Slice of Chaotic Life

The daily life of a celibate middle-aged man.

Archive for January, 2014

Ingress journal: Blue invasion

Posted by Itlandm on January 11, 2014

Walked 28 km today according to my smartwatch. (29 km according to my smartphone, but I think it exaggerates.) My body is not amused, but I am, so that’s something.

It started last night, with a Resistance agent that seems to have recently moved to Birkeland or Lillesand, somewhere around that. He is level 8, a bit higher than the usual suspects, who are level 7 and 6, judging from their portals. In the evening, he came to Kristiansand and started destroying indiscriminately. Judging from the speed and extent of the destruction, he seemed to have loaded his inventory entirely with bursters and power cubes. I recharged the high-level portals from a distance, but the game is balanced such that point-blanc damage will always win out in an equal contest (or in practice even if the attacker is a level or two lower). There is also a slight delay in reporting the damage, so the defender is at a disadvantage. Still, I had (and still have) lots of level 7 power cubes, so it took him time and power cubes of his own to tear down the portals. For some reason he did not even try to claim them for himself.

Naturally, during the night my new Enlightened allies rebuilt the town. I won’t say that they are vampires and werewolves, but it is a fact that they are usually active in the middle of the night, and there was a bright moon this weekend…

Then the next day, the usual three agents came over together and went on a rampage as well. I suspect this is because Haaland took down their home portals in Birkeland, but it may be just some internal wave of fervor among the Resistance, I see there has also been hectic Blue activity west and north of here. This time, however, I happened to be in the city when they arrived. These actually built portals of their own and even started linking. I followed them and blasted the portals off the map, as is good and proper. Can’t let them get the idea that they can have blue portals in our towns! Now there were already Green agents in the town, I was in contact with them, but they stayed indoors until it was dark before coming out to take over the portals. Vampires? Who knows. I know I have never seen any of them in daylight…

I went home at 20:15, leaving half the town still gray, but two more Enlightened agents arrived around midnight to rebuild the portals and link them up. This is the good part, where you can get thousands of AP quickly, especially from making control fields. Since I no longer need AP, I try to not build portals or link them if there is any hope that my lower-level allies will do so. From what I gathered, everyone went up one level except for one, who was already level 6 and only came close to level 7.  All in all, the local Enlightened group made a lot of progress thanks to the reckless destruction by our Resistance neighbors. Now that one of them is level 6 (well, two of them after I left) and I am level 8, it is easy for us to make L6 portals. We made a string of those in town now, to replace the L5 and L7 which were taken down. L6 is just the right size for the locals, so I don’t mind.

We had the same thing recently when the self-declared genius attacked, although his damage was more limited. This is why I no longer go and tear down Grimstad after I am level 8. I won’t become L9 no matter what I do, since 8 is the highest in the game. But the Blue agents would level up from rebuilding the portals. Unless I have a deal with the local Enlightened so they can take over the portals immediately, I am going to let sleeping smurfs lie.

If the Resistance were hoping to break our spirit or something, they messed up badly. My midnight allies have been absolutely feasting on the AP and are already making plans to expand eastward with their newfound power. But if they were aiming to make an old man’s feet and back hurt, they hit the bullseye. I need a good night’s sleep before I go out to replenish my inventory – it is down from 2000 to 1700 virtual items. ^_^

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Ingress journal: Unnecessary

Posted by Itlandm on January 5, 2014

Yesterday, a self-named genius Agent from the Resistance came to visit Kristiansand. I have my doubts about his or her genius (well, probably his, as most Ingress Agents are male). He was already level 8, the maximum level, but still captured about a dozen portals in downtown Kristiansand.

Why is that not a sign of genius? Well, Kristiansand is a bit of a Green (Enlightened) stronghold lately, with no active Resistance agents and 3-5 Enlightened. There is me, who am also level 8, then two fairly local at level 5 and 4 probably, although that may have changed now. Then there are two from further west, probably, or at least that is where they took their first portals. They are also level 5. I don’t link up my portals anymore, as I don’t need the Action Points. It is not like I will be level 9 no matter what, it stops at 8. They, on the other hand, get a truckload of AP from linking, so they have linked all of Kristiansand, Mandal, and the smaller towns of Vennesla, Nodeland and Vigeland.

Because Kristiansand is surrounded by Enlightened fields, making Resistance portals in the middle of the city does not let you link to anywhere else. That is one of the less than genius things about it. The other is that the up and coming Enlightened players now got to take over the portals and link them again, getting truckloads of AP again, which they would otherwise have to drive for half an hour to get.  So only the Enlightened benefited from this invasion. Minutes after he was gone today, the city was all Green again. Everything he did was unnecessary and worse than unnecessary.

I am almost unnecessary myself now, in the game. Now that the locals are able to take down the portals alone, I am just depriving them of AP by taking them myself. I should really restrict myself to upgrading their portals. As I am the only one who can add L6, L7 and L8 resonators, I am still useful for that at least.

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