Ingress AMA Archive

A1: A scary scarecrow.

A2: It still remains a secret.

A3: I wish I had an update. Sadly, I do not.

A4: Clam chowder.

A5: There are plans.

A6: Yes. Let me see what I can do.

A7: Still in development.

A8: I'll be honest, I don't know. I'm not privy to that sort of information.

A9: No. But tin foil isn't really made out of tin anymore. It is aluminum. You can still purchase tin foil and it is stronger than aluminum but aluminum foil is what most people buy in stores.

A10: That would be a terrible idea. My face should not be put on anything.

A11: I wish I could but I'm not part of that process.

A12: We have an extra sack of sunflower seeds ready to go if needed.

A13: I can't at this point other than to say we are working on a solution.

A14: Yes. This has been discussed and I believe should be happening soon so emails make a bit more sense. Such as getting an email stating something is a duplicate or too close. The new notification will have only one reason as far as I understand it.

A15: Things are happening. It would be improper to comment on them though in any detail.

A16: No it is not.

A17: I suppose if it was historical in nature.

A18: I spilled my drink... Actually, we know what happened and were able to resolve it pretty quickly because of it.

A19: "Will we see" as in a screenshot or video or something? Maaaaaaybe. I can't spill all the secrets during my AMAs.

A20: Only 237.

A21: No the application process will not be reopened. We recieved enough applications that we will be revisiting them and selecting new Vanguards from those that already applied.

A22: Darn good question. It is probably one of our sponsored portals.

A23: A while back I saw a formula and citations for the data that a player came up with. This was several years ago and I can't seem to locate it anymore. I don't have access to that actual formula to be able to tell you conclusively.

A24: As hard as it may seem to accept, I didn't give up any because I didn't really use any. My only interaction with SOP was running Intel for the Interitus Anomaly. We had major issues with it not working so I defaulted to sending people lat/long and Intel screenshots. We did operations by just sending location information and screenshots for many of our big operations including fielding over Washington D.C. a few times. Any player worth their salt can navigate using a screenshot of the portal network and coordinates.

A25: I'm still working on trying to get this answered.

A26: There are reasons why this can't be disclosed. Rest assured we are taking various actions as we continue to review the information and verify things.

A27: Probably after the November the Anomalies end.

A28: Yes. I beleive we have a technical solution. It is going to be tested during the EXO5 Anomaly to be proved out.

A29: The medals that have inspired us have been selected and those people notified. We'll unveil everything shortly.

A30: There is no hard and fast timeline for the guardian medal. The best course of action is still be debated and discussions are occuring internally.

A31: Detroit Lions. Because my family are Green Bay Packer fans and I wanted to be different.

A32: As I understand it, it depends on Agent level.

A33: I have not had a chance to. Maybe on my trip to Boulder, Colorado for the Anomaly.

A34: Because the players, en mass, evaluate the portals. Meaning it is no longer up to the subjective nature of a single reviewer.

A35: Boulder, CO and San Francisco, CA.

A36: With OPR, it would be Chinese Agents reviewing the portals so I hope they understand. With Missions, I have no idea. We do have a person who speaks Chinese on staff though.

A37: Yes. When we are ready to invite them. I'd hate to notify people have them sit on the news for days or weeks just waiting.

A38: Newton's third law comes to mind.

A39: Hahaha this made me laugh. Thank you. I'll check and see if it is requirement to work there or not :)

A40: I don't know. I would be surprised if it is with 2.0 on launch. Why? Because we are using a brand new front and back end so the emphasis at launch is to have feature parity with Ingress 1.0 first. I wouldn't expect anything new right out of the gate with the exception of the one finger rotate which is known.

A41: Releasing another person's personal information, even if it is on a website and pseudo public with a Google search, is quite simply... not cool. I don't know what we can do to stop it as our jurisdiction begins and ends with the Ingress application.

A42: A variance was detected in the channels previously associated with the ADA and Jarvis entities in the Portal Network. Further details are classified at this time.

A43: Store-bought.

A44: I think Niantic has done a lot to clarify things. Could more be done? Sure. I'm positive it will as well. But it isn't the same game or NIA OPS that existed when I wrote that essay. A lot has changed.

A45: I have not heard of any plans.

A46: To an extent yes. I'm sure this will happen at somet point. Just not right away as making sure there is feature parity and things are stable are the first priority.

A47: Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question. However, Anomaly medals are for participating in an Anomaly events. The Magnus Builder and EXO5 Controller events were not Anomaly events.

A48: Great question. I really don't know. Ingress has the potential to be around for a very very very long time. Especially if we keep reinventing it. It could be the MMO version of Madden football.

A49: It's an interesting idea. Ingress wouldn't be the first game that had NPC's involved in setting the game space. It could keep things lively. It would have to be carefully balanced though so as to not become annoying and completely disruptive to normal game play where both factions now have to focus solely on this third faction.

A50: The way you describe it seems like it is a legit portal candidate.

A51: Bribes of baked good is always acceptable. On a serious note, just organize an adventure. I wouldn't turn down a quick roadtrip with friends to visit a new place and submit portals. Sounds like fun.

A52: We always want to know what the pulse of the community is. But we are also not blind. When we read the same language, phrases, being used it is obvious that things are orchestrated. This doesn't mean the opinions expressed are any less valid. But it will actually make me seek out the counter-points as well as similar views that much harder to try to gauge the true sentiment of the community as a whole. Basically, we don't want to the vocal minority moving the needle if the majority feel otherwise.

A53: Nasty. I kind of like it. There would have to be some sort of major penality for using it though. Maybe you are out of XM for 30 minutes and thus unable to play or something like that.

A54: I'm not saying it was Shapers... but...

A55: Left its seeds while I was sleeping...

A56: Report the account you suspect of spoofing.

A57: Treat. Always treat.

A58: I wish I had time to take pictures. Maybe on my way to Boulder I'll take some.

A59: If someone phyisically assaults you I would recommend calling the local law enforcement.

A60: The number of people the achieved the third tier actually surprised me. I thought it would be a lot less people.

A61: Is the portal invalid based on portal criteria? Just being on a military base doesn't make it invalid.

A62: I'd like to see a rework with maybe a cummulative total of all the portals you own or something like that.

A63: Challenge accepted.

A64: That's a bit of a long story. My original name was something different. Early on, I thought it would be a bad idea to use it because you could find me easily if you did some Google searching. So I put in a name change request. Well in December of 2012 (I think) I was playing Ingress at night, like I usually did back then. I kept seeing this Agent_1234567 at every location I was at. Every. Single. Location. Being the friendly guy I am, I messaged them in COMMs to try to meet them. I got no reply. I tried a second time. I tried a third time. Eventually after a few hours of this person following my location and not responding I was getting ready to report them for spoofing since they would appear as soon as I took action. Then my phone reset because it got too hot (ahh the good ole' days of Ingress). When it rebooted and I went to log in, I was prompted for a new name. The Agent I was about to report was myself. I didn't even notice my generic Agent_1234567 name on the scanner because I was so focused on playing... So scrambling for inspiration I started flipping through the channels of the radio. I finally landed on the song Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith and picked that name. The rest is history.

A65: Not a bad idea. We would have to limit it though to only normal capsules. I think it kind of breaks the game to be able to do it from key capsules since keys capsules don't count towards inventory.

A66: And I love doing them.

A67: This is something I would love to see happen and have and will continue to advocate for it.

A68: You know. That's a really good point. The problem is, we are limited by the environement that is the city. Maybe the solution would be an easier mission path labeled or denoted some how so people with needs could identify which ones to do and which to avoid.

A69: I Pinged PAC to ask for details, here's what he says: "Rumor is that Devra's in Berlin to present some research at a conference -- apparently she figured out how the NL project, the war in Washington, the Ingress Scanner and the EXOGENOUS are all connected... she was worried for her safety so she put a copy of her research in a safebox to be given to the winner of the Anomalies worldwide on Saturday... Not sure what's in there, but it'll sure be interesting..."

A70: That seems like an interesting proposal. Basically have it start on either end. I like it.

A71: I don't know enough about them to comment one way or the other.

A72: Yes, it could help.

A73: I don't know the magic sauce for everything. But there is a formula and reason for why cities get selected. It isn't just random.

A74: I believe they have to hit level 3 or 4 first before the person who invited them gets the AP.

A75: I like it. We've long had this idea of a roll your own Anomaly or an Anomaly in a box scenario that would let anyone create a competative event. Hopefully, that comes with Ingress 2.0.

A76: http://support.ingre...

A77: Interesting idea. Let me think more about it though and how it could be abused. Could you use it to troll people?

A78: Although I'm not going out to farm gear and get a specific loadout, meet with my team, and do many of the other things required of Agents - there is a lot of work that occurs behind the scenes. Venues need to be secured if they aren't already, payments made, temps hired for registration, registration portal locations identified, etc. Lots of talking and chatting with others. But I love it!

A79: If someone is acting on our behalf, as is the case of the Embedded Reporters, they qualify to earn a medal. Their participation might not be the same as everyone's elses but they do contribute.

A80: Yes.

A81: There is not a 1:1 ratio or process.

A82: No I went to sleep :)

A83: I heard she was helping investigate the recent going on in Washington -- dangerous stuff. Hope she's OK.

A84: I don't know about links but it is possible to restore portals.

A85: If you believe it is a valid portal candidate then I would resubmit it.

A86: They are removed after a decision is made but in some cases can still appear briefly for a very short amount of time.

A87: Our lawyers tell us what we can legally do or not. If they said we can't accept submissions from Russia then I am sure there is a legal reason for it.

A88: Not much. I prefer Strawberry Shortcake bars.

A89: The Trusted Reporter program are Agents that have obtained fast-track status when using the Niantic Help Center. They know they have it.

A90: I am flattered that you asked. Sadly, I barely even have time for my own Behind The Scanner these days. Maybe when things calm down a bit we can revisit this.