones is kinda fun, but also annoying having yours hunted. Could also create a mildly interesting challenge of trying to find a portal with the max amount of drones waiting.
Mission Day 2nd Sunday: I’m not that into missions (for now), but it is nice being able to earn a previously impossible medal. Solid addition, even if it’s not really my thing.
Key Locker Expansion: This would have been my vote if I didn’t pick portal history. Keys are a pain to deal with, more storage for them is always welcome! Now if only we could recharge using keys kept in lockers...
NL 1331 Summer Tour: Pretty fun event, would love to see more like it! Perhaps incorporate a bit of extra gameplay into them next time around? (Also a related sidenote, the NL 1331 portal causes the game to lag heavily when looking at remote portal view for longer than a few seconds, and crashes aren’t uncommon. Might need to optimize how the game handles portals with an excessive amount of photos.)
Adventure Sync: Bit overdue but better late than never. Requiring location permission to always be on though is a bit much. Are there not other ways to make it work?
Portal Scan Meshing: Meh, not supported by all devices, and we can’t all just get the latest phone for a niche feature in one game. Ignoring that, portal scans are still not especially relevant to the game aside from the 2 extra medals, and those feel a bit...tacked on. Even ignoring that, not all portals can really be scanned, and it’s a very awkward thing to try explaining if anyone asks what the heck you’re doing.
Overall verdict: Some very nice changes made, mostly ranging from excellent to decent. The game still needs work regarding the frequent server lag & wayfarer issues (seriously, wayfarer is a huge mess...), but I’d still call this a solid year for Ingress. Could be better, but we’ve gotten some good progress. 7.5/10, main detractors being server lag & wayfarer shenanigans.
the most demanded requests win
Adventure sync. You no longer have to walk with your phone on to open kinetic capsule.
Latency.La-ten-cy!!!
For Gods sake,i can't even dare to talk about some innovations while we have ping like this.As an innovation - messed up portal scan.
Oh,and press F to my 4*onyx trekker because of adv.sync+defit