[acwb16]

@droversdog Restarting my phone and going through the competition portal (not the pop up) seem to have worked so far. I don’t think I’ve tried to go through the pop up yet.

Now watch the dumb thing crash no matter what I do lol.

[acwb16]

Game lets me see the competition, but it’s a crash-filled mess. I can play regular nodes – it’s just the competitions that are worthless.

[acwb16]

I can see the new event, but it’s still crashing after the Autobird symbol on the loading screen. I’ve got an Android device.

[acwb16]

I’m on Android, and it’s still crashing anytime I try to play a competition run. Loading screen freezes on the Autobird and then the app shuts down.

[acwb16]

My game is still crashing if you try to play the event. Android device.

[acwb16]

I’m playing on an Android device and the game is still broken. Go to the challenge, select a bot, an energonicon, hit go and… right back to my home screen. The dumb thing crashes.

What makes game developers think time-sensitive events are good times to push hard updates out? Had this happen in another game I play too.

[acwb16]

@paul13 I feel like I’ve been in that boat for the last several events lol! It stinks. At least with these we can score enough without relying on leaderboard position to get something.
At some point it has to add up, doesn’t it? Usually right about the time Rovio futzes something else and screws our chances lol

[acwb16]

I think an event like this helps newer players and players who are ‘in-between’ being competitive in leaderboards actually get something for their time. Mixing in some events like this COULD help Rovio keep people interested. As it stands, not many have a chance at getting the new bots from leaderboard events. Even after you factor in spending (and spending a dumb amount) the leaderboard limits the number of people who have a realistic chance at getting the bot. Or anything, really (except those oh-so-useful coins! /sarcasm)
Oh, but we can make up the difference with gems! How many get close enough to make this a reasonable option? I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not shelling out 400+ for a character or accessories. Not with how they’ve ‘tinkered’ with gem drops.
Oh, but we can buy the character bundle! At $20 a pop? And what’s it translate to in other places – I think someone said the bundle in Euros or Pounds equaled about $35 bucks!!!

Events like this lets some of us (like me) stock up on sparks or accessories to make us more competitive in the leaderboards. It’s a long strategy, but it keeps us invested in this game. Who knows, we might get close enough to make it worth it to spend some gems and thus throw a few $$$ at a bundle or two. Just a thought, Rovio.

[acwb16]

@soundwave You’ve got it. They keep squeezing and can’t figure out why they aren’t getting more revenue. Would any of the developers play the game as it is now?

I guess they figure if they can get 25% of players to cough up for a bundle once they’ve made it – no need to improve or care if 1/2 those players quit in 6 months because the game is dysfunctional.

[acwb16]

With the flying pigs nerfed Soundwave is finally a decent option, and @andrewinirela is right – he just wreaks destruction in a short amount of time. He’s never been that great against Unicron or Boss Pig for me, but I suspect a few levels would fix that.

If I keep playing this dumb game. Don’t know what Rovio is playing with the gems.

[acwb16]

It’s finally over…

The Good:
The offered bundle was nicely priced. I already had Ratchet so it was a $5-6 pack of 150 or so gems, 500 spark, and I don’t remember what else. Oops. But it was nice. I thought about buying it, so that tells you something.
THE FLYING PIGS ARE FINALLY NERFED! Ding dong, the pigs are dead, which old pigs? The flying pigs! Ding dong, the flying pigs are DEAD!

The ‘Meh’
I’m not impressed with this spark stuff.

The Bad
Was Wheeljack supposed to show up? I never saw him.
These competitions keep reminding me I hate these new leaderboards. And I keep wondering about the top scorers. Either they are spending a LOT of gems, got a much better boss run spawn rate than I EVER do, or something’s fishy.
No bonus squads? All bonuses are now build your own? Getting really sick of being soaked for cash. Without this spark nonsense, I’d have jumped on that $5-6 bundle!

This game is starting to feel like a forced march and like trying to deal with a Mafia – want new stuff? F@ck you, pay us. Straight up or in suspicious competitions. Oh look, your bots just got nerfed! Want them to be useful again? F@ck you, pay us.

I play, well, have been playing, this game because it was a FUN Transformers-themed time killer. Now? I’m looking elsewhere for both my Transformers and time-killers. And it’s a shame, because this game was, is, and still can be quite enjoyable. (I freaking loved the Halloween event! I know I keep saying it, but it’s true!)

I really think if you stopped trying to extract $20 from a small chunk of us each competition you’d find at least 4x as many of us would get the cheaper bundles. And we’d like this game so much more.

[acwb16]

If E. Grimlock does get nerfed, it may well be the last time I play a competition. Now we have to get sparks to make our own bonuses? Who was complaining that an extra level of difficulty needed to be added to the competitions?

What the heck Rovio? I’m started to dread opening this app.

[acwb16]

Hooray! Even if all that happens is the flying pigs get fixed it’s an improvement! I want to be able to use E. Soundwave again, so I hope they do get him and Galvatron fixed as well!

[acwb16]

@beauregard I’ve had this happen. I just shut my phone off and let the stupid thing cool down. Over 300Mb in available space and it’s still cranky. Sheesh.

[acwb16]

@armourbender I can’t help much as I didn’t pay much attention to my bundle. It was $20 for Acid Storm, an accessory, and some gems. I managed to get Acid Storm with tokens even after a couple days of REALLY low scores on the leaderboard. Spent more gems than I want to getting there, but I did.
I’ve only had one event I did pay attention to the bundle because either I need the new character or (only happened once) I had everything Rovio was offering. That event I had a bundle for $5-6 that was tokens, gems, and one of the nicer accessories.

I’ve been playing for almost 4 years (lost 2 of those reinstalling because of CNY event) so I’ll consider a $5 bundle once in a great while. But $20 for a character? I have to pass, every time. Especially with what @rlcoone says – with the glitches and no new areas for 3 years now, the nerfings, and the miserable grind these competitions are becoming, this doesn’t feel like a game worth $20.

In 4 years, Rovio’s gotten $5 out of me (I really loved the Halloween event!). Now if the bundles were $5 or so for the new bot they’d probably be able to get $20 a year out of me. But please guys, give us some new areas at least!

[acwb16]

Just barely managed to get Acid Storm. This event was a long slog and cost more gems than I ever want to spend again! Still cheaper than if I’d had to make up the token difference though.

Not looking forward to the Dead End event at all. Rovio, could we get some new regions and new bots by spending pigs? You could still give a competition option for the bot – players who’ve been here a while wouldn’t bother with it except to grab some accessories. Newer players would have a good chance through the leaderboards at a bot that would otherwise be far off for them. Everyone wins!

[acwb16]

Yeah, I always shoot those! Or at least, I’m always trying (they’re easy points!). I think balloon or flying pigs must have gotten in the way or something. It’s the first time I’ve had this glitch in quite a while. I think a automatically run-ending feature isn’t much of one. Thanks @sam-spargo and @rowdypup – I’ll pay more attention to those and make certain I’m hitting them!

[acwb16]

Could you fix the glitched bridges in Pig City? They don’t activate and cost you a node or worse, a competition run.

[acwb16]

If they want to make the game more playable for new players, why the #$%@# did they keep Mortar Tower Day? Especially without energonicons?

And fix the stupid bridge glitch in Pig City. Made the difference between 3rd place and 5th for me.

[acwb16]

I don’t have Acid Storm or the accessories. I’m not sure I’ll get enough tokens for Acid Storm anyway, but for future reference how do you guys prioritize token purchases? New characters first or grab accessories and focus on leveling up what you’ve got?

[acwb16]

Buy a recharge, get Boss F@#$@$% Pig right off. And I’m at 7th, started 5th went down to 10th in the first round. How are these cohorts determined?!

[acwb16]

That makes me feel a little better about this next run @elpapm ! I usually get a couple of recharges, but this time I did miss a couple of full charges for sleep and work and I had at least 4 phenomenally bad runs – 3(!) Boss Pig and 1 Unicron – come out of the recharges I got this time. Here’s hoping tonight goes better!

[acwb16]

What was your cohort like @elpapam ? I started 4 hours late and the top had 16000+! I barely made 10th with 8000-ish! And that was after two recharges. Wasn’t any way more would have made a difference so I didn’t bother.

[acwb16]

I said limited groups were a good thing to mix up competition winners, but I just meant as the bots with bonuses!
Currently my active seekers only have a 10% bonus each. Has anyone else had a different number? I started late (just and hour ago because I forgot there was an event) and first run had me at 5th. I finish up and I’m at 16th! So I started roughly 4 hours after the event started and the boards are this freakin’ competitive? I did have one run with Boss Pig (who the seekers are USELESS against).
At this rate I’ve gotten my last new bot. :(

[acwb16]

I love using E. Grimlock for just those reasons, Garfield! I have been able to destroy Unicron, but it’s kind of iffy – E. Grim is fairly fast (for a Grimlock) so it really depends on the setting. I do have one of the Chinese New Year dragon hats for mine, so he’s got a bit of a boost.
Sometimes it’s not worth taking him though – depends on what the day’s target is, and how often the bosses are showing up. 2 bot events I’ll often take him along just in case, though.