Where have all the good players gone…

[cognitive]

After the upgrade my league scores cratered. Mine went from 20-25M average with five spells to 10-15M with no spells. Obviously you play a completely different game with and without spells. Average 7 stars vs 9+. Opponents having a hard time, too.

This brings the obvious question. For the many months we were playing with infinite spells, why is it we rarely ran into anyone with more than 1 or 2?

Could it be the arena opponents were wielding spells, like we did, but Rovio chose to not show them? Which could explain the mystery multimillion point jumps in opponent scoring?

If few people took advantage of infinite spells how come league scores cratered after the update?

Topic

[desperados]

lol i stopped playing in the arena all together because there’s no need to play in there…for 2 weeks my diamond league is full of non active players with lvl 10 birds and no medals..so i win the weekly tournaments by just getting 10-20 stars then i close angry birds for a week.

[Epic Buttstomp]

Some people has not upgrade yet. If I only was patience enough last week I would have read the reviews here about the new update before getting it. Unless I cannot log in I could have kept the Lady alive infinitely along with mighty eagle. We will have to wait for Rovio to ban old version from arena and few more weeks for the old recorded plays to go away.

[desperados]

I only remember playing with humans like 6 months ago…it was fun.

[RIP Piggies]

I still get annoyingly good opponents from time to time – like flock power 280 odd making 21 million without spells! Including that magical last fling for 5 million of course…
What I suspect happens in those cases is the opponent bought 3 extra birds and they’re not shown separately, just the “final” score.

[cognitive]

I’m quite convinced of that actually and wrote a post about it. There are simply not enough points in some rooms to explain the opponent points.

[PolarBearCabal]

I’m sure of it. I’ve played “myself” in the days when I always had four spells, and it didn’t show up when I was the opponent. Same score range I’m usually in, though.

[CaptSternn]

I have hit over 33 million points without using spells. So high scores are possible. Of course my flock power is significantly higher than 280. Currently at 427 flock power.

[desperados]

CaptSternn wish i could battle you :P i’ve max level of flock too now i don’t play much because 90% of the opponents i get from arena are bots and they can be beaten easily with 2 spells or none..very rarely i see the real opponents and they score good…so competition is not much at highest levels.

[CaptSternn]

That score was a one time thing, Desperado. Usually my highest scores are between 25 and 27 million. I generally don’t take spells into the matches at all. Bad memories from when all opponents always had five spells. But I am experimenting a little this week and haven’t lost a match when using spells. Almost always get ten stars.

[cognitive]

427? Wow.

I’ve thought about it and it seems spells really changed the way I played, mostly going for full destruction rather than clean rooms. I routinely scored 25M points with full spells (flock strength in the 270’s then), now with no spells it’s 10M less, closer to 15M because I play a lot more conservatively because literally every bird counts. Between Infinite spells and the ME trick one could do serious damage points wise. My max with 5 spells was 35M.

The thing is, the good players I seem to play nowdays are 20+ points lower than me in flock strength, and sling is pretty much the same for everyone.

[CaptSternn]

I have been playing since the beginning of AB2, Cognitive. I have learned a few tricks here and there. Some things that give me an advantage. I reported a bit to Rovio thinking I would help level the field, but was dismissed. I made some of what I found public after it wasn’t fixed. Use it.

I am maxed out on card and sling levels, with some room to spare.

And Cog, my high score with spells is about 42 million. So yes, about 10 million difference.

[desperados]

Capt what i need is just real players,not a bunch of randomly created bots that matches my flock power,when playing with real people the competition can be stimulating and enjoyable as you would never guess how could the match end up as they score good points.

[CaptSternn]

I don’t believe we are playing bots, Desperado. We are playing real people with their spells and spell scores stripped. That is another reason I don’t take spells into the arena. Not taking spells levels the challenge. I have made an exception for the last half of this week for a reason.

But it takes away the challenge, I always win with spells, either 9 or 10 stars. The opponent doesn’t have a chance when I have Mighty Eagles and the rest, with five more cards to start with and can keep playing long after they run out of cards. I really don’t need them anyway because I am now being placed in apathy groups. I won 1st tonight with just 480 stars, 2nd had 382. Many weeks recently I have won with far fewer stars.

Again, I am happy Rovio got things set up this way. I never liked facing opponents with all five spells all the time. Although I am not sure why I am being placed in apathy groups and others are not since two updates ago. Still, without taking spells to the arena, I have a real challenge from the opponents. Many times I lose to somebody with lower flock power. Getting the win streak is never guaranteed. Many times I do win I get only five stars and the victory is by just a few hundred points. So if you want to be challenged by opponents, leave the spells behind.

As for the group, that is a separate thing. I am happy to be in apathy groups. I can work on different parts of the game without having to be constantly in the arena. And when I was constantly in the arena, it was just to keep out of the bottom three.

[desperados]

Yeah i can sense bot players quite easily as they come up with similar names and similar avatars all the time the other thing is that even in an easy level they manage to get very low scores the others that i called ”real” players always end up scoring the same as me and sometimes they outscore me by a few millions so far i never get beaten to a player i called ”bot” with or without spells.

It’s great now with lvl 61 cards i’ve been placed in a league where all the players have 0 medals and they all have around lvl 8 cards…guess it’s time to close ab2 for an other week and start playing other games..i maxed out everything noting to do in the game now so it’s just boring now and not worth playing.

[CaptSternn]

Well, Desperado, if it isn’t fun, no point in playing. I don’t play any other games, not even the older versions of Angry Birds any more. I have found new ways to have fun with the game. But that is just me. To each their own. Take care.

[desperados]

Yeah Capt,ab2 is a great game but just needs some more polishing more customization options for the players and with different arena rewards at each week…in my opinion designers need to focus on their other games too that’s why fixing something or adding a new thing to the ab2 takes ages…it’s still fun but not much like old days.

[TripH0P]

I don’t get why people would complain about no competition in the area. The goal is to win first place and win feathers and rare chests along the way. I’d rather have an easy victory than trying to win 2000 stars to win first

[desperados]

lol i feel satisfied when i beat a tough opponent for me it’s more important than getting 300 gem per week…and it’s an unfair competition for the other players in my league when they appear in the diamond league with lvl 12 birds where i’m the only one with lvl 61 so i let them win because they need gems that i don’t need.

[CaptSternn]

They probably don’t see you in their group, Desperado. They see a completely different group and different players. And even if they do see you, they will see you with a different score. Understand that what you see is just what you see. It is incredibly rare that you would see the same thing as anybody else, including anybody in your group. You are playing against yourself in the game. Would be a bit different if you are on Facebook playing against friends.

[desperados]

Capt,in my opinion the game system is not ready for the players those maxed out everything in the game and reached max level possible…when a lvl 61 card person completes the week the system searches for other lvl 61 card person to place you in that league but at the end system is unable to find other lvl 61 card persons because their number are too little so you end up seeing yourself in a league with players lvl 10 or less cards..game is not future proof now people know the way to buy all the hats when they reach 25000 pearls…this is a problem at battles too when i was doing battle with my lvl 42 cards i battled the real face people but at lvl 61 card players are less so system usually trouble finding real ones then creates the bot opponents…i tested this several times i changed hat of birds randomly and i made the half of them wear the weakest hats with other half mixed hats when i went to the battle the same opponent with the same hats as mine appeared…there’s no logic in it a real person with max slingshot power would never wear the weakest or mixed hat that i wear.

How do you know whether those people in your league see you or not? and why would they see me with a different score? winner person becomes the 1st because he has more stars than the second player and 2nd player becomes the 2nd because he has less stars than the first player…they need to be in the same league…once i was in a same league with a real name and face person he ended up being the 1st at the end of the week i was put in a league with him again this time his score was not that high because previous week he spent lots of tickets to be in the first place.

[CaptSternn]

I have been around a while, Desperado. I have seen some things. I have learned things. Not all of the conspiracy theories are wrong, and not all are right. There are things I know and things I don’t know. Only Rovio knows how this really works. And that is working on how to make money. Play the game within the game. Make it work for you if you find a way to have fun and enjoy it. If not, then don’t bother.

Don’t overthink it. Just have fun.

[cognitive]

Given the lack of transparency in scoring, any discussion about arena has to have an asterisk the size of a planet.

I’m still trying to understand how someone scores 2.5-3M points with their first 5 birds and ends up the game with 10M points (meaning, last two birds score 3-4M each). If it was a level 60+ player I’d have no doubts, but not a level 37-38…

When Infinite Spells was the law of the land, it did not matter, but now it does.Just for fun I decided to play a handful of streak 1 games with no spells. I’m at flock strength 289 and my opponents were from 250-285. Result. I lost 6 of 7 games, all within a hundred thousand points. Scoring for the last couple birds or the video bird were comically low. Then, I added a rather useless spell and the results were amazing. It’s as if Rovio wants us to consume our spells, or get aggravated enough to cough up the 60 gems.

[desperados]

lol yes Capt,when the real money is involved in a product you use the customers of it needs some explanation to some odd things that happen until they get fully satisfied…in reality there’s no way of making all players happy…i get my satisfaction differently you get yours differently at the end we’re playing the same game…for me it’s still fun,better than noting.

oh yes cognitive i can understand that single throw scores if freeze and blue birds are used other than that there’s no logical explanation.

[cognitive]

The lack of consistency is mind-boggling, and especially if you compare structure sizes. You can obliterate a huge stone tower and nothing comes of it, but the standard two by two ice or wood with two pigs inside on rollers, that’s 2.5M easily.

[Epic Buttstomp]

The good players are going conservative now the lady is dead. No matter how big a collection of mighty eagles you have, they will run out if you spam them like before.