just saw my first 63AP cascade

TxMoose

I have no idea what they did differently but I swear every clear in pve I see cascades after cascades. I'm running 12th in hulk and trying to make t10. first, the fury essential got my 166thor, 102hood, and 1-cover fury - that was with them in the 80s... if a 166thor can't survive lvl 80 opponents something's very wrong. one early cascade and ability after ability after ability - hood doesn't help much then. after that wipe and 2 health packs I muddled my way through it a second run. now I get to the second to the last node - moonstone/venom/daken at 183. I'm running thor/142loki/144fist(fist at 102 unboosted). best team I can throw I start the match with a purple and get a blue to add 6AP. they make one move and go from 0 AP to 63. tried to keep track of the criticals they went through. with all the flashes and movement I lost track after 5 criticals. completely unbelievable. if I wasn't so close to t10 I'd be laughing but this just sucks. I'm going to play it out and see what happens - there's a crapload of loki's cds out (20 of them) but they will immediately throw 5 abilities (moon red, daken blue twice, venom black and purple), then get 2 turns as I will be stunned and likely get more stuff off before any ap comes back my way. will update what happens but had to vent before I finished....

never mind - I calculated and all the abilities headed my way add up to 10,330 in damage. thor has 10,200, loki at 5083 and fist down to 3457. no chance. retreating to save health packs and time before I try again. very frustrating.

I've said it before but something changed about a week ago. I've seen more cascades in the last week than ever. I throw thunder strike out and nothing. sometimes not even a green match available. one time I did back to back fist purples - black just sat there - no matches made. this is just unbelievable.

Buret0

I'm looking for a word... it's like confirmation bias, but it really only applies to how you remember when bad things happen to you more than when good things happen to you.

Anyway, I think that what people are experiencing is that.

TxMoose

I played 6 months of pretty heavy play and didn't have this opinion but all of the sudden yes, I've suddenly come down with selective memory. I bet that's it.

Unknown

No its not selective memory. If it was, we wouldn't have more and more complaining about the same thing. I experienced something similar earlier this week, I didn't count up the AP gain the computer got, but by like turn 4 they were around 15 for each color (I say roughl;y because they started firing off so the numbers started shifting).

Ironically I still won...barely.
- Unreall

TxMoose

only reason I know is it was their move #1, so I was able to add it up. wonder if there's a record for that? I have screenshots from my phone but have to figure out how to get it here - i'll try and post. was spectacular really. I retreated. they were either going to take down thor or fist and loki and either way I had no chance. I literally had my r/y/p/blue boosts ap plus 3 purple and 3 blue

Buret0

Unreallystic wrote:

No its not selective memory. If it was, we wouldn't have more and more complaining about the same thing. I experienced something similar earlier this week, I didn't count up the AP gain the computer got, but by like turn 4 they were around 15 for each color (I say roughl;y because they started firing off so the numbers started shifting).

Ironically I still won...barely.
- Unreall

When someone starts complaining about it, you begin to take notice of it more and remember it more.

It is just like when you buy a car and you suddenly start seeing that same car everywhere. Are there suddenly more of those cars on the road, or have you simply started to notice it more.

Just like an in-game cascade, the more people who talk about their "ridiculous" cascades, the more people will notice and remember their own "ridiculous" cascades, which will cause people to post more about it, thus leading to more people seeing "ridiculous" cascades.

I mean, when it happens for my own benefit, I don't really think to remember that time that I cleared a vertical line and 8 yellows dropped. When it happens to the CPU, I'm sure I swear out loud and remember it.

It could also simply be a function of longer matches. But I'm quite certain that they didn't change anything in the code to affect the random drop rate of the tiles in order to give the CPU more cascades. That's a :tinfoil: moment.

Unknown

This is quite literally the health pack tax I talk about occasionally. When it gets into this mode it'll keep wiping you until you've taken enough damage and / or used up enough health packs. Almost everytime it's happened, if I retreat and try with a different team same thing happens next match (or if I magically manage to get through it). If I use health packs, the hostile cascading backs off in favor of more normal random cascading.

udonomefoo

TxMoose wrote:

only reason I know is it was their move #1, so I was able to add it up. wonder if there's a record for that? I have screenshots from my phone but have to figure out how to get it here - i'll try and post. was spectacular really. I retreated. they were either going to take down thor or fist and loki and either way I had no chance. I literally had my r/y/p/blue boosts ap plus 3 purple and 3 blue

Record was 61: http://www.d3go.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21211

Various38

I saw something close late last night. The computer took so long on their turn that I was able to get up, go to the microwave, check my food temperature, and walk back in the room to see the combos still hitting for another cascade. That was ridiculous.

thisone

Yep cascades have been much more frequent this event. I find if I just let patch tank and let loki/hood hoover up the AP it's not so bad. It's nice to have some AP to steal

optimus2861

The devs nerfed True Healing a long time ago because they said it wasn't fun. And really, they were right. Going into a prologue mission to heal your characters isn't fun, it's tedious.

A mega-cascade against you by the AI on turn 1 or 2 or 3 isn't fun. It's effectively an instant "game over, you lose" that you're powerless to stop. So when does it get nerfed?

Unknown

Buret0 wrote:

Unreallystic wrote:

No its not selective memory. If it was, we wouldn't have more and more complaining about the same thing. I experienced something similar earlier this week, I didn't count up the AP gain the computer got, but by like turn 4 they were around 15 for each color (I say roughl;y because they started firing off so the numbers started shifting).

Ironically I still won...barely.
- Unreall

When someone starts complaining about it, you begin to take notice of it more and remember it more.

It is just like when you buy a car and you suddenly start seeing that same car everywhere. Are there suddenly more of those cars on the road, or have you simply started to notice it more.

Just like an in-game cascade, the more people who talk about their "ridiculous" cascades, the more people will notice and remember their own "ridiculous" cascades, which will cause people to post more about it, thus leading to more people seeing "ridiculous" cascades.

I mean, when it happens for my own benefit, I don't really think to remember that time that I cleared a vertical line and 8 yellows dropped. When it happens to the CPU, I'm sure I swear out loud and remember it.

It could also simply be a function of longer matches. But I'm quite certain that they didn't change anything in the code to affect the random drop rate of the tiles in order to give the CPU more cascades. That's a :tinfoil: moment.

I understand what you are saying, but unlike me seeing Pilots since we decided that owuld be our next car, this is tangible to see. I see how long my health packs last, I see how many rounds I get through now, I can tangibly see WHY I'm losing more health. The logner matches DO contribute to this, more matches made increase the chance, but it just feels ridiculous the cascades, I'm accustom to one match 5 from a cascade and the computer randomly getting a nasty one, but lately the cascades have been so long that my phone's screen turns OFF as I wait to put in an input. That almost NEVER happened, yet over the past couple of weeks it has happened at least once per 'session' for me. I usually can get through it due to "skill" if you will, and again, I do admit the longer matches increase the percentage, but the increase in RIDICULOUS cascades have skyrocketed.

I'm not even going to get into Lhor's Yellow not making any matches for me, but the computer's acts like GSBW trying to make match 5s...
- Unreall

TxMoose

this cascade had nothing to do with health increases, but I've seen a decided uptick in characters that I'm ready to down, I finally got the ap to finish the match and they get their big move off one turn before they die, automatically requiring at least one health pack (sometimes 2 or 3 with rags green). the upped health is definitely leading to more of that... I've seen it at least a half dozen times over the last week and can't remember seeing it before. I'm sure its happened but not with the frequency that it is now (or I would have noticed)

optimus2861

Unreallystic wrote:

I'm not even going to get into Lhor's Yellow not making any matches for me, but the computer's acts like GSBW trying to make match 5s...
- Unreall

I fired 2* Thor's Yellow at least 5 or 6 times during DDQ today. I got one total match-4 out of them, no matter when I fired them or how much green was already on the board. I've never seen the like of that before. I guess I was due.

Malcrof

optimus2861 wrote:

Unreallystic wrote:

I'm not even going to get into Lhor's Yellow not making any matches for me, but the computer's acts like GSBW trying to make match 5s...
- Unreall

I fired 2* Thor's Yellow at least 5 or 6 times during DDQ today. I got one total match-4 out of them, no matter when I fired them or how much green was already on the board. I've never seen the like of that before. I guess I was due.

I had the opposite, fired it twice after using my 2 CoS on round 4 of of Big Enchilada.. and the unholy cascade of win started... it didn't stop until all 3 were dead, never got a chance to see how much AP i got, but when it happens in your favor, it rocks. I did see 4 critical tiles pop during the explosion though.

TxMoose

my first attempt at a photo here for verification (never done a photo before):
never mind - figured it out on next post but can't delete this one. see below.

TxMoose

maybe? yahoo, got it.

missed a couple of things in my posting haste: I also had a green match in my mini cascade to start the match. and venom did not have enough black to fire, but still.

blinktag

optimus2861 wrote:

A mega-cascade against you by the AI on turn 1 or 2 or 3 isn't fun. It's effectively an instant "game over, you lose" that you're powerless to stop. So when does it get nerfed?

On the flip side, it is *really* fun when you get to do that to the AI.

Too bad last time it happened it was against a team 60 levels lower than me.

Buret0

TxMoose wrote:

missed a couple of things in my posting haste: I also had a green match in my mini cascade to start the match. and venom did not have enough black to fire, but still.

I see that you are using Loki.

Are you intentionally leaving them with more match 4 situations so that Loki's ability can fire?

Because... if you are, you are going to end up with more possibilities for cascades.

I mean, it is totally a strategy that we all use when we have Loki in the party... give the AI a match 4 on a color that you aren't afraid of feeding them, just to trigger Mischief.

I've seen it myself. I intentionally leave them a vertical match 4, which leads to chaotic cascades.

Usually leaving the AI a horizontal match 4 is preferable, because you can usually plan out whether any cascades will result from the AI.

Malcrof

20 Loki tiles, do we have a record on that one as well?

With all those reds and scaling, wonder what that photon blast damage was lol

TxMoose

Buret0 wrote:

TxMoose wrote:

Are you intentionally leaving them with more match 4 situations so that Loki's ability can fire?

Because... if you are, you are going to end up with more possibilities for cascades.

actually I started with a mini cascade that made 3 matches for my first move. I do sometimes leave a match-4 in a color that the opposing team can't use, but that wasn't the case here. had no control after 3 matches what would fall and be left.

Malcrof wrote:

20 Loki tiles, do we have a record on that one as well?

With all those reds and scaling, wonder what that photon blast damage was lol

I calculated that it was going to be 4170. dakens first cast would be 1685, second 977. and the venom black that he's 2 away from and can easily get after he stuns me would be another 3507. either way I was going to end up with only thor or only fist/loki so I cast fist purple hoping to get a return favor from the cascade powers that be and got one black match out of it. it was then time to retreat since I needed to save health packs as much as possible since I'm very close to t10 (running 10th now but man what a grind it is).