How does the AI prioritize color matches?

Unknown

A topic in the suggestions forums made me think of this and I wondered if anyone knew the answer:

The AI seems to prefer to make matches for which its characters' have a corresponding power. Is this accurate or am I imagining it?

If that is indeed the case, does the AI have an even greater preference to make matches for which multiple characters have a corresponding power?

I ask because my latest defense team has been Hulk/ Black Panther and I've gotten a shocking number of defensive wins out of it. Does the AI try extra hard to make black matches because both characters have black powers, then slam opponents with Rage of the Panther because Hulk's black is passive? If so, that's pretty potent.

Cousin Simpson

dlaw008 wrote:

A topic in the suggestions forums made me think of this and I wondered if anyone knew the answer:

The AI seems to prefer to make matches for which its characters' have a corresponding power. Is this accurate or am I imagining it?

If that is indeed the case, does the AI have an even greater preference to make matches for which multiple characters have a corresponding power?

I ask because my latest defense team has been Hulk/ Black Panther and I've gotten a shocking number of defensive wins out of it. Does the AI try extra hard to make black matches because both characters have black powers, then slam opponents with Rage of the Panther because Hulk's black is passive? If so, that's pretty potent.

Anecdotally, that seems to be the case; I don't see the AI go so hard for black tiles as it does when it's using Doom.

Insert "Environmental tiles priority #1" joke here.

over_clocked

How can you not notice that?

It's very noticeable when the Sim makes you run Daredevil against Moonstone/Juggernaut/Ragnarok.
They will never match blue with the Equalizer trap, unless it's literally the only match available. NEVER.

Unknown

I thought at first that the AI was just matching the color that would produce the most damage. I figured it was just because of abilities usually dictating a character's strongest colors. Then I noticed that there's a chance that the AI would prefer an environment tile. I'm not really sure about this, but sometimes the AI would match a color that I need but its team doesn't really need. Correct me if I'm wrong but maybe when there's a couple of choices the AI could choose from, there could be a set percentage for each choice. I couldn't think of any other possible explanation since the AI also sometimes wait a turn or two before using an ability so it may also be rolling a dice to see which tile to match.

over_clocked

The AI matches their 'off' colours if:
it's the only possible match
it's a 4- or a 5-of-a-kind match
the other possible matches will obviously result in creating a 4 or 5-match for you, not the AI
it's their strong colour, but it's passive or hidden (e.g. Daken's hidden green, Venom's hidden green, oBW's passive black).

mischiefmaker

locked wrote:

The AI matches their 'off' colours if:
it's the only possible match
it's a 4- or a 5-of-a-kind match
the other possible matches will obviously result in creating a 4 or 5-match for you, not the AI
it's their strong colour, but it's passive or hidden (e.g. Daken's hidden green, Venom's hidden green, oBW's passive black).

Do you have data on this? Would love to see it.

over_clocked

Uh, no, I'm just sure everyone can see that for themselves. I may be missing something though.

Unknown

Just from observation, I agree that AI matching priorities seem to be:

1. Any available 5 match
2. Any available four match
3. Normal 3 matches (including colors and environment)

I'm really only interested in how #3 breaks down; I will agree that 1 and 2 are the first AI priorities. As a matter of fact, I am sure that most of us will occasionally leave a 4 match available when it means preventing a 3 match we don't want made because we know the AI will go for it.

It SEEMS like the AI only prioritizes matching colors for which it has a power available (even a passive), but I suppose it might go by tile attack strength, since they so often coincide. I think I would probably include environmental tiles, since they have an associated power that any character could use.

And actually I'm really most interested in the question of whether multiple coincident powers encourage an even greater preference for matching those colors than a single power. Knowledge of that could throw quite a wrinkle into planning defensive teams (my BP and Hulk example).

It would be easiest if IceIX could just explain the AI matching probabilities to us, but I don't expect that. I was more hoping that some grizzled old-time player with a trove of MPQ knowledge might have a ready answer.

Unknown

For match 3s, they only care about tile strength. You'll see AI matching yellow for Classic Storm which is totally useless because yellow is still Storm's strong color, or black for Hulk. I'm actually not sure what happens when the AI has an ability that is on a weak color, like Magneto classic or GSBW, but that happens very rarely so that I don't think it matters either way.

In the unique case of villians + goons, the AI does match the villian's ability colors. For example, Juggernaut will try to match red/green, even if there's a level 230 goon with 103 in every color.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

For match 3s, they only care about tile strength. You'll see AI matching yellow for Classic Storm which is totally useless because yellow is still Storm's strong color, or black for Hulk. I'm actually not sure what happens when the AI has an ability that is on a weak color, like Magneto classic or GSBW, but that happens very rarely so that I don't think it matters either way.

In the unique case of villians + goons, the AI does match the villian's ability colors. For example, Juggernaut will try to match red/green, even if there's a level 230 goon with 103 in every color.

I think they DID go for purple when I was playing against Classic Magneto in the simulator.

Unknown

dlaw008 wrote:

1. Any available 5 match
2. Any available four match
3. Normal 3 matches (including colors and environment)

By 5 match, you better mean 'available 5 match in a line. The AI will not match L shapes or T shapes. It also seems unaware of fat 6 shapes, which are often available with chaining.

over_clocked

If you are talking about the fight with cStorm, cMagneto and GSBW in the Sim, GSBW may have skewed her team's preferences since her purple is both strong and usable. There were some other cMags fights prior to that, can't seem to remember who else was there. The AI prioritizes colours it has the best damage on, be it an ability or tile strength, but it does sometimes randomly go for yellow only when there's a cStorm on the team, indeed. Yesterday I fought an OBW team with Thor and Wolverine I believe, it just kept matching black. I don't think it was done to deny me black (I ran Psylocke), it's just oBW's strong colour, so it went nuts with it.

Unknown

hibikir wrote:

dlaw008 wrote:

1. Any available 5 match
2. Any available four match
3. Normal 3 matches (including colors and environment)

By 5 match, you better mean 'available 5 match in a line. The AI will not match L shapes or T shapes. It also seems unaware of fat 6 shapes, which are often available with chaining.

Sort of correct. While the AI does not seem to notice L or T shaped 5 matches, it does prioritize them by treating them as a 4 match.

Unknown

The AI doesn't match as a basis of ability strength. It almost certainly doesn't even know what the abilities do (just look at how it places tiles, for example), so it can't possibly prioritize on that. Even when you have abilities like Prehistoric Bite available to the enemy team, they do not prioritize green over other available colors.

over_clocked

Okay let me test that in a random match against maxed oBW, Thor and non-maxed Hulk. They have two passive blacks, I'll see how often the AI prioritizes black.
b stands for the AI turns, there were no situations with only one match available (if there were I shook the board with Thor or Punisher).

1. Blue
1b. Green

2. Red
2b. Black 4-match

3. Black 4-match
3b. Black 4-match (okay stahp)

4. Green
4b. Environment

5. Yellow
5b. Purple

6. Red 5-match (AI couldn't or rather, chose not to predict it).
6a. Blue 4-match.
6b. Blue.

7. Green.
7b. Missed it but either environment or black, probably black.

Enemy oBW downed.

8. Green.
8b. Yellow.

9. Blue.
9b. Black (whyyyyy. There are other available matches, yellow for example).

10. Blue.
10b. Black (okay okay I don't mind).

11. Purple.
11b. Yellow.

12. Green.
12b. Red.

Enemy Thor downed.

13. Purple.
13b. A lot of anger occurs, a green 4-match.

14. Green.
14b. Anger, green.
14bb. Environment.

15. Black, enemy Hulk is downed.

Well it sure loved it some black despite it being weaker than Thor's yellow even (the Hulk wasn't maxed, only 8k health).

CNash

Does the AI take the presence of countdown tiles into account? I've seen it match 3 using a countdown tile that would've fired off on its next turn, despite there being other potential moves it could've made.

Conversely, I've also seen the AI match tiles in a way that would block me from getting rid of an enemy countdown tile on my next turn, again when there are other potential moves on the board.

mags1587

dlaw008 wrote:

hibikir wrote:

By 5 match, you better mean 'available 5 match in a line. The AI will not match L shapes or T shapes. It also seems unaware of fat 6 shapes, which are often available with chaining.

Sort of correct. While the AI does not seem to notice L or T shaped 5 matches, it does prioritize them by treating them as a 4 match.

fyi, if there is a L or T shaped 5 match and another possible 4 match on the board, the AI can and will take the 4 match and leave the 5 match for you. This has happened to me a few times recently.

mischiefmaker

locked wrote:

The AI matches their 'off' colours if:
it's the only possible match
it's a 4- or a 5-of-a-kind match
the other possible matches will obviously result in creating a 4 or 5-match for you, not the AI
it's their strong colour, but it's passive or hidden (e.g. Daken's hidden green, Venom's hidden green, oBW's passive black).

I was curious to see if this was actually true, so I tested it.

In 4 matches against Juggernaut, he always took an available red or green match over any other match 3.

However, in two matches against Yelena/Daken, they once took a yellow when a green was available (neither are strong in yellow) and Daken once took a blue over an available black. In both cases, neither of the primary color matches would have resulted in a match-4 or -5. And they often, but not always, took environment when a primary color was available.

We need more data, but for now:
- It is definitely not true that the AI always takes the highest tile damage color
- It is definitely not true that the AI always takes one of the three primary colors (although it does seem like it has a strong preference for that)

Unknown

Remember the AI periodically makes a 'bad' move so that it doesn't feel like it's methodical, so even if you're fighting just Juggernaut, he's not guaranteed to always take the red/green, but it's certainly a very high probability he will.

Any match 5 can be turned into a match 4, so the fact that the AI ignored it over another match 4 is just it liked that color more for whatever reason.

over_clocked

What was the difficulty? Maybe the higher the difficulty, the better the AI? At least in prioritizing. Seriously when I was playing against Juggs-Moonstone-Ragnarok in the Sim with the Gimpdevil and spammed Equalizers, they never matched blue. Until the blue match was the only one left. (Lvl 230s.)

Unknown

locked wrote:

What was the difficulty? Maybe the higher the difficulty, the better the AI? At least in prioritizing. Seriously when I was playing against Juggs-Moonstone-Ragnarok in the Sim with the Gimpdevil and spammed Equalizers, they never matched blue. Until the blue match was the only one left. (Lvl 230s.)

None of those characters have blue as their strength so I can imagine they will avoid it unless it's their turn to roll a 'bad' move, or that it was in a match 4. And it seems like the AI prefers to use its quota of bad moves on environmental tiles.