Cheater(s) in AB2 Arena?

[MVNLA2]

I’ve seen plenty of hard to understand scores in the new arena, but I think this one is really cheating:
Encountered Matilda#10513 twice today out of 3 battles. In my first round, this player’s score rapidly increased to 90,010,000! (And no, I didn’t add extra zeros by mistake.) In following rounds the increase is actually low, with the final score being 90,994,624.
This also proves that the opponent’s score is based on a predetermined game, which may or may not be the same as the one you are playing.

@bankler
P.S. I do have screenshots, but haven’t uploaded them to the nest.

Topic

[RizDub]

I don’t think the Arena opponents are computer-generated. I assumed that, since it wasn’t a realtime face-off, your opponent was selected at random from some list of players who had already done the arena recently – meaning your opponent has a different opponent (not you).

For instance, I might be going up against Player X, even though Player X might have been against Player Y. (Not sure if I explained that properly…)

[Blue Pig Cypork]

Actually if one of your birds is lvl 8, it makes points x8… But that muchwouldn’t be possible…

[neopod]

imgur cheater
same here, see this cheat

[dlad]

Speaking of which.. How’s this possible 1st and 2nd players score…..

<img src="IMG_20151226_072256.jpg” alt=”null” />

[dlad]

Ok for some reason I m not able to put image on my post but you can see it in my album hopefully….

[MVNLA2]

@rizdub — I know you aren’t playing someone, probably even not a computer, in real time. However, it would be more fair if your opponent were battling the same set of rooms/scenes.
Also, I do know about the level multipliers, but the particular person I’m talking about only gets the huge increase in score during the first round; after that, the score increase per round is actually pretty small (less than 1,000,000 for all the remaining rounds). I believe they had a lot of 7’s, maybe at most one 8, and I think they had at least one 6.

@dlad — Good question. The scores in my Emerald league are
561 — 27 stars
554 — 25
348 — 24 all birds level 7
280 — 22
212
206
etc.
What league are you in, and have you looked at the team of those players with the ridiculous scores? (Tap their score on the leaderboard.)
Just noticed that the star levels of the highest players are pretty high. Also, since you don’t get promoted to the next league until the end of the week (now rather than the next day), it’s possible to have all your birds at a higher level.
Most of the players in my league are level 22, with at most 1 level 7 bird.

[dlad]

I am in diamond league. And those 500+ scores are normal those ppl spent lots of money and play constantly….
But in my league some thing unreal going on…
Rank 1 player have : 34405 score…. What the heck how’s that possible and I haven’t miss type this number
Rank 2 player have : 3267 score.. Again WTH…
Rank 3 player have : 799 which is ok cos from day 1 m also playing arena and checking his score daily so that normal he’s spending lot of money and Time…
Then rest are like 100+/- score which are normal…

And you can check this PIC in my profile->albums…. There is only 1 photo…

Also I have to add that this new arena system ruined the game.. Many ppl left.. And more ll be I guess cos in my arena out of 15 player 7 players score is 0. After that few players have barely played this arena and top 3 you already know….

[RizDub]

@mvnla2 I actually wasn’t aware until now that the arena level isn’t consistent anymore. That is pretty disappointing and confusing. I agree, it would be more fair if everyone was playing the same arena level (like how it used to be).

[Clovos_RovioSweden]

Hey there!
I’m a game programmer at Rovio stockholm and I can garantee you that the opponent scores are recordet data from their gamedata. However I have not experienced those insane scores that you are talking about. I will inform the team and look into it as soon as I’m back from holiday. How do you like the new arena tho? I must say I’ve had a blast playing it since the update came live. Please leave feedback and I will listen as much as possible and present it to my colleges. Happy new year!

Clovos

[MVNLA2]

@Clovos — Thanks again for the reply. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of feedback if anyone is still playing the AB2 arena by the time you get back. I’ll try to give you some constructive feedback, but you can count me among the people who are seriously thinking of quitting the arena, if not AB2 altogether.
A slightly different topic that you might want to discuss is that this update seriously reduced the number of feathers you can get. The arena used to be a decent place to get feathers. Now you don’t get feathers at all based on your position, and you only get an award once a week. Even the top spot only gets 100 gems, which rapidly falls to nothing. The top players in the leagues must be spending far more than 100 gems/week to get their position.
The reward from your cards is only 32 feathers. As far as I can see there is no way to buy feathers, and gems are only good for extra cards in regular levels or extra turns in the arena.

[MVNLA2]

@clovos — In fact, can you even buy spells? If so, how?

[Clovos_RovioSweden]

Hey again!
We got a very talented analytics team for analyzing how the new arena impacts our daily users and I’m very curtaint that the new arena is doing well. But ofc we listen to you guys and the arena is not set in stone it will be tweaked and changed in the future. However there was a reason why we updated the arena. It did not hold the same quality as the rest of the game, and that is a fact.
When it comes to the reward you can actually got more feathers if you perform well. The new treasure boxes got big feather rewards campare to to the old rewards. And by winning the arena you can buy them to get your feathers!

Buying spells is possible in the spells selection screen. However I’ve been working on something really cool regarding this subject that will be released soon. Stay tuned!

Got more feedback or ideas then reply to me.

Happy new year!:-)

Clovos

[Green Whacker]

I will NEVER advance in the Arena now… 3 weeks in row I always ended up with wrong lineup of birds that won’t help me advance each stage without 1-birding them. Also by day 2, the first place would have 55 to 70 stars already so there’s no way I can catch up without spending money.

This game has became no fun and now is no longer one of my top games… until they improve the Arena or give me some reason to pull me back to it.

[MVNLA2]

Please post additional comments to Rovio here:

New Arena: problems and suggestions for fixing

[Aeshna]

Not accusing anyone of being a cheat, but if I (lvl24) throw a bird and clear everything and end up with 300,000 and then my opponent (lvl8) throws theirs and obtains a score around a 1,000,000 then something is not right!

The arena is now pay to win, and those willing to spend the most are winning. Kind of takes the fun out of it for myself (Along with the wacky scoring), but if players want to spend their money on the game, it’s their money. I don’t mind a few pounds here and there, but someone in my league must have spent over £50 to be leading today.

[MVNLA2]

@aeshna — See the “Conversations with Rovio” thread mentioned above. Rovio explained some of what is happening and asked for our suggestions on how to change the arena. An awful lot of players agree with your opinion.

[Aeshna]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I have now read the explanation on how I am a 700,000 behind after ‘my’ first throw, but the reason why does not add up, as often I have two cards left when my opponent finishes. Scoring should be 1 card to 1 card or at least there should be a display of what cards my opponent has used to obtain their score at each round.

I used to play Mafia Wars and the developers of that game always used to harp on about ‘level playing field.’ While the old AB2 arena was not perfect, it seemed to me, to be a fairer system. The new arena encourages the purchase of extra lives and cards to progress/win through levels. I do understand we are playing a commercial game but the new arena is actually making me question the point of continuing as I am not prepared to spend the money or time trying to win the league.

I have won against someone of the same level even though they have had 5 extra cards but not often.

Sorry I have drifted away from original thread of ‘cheaters.’

[Alan Michael Parker]

I’m level 23 in the Azure league and my problem is for whatever reason I’m no longer getting chance to get extra lives by watching video ads, so unless I start paying for extra lives I’ll be getting demoted back to the previous league for being in the bottom 3.
And I’ve played this game so far without spending a penny and I’m not happy that Rovio is trying to seemingly force higher ranked players to spend money.

[wrw01]

@clovos
Looks like another has hacked the arena for 47,493,658 with a screen name of Vasy. I will post a pic in my album for your observation. Hope you and the team can block folks that cheat.

[kedik22]

@clovos

@bankler

Hi.
Thank you for the time and effort you have spent in this forum.
Here is the deal.
In my Diamond League Arena Tournament things stand so far like this:
1 st Place John level 45 stars 956
2 nd Place Red # 31853 level 35 stars 778
3 rd Place Waters level 23 stars 413
4 th Place Unknown level 28 stars 395
5 th Place Hi level 36 stars 207

Now the question is:
Are arena tournaments a competition of who is the best cheater or who spends the most money?

Kind Regards.

[wrw01]

@clovos
Not sure if red #2089 is a hacker but to get into second place with a score of 784 in a matter of 4 hours looks very strange to me. I have played in the Arena for a good number of hours in the last few days and to get a score this high so quickly is odd. A picture is in my ABN album. It should be around the last one towards the bottom.
It is very discouraging to honest players when you let these cheaters into to play. I just do not want to play in the Arena any more with the cheaters. It is very discouraging and really demotvates an honest player from even trying. In addition it takes the fun out of the game. I am very sure Vasy mentioned in my note above is a hacker and suspect #2089 maybe another.

@bankler

[Clovos_RovioSweden]

@alan-michael-parker
Sorry for the late reply, watching ads to receive free tickets has a limit for each day. I’m not sure if its 5 each day and there is also a cooldown time just like the normal free ticket system. So you can’t watch all the ads in a row. I think the cooldown is 3 hours for both ads and free tickets. That gives you 2 tickets every three hours without using any gems.

@wrw01

@kedik22

@wrw01

Yes, as you can see cheaters can hide themselves with whatever score they want. So its important that our anti-cheat system removes not just the ones with very high score but even the ones that try to look like they have played with similar scores. The team is working on it, meanwhile please contact our support and I’m very sorry that you have to experience this. Nobody likes cheaters!

[wrw01]

@clovos @bankler

Thank you for the update on the notes above. Now another one.

In playing in the Arena in the last few days I have noticed something strange about a player(s), looks like a team of two individuals according to their picture. I have played these folks about 5 times in the Arena and always lost. It appears they have no name or number. There score is alway 4.4+ million no matter what level we play on. When the game ends it does not tell me who “they” are, it says the “The Arena Beat You”. There is no number or name under their picture or at the top of the page.

I hope to upload a series of screen shots to my ABN album that show the start, the progress and end of three different games, that started last Saturday. There was one time on Saturday and two times on Sunday that I met these folks in the Arena. There is something about these two individuals’ game playing that does not seem right (like all the other opponents) when playing in the Arena. Like how the score totals and usually ends at the same score.

Please let me know when you view or copy these picture so I can erase them from my ABN album.

[wrw01]

@clovos @bankler

I am trying to upload the series of screen shots to ABN but have to do one at a time. I may try to go to Rovio.com and upload them there. I took about 26 screen shots for all three games.

In the screen shots that I have for the three games that I documented each level played, please note that they ended each game with the same score = 4,615,205.

I have uploaded them to Rovio.com. The subject line of the request is:”AB2 Arena-strange game playing by opponent of two players”

[Clovos_RovioSweden]

@wrw01
I’ve downloaded the two arena leaderboard pictures. I would like to have the once on the score and weird names aswell. Thanks for all the documentation. This will be useful :-)