so as possible third faction thoughts fly around, what if the third section isn't something we can join, but it's...
so as possible third faction thoughts fly around, what if the third section isn't something we can join, but it's something both must fight... A red portal appears, you have so long to take it out... Or such...???
Sounds fun. Kinda like new levels and missions
ReplyDeleteI did have this thought awhile back when initial talks about the third faction was happening.
ReplyDeleteThe idea was that it would be a conceptual virus AI. One portal appears to have it in any random location and it slowly spreads. You can either let it spread or eliminate it.
Also it would be interesting to have as they may drop rare items from hacks (possibly a user end virus spreader to use on an enemy farm?)
ReplyDeleteI've thought of that.
ReplyDeleteThis was some speculation I had on the subject (Copy&Paste from another community):
ReplyDeleteWhat if the "third faction" is actually going to be a third and fourth faction, aligned with each of the existing factions, with each of the two new groups having both L9+ and NPC facets?
For the purposes of this discussion, we'll call them 13Magnus and the Shapers, but there are other ways to twist the plot to support this kind of structure.
For players, the new factions become the gateway to the "New Game Plus" mode. You still have access to the L1-L8 tools of your original faction, and are still allied with them, but the gameplay is mission-centered, not just the open-ended Global MU chase, and the rewards you're given for completing missions are tools for building and strengthening the community and power of your local cell of Resistance/Magnus or Enlightened/Shapers.
However there will be a strong NPC component to these new factions as well, acting almost like a force of nature, ensuring that runaway dominances in a city or region don't become an exercise of boredom for the winning side and an exercise in futility for the losing side. The concept here is the same as Blue Shell from Mario Cart.
And while you could just have NPCs of the new factions attacking the opposite side's portals, maybe it'd be more interesting if the NPCs were to put the brakes on their own side.
Too much green in the area? You've attracted the Shaper splinter-group that prefers Chaotic Matter (Dark XM) and the most powerful portals in the area start flipping to a sickly black-light Purple that gives no items on hack, only 5x damage attacks, and can't be linked to.
Too much blue in the area? The shadowy cabal at the heart of 13 Magnus has concern that while direct ingression by the shapers has been prevented, the large amounts of XM flow carry too much of a risk of mind-hacking and contamination of the populace. They dispatch a team to Neutralize and "Freeze" high level portals, turning the usual XM fountain into a crystalline structure that can not be resonated or hacked, and does not spill xm into the immediate vicinity.
And while agents can use their XMPs to remove a chaotic/frozen state, it has to be flipped through both colors before the portal is completely clean. Half-chaotic portals decay 50% faster for blue and 25% faster for green, and revert back to fully-chaotic when the resonators decay, Half-Frozen portals decay 50% faster for green, and 25% faster for blue, and revert back to fully frozen. Only when both sides have flipped a portal does it go back to behaving normally.
That would rock like the proverbial hurricane
ReplyDeleteNot a bad thought... But I still have the feeling a third faction would still require followers (or fanatics).
ReplyDeleteSo I'm wondering if the third faction will initially be seeded by "invite" from a particular third party (random e-mail from OLW or "Roland Jarvis", or just an "UNKNOWN" leader), or (in a move that would cause an uproar) random Scanners are "infected" / "kidnapped", and "turned" to the third faction.
Either way, these third faction Agents could then invite others to the faction, thus growing the flock.
After all, why is the "Invite" system still active in the Scanner if we're out of "Closed Beta"?
Jeff Coleman Either Ingress forgot to remove it or perhaps you're right. Either way, third faction thoughts are starting to grow.
ReplyDeleteMustafa Said My money is on "forgot". Heh. But you never know.
ReplyDeleteI have a theory on the continued existence of the invites tab but it's going to have to wait until after my night shift tonight.
ReplyDeleteThat would be interesting, well, we'll see...
ReplyDeleteIt would seem ADA is attempting to become as close to a sentient AI by means of Klue as possible and having been derived from part of an earlier software called Omnivore.. She may have some insight into what it is still doing. In the original document it mentions Omnivore is watching.. it may have decided it doesn't like either faction or the shapers.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting if it could infect your scanner to red faction as opposed to being banned for bad behavior thereby making the red faction the proverbial bad guys but without full control.. sometimes you belong to your faction and sometimes you are the enemy of both factions..based on KLADA last transmission it may focus on the Enlightened. She seems to show favoritism for the Resistance.
http://www.nianticproject.com/?id=09cal13
"What I do not know is if, like ADA, Omnivore is capable of defining its own interests and acting upon them. If it can, it's a worrying thought. I consider ADA a friend, but she has a measure of unpredictability about her. Her planning window is probably wider than any of us can imagine..."
Excuse me just a second.
ReplyDeleteWhat if the third faction would be the "Pure Resistance", that is to say, those who want to follow Devra Bogdanovich in her quest to immunize humanity from the effects of XM AND the threats coming from KlADA?
The third faction turns out to be team gray, I am ditching you guys so fast.
ReplyDeleteThe grey faction
ReplyDeleteADA created the refactor to counter the JARVIS virus that had been engineered with the assistance of Hulong Transglobal. ADA's preference for Resistance appears to be aimed at maintaining parity in the arms race.
ReplyDeleteDetails on my invites tab theory: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102382039481012568169/posts/VBcEFASroVL
ReplyDeleteI actually posted something much like this some time ago. My idea was something like floating entities between our realm and the shaper realm and they could only be contained utilizing control fields. So players would need to coordinate to "trap" them and prevent them from "infecting" portals.
ReplyDeleteNick L yes, it's possible that the whole shard thing was a beta test for that mechanic.
ReplyDeleteFrancesco Cecchi I like this idea, that there would be a humanist faction that decides to work with either side when it is in their interest to do so. while keeping humanity, and personal self interest at heart. or perhaps pirate type humans that don't side with anyone
ReplyDeleteI was speaking with a fellow player and in the process of discussing the possibilities of a virus type addition or "red" AI in the game.. that if Niantic wanted to attempt to shame a player for what might appear to be a questionable behavior rather than a permaban it would be interesting to infect a scanner with a "red" virus that showed in comm your scanner had been infected and was taking over an area kind of like blue dye in the pool.
ReplyDelete