Where to Get Gifts?

[MVNLA2]

@furious — It’s easier to post pictures if you upload them to your album on ABN. There are links there that you can copy in posts.

[MVNLA2]

@bankler — You didn’t really answer the question about why the chance of blue gifts has been reduced or why there are no more red gifts. As for Rovio’s greed and contempt for it’s customers, it’s inexcusable.
FYI — One of my problems with the blue gifts is that I rarely see them; so I have to play the entire level to find out if one was actually there.

[DJLarryt]

@bankler I think you should put code in that just pops the balloon if it’s floating around in a small area for too long. (I don’t have a screenshot of it) but I had more than one instance as the balloon floated up on the right-hand side of one of those giant vertical bamboo pipes where no bird can possibly hit him (or the giant fans blow him into a similar area). Pressing fast-forward locks the game into an eternal blur because the pig will never come down and nothing else will ever happen. Once I literally watched it spin for almost 4 minutes until I just killed the app.

I’ll look for another screenshot I have of a treasure box stuck between two floor platforms, virtually impossible to get unless all the debris above were cleared and the bomb might happen to detonate close enough to open it. Really sucky gameplay… you should map out where this stuff can appear.

[MVNLA2]

@bankler — OK, I did see 2 blue gifts in the first room of level 9 this morning. Way too few restarts to say anything about statistics. Oh yes, I actually did see them, so that’s an improvement.

[Maiasatara]

@mvnla2 – my day went more like this:

Level 9 – 50 restarts – 0 gifts.
Level 13 – 25 restarts – 0 gifts
Level 9 – 26 restarts – 0 gifts
Then on 27th – one blue.
Then 28-50 – 0 gifts.

All that IN A ROW and just to earn enough gems in a 24-hour period to get ONE extra turn in the Arena. One can’t earn enough for the 12gem turn unless a gift is sent. HATE. ROVIO.

[MVNLA2]

@maiasatara — Do you have any FB friends that can send you gifts? I’m willing to be your FB friend if you need more.
Ok, on level 9 (the only one for which I’m currently keeping statistics) you’re 1 gift for 100 restarts, correct? If the probability of getting a gift is 1/15 as @bankler said, you have less than a 1% chance of getting that result. However, with a probability of 1/15, or even 1/10, 50 restarts is not statistically significant.
Oh yes, I’ve been suckered into keeping statistics again, but I’m proceeding at a fairly slow pace.

[Rovio_Bankler]

@mvnla2 Regarding the red gifts, they were replaced with the premium chests (they show up in different levels and during other conditions though). The background is related to pacing the player progress, but the details behind this decision is not really my field, so I won’t go into further detail on that.

The blue gift spawn rate should have been left untouched, but looking at your reports, it honestly seems something has happened. We will look at this and see if we can get it right already in the next update. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Birdbrain]

I’ve saved an image on the Angrybirdsnest album, how do I share it on this forums?

[John Michael Jones]

Well, I can honestly say rovio has officially flown the coup with angry birds 2. They’ve gone & destroyed every TINY BIT OF FUN left to this game. Way too much time & $ needed to spend another second on getting ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in return in comparison. Take take take is rovio’s way & the only thing they’ll be taking from me from here on out is this last piece of advice, Stop being so damn greedy & give a little. I promise, you’re going to lose a lot more paying customers like myself…. cause as of today, I’M finished with angry birds. The arena has become comical to watch your robot opponent jump up close to a million points WITH NO CARDS LEFT BUT THEN SUDDENLY 4 OR 5 CARDS START APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE! IT’S BS!

[DJLarryt]

@john-michael-jones I was going to comment on this very same thing!!! It just started yesterday around mid-day (for me) and as a result I have not been able to even come close to winning an arena match. Rovio has obviously been ‘tweaking’ this crappy arena in favour of cheaters, to frustrate you into buying gems thinking you can get ahead. Imagine getting to the final round of the competition and looking like you are ahead by more than half the red bar, the opponent’s card is greyed out (which should indicate they have used all their cards) and when you play your last card suddenly 5, 6, 7 cards fly out of nowhere from your opponent and knock you down to LESS THAN HALF of your win bar!! yesterday I got beaten by a score of 6,750,000 and I “STRIKE”d EVERY BOARD EXCEPT ONE and finished with 3,120,000!!!! THIS IS BULL CRAP! YOU WANT PICTURES OF FINAL SCORE AS PROOF ROVIO? I HAVE THEM.

This last attempt at the arena I was in 2nd place and the third place opponent was at 49 stars. I checked again in 3 hours to play and suddenly I was at 13th position!!! On Saturday when the tournament started the top player was already at something like 150+ stars, now they are at 313!!!! How in the world can they get that high so fast without winning every single game by cheating!?!!

I can’t believe that something that started out as such insane fun has quickly turned to a patronizing, abusive money grab. ROVIO, I will never play another one of your games NOR games you advertise in your pop-up ads again.

[Birdbrain]

Has anyone else had the following happen, I have a feeling it’s a psychological trick Rovio might try:

I’ve aced every league first week of trying until Amethyst league. Since amethyst I’ve been duped every week by “Cheats” (Rovio I believe) to 4 th or 5th spot with some very dodgy things happening, seems like at the last minute scam to get people nearly there and then splash cash to get over the finish line.

On a separate not, I’ve just been 200ish points ahead of someone when they played there last card to go 450,000 ahead of me, then they get the extra bird for watching a video no doubt, but why do they get the extra bird when they’re leading? I only get the extra bird when I’m behind and usually by more than an extra bird will get me. The whole thing is fixed I’m sure.

[Anonymous]

Every time I open the arena I think of this

Judging by the comments above, I’d say the community agrees.

[MVNLA2]

@bankler — I guess I misread or misremembered what you said a few days ago. I think you said the probability for getting a blue gift in a level (previously completed or not) used to be 15%, and it should still be 15% if you had not previously completed the level. However, if you had previously completed the level, the probability was now 10%.
As far as I can tell, the probability was never the same for all levels, although maybe no one played enough of the multi-room levels.
I don’t believe the probability is 10% if you have played the level before. It might be closer to 5%. Also in over 60 tries, I have not gotten a gift in room 2 of level 9, and there used to be a fair number.
I know you have looked at the code, but have you also discussed it with the head programmer? I think there is something much more complicated going on, and the complications are making the probability much lower than you (and maybe the rest of the programmers) think.

[Aeshna]

Just been beaten in the arena!

Pretty close, I was 500,000 ahead then they had their last throw. They played the snow/ice spell card, this must have caused some damage (lol) then they were given not one, not two but three bird cards. Bam… 1,500,000 behind and offered the chance of wasting 30 seconds of my life for a ‘free’ card. Pointless.

Seriously…. Wtf is that about? Opponent plays the ice card then get 3 more cards.

[Maiasatara]

Wow! I thought I had seen it all. Then today happened. I was winning every game I started and then none of my birds were causing any damage to any structure. Lose two in a row. Then, six hours later, I get one pig surviving under a tiny bucket under a rock crevice that is unrrachablw by thr next SIX BIRDS. Lose two in a row. Then another six hours (I just can’t always play every three hours) I play again and again – in winning. Then my birds start activating themselves in the sling. Or releasing from the sling before I release them. REALLY ROVIO? You’re lucky the ABN forum is a family friendly location or you would be hearing what I really think of you. Think ducks and light switches in the down position.

[pilotxaq]

Hi guys, my first post. I’ve been watching the forums for a while, but i just officially joined and decided to add my 2 cents. This latest update really seems misguided, it has literally removed the power from hard-working, honest players, and given us a further disadvantage. I had bought the two red upgrades from months ago, first the Prince then the king. I leveled up again today and for all my work the chest gave me…wait for it…a blizzard. One blizzard. Not that any number of blizzards would make me feel better, since i try to complete levels and arena battles without spells. If all your time and hard work can’t earn you any feathers, how will you level up? And worse now red chests have been essentially removed. Plus the chests I save my gems to pay 80 for give me mostly blizzards and duckie spells also. What is the point?

[pilotxaq]

@furious That second part I have had happen too many times, being a 200-400 thousand ahead, and suddenly the greyed out opponent who’s refil meter is empty gets like 3 or 4 cards flashing and the score just running, and I lose by up to half million

[Birdbrain]

Watching a video for an extra bird only benefits those that aren’t good at the game. Now, when I get a healthy lead where I might get 8/9 stars, they flash up again and pull me back to 5/6 stars making it even harder to chase down the hackers that Rovio greatly encourage and benefit from.

[Sutekh137]

Guys, on the Arena thread @bankler has mentioned looking into why weird things happen with cards at the end of some Arena battles.

The way I see it, their final score is still their final score no matter how you slice it (because you are playing a live replay. Before, too many cards were fired up front causing a problem. Now more cards appear at the end than are displayed. *shrug* When I get beat I get beat. I don’t think people are really getting three extra cards after watching a movie, simply because that has never happened to me.

Unless I am really pressed for time I always take the extra card even if it wont’ help me win. Because at least it makes my most recent score a bit higher if someone draws a battle against me. Don’t forget that Rovio is recording every run through the Arena and uses your latest run to fight others. (How they decide who to match up against, I don’t know, but the rest of the process is not a mystery).

Thanks,
sutekh137

[Birdbrain]

Its took me 4 top 3 finishes to get to amethyst league, so I have 4 medals. As we know you have to finish top 3 to be promoted to amethyst level. So, how can people in my league be there with 2 medals? I’m currently losing to someone that is above me and they have less medals than me, but clearly I have the minimum medals for the league and have never dropped a league, I got straight to amethyst and now have had 4 or 5 weeks on the bounce getting hammered by rovio’s beloved hackers.

If this is a genuine proof of a hacker, then Rovio could wipe every player with less medals required for their respective league. Thoughts?

[James Peden]

I depends on what league you were in when the arena changed. I was in azure league when they changed the arena. I won 3 medals and amy now in diamond league. If someone was already in the diamond league when they made the switch they would not need to win top 3 ever. Just stay in the top 12 to not drop down

[MVNLA2]

@furious — When the arena started, the league you were in depended on your birds’ levels. You had to have all birds at level 6 to get into azure (or was it emerald league). I don’t think there were any medals. I have now dropped back to silver, but I know I was at least in Azure when the arena changed, and I have no medals.

[Birdbrain]

So those that have farmed to boost birds or have hacked level 8 birds don’t have to work as hard as the good honest early arena paying customers that start in vanilla. Well that all seems fair!!!!! ???

[Birdbrain]

Got a joke for you:

Rovio walk in to a bar, walk out without robbing anyone!

[DJLarryt]

And then this just happened. Seriously Rovio, can you be a little more subtle?

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