Make the AI more like live opponent

Unknown

I've noticed during some PvP games that the AI will use cards that it doesn't need to...like destroy a creature to gain mana....when it has no cards left. Altho I jump with glee at the fact that I can then win the game easily, it does make a dis-satisfying game for me. Can you make the AI more discerning when it comes to playing a card? I know that I risk some flak for this, but it doesn't play like I would, i.e. Hold the card for when I need it most.

Irgy

Asking for a better AI is like asking for "a more balanced game" or (and I'm a culprit here) "a more responsive UI". It's not just a matter of deciding to do it. I'm sure the AI is as good as they're able to make it with their existing resources. If they knew how to make it better and had the time available then they would. At best what you're asking is for them to prioritise it higher, but that raises the question at the cost of what, personally I actually wouldn't want it to be at the cost of bug fixes and, well, balance and UI fixes for that matter.

It seems easy to implement rules like "don't use card X when it's counterproductive to do so", but trying to list every case of this is very time consuming, and ultimately not even a very effective approach to the problem.

Though all that said it does seem like the AI is deliberately bad at times, particularly with its choice of moves on the board. Missing chain reactions I could blame on the problem being challenging, but matching potential 5-gem-'L's as 4 in a row instead

Irving

Yeah - there are two issues here really.

1) How good is the AI? Can a new player win at least sometimes, and is there some challenge for an experienced player? This is a subjective question, but right now it seems like the AI is accessible to new players at the cost of being little challenge for veterans. There's enough difficulty in the campaign mode, because they were able to give the opponents powerful abilities and lots of HP, but it's easy to run off very long Quick Match winning streaks. Not sure if it was a conscious choice, or if they only had time to make the AI play well enough not to be embarrassing. Perhaps they'll have different levels in the future, either in quality of AI or in quality of opposing deck.

2) How "human-feeling" is the AI? Does it make moves that obviously have no point? This can pull you out of immersion and sounds like the bigger part of OP's problem. It does feel weird to have the AI:
- Reclaim a dangerous creature to cast something much smaller/less dangerous
- Cast a Skaab Goliath that immediately dies (in fact, after hundreds of Quick Match battles I've never seen one that *didn't* immediately die)
- Use Confusion on a disabled creature (when the Claustrophobia still has plenty of charges left)
- Fail to move relevant cards to the last position when I have a Mizzium Meddler in play

It's true that you'll never catch them all, and they do take resources, but taking care of the big ones like these would change things significantly. The question then would be - if they did that, would the AI play too well for the balance they want? Perhaps they could make up for it by penalizing it on mana or something, but that starts to become a pretty time-consuming tweaking task.

Overall I understand the frustration, but also understand if it's not something that's a priority to improve. The game's still fun & I hope that more content is coming.

Unknown

All I know is that anytime I put and Activate gem on the board that blasted AI goes right for it, regardless of color-advantage; even before taking out my support that is locking it down. That is pretty frustrating, which I guess is good because it's challenging.

Unknown

Ok, Good points, you guys know more about th mechanix than I do...thanx for replying. I'm enjoying th game anyways...no gripes intended.

Unknown

Irving, when I play against Jace he never confuses the claustrofobic creature. And I have already seen AI change order of cards sometimes though I don't know necessarily if for the best or not.
My Gideon us level 23 and I usually find Jaces level 18 to 21. How about you?

Irving

After I posted this, the next time I played Jace he didn't Confuse the Claustrophobic creature and I was wondering if I imagined it... but then the time after that he did it again. It seems to be something like Confusing the highest-power creature, but don't hold me to that.

The AI definitely does change the order of cards, but it doesn't put cards that it actually wants to cast at the end when I have a Mizzium Meddler in play. It plays Veteran's Sidearms and Nissa's Pilgrimages and painlands and such, and it doesn't shift spells out of the last slot even after they're fully charged (obviously that's only relevant when it already has 6 cards).

Sorry, not really paying attention to what level of Jace I'm facing! My PW's range from level 15 to 50. Just from memory, I think I've seen the -3/-0 version of Confusion about 75% of the time and the -6/-0 version the rest, for whatever that's worth.

Unknown

My observation is that Jace Confuses the creature with the highest Attack.