More Anomalies

TonysC8

The experimental new start is going great …. Some observations … Might be just me but would love to hear if anyone has noticed the same thing . Trying to not use gold bars and boosters and the AI notices this right away . Making EVERY level absolutely impossible to pass … and this is in the 700s … even the ones that are not marked with sculls. Have given up with selecting the color bomb upon starting as on most levels they give you very, very little to start with and that booster does very little if it doesn't explode on its own without warning . Very rarely they give you an easy one just so you dont throw your iPad out the window . I then started to use boosters here and there and gold bars when they offered my a min of 25 moves and a ufo . Sometimes i would have to wait for 45 moves for fear of not beating the level after shelling out gold .( I never pay attention to events that offer timed boosters as rewards . If they throw one or two in so be it) . After this the levels became easier !

christinewupp

What you are experiencing is very much what I find in my test games. It is the way the game has been changed in recent months. The earlier levels now follow the same pattern as the upper levels, with some impossible to pass legendary levels, and this means that new players will get used to the way Candy Crush is meant to be played: use gold and boosters wisely to get past the hardest levels. What you find is very much expected. Levels in the 700s are always some of the worst. Usually levels around the 800 - 1500 mark are the easiest and also the most boring, so it will be interesting to see if they still are.

I am finding the game more and more predictable now. I've run some controlled tests, such as play two unrelated newbie accounts through exactly the same level range. This way you will be able to verify if what you are experiencing is a coincidence or manipulation.

The new ordering of episodes with one or two hard levels upon entry and several hard levels near the end is a way for the game to coordinate events and offers such as timed boosters in a manner that will make players spend gold and money. They are usually awarded at the start of an episode and run out before we get to the hardest levels. I suspect that there may be a coordinated bespoke difficulty setting for each test group's first attempt boards. So for example I think players who are given the super charger are given some harder first attempt boards a little further down the line than players who do not have a super charger. Of course the game decides both when the super charger appears and the difficulty of the boards it loads, so this would be fairly simple for the AI to coordinate.

I have not found that spending gold affects level difficulty immediately. I really don't think the game can compute such complex behaviours with its simplified structure now. I do not think the game reacts to our own player behaviour while we are playing. However it would not surprise me if each week the AI probably resets our test groups. It seems to adjust difficulty of the game according to how much we played and how well we progressed the previous week and probably how much gold or money we spent.

If you understand how the game manipulates players you can beat it, and enjoy it.

christinewupp

What you are experiencing is very much what I find in my test games. It is the way the game has been changed in recent months. The earlier levels now follow the same pattern as the upper levels, with some impossible to pass legendary levels, and this means that new players will get used to the way Candy Crush is meant to be played: use gold and boosters wisely to get past the hardest levels. What you find is very much expected. Levels in the 700s are always some of the worst. Usually levels around the 800 - 1500 mark are the easiest and also the most boring, so it will be interesting to see if they still are.

I am finding the game more and more predictable now. I've run some controlled tests, such as play two unrelated newbie accounts through exactly the same level range. This way you will be able to verify if what you are experiencing is a coincidence or manipulation.

The new ordering of episodes with one or two hard levels upon entry and several hard levels near the end is a way for the game to coordinate events and offers such as timed boosters in a manner that will make players spend gold and money. They are usually awarded at the start of an episode and run out before we get to the hardest levels. I suspect that there may be a coordinated bespoke difficulty setting for each test group's first attempt boards. So for example I think players who are given the super charger are given some harder first attempt boards a little further down the line than players who do not have a super charger. Of course the game decides both when the super charger appears and the difficulty of the boards it loads, so this would be fairly simple for the AI to coordinate.

I have not found that spending gold affects level difficulty immediately. I really don't think the game can compute such complex behaviours with its simplified structure now. I do not think the game reacts to our own player behaviour while we are playing. However it would not surprise me if each week the AI probably resets our test groups. It seems to adjust difficulty of the game according to how much we played and how well we progressed the previous week and probably how much gold or money we spent.

If you understand how the game manipulates players you can beat it, and enjoy it.