AI making too many lucky chains

Unknown

Pentagoon wrote:

My turn to be an argumentative prick again to the developers - not based on math, but 5 solid months of MPQ under my belt - there's definitely an increase in AI cascades in the past week. No question - not selective memory - I killz me some goonz with cascades out the yazoo and remember them quite well too, but I've never been hit with the ferocity of cascades as I have during The Hulk this time around.

If the AI was tweaked, ICEIX, just verify that fact so we can move on. As long as the AI doesn't stop preferring environmental tiles, **** 4-way matches, and easy-to-reach crits - I for one don't have a problem with it. I just don't buy the "we haven't touched this part of the code" argument one bit if that's your stance. If someone committed code that didn't make it into the change list, you should know about that too. "Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K."

--Pentagoon

I find I get substantially more cascades when I wear headphones.

Thanos

Pentagoon wrote:

"Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.

--Pentagoon

A most excellent reference! Wild stallions forever!

SunCrusher

Probability (if calculated out to infinity) means that we can see a whole week of seemingly horrible cascades from the AI... and then another week we can see a whole week of cascades in our favor... and both of these observations could be well within statistical expectations when looking at the entire picture along with the whole more immediate 'win-some-lose-some' model (which is probably what most people kind of expect when thinking of chance and probability).

That said, when I was playing Pre-Launch (R46? a little before R46?) and pre-R47, it seemed (to me) that the game was more visibly 'balanced' in terms of cascades. I would get a lucky few and the AI would get a lucky few.

And then when R47 came out, I started getting owned more frequently by the AI from both the goons and the 'playing' opponent characters to the point I started tracking my gameplay results and in my opinion, I was seeing a lot more 'lucky' cascades coming from the opponent.

For example, Juggernaut would clear a useless black 3-in-a-row from the top of my screen and miraculously it would seem, the colors that would fall would match the colors below it... which happened to be green and red and of course, it would set off his ability and BOOM.

I got fed up and more or less quit playing the game save for log-ins and a bit of play time here and there and when R48 came out, I decided to give it another try.

For myself, I definitely saw some CRAZY cascades - especially with the PvE tourneys - and it sort of happened in this fashion:

Me me me nobody nobody nobody them them them me them me them them them them nobody nobody me me them me me...

The 'nobody' is when nobody on either side made a particularly significant cascade or a particularly 'lucky' cascade (though maybe the AI would consider my assessment to be otherwise) and for my own pattern, at least, I seem to have spots of win-lose and then spots of winning streaks and then spots of losing streaks.

Though the long lose streaks are definitely a PAIN (especially when going against NPCs who can take down your entire team), I ultimately still come out 'even' in terms of 'fairness' with lucky streaks in cascades.

Obviously if I were to look at those windows of time where I was 'exceptionally' lucky or unlucky, my results would be skewed, but given the whole picture over time, the 'balance' is there.

Not saying anyone's observations of lucky streaks are wrong, but I also do think that ultimately when calculated across time, the 'luckiness' is more balanced than what it can appear to during certain stretches of time.

Just my two pennies.

ClydeFrog76

Thanos wrote:

Pentagoon wrote:

"Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.

--Pentagoon

A most excellent reference! Wild stallions forever!

*Wyld Stallyns

Unknown

jozier wrote:

Pentagoon wrote:

My turn to be an argumentative prick again to the developers - not based on math, but 5 solid months of MPQ under my belt - there's definitely an increase in AI cascades in the past week. No question - not selective memory - I killz me some goonz with cascades out the yazoo and remember them quite well too, but I've never been hit with the ferocity of cascades as I have during The Hulk this time around.

If the AI was tweaked, ICEIX, just verify that fact so we can move on. As long as the AI doesn't stop preferring environmental tiles, **** 4-way matches, and easy-to-reach crits - I for one don't have a problem with it. I just don't buy the "we haven't touched this part of the code" argument one bit if that's your stance. If someone committed code that didn't make it into the change list, you should know about that too. "Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K."

--Pentagoon

LOL. "No question, it's not selective memory." Except that it is.

You're an idiot.

Mechgouki, is that you?

Unknown

Only time I notice a random chain that really pisses me off is when they have a Daken. My OBW has gone from full to nothing two times during this Hulk event because of some ****, like they make one match, the 3 of a kind come down that lead to a crit tile, which leads to another match-5, which leads to some obscene chain that generates some strike tiles in the process, and suddenly Natasha drops dead.

Unknown

It's strange, but it seems like the longer I leave M.Storm and Loki alive on the enemy team, the more lucky cascades the AI gets. Has anybody else noticed this glitch?

Unknown

Celerity wrote:

It's strange, but it seems like the longer I leave M.Storm and Loki alive on the enemy team, the more lucky cascades the AI gets. Has anybody else noticed this glitch?

I noticed this after leaving Rags for last

Thanos

Celerity wrote:

It's strange, but it seems like the longer I leave M.Storm and Loki alive on the enemy team, the more lucky cascades the AI gets. Has anybody else noticed this glitch?

The strangest thing happened today. I had the whole enemy team stunned and out of nowhere they got a massive cascade that just kept going and going not only wiping out my whole team but continued to wipe out my whole roster of 31 characters and finally finished when they ate all five of my health packs! And yeah, they had a bagman, so annoying.

Pentagoon

jozier wrote:

Pentagoon wrote:

My turn to be an argumentative prick again to the developers - not based on math, but 5 solid months of MPQ under my belt - there's definitely an increase in AI cascades in the past week. No question - not selective memory - I killz me some goonz with cascades out the yazoo and remember them quite well too, but I've never been hit with the ferocity of cascades as I have during The Hulk this time around.

If the AI was tweaked, ICEIX, just verify that fact so we can move on. As long as the AI doesn't stop preferring environmental tiles, **** 4-way matches, and easy-to-reach crits - I for one don't have a problem with it. I just don't buy the "we haven't touched this part of the code" argument one bit if that's your stance. If someone committed code that didn't make it into the change list, you should know about that too. "Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K."

--Pentagoon

LOL. "No question, it's not selective memory." Except that it is.

You're an idiot.

I do not and have never denied the fact that I am an idiot (you forgot dashingly handsome and great in bed though). I appreciate your candor and eloquence, Mr. Jozier - your 1 day seniority over me in the forums clearly makes all the difference.

--Pentagoon

Pentagoon

IceIX wrote:

Pentagoon wrote:

If the AI was tweaked, ICEIX, just verify that fact so we can move on. As long as the AI doesn't stop preferring environmental tiles, **** 4-way matches, and easy-to-reach crits - I for one don't have a problem with it. I just don't buy the "we haven't touched this part of the code" argument one bit if that's your stance. If someone committed code that didn't make it into the change list, you should know about that too. "Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K."

We have made no changes to the frequency of cascades for AI, nor the AI coding for matches. All indications for the frequency of cascades for either side are that everything is completely statistically standard. There has been no notable increase or decrease of cascades from either side. Even if code changes have somehow changed AI responses to tile locations, it has made no difference in cascade frequency.

IceIX - thanks once again for following through and providing an authoritative response. I'm gonna go ahead and blame my cascade perception snafu on this guy named Rufus that keeps popping up and telling me about a history report I forgot to do back in High School.



--Pentagoon

Nonce Equitaur 2

Today, in the desert against a high-level Juggs, Rags, and Hammer, on round 2 they got some amazing cascades, and Juggs did a headbutt. Same thing on round 3, and Black panther was dead, and my two remaining characters were almost dead.

It was Classic Magneto and Modern storm, and I had 6 blue, so I decided to see if I could pull off a win, since there was some blue on the board after all the chaos Juggs caused. That led to enough red for Storm to do Mistress of the Elements to snag all the desert tiles, then eventually her green power, and a few trips back and forth between Mags and Storm. They eventually got the win.

It does seem that the AI has a lot more luck with tiles in the past few weeks.

Pentagoon

SunCrusher wrote:

Just my two pennies.

Your two pennies are worth 20,000 Hero Points, SunCrusher. Thanks for the input and objective analysis - I appreciate your perspective - I haven't actually written down the cascade frequencies - neat idea!

--Pentagoon