Angry Birds 2 withdrawal

[cognitive]

OK, I have to admit. I’m suffering from AB2 withdrawal.

I started playing the new levels of Rio and have to say, the physics of the game is so different from AB2 it’s not even funny.

Tried playing AB original, my goodness. The physics is all way different.

Am I the only one finding this out?

Topic

[MVNLA2]

@cognitive — I still like the original set of AB games better than AB 2. As for AB2 withdrawal, I’ve been captured by the Secret Society. Totally different than AB; don’t know how long I’ll stay with it, but it is filling the gap.

[datguygamer]

@mvnla2 There are some things that fill in both technically and morally:

See we all wanted more levels and they came out at a certain pace; sometimes more and sometimes less. When it came, we all hurried to get 3 stars and high scores. But then came the sequel which changed the formula; multiple battles in 1 level, lives system in a game that requires restarting levels over and over, random card given progression that allows you to choose your own bird but in a paralyzed way. We were so used to nostalgia that something that’s an official sequel has fallen short. Yeah, people are playing but not as religiously as the other ones. While people would argue nostalgia blinds logic, here it is better as the nostalgia is miles better than the current piece of junk we have. Now on top of that, AB 2 gives us 20 levels every 3 weeks; it’s overwhelming to see over 600 levels in a game that isn’t even a year old while the original had that many levels over 3 years of lifespan.

As for the technical side, they have changed the physics to the point that I don’t even care about it anymore. Pigs stay afloat at a 45 degree angles, have more HP and thus live even from a fall. Stuff like these doesn’t make AB 2 fun. yeah, I do play it but one sudden whisk of mind and I won’t even hesitate to uninstall it without a backup (while I have made updated backups for all other flinger games in the series).

[RizDub]

My biggest problem with AB2 right now is the single-player scoring system. It’s based on your *assumed* bird level (which involves just the map chests), not your *actual* bird level (which also involves friend gifts and arena prizes). Once you surpass these scores, the levels really aren’t a challenge to 3-star anymore. Someone told me that the 3-star minimums of each level is 75K multiplied by the number of rooms in the level. I’m going to assume this is still the case, but now with the extra multiplier of your (assumed) bird levels.

In Mighty Red’s videos (I’ll be using level 520 as an example), he has a bird level of 8. Ever since chapter 10 (Pigsyland), though, the map chests have gotten very small. So after that point the assumed bird level remains at level 3, and I’m assuming Gravity Grove is the same (I haven’t been able to get to the data files yet since my main computer stopped working). Level 520 has five rooms, which means the 3-star minimum is 75K * 5 rooms * assumed bird level 3 = 1,125,000. Mighty Red’s score is 2,714,720 – well above this. So 3 stars is given without too much effort (he surpasses the 3-star score not long before finishing the second room). If actual bird levels were used instead of assumed levels, the minimum 3-star score for Mighty Red SHOULD be 3,000,000 – a score that Mighty Red does not reach.

Before this scoring system my biggest issue was the lives mechanic. The giant number of levels released in such a short time period is a deterrent, but not as much of one for me as the scoring system (AB Pop has the same issues, but it’s actually one of my favorite AB games). In my opinion, the scoring system completely destroyed any challenge and friend competition in single-player mode there was in this game, and this is why I haven’t played the game at all since then, even though I’m only on the sixth chapter.

If the scoring system was changed to accommodate your actual bird levels, or (better yet) if it was reverted to the original version, that would be enough for me to resume playing the game. But until that happens, I’m not going to keep going.

[cognitive]

Y’all are thinking about it from the scoring point of view, and I agree, it seems an awful lot easier to 3-star AB2 than anything else. I’m looking at it from the physics point of view, the birds in general can’t fly very far and seem weaker, and the response to a particular angle is often different between AB2 and other AB’s.

The pig responses / HP as mentioned is miraculously different. Little pigs especially are near immortal at times, and the special characters are simply bogus – the umbrella pig or the teleporting one… Makes the game challenging to some extent but after a while…

[bigbadaboom]

Levels are better in AB2 and I like the card system. But AB2 sucks by going pay2win so overall I’d say the original games were much more enjoyable. AB2 is too much frustration with all the ad spamming and slow load times. I’ll probably stick around until maxing out my birds though.

[cognitive]

I agree, but playing Rio right now the amount of ads is also overwhelming. There’s an ad on the top right corner plus ads once you clear levels… C’me on Rovio, let us buy the game. Next thing you know birds wear ad-festooned jerseys like soccer uniforms in Europe…

I was able to get into AB2 and the arena a few minutes ago…

[MVNLA2]

@cognitive — Please edit you post about the soccer uniforms before Rovio reads and implements. : D

[RizDub]

I haven’t really noticed any major differences in the AB2 physics. The pigs and birds don’t seem overly stronger or weaker compared to other AB games to me. I did get a small pig in an unreachable spot in the Arena once, although I think he was inside a hollow wood box that broke open on impact.

@bigbadaboom I enjoy the “choose-your-own-lineup” card system as well. For me, the “pay to win” thing is more of an issue in the Arena. In single-player mode there’s not an inherent competition, so I don’t think that’s pay-to-win. I never really used spells that much anyway, so lives were the only thing I ever spent gems on (that is, until they released the “premium chest” mechanic).

I, personally, wouldn’t necessarily say levels are better in AB2, just different. The level layouts and towers can get repetitive after a little while, so that’s a little disappointing.

[Anonymous]

@cognitive @mvnla2 Because of you two we’ll be seeing jersey pigs shooting a shotgun of soccer balls at our birds next update. :P

:D

[cognitive]

Lolz :)

And for our @bankler a couple of things to pass to the developers.

The bug where if you leave a confirmation screen running and go away needs to be fixed. On my phone at least (2015 Moto X Pure with Andoid 6.0) if you’re at a confirmation screen and walk away from your phone without pushing the lock screen button, the phone seems to be getting way WAY too hot. Perhaps a runaway thread? This has been the case since I got the phone in November and is repeatable. I think your code is waiting for user input on the confirmation dialog and simply goes wild. I left my phone like that for 10 minutes and it hit 119F. I think the dialog may be stopping the phone from going to sleep (phone is ‘held awake’)…

The latest version seems to be running a few degrees cooler overall. I’ll test some more tonight but usually after 10-15 min the phone goes from ambient (75F) to 108F. Granted, I know the Snapdragon is powerful and the GPU as well, but overheating is an issue. Motorola says 108F is OK, but I’m not so sure.

[hooksfan]

Haven’t played Angry Birds 2 in about a week and I don’t have any withdrawals. I have never been able to gift in the game or receive a gift. The problem started in Angry Birds, Go. Was able to give, get gifts and than it stopped. I did all of the suggested fixes with no success.

[datguygamer]

@rizdub The birds are actually weaker than their other game counterparts, This is sole reason for upgrading the birds shtick that’s introduced in AB 2. After getting to Level 8, the birds feel exactly as they are in other games which means this was done on purpose.

[flingmaster]

Actually red and the blues feel stronger in my opinion.