Drone Flight Planner

A drone route planning plugin for IITC on Niantic's Ingress Intel Map.

Drone Flight Planner builds long drone movement routes from portals currently loaded on the Intel Map. It supports classic distance rules, S2-based visibility mechanics, key-jump limits, tactical overlays, and JSON import or export for agents who want more efficient drone operations.

View this plugin directory on GitHub | See all IITC plugins

Credits: Original concept and plugin by 57Cell. Extended and maintained by Cloverjune, including S2 mechanics workflow and performance-focused improvements.

Who This Plugin Is For

This plugin is useful for Ingress agents who plan longer drone chains, compare routing tradeoffs, or want practical route exports they can revisit later. It is especially helpful when scanner range, key usage, and S2 visibility behavior all matter to the final path.

Key Features

Viewport-based planning: Scans portals currently loaded in the map view and builds a reachability graph from them.
Multiple optimization goals: Lets you prefer fewer hops, fewer key jumps, or a more balanced route.
S2 mechanics support: Switches from simple distance checks to S2 cell based drone visibility logic when needed.
JSON import and export: Saves or restores route plans across refreshes and devices.
Local autosave: Stores the latest plan in browser localStorage for quick recovery.
Tactical overlays: Shows active S2 cells and optional one-way jump warnings for route review.

Planning Workflow

Open Plan Drone Flight from the IITC toolbox.
Move the map to your target area and click Use Portals In View.
Select a start portal from the highlighted options on the map.
Choose planning settings such as goal, algorithm, S2 mechanics, and key policy.
Review the generated route text and the path drawn on the map.
Use Export Plan if you want to keep or share the result.

Option Reference

Group	Option	Meaning
Optimization Goal	`Min Hops` / `Balanced` / `Min Keys`	Controls the tradeoff between total hop count and long jumps that consume keys.
Search Algorithm	`None`, `Greedy`, `Balanced`, `Perfect`	Balances speed and route quality. `Perfect` is the slowest and most exhaustive mode.
S2 Mechanics	`Use S2 Mechanics`	Uses S2 cell based visibility logic instead of only simple radius checks.
S2 Detail	`S2 Level` (16 or 17)	Defines the active grid size used for reachability and warnings.
Scanner Constraint	`Scanner View Radius (m)`	Sets the drone visibility radius used in calculations, usually 550m.
Tactical Overlays	`Show One-Way Warnings`, `Display Active Grid`	Adds map feedback for hard reverse jumps and the active S2 cell.
Long Jumps	`Allow Keys (<1.25km)` / `No Keys`	Enables or disables longer key-assisted jumps beyond scanner range and up to the hard cap.

Buttons and Actions

Plan Controls

Use Portals In View ingests portals currently loaded on screen.
Switch End to Start continues planning from the current route end.
Export to DrawTools sends route segments to the DrawTools layer.
Export Plan downloads iitc-drone-plan.json.
Import Plan loads compatible JSON route data.

Cache Controls

Clear Start removes the selected start portal without wiping everything.
Clear Unused keeps only portals used by the main path.
Clear Most keeps the main path plus nearby neighbors.
Clear All clears route cache and the autosaved plan entry.
More Info shows credits, storage notes, and safety reminders.

Data Storage and Safety

The plugin stores settings and autosaved plan data in localStorage using plugin-drone-flight-planner-settings and drone-flight-plan-autosave. Dense route graphs and repeated experiments can consume noticeable browser storage over time.

Important: localStorage quota is shared with other IITC plugins in your browser. If you let large route caches accumulate, other plugins may fail to save state. A good maintenance habit is Export Plan followed by Clear All when you no longer need the working cache.

JSON Plan Format

Exported plans include a compact structure with route data and a minimal portal dictionary:

{
  "name": "Drone Flight Plan",
  "version": "1.0",
  "startPortalGuid": "....",
  "path": ["guid1", "guid2", "guid3"],
  "graph": { "guid1": ["guid2"] },
  "portals": {
    "guid1": { "name": "Portal A", "lat": 35.0, "lng": 139.0 }
  }
}

Imported plans can reconstruct the route even when the original portals are no longer loaded on screen, which makes route continuation and device transfer much easier.

Performance Notes

Route quality and runtime depend heavily on portal density inside the current map viewport.
Perfect mode reduces UI freezing with time-sliced processing, but it is still heavy on dense maps.
Clear Unused and Clear Most help reduce graph size during iterative planning.
If the map feels slow, disable overlays you do not need, such as active grid display or one-way warnings.

FAQ

Does this plugin use only portals currently loaded in IITC? Yes. Planning starts from portal data already present in your current Intel Map view or imported plan files.
Why use S2 mechanics? S2 mode better models practical drone reachability when cell-based visibility matters more than pure straight-line distance.
Can I move plans between devices? Yes. Export the JSON plan file, then import it on another browser or device.