Google's Ingress

[Numtini]

I enjoyed it for a while, then the main opposition player dropped out and Green collapsed on Cape Cod. Refreshing portals that never get attacked is just not all that exciting.

[Ghambit]

Right now there's a big push for beta invites.  I've had a few people apply and the invitation is instantaneous, so I'd expect some newfish to own soon.   As for the Cape... it's a Cape.      Soon as you cross the bridge I'm sure things are different.

[K9]

I picked this up, it seems pretty fun, I may actually hop on my bike and go out hunting portals some time.

Being in a massive city helps though I think; things seem fairly split here. My only gripe is that starting out at level one, most stuff around me is too high level to take down. Fortunately managed to find a cluster of unclaimed portals and build them up and link them to get to level 2.

[Ghambit]

There's plenty to do as a lvl 1.  Dont listen to folk who say otherwise.  And even though you might not be able to take something down, you can sure dmg. it and gain AP from doing so.  It's at least 100AP every time you hack an nme portal (in a small city this means a lot of easy AP just from walking/jogging).  Setting field and claiming MU are the main points of the game and give the most AP...  so use the intel map and strategize 3 portals you want keys from then set the field (this will also keep nme links from happening - which is the main strat. layer to the game).  The sending portal is the one that needs the range, so you can set from high to a low lvl portal you own no problem (which will boost its defenses, supposedly).  So basically take your lvl 1 portal and link it with 2 of high(er) lvl.  There are apps that'll help you pre-plan the ranges.

[Ghambit]

Yyyyyeaahhh, if you don't like people this is not the game for you. (which is likely most of f13)  As big as the game is, it's a pretty exclusive bunch - and you will get to rubbing elbows with regular teammates and enemies alike if you wish to be effective.  Turf gets staked out, the cream rises to the top, and so forth.  G+ is used heavily as well.

I'm already just about lvl 4 with minimal work.  Walking/jogging in high-density areas and gaining permission to piggyback on someone else's fields (extending friendly geometry) has been the key.  Once u hit lvl 3 you can really start taking people out, especially if their resonators aren't maintained. 

Advanced tips:  learn to drop your resonators in tough to reach locations (like inside a building).  XMPs are aoe attks that falloff at range (especially at low lvls), so blowing them on top of a target is key. (dont just stand on the portal)

Anyways, the game definitely needs a few tweaks before it can release.  The endgame is a bit hazy and territory control doesn't have any tangible reward except faction MU (which gains you nothing).  There are strange things happening with the puzzle meta, but I'm not real sure how that works yet.  If I had to guess, the recently found glyphs can only be used if you've got links in the same shape.  So essentially, you crack the glyph language, then go out and link portals that'll spell out a particular message.  Kinda cool...  but definitely not for the muggles.   

[CmdrSlack]

So I got an invite -- and it looks like it's not on iOS, which makes sense.

[grebo]

Bumpity bump.

People in here still playing this?  I play as Grebong in south shore MA.  Last night we covered RI in layered fields.  Was fancy and shit.

[Falconeer]

I tried this multiple times but the horrid reality is that the GPS of my phone is not working properly so I just can't. I was interested though, and so here's a real question:

How is this fun?

I know it sounds weird, but please if you can would anyone who is playing it try to explain to me what are the rewarding parts, how do they manifest, and how exactly do you experience fun while playing this? Is it because of the huge "meta"? Is it because of what appears on screen? I know I could research a bit more, but since we are here I'd be willing to hear from someone from f13 what's like to have fun in Ingress, and what are your long term goals in a sense.

[grebo]

I tried this multiple times but the horrid reality is that the GPS of my phone is not working properly so I just can't. I was interested though, and so here's a real question:

How is this fun?

I know it sounds weird, but please if you can would anyone who is playing it try to explain to me what are the rewarding parts, how do they manifest, and how exactly do you experience fun while playing this? Is it because of the huge "meta"? Is it because of what appears on screen? I know I could research a bit more, but since we are here I'd be willing to hear from someone from f13 what's like to have fun in Ingress, and what are your long term goals in a sense.

Long term goals.. basically working together to build huge fields and earning the badges I guess.  There is scoring now, every 5 hours there's team scoring and there's individual agent scoring based on the fields you build.

I think it's cool playing a game out in the real world against other real folks, actually going places and such.

The main barrier to having fun in ingress is thinking you can own anything.  You can't.  There's no way to defend your stuff.  Any other properly geared L8 out there can smash anything.  It's more about building stuff, because you know what you build will be gone in a few hours or minutes, especially if it's huge.

[Bann]

How is this fun?

It wasn't fun for me. It was an interesting concept, and a really good excuse to actually take my lunch break and walk around the neighborhood before the worst winter ever set in, but it never hooked me. FWIW, The areas I'm in felt really active, with stuff always being attacked and flipping multiple times per day. I was playing at the neighborhood level, walking around on my lunch break at work and walking up to the local produce stand a few times a week instead of taking the car grocery shopping.

It worked as an incentive to get out and walk.

[grebo]

It seems, from my non scientific research, that people have a lot more fun with this if someone they know gets them in to it.

[01101010]

It is still grindy as fuck and now that there are a ton of lvl 7 and 8s out there, your stuff will get smashed almost instantly. I played till I got about lvl 4 and was already soured on it, but then winter set in and fuck standing outside freezing my balls off tapping my phone. Never went back and there really is no incentive.

That said, I am on a G+ group who regularly meet up at a spot and drive or bike around town and flip nodes en masse. They seem to get into it and now have 15-20 lvl8s in there collective. I just can't get into it for some reason.

[Ghambit]

Honestly, I thought it was a great game but there comes a point around lvl 5 wherein you really need to ask yourself if you're willing to devote the time and literal energy/gas.  I couldnt mentally do it anymore and stopped.  The high level play will suck your life away worse then any organized raiding guild you can think of.  This is before even considering all the metaplots and puzzles google puts out once a week, some of which morph into real in-game "events" in various places.

GirlWithTheIngressTattoo actually lives not far from me.  Her and her bunch are fanatical.  They roll out at least once a week and maintain a daily up-to-the-minute presence across SoFla.  It's nuts.  To penetrate that level of play (where the real fun is) you've got to be willing to be fairly social, including investment into google infrastructure.  The game is linked to SMS too, so yes, it (including chat) invades your phone even when the app is off.  I've had to 'scramble' quite a few times to defend or re-take nodes.  It can get tense.

The main barrier to having fun in ingress is thinking you can own anything.  You can't.  There's no way to defend your stuff.  Any other properly geared L8 out there can smash anything.  It's more about building stuff, because you know what you build will be gone in a few hours or minutes, especially if it's huge.

This is categorically false.  Of course you can "own" stuff.  As well, you darn well sure can defend it.  If you've got the material you can lay defense just like most tower defense games, even if there's a lvl 8 around.  Especially with the newer stuff you can lay down like virus' and so forth. If you've got the energy, you can also boost your nodes while they're being taken down - I've done this myself against a squad trying to take my turf in downtown lauderdale.  I ran around, collected juice, and bumped my nodes remotely until they realized I was defending and didnt want to waste the resources.  It can go as far as even conscripting others in real-time to defend/rebuild nodes that are being attacked.  Is it harder to do against an 8?  Of course.  But it's supposed to be.  I think the issue is defending in real-time; most people wont invest that kind of JIT response to a game... so grinding mats and flipping nodes becomes their only option.

Aside from that, if you play enough you will quickly develop a reputation and a noted AO.  Recall, chat is also cross-faction, so smacktalk is a part of the game too.    People routinely target people they dont like.  It's a very tit for tat game.  Realize though, you may very well run into the opposition physically - kinda creepy.  I caught a guy skulking in his car once.    Another in the pub next to me having lunch.  In dense public areas like malls (Bayside MIA for instance) it literally is close-combat battling via phone... organized groups will have farms pre-made, and farmers to grab and drop resources nearby for extended campaigns, and on and on.   Gets pretty involved.

Like I said, too involved in some ways.  

[Numtini]

Google finally released an official IOS version this week. I haven't played since I got the iphone and I was surprised to find myself missing this when I was out doing errands at somewhere I knew there was a portal.

[Maven]

Arise!

I got into this game yesterday and found it has made my walk interesting. Would any of you limike to give it a slin? Game is still going strong.

I'd like to recruit new people Gmail Style. PM me your e-mail if you want a copy!

[Yegolev]

Would any of you limike to give it a slin?

Eh.

[Trippy]

Android auto-correct.

[Rendakor]

What is "slin" supposed to be though? Shot?

[Maven]

Shorthand for needs more sleep.

I quit the game, not great for an obsessive mind. I can't believe I didn't catch that.

[Ghambit]

Shorthand for needs more sleep.

I quit the game, not great for an obsessive mind. I can't believe I didn't catch that.

If you'd read through the thread, I'd already warned about it.     It's a good game, mind you, just can get too involved in a real-world sense.  Whether that's good or bad, depends on your perspective.  For a lonely geek with a monotonous 9-5 go-nowhere job or no collegiate social-life aside from pornhub, it's probably a nice diversion.

[Samwise]

I've been playing around with this.  It's kinda fun.  Documentation is absolute crap but I'm slowly figuring out the min/max tricks.  Will probably lose interest when I hit the level cap.  

There's a lot of interesting potential here -- as an example, imagine if you could create puzzle-based challenges on portals you owned and "hacking" a portal for the first time required doing a minigame to solve the puzzle.  A little more work on the asynchronous PvP aspect would make this thing incredibly sticky.

[SurfD]

I've been playing around with this.  It's kinda fun.  Documentation is absolute crap but I'm slowly figuring out the min/max tricks.  Will probably lose interest when I hit the level cap.  

There's a lot of interesting potential here -- as an example, imagine if you could create puzzle-based challenges on portals you owned and "hacking" a portal for the first time required doing a minigame to solve the puzzle.  A little more work on the asynchronous PvP aspect would make this thing incredibly sticky.

They already do sort of have a minigame with hacking tho (if i remember correctly, hold the HACK button down for a few seconds to start the hack to activate the Glyph minigame for a chance to earn  bonus stuff when hacking).

[Ghambit]

They have their own newschannel that updates very frequently; loaded with easter-eggs that give ingame bonus' or shwag, whatevs.  I do believe sometimes a particular link geometry will do something special as well.  The game has a lot of depth; even for the endgame.  To cap out though, as Samwise says, requires good commitment.  You are not 'casual' if you cap out.

[SurfD]

They have their own newschannel that updates very frequently; loaded with easter-eggs that give ingame bonus' or shwag, whatevs.  I do believe sometimes a particular link geometry will do something special as well.  The game has a lot of depth; even for the endgame.  To cap out though, as Samwise says, requires good commitment.  You are not 'casual' if you cap out.

Well, you technically are not going to "cap out" for a VERY long time, since the levels progress well past the numeric soft cap of 8 (for your levels of Tools like Emps, resonaters and the like), and each level requires something like exponentially more exp then the last.  Pretty sure there are people out there at level 16+, which is pretty crazy.

When I gave it a run over a good chunk of the middle of the year, I played it what I would consider to be "casually" (ie, I hit only the 8 to 10 portals on my bike ride to and / or from work, depending on how much free time I had.)  Would have worked out to about ~10-20 minutes a day.  I got lucky, and had a "double EXP bonus week" in there somewhere, and I managed to hit around mid way through level 6 before winter set in and I basically said fuckit, too cold for this shit any more.

[Maven]

I got halfway to L8 then I had to put it down for good. It has strong hooks, but I repeatedly came across issues that were hard to ignore. I applaud them for making Glyph Hacking a compelling mini-game, but as has been mentioned, so little of the game is documented or intuitive, and some of the progression objectives are, to put it mildly, horseshit.