Nestor

I don't think that Shadow killing is an inherent part of his character, but I think of all the characters other than Omega, he would be the least squeamish about it and would probably have the lowest bar for deeming it necessary. I don't think that he would kill unless he absolutely had to, and there are circumstances where it is impossible to avoid even for other characters (Shadow and Sonic technically kill the Biolizard, and the other characters don't seem to worry about destroying the Black Arms that they fight), but if it becomes necessary, he has no qualms about it compared to other characters - indeed he doesn't seem to have any remorse for committing genocide against an (admittedly evil) alien race in order to save Earth.

That's the connection issue again; when it starts going for someone, their character can appear to the other players in places they aren't in 'reality'. You'll notice it most prominently if you yourself lose connection when you're around other racers; their movements will become more erratic and then they'll suddenly 'snap back' to where they actually are when it's restored. Occasionally you'll see someone seemingly run straight through a trap or obstacle unharmed.... and a few seconds later spin out of control on open ground as in reality, they're actually back at the trap and are hitting then. The other common one is if someone completely disconnects from the race; their character will seem to uncontrollably surge ahead, apparently invincible and abnormally fast - but will then be absent from the leaderboard at the end.

In fairness, Forces is a functional game at least; it doesn't have the glitches and insane loading times of 06. It also doesn't have the odd 'realistic' art style 06 went for, or the Elise romance plot. Forces's main issues are bland level design and plotting; it's not technically bad like 06, but it also isn't a really good game. It's just.... very mediocre.

Oh I'm sorry, that sucks - it was like that for me in April around the time when the coronavirus lockdown started. Oddly, it seems to have been more stable for me this last month or so with almost zero connection lossed, so I wonder if it's a regional thing.

I'm.... really not sure that developers are specifically changing the game just to mess with your posting. Reading the forums is one thing, but changing aspects of the game to troll online posters is a tad unlikely. This is kinda the seeing patterns thing again.... the hackers disappearing would more logically be due to the new update countering down whatever exploits they were using. It kind of reinforces that they weren't some sort of AI designed by Hardlight because if they were.... they'd just stay in place, as designed. Also, if you don't mind me asking, I'm genuinely curious.... why are you playing this game to tide over the time until the next main game, instead of... any other Sonic game, to be honest? Why play this one if you hate it so much? Not judging or anything, I was just wondering why not something more palatable to you?

@Iko Remember though, I'm also an Elite tier player who plays multiple times a day.... and it really does sound like an (understandable) case of seeing patterns where none exist. The reason that these glitches mostly occur when you need to get past an obstacle or get an object is because most of the times when you'll input a move will be in these very situations. It also does in fact happen randomly - I've had multiple instances of me going to skid under an obstacle and instead jump it or vice versa. Nothing happened. I didn't crash, it didn't impact the game, it's just.... a random glitch. Similarly, the times I've accidentally benefitted from it hadn't been times I was losing a lot; I've never had a losing streak where it hasn't been down to my own error or the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when multiple abilities go off. The problem is, if this was an algorithm, it would be consistent. Instead, I can happily win almost every game throughout a day without any higher incidence or any interference. I just hit the Elite tier; I've experienced no shenanigans or game altering situations. I really would suggest that you're just putting greater weight on any time there's a glitch and creating an illusory pattern. As I've said before, there's no logic behind Hardlight doing this; the game's reward structure is set up in a way that none of these issues would affect it or require people to spend more money, and you yourself are the proof that these issues do not addict players but would actually serve to push them away. I can accept the idea of a mobile game doing something dodgy - but only for a clearly defined goal; no company anywhere would sink resources and time to set up a convoluted realtime monitoring system to break the game for no gain. Sorry, as it's the internet it's hard to tell - is this bit a joke or are you being serious? It's always difficult to be sure without tone, didn't want to get it wrong and reply to a joke seriously!

See, I think the problem is that you're ascribing agency to every glitch or problem where none exists. I occasionally get a misread control - but occams razor suggests it's just another issue due to poor connections (a constant reoccurring issue in the game) rather than a special algorithm monitoring all the players positions and intervening in races in realtime for no obvious motive. The input glitches are few and far between and they rarely cause me to lose - indeed, I've even had a couple which actually helped me!

I wondered that too to begin with, but after having played her a bit more, I'm realising how broken she'd be if her Tail Strike were more powerful; the main benefit to it isn't so much the effectiveness of a single use of it, but that you can benefit from the boosts even when you're ahead, something that most other characters (other than Zazz and his Star Trail) can get. On the face of it, a single Tail Strike seems very anaemic compared to other powers, but once they start stacking (and especially if you're ahead) they can essentially keep giving you a small but noticeable burst - and the fact that you can get them in multiple slots (with multiples in both slots at higher levels, no less) means that you can keep a steady stream of bursts going. Most racers have their first slot ability as a straight shot which can't be used if you're ahead (with the exception of Lightning and Chao boomerang powers), while Tangle can be constantly using hers to boost with Tail Strike, which can really stack up on tracks where you can get almost back to back items. Of course, in order to balance this, she loses the long range shot and trap abilities - she still seems to be a good addition though, she's pulled out the stops and come through a number of times against higher level opponents a decent number of times for me. I also didn't mind her Tail Spring, actually - it seems comparable to Teen Sonic's Ring Portal, and while slower but longer duration boosts can be more useful for long term building ground, the super quick Tail Spring can be devastating at the end of a close race. A competent matchmaking system should be putting you in easier races if you continually lose though? Granted that the match-making seems a bit hit and miss a lot of the time, with some.... questionable match-ups, but this actually sounds like it's working as intended for a change. There really aren't AI characters though; sounds like you were playing against someone who had timed out and left the game. That always creates a phantom character who defies all game physics.

I think it was a Metal Sonic.... I can't remember exactly though! 😅 You would have spotted me by username at the end though, I'm 'Nestor the Wise' on Speed Battle too.

Ack, that's an occupational hazard when racing against those two - they both have boost abilities that make them invincible as well as speeding them up allowing them to crash through things and make up ground at the end. In fact, I actually did that very thing today with Tangle and pipped someone at the finish line - apologies if that was you! 😅

Um..... you just quoted the thing I said where I explain that?

Only ones you choose to look at to increase your rewards from what you would normally receive. Once you've spent even the smallest amount of money on it, it's entirely possible to play the game without watching a single ad if you choose to ignore the optional bonuses.

Nope, it's permanent - I spent the absolute smallest amount possible on something in order to remove ads when I first started playing the game, and since then the only ads I've encounter are ones I've chosen to watch (e.g. to double card rewards or open a silver chest quicker).

Oh, the illusion power! That's weird, I must admit I haven't encountered that one before - normally it just flips the view, then flips it straight back without issue. Sorry it's crashing for you - hopefully it's just a temporary bug.

But that's kind of the problem.... none of this is happening for me. I did as you said and minimised the game for five seconds just after we started when the opponents were still close.... and when I went back, the others were a way ahead of me as would be expected. Neither was I punished for this - I ended up winning, and against one racer with an equal level. This is why I don't really understand what's going on with your game, as honest to goodness, I'm genuinely not experiencing anything that you are. I don't get "cursed", the physics is always the same (outside of connection issues and one case of an obvious cheater), I can play for as long as I want without issue (to the extent that once I managed to hit the maximum number of victory boxes for the day, which I didn't know even existed), and whenever I lose it's down to either error on my part or bad luck from getting caught in random item crossfire. I'm a level 15 player and usually do between 6 - 12 games a day on average, always finishing seasons in the Elite category. The fact that other people seem to be able to get to 7,000 trophies to the fact that whatever you're experiencing isn't happening across the board... which wouldn't be the case if this was some sort of algorithm baked into the game. Similarly, I just can't see the motive for Hardlight to do any of this - you're indeed right that some mobile games companies do employ dirty tricks.... but only if it makes them money. You say that the "curse" kicks in when you reach 6,000 trophies.... but if you've got 6,000, you've already reached the Champion level and will have secured the increased season award - dropping trophies at that point won't change that. What would be the point in Hardlight spending money and resources to develop a way to specially alter the game at this point? You've already got your card rewards, and rewards are the main thing that people can spend money to get.... so what would be the motive for Hardlight? Likewise, I can't see any of this increasing the "addiction" for players, particularly if the game 'cheats' are so obvious - indeed, you yourself are testament to these things negatively affecting people's desire to play! Hardlight would be spending extra money.... to lose more money. It's the same for inexplicably having bots rather than players.... how would this make them more money or 'addict' players? They would have spent resources creating bot AI for no concrete goal, particularly when the game doesn't require such a thing. I'm also not sure how bots would even work; the racers always visibly gain or lose medals at the end, so if bots are impersonating real players, then this wouldn't work as it would totally skew the real players' totals. If the racers were bots, they would also react in predictable ways to the same situations, and the people I race against don't - the behaviour is too random and chaotic for a machine. I really do think it's something else affecting you - either you're just incredibly unlucky and are beset by an above average number of cheaters and connection issues, or there's something screwy with your game profile, because these things don't seem to be affecting people across the board.