Rovio oversteps again

[Krena]

so tired of this … and I’ve only been playing a littleness while … I guess they are testing to see what it takes to get me to buy gems. The game becomes ridiculous. Especially on a day like this where KPP is on the list of goals, which means you have to win the daily challenge to get a chance at the bonus feathers. Terrance smashes down onto a pig that survives unscathed. Bombs detonated against towers that only rock a little.  Exploded pigs in wood frames fly up into the air, smash down onto rocks, then bounce gently to safety. Birds fly nowhere near their projected trajectories. Worse, abilities like Red’s battle breath, Matilda’s egg drop, or Silver’s loop don’t activate when the screen is tapped. And yes, I’m sure I’m tapping correctly. It’s as if they are saying “oh, you thought there was a skill element? Ha ha, it’s only the algorithm that matters, and if we decide you aren’t paying enough we can stall you dead in the water.”

Then again, maybe it’s just me and nobody else is having these troubles lately.

Topic

[Yue]

no trouble for me.
It does exist a 20% bad throw rate in the game as I know…

[Krena]

Sorry, I was just whining … but after I whined, I did watch a broken-off T-shaped piece pick itself up and walk over to the edge to jump off, so the weirdness goes both ways.

[AggieGuy]

My rule is if I cannot beat the Daily Challenge or the KPP without spending gems, then I just don’t beat it for that day.

I can usually beat the DC (might take numerous attempts through the day), but often I can tell the KPP is just not beatable without likely buying 4-5 continues. If on the first stage I only have 1 or 2 birds left when reaching the boss pig round, and its not an easy kill, then I just put the phone down and don’t worry about it.

[AngrySmurf]

Yeah, there are days when rovio goes into dick mode and cranks the algorithm odds against the user – I can usually tell when this happens and just quit (force close) the game without finishing it – no video payoff for rovio, no gems bought. start the game back up and try again – continue cycle until rovio plays fair or I use up my lives. go and play my other games. patience is the key, don’t pay for gems, don’t pay for pearls, don’t even waste spells

[Buzzeeee]

It’s not your imagination, Krena.  I’ve been noticing this an awful lot lately and had wondered if anybody else had.  Glad to see someone else posting about this.

There have always been times in the past where the game gives you a really strange bad break, but in the last couple of months or so it’s been waaaaaaaay out of hand and the rigged feeling is starting to feel like the rule rather than the exception.  Used to be you sometimes had one of the tiny pigs survive a direct hit— now it happens all the time.  Used to be it was rare to see a bird directly land on a pig and the pig not pop (so that the bird is superimposed over the pig).  Now this isn’t an uncommon thing to see.  Bird powers are crazily inconsistent, particularly Bomb and Terrance— sometimes Terance and Bomb now have trouble breaking through things they easily blasted through before like wood or ice, but notably they only seem to have these troubles when the game is leading up to wanting you to dish out gems (particularly the third part of the Daily Challenge).  And you’re right too about trajectories, which used to sometimes be a little off but lately can be waaaaay off.

It takes all the fun out of it when it just feels like the game is so rigged and you don’t have much control and can’t really strategize.  I think AngrySmurf is on the right track to just stop playing when the game goes into rigged mode and not give them any gems or video views.  But if Rovio is going to do this now pretty much every day, the question becomes is it worth it to keep playing the game at all? In the past, I could hold my nose and put up with a little rigging now and then, but if Rovio wants to pre-determine how we’re going to do on challenges all the time now, then that’s a different story.

[Krena]

Here’s a screenshot – tell me what kind of physics supports this? The tower didn’t even shiver when the left side of the base was blasted away. I read there were some recent upper-level personnel changes at Rovio, maybe some evil code got into the last update.

[LCK]

@krena you’re right. Just today for Terrence’s trial(DC) I was the victim of rovio’s terrible algorithm…

1st try: Micropig reaches unhittable spot in room 2. Had to try again!

2nd try: Reached boss room with 4 birds due to incredibly difficult structures. Terrence barely glanced off foreman pig and did virtually no damage at all.Couldn’t complete it!

3rd try: Reached boss room with all 7 birds!! But amazingly, silver disappeared due to bird glitch, all the rocks crashed onto one another so there are no projectiles left. And all the other birds did not do significant damage to boss pig. Couldn’t complete it!

[LCK]

In the end, I did a smart thing : force close the app, but not before sending complaint message to rovio and did not open it for the rest of the day! (till now) Congrats rovio you successfully rigged this game!

[Psygaz]

Is it a general thing with gaming or just Rovio? I don’t play any other games so I’ve no idea if it’s just AB2 that is blatantly designed to make you lose.

It has certainly got worse in recent times.

[AngrySmurf]

the OP (@krena) also posted the thread “Interesting post about AB2 theiry” a little bit ago which gives you insight into Rovio and other game programmers about gamer psych and how to take advantage of it.

[cognitive]

AB2 is full of little gems like, in ToF, you have a pretty good chance of hitting a pig after you just hit a pig. Or, a near guaranteed pig @ 2 for a week after you miraculously made it to level 20 of ToF with only one or two pigs.

But the micropig survival rate is just amazing as of late.

[RawDataSystems]

@krena, The lamp connects with structure by a small balloon, which partly supports the structure. I’m not saying it’s a viable support, but I’ve been had multiple times even by smaller balloons. Rovio makes these astonishing tiny balloons which apparently may support more weight than even Hulk can lift. I hate them with a passion.

 

[Krena]

Yeah, that’s Rovio physics for you! Super balloons, indestructible piggies … keeps it interesting.

[RawDataSystems]

Rovio physics are indeed… well, “different”. I just saw similar structure like this, but having nothing to support one half. The impossible structure was even slanted “wrong way” to cover the only microballoon supporting the other side. Perhaps just to make it harder to destroy. At least the micropig inside the half levitating structure was not one of those dreaded immortal ones…

 

[Eggy Schnitzel]

Some days, the structures don’t fall and the piggies don’t pop. I’m also glad other people have noticed. The situations that really get me are those teeny-tiny pigs that should have popped but end up rolling into some area where they are now completely shielded from any attack. In those cases, I have to just give up the level, take the lost heart and try the level again if I can.

[RawDataSystems]

Those small, (close to) immortal “Highlander Pigs” are PITA. My personal worst had dropped 1/4 height of room twice and got a big stone fall on top of it the second time, direct hit by Bomb and twice a direct hit with Terrence. The little s**t still survived and I lost the match!

Another thing is unreachable pigs, usually same size of little buggers than previous type. Only imaginable way to pop them is chili… which you usually don’t have just then.

I’ve recently seen third type of “impossible pig”. The sticky one, which clings onto things like Spider Man and defies gravity. It can stay “glued” even vertically and if having unbreakable part of room between slingshot and itself, safe from anything else than chili.

Because of all the bugs and glitches I would have stopped playing already, but AB2 is too addictive for me…

 

[AggieGuy]

The unkillable, unreachable micro-pig is the worst. I’ve lost 6 matches in a row today because of this. In most of the matches I was stomping my opponent, but ended up losing because I had to use, 3, 4, 5+ birds in a futile attempt to kill the **** immortal pig.

Short of using a hot chili or mighty eagle (I never ever use any spells on round 1) there is no way to get the pig because it is either so protected by debris that only Bomb could do any real damage to, or is in a position where I simply cannot get a bird, even Bomb, Matilda, or Chuck.

[CaptSternn]

This is really old and I had to dig for it. Seems Rovio is reverting to their old ways.

The AB2 Bad Luck (and Good Luck) topic

[RawDataSystems]

@aggieguy, how about two micropigs, side by side and touching each other. Buried deep into debris. Chili pops only one of them, while clearing most of the debris. The other could just as well yell “There can be only one!“, because it survives. You bet I cursed loudly!

@captsternn, nice find! I’m reading the topic now… while crying and laughing bitterly. Thanks!

 

[AggieGuy]

@rawdatasystems I haven’t seen a side by side pig survive a chili attack, but I’m sure I will eventually.

Right now the ones I hate are the pig in a cube or bucket that can survive a direct hit by Bomb or Matilda, and simply goes flying across the screen. At most it has the cube/bucket destroyed, and might be all beat up, but of course survives.

[RawDataSystems]

@aggieguy, those can be so resiliant that it makes one cry. How about pig in a stone ring, usually hanging on balloons? You can drop it long way and it can survive… while ending unreachable spot.

I’m only at the page 4 of topic @captsternn linked and I’m already seen so many familiar sources of frustration there. Positive side is, I only now learned while reading the topic, that Construction Pig can’t harm Terence?! I wish these kind tidbits of information had been around when I started! It took me ages to realize that in some rooms you can launch your bird via water instead of air to get to your target with birds ability untouched…

 

[jo-ha]

@rawdatasystems: while we’re at it, you can also launch your birds through the lava, slightly different trajectory than water, but adds a explosion damage to your bird on impact.
I wouldn’t say, that the constructor pig doesn’t harm Terrence. Yes, it won’t take Terence’s power, since he has none that can be activated. Nevertheless it can stop him mid-air on the spot if the angle is bad enough. Those pigs should always be avoided.

[RawDataSystems]

@jo-ha, you can?! What kind of bird dive thru lava… well, thanks for tip. ;)

I usually try to clear those nasty special piggies with Blue, if I can’t find another, easier solution. I find those special pigs as a cheap way to make game harder. Specially if lighting prevent you to see them and you have to zoom and pan around.

@captsternn, I got thru the linked topic and it mpade me quite annoyed to see that apparently Rovio still can’t or don’t want to fix the problems. Even those that can cost players a bunch of jewels and/or other commodities.

I have few serious gripes with the game and Rovio, but I’m actively trying not to think them to avoid getting too angry.

 

[jo-ha]

@rawdatasystems: Yes you can.
Unfortunately I deleted all my own gameplay videos as soon as I uploaded them for my clan on FB, but here’s a youtube video where you can see how birds go through lava.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDBCON1uC1k

If there’s another lava challenge, use your first free game (that will stay for free in case you lose, and no you won’t lose points for the clan) and watch your birds go through the lava. The Blues for example are tricky. When you split them up, the first explosion will have a large radius and most likely cause the two others to fly in completely unpredictable directions. Sometimes you can use it to your advantage, sometimes it’s quite annoying.

[garethw]

In the last couple of days it seems Rovio is just on a special mission to grab all your gems and spend more money.

Impossible mini pigs suddenly appearing in weird places, destruction that miraculously gives you about 20% of the points you expect and leaves you just short in the Arena even after the video etc. etc.

As a point of principal I’ve now decided not to spend another penny on the game.

Losing 6 out of 8 arena matches and not getting past no. 2 – yeah right-o.

Tbh I think it’s time to put the game away till the Autumn.

All the fun’s gone at the moment.