What determines what goon fires what power?

Heartbreaksoup

I noticed something weird playing "The Americas," the last chapter in Unstable Iso-8 this morning.  In the Stolen Goods node, the "last" of the hard nodes, you play against two Thugs and one Maggia Don.  I've played it four times, and in the first three plays, the Thugs kept using their yellow AP to activate three-turn Pistol countdown tiles.  I got used to getting shot once before downing the two Thugs.

But in the fourth clear, the Don took precedence, and it was he who used yellow, firing his Backroom Deal power.  This meant the fourth clear was even easier than the other three because I didn't have to worry about taking any damage whatsoever.  

What triggers the change between the dominance of the goons?  Is it their level?  I played this event at SCL-6; is it something like below level 200, Thugs take precedence, and after level 200, the Don's in charge?

Phumade

no,  there is a defined percentage where the AI will keep hoarding ap because it wants to fire the other power.  This is actually fairly common,  although most players see it happen more often in pvp.

i.e.  Its the same reason why the AI keeps hoarding red in thorbit teams instead of firing the cheapest power first

MoosePrime

Partial answer:  if they can afford to fire the most expensive power, they will fire it.

Sm0keyJ0e

MoosePrime said:

Partial answer:  if they can afford to fire the most expensive power, they will fire it.

Nope, this is not correct. Seen plenty of times against ThorBit teams where the AI actually gets to 30 red without firing a power.

As I understand it, if more then one enemy can fire a power with the amount of AP the team has, it randomly picks. For example, in the OP case, there were 3 enemies that could potentially fire a yellow power. The AI randomly picked who got the power. Makes sense that 2 out of the 3 yellow users were Thugs and therefore he saw them fire the yellow power 3 out of 4 times.

With Gambit/Thor, whenever Thor is picked (assuming two enemies use red), no power is fired (since Gambit disallows this). So each turn, there is a 50% chance no red power is fired if Thor is picked. If there are THREE red users, like in the current PVP with Punisher having an active red, there is a 67% chance no red is fired (if Thor or Punisher is picked).

Blah blah blah, odds and percentages... I'm drunk.

MoosePrime

Sm0keyJ0e said:

MoosePrime said:

Partial answer:  if they can afford to fire the most expensive power, they will fire it.

Nope, this is not correct. Seen plenty of times against ThorBit teams where the AI actually gets to 30 red without firing a power.

As I understand it, if more then one enemy can fire a power with the amount of AP the team has, it randomly picks. For example, in the OP case, there were 3 enemies that could potentially fire a yellow power. The AI randomly picked who got the power. Makes sense that 2 out of the 3 yellow users were Thugs and therefore he saw them fire the yellow power 3 out of 4 times.

With Gambit/Thor, whenever Thor is picked (assuming two enemies use red), no power is fired (since Gambit disallows this). So each turn, there is a 50% chance no red power is fired if Thor is picked. If there are THREE red users, like in the current PVP with Punisher having an active red, there is a 67% chance no red is fired (if Thor or Punisher is picked).

Blah blah blah, odds and percentages... I'm drunk.

Ignoring when Gambit is involved (since he blocks other red/purple powers) (I did say it was a partial answer), if the AI team has enough AP for the most expensive power in a color, they will fire the power (or one of them, if there are multiple with the same cost).

If the AI has enough for a cheaper power, there is some randomization done to determine if they will fire the power or save for a more expensive one.  I don't recall ever seeing an official explanation of how this is done.

Also, some powers change cost based on board conditions (e.g. Venom's green).  As far as I can tell, these powers are treated as costing their max when determining if the power is fired.

JSP869

Sm0keyJ0e said:

MoosePrime said:

Partial answer:  if they can afford to fire the most expensive power, they will fire it.

Nope, this is not correct. Seen plenty of times against ThorBit teams where the AI actually gets to 30 red without firing a power.

As I understand it, if more then one enemy can fire a power with the amount of AP the team has, it randomly picks. For example, in the OP case, there were 3 enemies that could potentially fire a yellow power. The AI randomly picked who got the power. Makes sense that 2 out of the 3 yellow users were Thugs and therefore he saw them fire the yellow power 3 out of 4 times.

With Gambit/Thor, whenever Thor is picked (assuming two enemies use red), no power is fired (since Gambit disallows this). So each turn, there is a 50% chance no red power is fired if Thor is picked. If there are THREE red users, like in the current PVP with Punisher having an active red, there is a 67% chance no red is fired (if Thor or Punisher is picked).

Blah blah blah, odds and percentages... I'm drunk.

Wait. So if you have Gambit on your defensive team, and another red user, Thor for example, even though an active Gambit prevents allies from using Red and Purple powers, the AI code is bugged and will ignore Gambit's passive and will still occasionally decide to use Thor's red...even though it cannot actually use it? Wow.

How 'bout that. It was reported in October last year but still apparently hasn't been fixed.

killerkoala

i've had AI gambit/happy thor hoard 30 red before using their aces and eight once, but then i got to nuke them both with my saved up reds

Hadronic

JSP869 said:

Sm0keyJ0e said:

MoosePrime said:

Partial answer:  if they can afford to fire the most expensive power, they will fire it.

Nope, this is not correct. Seen plenty of times against ThorBit teams where the AI actually gets to 30 red without firing a power.

As I understand it, if more then one enemy can fire a power with the amount of AP the team has, it randomly picks. For example, in the OP case, there were 3 enemies that could potentially fire a yellow power. The AI randomly picked who got the power. Makes sense that 2 out of the 3 yellow users were Thugs and therefore he saw them fire the yellow power 3 out of 4 times.

With Gambit/Thor, whenever Thor is picked (assuming two enemies use red), no power is fired (since Gambit disallows this). So each turn, there is a 50% chance no red power is fired if Thor is picked. If there are THREE red users, like in the current PVP with Punisher having an active red, there is a 67% chance no red is fired (if Thor or Punisher is picked).

Blah blah blah, odds and percentages... I'm drunk.

Wait. So if you have Gambit on your defensive team, and another red user, Thor for example, even though an active Gambit prevents allies from using Red and Purple powers, the AI code is bugged and will ignore Gambit's passive and will still occasionally decide to use Thor's red...even though it cannot actually use it? Wow.

How 'bout that. It was reported in October last year but still apparently hasn't been fixed.

you misunderstand
the AI selects at random to choose gambit or thors red
if it selects thor, gambit blocks it (passive) and no power is fired
this gives the illusion that the AI is hoarding AP

not really a bug, more of a feature
if you kill gambit, that thor might suddenly have tons of AP to unload on you.

DeNappa

While it's random, I also frequently see certain goons are being preferred. In that, even though there are 3 maggia goons, 80% of countdown tiles are placed by a single one.

Also, I've noticed that for example the HAMMER Lieutenant (? the one with the heal burst) 's pistol almost always gets preferred over any present Soldier's 'suppressing fire'.