Ingress Dropps the Ban Hammer

At the end of October NIA Ops posted to Google+
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100972947035928803293/posts/HH5BLJdY1Ye

Attention Agents: 

As a reminder, the use of unofficial Ingress software or add-ons which interact with the Ingress game server or client may violate the Ingress Terms of Service. This includes but is not limited to mobile clients, desktop clients and plug-ins. In an effort to protect the quality of service and integrity of the game for all our agents, the use of unofficial Ingress software or add-ons may result in your account being banned, reset, or permanently deleted.  

Transmission Complete

This wasn't necessarily new, there was nothing new there had been some other reminders like this. What was different though is that numbers of players were reporting that they were banned.

Reportedly the emails banned players received much later read:

We have reviewed your account and it remains permanently terminated for violations of the Ingress Terms of Service, including Section 2. Use of the Products - Permissions and Restrictions. This includes, but is not limited to, falsifying your location and/or accessing Ingress clients or backends in an unauthorized manner including through the use of third party software.

Please check out our FAQ on this topic for more info

This player said that they used IITC.

Apparently this "reminder" had some bite behind it and was directed to players who used IITC or Ingress "Broot" mod.

Posts on G+ and other places started appearing with players stating they had been banned. Many admitted using IITC, Broot Mod or some other 3rd party product which was in violation, others firmly denied it.

I will admit I used the Broot Mod on my phone briefly, but had removed it well before these actions by Google. I also used IITC desktop to a much greater extent. Once I saw the reality I ditched IITC too.

Are using those things a violation of the TOS, absolutely. Were they cheating, meh.

What were the advantages of Broot Mod? In my opinion very few hardly constituted cheating IMO.

• What I liked best was the chart of your inventory. I could see all my Items in one fell swoop. Quick and easy.
• Another feature I liked is that you were able to disable animations like rotating items.
• Another cool feature was the start up was much quicker. Fortunately a later version of the official version added that. 
• Placing your resonators correctly was also easier with this unapproved version as it told you how far away you were from the portal.
• The portal view also allowed you to see how old the portal was. 

All of these advantages were what I would consider convenience and aesthetic. Nothing dramatically altering the game experience in your favor. 

As for IITC, I only used (past tense) the desktop version and I really liked it. It offered the interaction I wish Ingress would have offered. It made working with the game much easier. Some of the features of IITC:

• First and foremost it was much more user friendly.
• Downloadable plugins to further enhance your use.
• Much easier to plan fields
• Player tracker Plug in, you could see where players were recently.
• Sortable list of portals (one of my favorite things would be to track which portals in the area were how old and plan to attacks on the enemy's portals before they earned Guardian Medals)
• You could get the street address for portals often (Great for using navigation to get to unfamiliar portals)
• Counts of portals in a specific area. Good to measure you performance against your opponent.

Once again useful information, but not what I'd consider cheating.

I actually think the Google/ Niantic team should be looking at these things and make changes based on what these products are offering. We've seen that they did shorten the start up animation, and offered a total count of items based on feedback. Hopefully this is just a start.

I Cringe Inside

Wow, I didn't realize how long it has been since my last post.

I've been out there fighting the good fight. I was part of a cool event where members of my faction built a control field yielding nearly a million mind units. I was responsible for clearing the southern most links and capturing the southern target.

But what I wanted to post about today is how I cringe inside when I pass a portal and cant hack it.

This seems to happen for 2 reasons and I don't know which is more annoying. 

First, not that long ago in one of the system updates they apparently installed a script which determines your speed and will not allow you to hack if it calculates your speed is too quick. From what I've read online it appears that they calculate the distance between the last portal you visited and the current one. If your time between the two gives you a speed above ??? then you can not hack, deploy, recharge, etc... 

This system is very flawed. take for example my morning commute today. There is one stoplight I almost always catch. When I'm stopped I hack and recharge it. While I always seem to catch this light it is only for a minute or so tops. Then I get to a stoplight further down the road. Now this light is one I've written about before. As of now it has a level 6 portal on one side and a level 7 portal on the other. I want to catch this light, but almost never do. Well today I caught it and got nothing from either of the hacks. Grrrr.

Now I understand the reasons which have been given as to why this is done:

• To prevent playing while driving---
• I am a responsible adult and do not play in a way which would endanger myself or others. I realize others may not, but that is not an issue with the game that is an issue with the individuals playing. These individuals are putting themselves and others in danger and in most areas probably breaking the law. But Niantic/ Google can't be held responsible for individual's behavior.
• What about commuters/passengers? While I live in a rural area not terribly far from me is a light rail system. Each station has a portal, but you cannot hack those portals from the train. Also, I've been the passenger in vehicles and want to play, but can no longer do so. There is also a portal I use to hit every day on my way home. I would be driving, hand my son the scanner and tell him, "When the hack button lights up, hit it." and he would and I'd get that every day, but not any more. 
• To prevent spoofing--
• Cheaters are going to cheat. Liars are going to lie. Yes this could prevent spoofers, to a certain degree, but maybe if they moved the threshold to a much higher speed one that will not hamper the game play of honest people. 
• By far and away, the vast majority of people play the game fairly. Don't ruin the game on their account we as players will report them, and Ingress can ban them. 

The second thing that makes me cringe is when I'm there looking at a portal and in my mind I can see the portal and it's resonators around it. Unfortunately, I'm with my family and they are not fans of me playing Ingress. A trip to the nearby grocery store has 2 portals on the way and another 3 very close by. After so many times of these "quick trips" being longer than my wife or kids want, I've succumbed to their will. It is just not worth the grief.

Now my plan is to load Ingress on my wife's phone for her and get her playing. She has a friend who plays and I think if she tried it she'd enjoy it. It would be a cool thing for us to do together. My daughter has expressed interest, but she has an iPhone...

My Wishlist for Future Ingress Development

Over the past 8 months or so there have been many upgrades and enhancements to not only the game but to the user experience. I'm sure our friends at Niantic have some great enhancements to come. Here's my pie in the sky list of what I'd like to see in some form or another.

Greater Number of Items in Inventory

2000 items seems like a lot, but like many of you I am hitting my inventory cap several times a week. I would like to be able to have more items at my disposal. Now, I don't think I necessarily need more at any given time, but I think it would be nice to have more items in a cache. The trade off could be that once you put something in your cache it would not be available again to you for 4-5 days. 

Greater Functionality from the Intel Map

Well first lets say I've been really disappointed with the functionality of the Intel Map. One of Google's strengths has always been Google Maps. So I was expecting more. 

I'd like to be able to search for portals with multiple criteria. For example I'd like to only be able to see blue, L7 & 8 portals with links in a certain radius of a given location. 

I would also like to see more game interaction from the Intel Map. When I receive an alert of a portal being under attack I'd like to access my portal keys from my desktop somehow and recharge my resonators. 

I think it would also be great if we could access our inventory from the Intel Map including being able to drop and recycle items.

I would also like to have the ability to redeem codes again through the Intel Map like we use to be able to. 

Portal Invisibility 

Imagine a portal mad where you can make a portal invisible to an individual enemy. So you have a pesky enemy agent when you deploy this mod you can enter a players agent name and the portal will not be visible to them. But a portal equipped with this mod wouldn't be available to be linked to other portals.

Instantly Create a Portal of a Certain Level

When you deploy to a neutral portal you select what level portal you create and the correct resonators are deployed instantly to make that portal. The same rules apply so an individual can not create a L8 portal. But say I want to create a L4 portal I just select a create L4 portal button and it is done. 

Instant Portal

Another cool item the game could add that could be even more rare than Jarvis/ADA is an Item where you can instantly create a portal without any approval needed. Now if you give it an inappropriate name or make it inaccessible to the public, then it would be removed. 

Offensive Weapons

Think of how awesome it would be to have a weapon which can directly used against enemy players. You can fire this weapon at an enemy who is physically in proximity to you and disable their scanner for some period of time say half an hour to an hour.

Another offensive weapon idea would to have a weapon that has a range of a certain distance and when an enemy passes within its range it would fire at them and do damage to their XM levels. These weapons wouldn't appear on an enemy's scanner or Intel Map, but could be destroyed with an XMP of proper level in proper range.

Scanner Mods

I mentioned some mods which attack individual players, so to keep some balance we could offer some scanner mods. Like a scanner shield. The shield could mitigate damage done by offensive weapons, but the trade off would be it would lessen the range/ power of your XMPs or Offensive weapons.

Another scanner mod would be one which would be interesting would be a mod which you can increase your likelihood of obtaining a certain type of item (resonators, bursters, cubes, keys) but not exclusively. If you had this mod set up to increase your chance of getting XMPs you would still get other items just at a proportionally lesser amount.

Care Packages

When I was a leveling player I had some L8 agents help me out by dropping items for me. Some of these larger drops could take half an hour or more to transfer items. What I'd like to see is a way to build into a package. So I can in one package transfer hundreds of items if I wanted. It could be as easy as selecting an item then, selecting the quantity you want to add to the package. Then the intended recipient could just pick up the one care package.

This doing things in bulk could also apply to recycling items too. So you could instantly recycle say all of your L4 XMPs at one time.

Portal Transport

Say I have some items I want to transfer to another player. If I am at one portal and the other player is at a different portal then, I can select what portal I want to send items too. The portals must both be under control of the same faction and items not picked up within a short period of time would decay.

My First Two Encounters with Police while Playing Ingress

Earlier this week I had to go out of town for a funeral. So Monday evening I got in town, settled in, visited with some people. But by 10:00 pm was bored and had nothing planned to do. So I get on the COMM and announce I'm a level 8 player in town and want to help the local community while I was there.

Pretty soon I had a few replies. The other faction had a pretty large level 8 farm in a neighboring town, they were looking for some help taking down then they also needed help building their farm. I'm always in for blowing up enemy portals. So I offer to help do that. I was well stocked with several hundred Level 8 XMPs and dozens of power cubes thanks to the recent doubling the drop rate for cubes. I got on the road and headed to their farm.

I was blowing their portals up with ease. I went up one street and down the next attacking away and introducing Ingress to my younger brother (unfortunately he's an Apple guy and cant get him to play). I get to one street and even though I'm not familiar with the area I can tell the portals are in a park. I, legally, park on the side of the road in a marked parking spot and start firing L8 XMPs. Combining where I parked and the range on the XMPs I could hit all the portals in the park. By now, I've taken out half of the portals and then...

I saw the unmarked car pass by the first time and didn't make any mind of it. But a minute later he came back from behind be and the lights came on; including spotlights.

The officer approaches, very kindly, and tells us were in a park and the park closed at sunset.

I apologized and told him I didn't realize the street was in the park, but I would leave.

He was friendly and said the sign was not easy to see at night, but the entire street passes through the park and the park continued up until the next street. He thanked me and turned away as I pulled away. I unfortunately had to leave some of those portals, while damaged, still in the hands of the other faction.

I continue driving, my brother holding the tablet and navigating me through this unfamiliar territory. I knock out another couple of portals. I then come up to this church that has 3 L8 enemy portals on it's property. I park on the street. Once again I'm parked legally, on the street, in a marked spot in front of this church directly under a streetlight.  I'd been there for a minute or two then comes the same officer again. He pulls in the parking spot beside me, rolls down his window and asks me, "Are you playing that Google game where you have to go places to claim portals for your team and blow up other team's portals?"

I tell him yes as I show him my cell phone.

He goes on about wishing Google would delete the game and that they have gotten some reported possible burglaries that end up with people playing that game. He concludes by telling me that this is a small, sleepy old town that basically closes up completely at 10:00 pm and asks me to call it quits for the night and come back in the morning.

From my best knowledge, he had no legal reason to ask me to stop, I just thought it better to tell him I would stop. While I do not believe he had the legal authority to have me stop. Since I had left the park he admitted was poorly marked, I had done nothing wrong. But arguing was not something that could have any positive effect for me. Besides it was getting late and I think other than the chit-chat and catching up my brother was over playing with me.

In hindsight, I was an easy target for the officer. I was basically the only person moving around in the town, I had an out-of-state license plate and I was stopping frequently and probably seeming strange to anybody who did see me.

But note to others: If you are approached by police, be calm, be polite, tell them exactly what you are doing, and obey any instructions they give you. It's just a game. This officer very likely did not have the legal right/authority to ask me to stop, but is it worth the argument or discussion? No to me, that is not a booger I'm going to pick.

Decode Ingress has a good post about encountering law enforcement you may want to read if you haven't already: Ingress[tip]: Contact with Law Enforcement.

Happy and Safe Hacking!

Must Have Accessories for the Serious Ingress Agent

Sure, for the casual +Ingress  player all you need is a good smartphone and you'll be out there hacking away in a few short minutes. But for the true Ingress Agents (and if you're reading this you are a true agent) you will certainly need more.

Scanner:
From my experience the Google Play Store will allow phones which just don't have the capability to download Ingress. Ingress is a resource hog. You will not only need a good Android powered smartphone, but you will want one with greater resources. Like some of the latest models from Motorola or Samsung.

Tablet:
A tablet??? I have a cool, awesome and powerful smartphone, why would I need a tablet?

Your cool, awesome and powerful smartphone is great as a scanner, but you will need additional resources. Prime example is the Ingress Intel Map. No matter how powerful your smart phone is, the Intel Map blows from a phone; including the mobile version. For serious missions you will need constant access to the Intel Map.

Additionally, if you are part of a local community and use some form of electronic communication for collaborating missions having a tablet will make things a lot easier for you.

Tablets with GPS and their own wireless internet connection work best. Tablets which you are able to tether to your phone and use your phone's data can also work. Be sure to check with your wireless provider's terms.

Charging System:
Okay, you have a car charger that's a start. But to be a real agent that will not be enough. I've said it a million times before. Ingress is a resource hog on your phone. It will drain your phone's battery very quickly. You will hit some target rich environments which are not car accessible like theme parks, large parks or even some urban areas where the freedom of being on foot (or even bike) will be more productive than being in a car.

I immediately bought a portable charger after my recent trip to Disney World. There were so many portals, so much opportunity, but by lunch time every day my scanner was dead. And when you are really addicted to Ingress there is nothing worse than being in a target rich environment and have a dead scanner.

Later this summer I went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg properly equipped and over the course of the day turned the park which was entirely blue to entirely green. From destroying, hacking (enemy portals), building and linking I earned over 160,000 AP on that trip. A real boost to helping me level up.

So, you will need more power. There are a variety of options out there from the barely useful like this mini USB Charger which may get you one additional charge.

To this monster system created by some Resistance agents which can power 8 scanners at once. 

That's probably overkill for most of us. I got this one from Amazon. It has 4 USB ports of various power levels and can recharge my phone AND tablet multiple times making sure I have all the juice I need to have a productive day and even enough to share.

Others get backup batteries. That works too, but I find it more of a hassle to take off my cover, and switch batteries than just plug into my portable USB charger.

Protective Case:

Were out there walking, running, riding around with our scanner in our hand and not always paying the best of attention to the world around us. We have our nose stuck in our scanner as we try to get either close enough to a portal or get that optimal position to deploy or destroy resonators. Because we're not paying the best of attention, we slip and fall, we drop our scanners, we bump into things and any other number of things. Make sure you have a good protective case, not just a cool decorative one. While Geocaching once with some friends going over some unforgiving terrain I had a friend drop his phone onto a rock and bounce into a puddle. Needless to say his phone was then FUBAR. Quite an expensive accident.

Auto Mount:

First and foremost; do not play and drive! 

But, having an auto mount whether it is a vent, dashboard, or windshield mount is a great tool to have. It assists in navigating to unfamiliar portals or having quick access to hack, deploy or attack when stopped or parked.  

There is a a stoplight on my route to and from work that for better or worse I can go a week or two without catching the light. Only in Ingress are you wishing to catch a light on your way to or from work. But when I do from my windshield mount I can get them both. 

Also, in urban settings where you frequently stop park and hack or attack, then move on to the next target.

Google Glass:

You may have seen +Google Glass  in some Ingress Reports. I specifically remember seeing +Klue S.  wearing one in one report, but they pop up from time to time. If you are not familiar with it, check it out here: http://www.google.com/glass/start/ . You also see +Brandon Badger  wearing one if you follow him on Google+.

I'm not certain how it works with Ingress, but man I'd love to get my hands on one. 

Happy Hacking!

Ultra Strike - New Ingress weapon

I've been wanting to post about this for a while. In Episode 19 of The Ingress Report it was announced that there is a new weapon available for +Ingress . The Ultra Strike is a weapon designed to be used against enemy resonators. You can strategically target resonators for an intense burst on a resonator. This burst will have limited range. Ultra Strikes will come in various levels like resonators and XMP Bursters and presumably will be most effective on resonators of the same level or lower. We have been told these items will be pretty common.

And the fans go wild !!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, it was also announced that this weapon can only be hacked using the 3 new Motorola Droid phones...

Oh, not so excited anymore...

But all is not lost, sports fans. While it is still only available to be hacked by the new Motorola phones, they can be shared and used by anyone. Yes, it still makes the majority feel like 1st runner up in a beauty contest it's not all that bad. I personally see limited use for this as a L8 XMP Blaster is highly effective and will destroy so much more.

Initially I was disappointed that these would only be available on the Motorola Phones. But lets look at the money trail. Ingress is done by Google, Google owns/has substantial stake in Motorola. Samsung (The current largest mobile device manufacturer that runs Android)  is testing their own OS, Tizen, in what is seen to move free from Google/Android. So they want to get people to put their money in their own pockets. And honestly I would prefer them making money from Ingress this way versus allowing people to stock up on items by buying them like they are able to do on many games like Farmville.

If/when Ingress starts selling gift cards like this , I will probably be out...

Happy Hacking!