Backpack feature in Ingress
Few questions about the backpack feature:
1) What are the advantages of having an in game backpack?
2) Which years inclusive was it available?
3) How does it work?
4) Does Niantic have any plans to re-release it to balance the playing field to make it inclusive and fair play for everyone.
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Comments
I've played Ingress for over seven years, and I've never heard of this in-game backpack feature. 🤨
If you're talking about what someone means when they say, "Agent Smith is using their backpack again," what they mean is that they think Agent Smith is playing with a second account, i.e., multi-accounting, which is against the ToS.
Thanks for that clarification. I’ve been told that the specified player is using a backpack, will never run out of resources, and that no one can every out play him or those veteran players with the backpack feature. This was while he was out tailing me to every portal and destroying it, and seems to have unlimited resources. I mean I have CORE and used up all my weapon resources while the player continued to play and destroy links and portals after I left manoeuvring and lost him from my tracks. When I asked what the “backpack“ is and how I can get one, been told by the veteran player that it was a feature in the game that is not there anymore for newer players.
Glad this forum is here to source out accurate answers. Thank you for the response @Toxoplasmolly - very much appreciated!
In my city everyone uses backpacks but they disguise it as their bf/gf account or their children account but misteriously those accounts never play around, except when they need extra resonators or mods haha. I wish there was a better way to stop this, but multi account and spoofing are here and won't go anywhere.
It’s totally normal to try to get your kid/spouse to play the game you enjoy (or for them to be curious to try themselves). But if they find they’re not into it as much as you, the account is still there.
I think it’s very common for the kid/spouse to not enjoy playing ingress alone but likes the occasional ingress trip with you.
How are we to distinguish such a pair of agents from a backpack?
Like I said, it's so easy to disguise it, that everyone (at least in my city) does it, specially the ones that are known for playing dirty.
But then how can you be so confident that they are disguising a backpack vs getting occasional help from a loved one?
When my son was old enough to play I showed him the ropes, let him throw some easy fields in our neighbourhood, and, yes, fill a few mod slots.
soon after he was messaged in coms by an agent in the other faction accusing him of being my back pack.
I think that's what @Noctarion is lamenting: the fact that there really are very few ways to differentiate a backpack from a legitimate child/spouse's account without going to extreme measures.
Both do happen. I've seen a few cases where parents convince their kids to create an account as a family activity. They cart the kids around for a while, instructing them on what to deploy and where. Then one day the kids decide they don't want to come, so the parents grab the spare iPad, log into their kids' accounts, and go without them. After a while it becomes more easy just to leave the kids at home and roll without them.
Another fun case was a couple that played on the same phone, then broke up. Both their agent names were still showing up on Portals, even though we knew in real life that they couldn't stand to be near each other and one of them was no longer playing.
Cheating succeeds when it can hide in the gray areas of legitimate gameplay, and often Niantic would have to probe into players' personal lives to discern a backpack from a legitimate account. The fact that we often *can't* confidently discern the two is what makes backpacks and multi-accounting so difficult to root out.
I’m 100% sure the message pop up loading the game to create an account specify that you have to be 18 years old to play the game, and to sign up a child to play, there are other legal forms to be completed.
So if those forms are not completed, then it likeliness of it being a “backpack” account is closer to 100%.
“3.6 Who May Use Our Services
Unless stated otherwise for a particular Service, children are not allowed to use the Services. A "Child" is a person (a) under 13 years old (for residents outside of the EEA, except for the Republic of Korea)”
https://nianticlabs.com/terms/en/
So the grey area starts at that point 😄
@DrHydrosaur
Then obviously the child is a teenager and have the choice if they want to play or not. Makes sense
PokemonGo has a child setting; Ingress never has.
Niantic could tell by play styles. If one account only drops and picks up things, and plays L8 resos, mods, viruses - it's probably a backpack. (Sure that wouldn't catch everybody, but it would catch a lot.)
My spouse and I both play. But our style is quite different, Niantic could tell (if they wanted to) even if we accidentally picked up each others' phones (nevermind that they're different sizes, lol). He's more likely to just capture; I'm more likely to fill. I make little fields but don't glyph. He doesn't link much, but does glyph. Heck, if Niantic cared, they could tell him glyphing from me glyphing - we even have different glyph styles . If my account suddenly glyphed like him, it'd be suspicious. Plus, we're not always together.
it should be fairly easy for niantic to tell if someone is using extra accounts to just drop gear and upgrade portals and not do more then that vs a couple that has each account and plays together but maybe that is hard to tell apart even their internal systems for that stuff?
@mortuus it's not easy, the example @MargariteDVille gives, would flag my girlfriend's account.
She played until a few years ago and now only upgrades/mods if I ask her to and trades gear with me if I need some or have too much.
Nothing about that is cheating (I once asked that in an AMA just to be sure), but it is also indistinguishable from an actual backpack account.
The only way to stop backpacks is to severely limit trading, but that doesn't solve multiaccounting
What happens when members of a clan actually play? They get followed by bullies, cheaters, and multi-accounters to **** and thwart that certain clan from having the best adventure of their lives.
Have multiple agents from different factions follow and **** those players. Happened multiple times out there and there is no point in denying this elephant in the room.
I’m not denying it happens, of course it does and too much. But I also see backpack accusations thrown around on flimsy evidence.
@DrHydosaur, it seems that the culture of multi-accounting, backpacking, and multi-users (bots/footmen) of a particular account creates a culture of suspicion and toxicity on both sides. To the point that newbies in this game get caught in the cross-fire. I bet there were a lot of new players who quit because they were being followed and stalked around by creepy agents. For what purpose? Just to make sure that those newbies are not really veterans who created backpack accounts or are not a potential threat to their scoreboard. Is it really worth obsessively following agents around? Was told by another agent that those creepy agents can be potential friends. With that kind of friend/s, who needs enemies? Right?
@Otrera35 you’re right. Those cheaters, stalkers, and bullies cannot create genuine friendships with good core values, including trust; even with their own faction members. They’re used to poor self management skills and if they’re set in their ways, then forget it, they wouldn’t change.
Well, this discussion went from "what is backpack" to "this guy is multi-accounter". So far, you did not mention multiple accounts, but people here assumed it.
Just want to confirm we're talking about the same thing - did you actually see suspicious accounts around? Like, actions in COMM together? Or an account only used to upgrade portals?
Lol - I know one guy had almost a dozen phones for various accounts, (pre Poke) and another who had a single phone with about 1-2 dozen accounts on it.
My wife plays, my daughter used to play. Anyone can check daughters stats, no hacking no AP change no backpack use. My wife is still an active player with I think over 80Mill AP.
Everyone should be forced to have open stats.
@SSSputnik There is or was an infamous portal in northern California. One of the players up there was alleged to have a pizza box full of phones for all of his alts. His girlfriend submitted a portal, from inside his car, and a literal pizza box full of phones was reflected in the glass. I have the picture somewhere but I can't find it.
I feel all of your frustration. From all of my investigations, the problem seems to stem from Pokémon go and ingress sharing the same portals/map. Ingress used pg to promote the game. Because of this, it created this whole mess. I’ve never played pg. I didn’t know that we shared almost everything. Pg players used ingress to help them with their stats in pg. I can’t even nominate a portal without it being rejected by wayfarer only to see it go live by a pg player. You can tell because the name on the portal says “unknown “. I know this opens up a whole new can of worms but it’s relevant.
The backpack feature goes back to well before pogo. Niantic can't stop it. The only players left are the multi accounters anymore. Legit players got tired of playing against it. Niantic could stop it by stopping quantum replication and dropping of gear. But they will never do that. So it's here to stay.
Even before MUFG's there was already backpack accounts in use. MUFG's had litle impact on that part of the game(in my opinion).
In my experience most backpack accounts are used just for that, storage, and for that reason the most obvious way that catch someone in the act of using a backpack account is to "see" one or more capsules being droped and subsequently picked-up when there is only one agent present.
@VenomousToad Did you just admit to being a multiaccounter?
Although checking capsules is by no means a valid reason to accuse someone of using backpacks. I drop capsules a lot when I am out fielding, such that I don't need to recycle every couple of hacks because of inventory limits.
we need a new verification method somehow, as it is today what stops those to use multiple accounts and get infinite amounts of gear? not much.... how sad
I wouldn't say "not much" I'd say "nothing". The other night an agent from my city created more than 20 accounts late night just to give likes to a photo of their couch portal so the main photo wouldn't change and the duplicate portal next to it wouldn't get deleted. That sh!t was insane and shows how much people are willing to do in order to "win" this game. I'm pretty sure now all those accounts will be used as backpacks.