Has the AI gotten smarter?

TheSeven

I was playing a match today when I accidentally let the opponent Peggy gather enough Red to fire Ultimate Soldier. I made a match to put my Shuri loner in front so that she could take the hit. The AI did not fire Ultimate Soldier. Twice more I made matches to put Shuri in front. Still, the AI would not fire. Finally, I put Agent Venom up front, and, right away, he gets hit.

I've been playing for a while now and I've never experienced this before, but, then again, it's not often I play with a loner that is significantly lower leveled than my other two characters.

Steve111

Yes I’ve had something similar too. The AI also seems to make a lot more critical matches than it used to.  

Piro_plock

Short answer: no.

When AI has more than one active power in one colour, it might not launch the cheaper one (9AP Ultimate Soldier in this case) when it has enough AP for it, but less than the cost of the more expensive one. It might fire with a certain chance or hold - I don't know the exact percentage, but it's a random thing for sure.

Who was the 3rd member of the enemy team?

TheSeven

The third opponent, I believe, was 3 star Black Widow. So, you are probably right. The AI was waiting to get more red for her Pistol. 

Borstock

Happens all the time.

broll

No but I think I’ve gotten dumber. 

PenniesForEveryone

The logic goes like this....

1.) Are there multiple characters with an active red power?
2.) Which character will use red AP this turn?
3.) Is there enough AP to available for that character to use their red ability?
4.) If yes, use the ability.  If no, save the red AP and start over at step 1 next turn.

bluewolf

Note that this logic extends to teams with Gambit where no one else can fire red/purple, yet he won’t use his powers sometimes because of this.

Dragon_Nexus

Worst thing is fighting a Gambit/5* Thor combo and you're trying to let Gambit use his red first so you can use yours right after...and he never does.

Then you accidentally kill Gambit and Thor's all loaded up with at least two red moves to blast you with.

jredd

i've noticed it too. something's changed.

ThaRoadWarrior

I can't really speak to the "won't use a power at the wrong time" behavior, but the Ai used to actively find ways to avoid making critical matches that weren't in a straight line, and it seems to be seeking them out a bit more. Like if you had one that was a right-angle match where you needed to slot in the corner piece for the critical, the AI would diffuse it and turn it into a match 4. But now I'm starting to see scenarios where the AI will match the critical on angles. I feel like it happens when there are 2 viable matches for that corner piece available, which is not the most common occurrence, but it's definitely a thing I've seen a few times lately. Perhaps it's treating that as a "match 4" it likes, and it just happens to create a critical?

Blindman13

ThaRoadWarrior said:

 Perhaps it's treating that as a "match 4" it likes, and it just happens to create a critical?

Looks like you answered your own question. The AI does not 'see' a match-5 on right angles. It only 'sees' matches in straight lines. If there is a match-5 available that requires a right angle, the AI will always make the match-4 instead. The only exception is when there are multiple ways to make the match-5. Then it will still make a match-4, but may luck into the match-5 as well.

To answer the OP's question: I believe you are experiencing confirmation bias. There have been no changes to the AI decision making. You may have experienced a string of bad luck, or you are only noticing when things don't go your way.

Sm0keyJ0e

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I can't really speak to the "won't use a power at the wrong time" behavior, but the Ai used to actively find ways to avoid making critical matches that weren't in a straight line, and it seems to be seeking them out a bit more. Like if you had one that was a right-angle match where you needed to slot in the corner piece for the critical, the AI would diffuse it and turn it into a match 4. But now I'm starting to see scenarios where the AI will match the critical on angles. I feel like it happens when there are 2 viable matches for that corner piece available, which is not the most common occurrence, but it's definitely a thing I've seen a few times lately. Perhaps it's treating that as a "match 4" it likes, and it just happens to create a critical?

This simply is not true. The AI will ONLY make match 5's in a straight line. Cascades can happen where other forms of match 5's occur, but the AI will not ever make a match 5 that is not a straight line.

As far as power choices, @PenniesForEveryone has it correct. I would add that the percentage of whether a power is fired is based on the other teammates with an active power in that color. If there are two, there is a 50% chance the lower ap power will fire. If there are 3, there is a 33% chance the power will fire. This was seen pretty clearly in the last PVP where there were three active red users on many teams: Gambit/Thor/Shuri.

So to use Pennies' AI decision model:
1.) Are there multiple characters with an active red power? Yes, there are three.
2.) Which character will use red AP this turn? There is a 33% chance Gambit will be selected and fire. There is a 67% chance one of the other two are chosen and no power fires because Gambit prohibits this. But let's pretend 3* Gamora is in there instead of Gambit with an active red...
3.) Is there enough AP to available for that character to use their red ability? If the AI only had 5 red ap and Gamora was selected, she would fire her red. If anyone else was selected, the AI would skip the turn due to not enough red AP.
4.) If yes, use the ability.  If no, save the red AP and start over at step 1 next turn.

thedarkphoenix

Pretty sure its a random.


The A.I looks like it wants to use the most expensive power, however if there are powers of the same color that are lower it will use that at some given "chance" However over all the AI will always attempt to use the most costly Power but will use cheaper powers 1st if available at some "percentage" (higher percentage I assume)

bluewolf

People like to post a link to an old article where a Demi programmer tried making the AI smarter and realized it made the game less fun.  Therefore, the project was abandoned.  I don’t think there is an upside to a stealth AI upgrade.

rocks52

Sometimes it seems like AI choices are determined before you begin the match.  Muscles like making those yellow CD tiles that create 2 strike tiles when they expire.  It seems like if they're in there with another yellow CD creator, that they never create their CD's.  Then the next fight, all the yellow CD tiles are from the muscles.  A lot of times I like to go in there with a special tile stealer, and the damned muscles will never put down a CD tile

PenniesForEveryone

bluewolf said:

People like to post a link to an old article where a Demi programmer tried making the AI smarter and realized it made the game less fun.  Therefore, the project was abandoned.  I don’t think there is an upside to a stealth AI upgrade.

https://www.demiurgestudios.com/engineering/a-worthy-opponent/

ThaRoadWarrior

Sm0keyJ0e said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I can't really speak to the "won't use a power at the wrong time" behavior, but the Ai used to actively find ways to avoid making critical matches that weren't in a straight line, and it seems to be seeking them out a bit more. Like if you had one that was a right-angle match where you needed to slot in the corner piece for the critical, the AI would diffuse it and turn it into a match 4. But now I'm starting to see scenarios where the AI will match the critical on angles. I feel like it happens when there are 2 viable matches for that corner piece available, which is not the most common occurrence, but it's definitely a thing I've seen a few times lately. Perhaps it's treating that as a "match 4" it likes, and it just happens to create a critical?

This simply is not true. The AI will ONLY make match 5's in a straight line. Cascades can happen where other forms of match 5's occur, but the AI will not ever make a match 5 that is not a straight line.

The times i've seen it happen, the board was configured like this:


I would expect the AI to make the blue match, thereby diffusing the angular match 5, but I have definitely noticed them making the red match. My theory is that it has no knowledge of the angular match 5, and is treating it like a desirable match 4 with a coincidental match 5 resulting. I've seen this several times in the last month.

JackTenrec

Making the UI capable of handling nonlinear match-5s would also make it a lot more entertaining to run 4* Jean Grey  (unless, of course, they code the AI to explicitly avoid matches while she's active on the player's team).

I'd certainly be all for better heuristics for the AI if we didn't have to repeat the match 5 diminutive cat times.

Blindman13

It seems like @Sm0keyJ0e and @ThaRoadWarrior are saying the same thing in different ways.
Per the article linked by @PenniesForEveryone in the situation pictured above, the AI will see 4 equally viable options for a match-4: Swap any of the yellows with the center black. 50% of the time the AI will make the match-5 (on accident) and 50% will be a match-4. It does not deliberately avoid the match-5's because it can't see them, it only looks for matches in a straight line. 

ThaRoadWarrior

I suppose it probably is that, yeah. The way it goes for the match four on a t-shaped potential, or an angular match with just a single choice, it makes it seem like it "sees" the match 5 and actively avoids it, but if it is blind to it and just chasing linear match-4s, it stands to reason in my picture that it would occasionally luck into the match 5.