Ingress is becoming a grind
My progress in Ingress has been fun but has become a grind.
Portals are too powerful
Even the lower level portals have been beyond my ability to damage. I looked up a few resources on how to attack portals, but my level 2 XMPs have not been able to do much damage. Perhaps I am just in an area where most people are high level – the resonators are all level 7 or 8 it seems. I have been able to damage some lower level resonators, but have yet to actually destroy one – I think I need to be more focused when I want to do a real attack. I have made it up to 16k AP so I am more than halfway from level 2 to 3 so maybe things will get easier.
Hard to level
At level 2, I am finding it difficult to gain AP to level – it is truly a grind. To get from level 2 to 3, I need 20k AP. Now, getting from 1 to 2 took 10k, but it seemed to go fast because I was running around downtown at Comic-Con. Now I am just doing my normal daily grind for work and around my neighborhood and there is not as many portals to interact with. On top of that, the AP I gain seems pretty insignificant.
Here is what I gain:
- Hack an enemy portal = 100 AP
- Place a resonator = 125 AP
- Recharge a portal = 10 AP
- Destroy a resonator = 75 AP
Those are the only tasks I have been able to perform. There is linking portals and destroying links, but those so far have been above my level. I really haven't been able to destroy a resonator, just attack it as I mentioned. With those rates of AP gain, it is gonna take a while to just get to level 3. Perhaps I am used to gaming on the PC where level 50, 75, or 100 are the max levels, and not 8.
Anyway, now that I just found out I can use portal keys to charge up portals I have been to previously, I try to recharge friendly portals whenever possible. I am running out of XM a lot faster now though, so the resource limitations curtail my advancement. It's only a little extra AP, but it seems to make me feel a bit better about supporting my team.
Enemy Takeover
I am not sure if it is good or bad, but the 3 portals near my work have been taken by the enemy. This is good for my leveling since hacking enemy portals is worth 100 AP, but bad for my team as they were linked and generating more points for us – though I am not sure how exactly that works yet. In any case, with the enemy in control of those portals, I can grab 300 AP each walk I take so hopefully leveling will progress a little faster.
The game is still interesting, but I fear the slog from level 3 to 4 may turn me off unless something changes. Even with the 3 nearest portals in enemy hands, it looks like it may take over 40 days for me to get from 3 to 4. That is pushing battleship training times in Eve, and I don't think I get to fly a Dominix at level 4. We'll see how it goes.
Maybe I should do the tutorial.
This is post 18 in my Blaugust Challenge.
#Blaugust #Ingress