About the Angry Birds 2 Arena

[DJLarryt]

@cognitive I wish I’d have thought to take a screenshot of his bird flock before playing, but Chuck #7973 had one spell card, the ducklings. Only two of his birds were ranked 8. The others were 7, 6, and 5 respectively, which is why I decided to play against him. And I went in with all 8 of my birds at level 6. There’s no way he can net over 7 mil on these few birds.

[Aeshna]

I didn’t update thanks to seeing the warnings on here.

I was 4th in the arena before the update, I am now 1st and 100 points clear!

Those who were ahead have not increased their scores, so I guess they were Rovio’d and updated!

I am finding the opponents in the arena easy. My last four battles have resulted in 10, 9, 8 and 10 stars.

Anyone who didn’t update finding the same thing?

[AndalayBay]

They’ve changed the arena again with the new update. Now you can pay gems to extend a match. You also get tickets and you have to pay for more tickets. I only played once since I want to be demoted, so I don’t know how the ticket system works.

[Delano Jennings]

New tourney just started & now u only get 1 play ever 3hrs unless u buy their BS arena tickets which are 3 for 8 gems. WTF!!

I’ve said I’m close to being done with this game and this is just the last F U they’ve done & I’m done. Just started on this forum & found some great tips etc. but I’m tired of having to pay to beat levels. The arena was the last fun I was able to have since they only add 20 levels every month or so. And now I can’t even play that without spending $1 every time I want to play the arena without having to wait every 3 hrs.

Goodbye & thanks to everyone in the forum. Good luck!

[Green Whacker]

I don’t see what the problem is. I played the new arena and I like the improvements. The birds per play seems to be on par and it does give us chance to spend gems on extra play if the free video bird doesn’t belp.

I did get a free video play to play for the 2nd time then wait for 3 hours which is same as before.

Haven’t tried the new stage yet, will try them later on

[MVNLA2]

I am still getting ads to get a free entrance to the arena.
Although I fell from 3rd to 4th in the Emerald league while I couldn’t play, I was able to buy a couple of free entrances to the arena and get back to 3rd before the arena closed.
I’m now in Amathyst, and most of the other people on my leaderboard are in Emerald! Not to mention a lot of them have 0 pts.
I have not found the opponents easier. Many more of them have all level 8 birds and lots of spells.

[kedik22]

@bankler

Hi.
After all this huge update mess, I see cheaters were NOT in Rovio´s agenda.

Today I played against someone in the arena, that had TWO Matildas showing.
That is not a bug, that is a cheat.

And your confirmed cheater Carl/Terrance 15892 is AGAIN in my tournament in first place with over 2,500 stars, and the tournament is less than 24 hours old!!!
So he will bask himself in first place all week, will laugh at you and me, and rob everyone else a chance at the gold medal.
Disgusting!!!

Also I suggest that with rules changing all the time, different game experiences around the world and basically an enormous disaster, Rovio should put out a manual/instructions to make the game more pleasant and comprehensible for everyone.

Kind regards.

[DJLarryt]

Only won 1/10 arena matches since yesterday. Sick of playing this character named “C’est” who seems to sit on 3 bird cards during all my screen advancements until I play my last one, then his 5+ cards (including a pepper spell card) fly out of nowhere and beat my score by at least 1,750,000.

Oh, and WTH is this? Did I get awarded a win or not?

View post on imgur.com

So tired of this routine. Same arena boards, same cheating players, same old Rovio saying “no, no, we’re onto this” but it only gets worse. So tired of the micro-pigs that survive being blasted directly by bombs, egg bombs, and flying rocks.

Haven’t upgraded to the new version and after reading the comments here, I’m not going to. Buy tickets to play the arena? Do you still get demoted if you don’t play at all? Where’s the banner ad saying “Pay or get out?”

So tired of Rovio’s ‘bait and switch’ techniques to squeeze more money out of loyal players. When the days come that this version no longer works, I’m gone. good-bye Rovio.

[Castor777]

I deleted Angry Birds 2 for good after the latest update. Can’t stand the changes and there seems to be too many bugs. The last game I played, I was up over 500k on my opponent, who all of a sudden went from no cards left to 5 additional cards and finished with a score over 1.3 million more than mine. Absolutely ridiculous.

[MVNLA2]

@kedik22 @djlarryt @castor777 — The new update seems to have fixed some things in the arena. Will take time to tell. Haven’t seen any opponents with 5 cards +3 birds at the start when they haven’t used spells, and haven’t had anyone draw more than 1 bird when they were done.
You only need to buy tickets if you want to play more than twice in 3 hours (1 free and 1 for watching an ad). Yes, I find it disgusting that the cost of an extra entry has been increased by more than a factor of 2.
For you that have seen cheaters in the new update, you should send whatever data you have to Rovio support.
cc: @bankler

[Djangosmum]

After not being able to play the Arena for 3 days because of the update failing last week, was demoted from Amethyst to Emerald league. How come everyone else in my so-called Emerald league is actually rated as Amethyst with the one exception a Diamond league player? Wouldn’t that make it Amethyst still? This makes a mockery of the whole league and battling for promotion/avoiding demotion. On demotion to a lower league would expect to compete against lower league players.

[Sutekh137]

Update works on my Android tablet, but not on iPhone. That works out for me since I primarily play on the tablet. But it is some pretty poor quality control.

Arena seems a bit better now. I like seeing the opponents cards, etc. It also would appear that the opponent’s final score doesn’t count extra cards; at least, I have never seen a bunch of extra cards pop up at the end like they used to. My win percentage is about the same as far as I can tell…sometimes I do very well, other times I don’t even come close.

I do not like the 60-gems-for-three-cards-continue option. That’s really exploitative. Sixty gems to get 5-10 more stars? Winning the Arena only nets 100 gems, and the difference between second and first place is only 50 gems, so anyone who spends gems on even just one continue a week is someone I don’t understand (how is a picture of a trophy with a number next to it so satisfying?). Allowing a continue is fine as long as it doesn’t count when that player’s run is replayed against someone else, but it is simply a money grab. Not to mention, there is always that chance, especially as we get used to the new screen flow and buttons, that we accidentally tap that button. Bam! There go 60 gems. I am sure Rovio would be very sad about a few thousand people making that “mistake”.

@bankler — Full three-card continues have no place in the Arena. It’s a clear money-grab and should be removed. Please don’t give me the standard, “It is what players have been asking for and makes the gameplay in the Arena more fun.” There is no way a majority of AB2 players were clamoring for a 60-gem continue in the Arena, especially now if you have removed the extra birds from the opponent’s run (I guess I am not sure if that is the case, it is just an assumption). Do you really think a full continue (one that makes no gem-accounting sense) is something the game needs? Do you not see that that is EXACTLY the kind of money-grab some players are complaining about on here?

Thanks,
sutekh137

[Sutekh137]

@bankler

I change my mind about saying the Arena plays better now… I am often (about 4 times out of 10 yesterday and today) being paired up against someone with all level 7 birds (all of mine are level 6). That’s a big differential.

So, for example, scores were mathematically lock-step in a battle I just lost. I ended up with 3 million while the opponent had 3.5 million, an exact 6 to 7 ratio. Even with an extra bird I couldn’t win.

What gives? Did Rovio remove extra cards from opponent runs only to make the match-ups more difficult? I never faced an all-7 crew before. I’ve never faced anyone with an net bird-level more than 1 or 2 above mine, in fact.

Not that it matters, as in one day a bunch of people are now well over 100 stars (leader on my board has 248). Never saw that in my league (Diamond) either.

Gravity Grove Arena levels are somewhat fun, though. *smile*

Thanks,
sutekh137

[AndalayBay]

I have found the new arena to be unfair too. I have one level 4 and the rest of my birds are level 5, but I’ve been matched against players with level 5 and 6 birds. I don’t even bother playing. I like the other changes to deter people from buying extra plays. Unfortunately I find AB 2 to be a drag to play in general. *sigh*

[cognitive]

I am still seeing unexplainable scores from players several stars below my star level… There’s absolutely no way I get outscored by 100,000 points in a simple room where I completely destroyed every last piece (using a bomb for example). I assume the other guy used a bomb as well.

[Proteus]

Everytime i’m playing the arena, i’m getting tired and frustated battling players which has lower level than me, but having all 8 level birds and 5 spells for ending a battle with margin more than 1 million points against me.I’m also tired quitting the battle to find the player which suits my birds level. I can see a lot of players getting tired with arena and no longer playing it. In my league, only 2 people still compete while the rest of players have 0 stars.

And did anyone noticed that you will no longer receive the chest for ranked up or it’s just me ?

Thanks

[Sutekh137]

@cognitive

When I saw odd scores yesterday it was because I was facing birds a level higher than me. So, I would score 600,000 and the opponent would score 700,000, for example. I am seeing more such bogus match-ups after the update, and I assume it is because they no longer seem to count an opponents extra cards (at least I haven’t seen extra cards suddenly appear at the end before I used mine.

This is mostly moot, for me, because I’ve quit and uninstalled AB2. The bogus matchups were one of many frustrations yesterday and I decided to stop being a slave to this game — been an idiot for months of letting it control my moods.

@proteus

I got a chest the last time I leveled up, but I am realizing now that was after the update came out but BEFORE I actually applied the update. I didn’t level up since then, and I won’t be leveling up any more, obviously. Not sure why they would take that away, though. Geesh.

[DJLarryt]

One thing to consider is that Rovio saves game ‘recordings’ to match up players in the Arena.

If players have the option to buy continues, that will also increase the score by x amount they win on the additional birds… unless Rovio considers ‘game end’ to be the point before the player buys these additional birds for the win.

If not, then everybody’s scores will be increased as they buy-in to play longer… making every single opponent impossible to beat unless you buy-in above what the opponent buys in…. it’s an endless cycle and Rovio laughs all the way to the bank.

[Sutekh137]

@djlarryt

That’s why I think they can’t be including extra cards (either from watching the ads or from paying for continues) in the replays.

And that’s why I think they might have made match-ups harder because they realize the live person playing is always going to get at least one extra card. Problem is, if an opponent’s bird-level advantage lets them rack up a 700,000+ point advantage, one extra bird isn’t going to cut it. But it is an excuse to generate harder match-ups, leading to more frustrated continue-buying… Ah, yeah.

Thanks,
sutekh137

[Aeshna]

@proteus – the only time I can recall getting a chest was when I hit 40. Think it was 250 feathers?

I only received a minor prize (card) at 45 certainly not a chest

Most times when I level up I receive 3 gems (quite insulting but it is Rovio dishing out the prizes) or a spell card. Last time it was a pig inflater, for gaining level 46, which actually never showed up, as I still had 2 before reward.

I expect a decent reward at 50, but who knows! I think you only get chests every 10, 20, 30 etc levels, but I may be wrong!

[Aeshna]

@sutekh137 – all good things, must come to an end…..

I haven’t installed update yet, and don’t intend to. I feel relieved that the self imposed pressure of having to complete 20 new levels is gone. They may have been do-able in four days, but it was still ‘I have to complete asap, I can do without this. I got to level 500 which is a nice round figure. Not bothered about getting further.

I do enjoy the arena, although I know due to cheats, hackers and big spenders, I can only win when Rovio make players miss four days of gaming due to their (Rovio’s) incompetence.

As long as I’m matched up against players with 7 cards, all is well. The more frustrating it becomes to log out and back in to find an evenly matched player, the more the final threads that tie me to the game snap.

We all have a breaking point…..

[Sutekh137]

@aeshna

You bring up an interesting point — does everything still work with the pre-update version of the game? How the heck does that work since they have changed the Arena to have things like continues? I am not sure how people can be playing both versions of the game and still be on the sale leaderboards, etc…

I wonder if an update will be forced soon?

Logging out and back in was definitely frustrating and time consuming. I won’t miss that at all. *smile*

Thanks,
sutekh137

[Aeshna]

@sutekh137 – the arena is just the same as it was pre-Rovio’s disaster Easter weekend.

I am facing the same players twice in a row though as there is seemingly a shortage of opponents. It seems to take ages to find one.

I fully expect Rovio to stop players playing the pre-updated arena. Although Rovio are that useless maybe they’ll just forgot to or bodge up the next update.

[Proteus]

@sutekh137 @aeshna last night i’m reached level 36 and after that i didn’t get a chest, but i receive a “small reward” extra 10 stars every ranked up (CMIIW). I realized that since the second time i’m ranked up after this update

[Aeshna]

@proteus – What I meant is you only get good prizes from chests every tenth level, you do get chests? Box? every level but rewards are mostly not worth getting.

This is old version, I am playing.