Tetris Friends Arena Changes You Want

[Blink]

There hasn't been much talk about Tetris Friend's Arena on HD ever since they removed E+ mode.  Me and Wojtek were discussing about how the game has lost alot of its appeal with all the payments involved (pay for room settings, backgrounds, minos, remove ads, etc.) It still has alot of players but time will tell if the userbase will grow or decline.  Do you guys think the game is going downhill?  

If yes, what do you think needs to be done to get it back on track?

If not, what do you like about what they've done?

I'm guessing that people stopped talking about this game because they've lost interest in it or gave up hope that it would become a game they would enjoy.  I'm sort of feeling the same way, so I wanted to know what you guys thought and forward it to TTC next week.

[Paul676]

Without e+ it'll never get the approval of the main pros sadly. I've noticed a drop in player average skill level, which is sad because it's my game of choice. I think they need to readdress this problem, and have maybe a small choice of backgrounds and then use tp for the better backgrounds, and rubies for the nicest ones. Room settings however should be available to all, but maybe some room settings should be pay for only, or for a temporary time with tp, similar to what toj are doing with premium.

[jennr246]

I'd have to say that Tetris Friends is now a large disappointment  imo. I used to play alot but since trying out TOJ, which is a much more refined game, I rarely play. Tetris friends was heading in the right direction with E+ and I don't know why they decided to remove it. It seems as if they are more concerned with extra things, such as backgrounds, win grafix/tones, etc. all of which can be nice, if u like that sort of thing(I don't), but why not fix the gameplay first. Its too slow, line clear delay and soft drop, and the garbage system really needs some work.
Ofcourse paying for certain things in a game is fine, but I feel it should be done after its out of Beta, not before.  It does seem that a lot of people still play it, but probably because they do not know of the other options.
So Downhill? I'd say so...

[m__]

wow, there's 800 players online right now.

The backgrounds and such are just fluff.. you can ignore them and it's like they don't exist.

I would like to see das and ar settings make it.  the pay rooms are kind of lame, but TOJ has pay for upgrade content as well doesn't it?

all and all it's a TTC game so they don't think the slower gameplay is an issue..

With 800 players now can you say the overall skill level is going down or is it that there are simply more players so you get stuck weeding through the weeker players.   The strong players most likely new about the game and have been playing it since it was live whereas the new players are joining now that it's visible if you aren't signed up to beta test.. the weaker players are watering down the pool.

[mippo]

Basically, 90% or more of those 800 players are bronze level players, who are really bad.
There are usually about 10-20 people in the platinum (highest skill)
at busier times, and they are more or less always the same bunch of people.
(maybe there's different people at other times cos I'm in Europe)
I have also noticed the absence of many of the better players compared to before, it's become a bit boring.

I'd also like to see the same changes that were mentioned before,
mostly E+ and messier garbage.

There's just hardly any communication about this beta with TF, which doesn't give me much hope, so I definitely think it is a good idea to approach them and keep trying to make them change their minds.

[Wojtek]

There are many things wrong with arena, here are few to start with:

I don't like how they work hard to to decieve players. I have nothing against auto-handicap, but i think this kind of rooms should have text saying game is auto balanced and link to some futher explainations and also it should show currect handicap state/values. Normal rooms should be on equal with handicaped rooms. Now you have to pay to unlock normal rooms.

There is no way to play whoever you want, you only can play people on your rank. To play particular person you need to pay for extra options and add him as friends, which is annoying with such low friend limit.

Rank system is flawed, seems they can't decide if rank represent skill or time spend on playing. Anyway most people will stay bronze forever, because everyone start with 0 rank points, so globally there is no enough points to move all players to  their appropriate ranks. Another problem of course is that ranking system don't make any sense when auto handicap is in place, ranting system predicts that player with higher rank will win most of games, but auto balancing will try divide wins equaly regardles of skill. You can pay to rank up easier, which kills rank system purpose anyway.

Game is not as fun to play as TOJ. When i play TOJ, i cant stop myself to play next and next game and I can play hour or so before i get bored. On Arena i play few games and just don't want to play anymore. I don't know if this is gameplay related or audio/visual things or else. Game just feels dull.

I don't think userbase will either grow or decrease. Old players will leave because there is nothing to keep you playing and it becomes boring very fast, but new players will come. There is nothing wrong with trying to make money with your service, but it's much easier to make money when you have good product.

[Shizi]

tf just turned into a combo clusterf***

[Paul676]

by average skill level, I meant of the top band of players- platinum players on average are worse than 6000-6300ish toj players, and there are a similar number of each, if not more 6000+ toj players.

I'm finding that I'm pretty much top level when it comes to regulars on tf, but nowhere near for regulars on toj or bb, which says a lot. tf also needs, as shizi says, to sort out its combo system, 4 gap is too easy to win with, and tspins aren't valued enough.

I think jennr in her 1st paragraph hit the nail on the head with what tf need to do

[Yankees42]

Lol, many people here don't like Arena, and I agree with them too.
Ever since they removed expert+, it has been bad ever since. And its always empty when I play at nights. There is always about two rooms in gold. You should be able to play with whoever you want.
The das is slow, and having to pay for expert mode is bs. It doesn't even have garbage blocking which is the worst feature of all.

[Magnanimous]

Honestly, TF's biggest problem so far is that their games run on Flash. If they really want to make a great game, they'll remake it in Javascript/jQuery/HTML5/Silverlight/whatever. It would be a lot of work... But Apple's shunning Flash for a reason.  

I don't like how they work hard to to decieve players. I have nothing against auto-handicap, but i think this kind of rooms should have text saying game is auto balanced and link to some futher explainations and also it should show currect handicap state/values. Normal rooms should be on equal with handicaped rooms. Now you have to pay to unlock normal rooms.

There's a handicap?   That explains a lot.

[Beastin_Shen]

Honestly, TF's biggest problem so far is that their games run on Flash. If they really want to make a great game, they'll remake it in Javascript/jQuery/HTML5/Silverlight/whatever. It would be a lot of work... But Apple's shunning Flash for a reason.  

I agree, its not as responsive as toj and is a large reason i dislike it. i would love to see a garbage system that shows fairness, brings back combo blocking, as well as change garbage so it isnt such easy downstacking.

i would like to see a true ranking system that shows the best player, would have me more interested.

[iphys]

Yeah, the Flash is my number one complaint.  I'd rather play a console game that works reliably.  You shouldn't need a supercomputer to play Tetris, but it feels like no computer is adequate for TF, and when they went from Live to Arena the problems with the Flash got about 10 times worse.

[zaphod77]

Yeah, the Flash is my number one complaint.  I'd rather play a console game that works reliably.  You shouldn't need a supercomputer to play Tetris, but it feels like no computer is adequate for TF, and when they went from Live to Arena the problems with the Flash got about 10 times worse.

Yeah. I'm just not impessed. here's what I'd want changed.

1) Item stacking nerfed.

TO explain. If you get rotate locked and fogged, the later should override the former.

If you get twistered after fog, the fog should be removed. Fog after twister is fine.

You can see the logic here. it's not an issue in 1v1 much, but when you get hit with 4 items at once, they can combine in lethal ways.

2) change the items so you can play through them.  Rotate lock is insanely abusive combined with initial orientations of SRS. Pretty much you have to just stop playing for 7 seconds so your piece will unstick or give yourself very ugly garbage on top of your stack. Unless of course you also get sped up, which goes under "nerf item stacking", above.

Instead, i propose the following.

Rotation lock lasts for 3 piece placements OR 7 seconds, whichever is faster.
Placing pieces in fog will make it fade faster.
Fever instead of hiding the next queue completely actually inserts the Is inside of it, so before it runs out you see them running out in the next.

Bring back garbage blocking, but exploit proof it by cancelling the garbage block after 2 seconds of not placing a piece.

[Blink]

Instead, i propose the following.

Rotation lock lasts for 3 piece placements OR 7 seconds, whichever is faster.
Placing pieces in fog will make it fade faster.
Fever instead of hiding the next queue completely actually inserts the Is inside of it, so before it runs out you see them running out in the next.

Bring back garbage blocking, but exploit proof it by cancelling the garbage block after 2 seconds of not placing a piece.

I really like your idea of putting a time limit on garbage blocking, but 2 seconds seems really short.  I would suggest 5 seconds, so people can still strategically counter garbage without abusing it.

[EnFuego]

1. Get rid of handicapping! The worst idea ever for any game possible. **Very Important

2. Get rid of line delay and painfully slow dropping speed

3. Make garbage to all. Multiplayer games suck when you lose but send more garbage than everyone else combined (It has happened to me)  **Also very important

4. Make messier garbage. Or atleast make it choosable like TDS

5. Less times in between games. Have a "ready" button that if everyone hits then you start the next match or you wait the 20 seconds.

6. Have an APM stat for every player that you can see. Since the rating system sucks and you want to see how good some people are

7. Promotion/Demotion matches. To be promoted to a new rank you need to win a best of 15 match against someone else who is trying to get promoted. The higher the rank the less frequently you can attempt one of the matches. A demotion match is a match you need to play after a certain amount of time. If you do not then you can't gain more rating/temporarily lose rank until you successfully win a match.


8. Add team battles and a team creation/tag system. All the cool games are doing it. Then you could have special team only rooms and chat boxes.

9. If you pay for the ability to create expert rooms you should be able to have a personal room always available for friends/approved people to join even if you are not online. Nothing is stopping you from creating an expert room abandoning it and recreating more for everyone.

10. Beta the "ranked mode" if it still exists. Then we can start complaining about that and get it over with