Ingress AMA Archive

A1: It looks like the badges were pushed last week. I’ve been discussing with the team how we can avoid such a delay going forward. Ingress Prime development was definitely one factor.

A2: Any building designed by a famous/renowned architect. NIA OPS says that if it is not obvious that a famous architect was involved, be sure to add a clear description to help the reviewers.

A3: I believe this has been resolved since the question was asked.

A4: Our product and engineering team says that no changes have been made to the drop rate of any mods.

A5: According to NIA OPS, “If it is only for K12 age children, it should be rated with a one star. If it is for adults and kids it can be rated based on the other criteria.” They also add, “We are updating the guide based on these questions and discussions we see in the OPR G+ Community. Post in the G+ Community if you have not already.” https://plus.google....

A6: I am not aware of anything being planned. But if you have any ideas, please let me know what they are and I will pass them along to the team.

A7: The guidance from NIA OPS that I received is to review the candidate as per the rest of the criteria and use the location questions to address the safety issue.

A8: People naturally gravitate to others and form groups. It is human nature. I don’t think there is a way to eliminate this from happening nor should we, Niantic, attempt to. Ingress would not be the game it is without organized player communities. However, to be clear, no one can stop you from playing the game but yourself. You don’t need permission from anyone to make a field, capture a Portal, and do an in-game mission. On the flip side, there is no requirement that another player has to coordinate their efforts with you either. Working together with other people though can make certain achievements easier and enable different shared experiences. However, every group of people has their own social structure. Issues arise when a person who is part of a group feels like they are not providing value, being heard, and have their participation in group activities limited by others. If others in your group have given referent or formal power to one or many individuals, there is little you can do about it. Interpersonal conflicts are going to happen. They happen just about everywhere two people can interact with each other. If you have chosen a path were your Ingress game play and enjoyment is dependent on the involvement of others, my only general advice without knowing the specifics of your issue, is to try to work things out. If you have attempted to resolve your issues without a satisfactory outcome, you do have other options to consider. You can create your own group, recruit friends that will help you, and adjust your own game play. Ultimately, what you get out of Ingres is in your control. Sure, there might be situations that make some achievements more difficult than others. But that doesn’t mean they are impossible. Just because the opposite Faction dominates an area doesn’t mean you can’t play. Keep an open mind and don’t limit yourself by focusing on only a few aspects of gameplay. Best of luck to you.

A9: Photos are being reviewed but they may not be reviewed in the same order as they are received. We are testing a few things including prioritizing reviews for Portals with lower number of photos.

A10: There isn’t an answer for this. It’s a valid point. I’ll talk it over with the events team and see if we can add this.

A11: According to NIA OPS, Each Mission is reviewed based on its individual merits. Approval of one of the Missions in the series may not guarantee the approval of the rest. To avoid rejections ensure: - There is a clear title/description for each Mission - The Mission image is relevant to the title/description/waypoints - The Mission image doesn't violate any other criteria (your own image, no watermarks) If the Mission is rejected, review the Mission Criteria and make the necessary changes before you resubmit: https://support.ingr...

A12: According to our VP of Events Bill Kilday’s recent Reddit AMA, “We are looking for this right dates for future campouts.” https://www.reddit.c...

A13: We’ll know more about what the cutover looks like and how it will impact things as we get closer.

A14: You are asked to become one.

A15: If Bob Dylan signed up in 2012 he would have been Resistance. However, around the time of Darsana he would have changed factions to Enlightened due to ADA’s actions. His Agent name would have been CorrinaCorrina.

A16: As of right now, no, there is not.

A17: Not a bad idea.

A18: Not sure what you mean. These names were recently re-confirmed.

A19: Ingress Prime will have many of the same protections that our other games do. This means that devices that are rooted will not be supported.

A20: No they will not be. The patch was not something that was mentioned as being included with registration or for participating.

A21: NIA OPS recommends that you rate these with a one star..

A22: I spoke to our product and engineering team. They said, “We have considered this along with many other IAP ideas. New items will have to wait for a Prime only world though.” So once the servers are upgraded after the client upgrade is released then we will start to see new items.

A23: Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain, Boulders Beach… oh my gosh there are so many things.

A24: People tend to use these interchangeably. There is Niantic, the National Intelligence Agency, and the Niantic Project that all get referred to as NIA. Niantic is… well Niantic Inc. The corporation that spun out of Google. The National Intelligence Agency is… well… officially it no longer exists. It is believed that the NIA has been working consistently in the field of fringe and black-lab research, and has been responsible for a number of secret think-tanks exploring murky subjects. The most recent (and notorious) was, of course, the Niantic Project. The Niantic Project was… well it was a think-tank created by the NIA to explore the threats and opportunities present in a recently discovered form of transdimensional energy known as Exotic Matter. Clear as mud?

A25: I talked to the OPR team. They are able to confirm that many edits have gone live. Like Portal submissions, edits require votes to reach a decision. Once a decision has been reached, you will get an email about it.

A26: You know, I haven’t been touch with him in sometime. Now you have me concerned.

A27: NIA OPS states that signs are preferred, even if they are somewhat uninteresting and generic photos of Athletic Fields can be given a one star.

A28: I’ve heard this too. I’ll talk it over with the team. Currently, removal is instant because there are a number of valid reasons why an Author would need to withdraw a Mission. I empathize with those who have had this happen to them. In the meantime, if you know of a situation like this I would just avoid those missions.

A29: Nothing is “forever dead” in the Ingress universe. It might recurse and make a comeback. Honestly, we took it offline because we wanted to try to update the templates we were offering. I’m not sure how soon though it will come back and if we were able to update the design offerings as there are higher priorities we are focusing on at the moment.

A30: Check Google+ for a private message from me :)

A31: Wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen.

A32: Let me know how I can help. I can be best reached via Telegram @RedSoloCup. Please note that it can take me up to 48 hours to get to your message. But, let’s chat.

A33: How do my people get in touch with your people? Do you have an allergy to

A34: I heard about it via a few websites like Engadget, Android Police, etc back in November of 2012. I immediately started asking my friends if they had heard of it and I had one friend who had somehow gotten multiple invite codes. I wasn’t successful with my various social posts to get an invite for myself. My friend, +Corry Robb, ended up giving me one of his spare codes to join. He was Resistance and I almost joined that faction as a result. But then I looked at the Intel map. There was blue everywhere! I’m always one who is up for a challenge so I decided to join the Enlightened since they were the obvious underdog in my area.

A35: Street view photos come from Google.

A36: Damn… this is a good question. I think I’d want a better way for Agents to find each other or their communities. We had a community directory and that was a step in the right direction. But it fell short. I don’t know what the ideal technical solution looks like. It is probably multi-faceted. But just a better way to safely collaborate to enabled the awesome shared experiences that Ingress can provide.

A37: I think an Agent should be able to control how much of their profile they want displayed. I’m a sucker for module interfaces. Not just delete or hide but also rearrange.

A38: It’s really tough to make a determination based on the information provided. Average density to one person might be different for another. It’s also hard to provide anything without knowing how large the park is too. Is it just a baseball field? It is many acres? I’m sorry we couldn’t help clarify this. We just need more specifics.

A39: Remember that promotional images, Agent names, and passcodes that require contacting the author are not allowed. All Missions should follow the Mission criteria found here, https://support.ingr....

A40: Oh man, great question. My list changes so much from week to week, month to month, and year to year. As far as traveling goes, I’ve been blessed. Not just because of my work at Niantic but almost all of my previous jobs had me doing a lot of traveling. Little known fact, in my early 20s I was a roadie for an award winning platinum recording artist. I’d still like to go to Iceland, Egypt, South Africa, and a few places in Latin America. I really want to learn a foreign language. My problem is I can’t commit to one. I start with one, then travel, then want to learn a new one, then travel, then… well you get the idea. I’ve already been skydiving, swam with sharks, swam with dolphins, performed weddings, have tattoos, saw a space shuttle launch, went deep sea fishing, started multiple companies with successful exits… hrmm… I got to hold a Koala this year as well. Bathing an Elephant would be fun! I’ve written articles and had them published but I have a concept for a book I’d like to write. I’ve never seen the Great Wall of China in person. Thinking about this question, I’ve been lucky. A lot of things that most people probably have on their lists are things I’ve done. So my current goals are a little more personal than a short lived experience like “ride in a helicopter”. My biggest bucket list item is to see my kids grow up and try to be the best father I can be. That will be the most fulfilling achievement of all.

A41: This is something that was flagged internally and talked about. Certainly not an ideal situation.

A42: NIA OPS says that they are aware of the issue and it has already been addressed.

A43: As much as I want to volunteer for this job, I don’t think we can do this. I recognize that these type of places can change from time to time. Perhaps we can take that into account when edits are submitted. I’ll talk to NIA OPS about this.

A44: Three dollars and fifty cents. /sarcasm

A45: It will originally be launching on Fuji TV in Japanese. It will later be released on Netflix supporting seven dubbed languages and 26 languages with subtitles.

A46: Can you reach out to me so we can get more information?

A47: We iterate on things constantly. This is a particular hard problem to solve because, currently, attendance at Anomalies is not limited. This means there likely will be an imbalance in teams. When the participants are asymmetrical for the type of team versus team competition that currently is the Anomaly format, it’s hard to come up with a set of rules that mitigates things. If you have any suggestions, please let me know and I’ll pass them along.

A48: We typically ask for Agents to help out near registration to help place new players on teams. I would contact the faction POCs and let them know you want to help with this. There is also the Embedded Reporter program that uses volunteers to help showcase what an Anomaly is by taking pictures of the action and posting on social media.

A49: No update at this time I’m afraid.

A50: I ran this past NIA OPS and they said to report it via the Help Center.

A51: This has been talked about. Like some of the other ideas mentioned in this AMA, there won’t likely be any significant new features or items created until the second phase of the Prime upgrade (the servers) is complete.

A52: I spoke to the Product team and you bring up valid points. These points are shared by the team and has influenced the design of Prime. The onboarding for Agents new to Prime will be different than the current version of Ingress.

A53: I haven’t been able to confirm what the roadmap for this specific feature is. However, I can say we’ve definitely had internal conversations about it.

A54:

A55: It really depends on how many questions get submitted and what I’m doing at the time I open them for comment.

A56: Anomaly rules are typically released anywhere from two weeks to a week before the event.

A57: The current mechanic is intended to enable Portal submissions from the Scanner at a time when you are present at the location. We want you to submit what you know and can verify when you submit them. There are edge cases. There always are. But I can’t advise you to use a third party tool to circumvent the in game mechanic.

A58: Zero. Those events will be the culminating finale of the Osiris Sequence. There will not be satellites in May.

A59: We’ve talked about doing one for the six year anniversary. It would be cool to see the updated stats.

A60: Allagash White from Portland, Maine, USA. They have a pretty great Instagram feed too: https://www.instagra...

A61: Depends. Can you rhyme the word orange with another singular word?

A62: NIA OPS believes this issues was fixed. They are going to double check on it though. Thanks for flagging it.

A63: NIA OPS suggests that if you have not received an email about the edit yet, that the edit probably hasn’t received enough votes to reach a decision. Sausages… I don’t really like boiled sausages, so I grill them. Steaks can be cooked any number of ways and still come out delicious.

A64: I’m actually going to be much more stringent in the coming months. I’ve let a bunch of questions slide through so more people can be exposed to them. I do link to resources so people can search a potential question first before asking them.

A65: We are actually exploring doing this for new videos. More to come on this topic…

A66: Time will tell… be patient.

A67: They were all refunded. I don’t have any additional information beyond that.

A68: Good point. I’ll bring this up internally with NIA OPS to discuss it.

A69: I can’t reveal that information. I don’t have a high enough clearance.

A70: Actually, yes. The developers help me with the responses for this AMA every month. Admittedly, not much for the current version of Ingress because we are focused on Prime and have been a bit. We all want the same things. They just have the unenviable position of having to prioritize things. There are a number of things that come to mind from the OPR limit increase (amount and duration changes), to the kind of in-game events we hold, and even in this AMA someone read question 85 and commented internally, “that’s a good idea.” Happens more than you think. I think a lot of the feedback will start to show once the servers are upgraded and we can devote resources to adding new features.

A71: This is being discussed internally.

A72: https://www.birchbox...

A73: I love playing in Anomalies. I don’t get much of a chance to play these days because most of my day is spent behind a computer until the wee hours of the night. Ingress is a global game and that means there are people reaching out at all hours. In Philadelphia I was able to introduce a new employee to Ingress Anomalies. We got hooked up with an Enlightened team and they got to experience things first hand. Seeing and hearing their reaction was cool. They “got it”. They just hit level 8 this week and were so excited. I think it’s important for our employees to experience things like that so they understand what makes our products great, what drives players, and how our players use our products. Not to mention to see the crazy level of effort that goes in to organizing an Anomaly. I also got to meet a whole bunch of people like +Bad Eend whom I had only interacted with before via chats. Also, seeing +Uni Uni everywhere brings a smile to my face. I think he challenges +Marius H Tronstad for the most traveled Agent. I’m not sure what players can do to improve things. I thought things ran pretty smoothly. Maybe, have longer after parties! HAHA I arrived too late to the Enlightened after party and it had ended. We decided to go to the Resistance party first because it was further out from our hotel. We did make it to the Enlightened after-after party. I enjoy the after parties because I really love being able to interact with my fellow Agents. No matter the outcome, people generally are in great spirits at the after parties. It just feels like one big family reunion. Resistance Agents look past the fact that I am Enlightened when my scanner is open and just welcome me as a person. Plus, I’ve known many of them for years. The Enlightened look past the fact I’m the GCM for Ingress and we just swap new and old war stories and have yet another shared experience. They are just great bonding opportunities.

A74: There isn’t a timeframe that I can discuss. But I have been told that this feature or something very similar like a credit system is still on the roadmap and one of the higher priorities.

A75: NIA OPS says that, “If it falls under the category of Art, 5 stars on “Should this be a Portal” question.”

A76: Looks like changes have started to roll out in between when the AMA was opened and when the answers were posted. More improvements and changes will be coming with regard to this.

A77: There is a huge hunger for Prime. Especially given that the current version of Ingress hasn’t had a meaningful update in a long while. But I’ll be honest, I don’t know where we can draw the line. Loyalty could be one metric. But there are newer players who have done as much or more than some of the older veterans. Would it be fair to exclude them? We can’t include everyone due to limits of each platform (Android and iOS). There is a maximum number of participants allowed. On iOS for example it is 10,000 testers. I don’t think think the current beta release phase will be altered at this point.

A78: Your friend already has access to Prime. But they are under an NDA so they can’t tell you.

A79: I really have no idea why things were down. I haven’t been in touch with PAC for some time in fact.

A80: In the short term, you can contact Dominik Schönleben our EMEA Community Manager. https://plus.google....

A81: The complex glyph only increases the Glyph display speed. However, the more you use it, the more likely you are to recognize Glyphs faster. This should result in recreating the Glyphs faster which does impact the output bonus. Anecdotally, the people that I know who Glyph hack using the complex Glyph setting only are CRAAAZY fast and accurate. Whereas I am slow and inaccurate. They get the bonuses. I do not.

A82: I think the Vanguard program has been a big success. There were some growing pains early on as we solidified what to focus on. It was the first year and first time we have done something like this. But we have ironed out those issues. The Vanguards have been a great sounding board for us. We have picked their brains about everything from Anomaly rules to Guardian medal and all things in between. I think reevaluating the social media aspect of the program is warranted. Initially the thought was to have a group that served as brand ambassadors and a sounding board for advice. We’ve skewed to the latter heavily. I think a more traditional influencer program could be setup to leverage former. I also want to bring in more people to have a larger sample size for input. In addition, they’ve been able to flag a number of issues and concerns directly to us that might have normally been lost in the noise that is social media. I still think there is a misconception about the role. They are not junior NIA OPS or pseudo-community managers. While some of them might be in a place of influence within their faction, that is not a requirement for being a Vanguard.

A83: Hrmm… good feedback. I’ll pass this along. That could be very helpful!

A84: We think this is a great idea and will discuss internally to see if we can execute on it!

A85: Would they be able to agree to and bind themselves to a legal terms of service?

A86: I would not want to use the Vanguards for things like this. Not to mention the privacy issues that would likely be involved could make it a nightmare to actually implement. The point of the Vanguards is to provide Niantic with feedback on a variety of issues and insight as players from around the world. It isn’t to act as an administrative go between for players and Niantic on account issues.

A87: There will be video recorded. I don’t know if it will be live streamed or not though. I’ll need more time to confirm what is going to take place.