And now with the responses.
Originally shared by Andrew Krug
Hi there! Been a while. It's time for the November Ingress Prime AMA! You know the drill. Post your questions now about Ingress Prime in the comments!
I will reach out to the experts on staff if I can't answer something myself. This means it may take a while before I publish the answers. At the rate this week is going, it might be late next week before the answers are published.
Edit 1: Disabling comments
Edit 2: Posting the selected Q/A. The team knew you had some pressing immediate questions. So kudos to them for rallying and helping me get this published in record time.
Q1: Josh Stock - The Ingress.com re-launch had several codes embedded within. One of them resolved to “ingress prime releases nov 18”, which would have been the day after the November Recursion Prime anomalies. Ingress Prime obviously released on Nov 5. Was the timing of the launch as expected?
A1: It was expected. I had made my flight arrangements to be in San Francisco to support the launch a while back. What happened was the code on the website was supposed to say “Nov 2018” and not “Nov 18”. Human error that was amplified by the fact that the 18th is the day after the Anomaly. So everyone jumped to the logical conclusion that I would also have made. A perfect storm for a bad typo.
Q2: Josh Stock - Are you, personally, satisfied with the execution of this week’s Ingress Prime launch and the way in which it was communicated to the player base?
A2: Satisfied? I am actually. From a technical standpoint there were a few issues. But they were resolved pretty quickly. I don’t think any issues related to launch existed by end of day except an odd one with some odd email addresses. That's being fixed and the impact is minimal. So from that standpoint it went pretty good. There are obviously some game play/usability bugs we need to fix and those are a priority. Those are being worked on currently. In terms of communication, obviously the typo I mentioned in question one didn’t help. Let’s face it, there is always room for improvement in everything. I would have liked to do more teasing about the release date. There was an idea early on to change the time in screenshots from 13:31 (which is our standard) to 11:05. That sadly never happened.
Q3: Josh Stock - Does Niantic have plans to offer some manner of faction validation to communities, and if so, what is it? (This could be as simple as putting a “THIS IS ME” icon on your own profile and leaving it off when looking at others’ profiles in the scanner, or as complex as an API for validating your IGN to the Auth via Google/Facebook/other Authentication sources.)
A3: This is something I’ve been advocating for. I believe it is on our long-term development roadmap. Our Product Manager confirmed there is interest in user validation but we have to weigh it against all of our other priorities which won’t likely happen until the servers and backend are upgraded.
Q4: Josh Stock - Reviewing a “brief” outline of the Ingress Prime Beta release program announcements, promises, and actions (listed below), can you please forward to the folks in charge of Player Communication how frustrating it is to have such scattershot and inconsistent communication? A great summary of the “complaint”: https://plus.google.com/u/1/+JesseHarrisUtah/posts/7v8uf6KMhts
A4: We’ve already started having deep conversations on how to do better and some changes have already started to occur internally. Your point is valid and not lost on us.
Q5: Ruin Dig - About hashtags. Divide into #Ingress and #IngressPrime, and mixed use with both hashtags(it means… #Ingress posts and other #IngressPrime posts each exist same time)are not good at search with hastags, or characters limitation on Twitter(Japanese limitation is 140characters). So, should we use #Ingress on SNS like Twitter and Instagram and etc. ?
A5: I would use #IngressPrime. Anyone doing a search for Ingress will find it and be returned results that use #IngressPrime.
Q6: Gaby G - Could you pass the suggestion to bring the nearest portals quick view back in Ingress Prime? It's a very useful feature when visiting new places.
A6: The Product Team confirms that this is on the parity roadmap for Ingress Prime.
Q7: Kirby “Wo1fi3” Ross - What are your plans for the weekend?
A7: Absolutely nothing. Spending time with family and friends since I’ve been out of town all week.
Q8: Joe Francis (Hoyathegr8) - Where are the local scores and leaderboards?
A8: On October 15th we released our Ingress Prime developer roadmap - https://plus.google.com/+Ingress/posts/BgmcHANWM8K. The regional scoreboard is designated as being implemented in 2019 (probably early in the year) for Ingress Prime.
Q9: Steven Cunningham - With the Pokémon Go POI Submissions Beta being rolled out, is there any new information you can tell us about making OPR more accessible for Ingress Players or giving OPR access Pokémon Go players?
A9: There are no short-term plans to change the Ingress access level for OPR.
Q10: Kayleigh McWhyte - Will Niantic consider a more legible overlay for Prime? I am having difficulty reading the screen at tiny fonts on my iPhone SE.
A10: I spoke to our Product Manager, who coincidentally has an iPhone SE. He agrees they are small. Our design team is taking all of the feedback in and will be working on optimizations and changes in the coming months. We would love to get your feedback when we make future changes.
Q11: Jeremy Sylvis - What does it take to get Niantic to actually consult the community regarding potentially controversial game-changing actions, e.g. introducing pay-to-win microtransactions in the form of in-game items?
A11: We didn’t do a good enough job of vetting this idea. There is no way to sugarcoat it or spin this. Changes have already happened internally to help mitigate that this doesn’t happen again.
Q12: Jud Burkett (canon07) - What do you think about a Mission Day National Parks style?
A12: We have a person on staff with connections to the National Parks Foundation. They coordinated the GORUCK/National Parks events. I ran it by them and they really liked the idea. I can’t promise anything will come of it but there is support for the concept so let’s see if we can make something happen in 2019.
Q13: Gaby G - Are there any plans to translate the voice in the scanner to other lenguages with Ingress Prime?
A13: Not at this time beyond English and Japanese.
Q14: Jud Burkett (canon07) - Can you ask the OPR folks for their thoughts on bike share stations? Seems to me like they’d be a great “get out and explore” type of portal.
A14: NIA OPS replied, “These are similar to transit stations, if these are large enough, have a structure, or are artistic, these could be considered. If it's just a regular bike rack, it wouldn't meet our criteria.”
Q15: Sascha W. (Pentagress) - Until when will it be possible to use the recurse Option?
A15: This is a permanent feature. There are no plans to remove it at this time.
Q16: Sascha W. (Pentagress) - Are there any News about the Year six badge and double AP Time?
A16: We will be making an announcement early next week.
Q17: Sara (Begarles) - I have to disable my VPN with Prime. Just me, intentional or a bug?
A17: When I travel I use a VPN. I don’t want any bad actors snooping my mobile activity. They don’t need to see how terrible I am on at Glyph hacking. I just tried using my VPN with Ingress Prime and it worked. So it might be something else going on with your device. But please report this, if you haven’t already, on http://reddit.com/r/IngressPrimeFeedback so we can track it and look into it.
Q18: Sam Bowen - Who did you vote for?
A18: I have a rule of thumb, which is not to share my perspective on politics or campaigns. Ingress is the great equalizer. Are you green or blue? That’s what matters in the world of Ingress Prime.
Q19: Sara (Begarles) - Can Prime and Scanner [REDACTED] be open at the same time on the same device with the same account?
A19: NIA OPS says, “We don’t recommend having your account open on more than one device at a time.”
Q20: Matt Stevenson (BigMatty) - Will Ingress [Redacted] be updated to show the prestige levels of multiple Onyx tiers?
A20: No. All future improvements will be Prime focused.
Q21: YutoRaion - I want to know new Investigation reports ASAP. so how to track new Investigation Board? do you have any options?
A21: http://ingress.com/investigate/
Q22: Avinash Desai - Why that passcode button below all that store items and bad way to input in the text box .. why not make easy like a button like store and give access to easily redeem them ??
A22: That’s fair feedback. I’ll pass it along. The Product Team says that the general idea was to do this so that obtaining new items happens in one place and to reduce the number of menus/buttons you have to click on. We are talking about ideas to improve this.
Q23: Alison N - The icon for agents who have recursed looks suspiciously like the logo for the Washington Capitals. The simulacrum badge looks an awful lot like the DC United logo. Will we be seeing more iconography from DC sports teams on the year 6 badge? Perhaps a curly W?
A23: Did you know W is the atomic symbol for Tungsten and that its atomic number is 74. Did you know the Washington Capitals started in 1974 and that John Carlson’s number is 74?!?
Q24: Pongo Lyn - In future Ingress anomalies, can players count on dedicated NIA Gamemaster support (i.e. not player volunteers, who are usually attending and playing these events on the ground) for quick response to serious gameplay issues such as spoofing?
A24: The Anomaly POCs are currently in a Slack channel with direct access to our NIA Gamemaster. NIA OPS also wants to remind you that, “We also have Ops support during the Anomaly for cheat reports received via the help center.”
Q25: Dave Dial (vstarpappy) - Recipe for your spaghetti.
A25: I see what you did there. You tried to trip me up to correct you that it is a secret lasagna recipe and to post it. Nice try. Spaghetti… ick.
Q26: Losifer Los - would tornado sirens count as a unique form of architecture that is prominent(sort of like water towers or windmills) in areas that have the need for them as an early warning system? They’re also normally
A26: I asked NIA OPS and they agreed that if they are unique in construction or have some sort of artwork associated with it like some painted electrical boxes do. Otherwise, if it is just a random loud speaker on a wooden pole - no.
Q27: Troy Baird - Where is the best place to suggest improvements?
A27: Currently, the best thing is to visit https://www.reddit.com/r/IngressPrimeFeedback. That subreddit was created by players who are curating feedback for us and inputting into a publicly accessible spreadsheet for tracking and transparency. We are monitoring it and it has been a great resource for us.
Q28: Gaby G - Recently PokemonGo launched a new feature that count the distance you travel even when the app is closed and synchronize that distance to the game. That would be an amazing feature to help with the Trekker badge. Is it possible that we could have it "Soon" with Prime?
A28: The wonderful thing about this feature is that it is a Niantic platform feature. We are hoping to make this available to Ingress Prime once the servers and backend are upgraded. Implementing it will be weighed and have to prioritized against all the other things we want to do. But we would love to get your feedback when the time comes to understand how important it is to you.
Q29: Losifer Los - could we get clarification on what makes art galleries viable candidates?
A29: NIA OPS states, that this falls under, "Venues that showcase fine art (e.g., performance art theaters and museums)" in our criteria. Permanently placed objects within the galleries may be eligible to be submitted as a Portal in addition to the gallery itself.”
Q30: Aliza Panitz - Every AMA lately has included at least one question about difficulties with the mission approval process, and every AMA has included an answer that says "read the mission submission guidelines." We'd love to read the mission approval guidelines that Niantic staff are following, because they don't seem to be the same ones that mission creators have been given to read... I realize that NIA staff don't have the time to write detailed rejection letters for each mission, and that it's apparently undesirable to create rejection form letters that list one reason instead of a whole laundry list, but a detailed review of a handful of rejected missions would help the community as a whole understand how to create better missions and possible even reduce the current cycle of "resubmit repeatedly with minor changes until it is accepted."
A30: NIA OPS replied, “The rejection emails are customized per category but may include more than one reason if the Mission has multiple issues. We have been discussing posting tips on our social channels and users should see this soon.”
Q31: Losifer Los - in the sports field clarification from last AMA, there was quite a bit of chaos concerning whether it was intended that a sports field without a sign could or should be given less than 5 stars. Many thought that it was could rather than should because most sports fields can be easily verified by google maps or photospheres; and the requirement of a sign disqualifies anywhere between 50-80% of sports fields in any given town often depending upon the affluence of a town. That would in effect punish rural communities most of all being that they tend to be the least affluent. A little more clarification there may be necessary. Could suggests that Niantic is aware of the reality that there is a problem with rogue reviewers/reviewers not up to date with the guidelines, while should seems to run contrary to the spirit of the game and the current mode suggesting that Niantic desires more POI rather than fewer; as well as aiding the rural communities in gaining more POI.
A31: NIA OPS input is, “There needs to be a physical object that ties to the Portal, so players know where to expect it to be. Middle of a sports field is usually not a good location.”
Q32: Lizzy - Will Niantic be issuing refunds for OPR live for the next anomaly, since submitting new portals, edits, etc., is a function not available on Ingress Prime?
A32: Scanner [REDACTED] is out for Android and by the time this AMA is published should hopefully be out for iOS as well. Since the Portal submission functionality exists in Scanner [REDACTED] there will be no refunds provided at this time for users with Scanner [REDACTED] access. If for some reason you do not have Scanner [REDACTED] access and bought a ticket for OPR then I would suggest submitting an event related help center ticket via this form: https://support.ingress.com/hc/requests/new?ticket_form_id=103237
Q33: Kirby “Wo1fi3” Ross - If you had a choice between Italian and Japanese food what would you pick?
A33: Easy! Italian Sushi for the best of both worlds! http://bit.ly/2SUDIR0
Q34: Has Niantic decided to transfer the official community from G+ to Reddit? If not, when and where we will be?
A34: Reddit’s rules aren’t very clear on something like this. They have rules against self-promotion and rules against a moderator being compensated. So I’m not sure how this would shake out if we tried a public subreddit. I reached out to them for clarification but haven’t heard back. There are some other options we are exploring. Thankfully, we have some time.
Q35: Heather H (qingdai) - will we see more ADA friendly graphics?
A35: I spoke to our Ingress Prime Product Manager and he said, “This is important to us and our design team is looking into it starting now but we need their help.” Please provide feedback using the http://reddit.com/r/IngressPrimeFeedback so we can track and collate the feedback on this topic.
Q36: Ronnie “shadefromtrees” Smith - Can I have a couch portal already?
A36: Sure. Purchase a vacant commercial lot. Put your couch in the middle of it. State the hours that is is open to the public to enjoy. Hire Banksy to paint it. Take a picture of it and submit it. Voila! Couch Portal.
Q37: Troy Baird - Quick fire prime questions! What's your favorite feature? What feature do you miss the most? What feature are you looking forward to? What prime feature do you dislike the most.
A37: I love having my inventory count right on the main screen and being clickable… wait… mass recycle. Can I have two favorite features? Ohh… a third would be the swipe and button long press options. Too many I can’t pick one! I’m looking forward to renaming capsules. I am not a fan of the passcode entry on Android being at the bottom of the store screen.
Q38: Hurricane Chaser - Hey there, any idea when the "cannot find account" issue will be fixed, or if you know what the problem is? Really can't wait to play Prime but can't because of this issue.
A38: We are aware of this and there is a fix coming.
Q39: Thomas Pimlott IV (AMS07Aries) - What benefits will we see for participating in recursion?
A39: The act of recursing in the video game world is more commonly known as prestiging. The benefits currently are purely cosmetic as a trophy for resetting and leveling up again. Our Product Manager told me that, “Based on participation and interest, our game designer is considering some additional ways to extend it.” More information about the current implementation of Recursing can be found here: https://support.ingress.com/hc/articles/360002076467-Recursion
Q40: Daniel “SDiZ” Cheng - If you are an anomaly-planner, how would you handle an anomaly-goer hitted the recurse button because he want that onxy yearly badge?
A40: I think it is a personal choice and I don’t think the outcome of any Anomaly is going to be determined by a handful of people who are no longer at least level eight. The margins for success are just not that thin. Anyone who is L16 or was an L16 and recursed will get the Onyx anniversary medal.
Q41: Yazmín Quintanilla - On the previous version of the scanner the faction changes where only available by a request outside the app and could only be done once. With the Recursion button, agents have the opportunity to change faction, when reaching level 16. If a Player requested a FC before, with the Recursion the posibilty is open again, or the FC is still once in a lifetime thing even for recursing agents? Also, is there a limit to how many times an agent could recurse?
A41: If you change your faction before, you will still get the choice to change your faction again when you choose to Recurse. I am told this is can be currently done multiple times with no limit.
Q42: Pedro Owsik (padalabra) - Was the launch of Prime moved up so you wouldn't have to answer (as many) OPR questions during your monthly AMA? Unrelated: C25K progress? I'm doing terrible.
A42: HAHAHA no. But it seems SOMETHING either happens on the days I do them or move them to. So in the future, always pay attention when the AMA’s are supposed to happen. C25K? I had to give up. However, I have started the Keto diet several weeks ago and already lost 6 pounds. So I got that goin’ for me.
Q43: Chen Liu - Would Niantic consider open-source Ingress 1.0 once you fully migrate to Prime?
A43: No.
Q44: Shane Nunn (HeyThatGuy R16) - What is up with getting the following message in prime, "Ingress is not supported on this device configuration". I have the Google Pixel 3 so how is it not compatible?
A44: I’m not sure. I have a Pixel 3 XL and do not get that message. I would contact our Ingress support (http://support.ingress.com) and see if they can help troubleshoot the issue. Also take a look at the support device information. Maybe there is something that will be obvious and standout. Also, remember, rooted devices won't work: https://support.ingress.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002055388-Supported-Devices
Q45: Ethern Su - Will the second ocf participation be counted in the ocf badge? Give the situation that there is still no counting in the current ocf, stealth, prime challenge, and intel ops badges.
A45: Yes it will be counted. All of those medals will be/are tiered. There will be an upcoming scanner update to reflect this in the coming few months.
Q46: Chen Liu - did you/Niantic noticed our petition about the in-game store gear selling issue?
A46: As a community manager it was brought to my attention, yes.
Q47: Losifer Los - Are there any plans to display the status of portal submissions? what ratings they’re receiving, how many reviews they’ve received, and a way to see/report/track a submission that appears to have gone into limbo(where you do not get the submission back after logging out and back/uninstalling & reinstalling) and never receive a confirmation email?
A47: There are ongoing discussions about new features. Nothing have been decided yet though.
Q48: Hurricane Chaser - Will there ever be content in Prime that takes advantage of Android's AR Core and iOS's AR Kit?
A48: Our Product Manager said, “In 2019 we will be building new features for Prime, including ones that take advantage of the Niantic Real World Platform, which does leverage AR Core and AR Kit”
Q49: Aaron P “IotaPrime” - Will there be improvements to what I can do as a player for making the game more my own? Rearranging my own badges seems rather innocuous, has it been considered as a feature?
A49: We’ve a lot of discussions about things like this. Most of these are unlikely to come until after the servers are upgraded. I wish I could be more specific but at this time there isn’t anything more that I can share.
Q50: Bill Bourret - What do you think about propelling the electric vehicle movement by approving car charging stations as portals in Ingress?
A50: NIA OPS says that all potential Portals have to adhere to the same Portal criteria when being submitted. If there is an artistic element to them, maybe. But otherwise, no.
Q51: Aaron Breen (Breenzy) - How is Niantic addressing portals and then fields made from restricted access portals? Many agents have quit and slowed down play, especially newer ones because of these large fields that can't be dropped, and needing to wait for the faction who put them up, to take them down. Do you consider such portals within the spirit of the game?
A52: I’m not sure I understand the question. Restricted or limited access Portals may be valid Portals if they meet the criteria of a Portal. There is not a requirement that every person be able to access a Portal. Both factions utilize these types of Portals globally and they have been part of the game since earliest days. Therefore, I don’t find them against the spirit of the game.
Q52: [REDACTED]
Q53: Mick Preston - What is the over/under for Rhetorical questions for this months AMA ?
A53: 42
Q54: Zeke Egherman - Pretty much all ingress players are unpaid volunteers to help you earn money. (Submitting portals, OPR, etc) Why do you need to monetize this game and earn money on top of your free labor?
A54: Unfortunately, we have to pay our Ingress server hosting bills and development team to keep the game going. We tried paying them both in Nianticoin but they didn’t accept it.
Q55: Rodrigo Díaz Orellana (ardéis) - Next AMA will be hosted on Reddit?
A55: Most likely not.
Q56: Mathilde Poussin (Brunissende) - Why did you release Prime beta as an "update" of the actually ingress classic less than 2 weeks before a round of anomaly?
A56: Releasing it as an update ensured that all of our users have a seamless way to receive Ingress Prime. It also makes the inevitable force upgrade possible and painless. We also retain all the feedback and ratings so people understand what it is about on the app stores when they discover it.
Q57: ミウツーmiu2d4r - Hi, Andrew, have you watched anime yet? The reputation in Japan that has already been released seems to be quite good. There are many people 's impressions that they want to see continuation. Please give me comments that will make me expect.
A57: I have watched it. As you know, in Japan, the reception has been extremely positive. I really love the animation style and artwork. Will it continue after this season? I have no idea.
Q58: M C - Regarding anomalies, will the announcement of cities for future events such as anomalies be done in advance like what they did before for the prime series?
A58: That is certainly the intent
Q59: M C - Will there be a challenge like the Cassandra neutralizer in the future?
A59: Oh yes. When? I’m not authorized to reveal that information yet.
Q60: M C - For the upcoming anomaly weekend, do we need to use Ingress prime or can we use the scanner redacted version?
A60: Hot off the press before I hit publish from our Product Team -- Portal Ornaments will be in Ingress Prime in time for the November 17th Anomaly.
Q61: M C - Will there be a better OPR system?
A61: OPR is constantly being improved and tweaked.
Q62: M C - Is it possible for satellite cities for anomalies to have the option to buy official shirts by niantic?
A62: What is currently offered for sale is what will be available I’m told.
Q63: M C - Will there be a physical card for those who purchased the digital readiness bundle?
A63: The digital bundle is… wait for it… digital. That said we have had conversations about doing something like giving a physical Anomaly card to people who check-in. But those are just conversations at this point and unlikely to occur for November 17th.
Q64: IloveMATH (IloveMATH) - When will the PAC's daily investigate and Jojo's Word of the day come back? Will Verum Inveniri send us any intels during the next anomaly?
A64: PAC’s investigation now lives here and updates weeky: https://ingress.com/investigate/. As for VI, I really can’t speak for that group as they operate in great secrecy.
Q65: Fred Espenscheid - When can we expect to be able to start recruiting new agents through the scanner again?
A65: We are still debating if and how to bring this back.
Q66: Warren Stark - What things would you do different if this was all over again?
A66: Make sure there wasn’t a typo in the hidden code on the website and the obvious stuff. No sense in beating a dead horse, as we say in the U.S.
Q67: Soylent Grien - Serious question: What options for portal appeals are being considered for when Google+ shuts down?
A67: We are still in the planning stages and exploring options.
Q68: Soylent Grien - Silly question: Elvis or Beatles?
A68: Skinny Elvis and early Beatles.
Q69: Brian Aydemir (Toxoplasmolly) - What notable things have you seen individuals and communities do to strengthen cross-faction relationships in an area?
A69: Not to take the concept of Portal ownership too seriously and treat each other as people who just happen to have different beliefs on how to accept alien technology and information. We are all human beings. Just be nice to others. The rest will happen organically.
Q70: Douglas Sines - What are some things to expect with improvements to Ingress Prime within the following month?
A70: Our Development Team tells me, “The dev team is addressing several areas: Attacking, Linking, login errors, localization, street visibility, and adding Portal Ornaments in the coming versions of Ingress Prime.”
Q71: Douglas Sines - How much will Niantic look at input from the new subreddit?
A71: Almost daily. When users flagged the issues with attacking and linking we immediately started to investigate this and added it to our priority list of things to fix. We might not always comment on things. But we are watching it closely and the moderators are doing a heroic job curating all the content. Their passion to help make Ingress better is extremely appreciated.
Q72: Lucas 'Ktulu789' - Would you consider useful an option to toggle the streets white? For daylight playing and LCD screens it would be great to see the map when it is not "scanning" or doing the "wave/radar thing" without having to crank the brightness to 155%. Optional and with toggle button, for everyone's happiness.
A72: Our Product Manager says, “We have made changes to the streets to hopefully improve visibility. You should see this in 2.12 or 2.13 release, so please give us your feedback after that.” Side note: How do you get your screen to be brighter than 100%? I can’t even find juice drinks that are more than 10% juice and you get 155% screen brightness. Do you own a Blackberry?
Q73: Lingqi Wu - Hi Andrew. I have a story to tell about the lifetime AP in the profile. Some of agents like me have changed their faction or cleaned their AP before this “Recursion” functionality appears(let’s call it from generation 1 to generation 2). And for these guys when they click the recurse button(for a 3nd generation ), they can easily find out that the AP they gained in generation 1 don’t count in the lifetime AP. I think this doesn’t match the common sense as the lifetime AP it shows don’t match the effort of an agent’s lifetime. How do you think about this and is there anything can be done for this?
A73: Prior to Ingress Prime there were no promises of retaining your lifetime AP statistic. If you changed factions your AP started over from 0. We won’t be retroactively changing things.
Q74: Inu kun - Do lower player than 16 could recurse?
A74: No, they cannot.
Q75: Dave M - Will you recurse? Are there plans for bacon beacons?
A75: Oh man… that’s a big commitment. Will you help me level back up? I’ve been trying to get bacon beacons put in to the game for years. No one else seems to share my enthusiasm for the salty cured pork based meat treat like I do though.
Q76: Sebastian “Sellyme” Lamerichs - Was it a conscious decision to launch Prime before it was as fully-featured as the original client, or was this the result of a poorly-run beta testing phase?
A76: This was a conscious decision. It was also communicated in advance that this would be the case. In fact, we released a developer roadmap almost a month ago stating this.
Q77: Anton Shvecov - Starting in October, NIA OPS stopped accepting missions with icons, the image of which I painted personally and only for missions in Ingress. The argument is very simple - the picture is not yours and we do not accept such missions. What needs to be done to convincingly show that it was me who drew the image for mission icons?
A77: NIA OPS said, “There has been no change in policy since October. Images created by the author are acceptable as long as they do not infringe on anyone's copyrights.”
Q78: Rory Maginnis (Greebz) - Are you expecting any changes to the rules for the next round of anomalies? Any time line for the rules and playboxes being released?
A78: I don’t anticipate any changes from the October ruleset. We haven’t made mid-series rule changes since… I can’t remember honestly. It has been years. As for timing. The last few years has seen them be published anywhere from the week of to two weeks prior to the Anomaly.
Q79: Sebastian “Sellyme” Lamerichs - Given that the #1 complaint about the Ingress client over the last five years has been high data usage and excessive battery drain, what was the rationale behind exacerbating this problem by adding portal photos into COMMs for every single action, and greenlighting a new interface that uses so much more battery unnecessarily?
A79: Our Development Team says, “According to our tests, base data usage is the same or less than Ingress 1.x. There are certainly cases, like with loading photos in Comm, that fall outside this. We haven't yet focused on optimizing data usage beyond this but we've heard from players they have interest in it”
Q80: Mustafa Said - Serious question: is it possible that Archetypes are going to make an appearance in the Scanner for Agents to tinker with?
A80: I have to be honest. While we have a dream list of things we want to do, and this is certainly on the list in some form or fashion, the focus now turns to feature parity, bug fixes, and the server upgrade. Once the latter is complete we’ll have a better roadmap of what is going to happen when in terms of new things. I just can’t comment much on those ideas at this time.
Q81: Mustafa Said - Silly question: when is the MuMu medal coming out?
A81: No set of pixels would do you justice.
Q82: chemdraw enlkr (chemdraw)- Several attempts have been made to privatize the portal by entering Real name or IGN and modification of the portal. The same applies from PokemonGo. I got many reports from agents. We believe that incorrect information is causing serious flaws in the portal network. And there is also a new way of cyberbullying that destroys reputation by putting the real name of the agent who hate. Has there been a discussion about by renaming like this? Are there any countermeasures?
A82: From our NIA OPS team, “Our Portal/Pokéstop guidelines mention "Please do not include real names, codenames/trainer names, faction or group names". In addition OPR guidelines also mention that 'Titles/Descriptions with player name/codenames' should be rejected. If you notice any Portals that violate the criteria, please submit an edit report via the Scanner.”
Q83: Cliff Martin (CliffM) - Is attacking in Ingress Prime broken, or is it the new normal?
A83: This is a known issue that is being currently worked on and I’m told should be in the 2.12 or 2.13 release.
Q84: Rob Muir - I would appreciate a clarification for decorative objects placed to mark a driveway entrance to a private residence (decorated posts, rocks, other objects). They're clearly in front of private residences, but unclear whether they're in the road allowance or not. They're definitely placed and maintained by the property owner. Presuming they are unique enough to meet other portal criteria, should they be treated as private residential property?
A84: NIA OPS says, “If they are on a private residence and managed by the property owner, these should be considered as Private Residential and should receive a one star.”
Q85: Randy Booz (Wyndmyr) - Since NIA's selling gear now for pay to play, can we pay for real answers in the AMA now too? We still have tons of questions that have never actually been answered, and with a cash grab this transparent, pay for answers seems like the next step.
A85: Wait… I can make money off of this? Someone send me a Learjet catalog -- ASAP!!!! I want the one with a pink cashmere interior and creamy peanut butter on tap!
Q86: Randy Booz (Wyndmyr) - Why has the new version of Prime been released with missing functionality?
A86: We decided it would be best to release it now and continue to improve it and update it over time. This was communicated with the release of our developer roadmap we posted a month ago. You will receive a bill for $20,000 USD for answering this question.
Q87: Randy Booz (Wyndmyr) - When will NIA start selling anomaly badges and other profile badges in the store?
A87: Great question. There is no established timeline, but, it is being explored as a way to streamline things. More than likely after the server upgrades are complete. Since it was a good question you will only be charged $10,000 USD for this answer. That’s a 50% discount!
Q88: Randy Booz (Wyndmyr) - Will you be introducing any new and innovative ways to pay for preferencial portal submissions beyond the current OPR Live, and if so, do you know what the pricing models will be?
A88: Nothing is planned at this time. I think I have to charge you by the word for this one. Shall we say $500 USD per word?
Q89: Randy Booz (Wyndmyr) - Will you reset and repair the counters for agents who lost their Sojourner, because the unannounced update to Prime prevented access to some scanners?
A89: I have to be honest, I’m not personally aware of anyone who lost a sojourner during launch. In fact, I hadn’t even thought of it until you mentioned it since nothing has been brought to my attention. If anyone out there was impacted, they should submit a ticket and reach out to me. I don’t know what we can do. But it will be good to track and understand what if any impact there was. Now -- your bill. I’ll give you the launch week special of buy 3 get a 4th free. So by my tally I think it’s around $20.8 million. The cost of a Learjet 85. Gas up the jet we are going to Cabo!!!!
Q90: Shivendra Singh - Hi Andrew, what is the stance on portals located inside no photography zones which are already live.
A90: The TOS states that players should abide by local laws. Niantic has no way to verify every law that is applied to every parcel of land and when those laws were enacted and applied for every Portal. It just isn’t feasible. You agree to abide by the TOS when you start playing. Don’t break a law to submit a Portal. As always, property owners and managers can request that Portals be removed. NIA OPS also wanted me to remind people to, “Not use third party photos or apps to submit Portals in these locations.”
Q91: Dany Tardif (C4RB0N) - If you had full decision power, what would be the ONE feature you would introduce ? Make us dream a bit!
A91: Oh wow, just one?! I really have to say, as a player to travels a lot and who has a lot of keys from places that embody my travels and last six years of life, renaming capsules would be AWESOME so I can keep track of things easier.
Q92: Hsinergy - As Ingress 6th anniversary approaches, feedback on the underwhelming performance by NIA Ops have been plenty. From the inability / unwillingness to detect multiple accounts, inventory laundering, short distance location spoofing to slow in action to ban the blatant bots and spoofers.
There have been many promises from NIA Ops to take fair play seriously and enforcing their own rules - the results simply do not meet the players' expectation.
* referencing previous AMA, G+ posts from various communities, comments from players in the post of NIA Ops
Governance and transparency are almost non-existent with NIA Ops. From cases of
- auto-ticket closure (lack of governance)
- inconsistent handling of tickets (from action taken to number of days to review tickets)
- Survey form is is not even provided when the requester request for it once the ticket is closed.
- It seems that there is no audit on the quality / detail of investigation carried out by NIA Ops. (e.g: Some tickets on blatant spoofers got close without tangible action)
Are NIA Ops able to share on what are the changes they are implementing with ingress prime on fair play (e.g: more staff to police fair play) as well as the improvements in place in terms of governance and transparency.
A92: You concerns were raised with NIA OPS. They want me to pass along that they are hard at work improving the support program. They are reading your feedback and although they might not be able to respond to all of the concerns raised on social media they are reading them and prioritizing new tasks to improve things. Keep raising issues and sharing your opinion so we can continue to gather the feedback improve.
Q93: Jacob Dalley - Why does Ingress Prime need access to my contacts?
A93: It is for the inevitable sharing feature that will be coming.
Q94: Simon Shaw - Can we expect frequent updates to Prime with bug fixes or will it be a more 'periodic' rollout method?
A94: In the short-term, yes. The Development Team tells me, “Generally speaking (excluding holidays or similar) the team is trying to keep to a two week release cycle. Long-term, it is too early to comment.
Q95: Lukas von Allmen (lvona) - What do you think about a Itemlimit 8000 instead of 2000
A95: I’m not a fan.
Q96: Gary Tolley - Grogyan - Why couldn't Prime have waited until the end of the Recursion Prime Anomaly series, such that it lines up with the current state of game play?
A96: A lot of things were considered. Ultimately, it was decided the best path was to release it on November 5th so we could get it out to all of our players, not just the few that attend Anomalies, and start working on the next phases of development. We've also didn't want to launch it too late into the holiday season as well.
Q97: Gary Tolley - Grogyan - What is the current minimum hardware support for Prime?
A97: The minimum requirements can be found here: https://support.ingress.com/hc/articles/360002055388-Supported-Devices
Q98: Dylan Roberts (Fishermansfear) - My question to you. Will you ever, or think about visiting the Oregon Coast?
A98: I’ve already been and will gladly go back. The first time (and last time) I went skydiving was at Skydive Oregon just south of Portland.
Q99: Thibasch (Thibasch) - are there some restrictions on who can edit a portal location or can even a level 1 player submit such an edit? Shouldn’t Niantic remove this right to lower levels?
A99: There's no level restriction on submitting Edits and Invalid Portal reports, but they will be reviewed (by the community in the case of Edits) before the report is accepted. We don’t want to limit people from reporting potentially dangerous or unsafe Portals.
Q100: 石野浜(Zeronofu) - I want to invite my friend to Ingress Prime. Does Ingress Prime have plans to support Recruiter?
A100: Similar to question 65, we are still debating if and how to bring this back.
Q101: Dorota P. (Dorka79) - Can we finally know which city in Japan will have anomaly in March A101: Things are taking a little longer than anticipated to confirm the new city and venue. I don’t have a specific day that an announcement will be soon and be several months ahead of the actual event allowing proper time to plan and organize.
Q102: Viktor Lennert (geozukunft) - Tea or Coffee?
A102: Chai tea. Flat white coffee. The world is too awesome to just have to pick one as a favorite.
Q103: Martin Zehetmayer (Angrox) - Reddit or GDocs Calc sheets? What would you prefer to track bugs and issues?
A103: Long-term or short-term because my answer would different depending on the timeline. Neither in the long-term. A combination of both in the short-term.
Q104: Tobias Hansen (MonoTovarisj) - Did Niantic kill of agent stats and other stats trackers on purpose or by accident?
A104: Agent Stats is a third-party software application not published or provided by Niantic.
Q105: Martin Zehetmayer (Angrox) - Will we get an Ingress Community Manager in Europe?
https://twitter.com/Nerdmeetsyou/status/1059556013383340035
A105: Dominik is our European Ingress Community Manager. He supports both products. We celebrated his hiring back in July: https://plus.google.com/+Ingress/posts/KHh2RFAheBN
Q106: Kosh TheRipper (KoshTheRipper) - Andrew Krug will there be WearOS support put into Prime?
A106: This is something that is not planned.
Q107: Filip Talpa - Hey Andrew why does prime calculate distances differently than scanner redacted?
A107: Thanks for flagging this. It’s been passed along and I'm told is fixed already in the next update.
Q108: Raul Swain (RLupus) - Will niantic be placing limits on purchased gear?
A108: We are absolutely going to be considering this and monitoring things.
Q109: Snehal Ghone - Happy Diwali from all the Indians Andrew!.. How long is the redacted scanner expected to be available in the play store? 6 months?
A109: Until we reach feature parity which we hope to have sooner rather than later. I wish I could give you a more concrete answer. We have our list of tasks and are working on them.
Q110: Florian Müller (keibertz) - Are you aware of the fact that if a new agent chancel the ingress prime tutorial in the setting he is instant a RES agent without any chance to choose the faction.
A110: We are aware and a fix is coming. NIA OPS says that, “In the meantime, if anyone would like to switch to Enlightened that were impacted by this, they can request for a faction change.”
Q111: Paul Davies - On the opening screen for Prime it shows the Global score but unless there’s a global event on few people really care about global score. It would be more interesting to be given the option to see your current cell score as that is more relevant to most players as it’s something they can affect and gives them local bragging rights
A111: Personally, no. The game is about Enlightened versus Resistance. Not the Enlightened of New York versus the Resistance of New York. Everything you do is for the sake of humanity as a whole. Not just your neighbor down the street. That being said, maybe there is a compromise that could incorporate the local stats somehow. However, that screen is shown as we try to locate you in the world. So how would it know what cells data to display? Hrmm.
Q112: Florian Müller (keibertz) - Why is the settings text and much of the other prime ingame text blue?
A112: The text in the settings screen is gray/white and most of the other text is purple, which is the color of XM I am told. If you are seeing blue in comms then it’s like there are Resistance Agents active near you as their actions are colored to that of their faction.
Q113: Arctic Rebel - What sort of time frame would you personally find ideal for portal submissions to make it through OPR? A week? A month, maybe 6 months?
A113: As long as it takes to be reviewed correctly. I don’t think an artificial deadline should be imposed if it risks adding unsafe Portals or Portals that low quality to the Portal Network.
Q114: DarthMewtwo - Why are we able to link our Facebook accounts, but not unlink our Google accounts? ETA for when this will be changed?
A114: This should be fixed in 2.12 or 2.13.
Q115: Aaron Ho (CincauHangus) - Will there be a "Double Agent" badge for agents who recursed twice in both factions?
A115: That’s actually really interesting. Nothing is planned at this time though.
Q116: Ewa Jaros (czupirek, osobliwosc) - Indoor portals generally get rejected, but it was stated here in AMA, that they are legit. Could the FAQ in OPR be updated?
A116: The explanation from NIA OPS is, “Indoor Portals are acceptable as long as they meet criteria and reviewers can verify that they can exist at the location. If your candidates are getting rejected, consider submitting them again with a better photo (to show the area in which it's located) or a more descriptive title/description.”
Q117: Çağatay Karahan - Since G+ retiring, where will you be doing AMA's?
A117: We are exploring some options. Nothing has been decided and we still have many months so I’d rather not comment at this time.
Q118: Benedikt Schubert - Can we please have an option to report portal pictures?
A118: This is being discussed. Stay tuned.
Q119: Lakshan Sulochana - Ingress prime Linking is very slow. It will improve or not?
A119: Performance improvements are being worked on.
Q120: Michael M. - Players in my region submit new portals that would get rejected for being "too close to an existing portal" in wrong locations, get them approved by OPR in the wrong location, and then move the portal to the correct location with a position edit (which apparently does not respect the "too close" criteria). What should I do about this? Report the portal and players in question? Or use the same approach whenever I get a "too close" answer for my portal submissions?
A120: NIA OPS recommends you report the cases via the help center and we’ll investigate and take action.
Q121: Gabriele Poddighe - COMPLEX hacking in Ingress Prime is much faster than in the old version of Ingress, is this intended or a bug? Right now doing a 5 glyphs COMPLEX seems almost impossible
A121: I can confirm the speed was increased to make it a little more challenging. We'd love to get more feedback on this to make tweaks if necessary.
Q122: Tobias Hengst - Comments are still open? Sweet. How many messages did you get after Prime was launched? Did your Phone make it?
A122: My phone is fine. I didn’t count the messages. The events of this week reinforce for me that we still have a very active and passionate playerbase. I am glad we released something that people felt compelled enough to share their thoughts (good or bad) about. The worst case scenario for me as a community manager is to have released Prime and not gotten any feedback. The version, bugs, and features of Ingress Prime that exist today are not going to be same ones a month, six months, or a year from now. The software will evolve. The game will constantly improve.
Q123: AKB 241113 - Will the REDACTED scanner be arroud permanently, so that we dont have to get frustrated with PRIME every time we want to play Ingress?
A123: No. It will not be permanent. It is only temporary.
Q124: Tobias Hengst - A small question PAC told us to ask: What happened at the Niantic Project?
A124: PAC sure likes to ask a lot of the same questions and pretend to not know anything. He has a notebook full of information.
Q125: Michael Rother (Trminator) - Hi Andrew, I just now had a look at prime, and found out the language switch in the settings is gone? Is that permanent, or just a feature being added back later?
A125: The Product Team says, “It currently uses the phone’s setting which is the same as Pokémon GO. We are having internal discussions around what the path forward should be.”
Q126: Stefan G - Will in app passcode input become available for iphone?
A126: Not natively in the phone. This is unfortunately a platform restriction.
Q127: Dennis Wookie -Will there be an option to minimize or disable the fancy animations to improve the Performance of the game?
A127: This is not currently planned but performance improvements in general are planned and being worked on.
Q128: Gustav Andersson - Any plans to improve the procedure for reporting invalid portals? On my wishlist is the ability to include photo and video evidence with the initial report so that fewer reports need to go through the cumbersome appeals process.
A128: We are in the very initial stages of talking about something like this. So I can’t comment about the likelihood of this ever being a feature.
Q129: Martin Zehetmayer (Angrox) - To estimate the impact on the next anomalies can you provide a number how many item packs with L7/8 items and VR/Aegis Shields has been sold?
A129: No. This isn’t data we make publicly available. Nor would it be appropriate to assume that all sales would be resources used for the Anomalies on November 17th.
Q130: Gustav Andersson - Will recursed agents who keep their old faction lose their owned portals? If no, will their 'Max Time Portal Owned' counter still tick up?
A130: I was told, “It should keep counting even if they do flip factions. Recurse only changes the level and AP values, so everything else should work exactly the same.”
Q131: Olaf Niemeyer (ThreeCheeseTall) - Will niantic review the portal submission screen within the scanner to limit the location picker to a small radius around the actual location? At the moment it is dead easy just pick a location anywhere in the world. And to no surprise this is abused by some.
A131: Thanks for raising this concern. I’ll forward it onto the team.
Q132: Tobias Galéus - How come Ingress players have to wait 2 years for a new version, with LESS features than Ingress 1.0 while PoGo players gets features and events all the time?
A132: Pokémon GO was released with only a basic set of features and has been added to over time. Ingress will also get new features and items once the servers are upgraded. Like Pokémon GO it will be a constant stream of software development and improvement.
Q133: Marcio Silva - Good morning, with the Recursion agents who failed twice in the OPR Recon test, will they have the opportunity to take the test again?
A133: Not at this time.
Q134: Yw Nightmare - who invented the new prime layout ? ( I would like to have a personal tet a tet with this fella ;-) )
A134: His name is Dr. Oliver Lynton-Wolfe
Q135: Attila Radnai (Nelkon) - Is there anything the community manager is allowed to elaborate on the subject of the massively decreased portal picture review rate in order to stop further conspiracy theories?
A135: I’m told that there was a bit of a slow down to prioritize photo reviews for Portals that have none or very few photos. We are also taking the time currently to clean up the less than ideal submissions to help surface better quality photos. Things should return to normal soon and be higher quality.
Q136: Hörður Már Gestsson - Are you attending the Los Angeles anomaly, or mayhaps one of the two Asuncion ones?
A136: I was going to attend the one in Los Angeles but it appears to be taking place in another universe and I can’t seem to find an airline that offers transdimensional flights at the moment. Air Wormhole seems to have gone out of business.
Q137: Ryan Meeks - Don't have a question for your AMA this month but wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to the Ingress Community.
A137: Great. My mom found Google+ and just in time for it to be shut down… On a serious note, thank you for taking the time to write that. I do appreciate it, Ryan Meeks.
Q138: Rory Maginnis (Greebz) - Also are ornaments likely to be supported in prime by anomaly weekend or should anomaly goers use the redacted client?
A138: The current plan is to have them in by Anomaly time.
Q139: Gerald Wolf - Does the NIA or Niantic have any policy or advice of how to best interact with visitors from other dimensions like the Osiris Dimension? Should we avoid telling them the history of their 1218-counterparts? Do you consider it wise to keep 1218-POI from ever directly interacting with their Prime Counterparts?
A139: My only advice is that you should only do what you are comfortable with.
Q140: Jeff Lehman - Could you comment on what the OPR rating stars actually mean? Our local chats have been debating this round and round again. Some say that 5* is full accept, 3* is unsure, 1* is reject, so therefore 2* is a rejection but not terrible, 4* is accepting but not 100% behind it. Others argue that 2* and up are acceptances, since 1* is the only reject.
A140: Three is considered neutral. Anything less is negative and anything above is positive. 1 being the most negative and 5 being the most positive.
Q141: Dale Harris - Since Prime is out now, is there any point in keeping Prime Beta? Will it be used to test newer features?
A141: Give me a little more time to dig into this one.
Rules:
#1: Don't ask me about your personal situation. I don't have access to the ticketing system.
#2: Read the previous AMA's. A repeat question is likely to go unanswered and we both will be frustrated.
#3: Abide by Wheaton’s Law. Trolling and abuse of this AMA will likely get your comment(s) deleted and you blocked.
Josh Stock's curated archive of all the past AMA's:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W0FUKoW2oV9g80ZWWQfBJqohAT3PloYeG1K3Rnblizw
GCM AMA G+ Collection of Posts:
https://plus.google.com/collection/4K74JE
Comments
Post a Comment