[Dopey]

@clovos Thanks for the explanation, I think that fully clarifies how the system works. The new system is still a horribly bad idea, but you’ve done a good job explaining it to us.

[Dopey]

At least one of these have been discussed in this forum. If the grind of playing the Arena isn’t tedious enough for you, there’s a trick to choose opponents that will all lose by more than 5 stars, every time. I really gave the Arena a good try during the latest tournament, and got silver in a gold tournament without spending any money, and not really trying hard to beat the guy who finished first. The exploit makes the experience very disinteresting.

I thought I’d still play the single player levels, until I realized that finishing with three stars is inevitable now, if you finish at all. The point in staying with single player was to continue with the three star streak stretching to level 1, but there’s no sense of accomplishment in that anymore either. With one stroke the devs managed to kill both the game modes in AB2. I liked both modes as they were, but now I like neither.

So I’m gone from AB2 now, for good. I’ve tried to remain a fan of Rovio games, but unfortunately the company seems hell bent on turning originally fun games not fun at all in pursuit of more in-app purchase revenue. This just seems really silly to me, because how many people will really play a not fun game even for free? It happened with AB seasons (paid version) AB friends and now AB2. I’m not opposed to in-app purchases in a game, but I’m quite certain success in that model comes from offering more fun in exchange for money in an already fun experience.

[Dopey]

@clovos
I appreciate your reply.

I think the new battle system would make sense, if you faced the same room as the opponent, and the you could keep track of how many points your opponent got, and how many cards (and which ones) they used to clear the room before advancing to the next one. That would make it interesting. Even more interesting would be too see your opponent play, even if was just a recording.

The previous arena was like a sport, like long jump, admittedly with a little bit drunken record keeper. You got a few tries to see how long you could jump compared to the others, who were also long jumping on the same stadium. I usually tried twice a day, in the morning making coffee and in the evening before going to bed. You’re right that a battle would be more engaging, but I don’t see how the new system is a battle in any sense of the word? The opponent’s playing a different set of rooms, the score counting adjustments make any comparison meaningless before they’re finished, and your opponent has no idea they’re “battling” you.

I realize it’s your game and hence yours to modify any way you see fit. I don’t think the numbers long term will be better with the new system. You see someone gain a big lead by day two and the other people will lose interest when the big prize is no longer up for grabs.

[Dopey]

I have (beat an opponent with all five spells), but now if I see an opponent use all spells I exit the game.

Unless Rovio decides to fix the Arena mode I think I’m done with AB2 outside of the new single player levels they introduce. The asynchronous battle mode would make some sense, if the opponent played the same set of levels in the same order as I do and the graphics showed their progression. Now it’s a game of “beat this hidden random number, which might be impossible to beat with the levels you got”. I don’t look at the opponent animation at all anymore, because it’s just a condensed recording of some player playing some levels, which has nothing to do with the ones I’m in.

Thanks for Clovos for the insights about the design choices Rovio made, but you can’t convince me this is a change for the better, because for me, it’s the opposite. I’m sure there players playing the Arena mode much more because of it, but I think you’ll find soon it’s fewer players playing more frequently. The number of Arena levels is quite limited, and the more you play them the faster it starts to feel like a grind.

[Dopey]

The way I think the Arena works is that you’re seeing someone else play some other sequence of levels. Typically the opponents seem to have multi-structure levels as the first two to create a false sense of suspense with your othem far ahead overall (further than would be possible with levels I’m facing). In that sense Arena is the same it always was: you’re trying to beat a score. Now you’re just trying to beat an unknown (until 5-6 levels in) score.

I understand they want people to use gems to play the Arena more often, but also it seems that people who are ahead get tougher scores to beat for a kind of rubberband AI (many racing games make people behind you artificially faster to create more exciting races) effect.

The previous arena implementation felt more genuine for sure.