Rovio!! Nerf the DIFFICULTY settings

[Optimus_Pig]

L11 Lockdown and L11 Soundblaster both running “Beach” nodes on the bottom of the screen at Medium difficulty.

Getting totally slaughtered within 30 seconds of being deployed.

[Jasonred79]

Well, I’m getting “very hard” for my level 10 transformers, and for the energon ones, even “easy” stages turn into insta death if there are swarms of flying pigs.

Seriously Rovio, nerf the flying pigs. In fact, here’s something even more obvious. Take a look in your game of what attacks are UNAVOIDABLE. (Other than energon shield). If it is damage that the player CANNOT AVOID, reduce it! Severely!
It’s idiotic that a player can be using a very high level transformer and play the stage “perfectly” or “without making any mistakes”, and still be unable to beat the stage.
If I can’t beat a stage because my transformer is way underlevelled, fair enough, it’s my fault, I should go level him up.
If I can’t beat a stage because I’m clumsy, fair enough, I should practice and get more skilled.
When I can’t pass the stage simply cause Rovio didn’t playtest their product though… Grr….

[Hex]

@rumblebee and everyone else, It’s been (more than) a day and a half so i am reporting back as I said I would. After the bludgeon fished upgrading to level 11, the level still said “Very hard.” The difference was that I blew through it and only lost one heart. FWIW

[DawniJeann]

Not sure if related to the latest update, but…

1. I have had a few nodes I can’t call in my “buddy” & also can’t transform into a vehicle (both those in app “buttons” didn’t work at all, only in that one node – a 3rd replay of same was OK) both situations at the start of the node, so it wasn’t a matter of excess use or the use not being ready.

2. TF’s go from 1 or 2 life hearts within the first 3 to 5 seconds, but through out the event seem to GAIN life hearts back to 3 or 4 live hearts? (good thing or I would have died)

[Optimus_Pig]

@dawni-criswell

1. That’s a known bug, although it’s only ever happened to me only infrequently. I actually thought it had been fixed because no one’s mentioned it for quite some time.

2. Were you playing the Energon variant TFs? Because they actually gain half a heart of health for every Energon cube they absorb from destroying Energon structures. Or are you saying that they’re regaining health totally spontaneously?

[DawniJeann]

Thank you again @optimuspig . I set up to record a video with AirServer on #1 (can’t call in buddy & can’t transform), as it happened happened on the first & second attempt, but on the 3rd attempt, the event worked fine. And Yes, it has been Variant characters that gain health. I didn’t know that & will keep that in mind when it will come in handy ;-)

[Jasonred79]

Blargh, on the difficulty levels!!! Poor thunder cracker, it was supposed to be an easy mission, but he was totally incapable of killing ANY of the enemies, flying or grounded, but THEIR shots did half a heart each… Thunder cracker has truly abysmal damage output now…

[20Qmindreader]

— Played Energon Starscream (level 11) on a medium rated node in the topmost Pig City node with a level 12 buddy. Earned 2470 with the coin doubler

— Airachnid (level 1) on an easy level node, also in Pig City, with a level 6 buddy. Earned 2156 coins with the coin doubler

I think the level 10 is bug-infested theory stands.

[Optimus_Pig]

@20qmindreader

“I think the level 10 is bug-infested theory stands.”

This morning I finished off a “Wild West” node that originally had a L10 Energon Soundwave that was getting pounded into dust every time I attempted it, but this morning I’d upgraded him to L11 and he finished the node with full health and 8,000 coins. Nothing else about the node changed, but suddenly the TF was blasting stuff and shaking off hits at L11 that it couldn’t at L10.

I think it’s not so much that it’s buggy, as much as it’s Rovio didn’t scale the difficulty properly when they added L11 to L15.

[20Qmindreader]

“Rovio didn’t scale the difficulty properly when they added L11 to L15.” thx, @optimuspig

I think I’ll focus on upgrading TFs to level 11. On a side note, productivity at work up 90% :)

[Jasonred79]

Oh, I have a theory now. Cause, jazz was level 8, was getting slaughtered, leveled him to 9, suddenly all is hunky dory.

I think when the game updated, it forgot to carryover transformer upgrades, during combat. SO! after update, all transformers show that they’re level whatever, but in combat they’re level 1 noobs. And… When you upgrade someone, the game recalculates their new level correctly.

If my theory is correct, that makes life a lot easier for someone who had for instance mostly level 7s, cause one upgrade to each transformer should be enough, not necessary to pump them all the way to 11…

[jman]

Although I don’t want to use the term easy it seems that after having to start over from scratch the medium and hard nodes are not as easy as they were when I had done them before upgrade. On a medium node with any R5 or R6 TF it seems if you make one mistake your chances for completing the level are slim. And if you don’t make a mistake the shotgun pigs will kill you half the time. It also seems that the amount of rockets flying, walking mortar towers and swarms of flying pigs is more prevalent than I remember. Having 3 missile silos, 7 to 8 rockets in the air at a time and only 2 Energon cubes to be collected from the entire run seems quite drastic to me for so early in the game. Also the second set of flying shotgun pig swarms are a game ender.

On hard nodes you just hope it’s a good paying node so you can just keep playing it over and over again with out going negative on coins.

The only nodes I’ll play anymore are the newly unlocked TFs, med,easy and very easy nodes, any node with a grimlock, galvatron or energon TF (although unless it’s in pig city they can be difficult to pass anything medium and above for energon).

[Optimus_Pig]

@jasonred79

“I think when the game updated, it forgot to carryover transformer upgrades, during combat. SO! after update, all transformers show that they’re level whatever, but in combat they’re level 1 noobs. And… When you upgrade someone, the game recalculates their new level correctly.”

I think you may be onto something.

I just completed an “Easy” Forest node with a Bludegon at L10 (same level as when I updated the game) and he barely made it through. What’s more, the L3 Jazz buddy was doing more damage to pigs than Bludgeon was!

[DawniJeann]

I’m having a HORRID time with resorting to Skywarping a lot of events (too many in my opinion, which I rarely had to do before the update), many times having to wait until Midnight to get 3 more. 3rd attempt on an “easy” with Level 7 Energon Galvatron & I just can’t get through it, even with a Level 10 Buddy for 15 seconds O.o Will try upgrading same character next without Skywarping the event to see if that works.

I could totally understand 2 or 3 attempts on a hard or very hard event, but an easy??? (Rank 193)

Thinking there must be a way for Rovio techs to run an algorithm to see what the increase rate of using Skywarp is since the upgrade?

4 characters at Level 8 with 1 more in the oven, all the rest are Level 7 :-( (plugging away upgrades as fast as I can) Some events/nodes are fine but so many are just brutal to get through.

Spending the 10 gems/crystals for the Dome events just isn’t worth it anymore to get so little in return.

The overall “entertainment” value for me seems to be waning, but I haven’t given up yet.

[20Qmindreader]

@dawni-criswell Like you, I haven’t put up the 10 gems for golden domes, haven’t for months, as I could often score +10,000 not using the dome. I haven’t been bothering to play much since the update, as my TFs were at level 10, and always experience insta-death.

On the other hand, my Arcee and Airachnid, who are “new”, both at level 4, are only on the board as very easy or easy, so far, cruise through. They seem to be popping up in a new node as soon as they complete a node. I’ll keep playing them until they start experiencing insta-death. Then I will upgrade them to the next level. Any TFs I have at level 11 are fine, too (So far they’ve only been taxed with medium nodes). I’m not “playing” much; I run missions, collect coin and wait the 1 day and X hrs to upgrade my TFs, one by one, to level 11.

Rovio is earning very little ad revenue from me these days, as I rarely watch an ad to double coins, etc.

[jman]

@optimuspig

I’ve noticed the same thing with the buddys. For instance a L1 Optimus can shoot down missiles right away. If I’m using my L6 Optimus he cant hit it till it’s real close. All the buddys seem to have more power per shot and faster reload time as well for their level.

@jasonred79

Not sure about your theory, it seems that the scale of how hard a node is based on rank may be a problem.
For instance I’m R103 but before update I’d be R91. I’ve got Arcee and Aracinid both at L6 thus making my progress harder maybe. I did have 4 nodes that were unplayable going from L5 to L6. Once that TF was upgraded I had no problem completing the run. I’m like halfway through upgrading to L6 and now have 2 nodes that are unplayable that are L6 Tfs.

So my theory is hardness of the game is based upon rank. You all unlocked Arcee and Aracinid and went up several ranks and now it’s making the game harder. My guess is Rovio didnt tone down the hardness by 30 levels when they introduced the 2 new TFs.

Just a thought I may be way off here.

[DawniJeann]

R = Rank?

[Optimus_Pig]

I used to do domes and eggbot intercepts diligently, but I’ve given up – there’s just too much uncertainty at present to risk wasting gems.

Also can’t be bothered to use Skywarp attacks anymore. I was for the first week and a bit, but again there’s no guarantee that it’ll result in a more playable node. And since I’m earning way more coins just doing missions than from running nodes, that’s another reason not to bother with blowing them up using Skywarp.

[Optimus_Pig]

@dawni-criswell yes R = rank

[DawniJeann]

Thank you again @optimuspig. Yes, I am tiring of same also, spending the gems for too much uncertainty. I have Jenga unlocked also & can spend a monotonous hour to get 100,000 coins that way for upgrades & some piggies for mission time reduction.

My rank is 193 which might explain so many impossible easy, medium & hard levels (funny, very hard are no problem), upgrading all to one level, then move on to upgrade all to next level – 5 of 27 @ Level 8. Thinking maybe this was not the best strategy, as the brutality of the difficulty of the levels is across the board.

[Optimus_Pig]

L11 Ultimate Optimus Prime

Gold Dome

Beach node (right at the bottom of the map, one of the earliest ones we uncover in te game).

Only two energon structures during the run.

Massed groupings of walking mortar towers, as many as 3-4 at a time.

You do the math.

Oh, and did I mention that this was rated as “Very Easy”?

Sigh, ten gems down the drain.

[MysticBurn]

A shame, that its takes them always a long time to fix things. I think i’m quiting this game earlier then i thought. Freed all TF’s, so nothing happens on the map anymore.
Got them to lvl 7 some lvl 8, did a quick calculation (amount of coins needed and upgrade time expected) to get them just to lvl 9. So not talking about lvl 10 or higher yet. At the moment, just easy lvl nodes i can finish. One word Booooorrrrrinnnngggg. The 8000/12000 coins i get from missions sometimes isn’t really speeding things up either.
But that is the problem with all their games isn’t it, in beginning you make progress and then just get to a point it becomes endless repeating the same over and over again everyday.

[Optimus_Pig]

Yup. I’m really close to Rank 297 (27 x L11). I think I’m going to bail once I hit that point. It’s just not fun anymore, especially with all the bugs. Also, the recent changes to gameplay – it’s not much fun when all six of your active nodes are blocked by TFs that are currently on missions.

[Mad Kat]

Before this upgrade was released, I was growing bored with the repetitiveness, but I was sure an upgrade would bring new features and make the game addictive again. I played everyday, to achieve completion by getting all the bots to level 10. I was so confident the ABT developers would deliver something exciting soon.

The upgrade was released just after I hit rank 250 and I was delighted…..until I installed. Utter disappointment. Two things sucked all the joy out of the game:
1. Insta-utterly-unreasonable death of level 10 bots…level 10!… Rovio had to be kidding…did they realise what a trudge it took to get to rank 250?
2. What was even worse was that they changed the ceiling level to 15. 15! More endless waits to upgrade, added to the frustration of bots dying unreasonably while playing the same old repetitive nodes endlessly.

The missions were interesting at first. The descriptions were cute. But soon, they seemed like a game for a 7 year old. No skill needed. Select mission. Match symbol of mission to bots. Decide whether to surrender pigs. Hit go.

I lost interest and stopped playing. Until I randomly picked up the game again and discovered upgrading resolved insta-death. Now that I play off and on, I’ve discovered something that I like. The game had turned repetitive in part, because it had become too easy. When all bots were level 8 and up, pre-upgrade, they barely ever died. Challenge is necessary to keep things fun. Now, I can accept the new level 15. I no longer consider that the goal is to get all the bots to peak level. I upgrade so that I can complete hard events. When I find a node that is rated hard/very hard but a level 10 bot can still complete it provided I use a degree of planning and manoeuvring, I feel engaged.

I am still not enthralled, but I haven’t totally bailed either.

The game needs some new areas soon.

Rovio should also seriously consider allowing multiple simultaneous upgrades. It would make the game far more interesting if I had the leeway to find ways to earn enough coins and materials to upgrade all bots who are facing certain death on the screen, simultaneously. Right now, I am forced to play less because some nodes are impossible to clear. Skywarp makes no sense, because if I clear a node I still have a high chance of a new unplayable event. If I could simul-upgrade bots to make the nodes complete-able, I would have more to do in the game. I’d rather turn in sky-warp gems as the cost for a simultaneous upgrade than to clear an event.

[jman]

Horribly disappointed.

Upgraded Energon Starscream last night from L6 to L7 so i could hopefully clear that stuck node. WRONG!

After 10 hours, 4 hour node just started when I opened the App this morning.

Three other nodes are “hard”,too low a coin count before dying to even warrant playing over and over.

L7 Galvatron barely made it through a medium node with less than a heart left and only a little over 600 coins earned.

L7 Galvatron gold dome, nearly full health and over 10,000 coins when game crashed right at the end. No coins, 10 gems thrown away. Second time in a row that has happened, before this they were too hard to even complete so this is the 7th or 8th gold dome in a row Iv’e wasted gems on.

There’s currently 5 nodes showing, 4 are full health but unplayable, the other is the 4 hour one and the 6th node won’t appear until that one is done.

So until they “nerf” the difficulty I see no point in playing anymore as it won’t let me for the most part.

The only good thing that happened is that I unlocked Ultimate Bumblebee, but it’ll be over 3 hours before the next node appears and it may not even be him.