ANOTHER soft update

[gradientturtle7]

@vannie, amongst others, regarding the adjustments that were made to the rewards from Professor Pig’s lab:

We were very pleased to observe such a positive engagement with the lab, particularly among those players that tried to find the optimal way to use their materials. However, it has become clear that the potential for an average net gain in gems by repeating certain recipes has drastically devalued gems for those who have purchased them, and damaged the game experience for these players.

As such, we have made adjustments to address the issue. We appreciate that a number of players here have enjoyed the gem rewards offered by the lab up to now and that these changes may feel frustrating, but we have always intended the focus of the lab to be the creation and collection of new Energonicons, and we hope players will continue to enjoy this element of the game as we develop it.

[Drover’s Dog]

@gradientturtle7 would not a gradual drop over a period of time be more ‘user’ friendly rather than just a blanket ‘F’ you attitude by a stealth update ( which I have mentioned before is not mentioned in your company’s game information on Google Play Store where only a one off download is all that is declared)
We, of this forum are only a few dozen compared to those thousands or millions who have downloaded the game and I would tend to think that many would just delete the game and walk away as they get fed up with unannounced variations to the game.
I am lucky that I have kept a good bank of pigs, coins and gems to survive until level 435 then I will gladly say I have completed the game and move on somewhere else.
(just a note that I have completed and 5 starred all levels of Angry Birds, Space, Rio, Star Wars 1 & 2 and Seasons plus most of Bad Piggies) but the company’s disregard of players of this game has ruined any goodwill previously built up.

Off my soap box now, back to watching footy and drinking Aussie Beer :P

[Bossk]

Has the reroll cost also been lowered from 5,10,20,40?

Or has Rovio in all its wisdom decided we need more pressure to buy gems?

[drewish]

Wow so there it is in black and white…. Rovio does NOT care about the users but only about people that spend money on their games. And the intention of the lab being about Energon Icons is total GARBAGE!!! There are only a limited number of EI so once a player has those what the lab is then useless? So the entire purpose of that massive game update was to use the lab some 40ish times and be done with it??? Do you really expect people to believe that? I had ALL the EI within 2 days of the lab opening so this whole time Rovio’s intention was for me to not use the lab anymore?? Why doesn’t Rovio just come out and say it… the players found a way to avoid having to spend additional money for a “free” game and Rovio is more concerned with making money than player enjoyment of their product. How much time have developers and programmers spent on finding and making these changes instead of improving and expanding the actual game???? Well you now have 1 less customer!!

[jman]

Hmmmmm, never had I heard of a company that continues to struggle completely shut out a revenue stream because it’s in the best interest of a very few that actually spend money on this game.

Since he basically says that they are more concerned with the players experience that buy gems there’s no reason for me to continue wasting my time until they fix the game.

1 fix crashing issue with videos
2 fix freeze issue on startup
3 fix buddy won’t respond or fire issue
4 fix energonicons lag before shooting or sometimes don’t shoot at all
5 fix medium nodes, still harder than hard nodes, but still playable
6 stop violating your own TOU, no more soft (stealth) updates
7 don’t require Internet connection to start game
8 new levels needed, no more bs.

[jman]

@20qmindreader

Thanks. Miles achievement actually started working after last update. I’m guessing your Ios as its related to downloading assets.

Feel free to add to list I may have forgotten some.

[AngrLee]

Seriously, the only vote that counts is whether we are watching the ads. For every 1000 video ads we watch, they get about 1$US. So unless we talk with our vote, a vote to stop playing and go find a different game, they will continue to make changes as they see fit.

This is the fourth major game economics change and in my opinion the worst. Regardless, unless we simply stop playing so the revenue stream dries up, then all of our chatter is just that: chatter. And as has been noted our chatter is used to determine how we have devised strategies to advance in the game in ways they don’t like. So, unless we are willing to simply stop playing the game, then we shouldn’t expect Rovio’s behavior to be any different.

Just sayin’

[jman]

@angrlee

Yep I agree, I’m not going to do anything that generates revenue till most of the issues stated above are dealt with and they actually respond in a positive manner to fans of the game.

No playing nodes, no extra keys in missions for me. I’ll just collect coins and play missions for items for now. If nothing changes by the time I run out of coins to keep up, I’ll just ditch it and find something else to do.

[Optimus_Pig]

@20qmindreader

“Fix the miles run achievement (only counts when you transform to vehicle mode; miles taken away when “assets updated”)”

Good one. Been playing close to eleven months, and I’m still only at 2,700 miles.

“Seriously, the only vote that counts is whether we are watching the ads. For every 1000 video ads we watch, they get about 1$US.”

@angrlee

Actually it’s more than that. For a popular app, every “incentivized ad view” (i.e. you voluntarily watch it from start to finish, in exchange for an in-game reward) is worth as much as $0.03-0.05 per view. And that’s without even clicking on the ad itself.

[Robert Batek]

August 26 article on Rovio personnel changes. It could be a while for TF bugs to be fixed if ever. Sad to see that this likely is the reason why we are suffering all these recent changes. I will still not purchase gems and will support Rovio through their advertising motto, especially taking the kids to the movies shown through the videos.

Rovio Fires Employees Even Though Angry Birds 2 is a Hit

[Optimus_Pig]

Yeah, Rovio’s having a huge problem monetizing their apps in a freemium world.

They were far more successful back when it cost money to download an app.

If the shenanigans we’ve witnessed re: ABT are anything to go by, they’re still not sure about achieving the right balance between ad view revenues from non-paying players and cash revenues from in-game purchases.

They should just poach some of the marketing and finance guys from Machine Zone (or Supercell, which coincidentally is also based in Finland).

Anyone else think a takeover deal is in the offing?

[Vannie5555]

@gradientturtle7 thanks for the reply.

I am a customer who has purchased a lot of gems to allow me to play at the level that I want to play at.

In making these changes, they were not geared to players like me. So I have had the money that I have paid essentially taken away from me. So Rovio has changed the rules of the game without informing the customer. I can’t help but think that for us paying players, its something illegal about that.

[Optimus_Pig]

Another one went through this morning, but so far I can’t figure out what it did.

[Optimus_Pig]

One thing that I did notice yesterday though, was at the same time they reduced the gem earnings from recipes, they also reduced the cost of replacing SR with gems for upgrades from 50 to 25 (i.e. where it was originally before all the recent changes).

[karlphillip]

On the latest update, they seem to have:
– Decreased the amount of damage of the player’s bullets (or increased pig’s defenses);
– Or decreased the player’s defense (or increased the amount of damage from pig’s bullets);

The point is that today I noticed the game became a little bit more hard to play.

[jman]

While still early, no gem crates today yet. I collected a crate almost everytime I started game. Last round of missions only netted 3 gems. I started the last at 3 am so guessing that’s after the update.

Yesterday totals
16 gems from treasure chests on map
67 gems from 3 rounds of 4 hour missions

Curious to see if it has changed over the next 24 hours.

[Optimus_Pig]

I had another soft update last evening, but I still can’t figure out what it is. Recipes and missions don’t seem any different from the changes that have affected everyone.

[kwc]

They tried to sneak one in on me about a half hour ago but I was able to turn off phone in time. Still on the old lab too.

[kwc]

Also encountered a curious aggravating glitch this morning… was in Prof Pig’s casino and twice had 25 gem rewards convert to coins after I claimed them.

[jman]

Did they change the gold dome occurrence, I think I should have had one by now.

Materials and gems way down in 4 hr missions last 2 days. Gonna have to see what the 8, 12 and 24 offers.

[jman]

Decided to play a couple of nodes since I’m low on coin for next upgrade…….Whiskey Tango Foxtrot……

Game crashes, bumped me out of Facebook save, now can’t log in Facebook save as well to save progress. Tried 3 times and crashes when I try to sign in. You have got to be kidding me.

[Optimus_Pig]

@jman

Gold domes still seem to be appearing normally for me.

Not only that, but they’re still spawning with the TF that’s currently upgrading.

[jman]

“Not only that, but they’re still spawning with the TF that’s currently upgrading.”

Figures……lame

I see there’s a comment awaiting moderation…..did you use big boy words that aren’t allowed?

Stupid game still is messed up and can’t even collect coins.

I happened upon a bevmo in Santa Barbara tonight that stocks my favorite beverage. If this crud keeps up I’m sure to complain to rovio support a profanity filled request that they fix this foxtrot uniform Charlie kilo echo delta up game.

Just tried again and crashes on startup.

[Optimus_Pig]

“…. did you use big boy words that aren’t allowed?”

Yes, apparently. Although I used several, so I’m not sure which one triggered it, lol.

[jman]

@optimuspig

Dude they deleted your frak comment…..come on, that’s a battlestar galactica reference that was on tv, in the 80’s.