AI advantage

jambattles

Why is the AI getting 10+ tiles from 90% of their moves? Every turn the AI keeps collecting tiles. I've played this game for years and I'm accustom to the AI being given an advantage. However, the "cheating" has become extreme. It's not just the AI tiles but everything seems to favor the AI now. Is this the new meta? Can I roll back the last update? I know this sounds like complaining. The game isn't fun to play when the AI is already stronger than my team and now gets enough AP to shoot powers 3 to 1 to my team. I've often said this game cheats more than any game I've ever played. This was before the update. After the update, I can see D3 was only kinda cheating before the update. Is this what happened to Adventure Time Puzzle Quest or why people don't play Magic Puzzle Quest?

jp1

AI characters that don’t move tiles produce AP at a pretty fast pace. Perhaps this is what you are experiencing? 

jambattles

No, AI makes a move and tiles drop from the top. 90% of the time - one move turns into three or four moves for the AI. Just got through playing Jessica Jones, Hulk Main Event, and Thanos. After 3 moves, the AI had 175 AP. I had 12 AP.  It's insane the amount of AP the AI is collecting. Normally, I quit or "retreat" when I notice a 3 to1 ratio. I have to quit nearly every game. My fun level is plummeting. 

Yes, I know the Hulk makes an extra move before the round.

jp1

Maybe a stroke of bad luck. It happens to me from time to time but not with enough frequency to believe it’s anything more than chance.

Good luck.

Borstock

It's random. In fact, if the devs are to be believed, the AI is actually at a drop disadvantage compared to the player. One patch fixed the drops so that the AI would see fewer matches drop from above. 

grunth13

Borstock said:

It's random. In fact, if the devs are to be believed, the AI is actually at a drop disadvantage compared to the player. One patch fixed the drops so that the AI would see fewer matches drop from above. 

Only in pve

ThaRoadWarrior

If Jessica Jones' damning evidence tiles were being discovered by the enemy team, each one produces +3 ap on their strongest color. I"m not sure which version of Thanos was in that match, but if it was TH4nos, he puts additional green on the board. If main event had yellow countdowns out, those have a random chance of each producing +2 random AP. So that team you described has a lot of ways to conditionally generate AP above and beyond cascade generation from Grand Entrance that may have been responsible.

jamesh

It's probably also worth considering the AI's disadvantages too:

• The AI can't see L and T shaped match-5s.
• The AI doesn't avoid its own special tiles or target yours.
• The AI has no concept of AP denial as a strategy.
  
• The AI doesn't know how to avoid triggering your team's passives.
• The AI doesn't know how to effectively combo its teams powers. Sometimes it manages, but it could just as easily fire powers in the wrong order.
• The AI doesn't know that it is sometimes worth waiting to fire a power past when it's got enough AP (e.g. Red Hulk's green).

If it occasionally gets a large cascade, then so be it.

0_efx_0

I agree with you. The enemy cascades have been higher after the update.

Speculation: enemy cascade increased algorithm updated 

DeNappa

To be honest, I've noticed more skyfall matches and match4/5s from the AI in the past few days as well. To the point where I actually considered 'man, I should really line up Mockingbird or TeenJean for a bit'.

I disregarded it though since it was probably one of those RNG streaks (had em before) but now I see this thread and I'm not sure.

Probably just confirmation bias though.

AXP_isme

I haven’t noticed it particularly since the most recent update. For me, it seems to be streaky. It’s like there’s a temporary setting for cascade-mode where it gets turned on for the AI for a few days during which time you may as well drop play time down to a bare minimum because you’re just going to have a bad time. 

I always assume (once I calm down) that it’s confirmation bias on my part. When I lose I notice it more than when I’m winning. I don’t like losing so it sticks is in my brain more. I take a deep breath, step away from the game and take a break. Once my frustration has subsided I can go back and try again but there’s often a lingering niggle that makes me more likely to see random things as unfairly skewed against me.

I don’t feel good when I get a massive cascade, I just fire the powers, close out the match and move on. The asymmetrical weight that I place on these things is what creates the feeling (which seems very real at the time) that something unfair is happening. Ultimately I feel like it’s up to me to prove whether it’s unfair or not. My life is too short to work out an unbiased testing mechanism and run a statistically significant set of tests to prove my hypothesis of fairness or not. 

qandols

My pet peeve with the randomness of this game is the Milano support CD. The life time expectancy of that tile is usually next to nothing. Either the AI matches it directly or preferably when one count remains. Or I am forced to match it myself due to being the only available move. Or it dies in a cascade caused by AI or myself. The AI of course usually put the CD where it forms a match 4 on the enemy turn. I could make a chart of the CD:s adventures but it's too much trouble. Oh well... 

JackTenrec

It always sucks to be on the receiving end of AI cascades, but I like to think that's what Mockingbird/Jean Grey were made for (the Psychic Feedback/Opportunist/Full of Surprises combo is especially satisfying).

IIAlonditeII

Just confirmation bias.

spidyjedi84

If you're quitting when the enemy team has a 3:1 advantage over you, you're giving up scenarios where you can still win. I don't focus on the AP of the enemy team, I focus on their health. If a character is sitting at 3000 hit points in one turn and they're the only user of a certain color or their nuke hits harder than others on the enemy team, you best rest assured I'm doing what I can to get him out of the game and leave the enemy team with AP they can't readily use. 

jambattles

Unless you are in the end game, a 3:1 advantage is difficult to overcome. The 3:1 is a guideline not a rule. If I have 15AP (with no powers activated) and the AI has 80AP (with 3 or more powers activated, I retreat from the match (given only match damage has occurred). If your team will take less damage as a team to retreat than the potential of the next AI move using a power on 1 or more players, it's better to retreat. There are very few situations that this strategy is not useful or the best use of energy. 

jambattles

DeNappa said:

To be honest, I've noticed more skyfall matches and match4/5s from the AI in the past few days as well. To the point where I actually considered 'man, I should really line up Mockingbird or TeenJean for a bit'.

I disregarded it though since it was probably one of those RNG streaks (had em before) but now I see this thread and I'm not sure.

Probably just confirmation bias though.

Same. I've noticed cascading in the past but it normally goes away after a day or two. This time feels different. The AP drop for the AI is crazy. Maybe it will slow down in a couple of days. I posted here to see if others were experiencing the same thing or was it my mind slowly going mad. 

Bigblue778

Does anyone else notice the game after a loss is super easy?

jambattles

After reading some responses about confirmation bias, I decided to keep up with some stats over my next 100 games. After keeping with the stats, there is zero question of AI advantage. It's a joke to consider it not a cheating algorithm. I get the disadvantages of the AI but to claim the AI isn't given an advantage is a lie.

In the games I played and tracked (100 straight games):

In PVE events:
Human: strike, attack, protect, and count down tiles: when randomly placed, these tiles had a 91% chance of being placed for immediate match. Although, the tiles may or may not be matched was not considered only if they could be matched with 1 move. The chance of being destroyed through a match 4 increased the probability to 94%. 

AI: strike, attack, protect and countdown tiles: when randomly placed, these tiles had a 7% chance of being placed for immediate match. 

In PVP events: 
Human: matching 3 or more colors: I did not track this.
AI: matching 3 or more colors: the AI matched or accumulated more than 3 AP in 84% of turns. I was actually shocked it was this high. 

I wish I had tracked color availability and how it adjusted through the match. Seems that when I need a color the color isn't available but when the AI needs it, it drops immediately. 

//Removed Profanity -Brigby

ThaRoadWarrior

I'd like to see somebody track the probability that matches involving an opposing Teen Jean present you with a turn-1 match 5 opportunity.

IIAlonditeII

jambattles said:

After reading some responses about confirmation bias, I decided to keep up with some stats over my next 100 games. After keeping with the stats, there is zero question of AI advantage. It's a joke to consider it not a cheating pos algorithm. I get the disadvantages of the AI but to claim the AI isn't given an advantage is a lie.


In the games I played and tracked (100 straight games):

In PVE events:
Human: strike, attack, protect, and count down tiles: when randomly placed, these tiles had a 91% chance of being placed for immediate match. Although, the tiles may or may not be matched was not considered only if they could be matched with 1 move. The chance of being destroyed through a match 4 increased the probability to 94%. 

AI: strike, attack, protect and countdown tiles: when randomly placed, these tiles had a 7% chance of being placed for immediate match. 

In PVP events: 
Human: matching 3 or more colors: I did not track this.
AI: matching 3 or more colors: the AI matched or accumulated more than 3 AP in 84% of turns. I was actually shocked it was this high. 

I wish I had tracked color availability and how it adjusted through the match. Seems that when I need a color the color isn't available but when the AI needs it, it drops immediately. 

These numbers are too wild, haha. You're going to need to evidence these claims, because they are far too extreme to not be fabricated. I'll need to see the total number of Strike, Attack and Protect tiles placed, and the number of them that were placed such that they could be immediately matched. And so on, for all of the following "statistics" you provided.