Sorry, haters, I like Niantic's tweaks and new badges

The much faster decay rate happened in Helios, and people lost their shit when it started because the decay was "too fast" and when it ended because the decay was once again "too slow." I'm not kidding.

You are leaving out a lot of context.

First off, dramatic, unanounced changes are always going to cause a ruckus. They didn't prep anyone, they didn't say "make plans, decay rate is going to change." The Devra character made some vague warnings that something and then suddenly on a Thursday afternoon decay jumped up to 33%/day. If you weren't charging your guardians daily at that time, you probably lost it that weekend.

Second, the change was substantial. NIA had conditioned people for well over a year that decay was 15% day. It was dogma. Only one level 8 resonator per player, links can't cross, decay is 15%/day. But in an instant it went from 7 day decay to 3 day decay. That's a massive change. Portals that were fine were suddenly dead. Farms were hemorrhaging XM. A drastic alteration to play style needed to be adopted. Immediately. Again, people are always resistant to change, and this was a big one.

Thirdly, the end result had some positive outcomes. After people got over the initial shock and NIA stopped messing with the decay rates things mellowed out. (It was 7 day, then 3 day, then 5 day, then 4 day for a long time, then eventually back to 7 day. All these changes led to lots of player confusion, which also lead to frustration. Heck I may even be forgetting one of the changes!) But once they settled on 4 day decay, people were able to settle in to a "new normal." Strategic farms and flash farms gained more value. Turnover in stagnant areas increased. Players with little or no opposition were able to rebuild sooner. And of course, all the iPhone players had a nice environment within which to level up. Although I felt 5 day decay was a better balance, myself and others grew to appreciate the opportunities provided by the increased decay rate. And then it went back to 7 days. And again, it was a substantial change. But was it for the better? Is 7 day decay better than 4 day? A lot of people didn't think so and voiced it.

Also, people like to complain. But in this instance, I think all of those complaints were justified.

/r/Ingress Thread