Something Fishy Is Going On

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  • Okay, so some of this might sound nuts, and some of this might not. But before I start flinging mud at Rovio directly, I wanted to get the input of some other players.

    I’ve been playing Angry Birds for over 5 years, almost from the beginning. My scope of experience expands to almost every Angry Birds game that’s been released. I don’t intend to brag, but I’ve really gotten the dynamics of the game down to a science, as I’m sure some of you do as well. I know how to hit things, from what angle, and where to achieve my goal. And 9 times out of 10 I do it very very well.

    Flash forward to Angry Birds 2. There have definitely been some changes to the game physics, many of which I understand now that the birds have power levels.

    But there’s something else. Something absurd and outright wrong.

    I believe, especially in the latest update, the game physics have been intentionally broken. Broken, to create losing situations which should not otherwise occur.

    Personally I have seen the following and more, just since the update yesterday:

    1. A pig perfectly balance at an angle on the edge of a platform after falling 3 block spaces, and taking no damage. We’re talking just sticking the landing at an impossible incline of like 50 degrees.
    2. Chuck bouncing off of one single wooden plank with nothing behind it, after using his boost as if it were made of stone.
    3. Pigs inside of stone or wood boxes falling in excess of 6 blocks and taking no damage.
    4. Egg bombs exploding on trampolines, as well as slime and ice slides, without contacting any other materials.
    5. Random and unaccountable weakening of Red’s “push” ability. I have nearly mastered this in AB2, and I know when I mess up… I also know when it’s total BS.
    6. Blues hitting glass head on, with no reduction in speed, and sliding right down the face of it.
    7. Curved slime slides launching various birds in impossible directions from their edge after a great landing and following the path perfectly.
    8. Terence being woefully ineffective against block groupings he previously plowed right through.
    9. I have the distinct feeling that blocks are strongly bonded together by some force. Possibly a gravity change? Things just stick way too well, compared to even just a week ago.
    10. Finally, and maybe I’m just being nitpicky here, the scoring in Arena is an inconsistent farce. Bird teams of the exact same level with no power-ups doing 4x the damage in round one than I am. Even (as is often the case) when I a perfect strike that destroys every pig and block.

    Some of these can be chalked up as bugs or glitches, but I’ve noticed a pattern of decreasing reliability with my birds with each passing update. The latest one, is by far, the most obvious.

    This is my first post here, and honestly the first time that I’ve ever felt the need to discuss my otherwise private interest in Angry Birds. I’d like to hear some of your experiences, in efforts to prove that something is up. Mind you, that I’m not delusional. Even if I call out Rovio on their crap, it’s unlikely to ever be seen.. taken into account.. or changed. But it sure would make me feel better to confirm that I’m not just imagining this crap. :p

    Thank you for reading my crazy rant, and have a nice day.

    :D

    –Aaron

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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  • Sutekh137
    @sutekh137

    @hikaricore (Aaron)

    I like to think of myself as a pretty good Angry Birds player as well, though I know I am not as good as a lot of folks out there… I’ll give my impression of each numbered bullet after a summary of my thoughts on this latest update:

    I thought the new levels were relatively easy, and I usually struggle. I did the first six of twenty in one morning and then all the rest yesterday throughout the day. I never ran myself out of lives, and I only spent gems on one continuation (just because I was impatient and it was a Boss level). For one thing, these levels had no worries in terms of three-starring. Every other time new levels have come out, I usually get through them but have 3-4 where I only two-starred. Now with the new multipliers (which I feel shouldn’t come into play for non-arena levels, but what do I know) three-starring is trivial. The levels just felt easier, too, though some of that was based more on luck (those spouts can completely annihilate a level even after a sub-optimal fling).

    The Arena is a bit weirder, I think, but the motivation is clear. Rovio wants people to come back every three hours without exception. This new scheme does that. Before, I would get a decent Arena score, and as long as I wasn’t last I didn’t care (because I sure as heck wasn’t going to place in order to get more feathers). Their scaling was all off. Now, the top rewards are gems — lots of ’em. And you can rack up a lot of stars assuming you really do play the Arena every three hours (I am currently second place on my board, and I used to be in the bottom third for Arena play).

    So, on to your points:

    1. I have seen amazing feats of pig balance. A teleporter pig blipped to the top of a thin glass block that was standing UP just yesterday. However, it doesn’t seem any worse to me. I did have several times yesterday where a teleporter pig blipped to an incline, fell a tiny amount, and popped. In summary, this facet of the game seems about the same, and can be frustrating here and there.
    2. When I look closer at these scenarios, it seems like there is always a thin stone slab behind the wood, though there was at least one time Chuck bounced off a PIG and didn’t even dent the wood behind. Again, though, this is the same as always IMO.
    3. This has ALWAYS happened to me, so I cannot agree that it is happening more now. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of a crumbling room, IMO.
    4. Yeah, I can’t figure out eggs either…just had one blow up in green slime instead of coming around. But (I am sounding like a broken record) I recall this always being an issue and have assumed I just sucked. *smile*
    5. The only time Red fails me is when I mistime the push, angle it poorly, or miss the fact that there are balloon supports embedded in the back (front?) of the structure. Otherwise Red seems to be about the same as always…
    6. Blues do seem to have inexplicable trouble with glass, and that’s a shame for what I already consider the weakest bird out there. However (you know what I am going to say), I’ve always struggled with Blues and just assumed I wasn’t firing right or was spreading too late or too early.
    7. Yep, curves have always sucked, and I have never figured out how to make trajectories work better. Of most frustrating note are times when a far, far pig is still perched on balloons and there is no way I can get to him with anything except Chuck. If no Chuck is left, I don’t score a single point more. That’s bogus. Slime paths should LAUNCH birds enough to get hard-to-reach pigs instead of needing to hope the balloon supports magically get clipped by debris from an initial collapse.
    8. Terence has always had two scenarios that make him weak, IMO: when ANY stone is involved (even just one or two slabs inside all wood/glass) and those stupid balloon supports (especially the triangular purple ones). In my opinion Terence should be able to plow the road with frickin’ balloons, I don’t mind when some stone slows him down though, because that’s only fair — we already have Silver and Bomb to mince rock. Regardless of my thoughts on that, I can’t say it seems worse with this latest update.
    9. Blocks seem about the same to me, and as I said previously, those new spouts have no problem obliterating blocks of all materials, sizes, and build patterns.
    10. Same here. But recently (after winning 5 of my last 6 arena battles) I have come to believe that initial burst in score is because we are seeing the opponent mowing through the first TWO rooms right off the bat. Things level off later, and my opponent always seems to run out of cards before I do. Keep playing the Arena (unless you just don’t want to any more, which I totally get) and you will start to see success. I still think it is odd that I am second place on my leaderboard when before I was lucky to be in the Top Ten, but it is what it is.

    In my opinion, Rovio’s motivation is two-fold: make people buy gems and make people come back every three hours (if not more often) to watch ads. Changing the physics of gameplay to make things harder does not seem like the right way to do that. It alienates brand new players and irks veterans who know better. I’m not saying the changes aren’t already irksome to a degree, but I don’t perceive there to be a physics overhaul in play here.

    This has turned more into me venting about things I have always found annoying about AB2, so thanks for listening. *smile*

    Happy flinging (and happy holidays!)

    Thanks,
    sutekh137

    Rowdypup
    @rowdypup

    @hikaricore I also have noticed somethings on 2 that are just not right- such as:
    -(in the latest update) Matilda’s Egg has been shrunk by 25% and has an ANTANNE (like Space Egg)
    -when Terence hits a balloon (usually red + pink) he has SERIOUS knockback
    -Changer Pig (don’t know his name; the one that transforms the birds) has been buffed up in the Halloween update; now he is more alert and has larger range
    -Balloon Pig’s balloon sometimes ops in the air for no reason
    -Pigs don’t always roll when on a sloped surface
    -Screwdriver/Construction Pig throws screwdrivers behind him (he’s only supposed to throw them forward and up)
    -Bomb has a larger blast radius than he should
    -The game tends to lag
    -Matilda can destroy (make it blow up) her own Egg in a mid-air collision
    -The game crashes for no reason

    Sutekh137
    @sutekh137

    @hikaricore, @rowdypup

    A few points from my perspective:

    — I have not seen any differences in Matilda’s egg, but I don’t usually zoom in that much.
    — I always thought Terence had serious knockback when going again balloons (and I think it is silly).
    — Doesn’t the Changer Pig always transmute every block in the room? I never thought he had a “range”. I have noticed, now and in previous versions, than when he turns stone into MORE stone, that stone is INCREDIBLY hard to deal with (i.e. it is stronger than normal stone).
    — I agree that Balloon Pig seems to pop in air more recently, which is a good thing. *smile*
    — Haven’t noticed changes to any pig-rolling dynamics.
    — Didn’t notice the thrower pig throwing backwards, but I wouldn’t doubt it. I hate those guys.
    — Haven’t noticed Bomb being more powerful — are you sure Bomb didn’t recently increase in level for you?
    — Lags/crashes: I am having fewer on Android, or at least not more. I have always had lags/crashes where the red “2” displays and the gears either freeze up or just keep turning with nothing happening.
    — I had Matilda get in the way of her own egg drop months ago. I don’t think that is a new thing.

    Thanks,
    sutekh137

    Partshade
    @partshade

    @hikaricore @sutekh137 @rowdypup

    I’ve noticed something that hasn’t been pointed out yet. Has anyone ever waited for a pig to fall asleep so you can get a bird to him without it being shot down? Well I’ve noticed that even if I fire the bird immediately after he sleeps that he still wakes up and fires before the bird can hit him. However if I never fire a bird they sleep for a very long time.

    Regarding the problems with the tiny pigs, I have had many problems with these guys. I’ve done some testing with these guys and I have a theory. It’s possible that their hitbox isn’t round. Have any of you guys actually seen them flat out roll before? Because I sure haven’t.

    Sutekh137
    @sutekh137

    @hikaricore @rowdypup @partshade

    Really funny you mentioned that… I had a level the other day (must have been one of the new ones) where one of the shooty-type pigs was _right_ in front of me, a bit below the slingshot — I had no chance. I’m sitting there deciding which bird to waste to even have a chance at killing him, and he goes to sleep. I fire, and BAM — I clear the front tower (clear the rest with one more bird for a Birdie).

    Have I ever had a shooty-pig wake up as soon as I fire? Sure. Countless times. But do things seem different with recent updates? I can’t say they do.

    I realize I am starting to sound like a Rovio plant, but I’m just trying to be honest from my perspective… I’ve no axe to grind here, no dog in the race, etc. etc.

    Thanks,
    sutekh137

    Rowdypup
    @rowdypup

    @hikaricore what “shooty-pig” was it? There’s Construction (throws screwdrivers), Changer (transforms Birds into objects), Ice (shoots snowballs), and [I doubt this one- they only appear in ONE Moustache Pig fight] Fire (uses a flamethrower)- it would be important to find what Pig it was so I can identify their traits (sleeping or non-sleeping)

    Partshade
    @partshade

    What are the physics behind this pig???

    Screenshot_2015-12-27-17-25-56.png

    He should of rolled but no. He actually connected to the block.

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