My Take on The, "Secrets", of Angry Birds
  • All,

    Lately, I've been going back to Rio, seeing my scores were many times lower than 17k off the high scores. I figured I'd go back and clean up a few...get them below 10k off the high. I figured easy enough.

    To facilitate this, I started reading the discussions. I picked up a couple of grand on levels here and there.

    So...did the discussions help? Yes and no. Very very very rarely did I find that someone had done a shot that I had not tried myself many times over.

    Here's how the discussions helped: they helped to reinforce that there was nothing that I was doing, "wrong". 99% of the shots that people are claiming 17k + higher scores and top scores were done by the same shot(s) that I was doing to get my scores.

    The biggest word repeated throughout the few discussions I looked at were, "luck". I believe that the people with these huge scores, provided they are true, (and I'm not saying they aren't....particularly the long standing members of fujitoast, mau maulin, etc...), I believe top scores are achieved by doing the same shot, over and over and over and over and over and over.....until you get that little tip and higher destruction.

    As such, the biggest, "secret", I have found, is that luck plays a huge part in the outcome of getting high scores. Also, it leads me to believe that Rovio has accurately gauged their 3 stars of most all levels to demonstrate, "mastery". If Rovio wanted to up the threshold on some/many/few...however many...to get to that 3 star level, then so be it.

    Maybe there is some magical secret to this game that eludes me. And maybe claiming luck as the only true, "secret", of AB, is a bit of sour grapes. Possibly. But I doubt it.

    The fact does remain that I upped some scores on Rio based on the discussions. But the biggest thing I came away with from those discussions was that I was doing it right to begin with. And just didn't have the patience to sit there and bang my head against the wall doing the same shot over and over to get a higher score.

    Once you have the behaviors of each bird, and knowledge of structures/joints/materials that you are going up against on each level, things sort of become repetitious. And then luck starts playing a bigger role. And the patience to sit there and do the same shot over and over until you get that minute tip of a board, a stone, etc.....which can result in higher scores.

    My, "secret", is the amount of luck that occurs in getting these high scores.

    Switching gears slightly, there were two levels in Space that I tried to get the average score, and could not. On those, I did turn to the forums totally flummoxed as to what I was missing. Now those forums on those two levels? Yes, they 100% helped me to get out of the rut I was in. Using partial power shots.

    But beyond that....I think that the accumulated knowledge of each of us individually of bird behavior, structures, etc....once you have mastered that, the rest is luck.

    Just my take on it. There was no magic 99% of the time. The forums, 99% of the time just reinforced that I was doing the right thing and to sit there and keep doing it.

    Finally is the issue of the gaming platform. I use the IPhone3GS. Old. There was one egg level on Seasons that the two little pigs would fly off the top of the structure and wouldn't be counted on my iphone. I posted this in the past. We went to my parents house over the holidays. My mom has the AB on her Droid. I got all the levels done for her so she could get that egg level. First shot, sure enough, 10k higher because the pigs flying off the top were counted. That score was what I eventually posted on my file here.

    I don't know how much the gaming platform affects play and higher scores. I don't. I do know this level wouldn't count those pigs, though, on my iphone. It does open the door to other platform glitches and whether they may/may not exist. I know there are some unreal scores for some levels that I just am amazed at. I could play one level all year and not even get close to the high score on some of these levels.

    Luck, platform, sour grapes. Maybe a combo of all three. Regardless, the thing that I walked away with from the forums is how big a factor luck is.

    Thanks for reading!

    elcapitan
  • 6 Comments
  • My 2 cents: Part of luck involves the variability of the starting conditions, which we know exist in a lot, maybe all, levels. A few examples:
    1) Self-destroying levels (partial or total collapse with no bird shot) don't always collapse, and when they do, different scores are likely.
    2) On a single level of ABSp, sometimes asteroids are motionless, sometimes they rotate clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise, and sometimes with different rotational speeds. This rotation sometimes has a big effect on the final score.
    3) On a lot of levels, we see varying amount of "settling" after a reset, whether or not there is any self-destruction.
    So my take on luck is that you need to hit exactly the right shots at a time when the stars (target items) are optimally aligned. The highest scorers may be more consistent in hitting shots accurately, as well as have a lot more patience than me, at least.
    One thing I started wondering about: Are the relative positions of slingshot relative to target also variable? Seems fairly likely. Sometimes it seems to me that after a complete restart of a level (some other level played between times), aiming a bird in precisely the same way has an entirely different result, much more noticeable than the normal restart to restart variation.
  • Good .02 worth.

    Self destructing levels I am usually too impatient to wait on. I've seen 'em. Know they are there, but never wait around to see if it will partially auto collapse.

    "Exact same shots", with different results: If there is anything I learned from Space, it's just how much minute movement there is on what I am thinking is an exact same shot as the one previous. Because we have the path projector. And I can see it plainly shift, sometimes very small, sometimes wow....stop the coffee!

    So that's one aspect of the, "exact same shots" scenario. Another is, as you mentioned, everything has to be static. No movement at all. No wind, no swaying, no turning of asteroids, etc. Everything dead calm. At this point, I too have wondered many times as to the miniscule changes of orientation to sling shot and objects and if that occurs. What you swear is the exact same shot with everything static and the arc being the exact same and impact being the exact same (which is much harder to determine if is actually an exact same impact), yields completely different results.

    There was one level in Space, one of the first ones (Pigbang or Coldcuts), that was the only level I ever saw that the exact same shot yielded the exact same results every time. That was one of the levels that i had to go to the discussions to find the trick. Someone (and how they did it amazed me), figured it out. A half power shot at the big snow boulder. The intent was to keep the bird in play after the boulder self destructed and the head hit something else for more points. Simple...yet brilliant.

    I just didn't find those, "tricks", in any of the discussions. I found 99% of the time they were doing the exact same shot I was doing....just getting higher results. Luck? Game platform? Who's to know. And again, they are on static/non-movement levels. Things swaying or rotating is a whole another ball game.

    It all kind of piqued my interest after reviewing the comments, and thought I would open it for discussion. I would say that overall, I left the comments section overwhelmingly saying...hmmmm.....seems like luck plays more into this than I thought.

    Or maybe I'm wrong. And there is another level of expertise above mine. I think the top scorers aren't likely to give up their, "secrets". If there are any.
  • I would not consider myself one of the "great" players, but over the course of the past eight months or so, I have gone from "I hope I pass this level" to "Gotta get three stars" to "Must be above ABN average" to now where if I sit down and work at it, I can usually get a top 50 score on a daily challenge level.

    Is there luck involved in picking up the last few thousand points on a level? - Yes

    Is there some "special secret" to creating that luck? - No

    In general, what is the difference between a good score and a great one? - Generally it is hitting all the needed shots "just right" and most of that is timing of an activation, or working out the ideal angle of attack through trial and error. Sometimes it is the crazy missed shot that ends up exploiting a weakness in the structure that you wouldn't have otherwise noticed. I usually test each shot several times, even after getting a good score, just to make sure that I did not leave something on the table. And sometimes, I can see all the shots that I need to make, and can make each one in isolation, but for whatever reason, cannot put them all together in the same attempt. (Kinda like golf, I guess!)
  • Burb,

    I believe you were the one that figured that half power shot on Space with the asteroids in a circle? That was simple yet brilliant.

    This is an area that I don't dabble in. The half power stuff. Can't see it on the iphone outside of Space. Everything too small. But you can do it on Space. Having said that, I, besides that one level, don't do the half power stuff. I can see doing it if you want to keep the bird in play. I probably should pay more attention to those situations.

    Three stars is fairly easy to get. ABN average I do get; however, it sounds like I have to work at it a little harder than you do. I do not think if I were to sit down one level X,Y,Z, I would be even close to top 50. So by what you are saying, there is another level above me. Which in honesty, I have little doubt of. There has to be SOMETHING...that I could do better.

    I go through the same thought process and procedure on individual shots, group shots, and putting them all together into an efficient package. I shoot the first shot, maybe screw it up, but still will take the second, knowing that I have to practice that one too, on those levels that require to perfect shots one after another.

    Some of the cascading down levels on Rio that i'm 17k down on, I've tried one or two of them for a few hours each on and off during the day. Maybe I increase my score by 4k or so. Try every angle possible over and over to get the one bird solution, only to come up short. Over and over. On those levels, I just end up saying hmmmm.....what the heck am I missing? This is the kill shot. Try it at every angle possible. And still not even close. So I say man, you ain't got the luck!

    From what I remember, you are one of the top players. Mau Maulin (I think his name is), seems always to be up there. I don't study them that much. But think I recognize you from that circle asteroid level. Everyone was stuck at that same score. And then you posted the solution to get higher and shift the ABN average.
  • I cannot take credit for that shot on 2-1, was just an early adopter. I think it was @Laurence who posted it.
  • Yes....@lawrence does sound familiar on that level that broke the code.
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