AB Star Wars 2 : Carbonite

[cbya]

If it is helpful:

I have infinite / permanent Yoda and Anakin Ep 3
interestingly still got more Yodas but no more Anakin 3’s in carbonite melts

After initially getting at most 3 carbonite Hans never got one again! Was it coincidental that it was the only character I had not finished / gotten reward level for? I suppose it is somewhat ironic that a carbonite melt would give you a carbonite Han Solo…

some numbers/ratios:

100+: jango fett, dooku, grievous, biker scout, stormtrooper, shadowtrooper (highest with 297!), tie pilot, boba fett, shocktrooper, jabba, jar jar, podracer anakin, panaka, anakin padwan, jedi youngling, mace, chewie, han, jedi luke, lando, wicket, kit fisto.

50-100: qui gonn, obi-wan, yoda, R2D2, both C3POs, pilot luke, battle droid, darth maul, droideka, zam wesel

<50: darth sidious, holo sidious, red battle droid, anakin 3 (maybe cuz I already had infinite/permanent), darth vader, royal guard, tusken raider, padme, leia, endor luke, carbonite han

[Gelfling]

@luvtub – Oops, strayed into the round of the erudite. Sorry, no disrespect intended. When I say things it’s common for it to mean 2 or more things. Actually, since I brought up the idea of reinforcement schedules and someone actually read that post, I figured I should explain what I meant. I tried to give a link to Wikipedia, but got nowhere with that, so I had to explain more than I would’ve liked.

[luvtub]

@gelfling

LOL, I see where you were coming from now. It’s all good; I definitely read and appreciate your posts!

[Gelfling]

@luvtub – peace is good. somewhat encouraged and continuing totally off topic, I will post somewhat more. While I was swimming out on the Internet, looking at reinforcement schedules, I found these two cool videos. They use pigeons because they are cheep.

In under 1 minute, one pigeon stomps out mankind’s hubric claim, to be “the only animal that create tools”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lvbG6DXh8&lt

Over 30 pigeons were awarded medals of valor by the U.S. military. Their successful message delivery rate of 95% during WWI (that includes those eaten by hawks, etc.) was better than that of radio transmissions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4GZgQWoVvM&lt

Although the calm looking pigeons in these films do not look perturbed, you should see their faces after they learned their eventual fate (pigeon pie). Then they became Angry Birds.

{Okay they were not made into pie. But after pigeons are used in experiments they are killed.}

[MVNLA2]

@cbya — How on earth did you get so many characters? I have spent no real money on telepods or coins. I don’t have any permanent characters. I do have all the rewards chapters unlocked, and did spend coins on characters I wasn’t getting in melts. I have done at least 2 melts per day since they were available, and did the “watch ad for melt now” every time it was available.
I also used a couple, but only a couple of character swaps to get coins.
Right now I have 187 bird characters and 282 pork characters.

[luvtub]

@gelfling – Impressive; pigeons are hardly “rats of the sky”, as some claim. Brilliant little creatures. Have you seen this BBC video about the problem-solving crow? It is no less off-topic (although I suppose a crow, like Bomb bird, is the color of carbonite).

@cbya – Like @mvnla2 I’m curious as to how you got so many characters. My guess is that you bought them, as there is no way (other than fooling the SW2 app by repeatedly changing the time setting in your device) that you could have had so many unmelts.

[Gelfling]

@luvtub – Wow. As he said in the film, “That was remarkable.”

This crow video showed much more complex, difficult puzzles. I’ve been thinking about crows since I saw the pigeon video. I have been read and am now watching the “Game of Thrones” series, and they use crows as homing pigeons (which humans have done for centuries). Some people claim that crows and ravens as the smartest birds.

For myself, this is another example of how stupid humans are. I have seen abstract reasoning in my dog. How could we have known about animal behavior for centuries and still considered ourselves so far above them? I believe that we don’t want to see the truth. Otherwise we might not eat them, for one thing. The American Indians knew better about such things.

Thanks for the cool video.

[luvtub]

@gelfling Cheers. And I agree, the idea that we humans are alone in our ability to think abstractly is misinformation at best and delusion/denial at worst. I quit eating animals years ago for this and a host of other reasons.

[Gelfling]

@luvtub – A kindred spirit! I call it specism (akin to racism).

It is always fun for me to ask the question, How will people look at ___ in two hundred years? Since I taught psychology (and it’s such a young field) it was always a fun question to bring up. There’s a lot of room for imagination because we have are still relatively clueless about human behavior (particularly the causes). On a wider scale, when I ask myself how people will look us in 200 years, I think people will judge us most harshly about our selfish and negligent stewardship of the planet.  But in 2000 years I hope that our descendents will look at us  judging other beings as less than ourselves, and wonder why we did not see that is one step away from abuse and genocide. By then, after we have run through the resources for the planet, it is likely that they will have found tasty alternatives.

I am curious. Animals are not supposed to be able to think abstractly. When you see “abstract thinking” what do you notice? The most recent example for me is the concept of a window. When I say window, in the car or in the house, my dog knows what that means.

Back to a more important topic– yesterday I actually had two Carbonite melts yielding useful characters. Not enough characters, but useful ones. Woo hoo! At this rate I’ll finish this game in three years.

[MVNLA2]

I got a “Watch add for immediate melt” just now!! Whoot! Not sure why. Only got one, and it wasn’t a useful character, but…

[DaBoid]

I just got TWO “watch ad for immediate melt” opportunities, right in a row!!! Thus I collected three characters in about 5 minutes.

One of them landed Mace Windu, that weasely character that screwed up on my last fling, leaving me 93% of the way. I now have him completed, have collected the six coins in his reward level and collected the last collectible item.

[luvtub]

@gelfling – “Specism”…I like that.

To answer your question, I suppose I can’t think of any foolproof examples offhand, simply because I can’t directly read a mind other than my own. But to assume that we, as a species, are alone in abstraction based on the fact that we have been able to exploit our planet more thoroughly than others strikes me as presumptuous. That aside, it would be very hard for me to base the behavior of the crow in the video above, or even that of your dog in the window example you gave, as products of concrete thinking. In both instances, learned behavior appears to have been transferred from one context to another, in other words abstracted.

Like you, I believe future generations will come to look at ours shamefully, both for our short-sighted use of earth’s natural resources and for our anthropocentricity; that will be, if there are that many future generations.

O.K. Angry birds. Looks like the X-Men ads are back at 1-2 per melting cycle on both my iPad and iPhone. Sweet. I’ve gotten 21/23 Bird side characters and 19/21 Pork side from melts so far. Because I haven’t been playing much on the phone, I’m going to try to see if I can eventually unlock all of the bonus levels without using coins at all. Something to do…

[Gelfling]

@luvtub – You are right, we can’t read someone’s mind, but we can.see their behavior. That is why psychology dubs itself the science of human behavior rather than what we’re really interested in.

When I look at my dog and wonder if there is some abstract thinking going on, I can’t see what he’s thinking but I can look at his behavior. What I know is that when I say “window” he appears to know in different contexts that means that the window has been opened and that he could stick his head out. The other abstraction that I’ve been watching is time, in trying to help him with separation anxiety. When I have to leave him I use different words to indicate how long I’ll be. So when I say “quick, quick,” what I am trying to say is that I will be in visual range (so that he can see me while I’m away), and will be back within 2 to 3 minutes. When I say “soon” he knows I’m going out of visual range and will be gone 5 To 15 minutes. The behavior I see is when he hears “quick quick” he stays calm (although watching me every minute) but if say”soon” he barks, appears anxious, and sometimes will crawl out of the car through a gap in the windows

I too have been doing Carbonite melts and watching an ad showing this new avengers movie, 3 times now. As a result I now have 17 shock troopers. Woo woo! I Only had 2 or 3 to start with. Unfortunately that level is way behind me.

[Gelfling]

@daboid – That is great. I am happy for you, and a little envious. My melts, not so good.

Are you close to being done? I have five levels left. I’ve cleaned out the coins and three starred everything else.

[Gelfling]

Hi @all

I am in the process of wrapping up this game. After spending what is left of my coins (on hans carbonite and royal guard) I will have only three levels incomplete. My understanding is that it would take diligent melting disappointment for weeks to get the requisite characters to win from Carbonite melts. Is that true, or am I missing something ?

244 coins
= tusken raider (1)
= hologram sidious (5)
= boba fett (0)

[MVNLA2]

@Gelfling — I have also been “enjoying” seeing the same X-Men ad twice every 8 hrs. However, I just got 3 Tusken raiders!
I believe I also have gotten 5 Hologram Darth Sidious and at least 1 Boba Fett. So you may get lucky.
You will need at least 5 hologram Dargh Sidious to open his chapter. I don’t think you have enough coins to buy any of them.
Good Luck!

[DaBoid]

@gelfling

After making some poor decisions early on (wasting Mace Windu to collect coins grrrr), I have been very careful in my use of precious characters and coins.

I have six rewards levels left to open:

Leia
Carbonite Hans Solo
Lando

Boba Fett
Stormtrooper
Tusken Raider

All other levels are three-starred.

Since April 20, I have kept track of every carbonite melt character. The characters that appear in regular game play appear again and again. I have, eg, 16 Anakin Ep II.

A few of the non-regular-play characters have appeared in carbonite melts, though not nearly as often as the others. Jabba has appeared twice, and only one character given. Luckily, when I got the second one I was able to (just barely) clear his reward level points minimum. (Remember, I started keeping track on April 20. The coins and carbonite melt appeared in the update in early April.)

Of the six I listed above, only Lando has appeared in a carbonite melt and that was only once. The other five have never appeared, since I started keeping track.

Because I stopped wasting coins on characters willy-nilly and realized that the whole purpose of this game is to get players to use real money to buy more coins and thus more characters, I have been exceedingly careful with my coins. I have watched the sales and have picked up some characters “cheap”. I now have 4728 coins and need only 2570 to buy the remaining six I lack to finish the game. I could do that, but I won’t.

Why not? Because there is another level “coming soon” with unknown numbers of game-play characters, unknown coins and unknown new characters. Having gotten burned before by spending without careful thought, I am not going to spend again until I know what is in this next level and/or levels after that.

Part of my own game challenge is to complete the game without spending any more real money.

Hoping that Rovio is reading this message thread, I will offer some observations.

I am not happy with the idea that after having spent real money to buy a game, a game I do in fact enjoy, I am put in the position of spending more real money to finish the game. If I get to the point where my coins are spent, and carbonite melts are discontinued or yielding nothing but low-value characters, then I will abandon the game and might, perhaps, abandon Angry Birds entirely. There are lots of other games out there and if I feel I’m being jerked around by Rovio, then I might just vote with my feet and take my business elsewhere.

One of the reasons I like Angry Birds is that the entire puzzle is visible at once. It’s like Sudoku, crossword puzzles or Freecell. I can see the entire problem at once. Unlike Bad Piggies, I don’t have to memorize twists and turns off screen. I tried Bad Piggies, but abandoned the game in Level 1-7. I had a look at the Sandbox levels, and said “forget this”. Similarly, I am pretty much unwilling to try Angry Birds Go. Like Bad Piggies, I don’t get the impression that in AB Go I can see the entire puzzle at once. I think the characters are cute, but I am not willing to play a game with cute characters when the basic game is not that fun. The Reds Mighty Feathers variation got to be a real drag, and I abandoned it when after much trial, I was unable to complete Level 15. It required a bunch of “perfect shots” and was ridiculously difficult. It was no longer fun and it’s out of my life forever.

If Rovio developers are reading this message, I urge them to throw more of the scarce characters into the carbonite melt so people like me who have already bought the game with real money can finish the game without having to spend more real money. I am tired of seeing yet another Jedi Youngling or R2D2 when I have never seen Leia or Boba Fett.

Another suggestion to revive interest is to sell characters in bundles of one or two rather than a minimum bundle of 10. I am unwilling to spend coins on ten characters when I only need one or two to break through the reward level minimums. The “sales” bundles are interesting when I can buy, for example, only 5 of a needed character for less than half the price of the usual bundle of 10.

[Gelfling]

@mvnla – Thanks! Good advice.

I do have 5 Darth Sidious, so I will take a look at the collective wisdom to try and break open that level. Yeah, I am broke. I hoarded coins, but had to break the piggy bank to finish up.

So what game are you playing now?

[Gelfling]

@daboid – Wow that was like one of my posts.

It sounds like we are neck and neck finishing this, except that you squirreled away a lot more coins than I did. I decided a few weeks ago that I would get as far as I could without spending real money, then quit.

I don’t know how to start a forum, but I think a “Dear Rovio” thread would be helpful and cool. who cares whether or not they read it or not. Certainly there would be grousing, but if somebody is funny or clever or observant it would be worth listening to. And it seems that Star Wars 2 maybe be a particular topic of interest. Or have they introduced paying real money for fake money in other games?

Because you included your dear RovioI I will attach my letter in a separate post. I’ve been writing it for several days, consulting etiquette guides on the net .

[Gelfling]

Dear @Rovio,

Thank you very much for the 10 shock troopers that I received in my Carbonite melt. You are right, I am assembling quite a collection. Your gift will fit right in with the 7 other shock troopers you gave me earlier this week. Thank you for being so considerate.

Every day I melt the Carbonite that you are so generous to provide, and find characters that I already have. You know what I need to finish the game, but you always creatively find something else to share with me instead. It tells me how much you value our relationship — you are stretching it out as long as possible. You care!

Yours sincerely,

Gelfling

[DaBoid]

It is a foolish company that does not listen to feedback from customers. Rovio is well aware this site exists and should check in to see what people are saying.

If they don’t, it’s their loss.

I have mentioned before that it is a major irritation to me that only 914 coins have been found in the game when they touted 1000. I still see advertisements for 1000 coins, even after Rovio has been informed there are fewer.

Someone screwed up. They need to fix it.

[Gelfling]

I am done. 3 remaining levels, oh well, but all other levels decoined and ***. Used the last of my coin doing 80 coin melts, just to see. But, as expected, totally useless characters, all on the bird side, which I have finished.

Dear, dear Rovio. I have yet to pay you a cent. In this game I came remarkably close, because everyone was talking about how they don’t mind paying for a game they enjoy. for me that point just doesn’t hold up when you’re charging real $$ for fake coins. == On a moral note. I do not have children, just a niece and nephews. But it angers me that you make the transition from fantasy and game to actual money so easy. Children like this game too, and will pressure their parents to buy coins because it seems so easy and fun. ==

So I am out of here for now, until we get that “coming soon.”Good luck everybody! Fly straight!

[DaBoid]

@gelfling

Just to be clear: You did pay real money for the original price for the game. You are unwilling to pay additional money to complete the game.

Is that correct?

[MVNLA2]

@gelfling @daboid — I have been playing IceBreaker recently. Just got to the end, but have one side level not completed, and lots of levels below par and coins uncollected.
I must say that I’ve gotten more scarce characters since I opened all the rewards levels.

@Daboid — I think you have enough coins, but then I only have 88 left after completing all. So I could really be in trouble for the next episodes.

@gelfling — If you go to

General Discussions Forum

there is a button near the top that says “create a new forum”
Rovio has introduce IAPs (in app purchases) in most, if not all of its games. I consider it an additional challenge to complete everything, hopefully above average.

@gelfling — I like your “Dear Rovio” letter, but I think it is far too subtle for Rovio. Just hit them over the head with a ton of bricks; they might take notice.

[Gelfling]

@daboid – no, I have never paid Rovio 1 cent, ever, for any of the games that I have played. Period, end stop. Once I figured out how to play the free games without advertising I didn’t look back. All you have to do is disconnect from the Internet. They have gotten more clever about it. Advertising sneaks in because you have to access the Internet to melt Carbonite. Like I said, mostly listening to you, I thought about paying them that big fat 99 cents at the end of Star Wars 2 for entertainment rendered. But when I realized this bait and switch they were doing to children and their parents and decided not to fork up.
That should probably be placed in context, I had to go on social security disability, which pays me nothing, basically. As an ex software engineer I just figure out how to do everything for free, and my conscience is unruffled.

@mvnla – Thank you, I’ll take a look at that game. I made a decision to stop and not look back – so no Carbonite melts etc. There is a “coming soon,” but I don’t trust them at this point. I will look at it, but who wants to play a game where somebody else gets to make the rules — and then changes them? We might need more data – an Excel spreadsheets possibility here – but I do believe that they give us characters from Carbonite melts based on what we already have.

Here is hoping that everyone has as gorgeous weather as we have here, for a great weekend.