Update 1.16.4.3 and Heatwave Event Issues

[gradientturtle7]

Hello,

I’d like to clarify the data update that was pushed yesterday, and respond to some of the issues that have been raised with the ongoing Heatwave Event.

When the event began, it became apparent that an error in the numerical balance of the objectives had resulted in much lower targets than intended. We pushed a data update yesterday to address this for the remainder of the tournament, beginning with today’s challenge.

Additionally, we are aware that players are experiencing frustration from a lack of today’s targets in some challenge levels. I’m afraid this isn’t something we’re able to address immediately, but we will review the remaining challenges to try to ensure the issue isn’t repeated.

I apologise for any frustration caused by these issues, and thank you all for your continued feedback.

Topic

[Pampeans]

@gradientturtle7 thank you for this information.

Can you address why the Tfs are significantly weaker in the contest than they are in the regular nodes? Specifically, they’re over heating faster, taking on more damage and unable destroy many of the targets despite being upgraded and accessorized.

Another thing I have noticed with all of the recent “buddy” contests, if you switch to the buddy during the run, no matter how well the Tf performs, it will be missing one heart at the end of the end of the run. In other words, just by calling the buddy Tf in, he looses a heart.

Also, by my calculations and based on the updated challenge objectives/token award (which is now unbalanced), the ineffectiveness of the accessories, and the just posted end date of the contest, assuming you are awarded the daily challenge and you win the contest everyday (and don’t waste tokens on accessories) it’s impossible to win at least one of the awards in the token exchange. Why offer an award that’s unattainable?

[Nightcrawler]

@pampeans is the buddy tf wearing a defence accessory?

[Pampeans]

@sam-spargo nope! However all of my Tfs (all level 15) are wearing accessories to increase damage, clips, explosive force, etc…

[gradientturtle7]

@pampeans

We have identified the missing hearts issue as a bug relating to accessory benefits, but we’ve not been able to reproduce the other issues you mention (faster overheating and more damage taken). Could you give more specific character/level information? Thanks for continuing to feed back to us.

[Pampeans]

@gradientturtle7 Thank you for your response!

I’m on iPad Air 2 iOS 9.3.2

I’m using the Leaders at present with Grey Slam Grimlock in the 1st slot (level 15 wearing the pilgrim hat and sunglasses) and Sentinel Prime in the second slot (level 15 wearing headphones).

I won’t quibble about Grey Slam, however SP was called in to shoot at WMTs — there were no pigs on the screen just FMs — and was not hit. He destroyed both WMTs before they fired then I switched him out. No hearts displayed while SP was in the node. This was the result of the run (barracks view):

However, I did notice for the next run, Grey Slam Grimlock came into the node with 5 full hearts despite the barracks view indicating otherwise.

But, at the end of each run the 2nd slot Tf consistently displays the loss of one heart in the barracks view if switched in during the node.

As for the overheating, I’m not sure what type of evidence you need, but I can try to clarify the description: all of the Tfs that allow for continuous fire (enabling you to hold down your finger) seem to be overheating faster, which means they stop firing (presumably to cool down) requiring your to transform while they can’t shoot. Basically, they’re taking longer to destroy targets than they do in the regular nodes (barracks @ level 15).

Point of clarification on the awards in the token exchange: I understand that if you get a perfect score on each day of the challenge (i.e., 1,550 both daily challenge and contest win) all of the awards in the token exchange can be attained. However, with the “numerical balance of the objectives” to increase the targets seems to have made this impossible. Specifically, while I did win the contest yesterday, for the first time since the contests began, I did not make the daily challenge, by playing every opportunity I had to play.

I hope this is clear, If not I’m happy to provide whatever additional information I can. Thank you again for your response.

[Optimus_Pig]

@gradientturtle7

“When the event began, it became apparent that an error in the numerical balance of the objectives had resulted in much lower targets than intended. We pushed a data update yesterday to address this for the remainder of the tournament, beginning with today’s challenge.”

Just out of curiosity, is raising today’s (Day 5) challenge target to 18,000 for the 100-level, part of addressing the “numerical imbalance of the objectives”? Because if it was, then I’d say it’s been imbalanced in the other direction. (It’s like Anakin Skywalker bringing balance to The Force – by becoming Darth Vader ….)

Thanks.

[Optimus_Pig]

@gradientturtle7 @arceemega @madalice

Just wondering if you’ve had any luck identifying the cause for the lack of designated targets (missiles) on Heatwave Day 4?

Because it’s happening again. Today (Day 7) the designated target is Walking Mortar Towers. On my first run – guess what? – no Walking Mortar Towers.

Additionally, we are aware that players are experiencing frustration from a lack of today’s targets in some challenge levels. I’m afraid this isn’t something we’re able to address immediately, but we will review the remaining challenges to try to ensure the issue isn’t repeated.

I’m guessing that the review wasn’t too successful, eh?

[Pampeans]

@optimuspig lol!

[Pampeans]

@gradientturtle7

We have identified the missing hearts issue as a bug relating to accessory benefits, but we’ve not been able to reproduce the other issues you mention (faster overheating and more damage taken). Could you give more specific character/level information? Thanks for continuing to feed back to us.

I just ran a Cobalt Valley node with Heatwave where he encountered a row of Falling Monoliths. I transformed Heatwave during the accelerated mode before the Monoliths began to fall, but inexplicably the mode changed to slow motion and as Heatwave slowed down he began moving slower than the Falling Monoliths and ended up being hit by the last two, which killed him. Heatwave is a level 15, had 4 hearts at the time he transformed, is wearing Ramhorn and the Axe. Really?! Since when aren’t the Tfs fast enough to escape the Falling Monoliths? Why is this scenario even in the game code?

I’m extremely frustrated with the way Rovio is handling this contest. This is the thanks we get for spending all of the time and resources to upgrade to level 15 (over one year, millions of coins and thousands of gems), struggle to earn all of the Energonicons (hundreds of hours running missions for materials, tens of gems on respins), only to have Rovio weaken the Tfs in order to make us acquire accessories that don’t work (thousands of gems) — Rovio delivers a contest where they’ve stripped all of that power from the Tfs while at the same time increasing the difficulty of the game and adjusting the scoring such that it’s impossible to achieve the maximum score even though we are willing to play every opportunity available for 7 straight days in a row? I’m willing to spend gems to win the contests, but spending gems to make the daily maximum challenge does not make sense because there is not just enough time.

This is a great game, the contests (when executed properly) are a winning business model for monetizing, yet the execution continues to be passive aggressive towards the fans.

I just don’t understand why Rovio continues to treat us like we are somehow getting over on them. All we do is show up and play…

[PBJ]

@pampeans

AMEN to that!!!

[Optimus_Pig]

I just ran yet another node that was totally lacking in WMTs!

First time it was Pig City.

This second time it was a “Beach” node.

[MillForce2k]

@gradientturtle7 @arceemega @madalice

I’ve put together a video comparing Energon Grimlock taking out a WMT and three balloon pigs. The difference with the WMT is significant. EG is wearing Headphones and Sunglasses.

Energon Grimlock Power Comparison

[MillForce2k]

@20qmindreader Thanks. That shouldn’t be a problem. The most time consuming thing is waiting for the TF to show up on the map.

[SoloAz]

Can you address why the Tfs are significantly weaker in the contest than they are in the regular nodes? Specifically, they’re over heating faster, taking on more damage and unable destroy many of the targets despite being upgraded and accessorized.

@pampeans, I’m going to hazard a guess that the answer to this million-dollar question also answers why it is Energon Soundwave, Soundwave, and Soundblaster are no longer available in Jenga mode. They were only the three most powerful and effective TFs in this mode—but hey, WDIK.

[SoloAz]

Thanks, @20qmindreader, I think I get the gist of it now…
Game balancing mechanics: make it utterly impossible to compete without using a boatload of gems, all the while taunting players with a crate of gems they couldn’t ever possibly achieve.

[Anonymous]

I know I’m in the minority, but I’ve actually really enjoyed this comp.

At first I thought/hoped it would be long enough that I’d be able to win the crate, so I was certainly disappointed when they revealed the end date and I realized it wouldn’t be possible. But I’m on track to get the chest, and maybe the axe too, and that’s plenty.

But as far as the other stuff goes:
– I haven’t experienced any bugs, which is lucky.
– I’ve always assumed the pigs were stronger in these events (or the TFs are weaker) on purpose, specifically so that it’s not easy for everyone to win all the prizes (at least, not without spending money on gems for recharges).
– Same for the amount of points it takes to get the higher amounts of tokens (80, 90, 100). Why should it be a gimme?
– I completely enjoy the nodes being so much more difficult. The challenge is fun!

[Optimus_Pig]

@poptimus

“Same for the amount of points it takes to get the higher amounts of tokens (80, 90, 100). Why should it be a gimme?”

The way I see it, there’s two extremes to how one can do this. Either:

1. play every single “free” recharge offered to you (that’s 27 runs in a 24 hour period, since we always start off with 4) without spending any gems, or

2. just spend gems until you’ve earned the full 550 in the challenge.

Given that option (1) involves severe disruption of sleep patterns and interruptions in one’s daily life, I would hardly consider it a “gimme”.

And yet when Rovio raises the bar on the challenge so high that it literally becomes impossible to achieve 550 without using gems, even when you’re willing to wake up in the middle of the night and interrupt your real life activities to utilize all 27 of the free runs, then it seems unreasonable to me.

Spending money on premium purchases should be a convenience, to help people who don’t have the time or patience to grind things out. But when you DO have the time and patience, and yet the bar is set so high that grinding things out isn’t enough, that’s when “free to play” crosses over to “pay to win”.

Just my $0.02

[MillForce2k]

Take your Headphones off! I just recorded a competition run with Energon Grimlock without them and destroyed a WMT three seconds faster than with. I’ll put up a new comparison video as soon as he shows up on the regular map.

@gradientturtle7 It looks like the Damage accessories have the same issue as the Defense accessories (at least in the competition).

[Optimus_Pig]

@millforce2k

!!!

[Pampeans]

@millforce2k exactly the point I was trying to make at 2:00 am this morning. Thanks for your legwork!

[Pampeans]

@millforce2k exactly! It’s seems like only the explosive fire accessories work…

[gradientturtle7]

@optimuspig

I’m afraid we weren’t able to deal with the issue during the current event. The content of the event was pre-set to be procedurally generated (much like the map nodes), but in future we will be tailoring the content to the challenges.

@millforce2k

Thank you very much for your efforts in preparing the video comparison. We’ll take a good look at this specific case to see if we can narrow it down, but it sounds more and more like a broader issue with accessory buffs in event content.

[MillForce2k]

@pampeans You’re welcome. It’s almost more fun than playing the competitions.:)

@gradientturtle7 Thank you for looking into it. Hopefully it’s not too extensive an issue and can get resolved relatively quick.

[Optimus_Pig]

@gradientturtle7

Thanks for the reply.

Timely given that the same thing happened to me again, for the third time today! Got the princely sum of 51 points (incl. 25% buddy bonus) for my efforts.

I’ll tell you – I’m really disappointed at the lack of QC on this game. This isn’t the first competition – one would think all the kinks would be worked out by now.

So is there any chance of either:

1. having it extended a couple of days,
2. or having another “Encore” competition

to make up for the issues we’ve experienced here, that are keeping people from their maximum earning potential?

[Pampeans]

@gradientturtle7

When completing the pure warrior nodes during today’s completion, by removing Rangefinder, Hook and Canon Energon Lockdown is able to complete the nodes without incurring more damage than there are energon cubes. He’s also able to take out WMTs, although not nearly as efficiently as the regular nodes. He’s level 15, wearing squawktalk, and energon cube.

It appears (as the @millforce2k video comparisons support) that only the explosive rounds and acid rounds accessories are actually working. Although, I’m not sure how helpful the acid rounds are, but you can see the difference in the type of fire. None of the accessories that increase transform power are working as well. Loaded with all five accessories at once, E. Lockdown should be a beast, unstoppable.

Hopefully you can see why it seems as though the Tfs have been deliberately weakened — we’re loading them down with accessories in order to meet the increased level of difficulty, but the accessories are working against us. This is a huge bug that completely changed the game dynamic.

We would appreciate some consideration as @optimuspig pointed out. Thank, you.