There are three huge issues with this “event” (which I am sure is a long term feature).
First, the game is not balanced for birds vs birds. Every aspect of game design up until this point has balanced birds vs pigs, with progression of pig strength to offer variety and challenge when using various combinations of birds. This update pits birds against each other, which they have not been even marginally balanced to do. Some of the rage abilities appear to have been nerfed for the arena, but some of the birds just don’t have enough hp to go toe to toe with other birds.
Second, the coin flip is the most deterministic factor in the whole affair. Since this is not real time pvp, the coin flip is just plain stupid. There is no reason the active player should not go first 100% of the time. This leads me to believe that either 1)the arena was originally designed to be live pvp but had to be retrofitted by pitting a player against another player’s robo-birds or 2)there will eventually be live pvp. If 1), there should be no coin flip – player should go first. If 2), the coin flip is still a ruinous design choice that takes 99% of the “skill” out of the battle.
Third, this update destroys any sense of free to play the game had. As with most pvp games, any pay features which offer genuine advantage over other players must be considered very carefully and delicately in order to maintain the perception of “skill” within the game. Since ABE was PVE this was not that big a deal. Thus, offering so many LC upgrades was no real skin off of the free player’s back. The push toward facebook was more tiresome for the non-FB player since one couldn’t enjoy the benefits of free LCs, free FE, and birds to borrow. But at the end of the day, the free, non-FB player could enjoy his ABE experience in his own little corner of the world without worrying too much about what other people may be doing. Now he is thrust into an arena with people who spent LCs, may have used the set item exploit, or may have even used an emulator to farm mastery (and snoutlings) like some of those on this forum to get a *huge* advantage over him.
I don’t care if that’s how you like to play the game. I just don’t want to be forced to play against you. My concern is that the new, fresh content of the game may continue to revolve around this new PVP “feature” and possibly even future upgrades to the single player experience will be dependent upon performance in this incredibly imbalanced system.
I am very sad about this update. I typically seek out non-pvp games and enjoyed ABE. However, my objection is not just that this is now a pvp game. My objection is that this pvp system is being poorly cobbled onto a game implementation that simply isn’t designed to support it.
ugh.
oh, and just to note my experience….on my android I won 5 battles (two of which going second, by the skin of my teeth) and lost 3 (went second). On my iOS device I lost all three (device is level 17 with all classes mastery 5 or 6, the other player’s birds just KOd me every turn).
I got a set totem item on both devices on the first day.
