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Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:55 pm
by icyglaze
Apparently by exiting the app but not closing it in the task manager, the arena fight is effectively paused, allowing certain individuals (Xanaduk, I'm 100% positive you use this) to always win arena fights at the very last second. Tested by Dp shortly after he sniped 2nd from me in arena today.

I found it unusual that Xanaduk always manages to win within the last 10 seconds of arena closing given the random nature of arena fights. Now that I know how he did it, I feel very very cheated. Even if this was a bug to exploit, exploiting at the expense of others is really, what's the word, f**ked up. I believe cumulatively, I have been cheated of literally thousands of gems given I'm usually 2nd and that's the spot he snipes for.

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:59 pm
by icyglaze
I like to point out that I have previously pointed out the unfair nature of the monthly arena rewards back in July last year (viewtopic.php?f=48&t=18494) and nothing has been done about it.

Also, I have every right to be salty as I have been literally cheated of thousands of gems.

"Cheating" defined as act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage.

Yup, you cheated Xanaduk.

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 12:05 am
by Donkeypunch
Yes this is confirmed. I tested 2 fights. I had the enemy down to 1 blow before death and exit app for a few minutes. When I went back to game the arena fight was at the same exact spot as when I left. This is super unfair for arena rewards. Especially the big monthly ones. A person can easily snipe the win. This really needs to be looked at. There was a post a while ago about averaging monthly rank to determine the reward. It got ignored but really need to be looked at. The was it is set up now especially with this timing glitch is very upsetting. Please take time to look into this.

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 2:55 am
by admin
Changing to scoring based system isn't quite that easy, and it would make extra fight purchases too powerful/unfair. There really isn't a way to prevent players from pausing the Arena fight by backgrounding the app, other than re-imposing a time limit to Arena fights (which was removed because we had fights taking extreme long time). Here is one possible way to alleviate the situation:

- Set the Arena fight time out to longer time, say 10 minutes.
- Then add a 30 minute cool down to challenging the same top 10 players, so one can't repetitive challenge the same player in the last 10 minutes until he knows he will win, then pausing the fight.

This only prevent players weaker than you from sniping by saving lucky victory for longer than 10 minutes. If he is stronger than you (or similar strength but gets lucky) and only fights once in the last 10 minutes and waits, then he is risking that someone else taking your position before he does (eg. if 4th place took your 2nd place while he wait, he won't would only more to 4th or retain his current rank if higher).

Best Regards,
Playmage Support

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 12:40 pm
by Donkeypunch
It sounds like you are just going to allow this totally unfair practice to continue. Wow I'm blown away. You need to get your team together and fix this. You say buying chances in a system where average rank is unfair but allowing a player to pause a fight and snipe the win at last second is fair? Come on you guys are better than this. There is a huge amount of gems at stake. This is going to push people over the edge and quit. You already haven't givin us ANYTHING new as far as content in almost a year. This game is already dying. Please at least fix this totally unfair arena issue. This is total BS

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:24 pm
by admin
I proposed ways to alleviate the problem from exploiting the pause. However, when a player is equal or stronger in power, you can't prevent a normal last second in a place swapping Arena system. Creating a random lockdown in the last minute would also alleviate the issue, but it require the snipe target to be online and cappable of reverting the placement swap (actually, it's already possible now by starting a battle with potential sniping person before being sniped, but ending the battle after sniped). Other than these, we are open to other suggestions that doesn't involve completly changing the current Arena system.

Best Regards,
Playmage SUpport

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:42 pm
by Donkeypunch
I noticed that if you background the app for a little bit while in relic hunt it disbands your team when you come back and you loose the rh. Can't you make arena do the same??

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:59 pm
by PerfectDes
So one suggestion is: Once you "minimize" the screen for longer than a few minutes...I say a few minutes because some people get phone calls or texts that have to be responded to, it happens, it's a phone. Everything refreshes. It could ruin a few things, so I'd also suggest that if that happens, it restores the try.
Downfall to this suggestion: It's exploitable to get known fails incoming, negated.
Conclusion: Bad suggestion


Suggestion 2: The top 15 players Have a different set of "Who can challenge you" rules.
1) You cannot be attacked by the same person (After the opponent has won) for 3 minutes (can be changed).
2) If you are in a fight, you are locked down, opponent and defender. If the battle lasts longer than some random number to be determined later.
~~~~~I don't know how long fights can go at that level, but I have had fights last longer than 3 or 4 minutes due to Sara Leech vs MC shield.~~~~~
3) If you are in a fight, and you minimize the screen without exiting completely, regardless of how long, once you bring it back up, you lose the fight. ***
**** Disclaimer, up to you if they lose their attempt completely, or it gets returned*** ~~~ Exploitable if done right~~~~
4) If the opponent loses, they cannot attack the defender AGAIN for at least 1 minute, regardless of if they reset their cool down to avoid waiting for another battle.


The second suggestion can be changed a bit, but I think it might cover some of the problems.
As it stands, regardless of who fights the same person, it's whoever wins that gets the win. This is very exploitable and also not exactly fair.
If you're in a 1v1 and someone attacks the opponent and wins, and takes the spot it's kinda rude.

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 11:50 pm
by Cgamp
I suggest you make it so if a player defeats a certain player 3 times in a day the proceeding matches between both players against each other become unranked fights but the partipants still recieve the fame bonus this would effectively give player's a fighting chance to defend their rank and also promote the concept of buying more arena chances to defend against further threats.

Re: Timing the Arena

PostPosted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 5:11 am
by admin
Donkeypunch wrote:I noticed that if you background the app for a little bit while in relic hunt it disbands your team when you come back and you loose the rh. Can't you make arena do the same??


Relic Hunt uses a different type of connection and communicates with the server every turn, so we have to timeout a player if they don't synch with the fight. There is no need to add the same restriction for arena fights as there are actual cases when you need to use your phone during middle of a long battle.

Cgamp wrote:I suggest you make it so if a player defeats a certain player 3 times in a day the proceeding matches between both players against each other become unranked fights but the partipants still recieve the fame bonus this would effectively give player's a fighting chance to defend their rank and also promote the concept of buying more arena chances to defend against further threats.


This sounds like a feasible idea, but would very easily lock a player from climbing permanently if they can't login during the start of the day. A less disruptive rule change might be preventing two players from challenging each other as long as one person has defeated another twice within one hour, fights started before the lockdown but end in the lockdown period would be unranked . There would still be some advantages can be gained by backgrounding the app (such as turning in a win at start of last hour), but it's limited as it requires another win and the stronger player can also use other strategies such as locking down before the last hour, and renew the lock when the period expires (the lock period won't be shown, so the locking player has advantage of knowing based on when the first win within the hour expires).

IMHO, I would suggest making a simple and just use the 10 minute fight limit + 30 minute re-challenge cool-down. This would be more transparent and logical for everyone. If the higher ranked defender is worried about a similar strength player from sniping, they can do the same and hold background a victory against the lower ranked player within the last 10 minutes, and may be better sniper win. Of course, we welcome other feedbacks or refinements on either idea.

Best Regards,
Playmage Support