How the AI Tells You To Take A Break

RhysMarkov

I thought it would be funny to see what other crazy behavior people have seen that just makes you stop playing for a moment out of shock.

For me it was just now, when a Koth deck hit me with an Emrakul two turns in a row, and then giving it double-strike on the second turn. O_o

Y'know, being in the top 50 is enough for me right now. Thanks, Koth. Lol

Steeme

RhysMarkov wrote:

I thought it would be funny to see what other crazy behavior people have seen that just makes you stop playing for a moment out of shock.

For me it was just now, when a Koth deck hit me with an Emrakul two turns in a row, and then giving it double-strike on the second turn. O_o

Y'know, being in the top 50 is enough for me right now. Thanks, Koth. Lol

It's funny, when I play Koth, he's "not bad". When the AI is in control, it just exponentiates the lopsided mana/loyalty gains that it is capable of. Impossible to keep pace sometimes.

What I don't agree with is facing Koth more than other planeswalkers. Should be a fair distribution. Instead, I feel the matchmaker is biased towards choosing Koth as an opponent.

THEMAGICkMAN

I always have a little moment of "What??? " every time the ai plays 2 mirrorpools in a row, reinforcing it it's not a play that makes me lose the match, but it's still something that makes me pause for minute.

Ohboy

Steeme wrote:

RhysMarkov wrote:

I thought it would be funny to see what other crazy behavior people have seen that just makes you stop playing for a moment out of shock.

For me it was just now, when a Koth deck hit me with an Emrakul two turns in a row, and then giving it double-strike on the second turn. O_o

Y'know, being in the top 50 is enough for me right now. Thanks, Koth. Lol

It's funny, when I play Koth, he's "not bad". When the AI is in control, it just exponentiates the lopsided mana/loyalty gains that it is capable of. Impossible to keep pace sometimes.

What I don't agree with is facing Koth more than other planeswalkers. Should be a fair distribution. Instead, I feel the matchmaker is biased towards choosing Koth as an opponent.

I think it's just a result of people using koth more often than other plane walkers.

RhysMarkov

Lol.. I run into him more often than just about anybody else. I refuse to buy him when he's available, but it's part of my continuing silent war against the "red deck wins" mentality lol...

But yeah, my hand costing +13 for two turns and staring down a 26/26 Emrakul with double strike? I figured it was the AI not so politely telling me to go play something else. Or read a book. Lol

I dunno if this makes sense from a coding point of view, as I'm not a coder, but it seems like the AI gets weighted towards cascades happening more frequently to compensate for it not being able to strategize on the same level as people, i.e. we can judge from moment to moment how much of a hit we can take while trying to accumulate for a PW ultimate vs. the AI getting those favorable cascades so it has the same potential to pop a level 2 or level 3 super.

I mean, I've built my Jace2 deck around fueling that card draw +4/+4 mechanic and I'm betting when the AI runs my deck its constantly popping the level 1 and 2 abilities, wasting the purpose of me putting Tezz's Ambition (or whatever it is, sue me, I'm bad with names lol) in it.

octal9

RhysMarkov wrote:

it seems like the AI gets weighted towards cascades happening more frequently to compensate for it not being able to strategize on the same level as people

nope, sorry. it doesn't!

RhysMarkov

That's not a thing? Ah well, guess it's back to the tried and true, hating on unfeeling, uncaring, arbitrary RNG then. Haha

madwren

RhysMarkov wrote:

That's not a thing? Ah well, guess it's back to the tried and true, hating on unfeeling, uncaring, arbitrary RNG then. Haha

Don't worry, you aren't alone, it feels that way to many of us. However, the devs have insisted that isn't the case.

Ohboy

madwren wrote:

RhysMarkov wrote:

That's not a thing? Ah well, guess it's back to the tried and true, hating on unfeeling, uncaring, arbitrary RNG then. Haha

Don't worry, you aren't alone, it feels that way to many of us. However, the devs have insisted that isn't the case.

1) if you think really hard, you'll remember times when you get surprise cascades all game and the AI is stuck matching loyalty too.

2) unless you're spending 2 minutes considering every match, it's unlikely you're always making the most optimal match. The AI does....well....some of the time.

This is actually less rng and more the fact that machines can think faster than us. And they don't lose patience like us and just wing it.

ZW2007-

I only get suspicious when I watch the AI make a match-3 that is neither my PW's colors or the AI's and there is an on-color match available (with no possible match-4 or match-5 available on screen) and then the insane cascade comes from the heavens. Or, when the AI makes a vertical match-4 and then all 7 gems that fall into place are of the same color, giving the AI an automatic match-5 and an extra swap. Short of me recording every game I play for months and then analyzing all the data, this can all be explained away by the devs with "confirmation bias" and "visual display errors".

Ohboy

ZW2007- wrote:

I only get suspicious when I watch the AI make a match-3 that is neither my PW's colors or the AI's and there is an on-color match available (with no possible match-4 or match-5 available on screen) and then the insane cascade comes from the heavens. Or, when the AI makes a vertical match-4 and then all 7 gems that fall into place are of the same color, giving the AI an automatic match-5 and an extra swap. Short of me recording every game I play for months and then analyzing all the data, this can all be explained away by the devs with "confirmation bias" and "visual display errors".

Next time try to also pay attention at the numerous times AI makes a stupid match like you described and no cascades happen.

They do seemingly stupid matches quite often. There is some troll code in the match algorithm which I suspect is tailored to reduce your mana gain. It seems to kick in most often during the midgame.

octal9

The AI absolutely, 100% does not have visibility of incoming gems.

OhBoy wrote:

tailored to reduce your mana gain

Yep! It also scores based on your supports on the board and a few other factors...

madwren

Ohboy wrote:

ZW2007- wrote:

I only get suspicious when I watch the AI make a match-3 that is neither my PW's colors or the AI's and there is an on-color match available (with no possible match-4 or match-5 available on screen) and then the insane cascade comes from the heavens. Or, when the AI makes a vertical match-4 and then all 7 gems that fall into place are of the same color, giving the AI an automatic match-5 and an extra swap. Short of me recording every game I play for months and then analyzing all the data, this can all be explained away by the devs with "confirmation bias" and "visual display errors".

Next time try to also pay attention at the numerous times AI makes a stupid match like you described and no cascades happen.

They do seemingly stupid matches quite often. There is some troll code in the match algorithm which I suspect is tailored to reduce your mana gain. It seems to kick in most often during the midgame.

Yes, the AI has gotten far better at the match-denial aspect of the game. It can be quite devious.