This game is out to get me

Dormammu

(I have selective memory and I know that. Please read this with a tone of levity.)

Marvel Puzzle Quest is out to get me. Let me present my evidence.

Exhibit A: Color Dominance
Whatever my strongest color is (i.e. the color that will allow me to win) - that color is nowhere to be found. There might be a couple of tiles buried in a corner, far away from anything to match them with, and throughout the match that AP is rarer than pure adamantium. Meanwhile, whatever color I don't need (i.e. the one color none of my characters do any significant match damage with) is EVERYWHERE.

Exhibit B: AI Match Suggestion
Never, EVER, make the match the computer is suggesting for you unless it is the only possible match you can do. Every time I go with the suggested match (usually out of laziness, or it is suggesting a match of color I actually want) it always seems to lead to a match-four for my enemy the very next turn.

Exhibit C: Countdown Tiles
Whenever I'm about to fire off a power that will create a countdown tile, I make sure there are no pending matches of that color on the board. If I don't, the AI will drop it exactly where my enemy can match it away with their very next move. (This also happens with any Attack, Defense, or Strike tiles I may generate, or really any tile that can possibly benefit me.) Conversely, whenever an enemy drops one of these tiles, it is buried in a remote corner of the board with nothing above or around it to possibly ever match it away.

Exhibit The Barrage
Nothing tells me that the game wishes to defeat me more than 'the barrage'. Let's say I have Thor on my team, for example, and I just filled him with enough green AP to cripple my opponent. The AI goes nuts... all their characters suddenly unleash power after power, draining every ounce of AP they have. Then they fire off whatever Team-Up they've been holding onto. Then they do their match, which is always a row-clearing match-four, which fills with five in a row of the same color clearing the row again and giving them a crit tile, which gives them another turn. The AI matches the crit tile, which generates a cascade of epic, chance-defying proportions. This generates another crit tile and extends their turn, and they fire off a bunch more powers with the AP they just generated from the cascade... until Thor is downed.

I rest my case.

DevilMayGrind

I'll just say this: no matter how good you are and no matter how great your roster is, there will always be a percentage of time when the board will just screw you up. A team of 60lvl moonstones, dakens, etc can steamroll your 166+ thors panthers and so on. That's just one of the drawbacks of a match 3 puzzle with teams.

P.S. - oh and there is no true RNG.

Kishida

Dormammu wrote:

Marvel Puzzle Quest is out to get me. Let me present my evidence.

...

Exhibit The Barrage
Nothing tells me that the game wishes to defeat me more than 'the barrage'. Let's say I have Thor on my team, for example, and I just filled him with enough green AP to cripple my opponent. The AI goes nuts... all their characters suddenly unleash power after power, draining every ounce of AP they have. Then they fire off whatever Team-Up they've been holding onto. Then they do their match, which is always a row-clearing match-four, which fills with five in a row of the same color clearing the row again and giving them a crit tile, which gives them another turn. The AI matches the crit tile, which generates a cascade of epic, chance-defying proportions. This generates another crit tile and extends their turn, and they fire off a bunch more powers with the AP they just generated from the cascade... until Thor is downed.

:wistful look of recognition:

Jarvind

Dormammu wrote:

The AI matches the crit tile, which generates a cascade of epic, chance-defying proportions. This generates another crit tile and extends their turn, and they fire off a bunch more powers with the AP they just generated from the cascade... until Thor is downed.

I know this is jokes and all, but as far as I'm aware, once the AI has made a match it can't fire any more powers that turn, even if it gets a match-5.

Dormammu wrote:

Never, EVER, make the match the computer is suggesting for you unless it is the only possible match you can do. Every time I go with the suggested match (usually out of laziness, or it is suggesting a match of color I actually want) it always seems to lead to a match-four for my enemy the very next turn.

This one is 100% truth though.

Quebbster

It's not just the game that's out to get you...