5 turns in a row for AI

BlackBoltRocks

So i was playing the CStorm essential in the Hulk event against Daken, Bullseye, Venom. Match was proceeding along fine, had hit them with a Windstorm and Rampage.

And then...the bloodbath came upon me, outta nowhere like Randy Orton's RKO.

Turn 1: Venom used Symbiote Snare. Made a purple match
Turn 2: Venom used Symbiote Snare. AI used a Twin Pistols TU
Turn 3: Venom used Symbiote Snare from the generated AP. Bullseye used Murderous Aim and Lethal Precision in succession. Match 3
Turn 4: Venom used Symbiote Snare from the generated AP. Made a Match 3
Turn 5: Made a Match 3
Turn 6: i was finally released from prison like Jean Valjean in Les Mis

Ever since The Hunt I've noticed a significant increase in the AI's luck and intelligence. I got hit with a Match 4 into Match 5 into Match 4 into Match 5. On two separate occasions.

Anybody else having the same awesome luck as me?

Unknown

Oh I did. Ran the node with rags and the lieutenant with commander running a maxed 3* Thor, daken, and capt marvel. Wiped the two and left rags. Had a full team with 60% health on each. Rags goes apesh*t and drops a 20 green cascade that hits 2 5 matches and proceeds to wipe my entire team and spams every skill possible more than twice. Never seen anything like that and made me question why I continue to play. (Oh hello addiction.... crud)

thisone

Yep the dark avengers in particular get cascades in the colours they need and the board is set up in their favour. Especially with bullseye.

You need to take advantage of the obviousness. Facing venom and bullseye? Well they'll have purple and black all over the board. So bring someone to take advantage.

Unknown

I have noticed that over the past few weeks, the AI does seem to be slightly smarter than before - making more matches that lead to cascades already present on the board, as well as targeting my "strong" colors. Thought it was odd - maybe they're trying to implement better AI and seeing if the change is noticeable?

timbopp

Yeah I've seen this a few times. For me it seems like it's always their turn just before I am about unleash a match-winning AOE.

They may be smarter or luckier but they still don't know how to make a T shaped match-5.
Although I'm glad they don't, I do get a little upset when the AI ignores one... such a waste.

Unknown

BlackBoltRocks wrote:

Ever since The Hunt I've noticed a significant increase in the AI's luck and intelligence. I got hit with a Match 4 into Match 5 into Match 4 into Match 5. On two separate occasions.

Anybody else having the same awesome luck as me?

While it is a little annoying, and this has happened to me a few times in The Hunt, I kind of like that they're getting smarter... It adds a little more excitement in my opinion even though I do get really angry when I get beaten by opponents at lvl. 130 and I have 3 at 240 (but that mostly happens when I don't heal before a battle lol)...

ammenell

i think the ai got a lot luckier, but not smarter.
ai places a special tile and immediately matches it away, almost always goes for a match-4 when there is a match-5, to the point you are actually surprised when your special tiles or a color you need are matched. still the same dumb ai.

but cascade madness after a simple match-3 into two match-5s, two or three times in a row? matching a horizontal match-4 and a match-5 just drops into the board? a vertical match-4, dropping a match-6?

this happens increasingly often to me. talk about impulse control...
just make that obvious match-5, pls and dont match your special tiles.
but this is the equivalant to input reading ai in fight games.

Dayv

This morning, I started a match by making a critical near the top of the screen, which caused a chain reaction of about five (it was very fast) chain reaction drop-in criticals, completely wiping out the seed team without either of us taking another action. It wasn't even one of the single-digit level teams, this was a several-thousand-point critical chain that generated Probably 25 AP or more. Things happen. We just remember them more strongly when they inconvenience us.

Unknown

DayvBang wrote:

This morning, I started a match by making a critical near the top of the screen, which caused a chain reaction of about five (it was very fast) chain reaction drop-in criticals, completely wiping out the seed team without either of us taking another action. It wasn't even one of the single-digit level teams, this was a several-thousand-point critical chain that generated Probably 25 AP or more. Things happen. We just remember them more strongly when they inconvenience us.

I remember doing it once earlier this week, and again a couple days ago, I made a match 4 and put the phone down, when I came back the 5k HP character was dead. But I also remember this happening at least 10 times for the AI in the same period of time.

TxMoose

DayvBang wrote:

This morning, I started a match by making a critical near the top of the screen, which caused a chain reaction of about five (it was very fast) chain reaction drop-in criticals, completely wiping out the seed team without either of us taking another action. It wasn't even one of the single-digit level teams, this was a several-thousand-point critical chain that generated Probably 25 AP or more. Things happen. We just remember them more strongly when they inconvenience us.

I remember this against seed teams too. why does this never happen on my pvp hop? even opponent cascades one turn 1 or 2 that happen soooo often in pve (at least a dozen times opponent had 20-40 ap after turn 2 over the weekend), just doesn't happen that often in pvp. I know it sounds tinfoil-ish but I swear pve ai gets more cascades than pvp.

thisone

DayvBang wrote:

This morning, I started a match by making a critical near the top of the screen, which caused a chain reaction of about five (it was very fast) chain reaction drop-in criticals, completely wiping out the seed team without either of us taking another action. It wasn't even one of the single-digit level teams, this was a several-thousand-point critical chain that generated Probably 25 AP or more. Things happen. We just remember them more strongly when they inconvenience us.

Not exactly true. We do remember the times the cascades benefit us. It is usually

1. Against seed teams (as per your example)
2. Against trivial nodes
3. At the end of a match.

Rarely (it has happened twice in 9 months) do I benefit from a game changing cascade that turns the tide in a difficult match.

During the gauntlet I had abysmal luck with cascades. Even with board shakers I couldn't catch a break. When hulk event starts the trivial nodes were so kind to me I actually laughed out loud. I had a 7 second match for pity's sake!

Tldr I remember the good times as well as the bad

Unknown

[strikethrough]I've noticed the AI prioritizing purple matches when none of the 3 use purple for anything. Even to the extent where solo Daken will match 3 purple tiles over several possible blue and green matches. No idea why this would happen, but it screws up GSBW and Hawkeye from time to time. [/strikethrough]

Also, the devs mentioned that the AI will scan the board in a certain pattern that all but eliminates the possibility of a 5-match for them, unless the tiles fall that way, or unless the match looks like this: XXOXX.

Malcrof

deiXide wrote:

I've noticed the AI prioritizing purple matches when none of the 3 use purple for anything. Even to the extent where solo Daken will match 3 purple tiles over several possible blue and green matches. No idea why this would happen, but it screws up GSBW and Hawkeye from time to time.

Purple is Daken's strongest color.. not sure what the shock over him matching them is.. even with no active ability AI will always go for strongest first (if no 4 or straight line 5 avail)

Unknown

Malcrof wrote:

Purple is Daken's strongest color.. not sure what the shock over him matching them is.. even with no active ability AI will always go for strongest first (if no 4 or straight line 5 avail)

Makes sense, thanks.

tanis3303

Malcrof wrote:

deiXide wrote:

I've noticed the AI prioritizing purple matches when none of the 3 use purple for anything. Even to the extent where solo Daken will match 3 purple tiles over several possible blue and green matches. No idea why this would happen, but it screws up GSBW and Hawkeye from time to time.

Purple is Daken's strongest color.. not sure what the shock over him matching them is.. even with no active ability AI will always go for strongest first (if no 4 or straight line 5 avail)

Black is Daken's strongest color. I've Surgical Strike-d him enough times to know

But yea, I've noticed this too, and only recently. The AI seems to be willing to sacrifice colors that their team can use in order to take away the last available match of any given color on the board, especially if you are one match away from charging a power in that color. It never used to to do this, and its incredibly annoying. If we're going to make the AI play like a human player, can we drop some of the artificial "difficulty" that is Daken and Ares at level 300+ with their 5 AP, 4-7 thousand damage skills please?

TxMoose

tanis3303 wrote:

can we drop some of the artificial "difficulty" that is Daken and Ares at level 300+ with their 5 AP, 4-7 thousand damage skills please?

completely agree here. they take the highest damage/ap in the game (ares/daken/jugs - when scaled) and make the pve playerbase play them over and over again. I'm baffled how they think that is fun. they can be beaten but it is not fun doing it and sometimes you wipe, which really sucks as a player. can we not get some overscaled 2*cap or 2*marvel....ever?

jvasses

I've definitely noticed a smarter AI this event. using storm against a team where blue is the weakest color, they still continued to steal all my blue matches to prevent me from using her windstorm. I was under the impression they are programmed to pick the match that nets the most damage, but clearly the 12 damage x 3 wasn't the strongest move on the board (although it was the smartest).

GurlBYE

Venom daken juggernaut and ares all just have extremely cheap powers.

Venoms always at 5 covers so he always freezes our whole team.

Combined with the right allies/matches, they can potentially stun or defeat you to death super easy.

Turbosmooth

Yes, I noticed the better AI. The most annoying part is matching my CDs often especially with a count of 1. That started happening when XDP was released. It is good only if you are playing that character. Obviously not for any other.

Thankfully, it still doesn't know how to make T's, L's, and Z's match 5-6s on purpose.

Buret0

I've decided that at four covers, Surfer is key for fighting 4Thor, Jean, and Venom. His immunity to stun and making blue the strongest color means that I can make a match 5 against Jean and ignore the stun. When 4Thor is going to use power surge, I make sure that Surfer is in front to block the stun and pick up the charged tiles. When Venom uses his full team stun, I'm still standing.

At low covers, he's still not the most useful character to have on the team for PvP Defense, but I appreciate being able to fight through the stuns with even a single blue cover.