Cheaters

[KillerKea]

It is inconsistent that they compensated everyone for all the frustration caused by the Christmas event, but do not intend to compensate people for the arena event which is more frustrating. They could have used the same reasoning for the Christmas event as the arena because everyone was experiencing the same problems.

Since they haven’t done anything to cheaters it seems like they are almost condoning it. Has anyone received a message from Rovio indicating that they will eventually punish cheaters?

[Abyssuss]

@killerkea I dont think that Rovio will punish anyone. Probalby half of the players in the arena did reset objectives at least once. They cant punish that many players.

[KerrAvon]

@killerkea I am not sure how well they can trace people by leaderboards. It’s better than nothing. But these are just people’s current player names on the boards and can be easily changed. These names may not necessarily be easily traced back to their Rovio account.

However, we can give them a head start using Mimi27 ‘s board, which has a ABN name amongst the potential cheaters. A bit disappointing given they went to the effort of changing their player name, presumably for the ABN league, before turning up amongst some cheaters.

[KillerKea]

@abyssuss I don’t have a problem when people were getting their objectives reset because of the lousy connection to Rovio’s servers. I do have a problem with people intentionally cheating. Do you think this many people would cheat if they were playing a game face to face?

@kerravon Like usual a third person reset her objectives so I won’t be advancing again. There are so many simple ways Rovio can fix this problem. One really simple way is to add a counter to how many times a person has received objectives in a week. Once a person’s counter reaches 8 they can’t get anymore new objectives.

The one good thing is now I won’t bother grinding for a couple thousand points tomorrow and will just finish the week with 52,000. I’d much rather have cheaters cheat from the beginning then wait till the end so I don’t waste 10 hours thinking I’m playing in a fair competition.

[senigami]

For all those wishing to avoid cheaters completely, and guarantee advancement in the league:
I have come up with a method that I have used several times now which enables me to create solitary leagues. Here are the steps I used.

1) Wait at least 24 hours from the start time of the week’s set before claiming your prize. I recommend over 48 hours if possible. (I mostly waited 48 to 72 hours just to be sure)

2) After claiming your prize DO NOT start a battle. Instead, leave the arena. I completely shut down the game just to be certain. Hanging around in the arena section will eventually join you to a league even if you don’t start a battle. You need to remove the connection to the servers.

3) Periodically throughout the day I would check to make sure I was still the only member of the league, because if I wasn’t then it meant I failed and needed to play the objectives. In every case I was not joined up. Remember to shut down the game after checking to sever the connection to the servers. If you want to play the normal game just make sure you exit after checking the arena before loading it to play the regular game.

4) Wait another 24 hours before playing a battle in the arena. The 24 hour increments are based on the start time of the weekly arena, or 20:00 GMT+0.

5) at this point you are locked in to the single league and can play as little or as much as you like. You will always be in first place.

I’m not sure how late you need to start with this method in order to have a league to yourself. I have not tried it less that 48 but in theory it should work. I have done this using android but I believe it should still work with apple. Just make sure you kill the app when you exit. I would love for some others willing to try this method with me next week to see how results may vary for you.

[Immortal… Larry]

@steven-dunn-5648, let’s keep that stuff in the abn leagues thread.

@abyssuss, i also don’t think they will go around the boards spanking everyone. Also, the objectives resets are so common and simple that I cannot imagine that anyone would even remotely get banned for it. That one really is an poor game design issue and cannot be blamed on the players.

The people with hacked accounts and modified scores are a different story. My guess is that they will one day soon all be banned and simply disappear from the boards. If the values for the birds don’t add up, then you cannot play. Real simple. If the scores don’t add up? Same thing.

At least that’s my guess…

[Dallasreds]

I always check the banner value before starting a battle but seldom check the bird values. This morning I encountered off the chart bird values after I was murdered by a single bird attack from a juiced Chuck. The game was not frozen but I had to use the pause button to exit. I wish I had gotten their name to report them. I was able to check each of the bird values as my team laid there. values were hard to comprehend at 530 in the am.

[LondoJowo]

Well, so much for a week being cheater free. The player QNAP wasn’t in the top 10 when I started playing this morning. I had completed my daily objectives but was 160 points away from 55,000. After playing several games I decided to check to see if I had exceeded 55,000 and QNAP had taken over 1st place by posting at minimum 40,000 points. Sent yet another email to Rovio with the following attachment.

Removed attachment so the cheater can’t use it for bragging rights.

[LondoJowo]

Oh and yesterday the very first game all three birds were knocked out with one strike by a juiced up Wizard class Chuck with the Lightning set.

[Immortal… Larry]

All, we’re looking for some participants for another experiment on the arena boards to avoid cheaters, by @steven-dunn-5648.

If you’re interested, check out the “Birdsnest Arena leagues” thread.

[briette]

way to go I think rovio should ban all cheaters

[KillerKea]

@kerravon I realized that some people I thought were cheating were in different time zones so I was able to pass them and advance to Gold. I had no plans on Sunday so I played possum on the last day and earned 1000+ points shortly after midnight making sure all my objectives were 1 away from completion. I earned a lot of points a few hours before the end to stay in 4th place then completed my 3 objectives with about 1.5 hours left to jump to 2nd.

[KerrAvon]

@killerkea Congratulations. A hard slog, but you finally made it. I presume you are looking to go straight on up to the next level.

Myself and mimi27 are currently in Gold, so keep a look out in the arena. I am going to have a night off and join sometime tomorrow. I am not too concerned with progressing, just staying in Gold – my birds are not strong enough to compete at higher levels.

Do you think you only had the one cheater on your board after all? I think that you took a good approach in the end. Some players may get complacent and stop competing towards the end if they think they are through safely.

[Strategia55]

Android Droid Razzr Maxx HD.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a newer phone with faster processors ; not sure that’ll make a difference.

[Strategia55]

You may be correct. My device takes a little longer to disconnect on WiFi or 4G.

[KillerKea]

@kerravon I think I had one person reset objectives once because I don’t think it is possible to gain 17000 in a few hours. Another person who had about 46-47k on Friday finished with 71,000 which is possible, but he had to play an awful lot.

[CaptainPinguina]

@dallasreds
Often I get an opponent w/ high banner health but low bird health… I Often beat those opponents easily, so check bird health. Their birds might even be set to a class with really low mastery rank.

[bbmnky]

I have not ever reset my objectives, or had them accidentally reset (and had it matter. Whenever mine reset accidentally, it means it didn’t clock any of my previous objectives). I don’t want to know how to do it, I pride myself on having gotten to platinum honestly. Granted, I’ve been stuck there for 3 weeks because of cheaters, but I did it honestly.

What’s killing me is the glitches lately.

Out of curiosity: Matilda being able to heal for over 3000 health points – without rage ability…is that a cheat or a glitch? I’ve seen it with several players. Normally with Bard or Princess (a few times with Priestess).

[burbman]

@rachele-walter – One of the arena legendary sets has the ability to multiply any healing, that might be what you are seeing, though I would not rule out a hacked opponent completely, as some have hacked different aspects of their birds.

[KillerKea]

@rachele-walter – The maximum for a rank 10 level 41 Princess is 789. You can use the Sweet set and Blessed idol set which will increase healing by 1.25 * 2 = 2.5, but 2.5 * 789 = 1972.5. Therefore your opponents are cheating. The Bard does less healing than the Princess.

Bomb can heal more without the rage ability if he has sugar rush, but you can’t control when sugar rush will work.

[KillerKea]

I forgot that the Blessed set also gives a 20% bonus to health so the maximum is

789 * 1.25 * 2 * 1.2 = 2367

[LondoJowo]

I think Rovio should allow everyone to reset their objectives and change the name to Cheater vs Cheater Arena League. One the fist two days I ground out 1,200 to 2,000 additional points over what I got obtaining the objectives. As you can see there’s 3 cheaters so far. I guess I do what I need to stay the top 10 and hope I get a better, more honest draw of players next week.

Removed attachments so the cheaters can’t use them for bragging rights.

[LondoJowo]

I also lost a battle this morning to a team that had a purple banner/purple bowl/unknown emblem. All attacks on the opponents birds or banner restored the points to the banner. I kill the opponents birds 6 times, restored points to my birds/banner twice with Matilda, and when my banner fell the opposing teams banner still had max bar.

[Immortal… Larry]

Quick update, Rovio’s ABEPIC is tweeting again. Could this mean that they’re in the final stages of a major update?

Angry Birds Epic @ABepic · 10h 10 hours ago
Hello! We will start replying now again. For issues regarding the PVP events, write us to http://rov.io/support

Angry Birds Epic @ABepic · 5h 5 hours ago
Hello #EpicHeroes of Piggy Island! We are back on Twitter and open to all your suggestions, fanart, general chat and laughter. Bring it on!!

[LondoJowo]

As each cheater appeared I updated my support request with the screenshots above.