Three years as an Ingress agents

Exactly three years ago:

To me, the beginning of a new lifestyle!

Gold Builder

What you spend years building, someone can destroy overnight: build anyway.Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Vanguard medal

In order to celebrate its year 3, Ingress issued the Vanguard medal.
Here is the official announcement by Ingress.
Tiers will be assigned depending on the level reached by December 1^st, 2015 as follows:

• Bronze: level 3+
• Silver: level 9+
• Gold: level 13+
• Platinum: level 15+
• Black: level 16

Ingress year 3

Happy 3rd anniversary, Ingress!

Original post by Miwa Komatsu.

Ingress in-game store

It was activated in my scanner yesterday night.

     

It encompasses a new series of items that can be purchased with Chaotic Matter Units (C.M.U.) which, in turn, can be purchased with normal currency (Google Wallet).

This store is neither a collection of items in a "stronger" version than those you'd get via hacks nor a faster way to unilaterally get more normal items, Ingress is not pay-per-win; they are a completely different handy-but-unnecessary set of tools:

• Portal frackers enhance the output of hacks for either 10 minutes or 150 hacks, whichever comes first, and they affect hacks by all players;
• Beacons temporarily project olographic pictures above portals;
• Key lockers are special capsules that can only contain keys for a maximum of 100; agents can have up to 5 key lockers.

Click here for the official Google+ announcement by Ingress.

Black Translator

The limits of my language are the limits of my world.Ludwig Wittgenstein

Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.William Gibson

One language sets you in the corridor of life; two languages open every door on the way.Frank Smith

High thoughts must have high language.Aristophane

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head; if you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heartNelson Mandela

I remember getting the Platinum one back in May, I already knew the path to the Black one would be steep. Or, well, extremely long.

We are not short on portals in my whereabouts, but we sure are out on L8 portals: 15-point worth portals are not that common, I can mostly rely on 8-point L6/L7 portals with multi-hacks on.

But that's OK: committing consistently (once or twice a day) to burn out all those L6/L7 ones and driving to the nearest L8 farm from time to time would work out pretty well.

That is dedicating late nights and some afternoons to hardcore glyphing up to the point to wake up one morning with my finger drawing CLEAR-MIND-OPEN-MIND in the air.

That was a clear sign that I was “maybe” taking it "a little" too seriously :D but it also indicated that I was on the final rush.

Last days were hectic, persistent heavy rain and wind made it veeery difficult to burn out farms in pedestrian zones by both holding the umbrella and properly completing glyph sequences: it felt as if the Elements were telling me "We will do so that you DO DESERVE that damn medal!".

Bring it on, it's a good aerobic exercise.

And, at last, here I am, as excited as ever. Achievements are always a good way to tell ourselves: "Way to go, do not stop".

I'm also attaching the screenshot of very first sequence I got on the day the Translator medal was introduced, the beginning of a long path; I remember I was here, it was Green and L7, owned by +David Jones and powered up by +Alex Banti aka @InsaneX and me.

Therefore I'd like to thank them and local communities of Livorno and Pisa for providing a good number of high-level portals to glyph-hack.

And, by the way, I used neither Glyphon nor any other similar "tool"; I'm a purist and I personally despise these tricks as I believe they make the final achievement less worthy.

"Way to go, do not stop": Black Illuminator and Level 15 await.

And, heck, maybe a Double Black Translator. :D

The adventure continues!

I'm enthused and enthralled as ever at this "game", thanks Ingress!

@MarcoCarrai1981 yeah! nice job!

— Ingress (@ingress) 29 Ottobre 2015

A quick-and-dirty one

I'm on a one-week holiday now so yesterday night, after my friends went home, I still had some time to spend, no hurry to go to bed.

I quickly checked the Intel map and I see I could slap together something; I reviewed the keys I had, went taking those I missed and completed this one little op: I'm getting close to level 15 so even the smallest steps are important!

Towns involved: Rosignano Marittimo, La Mazzanta, Cecina
Top-bottom distance: 9.19 Km (5.71 mi)
M.U.: 10000+

Sunday afternoon, waiting for friends...

While waiting for friends to arrive, there are those who idle on the couch playing Candy Crush and those who drive for kilometres.
I belong to the latter group.

Towns involved: Rosignano Marittimo, Cecina, Casale Marittimo, Bibbona
Top-bottom distance: 18.7 Km (11.23 mi)
M.U.: 7220

Yet another simple destruction night

Although the quintessence of Ingress lies in complex planning, cooperating and socializing, some fast "run-and-gun" destruction is good for relaxing from time to time, especially after an intense day at work.

So, yesterday night I teamed up with @ToscJones to raze to the ground a remarkable blue area in Livorno and stack some nice A.P.

Here's a little excerpt of our passage:

Karen's contribution

My favorite "videogame" for exactly this reason! So proud to be part of this brilliant creation. http://t.co/QJBpd8l5Qo

— KarenStrassman (@KarenStrassman) 29 Settembre 2015

@MarcoCarrai1981 @ingress thank you so much!!

— KarenStrassman (@KarenStrassman) 8 Ottobre 2015

Than you so much!! https://t.co/WdxpeNF8sq

— KarenStrassman (@KarenStrassman) 8 Ottobre 2015

More "Abaddon" details

The official logo for "Abaddon" anomaly series has been released:

As described in the official Google+ announcement by Ingress, it is necessary to officially signup and order your tickets at one of the links below in order to attend an Anomaly and receive an Abaddon in-app medal:

October 10^th 2015: Flash Shards Special Event

Boston, MA, USA - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/boston

Houston, TX, USA - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/houston

October 24^th 2015: Flash Shards Special Event

London, UNITED KINGDOM - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/london

Zurich, SWITZERLAND - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/zurich

November 14^th 2015: XM Anomalies 

Banqiao, New Taipei City, TAIWAN  [p] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/newtaipeicity

Bangkok, THAILAND [s]  - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/bangkok

Manila, PHILIPPINES  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/manila

Sydney, AUSTRALIA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/sydney

Hamburg, GERMANY  [p] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/hamburg

Edinburgh, UNITED KINGDOM  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/edinburgh

Seville, SPAIN  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/seville

Zagreb, CROATIA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/zagreb

New Orleans, LA, USA  [p] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/neworleans

Charlotte NC, USA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/charlotte

Guatemala City, GUATEMALA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/guatemalacity

Pittsburgh, PA, USA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/pittsburgh

December 12^th 2015: XM Anomalies 

Okinawa, JAPAN  [p] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/okinawa

Seoul, SOUTH KOREA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/seoul

Singapore, SINGAPORE  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/singapore

Wellington, NEW ZEALAND  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/wellington

Milan, ITALY  [p] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/milan

Gdansk, POLAND  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/gdansk

Porto, PORTUGAL  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/porto

Sofia, BULGARIA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/sofia

Oakland, CA, USA  [p] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/oakland

Fort Worth, TX, USA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/fortworth

Lima, PERU  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/lima

Phoenix, AZ, USA  [s] - http://events.ingress.com/xmanomalies/abaddon/phoenix

Again, unstoppable

You'd think that, by now, the Resistance should have learned how to block us.
Well... no.

 

Completed right on time for the checkpoint of 9 PM; I'm not bothering you with details and statistics again, after all it's the exact replica of what we did last week.

I'm one big step closer to the Black Illuminator medal, now.

Huge thanks to @ToscJones and @MATRIXIO76 for dealing with respectively the left anchor and the top anchor. :)

Over and over

Do you know those times when there is a song you like so much that you can listen to it over and over without ever getting bored of it?

The same is for us with the "Labronic triangle" op: regardless of the many times we have already done it, we keep on doing it and fruitfully stack a good number of MU for the cycle.

After Summer break naturally slowed everybody's activity down around here, we decided to reopen the Autumn-Winter period with a flying start; also, my Platinum Illuminator medal was idling and itching, so yesterday we decided to proceed with our renowned operation: our guys from Livorno and Pisa paved the way by clearing a number of blocking links (of both colors) and throwing half of the links needed while I, from the bottom anchors, threw the closing links.

• Locations: Vicarello, Calafuria, Rosignano Marittimo
• Checkpoint: 00:00 AM
• Right side: 22.81 Km (14.17 mi)
• Top side: 18.76 Km (11.66 mi)
• Bottom side: 13.34 Km (8.29 mi)
• Layers: 8
• M.U.: ~560,000

   

Never miss the opportunity for a good #IngressActualGameplayFootage shot:

Thanks to my fellows Enlightened agents of AF10-SIERRA-10, it's a honour and a pleasure to work with you!

R.I.P. Joe Philley

There are no easy ways to communicate certain things so: Joe Philley has passed.
Here is the announcement by his son-in-law and here is the announcement by Ingress.

Very sad news to begin the day with.

R.I.P. Joe, condolences, you will be missed.

Link to this picture on Joe Philley's Google+ profile.

Ingress storyline so far in 10 minutes

As we all know, Ingress is far from a simple "whack-a-mole" game with portals.

All we do when we attack, capture, create links and fields, move shards or artifacts, compete in anomalies, etc. affects and is affected by an intricate and fashinating storyline involving a number of characters, locations and events.

Delving into that story line is very interesting but, for newcomers, it can be pretty hard: Andrew Krug from Behind The Scanner has made a uber-good job creating a clean, nifty and linear video that summarizes the whole Ingress plot in less than 10 minutes!

You can find it on YouTube and on my Videos page.

It comes with subtitles in a number of language, and it was a honour and a pleasure for me to contribute with Italian!

Way over one million... twice!

The deep & solid green colour is charming;

1,600,000+ MU in a single operation are really charming;

doing it twice (00:00AM and 05:00AM) is even more charming;

winning the cycle with it is rewarding;

seeing smurfs jump like frogs out from pubs to try and prevent us from succeeding... priceless!

  

Locations: Viareggio, Pontedera, Livorno

Top side: 36.46 Km (22.65 mi)
Bottom side: 30.15 Km (18.73mi)
Left side: 32.75 Km (20.75 mi)
Layers: 16

My part this time was negligible: I was just patrolling the area south of the operation scene in case some last-minute cleaning was needed, and I was delighted to follow it all unfolding in front of my eyes!

Then @MATRIXIO76 ​​ asked me for screenshots and a quick report, so here it is. :)

Congratulations, guys! :)

"Abaddon" anomaly series announced

Click here for the original announcement on Google+.

• October 10^th: Flash Shards Special Event
• Boston, MA, USA 
• Toronto, CANADA
• October 24^th: Flash Shards Special Event
• Zurich, SWITZERLAND
• London, UNITED KINGDOM
• November 14^th: XM Anomalies
• Hamburg, GERMANY
  - Seville, Spain
  - Edinburgh, UK
  - Zagreb, Croatia
• New Orleans, LA, USA
  - Charlotte, NC, USA
  - Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  - Guatemala City, Guatemala 
• Taipei, TAIWAN
  - Sydney, Australia
  - Bangkok, Thailand
  - Manila, Philippines  
• December 12^th: XM Anomalies
• San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
  - Phoenix, AZ, USA
  - Fort Worth, TX, USA
  - Lima, Peru
• Okinawa, JAPAN
  - Seoul, South Korea
  - Wellington, New Zealand
  - Singapore, Singapore
• Milan, ITALY 
  - Sofia, Bulgaria
  - Porto, Portugal
  - Gdansk, Poland

[EDIT on September 9^th, 2015]: secondary sites added.