Slice of Chaotic Life

Yesterday after I came home, I was making the usual XM harvest circuit in Mandal, but when I was about to recharge the two portals in Vigeland, they had turned blue. I checked the Ingress map and found that they were now owned by a famous Resistance agent on the west coast. (I won’t mention his name as he may be searching for it.) I decided to take them back today, before he could make any trouble with them. After all, this is pretty far from his hometown, so I doubted he could get anything done the same day.

I was wrong. The next morning, Vigeland was the corner of a large field in southern Norway. It was one of several large fields set up by the same user. I wonder how he could do that without a private helicopter. Anyway, there was no helping it. I took the AM bus to Vigeland.

Vigeland is about a quarter by bus west of here, at least in theory. I think it took a few minutes more, but not enough to be a problem. The road is fairly good (it is E39, an interstate, after all) and passes through a charming mixture of farmland and some wilderness. Vigeland itself surprised me by being an actual town, even if much smaller than Mandal. I had expected a bunch of farms, a clump of residential houses, a gas station and a combined grocery store and post office, perhaps a nursing home. But there were numerous shops and a dense residential area, looking from the inside quite like a proper town.

Conveniently, four monuments are placed fairly closely together not far from the bus station. There are also a couple more near the church, I submitted one and hope to be back later to submit another monument and the church itself. Unfortunately I had a narrow window of time to take down and take over the four blue portals before the return bus, unless I wanted to stay for two more hours, which would have made it hard for me to also visit Kristiansand and harvest level 6 resonators the same day.

There was no attempt to defend the portals. The game balance right now is badly skewed in favor of attackers, and I am sorry to say that it just got worse this week with the inability for a single player to add more than one shield (later adjusted to two, which helps). I can see how this makes for a more dynamic game, and this time it worked I my favor: It did not take me long to pull down four portals created by a level 8 player (I am still 6, and probably will be for some months more, especially since we must prioritize the new agent.)

I have to say I really enjoyed the look and feel of this small town. I would not mind moving there next, even if it means my bus ride increases from 45 to 60 minutes. Half the year I can use the bus ride to read, when there is not direct sunshine. (Reading in sunshine triggers my migraine, it is pretty much the only thing to do so. This also makes it harder for me to Ingress on sunny days.) When I can’t read, I can still think, long may it last.