wait what just happened

DFiPL

Family Reunion V, I've got Groot and Daken left, AI is down to Iron Man, who has no abilities flashing on my turn. I make a move, although I forget exactly what it was. Might have been a match-4 that triggered a cascade, I don't know.

The next move Iron Man drops Freon Beam on Groot and his yellow, whatever it's called, on Daken. He proceeds to use his yellow his next three turns in a row. The thing is, he didn't *have* enough blue or yellow during my turn to proc *either* of those so where the heck did he get enough AP to go freon-protect-protect-protect-protect-drive-home-safely?

Argh. Really, it's the Freon Beam that was the killer. Freezing Groot meant that he couldn't step in front to take damage and then heal with a yellow match. I'd love to know how he magically pulled those blues out of his rear end and why can't I do the same?

I mean, this wasn't a case of "cascade so significant that the game can't update AP fast enough to show you what he has." This is literally - no powers flashing when I moved followed by FREON BEAM TO THE FACE as soon as I finished.

what just happened?

snlf25

The game decided you needed to use some health packs. It happens.

Malcrof

The weekly AI is cheating thread. How about we wait until someone can actually record a match and link a video so we can see it. We all have had bad matches, but there is no concrete proof of magical AP and cascades... unless someone can prove otherwise.

just my 2 cents.

jredd

Malcrof wrote:

The weekly AI is cheating thread. How about we wait until someone can actually record a match and link a video so we can see it. We all have had bad matches, but there is no concrete proof of magical AP and cascades... unless someone can prove otherwise.

just my 2 cents.

who films themselves playing mpq?

Malcrof

jredd wrote:

Malcrof wrote:

The weekly AI is cheating thread. How about we wait until someone can actually record a match and link a video so we can see it. We all have had bad matches, but there is no concrete proof of magical AP and cascades... unless someone can prove otherwise.

just my 2 cents.

who films themselves playing mpq?

Loads of people make videos, hit up youtube or check out rasain's streams.. i watch some for strategies.

They even have MPQ video club contests with Hero Point rewards of 1k+

snlf25

Malcrof wrote:

The weekly AI is cheating thread. How about we wait until someone can actually record a match and link a video so we can see it. We all have had bad matches, but there is no concrete proof of magical AP and cascades... unless someone can prove otherwise.

just my 2 cents.

When it happens to me it's usually LThor's Call The Storm. I have no means of recording my play.

getterwing

jredd wrote:

Malcrof wrote:

The weekly AI is cheating thread. How about we wait until someone can actually record a match and link a video so we can see it. We all have had bad matches, but there is no concrete proof of magical AP and cascades... unless someone can prove otherwise.

just my 2 cents.

who films themselves playing mpq?

I think most of us have experienced this kind of things, for example, a couple of weeks ago a DEAD Storm in AI team fire a blue ability to kill my team. But, I agree that we don't have proof because most people wont film myself playing mpq!

snlf25

Never had a dead enemy power up on me, that's a new one.

DFiPL

Malcrof wrote:

The weekly AI is cheating thread. How about we wait until someone can actually record a match and link a video so we can see it. We all have had bad matches, but there is no concrete proof of magical AP and cascades... unless someone can prove otherwise.

just my 2 cents.

See, here's the thing. Most of those instances I chalk up to the whole cascade not updating the AP quickly enough thing. It's a plausible explanation, because I've seen that happen with my own AP, where it doesn't update until the cascade is finished. Since the AI can chain directly into a power from a cascade the way we cannot, that's an explanation that makes sense, even if it isn't a "satisfying" one.

But that isn't what happened here. This literally went from 'no flashing powers' to Freon Beam and Armored Assault as the first two moves of the next round. There wasn't *anything* that happened between my turn and Iron Man's turn where AP could have been generated. There were no feeder goons, and the other two AI characters had been downed already.

I'm not saying that MPQ was necessarily cheating there, but SOMETHING happened that shouldn't have and it leaves me seriously confused.

morph3us

I've had the game bug on me once in DDQ, where OBW fired off Aggressive Recon every single turn until I downed her, despite not having enough purple AP for it (and I checked carefully after each Agg Recon went off, since it was about five in a row). It's never happened since, so that's once in 337 days.

I think it's just a very rare glitch in the code that rears its head on occasion. I certainly don't subscribe to any conspiracy theories about it.

GuntherBlobel

In regards to OBW, she's often under covered in DDQ, which means that Agg Recon cost less than you expect (5 AP). Combined with Espionage, she can recharge it almost every round. I've definitely fought that frustrating battle with her.

Vhailorx

It was Sasquatch! or the Loch Ness Monster!!! It must have been!

It sucks when you miss the fact that the ai has a more AP than you thought, or when you forget that feeder goons work at the beginning of the turn, or when ai characters are underleveled and cast faster than you expect. But until you can produce evidence of a bug/glitch in the game and someone else can repeat the glitch, there's nothing to see here.

every one of these threads can be just as easily explained by human error/mistake/lack of attention. And in a game that rewards speedy play, it's not hard to admit that most of us play fast and don't always pay as much attention to every detail as would be ideal. And sometimes we get burned by it.

(this is not intended as a personal attack on OP. I also get really frustrated when this sort of thing happens, but some perspective is helpful. It's probably not some elaborate cheat programmed by the devs to cheat players out of more whatever. The devs openly charge $20 US for a single direct purchase 4* covers. When you can openly stack the deck in your favor like that, why would you need to also include subtle cheats?)

DFiPL

Vhailorx wrote:

It was Sasquatch! or the Loch Ness Monster!!! It must have been!

Go ahead. Keep making fun. I'll wait because...

It sucks when you miss the fact that the ai has a more AP than you thought, or when you forget that feeder goons work at the beginning of the turn, or when ai characters are underleveled and cast faster than you expect. But until you can produce evidence of a bug/glitch in the game and someone else can repeat the glitch, there's nothing to see here.

You know how I know you didn't read a word I posted? Because you're moralizing based on things I've already discounted. 1* Iron Man's powers don't work the way, say, OBW's do. "underleveling" doesn't make his powers cheaper. There were no feeder goons in the node, and Iron Man was the only character left standing. The leg that leaves you to stand on is "blah blah they had more than you thought even though everything in the display specifically said that, no, he did not have that AP until the turn rolled over."

There were no feeder goons. His powers don't get cheaper if he's underleveled. There was no cascade to give him the AP he didn't have going into the turn.

But you go right on ahead and keep moralizing about how other people just don't pay attention and so nothing to see here, blah blah blah.

AXP_isme

I conservatively estimate it'll take 3 minutes from this post before I get 'confirmation biased', that's definitely a thing btw.

Earlier today, on the same level, cMags seemed to be spamming his yellow and blue far more frequently than the board should allow (IM35 was already down). I got mullered and chalked it up as one of those games but now I'm wondering whether to entertain a conspiracy theory of some sort, after all it's more likely that the AI was cheating than it is that I was playing badly, right? Right?

Malcrof

When i play this board again, i will save IM35 for last just to check. The only thing i can think of would be if since this node used to have a goon in it, the ap generation from the goon was left in.... but i think that is tied to the actual goon, so doubtful..

But, willing to check anyway! Will update in about 10 minutes or so

Malcrof

Malcrof wrote:

When i play this board again, i will save IM35 for last just to check. The only thing i can think of would be if since this node used to have a goon in it, the ap generation from the goon was left in.... but i think that is tied to the actual goon, so doubtful..

But, willing to check anyway! Will update in about 10 minutes or so

Played through it twice.. checking opponent AP each turn both times.. no ghost AP at all, they only ever got what they matched.

2nd time, i beat it without the opposing team even firing a single ability.. Used 3Thor, DP, and IF.

Punisher5784

Maybe this is why the devs won't allow the interface to have a permanent AP bar cause then the AI won't be able to generate free AP.

I cannot tell you how many times I thought I had enough power to kill the last enemy, only to reduce their health to 1 (yes 1 HP!) then all of sudden they have enough AP to use all of their powers even though I checked prior to see they could not.

Also, there has definitely been times where I gained enough AP to use a power (flashes and everything), then on the next turn all of a sudden I am 1 AP short of using the power. I'm not facing Hood or any other AP stealer either. Normally happens if the AI has a Goon on their team. As if, the Goon gains their +1 AP from my AP pool!

Malcrof

Punisher5784 wrote:

Also, there has definitely been times where I gained enough AP to use a power (flashes and everything), then on the next turn all of a sudden I am 1 AP short of using the power. I'm not facing Hood or any other AP stealer either. Normally happens if the AI has a Goon on their team. As if, the Goon gains their +1 AP from my AP pool!

^ this, this one we at least have video record of. Will try to find it on you-tube and link it, but this happens quite often.. no idea why. I do know OBW steals when she matches, and hood steals etc... but on goon nodes.. should not be happening, but it does. There is an entire thread around here somewhere about people wondering if there is a goon with an AP steal that is not a cd tile somewhere.

This is not confirmation bias, this is just an odd and annoying glitch. The video is one that is showing off a new character using it in DDQ, and an ability is ready then goes away..

Consequently, i have seen it happen to the AI as well, i did not have an AP steal on my team, saw the AI get 2 green matches, cringed waiting for an Ares Onslaught, just to check when it did not happen and see only 5 ap in green..

Buret0

Punisher5784 wrote:

Maybe this is why the devs won't allow the interface to have a permanent AP bar cause then the AI won't be able to generate free AP.

I cannot tell you how many times I thought I had enough power to kill the last enemy, only to reduce their health to 1 (yes 1 HP!) then all of sudden they have enough AP to use all of their powers even though I checked prior to see they could not.

Also, there has definitely been times where I gained enough AP to use a power (flashes and everything), then on the next turn all of a sudden I am 1 AP short of using the power. I'm not facing Hood or any other AP stealer either. Normally happens if the AI has a Goon on their team. As if, the Goon gains their +1 AP from my AP pool!

Let me guess... it was a power?

There is a display bug that I've noticed with black where it appears that the black AP that you generated on your turn was enough to fire your power, but it was not enough.

Lidolas

About once a week or so something happens in the game that makes me think this same question "Wait, what just happened?" But I almost never give this game enough attention to be able to answer that, even when it has a reasonable explanation. I've made a move, looked away to take care of real life, and look back and realize I've taken more damage than seems possible. I've had flashing moves during my turn, used another ability (not anything like HT's or Ms. Marvel's blacks) and then I no longer have the AP for the first one.

But since I rarely, rarely pay attention to the actual AP counts, I chalk it up to inattention and move on. Even if the AI is getting 'extra' AP and even if I'm losing it, that's apparently how the devs developed the game. I still have fun playing so I look at it as another obstacle to overcome.

Unknown

Also in PvP, when you pick on a team that is way lower than you, thinking it is easy, yet somehow... the AI still manages to do a lot more damage to your team, or even beat your team than if you pick a team that is your level (easier).