About the Angry Birds 2 Arena

[Dwhite]

I’m genuinely glad the new Arena is working out better for most of you. But it’s unbeatable for me. My Diamond league is one 5 spell opponent after another. Time for this cat to take another AB2 vacation. More than anything I question the legitimacy of these unbeatable opponents. 7 star rank. Level 9 birds. 5 spells. Scores over 7 million like its a walk in the park. Good luck fellow flingers but I’m out for awhile.

[DDeck]

@bankler

If they threw a bird, filled the destructometer, got the same bird back, and threw it again (which is very common), it will look like the opponent has two similar cards in hand.

How can this be very common?

When I throw a bird and get the same bird back, unless I have < 2 birds remaining, that card ALWAYS goes back into my hand and is NEVER available for immediate play.

Yet, I can start a game against an opponent who is showing, for example, two bombs in their active hand. This means that either 1) your explanation is incorrect, or 2) that we are not playing by the same rules.

I understand that Rovio randomly samples the user base and throws some strange tweak at them as an experiment to measure how we react, but I’d rather that you guys not pit me against someone who is playing under a different set of rules. Granted, appropriate match making in the arena has been, to say the least, a challenge for Rovio, but if at all possible, please match up your “experimental groups” with users subjected to the same set of parameters with respect to game play.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, Rovio just needs to make it so that we can see the opponents current hand. That way we can have some actual strategic play in the arena instead of it being completely based around spells and bird levels. :P

[RedYoshi45]

I’m gonna agree with @ddeck to some extent – unless one has 3 or less birds left, it’s impossible to shoot the same bird again right afterwards.
However, it is possible to shoot Red, shoot Chuck, then shoot Red again, because of the random nature of card decks. The game always draws a random card from the cards you have, and that’s the follower-up. Now if you threw Red, then got Red back from the Destructometer, throw Chuck and the next card to be drawn happens to be Red – that’s theoretically possible too. The chance is lower the more cards the deck has, though. It doubles with every less card and is 100% with only 4 birds left.

@partshade
I watched the Pokémon VGC’s today – this idea reminded me of them. :P
Like in the game where you see your opponent’s Pokémon, you might know their moveset but you never know which move the opponent is gonna use next, but just in case your opponent uses THIS certain move you use a certain move too, and if you were wrong you’re possibly screwed… in AB2 you could see the opponent’s current hand but you’ll never know which bird they’ll use next. If you use the wrong bird you’re scr— Ok, bad comparison, I admit, since AB2 is not a PvP RPG combat game :P
Split-screen would also be awesome. Directly seeing where your opponent is right now. And they only fling their birds when you fling yours. Like, their game is halted until you made your turn. Then again, how would the game handle self-destructive structures?

[DDeck]

Indeed, @smwforever45 is correct about that possible progression. There should be some screenshots back in this thread showing the same bird being thrown twice in a row, I think, when there are much more than three birds in the hand. (IIRC, there are screenshots showing duplicate birds at the start of the game, which should be impossible.)

[Rovio_Bankler]

@ddeck
If it would show “Red, Red, Yellow”, then something would indeed be fishy. I can’t think of a scenario when this would happen. If it shows “Red, Yellow, Red” though (even on the starting screen), nothing is necessarily wrong.

(1) You throw Red, draw another card. Destruction happens and you get Red as extra card from the destructometer, and it gets put on top of the drawpile. (2) Throw yellow, draw Red, then (3) throw Red again.

The technical details:
Remember, when you get an extra card, that card is put in a random position in your draw pile. It might very well be put on the top of the draw pile. I think it’d be a 20% chance after the first throw, granted you brought no spells, since there are four cards left in the draw pile (so five possible positions for the new card).

[Aeshna]

Need. To .. Get .. Life … Back …

And stop playing in the arena as much, actually spent money to keep run going!

[hamvestor]

I won a “6 day” Arena competition in Emerald league (which actually lasted 8 days) that ended on Saturday, but never got the stars and so on that go with the win. Is there any way to get that rectified?

[heybert17]

This was one of my opponents this morning, is this even possible at level 7? I am level 33 with all level 4 birds, needless to say I didn’t win.

[Aeshna]

Discrepancy between birds has been a sore point with me for months. There’s never been any explanation as to why some players have cards at vastly different levels. I suspect cheating!

But with new arena, it is possible to have legitimate discrepancies.

[RedYoshi45]

@aeshna
Not this big of a discrepancy though… Taking your birds from rank 4 to 5 and from 5 to 6 takes an immense amount of feathers. You’d have to get a dozen full winning streaks to make it to rank 5/6 with three birds, and by then you wouldn’t be at star level 7 anymore because you earn way more stars in those battles than it takes you to get from rank 5 (at which you can access the arena) to 7!!! Definite cheat up there.

[Aeshna]

I think you need to read a thread I started on discrepancies, I am well aware that the one above screams cheater.

BUT, by spending money, I believe anyone can take their birds to bronze and have a huge discrepancy whilst doing so.

I’ve asked bankler more than once about how players can have level 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8 birds, and no reply. If anyone wants to carry the discrepancy torch, feel free, good luck with it.

[kedik22]

@bankler

@Rovio

Hi.
Now I am truly and intensely mad.
All my birds were nines, until a few hours ago.
Now I have for eights:
Red 5,186/1,900
Bomb 4,621/1,900
Silver 5,018/1,900
Big Red 4,096/1,900

My nines are:
Yellow 4,461
Blues 5,834
Matilda 2,589

Are you kidding???

@bankler, please explain with attention to detail.
How will they become nines again?

And there is definitely cheating going on in the Arena.
Today I lost against a player that had two Big Reds in succession showing and a yellow. And still had one extra bird in reserve.
He beat me bad.
His score kept increasing without throwing any birds, ad of course his destructometer kept increasing!
That is not fishy, it is cheating!!!

And what about another player I faced that had a 201 rating?

I am just tired of Rovio not giving players fair and honest chance.

[heybert17]

I seriously think the game took a hard turn with the new update. Before I was evenly matched most of the time and played enough to win the Arena each week. Sometimes it was close but I played a LOT. Now if I get to 3 wins even if I am evenly matched bird wise with my opponent they kick my tail, the cards for them are flying faster than I can keep up with. My win ratio is 1/2 if not worse than it was before, not to mention the uneven matches where I am toast after 2-3 flings.

[CaptSternn]

I noticed that as well, Bert. Before the update I would be picky about the opponents I accepted, would get somebody equal or maybe one or two birds at a higher level and would mop the floor with them. Now opponents with about equal level of birds are neck and neck with me.

I am pretty far behind this week in the arena. It just isn’t the same for me now since I figured a way to exploit the game. Magic is gone and I don’t want to ruin it for others. Rovio knows about it now and they are working on it. I have a feeling they will get it fixed because it is costing them money, probably a lot of money, and that isn’t me bing snarky. They are a business, I like their games, I want them to succeed and for everybody to enjoy a fair game.

[kedik22]

@captsternn

Hi.
I hear you.
One of the things that bothers me about Rovio is their attitude towards cheaters and hacks.
Sometimes one´s only conclusion is that they welcome them.

I do not know specifics about the glitch/hack you accidentally discovered.
You have made it clear that you do not take any advantage, and you have reported it to Rovio.
But since this glitch is costing them a LOT of money, it would be interesting to know how long it takes them to fix it.
So if you have the time and are willing, it would be a nice experiment.

For some unknown reason, Rovio just downgraded four of my birds from level nine to eight.
Simply vanished a lot of fun and a lot of work.
Maybe it is my mob mentality speaking, but if everybody, and I mean everybody knew your trick, things would rapidly become a lot fairer.
But I know in my heart this would not be true.

I am sick and tired of the sheer number of mistakes, cheaters and unfairness.
Though I like their games a lot.

Sorry about the rant, and regards.

[CaptSternn]

Since the game is constantly changing, there will constantly be new issues. If what I found is new or not I don’t know, I don’t think it is. Rovio seems very appreciative for the feedback. Believe me, I know end users can do some things that programmers are left scratching their heads over, saying it shouldn’t even be possible. But there it is. There is no way to test every single aspect of a program, and since it isn’t an actual hack it would be an oversight and people at Rovio are left scratching their heads wondering what we are talking about. It is like then thread about luck, good an bad, it gave them good visuals of what we are experiencing, much more to go on that just people complaining. We didn’t start it or post images for that reason, more to get a laugh, but Mr. Bankler jumped on it.

No idea about your birds leveling down, though.

[DDeck]

Hi @bankler, thanks for your thoughts.

We do indeed see “red” “red” “yellow” at times, even at the beginning of the match. Later on in the match, I imagine if someone held onto a red for a while, and never through it, then perhaps they could luck into another one? If they continue to hold on to it, then eventually the one gotten through “bird back” and the original one would show in the hand at the same time…

Or, is it not possible to get a bird that you haven’t thrown “back”?

Cheers.

[RedYoshi45]

@ddeck
Red-Red-Yellow right at the beginning is definitely cheated.

If you don’t throw Red you can’t get another Red card, simple as that. I don’t need @bankler to confirm this for me (he surely would), it just makes sense :P It’s absolutely impossible with legal means to fling Red twice in succession unless you have 3 or less birds (or spells) left to fling.

[DDeck]

@smwforever45

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[RedYoshi45]

@ddeck
Afraid to say this is a legit one, since it doesn’t show the opponent’s current deck at the top right, but the order of birds he flung. But you can imagine what his deck looked like at this moment: Bomb, Chuck, and whatever bird or spell is the last card. He flung Bomb, leaving him with only Chuck and the other remaining bird or spell. He flung Chuck, filling his Destructometer up and he got Chuck back and immediately flung him again.

[kedik22]

@bankler

Hi.
Just to keep you up to date.
Played the Arena, won 30 Silver stars.
The bird level increased to level nine, with a congratulations banner.
And feathers also increased by 30 to a correct total of 3,148
Do you know what is happening?

Kind regards.

[RedYoshi45]

@aeshna
(replying to an earlier post)

Hah don’t worry… I spend even more time on AB2 right now :P

[kedik22]

@bankler

Hi again.
So to keep things going, let me show you my tournament participants:

Name Stars Level Medals Birds
John 306 57 3 1 1 All nines
Me 239 62 2 3 0 4 nines, 3 eights, started with all nines
?>!Ç 68 46 2 0 0 All nines
Jet Biggles 20 11 2 1 0 All threes
Hopa 7 25 2 1 1 4 nines, 3 eights
Andrej, known cheater 1 71 2 2 39 2 nines, 5 eights
Cree, known cheater 1 31 2 8 3 All nines
Murat, known cheater 1 49 0 0 34 All nines
Terrence #43031 0 30 1 3 1 All eights
Red #2237 0 8 0 0 0 3 twos, 4 ones
Hasan 0 8 0 0 0 All nines
Flappy Thunders 0 9 0 0 0 3 nines, 4 eights
Rafael 0 39 2 1 2 1 nine, 6 eights
Dodgy Feathers 0 9 0 0 0 All threes
Camilla 0 24 1 2 5 3 fours, 4 threes

So, here are three very specific and pointed questions:
1) Would you consider this a fair competition?
2) There are only TWO players COMPETING, do you find this challenging?
3) There are TEN competitors not PLAYING, do you think Arena playing is now interesting?

Thank you for your time and regards.

[CaptSternn]

Kedik, the top person in your group is at 306? The top person in my group is still at 354. Then 2nd is 335. I am at 231 in 3rd.