Challenge Run

[Asen_77]

New record

[moi]

@asen How did you do this???
I’m already happy if I reach the 470k points limit, but this is extraordinary!

Btw, this is not the Challenge Run, but the Spark Run.
I also have difficulties with correctly naming all these different kind of events/runs.

[Asen_77]

OOO sorry, really this is a Spark Run. I still have a lot of problems to reach 470k on every run, but in this case I succeeded to get this amount of point with level of big amount of Gold Blocks, this one that are on a tower. Also I was happy to be there with Blaster, so succeeded to pop them all :)

[Pinokio]

Last Sunday I have alot of free time to play Challenge run and win 1st place. What can I say? Its not worth it imo. First 3-4hours non-stop playing was fun, because of hard competition. Next 3hours was hard working. 1hour before end was insane! I spent near 700 gems only for Sunday Challenge run (revive/recharge). For what? 7 useless overpowers and 3 unneeded upgrades. I think I was very lucky to get 7 overpowers. Usually upgrades more then overpowers. Also I don’t understand, why some bots “Overpowered” while some others just “Upgraded” :D

So next weeks I’ll just hunt for Epic/Rare crates. Not so hard to get and they can be much more usefull. Still don’t know, which better. Most probably Rare. Because almost all my Epic crates was with accessory upgrades also.

[Andrew]

They are upgraded to (and including) level 15. After that it’s an overpower. I’m guessing a slight fault in the coding what should read “if(level<15)” reads “if(level<=15)” instead.

[Asen_77]

10 Legendary and 7 overpower is something that I never think could be seen

[Pako]

@papakarlo all those overpowers for 700 gems… whether they are useful or not, they are worth at least 65000 tokens or a minimum of 1800 gems if one is lucky enough in the golden create roulette.

[Andrew]

@pako it’s subjective though. I’d take a sunglasses buff on a character I use over an overpower on a character I never use.

[Pinokio]

@andrewinireland you’r right I think about overpower coding visualization. Anyway with this minor bug we can live.

@asen yes, me too. But from other side, to owerpower needed bot in this way we need years and years be on 1st place every week. Its imposible. I think only few Energon league lists running at Sunday. And many players in those lists insane. I don’t know why they so crazy trying be on 1st place.

@pako 700gems was not a biggest price. 8-9 hours nonstop hardcore playing when you already hate ABTF, and pain in back, fingers and head … Yes, those legendary crates is a top prizes in game atm. From other ways get them much more harder or very expensive. I just don’t understand, why we need them? Why top game content useless for top players? Right now game adjust to my bot lvl, I can play with 5lvl bot in events etc. Its very nice. Allowing new/casual/low lvl players play game also. 10lvl bot almost same as 15lvl, and 22lvl – almost same as 15lvl. Maybe only Soundblaster become noticeably more powerfull with levelup. Right now lvl mean nothing. So top game content for me is useless ( for such price). Maybe others just dont understand this, trying to dress up and grown their dolls to max? Is this posible? No. Right now 79 bots. Every 2-3 weeks new bot. Its cool. But every 2-3 weeks less chances (wich already very low) to overpower needed bot. And when you owerpower him, NOTHING CHANGED. Because game every time when I enter events or other missions, gives me environment (pigs, WMT) for my bot lvl. They will be maybe a little weaker, then for not overpowered bot. But it’s OK. This is nice system. We just don’t have game content for overpowered bots.

[Pako]

@andrewinireland, sure I’d rather spend tokens on accesories than on an overpower. My comment was more about the economics of the game.

@papakarlo, I see your point, it was too much time and effort for what it is precieved for many of us as little gain. Honestly, I prefer to get sparks and gems as rewards.

I would say that overpowering is overrated at large. However, one my bots, Ultra Magnus, got overpowered to level 20 through golden crates, because of this and perhaps many other factors (accesory upgrades, me getting better at playing the game), it is now capable of killing Unicron. That’s the one instance where I have sense a noticeable change.

[VaBeachGuy]

So much for the ‘Safe Zone’:

 

 

[Asen_77]

@papakarlo My explanation is really simple. This is not real players and the only Go for this bots is to make you play 8-9 hours and spend 700 Gems. So with you, their main Go is achieved ;). I am pretty sure that you want do that again. And also – even if this way to get 7 overpowers ( which is not even guarantee ) is not enough prize to spend all this time …

[Pinokio]

@asen hmm, interesting idea. But I don’t think R/E using fake players (program bots) to increase interest in competition. Just because no needs for this. Real players much more powerfull and skilled for this. And free. Maybe some players (cheaters) use some kind of programs or taping devices, because playing so long is very anoying. Anyway, I have good memory, also making screenshots of hardest players, and I meet them from time to time in game and they usually have their personal “playing style” for each instance. Someone likes to rush from 2nd place to my 1st in last 30min before reset. Someone making unreal score in first hour after reset. Others doing many things wich can born only in human head in those situations. If they AI , I’ll be happy, because R/E can sell them to NASA drive Curiosity or Autobirds for colonization of Mars :) Ofcourse almost every day I see strange players. Top promoted bot in the end of list, or low promoted generating insane scores, like he have unlimited gems … They also live players imo. Maybe not. Actually I not really care. I can win in both cases. This is interesting. But I don’t have a reason to do it every week, every day. Because I don’t need legendary crates for such price. Other players need – OK, always be someone, who can waste whole Sunday for few overpowers. I back to having fun from game, and harvesting Epic/Rare crates for sparks/gems – most valuable things for now and near future.

So my screenshot and posts was about useless reward for top place for top players. Others can find it very attractive, espetialy if they have some bots to unlock. This is only a reason for now, wich I can explain so big interest to legendary crates.

[Asen_77]

Why Rovio will use such a methods – To force you to play more and more. Playing more and more makes you spend more Gems. Gems could be bought with real money. Every app or game is made to make real money. Did you catch my point :P. I am playing this game since the beginning, so I saw a lot strange players into leaderboards with impossible amount of point done in impossible short time … and many many more things …

[Pinokio]

@asen I understand what you talking about. You ate right. And I also playing this game from beginning. Just came to ABTF in I think 2012 or near from other MMORPG like WoW. Before WoW was Lineage2, my heart is still there! Every single day during years I thinking about Lineage2, my good friends, my insane enemys, strong clans and much stronger allys, wich hold castles during years. Also GMs and North American servers crew, wich change “Pay to Play” model against my will, to damn “Free to Play” wich mean “Pay to Win”. Before Lineage2 was Ultima Online. Early was Nintendo, Sega, Dendi, tetris :D And looking into all this 30 years history I see only one thing – if game developers thinks they know more about their product then even random players and try to milk them – its going to fiasco. If game running/holding/assisting by game addicts, who thinking not only about money, but first about world, in wich they also living, wich they made/managing/assisting and try to make it better, even if its take more money, then people can pay … Hmm, sometimes its working. I don’t know, how is WoW atm, or Lineage2. But since they spaming my emails by hero returning packs etc. – all is OK. I just want to say all those games more dangerous then drugs! I came from Lineage2 to ABTF just for health. Its something like trying to be happy with tea, after years of hard drugs. But as I can see, every year this tea get more drugs inside. Worst thing it took more and more your time! But we need this time for our family, our works, to pay our bills, to pay for our games. Why this so hard to understand to game developers, they don’t need to make game content, wich rush us to spend more time in their games! They should just make interesting content, so player can spend some time, and some money if want. Should be triggers. They always was in ABTF. Missions have timers still. From beginning, when was no Events or Spark/Challenge runs, was only missions. With timers like now. 2x30min,2x15min,2x5min. So you can play 6missions, then 2 more in next 10min and then need more time to wait. Where is trigers in Challenge run? I played whole last Sunday … I can still. I was hardcore grinder in Lineage2 and WoW. Probably I still can nonstop playing 16hours every day during weeks or even months, as was in the past. But I don’t want to. No points. Crap rewards. And actualy no health for such playing. I like playing for fun. I like paying for fun.

[__^[]^__]

Truth spoken, @papakario. Watching this game industry evolve from the simple single celled organisms of pong and breakout to the multiplayer online industries of today, the pure crass commercialism is abhorrent. All about the companies padding their bottom lines to boost stock price, so having an addicted customer is their cash cow.
of course, there are some companies (cough) rovio (cough) that have stock tickers that no longer trade in the states because of performance.

[Pinokio]

@wrioter yes, you show modern point of view. And it’s a truth. But you know, I likes those companies. I likes their products, because Im a gamer. And I like to play their games, not thinking about their problems with stock markets, game bugs/cheaters, and game content. I pay them, and usually gets disappoint. Not always

[VaBeachGuy]

Finally hunkered down this past week and worked hard to get promoted each day and got to purple.

Now I can stop doing challenge runs. It crashed on me so many times during the week, always when using Devastator and always when I’d get to 150,000 to 200,000 (and above) points.

Of course, any damage that I had, was kept. But all the points that I had, were lost. So I got to the point where when I started getting close to 200,000, I’d just set the tablet down and let him die, so that I’d at least be able to keep the points.

Now that I maxed out the promotion, I’m done with it.

[moi]

I’m still wondering what the different kinds of purple mean.
Like in the screenshot below Homazo has a light shade of purple (almost pink) , whilst Vera has a more darker shade of purple.
Does that mean that Vera has reached the purple level more often than Homazo or is there another explanation?

[moi]

@vabeachguy
I’m more or less stuck with the some dilemma as you had.
If I’m doing a spark challenge run I have the problem “when should I stop?”. Not because I’m almost out of hearts, but because when I have a nice score I’m afraid that the run will crash (this happened to me several times) and I’ll lose all my points.

I feel almost relieved when my bot dies and this shouldn’t be the intention of this game.

[GrimLockdown]

@moifirst I myself have darker purple color and I have reached Energon league only once. My guesses for lighter purple are being either in the position 1–10 after Sunday or being first. My position was 11–20. I had no motivation to use my time to get any higher.

I have the same feelings and methods as you and others when I reach 250k–300k points during the Challenge runs (because of the crashing) although sometimes – like today – I take risks and end up to something like 500k points (and was shot down by one bullet at the start of Meadow).

@vabeachguy I use Superion so the crashes aren’t due to TF but the Challenge run itself.

[Pinokio]

Guys, I spent a nice week. Played Challenge run from time to time. Was lucky to got gold league. Maybe bad luck, because Monday was out of internet. Anyway, I spent no gems for Challenge run! And what I get -unexlectedly sparks … I just tryed to see, if Epic crates better then Rare one. No. From Epic crates this unneded update garbage, for unneeded bots. So I turned one lazy slacker mode and just get Rare crates next weeks. BUT, if you miss any bot, wich you think is good (most probably not), or you have alot of unneeded (!) gems then try to compete with insane nolifers :D wich have lighter energon names. In 2nd week of introdusing Challenge run I got darker energon name. Then, if you still at top, name become lighter. Energon lighter. This week and next, I’ll be again more darker. Sparks better ;)

[VaBeachGuy]

@grimlockdown

I’ve never had it crash with Superion, but then again, my Devastator has a higher level and stronger accessories so I can go farther and longer with him. So maybe if I were to go as far with Superion as I do with Devastator, it would crash with him also.

[VaBeachGuy]

As an experiment, I started the challenge run (yesterday), and just set my tablet down and let it go as far as it would, without any interactions from me.

I did that 4 or 5 times until it ended today, and finished the day with over 1 million points and won the day lol.

[__^[]^__]

Pull the target sights full right on screen, slip your finger off leaving the weapon in automatic fire mode