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Sonic Forces Speed Battle (iOS - Hardlight Studio) | MT


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Dreadknux
Message added by Dreadknux,

This topic is now exclusively for the general discussion of Sonic Forces (Speed Battle) only. Any new announcements (characters, events, etc) should be made in a separate topic.

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1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

If it was a Silver, then YOUUU!

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.

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2 hours ago, Nestor said:

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.

Lol.

Okay, you're off the hook. 

 

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Is it just me, or is Tangle kind of... bad? I have been playing this game quite a bit in honor of Tangle and Whisper being added to the game, and I was looking forward to using both characters, and I understand it takes time grinding to get the characters leveled up in order to perform better, but Tangle just feels weaker than most characters by quite a bit. Her Tail Attack has some of the worst range I've ever seen and it doesn't have any real duration, nor is it even all that powerful. I've never been fond of items that, when leveled up, merely give you a chance of obtaining more than one. The game does not play nice with chances whatsoever, as you will rarely get more than one of your projectile item no matter if you've hit level 12. The move itself seems like it's in dire need of more power or duration or... something. Because even when stacked, the move is just woefully bad. I think it's just bizarre how she gets two of the same items. Not having a proper trap item really hurts her, and it kinda reeks of Hardlight not having any idea what to do with her moveset. Her Tail Spin boost is mediocre. It grants you temporary invulnerability that lasts maybe a second. Upon leveling it up, you are not granted with longer duration, but faster speed instead. I honestly couldn't tell the difference. It's not like Classic Sonic's invincibility where it lasts a long time. No, it lasts maybe a second but goes really fast. I find that the better boosting items are the ones that last longer rather than ones that are super fast but super short. And on top of all of that, her stats aren't even good. A 7 speed with those ineffective items is terrible. Her acceleration isn't good either, and 10/10 strength sounds nice, but that stat is nearly useless as far as I can tell. 

I'm hoping it's just me being lousy at playing her, but yeah, I'm not much of a fan of how she plays. 😅

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16 hours ago, DabigRG said:

EDIT: Fricken rubberband AI. Was doing real good just now and never got hit, then suddenly Knuckles and Tangle juke past me at the last 3 seconds despite my well placed fans. Wtf

That's just the beginning, you'll see...

Rubberband AI indeed, it works either ways; once I did an experiment and purposely lost more than 300 trophies in a few races (by arriving 4th place on purpose) just to see the effect, and after a while the game brought me into a couple of pathetic races where it forced me to arrive 3rd place despite I had 0 rings, hit all the walls of the track and minimized the game for more than 5 seconds. The 4th place opponent was going at snail pace and stopped in place each time it reached me, to let me stay in front.

EDIT: I know I said this

On 6/18/2020 at 3:56 AM, Iko said:

Whatever, I don't care anymore... I'm just not interested in discussing this game anymore, sorry.

...

I don't want to continue this discussion.

but I felt like it was the right moment to talk about that experience.

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On 7/13/2020 at 5:14 AM, Flame Lance said:

Is it just me, or is Tangle kind of... bad?

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.

 

On 7/13/2020 at 7:36 AM, Iko said:

That's just the beginning, you'll see...

Rubberband AI indeed, it works either ways; once I did an experiment and purposely lost more than 300 trophies in a few races (by arriving 4th place on purpose) just to see the effect, and after a while the game brought me into a couple of pathetic races where it forced me to arrive 3rd place despite I had 0 rings, hit all the walls of the track and minimized the game for more than 5 seconds. The 4th place opponent was going at snail pace and stopped in place each time it reached me, to let me stay in front.

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.

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21 hours ago, Iko said:

That's just the beginning, you'll see...

Rubberband AI indeed, it works either ways; once I did an experiment and purposely lost more than 300 trophies in a few races (by arriving 4th place on purpose) just to see the effect, and after a while the game brought me into a couple of pathetic races where it forced me to arrive 3rd place despite I had 0 rings, hit all the walls of the track and minimized the game for more than 5 seconds. The 4th place opponent was going at snail pace and stopped in place each time it reached me, to let me stay in front.

EDIT: I know I said this

but I felt like it was the right moment to talk about that experience.

Sounds about right.

Btw, there wouldn't happen to be anything about you trying to do one thing(say changing lanes) and doing something else instead(hopping), would there?

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39 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Sounds about right.

Btw, there wouldn't happen to be anything about you trying to do one thing(say changing lanes) and doing something else instead(hopping), would there?

That's exactly what I mean when I say unresponsive controls, misread input, and the game forcing you into things!

You are experiencing the same stuff that happens to me, I suppose I'm not crazy and that stuff happens for real.

That misreading of input was not present in the older versions of the game, they introduced it at a certain point, and it seems to happen in specific situations specifically to damage the player. Often the wrong movements will bring you into obstacles or will force you to dodge rings/items, and the effect is loss of positions.

So I think it's not a flaw but another of those "balancing features". Since some people say that those things don't happen to them, I wonder if they disappear when you do a transaction? Like those ads? Even if they would disappear, I would never support a dishonest game like this with real money... they should thank me that I still watch their ads, that's the best they can get from me, along with the unavoidable telemetry (I would block them from getting my telemetry if it was possible).

EDIT: there's another issue with controls, but that was present in the old versions of the game as well. If you change lane and then use an item before the animation is done, you will likely move of an extra lane in the same direction (you try to go one lane right, but the game misreads the input and will move you two lanes right instead). That's probably just a glitch, it has always happend and the behavior is constant and predictable. What's not a glitch is when you try to change lane and the game jumps you into an obstacle instead.

 

(omg I confused rings with coins -.-)

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3 hours ago, Iko said:

That's exactly what I mean when I say unresponsive controls, misread input, and the game forcing you into things!

You are experiencing the same stuff that happens to me, I suppose I'm not crazy and that stuff happens for real.

That misreading of input was not present in the older versions of the game, they introduced it at a certain point, and it seems to happen in specific situations specifically to damage the player. Often the wrong movements will bring you into obstacles or will force you to dodge rings/items, and the effect is loss of positions.

So I think it's not a flaw but another of those "balancing features". Since some people say that those things don't happen to them, I wonder if they disappear when you do a transaction? Like those ads? Even if they would disappear, I would never support a dishonest game like this with real money... they should thank me that I still watch their ads, that's the best they can get from me, along with the unavoidable telemetry (I would block them from getting my telemetry if it was possible).

EDIT: there's another issue with controls, but that was present in the old versions of the game as well. If you change lane and then use an item before the animation is done, you will likely move of an extra lane in the same direction (you try to go one lane right, but the game misreads the input and will move you two lanes right instead). That's probably just a glitch, it has always happend and the behavior is constant and predictable. What's not a glitch is when you try to change lane and the game jumps you into an obstacle instead.

 

(omg I confused rings with coins -.-)

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!

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@Nestor I'm sorry but I played this game enough to tell that it's not a glitch. The way how it happens is very specific.

Though you are right that it also happens to help you sometimes... it's just that I'm not used to be in situations where the game helps me, I usually win most of the races (when the game allows me to) so the game tries to push me back instead... it helps you when you lose a lot.

Every time it happens, it's to push me into an obstacle/attack, or to move me away from items, dashpads or rings (or to make me miss the target when I shoot a projectile attack); NOT EVEN ONCE it happend at random in an ininfluent moment*. Sometimes I manage to correct the movement and be fine, other times there's just not enough time. It happend a couple of times that it helped me to dodge an attack too, but it's rare... even when it helps, it still feels like a very specific movement designed to act that way, not a glitch at all.

The higher the trophies of the opponents, the higher the rate at which misread inputs happen, especially when you are first place.

It's not a glitch, it's Super Smash Bros Brawl's tripping.

*(now I expect someone at Hardlight to read this post and modify it to make it happen at random even when ininfluent so they can say it's a glitch).

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@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.

2 hours ago, Iko said:

*(now I expect someone at Hardlight to read this post and modify it to make it happen at random even when ininfluent so they can say it's a glitch).

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!

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Disagree with all the "illusory pattern" thing, obviously. I see the stuff happening, I read of other people having similar issues as me (and not only this forum, I've read stuff in other places too), I'm pretty sure that there is something fishy in this game, I won't change my mind this easy.

35 minutes ago, Nestor said:

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!

It's more sarcasm than a joke; mostly a reference of the fact that I reported those "hackers" in this thread with those screenshots and they magically (almost completely) disappeared the season after, and I said that all the big events end the first days of the new month, and last season it did end some days before the end instead (first time in a year or so).

Anyway it wouldn't surprise me too much if some Sonic developers occasionally read posts in some Sonic communities to see some feedback; I know that Social medias are bigger, but dedicated forums usually have the most hardcore fans in them and it's still useful to see their opinions too... at least if I was a developer I would do it.

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18 minutes ago, Iko said:

It's more sarcasm than a joke; mostly a reference of the fact that I reported those "hackers" in this thread with those screenshots and they magically (almost completely) disappeared the season after, and I said that all the big events end the first days of the new month, and last season it did end some days before the end instead (first time in a year or so).

Anyway it wouldn't surprise me too much if some Sonic developers occasionally read posts in some Sonic communities to see some feedback; I know that Social medias are bigger, but dedicated forums usually have the most hardcore fans in them and it's still useful to see their opinions too... at least if I was a developer I would do it.

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?

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12 minutes ago, Nestor said:

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.

That's why I said is sarcasm. I'm not saying that they are changing the game because they have read my post, I'm just being sarcastic at the coincidences. People have reported the "hackers" on reddit too, probably even in other places, so it's unlikely that's because of me, just a funny coincidence.

12 minutes ago, Nestor said:

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?

If you really want to know, because I want to level 16 a few characters and I'm close to making it (Big, Chaos, Metal, Shadow and Zavok are all very close, some already have the cards but I miss the rings... Zazz is level 15 too but at the beginning still). Also, I want to see if I can enter the prestige chart again... I was into it but when I left for a few months I was kicked out and now I have more than 8.000 prestige points to recover... I'll probably never do it because it would require me more than a year.

I'll likely give up soon, as I said multiple times, but not yet.

Also I like the collection of playable characters but that's a minor factor. It was for the gameplay too, but with all the bulls**t they added in the several updates I don't even like the gameplay anymore.

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9 hours ago, Iko said:

That's exactly what I mean when I say unresponsive controls, misread input, and the game forcing you into things!

You are experiencing the same stuff that happens to me, I suppose I'm not crazy and that stuff happens for real.

That misreading of input was not present in the older versions of the game, they introduced it at a certain point, and it seems to happen in specific situations specifically to damage the player. Often the wrong movements will bring you into obstacles or will force you to dodge rings/items, and the effect is loss of positions.

So I think it's not a flaw but another of those "balancing features". Since some people say that those things don't happen to them, I wonder if they disappear when you do a transaction? Like those ads? Even if they would disappear, I would never support a dishonest game like this with real money... they should thank me that I still watch their ads, that's the best they can get from me, along with the unavoidable telemetry (I would block them from getting my telemetry if it was possible).

Yeah, basically what happened. It hasn't happened often, but it is annoying when it does.

Quote

EDIT: there's another issue with controls, but that was present in the old versions of the game as well. If you change lane and then use an item before the animation is done, you will likely move of an extra lane in the same direction (you try to go one lane right, but the game misreads the input and will move you two lanes right instead). That's probably just a glitch, it has always happend and the behavior is constant and predictable. What's not a glitch is when you try to change lane and the game jumps you into an obstacle instead.

 

(omg I confused rings with coins -.-)

Huh. Never heard of that one.

Going to switch lanes but getting hit by the person behind me when I should move though? That's more up to speed.

5 hours ago, Nestor said:

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!

Oh, the connection makes you not even wanna bother. I can't tell you how many times the game has crashed either midrace or hung up on the loading screen. Actually, I think I can: every third race or so.

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1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Oh, the connection makes you not even wanna bother. I can't tell you how many times the game has crashed either midrace or hung up on the loading screen. Actually, I think I can: every third race or so.

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.

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15 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Vindact Valley or whatever sucks.

Viaduct

I find it basically impossible to recognise one level from the next of the same zone in this game. The names don't mean anything because they're such visually similar and feature-lacking lane-runners. Some levels are noted as being reversed versions of of levels. I can't tell and don't know what to expect until the level has started. 

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10 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Viaduct

I find it basically impossible to recognise one level from the next of the same zone in this game. The names don't mean anything because they're such visually similar and feature-lacking lane-runners. Some levels are noted as being reversed versions of of levels. I can't tell and don't know what to expect until the level has started. 

Basically.

Still, it looks impossible to comfortably get through that level without running into shit.

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I'm enjoying Whisper a lot, Cyan, and Spikes are both pretty solid ranged attacks, and that hang time on the umbrella dash. Gonna use and abuse this while I can.

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Oh look at that, missed my chance to unlock Tangle. More's the pity.

Btw Iko, I think I saw an instance of the game going easy on you: I was playing as Classic for the daily mission with Metal being the closest contender and I could've sworn I saw Metal inadvertently go past me, skid a bit, then seemingly walk over to be on the same path as me near the end. It was bizarre.

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14 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Oh look at that, missed my chance to unlock Tangle. More's the pity.

Btw Iko, I think I saw an instance of the game going easy on you: I was playing as Classic for the daily mission with Metal being the closest contender and I could've sworn I saw Metal inadvertently go past me, skid a bit, then seemingly walk over to be on the same path as me near the end. It was bizarre.

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.

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6 minutes ago, Nestor said:

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.

That would explain the several races where someone seemingly goes through the finish line first only to be a rank or two behind. I think I may have had that collision issue as well.

This game is so buggy.

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On 7/13/2020 at 1:43 PM, Nestor said:

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.

Well, I'm glad you've found some success with her. Sadly, I still find her to be very weak, and I've seen people on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter say a lot of the same things I did. I could very easily be wrong though, as I have seen a few really good Tangle players that rekt me pretty good, but I definitely must say Whisper seems like a more popular runner and IMO is a heck of a lot better. She may be a bit too powerful even, but it's hard to say yet. 

 

All that aside, this game is quickly becoming very frustrating. It's been I don't know how many months now and there's been not a balance patch to be found. This game is in dire need of one. Big, Zazz, Reaper Metal, and anyone with invincibility are just completely unfair and are grossly overused in the higher levels of the game. Meanwhile, characters like Cream and Blaze have terrible boosts that simply are not effective at catching up, and others like Espio are just neglected altogether with useless items that are completely ineffective. And then there's Spring Cream's hedge maze which is so unfair and broken I don't even know where to begin. If you want to make it on the leaderboard, the aforementioned overused characters are pretty much the only ones you're going to see being used. More importantly though, is how abundant hackers are. I just raced one tonight and I face them nearly daily. It's super unfair that these hackers get to run so rampant when the game is excruciatingly punishing in upper levels of play. There's times where I've been docked as much as 8 trophies for getting 2nd place. And this problem seems to be getting worse all of the time. It's also sad that some great tracks were cut in favor of the Golden Bay zones which are no doubt some of the most horribly designed tracks in the history of the game's existence. I don't understand why they feel the need to cut content. Just keep all of the tracks, please.

Another problem I run into is that the game conveniently loses connection more than it ever has in the past. My internet is not a problem, so I can't figure out why this happens so much. And my last and final pet peeve comes in the way of the victory chests. The game will constantly feed me silver chests whenever I'm opening my gold chests with red rings. But if I choose to slow down on spending my red rings and only time unlock my gold chests, it ever so conveniently starts feeding me gold chest after gold chest. Sometimes 3 in a row! This is a pain because I want to open as many silver chests as possible to get gold rings, but getting so many gold ones that take 8 hours to time unlock prevents me from getting very far at all. I'm honestly convinced the algorithm is designed to do this to players. 

I'm all for Hardlight adding new characters to the game, but it is apparent to me that they don't care to maintain the rest of the game or preserve a balanced environment. They just add more overpowered characters to the fold and never offer any quality of life updates anymore. Very frustrating, to say the least. 

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2 hours ago, Flame Lance said:

Well, I'm glad you've found some success with her. Sadly, I still find her to be very weak, and I've seen people on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter say a lot of the same things I did. I could very easily be wrong though, as I have seen a few really good Tangle players that rekt me pretty good, but I definitely must say Whisper seems like a more popular runner and IMO is a heck of a lot better. She may be a bit too powerful even, but it's hard to say yet. 

 

All that aside, this game is quickly becoming very frustrating. It's been I don't know how many months now and there's been not a balance patch to be found. This game is in dire need of one. Big, Zazz, Reaper Metal, and anyone with invincibility are just completely unfair and are grossly overused in the higher levels of the game. Meanwhile, characters like Cream and Blaze have terrible boosts that simply are not effective at catching up, and others like Espio are just neglected altogether with useless items that are completely ineffective. And then there's Spring Cream's hedge maze which is so unfair and broken I don't even know where to begin. If you want to make it on the leaderboard, the aforementioned overused characters are pretty much the only ones you're going to see being used. More importantly though, is how abundant hackers are. I just raced one tonight and I face them nearly daily. It's super unfair that these hackers get to run so rampant when the game is excruciatingly punishing in upper levels of play. There's times where I've been docked as much as 8 trophies for getting 2nd place. And this problem seems to be getting worse all of the time. It's also sad that some great tracks were cut in favor of the Golden Bay zones which are no doubt some of the most horribly designed tracks in the history of the game's existence. I don't understand why they feel the need to cut content. Just keep all of the tracks, please.

Another problem I run into is that the game conveniently loses connection more than it ever has in the past. My internet is not a problem, so I can't figure out why this happens so much. And my last and final pet peeve comes in the way of the victory chests. The game will constantly feed me silver chests whenever I'm opening my gold chests with red rings. But if I choose to slow down on spending my red rings and only time unlock my gold chests, it ever so conveniently starts feeding me gold chest after gold chest. Sometimes 3 in a row! This is a pain because I want to open as many silver chests as possible to get gold rings, but getting so many gold ones that take 8 hours to time unlock prevents me from getting very far at all. I'm honestly convinced the algorithm is designed to do this to players. 

I'm all for Hardlight adding new characters to the game, but it is apparent to me that they don't care to maintain the rest of the game or preserve a balanced environment. They just add more overpowered characters to the fold and never offer any quality of life updates anymore. Very frustrating, to say the least. 

I hope this game gets shut down like Sega Heroes and Sonic Runners did. 

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On 7/14/2020 at 3:00 PM, Iko said:

If you really want to know, because I want to level 16 a few characters and I'm close to making it (Big, Chaos, Metal, Shadow and Zavok are all very close, some already have the cards but I miss the rings... Zazz is level 15 too but at the beginning still).

To continue with the funny coincidences, I wrote this to Nestor and exactly the day after this post the game was modified (not an actual new version, just a small update that happend silently) and now they added some annoying pop-ups that advertise the super rare character transactions with real money. Maybe Nestor is secretly an Hardlight employee :laughing: (I'm obviously joking, I hope this does not offend you). Regardless, hardlight can add all the popups and shaking caveau keys they want, they still won't get my money.

Not to mention that today I got one of those "curses", and in the meanwhile the game gave me many Metal Sonic cards, so that now it can reach level 16 in less than 50 cards. A new offer appeared in the store: buy 50 cards of Metal Sonic with real money and reach the max level now! (never, I'd rather leave him at lv15 forever than spend real money on this unrespectful game). Basically, the game tried to convince me that my characters suck and I need to spend real money on Metal Sonic in order to be able to win again... lol.

Anyway, the last update "Improved" the jump physics (according to the changelog). When I read that I expected rubberband cheats to be bundled with the new jump physics (just like what happend with the boost and inputs in some past updates), and in fact... the jump arc is now variable, depending on the situation. Sometimes the jump arc becomes shorter to force you into obstacles/traps, other times it lets you dodge things illogically (a couple of times I jumped over a mine inside a loop when it should not be possible), depending on if the game wants to help or punish you. But the funniest thing is when your character flies for a couple of second over items, dashpads and rings to force you to avoid them, it happend 4 or 5 times already since the update.

17 hours ago, Flame Lance said:

I'm honestly convinced the algorithm is designed to do this to players.

Without any doubt.

Just like some time ago when it was very likely to get 299 cards of a special character when 300 is the requirement to unlock them (it does not seem to happen anymore, or I should say it still happens but less blatantly); and in that time when it was very likely, Twitter and Reddit were filled with screenshots of people with 299 cards claiming to have been unlucky (It happend to me with a few specials too so I can confirm it happend).

Or when you get the "end 3 races with no more than 80 rings" mission and all of a sudden it becomes so hard to not pick up rings even if you place 4th (the game tries hard to force you to get even just 81 rings so you have to do more races, with misread controls and blocking you with ice attacks and more; and often those races are the "cursed" ones where the game almost plays itself and you just watch a cutscene of your character losing in some ridicolously unfair ways).

Or when you get an emerald chest (24 h) and when you unlock it, an "open 12 chests" mission starts so you are stuck for one whole day with it...

And many other disrespectful situation that only exist to convince the players to spend resources/money or play more.

As I said in my other posts, I think that the game is not really multiplayer and the opponents are actually bots. This game is basically an illusion, and not due to it being about the Phantom Ruby; it's literally an illusion. Go to any real multiplayer game with a lobby, and you see that often it's hard to find players to play against (I used to play Smash 4 online and sometimes I had to wait minutes in order to find an opponent, and we're talking of Smash Bros, not some obscure indie game in beta)... while this game always finds you 3 opponents, in a very short time, and at any hour of the day. And it's not just because of that, it's also their behavior in-game that looks and feels fake, and no it's not just the lag.

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