A big "ban" is coming

[Birdy]

@yue-zhang

I have noticed this phenomena in other clans of high FP players with identical star value. Sometimes maxed-out FP, sometime just extremely high FP, but identical star values for groups of players. It does on the surface look like “cloning”. Have cheaters found a way to clone? Just curious.

[Birdy]

@yue-zhang

True, job #1 for Rovio is to patch their AB2 software and possibly overhaul the way Rovio tracks player details, to block exploits and hacks, and detect cheating.

In clan vs. clan battles, cheaters (such as players with ill-gotten max FP) really spoil the experience for Rovio’s honest, paying customer base, the players who pay into the game, and without whom there would be no game.

@hank don’t you agree?

[Photokool]

@ryan-kochie – thanks for your response.

However, the facts of the most recent battle have not changed.

The AB2 Gamers 02 started the battle as Amethyst and immediately became significantly into Diamond AFTER play began. We were still Amethyst.

At least one of the max FP players was not there when the battle began. I checked how many max FP were there at the start because of a similar issue with the last clan we played. It is absolutely still possible to add players after a challenge has begun.

The difference in FP from start to the next day was more than 1,000 points.

It was not a fairly matched battle. I believe that people in the 02 clan were manipulating flock power to win. Having that happen takes the fun out of playing CvC and certainly should diminish any sense of the accomplishment for the “winning” clan.

The biggest issue we have found overall is that if you have a clan with only one max FP player and are put against a clan with multiple players with max FP, there is no way to win. The points are weighted very high for the top 10 spots. If you have 8-10 players who are 600+, those players will take the top spots every time. Just measuring overall flock power is not enough, especially since that flock power CAN be manipulated.

Our one player with max FP did come in first in the most recent match, beating all three of AB2 Gamers 02 max FP players. I think that is a reflection of skill, since the FP was exactly the same.

We had 11 of the top 20 spots, but no chance to win.

If you truly want to be a clan that plays fair, then the manipulation needs to stop. Whether you personally were aware, it did happen.

@hank – please give feedback to Rovio on this issue.

 

 

 

[gjs96743]

@birdythunder

When you run across instances like that, take screen shots and click the report button to Rovio. In our current clan battle with Bacon Busters, we’ve come across 3 players – [Real Profile – Name Withheld], Sleeper Agent-01 and Sleeper Agent-02.

The sleeper agents are identical in FP and hats (maxed out), and seemed to be cloned from the first player listed above (same maxed FP, same level, same hats). I report the observation, but not the accusation. I leave that to Rovio to decide. I understand from the AB2 Facebook groups that there is some limited success when following this protocol.

[ryan-kochie]

Again I’m sorry but I am not aware of any glitch to get someone into a battle once it has begun. Perhaps someone managed to get max after the battle began, or perhaps you missed them. I’m not sure of the exact Flock powers involved, but it is likely within the 10-20% rovio has said is fair. If anyone in the clan did cheat I do hope they get reported and banned. I agree there can always be better match making, but it isn’t about just the top spots but good overall performance from the clan as a whole, teamwork. And #1 spot is great and yes an indicator of skill but you need to be well rounded than just a few heavy hitters. I do hope Rovio fixes all these glitches very quickly, and finds a way to auto-ban anyone who does, though I don’t think hat dropping is a glitch, it’s intended gameplay within the game, you are allowed to change hats around, it’s just the strategy they employed, and Rovio has said it doesn’t actually effect match-making since the last update.

People are clearly upset by all of this especially as there are more multiplayer options like Bootcamp and clans. Knowing there are thousands of players above me in bootcamp who shouldn’t be there, pushing my score down, means I get less rewards end of the season and it is very frustrating.

[Photokool]

@ryan-kochie, there was more than 1,000 FP difference in the AB2 Gamers 02 from the start of play than it was the next morning. The clan was Amethyst at the start of the challenge and Diamond the next day. There was manipulation, either by hats or some other method. Your players did not “earn” more than 1,000 flock points in 8 hours overnight.

I don’t think that is playing fair. It isn’t strategy or skill. It is looking for an unfair advantage to win. It became very obvious after playing your 02 clan twice in one month that something was being manipulated.

Your 02 clan is not the only one doing it. We’ve seen it with other clans, too, including the one we are playing now in CvC. The current clan started the challenge with 18,214 clan rank and was 19,356 miraculously the next day.

@hank, please ask Rovio to look into this flock power manipulation with CvC.

Here is a direct example from the current clan we are playing — from ONE player only, showing a 71 flock power difference from the start of challenge overnight. It makes CvC not enjoyable or fun at all.

I don’t even know HOW they remove hats completely. I know you can switch to a lower hat, but I don’t see an option for no hats at all!

[Anonymous]

“I don’t even know HOW they remove hats completely”

On the hat selection screen tap on the same hat/bird twice….voila, hat removed.

Again I’m sorry but I am not aware of any glitch to get someone into a battle once it has begun

That’s because there is none :)

[Yue]

@photokool

just a click on the current hat will remove hat. That’s it!

[ryan-kochie]

50 players removing hats could easily affect 1000fp difference if well coordinated. If they all have 4x hats that’s 1400fp between everyone. Some have lower, some higher, the 10x hats. Some won’t take hats off so I think around 1000fp seems very plausible if everyone is on board. As well assuming they are around 20k for diamond 10% would be around 2000 flock power, so well within the range of what rovio would consider a fair match up, thus removing hats before play really doesn’t effect the matching. Clan makeup does play a huge role, but that’s strategy, we put a lot of effort and thought into how the clan is run and made up. We don’t just play the game, we play the game. Player selection is important. If any individual player seems to have gained a lot of fp though, not including hats, I would report to Rovio. Like 100+ gain or something outlandish.

[Anonymous]

Correct Ryan….arguably, if an entire clan of max FP players dropped their hats from x10 down to no hat at all, that means a difference of 70fp x50 players meaning a difference of 3500fp.

Now I doubt there are many clans with 50x max FP, but even if half dropped from max FP that means a difference of 1750fp etc…..so it would be extremely easy to manipulate a difference of 1000fp with 50 players.

[Photokool]

@ryan-kochie

Rovio already determined that CvC 10% variance when the match was made at the start of the CvC. Hat manipulation or whatever else is done by clan members takes that variance even higher.

My point to you is that your clan manipulated flock power on our clan TWICE in the last month. I don’t know exactly how it was done because I’m not part of your group. But it was done. It is not playing a “fair” game in my opinion.

We will now be taking screenshots with any future CvC matchups so we can report it directly to Rovio.

[Yue]

@photokool
be aware of a clan named “Bacon Busters”.

there are 7 cloned players now all at star level 141.
They will hide by putting 4X hats instead of 10X to show less power level but indeed, they are all max-out.

They will change nickname during battle so that you would not be able to track them.

It’s quite obvious that all 7 accounts belong to same player and my question is,

how is possible to clone player? best exploit ever..
this guy must be clever…..

@hank

[Yue]

@chucky-2
are you back to the game? same Mario?

[Anonymous]

Hey @yue-zhang in all honesty I am over it…..so BoomBoom aka Mario is now dead lol

Sure I could clone one of my accounts under a new FB account so I am back to a max FP player with 10’s of thousands of spells, but the attitude of Rovio lately plus the fact the game is just the same crap repeated over and over and over again (other than a small amount of levels like boss levels, bootcamp etc) has me completely over the game.

I was actually just discussing with Ryan how much my life has opened up now that I no longer play. I never realised how much time I used to put into the game.

If Rovio ever release another Angry Birds similar to the original, space, Star Wars, rio etc, then I might start to play again as generally in most of those games the levels were not repeated over and over again. But angry birds 2 is just repeated levels with no consistency. I miss playing CVC with my old clan, but that is about the only thing I miss.

[gjs96743]

@chucky-2

I miss Mario… that boy can fling a bird! I echo your sentiment though – clan play is about the only enjoyable thing left in the game. It’s getting old though. As Yue pointed out earlier, I feel like I’m in a Star Wars movie right now facing the “Attack of the Clones”

[Photokool]

@ryan-kochie

If players cannot play CvC after being added during the event, then one of the max FP players from the 02 clan must have been one of the hat manipulators. I know I clicked on every member listed — and there were only 2 at max FP. The next morning, there were 3 at max FP. There were more higher level players than the night before, too.

Our clan has added players with regular challenges, but not with CvC before, so I assumed it was the same.

It sounds like you are making an effort with your clans, and we are probably more alike than different in wishing that the game could be played without glitches and cheating. It was very frustrating to experience what we did twice with the same clan. Moving on!

 

[mitchma79]

Now, why would you go and smear a good clan’s name? Maybe the Bacon Busters worked REALLY hard and paid a LOT of money to do well. Maybe a group of very close friends all started at the same time and compete constantly?  Just saying. :)

[Shiggy]

well, those 7 good friends must work very close together then, exact star rank of 141 each. all decided for the same 10x hats. Those 7 friends changed their names during the current event, each one. Why should anyone do that? They lowered their hats multiplier during the event.  Why should they do that? “Man, this was too much score, I have to go lower in flock power!”

BACON BUSTERS USING CLONED PROFILES

 

Just smeared a “good” clan’s name

 

[ccanis]

@photokool just look at Flock Power manipulation our clan was beaten up lately. Screenshots were taken within 5 hours.

[ccanis]

@yue-zhang I don’t think a big ban is coming. As people mentioned cheaters found new method – now they need just seconds to clone their profiles and put them into new accounts. I looked at todays Boot Camp and guess what, there are several maxed out cheaters with the same star rank of 155 (by the way there are more star ranks that in top100 that seem to be non random with most of them being iteration of number 5).

maybe @Hank would like to have a look :)

And what are the odds – all of the cheaters with star rank of 155 are Russians. Don’t get decieved by their different hats. They have all of them so they can change them anytime.

I think the only way to get rid of the cheaters is to block MAC address of the devices they are playing (by AB2 programmers).

[Birdy]

@ccanis

Cloned profiles with max FP and identical star value is “standard operating procedure” for Russian cheaters.

It’s disheartening that Russian cheaters are running circles around Rovio’s failed attempt to curb cheating.

I don’t want to demean Rovio, but their technical staff is really outmatched by the cheaters. Players should make a lot of noise to Rovio, and then maybe Rovio will get the message that cheaters are spoiling the game experience for the honest/paying player base.

Hello @hank ?

[ryan-kochie]

Yes the clones are the biggest issue right now, making the bans seem useless. Pushing us all down on Bootcamp so we get less points, which means less coins when the shop does open costing us all some exciting rewards.

 

I am sure rovio is aware of the issue, but keep reporting will help them track it. The cloning thing is new as a few weeks ago and really throws away any previous efforts. They need software to detect a cloned account right away and auto ban any new clones coming into the game, then can go back to banning everyone else who needs banning. It’s becoming more obvious how serious this issue is for the game. I do think rovio is taking this seriously and are acting as quick as they can to curb this, but making some noise as well can help draw attention to it still.

[Benny Wilson]

In the beginning, I used MY money real money to get to flock power of 745. I played and played and I made out pretty good. I couldn’t cheat because my phone can’t be rooted. I watched many players who cheat on boot camp never get banned. I found an app called blue stacks for pc. I used it and of course I’m now banned. I used it because if Rovio is cheating so will I. I’ve recorded video of the game clearly cheating me out of gems, hats, progress, etc. Anything that would make it impossible for me to advance levels without spending money. I’ve even sent the videos to Rovio support and some idiot tried saying something about gravity and laws of physics. I’m a student of physics and also CIS, and I know a thing or two about physics in the task world and in a computer game those laws can be manipulated and broken. I told them how much ice spent and lost and they still didn’t refund my money after seeing that the game is undoubtedly rigged. And when I was going nowhere in boot camp, that’s when I decided to break my rule of cheating. Rovio is no good and they’re not doing so hot in financial terms, which is why I believe they’re trying to get players to spend more money. My 12 year old son could see just how shady Rovio is. Anyone else notice the game is rigged?

[RIP Piggies]

So Benny, forgive my skepticism, did you really spend $X0,000 on getting to FP 745? Or did you actually cheat. You know, just a little bit…

[Birdy Thrower]

I think we are all making our grievances in the wrong place, Hank and the others within Rovio are quite clearly ignoring our concerns, they have just closed their London office and are in financial troubles, we need to be going to Google, Apple or trading standards and raising these issues, or better still stop playing the game. Sad truth but the truth non the less.