Ingress: Real Augmented Reality in Real Life. Really.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ingress: Real Augmented Reality in Real Life. Really.

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Resistance in Rochester here, there's something really satisfying about turning a portal-less desert into a thriving blue sea just by submitting new portals in your area. There are something like thirty billion churches in the area, and Rochester has literally all of its electrical boxes painted to make the place look more cultural, so almost every single one counts as a portal now.

Also as great as "kermit" and "smurf" are, whoever came up with the slurs for this game missed a hell of an opportunity to refer to themselves as the Blue Barricudas and the Green Monkeys, just sayin. :colbert:

# ¿ Nov 9, 2013 03:48

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 02:36

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Exit Strategy posted:

It is highly unlikely that anyone playing Ingress will want to harm you, Obakan.

Instead, you should concentrate more on situational awareness - The game is to be a secret agent, so act like one. Watch your surroundings, only draw your phone to work or check the map occasionally. Wear a Bluetooth headset, as earbuds are very conspicuous.

I dunno if larping Ingress is the best beginner strategy, but I've found that just not staring at your phone all the time is a really good start.

Also if people start acting super e-sports or whatever about Ingress in your area, screw it, I mean its basically a fun game about territory control and incentivized loitering. Not something to get all stressed out about.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2013 08:26

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

GWBBQ posted:

The accept/reject process is a crap shoot. Every time they're rejected, submit them again with increasingly stupid cringeworthy "creative" names and eventually the person who goes through them will laugh and accept them.

There is a portal about 4 blocks from me named "Ostentatious Bike Rack." Yes we fight over a strategically important bike rack.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2013 04:18

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Well to be fair, it WAS pretty ostentatious. :shrug:

Overall they're pretty open on submission guidelines. If there's a church with no portal, submit that puppy, I have never had a church turned down ever. If there's a historic trail or a park with those informative signs on it? Each sign can submit as a portal. If you're at a college campus, anything with a plaque is fair game. It just takes 30+ days to get anything sorted through most of the time.

They're weirdly specific about what's acceptable as a park submission, turns out it MUST be the sign that says the park's name and not a photo of the playground.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 03:40

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Deceptive Thinker posted:

The submission guidelines are a bit odd sometimes...

There's a park around the corner from my house (with a baseball field and a playground) that has a crappy sign, I've tried various pictures of the playground, the sign, the baseball field itself - nothing works. As soon as I get a rejection I submit another picture. It's an official town park, and it's labeled on google maps.

Meanwhile the other "park" that's next to it is private property that was made into a "public" park by the owner of the land, but since the sign is a lot prettier and it's dedicated in memorial of someone, it got accepted after the first try

Yeah there's two or three pieces of gorgeous art in the area. ...That are in the airport. I'm not paying for a plane ticket to capture a clock for the Resistance, regardless of how cool it is.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 05:34

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

P_T_S posted:

Someone in my area submitted the wood and metal art inside a Chipotle. It was accepted. Whoever approves these things has a sense of humor.
There was also a bit of drama surrounding a player taking a picture of a desk ornament cannon they had placed outside their house and labeling it "memorial cannon".

The first one is kind of funny at least, and at least vaguely in the spirit of the game.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2013 15:37

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Hack every portal you can find, if its aligned to the enemy faction you get 100 AP every hack which adds up real fast.

Unfortunately, defense is kind of a sucker's game because the mechanics are just so stacked in the attacker's favor. Nab any portal that happens to decay, and try to form as many links/fields as you can because that's where the real AP is at. If you DO happen to find a level 1 or 2 portal, make sure your XMP spread is hitting the resonators, not the portal itself. Anything past 3 or 4 is basically throwing away XMPs, unfortunately.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2013 00:08

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Just got an agent survey from Niantic asking for basic marketing information in exchange for ~special items.~ While I'm down with receiving free treasure, I'm also kind of wondering why Google just doesn't use the data they've no doubt already gathered about the players.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2013 00:48

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 02:36

EscortMission: Mar 4, 2009; Come with me
if you want to live.

Spoofing and multiple accounts are real dumb but I think the sending a phone to other teammates through the mail is cool as hell and totally within the spirit of the game.

I mean its still buying an entire phone for a free-to-play video game and its probably still not kosher by the terms of service but that's totally something a clandestine cyber-Illuminati agent would do to get an advantage over the enemy cyber-Illuminati.

gently caress people who take it so seriously they'd harass another person over it though.

# ¿ May 26, 2014 21:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ingress: Real Augmented Reality in Real Life. Really.