About the Angry Birds 2 Arena

[ToosV]

Guess you are the most beloved guy on the board

[cognitive]

I think this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. We are already playing a rigged game with rampant cheaters having infinite resources. But the latest armor and elder slings have pretty much killed off the game. Even with infinite spells, at strength 1 they’re no match to what the other guy has in terms of hats and such.

Are the spells that much of a difference maker? sure, when hordes of people have tens of thousands of pearls and sport the latest offerings a day they are released… So you need a mild cheat (infinite spells) and player skill to balance far more powerful cheats. Not a bad balance.

I’ll bet you the level 1 spells will be around for a while, simply because it frustrates us kindergarten level infinite spellers. Ultimately – and we’re getting there – we’ll see leagues upon leagues full of major league cheaters trying to outcheat each other.

And that will probably be the end of Rovio, since they can’t sustain this with only heavy duty cheaters. I’m sure after hats we’ll have sunglasses and flip flops and other cute things, but it won’t matter to the vast majority of players.

101 stars, flock strength 180’s, all max level birds with cowboy hats that apparently can occasionally be obliterated by someone 20-30 flock strength lower capable of 1.5M-2.5M points per bird :)

[kelshe]

@cognitive
I don’t think that Rovio will be in any hurry to fix the level 1 spells. Ever notice how when you use one, even if it wipes out the level, that your score inches up while your opponent’s score skyrockets? I’ve been behind by 5 million after the first room because I had to use a spell. In one match, I used 5 spells and the opponent had none. That opponent ended up with as many cards as I had, apparently one-birding every room and getting a bird back for every bird flung. I had to use the free bird and 60 gems to win 5 stars. With my original level 20 spells I wouldn’t have needed the free bird or 60 gems to get 10 stars. This “bug that slipped through” was a real stroke of luck for Rovio. Either spend gems or forfeit your streak. End game is writ large on the horizon.

[CaptSternn]

How does this even happen? Saw it once before …

[kelshe]

@captsternn

I’ve had that a couple of times. Could’ve scored one point and would’ve gotten ten stars.

[BonnieJ]

My spells just flipped to a power of 1!!! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, I think I will move on to something more interesting like…. detailing my car, cleaning the house, and maybe even doing my laundry.

[James Peden]

My spells have been at 1 since the last update but I kept being matched against players like you with level 20 spells which is ridiculous. Also in the daily challenge every time I get a gift and connected to Facebook it made me replay the level over again. More broken game to make me use spells and gems. Now it froze on the last boss room. Rovio fix it or get rid of it.

[AngryPlayer]

Rovio’s player-against-player-against-Rovio setup scheme is now blowing up in their face.

That’s what happens when you try to puppeteer your users out of their money.

[Penz]

I’ve got to say the arena has been far more bearable for me since the middle of last week. The rooms aren’t as unplayable as they were and my opponents scores are more realistic. Haven’t lost in days and not using as many spells as I was and very few gems, so the pendulum has swung back completely in my favour. Seems to be feast or famine in the arena.

[cognitive]

@penz, things are good if you have elder everything and your opponents don’t… If you’re the magical opponent who can reliably get 2M points off one bird or clean a 3-structure room with said one bird, yea… With 9-10 starring a level a thing of the past I don’t lose very often either, but with 5-7 stars at a time things get very tedious to say the least.

[Katydid]

I have to say I miss the old AB2 game, but then I see your post and know I did the right thing when I quit. I hope Rovio fixes the mess they made of the arena. I know you guys that have stuck it out must be very frustrated. Good luck to all of you. Beat them for me too!

[cognitive]

It’s not a mess per se – it’s policies that encourage cheating on a grand scale (hacked APK for infinite points, etc) while cynically eliminating (via a trivial ‘bug’) spells…

Think about it. What are the major sources of power now? pearls. Used to be pearls + spells + feathers + tickets.

Tickets became irrelevant once infinite gems became the norm. Feathers likewise.

So we have spells vs pearls. A fool’s errand, as no spell (regardless of strength) will give you 2M points. With enough pearls you end up with multipliers that are impossible to overcome.

[Penz]

I didn’t say it was easy, just more bearable than it was. Like you, most of my wins end up as 5-7 stars so the league is still tough to get even near the top 3. Since I wrote that message I’ve played 5 matches and had to use 60 gems in 3 of them just to scrape a win, so it looks like the pendulum is swinging back the other way again.

[Jon S]

@angrynerds2

That’s nothing. In my league, They can score that many stars during my 5-6 hr sleep time. 3 days left the tournament and the top 3 are in the low 1000s (first place 1234). I’m in 4th place with 700. Not keen on spending more gems and time (which now I’m forced to play double the amount of matches because of my 5-8 star average thanks to the abysmal halloween update) when in a few hours they’ll be 300 more ahead…all that for 150 pearls :(

[Penz]

Sooo, yet another bird level has been created along with additional levels in the main game, yet the spell glitch remains untouched. Good work Rovio.

@captsternn, same thing happened to me yesterday, my opponent didn’t score a single point. So had a very welcome and what is becoming,a rare 10 star win.

[AngryPlayer]

@penz Like I said in a thread earlier: The game is on autopilot. Their last remaining developer simply pre-codes dates into the dB to +1 bird level, + another autobuilt world, + whatever arena physics settings they have in store and only comes back to check the game and servers every few weeks (or if there is a crash).

The rest of the time the Rovio CEOs look at the income statement for the month and if they’re not generating enough revenue, they call the programmer to go back in and up all the difficulty levels to try to frustrate players into dumping more cash into the game.

It’s a dream business model of a proverbial cash cow.

[Penz]

Unfortunately you are probably 100% correct. It’s a sad state of affairs.

[Angry Beaver]

I got 500 feathers from winning streak chest #3!

[snappy]

@sambeaver
The 500 feathers in a chest was introduced with the halloween update. I have had a few that made the DC and KPC very worthwhile.

[gjs96743]

I typically throw away game five of the streak and turn in a 0 point score. Between the free entry, free ticket from the video, and 3 tickets from games 1 and 4, one can rack up 30-40 points every three hours without dipping into your banked tickets. I’m focused on winning the arena every week vs leveling up the birds (sounds like maxing out your birds sets you up for level 1 spells, and lower level opponents beating the snot out of you).

I actually went up against myself once, my Rovio doppelganger at 0 points, me trying to get zero points to force a tie and see what would happen. Sadly, a stray blue plinked a balloon and I won… :\

[Davetv]

@gjs96743 what level birds do you have? Are you saying you don’t have level 1 spells? I can’t figure out what rovio is doing. I’m sure the majority who plays the game doesn’t know about the infinite lady of spells, but it’s not hard to figure out that they (the spells) are a hendrence to the game so why would anybody purchase them anymore? Trust me before I figured out all the tricks I spent way too much money playing this game.

[gjs96743]

@davetv

Birds are around level 14-17 with full sets of hats through pirate, so 3X modifier on the birds and elder silver catapult. And yes, still have level 21 spells. Reading through the forum, the spell level drop doesn’t appear to be affecting all the high level players. One contributor mentioned having level 20 spells, had a bird level up and all the spells dropped down to level 1. Not sure where the threshold is but I’m not anxious to level up anytime soon. At least not until Rovio announces a fix.

As for folks purchasing spells, I’m sure there’s a constant influx of new players who haven’t figured out the various “loopholes” yet and will pay to play.

[cognitive]

Mine happened at about 180 flock strength. But the thing is, if you adjust strategy a bit winning is still possible, but not with 8-10 stars as before. Now it’s more like 5-7.

Just plan your game right and even with impotent spells and playing a really good opponent, putting up 15M points is not difficult.

[Penz]

One thing I have noticed that is a bit suspicious, if i go to buy treasure chests and my spells are displayed ready to show how many I get of each, my spells are shown as level 20, which is where they should be, yet when I use them they are level 1. So the game recognises they should be level 20 yet the supposed ‘glitch’ has them on 1. Rovio obviously taking the mickey again, it shouldn’t take this long to sort it out. I’m still doing OK win wise, but as others have already mentioned, most of the wins are 5-7 stars so struggling to keep up in the league.

[BonnieJ]

The other strange thing that I have noticed is that sometimes when I enter an Arena match and my opponent brings a couple of spells that are level 20, but then when we start playing and a spell appears in their deck it indicates the spell is level “1”. And there is no logic as to who I can beat and who I cannot. I have beat opponents with a flock power 20 higher than mine and loose by millions to flocks with a power 20 lower…. it’s enough to make your head hurt.