A small change to improve computer AI

Unknown

Devs, could you please make the AI stop ignoring T and L shaped 5 gem matches? Every time, the computer goes for a line of four instead of the critical tile and extra turn. It's ridiculous.

scottee

You don't want the AI to play better. In Puzzle Quest 2, you had to play ideally and deny perfectly to beat the final boss. If you improved the AI, winning would become much much harder.

Bacon Pants

BelligerentGnu wrote:

Devs, could you please make the AI stop ignoring T and L shaped 5 gem matches? Every time, the computer goes for a line of four instead of the critical tile and extra turn. It's ridiculous.

I most certainly don't need to see the AI making match 5's at level 230 and higher.

Those fights are already fun enough.

Unknown

Why do people always think the non row match 5 is actually better than a line match 4? They're roughly equal in terms of AP generated, but clearing a whole line leads to better opportunity to cascades. Yes I still prefer a non row match 5 over a line, but that's because it'd take too long to analyze every situation and since it's about 50/50 anyway you might as well take the match 5 if you don't have time to work out all the exact details.

scottee

Phantron wrote:

Why do people always think the non row match 5 is actually better than a line match 4? They're roughly equal in terms of AP generated, but clearing a whole line leads to better opportunity to cascades. Yes I still prefer a non row match 5 over a line, but that's because it'd take too long to analyze every situation and since it's about 50/50 anyway you might as well take the match 5 if you don't have time to work out all the exact details.

The 5 isn't always necessarily better than the 4, but all things being equal (colors of AP gained), the 5 gives another move, still has a decent chance at cascading, and gives you the crit tile, which makes it easier to make ANOTHER 4 or 5 on the subsequent move. I love chaining 3 or 4 extra moves in a row using the given crit tile.

That said, playing like the computer isn't ideal either. Taking a 3 can be better than automatically taking a 4, depending on what it gives you, what it leaves for the computer, and what it lines up for your next move.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

The 5 isn't always necessarily better than the 4, but all things being equal (colors of AP gained), the 5 gives another move, still has a decent chance at cascading, and gives you the crit tile, which makes it easier to make ANOTHER 4 or 5 on the subsequent move. I love chaining 3 or 4 extra moves in a row using the given crit tile.

Remember even though you get another move the crit tile may not be that beneficial to your plan if you do not think ahead. It could actually be unusable or you need to match it just because you don't want the AI to match it forcing your hand, making your free turn a wash. It can make future cascades dangerous if it needs to sit unmatched.

Not saying its bad to match five, just opening up some dialog.

I prefer the AI acts like it does. When I first started playing I thought it was stupid it played like it did. Now I feel it is a good balance between playing a game for fun and allowing you to win a good amount of time without feeling like you are playing a monkey or a super genious. You don't want the computer doing optimal plays at all time, actively seeking out the colors it always needs to kill you efficiently. You will not have fun, trust me.

It could use a bit of a buff in regards to completely place-able tiles like Cmags blue, GSBW's purple, Cap's countdown tiles, but that is all subjective. It might be optimal to place caps tiles to create cascades. The AI's poor placement of tile conversion in theory makes those characters weak on defense because they are strong on offense. That is fine as a design standpoint.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Phantron wrote:

Why do people always think the non row match 5 is actually better than a line match 4? They're roughly equal in terms of AP generated, but clearing a whole line leads to better opportunity to cascades. Yes I still prefer a non row match 5 over a line, but that's because it'd take too long to analyze every situation and since it's about 50/50 anyway you might as well take the match 5 if you don't have time to work out all the exact details.

The 5 isn't always necessarily better than the 4, but all things being equal (colors of AP gained), the 5 gives another move, still has a decent chance at cascading, and gives you the crit tile, which makes it easier to make ANOTHER 4 or 5 on the subsequent move. I love chaining 3 or 4 extra moves in a row using the given crit tile.

That said, playing like the computer isn't ideal either. Taking a 3 can be better than automatically taking a 4, depending on what it gives you, what it leaves for the computer, and what it lines up for your next move.

A non-row match 5 rarely cascades into anything fancy. You get them all the time playing as Magneto and it's not unusual to have 3 crit tiles sitting somewhere that you can't easily get rid of because nothing interesting came from that match. Of course in the case of Magneto you got to take those match 5s because those are free versus a line match 4 costs you one blue AP and breaks up your combos.

The line is just far superior for cascading that a match 4 line almost certainly always beats a non-row match 5 that doesn't immediately cascade. Even if you have a match 5 in the center, there are 6 ways to form a match 3 with the crit tile so it's 1 - (6/7)^6 = ~60%. This drops down to 46% if you're on the edges (only 4 ways to form a match 3). A match 5 that immediately matches the crit is likely better than a match 4, and the odds are slightly better that it'll auto-match than not. If one is not pressed for time, one can simply study the board to determine if the crit tile will indeed auto match or not, but that'd be rather time consuming.

Unknown

Chimaera wrote:

scottee wrote:

The 5 isn't always necessarily better than the 4, but all things being equal (colors of AP gained), the 5 gives another move, still has a decent chance at cascading, and gives you the crit tile, which makes it easier to make ANOTHER 4 or 5 on the subsequent move. I love chaining 3 or 4 extra moves in a row using the given crit tile.

Remember even though you get another move the crit tile may not be that beneficial to your plan if you do not think ahead. It could actually be unusable or you need to match it just because you don't want the AI to match it forcing your hand, making your free turn a wash. It can make future cascades dangerous if it needs to sit unmatched.

Not saying its bad to match five, just opening up some dialog.

I prefer the AI acts like it does. When I first started playing I thought it was stupid it played like it did. Now I feel it is a good balance between playing a game for fun and allowing you to win a good amount of time without feeling like you are playing a monkey or a super genious. You don't want the computer doing optimal plays at all time, actively seeking out the colors it always needs to kill you efficiently. You will not have fun, trust me.

It could use a bit of a buff in regards to completely place-able tiles like Cmags blue, GSBW's purple, Cap's countdown tiles, but that is all subjective. It might be optimal to place caps tiles to create cascades. The AI's poor placement of tile conversion in theory makes those characters weak on defense because they are strong on offense. That is fine as a design standpoint.

The tiebreaker for a non-row match 5 versus a row match 4 is probably the fact that if you can flip that crit into an environmental match, that's likely to give you a very significant advantage (at least in the right environments) that it's well worth the risk of having to either make a bad move to dispose the crit tile, or leave the crit tile alone and basically having a time bomb sitting there.

But this strategy wouldn't make sense for the AI that never prioritizes on any color to begin with.

scottee

I tend to go with the crit tiles because you can determine after the match 5 whether you want to take the fruit or just leave it for the computer. If you're leaving a match 4 on the board that has cookies the computer doesn't need, he's going to ignore the crit anyways. I guess I come from a background of playing old puzzle quest where you thought out every move or died. It allows me to analyze the placements pretty quickly. But even in this iteration, I find it advantageous to play this way. People here seem to prioritize gathering your colors fast or collecting ap faster than the AI, but I don't mind giving the AI ap if it's in colors they don't need. Walking out with minimal damage can be as important as winning fast.