Countdown Tile placement

dsds

I am using scarlet witch a lot. And here is what I noticed. It probably is confirmation bias, but in the past, i don't remember the CD tile blocking my match 3s. It used to be a lot more random. Now it feels like the blue countdown tile is always placed on a match 3 of a color that I really need. For instance if there is a match 3 yellow and I need that match for IM40, scarlete witch will place the friendly cd on one of the yellows.

The same with the ai, it always tries to deny my colors first before getting their own colors. It's almost like it uses the same algorithms for both the AI's turn and the placement of a friend CD tile.

Fightmastermpq

It took them how many months to figure out how to get the board to shuffle properly and you think they are capable of intricately tuning CD tile placement to spite you. No. This is just confirmation bias.

Punisher5784

dsds wrote:

I am using scarlet witch a lot. And here is what I noticed. It probably is confirmation bias, but in the past, i don't remember the CD tile blocking my match 3s. It used to be a lot more random. Now it feels like the blue countdown tile is always placed on a match 3 of a color that I really need. For instance if there is a match 3 yellow and I need that match for IM40, scarlete witch will place the friendly cd on one of the yellows.

The same with the ai, it always tries to deny my colors first before getting their own colors. It's almost like it uses the same algorithms for both the AI's turn and the placement of a friend CD tile.

The CD tile placement is supposed to represent Scarlet Witch's unpredictability of her powers. This has been a problem since her release. It always seems like she works against the colors you are looking to match. She ruined countless 5-matches for me

dsds

That's exactly what i was worried about. If it took how many months to fix a simple bug, what else were they working on that was more higher priority.
I know they fixed AI to be more difficult. I can see the difference in the past few months.

I am sure they schedule things well in advance and if bugs come up, they have to fit it into the schedule somehow. And sometimes there is no room for bug squishing in the schedule so thus why it takes so long to fix.

I don't have a problem with it being semi against me. But I wonder if all CD tiles are done randomly, or is there different code of how each type of CD power is placed?

DapperChewie

If it doesn't mess up your match, it's in the corner. Switch likes to put that tile in inconvenient places.

I know that it's random, and that we just notice it more when it's put in a bad place, but still.

carrion_pigeons

dsds wrote:

That's exactly what i was worried about. If it took how many months to fix a simple bug, what else were they working on that was more higher priority.
I know they fixed AI to be more difficult. I can see the difference in the past few months.

I am sure they schedule things well in advance and if bugs come up, they have to fit it into the schedule somehow. And sometimes there is no room for bug squishing in the schedule so thus why it takes so long to fix.

I don't have a problem with it being semi against me. But I wonder if all CD tiles are done randomly, or is there different code of how each type of CD power is placed?

If you think about how feature-light the game is, and then compare that to how intricate the AI would have to be in order to make the kinds of evaluations you're talking about, I think you'll find it hard keep justifying this opinion.

You have to keep in mind that a lot of the time, there just aren't actually that many matches on the board. If there's 1-3 possible matches one can make, then there's a real solid chance the AI will make one that screws you up.

You might want to try choosing teams that want to prioritize colors the AI team doesn't care about. For example, if the opposing team contains Bullseye, I'll generally avoid bringing a team with a lot of demand for purple AP because I know I'm going to be fighting over it and it's gonna make me frustrated. That doesn't work if the opponent is fielding a rainbow team, but particularly in PvE, it's fairly easy to take advantage of the AIs flaws like this to stave off a little of the frustration.

mpqr7

There are a lot of times where it's in a corner, useless, or disrupts a potential match-5.

But there are also a lot of times where out of the blue, it creates a match-10 of purple, suddenly giving me enough to cast JG's purple power.

In wave battles where the first few rounds are all goons, it's pretty easy to get to 30 purple pretty quickly, so then you have enough to dominate with aoe attacks for the rest of the match. Good times!!

dsds

Yes it is feature light for sure, no doubt about it. But the sheer amount of characters and powers makes it pretty challenging to code even with so little features. That's why new characters always get some kind of bug. I always complain about this game, but at the same time, I do realize just how much effort is required even if it is just launching new characters. They haven't skimped on the effort when launching new characters. It is a lot easier to launch a character with 3 powers, there's no need to keep launch characters with 6 power with three hidden behind a power gate.

If they can somewhat balance and get the 108 or so characters to work properly, they can definitely do other things in the background.

carrion_pigeons

dsds wrote:

If they can somewhat balance and get the 108 or so characters to work properly, they can definitely do other things in the background.

But why would they do this particular thing? It adds nothing to the gameplay, and would only exist to create a vaguely more frustrating environment for players. There's no reason for it.

If they wanted to make the game harder, they could, easily. Making a perfect MPQ bot is not hard. But you're not proposing the AI is perfect, you're proposing the AI is clever while simultaneously simulating being bad at the game. That's Evil Overlord territory.

Confirmation bias is insidious, but it is very, very real.

fmftint

She frequently breaks the best move on the board
But I've never seen Incantation placed to make the board unmovable, so there must be at the very least some input in it's placement

Piro_plock

fmftint wrote:

She frequently breaks the best move on the board
But I've never seen Incantation placed to make the board unmovable, so there must be at the very least some input in it's placement

I had seen at least a few situations in which Arcane Incantation countdown disrupted the only available match. It always triggered a board reshuffle.

Pongie

Mine always seem to spawn on top of a critical tile. Such a tease. AI makes a match 5, proceed to match something else. My turn, critical overwritten by countdown

dsds

My arcane countdown tile has never caused the board to reshuffle.

It's really not a conspiracy theory. I don't know why everyone thinks that way when I mention the countdown tile breaking match 3 moves.

Really I am not saying that the game is made so the AI cheats on purpose. I just wonder if the countdown tile placement is different for each character. For instance, Switch tile is not completely random because I don't believe she ever places one on a critical tile or a teamup? Also I don't think I've ever seen match 5 blue when her countdown tile is placed.

Other characters are more limited. For instance some characters only place their countdowns on a certain colored tile, (eg im40, magneto, Pheonix rise from ashes, etc). Even kamala Khan's purple doesn't allow the green tiles to be placed on teamup tils. So it's not like every single countdown tile is coded the same way. If they wanted to make Switch power to be more unpredictable, they could technically code something in to make it so that she messes up your matches more. Everyone thinks very little thought is put into a character, but I don't think so. The mechanics and balancing of characters are I think a real challenge, just as challenging as new features. Really I think switch is a bit overpowered for her tier. So this would in essence balance her out a little bit without having to announce a change in her power.

hodayathink

dsds wrote:

My arcane countdown tile has never caused the board to reshuffle.

It's really not a conspiracy theory. I don't know why everyone thinks that way when I mention the countdown tile breaking match 3 moves.

Really I am not saying that the game is made so the AI cheats on purpose. I just wonder if the countdown tile placement is different for each character. For instance, Switch tile is not completely random because I don't believe she ever places one on a critical tile or a teamup? Also I don't think I've ever seen match 5 blue when her countdown tile is placed.

Other characters are more limited. For instance some characters only place their countdowns on a certain colored tile, (eg im40, magneto, Pheonix rise from ashes, etc). Even kamala Khan's purple doesn't allow the green tiles to be placed on teamup tils. So it's not like every single countdown tile is coded the same way. If they wanted to make Switch power to be more unpredictable, they could technically code something in to make it so that she messes up your matches more. Everyone thinks very little thought is put into a character, but I don't think so. The mechanics and balancing of characters are I think a real challenge, just as challenging as new features. Really I think switch is a bit overpowered for her tier. So this would in essence balance her out a little bit without having to announce a change in her power.

I've seen Switch's countdown placed on a critical tile before. Was really surprised by it, too.

MarvelMan

Fightmastermpq wrote:

It took them how many months to figure out how to get the board to shuffle properly and you think they are capable of intricately tuning CD tile placement to spite you. No. This is just confirmation bias.

Shuffle properly? Nah, they dont have that sorted out. Ive seen it shuffle, MANY times, during/after a cascade when there was a match available.

But the rest? Spot on. I dont have the confidence that the AI could do that. As Carrion says, it would be Evil Overlord territory.

TLDR: Confirmation bias, nothing to see here.

TLCstormz

You all keep on using the scapegoat term of confirmation bias" when it's NOT even the appropriate term.....

MarvelMan

TLCstormz wrote:

You all keep on using the scapegoat term of confirmation bias" when it's NOT even the appropriate term.....

Not being snarky here, legitimately asking for clarification.

con·fir·ma·tion bi·as
noun
the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

So if he uses the times he sees it impact his desired match 3 as evidence that it "countdown tile is always placed on a match 3" would that be confirmation bias? (though the discussion has moved towards whether the AI would do that, and I was using it semi-dismissively vs being accurate)

MushroomGenius808

dsds wrote:

... Also I don't think I've ever seen match 5 blue when her countdown tile is placed.

I've seen this happen.

dsds

MushroomGenius808 wrote:

dsds wrote:

... Also I don't think I've ever seen match 5 blue when her countdown tile is placed.

I've seen this happen.

I just read through her power description and it doesn't say any rules about where the countdown tile can land. It seems it can land anywhere from what people have contributed? Can anyone confirm whether it can land on a team up tile?

Piro_plock

dsds wrote:

MushroomGenius808 wrote:

dsds wrote:

... Also I don't think I've ever seen match 5 blue when her countdown tile is placed.

I've seen this happen.

I just read through her power description and it doesn't say any rules about where the countdown tile can land. It seems it can land anywhere from what people have contributed? Can anyone confirm whether it can land on a team up tile?

It can and it pretty often does.