Dear devs, please fix your cheating AI on console

Gameplay Chat (PlayStation 4/Xbox One)
101

Your videos are MUCH better than mine. I wish I would had been more thorough in my explanations of what was going on. Nonetheless, EVERYTHING that you talk about in your videos is EXACTLY what I am complaining about and EXACTLY what so many others are complaining about. It has NOTHING to do with levels, masteries, etc etc etc. It has EVERYTHING to do with blatant AI cheating.

And if levels and masteries are a huge factor in this ‘luck’ bs as we are supposed to believe; why doesn’t it happen in CASUAL PVP matches? Explain that one devs.

Great videos RyuuHou24!

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102

@RyuuHou24

  1. Nice 1 minute video
  2. Thank you for taking the higher 4 match first, before the lower one :slight_smile:
  3. If you are truly worried about RNG gem drops I would strongly recommend you REMOVE the 3 Mana Creators from your team and REPLACE them with Mana Transformers. (It then becomes more of a control team).
    http://ashtender.com/gems/troops?filter=Transform
103

I doubt changing from creators to transformers is going to affect AI skydrops. Also, I used to run Banshee, she’s less effective than what I’m currently running. Besides, that’s also what Celestia is there for.

104

Strat has a point. Using mana creators instead of transformers often leads to unpredictable results. See it on PC/mobile all the time.

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105

Thank you for listening to the complaints and attempting to validate these claims. It seems as though recall bias is definitely in play here. I must’ve been having an absolutely terrible streak of bad luck the week that I made this thread. That being said, I do notice a big difference in the game between pc and console. Overall it is a much more enjoyable experience on pc/mobile than console. I hope that the differences are minimized or erased at some point in the future. Thanks for you and the rest of the team’s hard work on this great game.

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106

It’s the drops after exploders cast that’s driving me crazy occasionally. I thought more folks would have noticed that tbh. 7 skulls in a string, seems very unlikely.

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107

That does seem very unlikely and possibly unique to consoles. On mobile, regardless of whether it’s me or the AI, using TDS or Gorgotha usually ends the turn, despite exploding nearly the entire board.

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108

All the people on this thread remind me of those guys that lose at poker… then start blaming the dealer, the cards, the poker room etc. of cheating. Get over it! You got unlucky. Statistically it must happen eventually.

109

That’s bollocks. Sorry but you’re talking rubbish. All I’ve done is share my experience and thoughts. Sometimes playing the game it throws up the equivalent of a royal flush 3 times. If you want to use the poker analogy then maybe that’s a fair comparison. I don’t know. I don’t care about poker tbh but the gems fall in ridiculous, and we mean ridiculous patterns occasionally, not all of the time admittedly but enough to get more than annoying.

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110

Obviously you can’t blanket everyone in this category. My comments suggests that the AI is on something else other than cheating.

In fact, based on the difference between PC/Mobile and Console, I also suggest that Console should be written to be the same as PC/Mobile (but why do I get the feeling that this is of no significance to later open another can of worms).

Assuming the kind folks here know how to play this game, know where to look, know how to make better decisions, know how to defeat the AI time and time again, what would you have to say about the AI eventually forcing you to have nothing but bad luck time and time again?

Clearly as it has been noticed there is a difference between PC/Mobile and Console when it comes to the AI, and because of that which is apparent, most of the kind folks here are stating their case about the AI.

If I for one was good at poker, real good and noticed I was running into bad luck time and time again, I’ll change the dealer, move from the table, or whichever, but since this is about an AI, which I cannot change the out come of my interactions in order to better my luck, I for one would more than like to see something done, eventually.

Since my last post, I just deal with it. The problem with the AI stems from something that is obviously different from the non Console version. Do I call this cheating? Like I put it no, this is something that has to do with some design that allows the AI to spaz out.

Should it be attributed to luck? No, it shouldn’t because this is something worse. This is my opinion based on my observation. The Devs are looking into this and I feel something will be done about this, so in that case I’ve laid this to rest and just play on.

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111

  1. I’ve played on both and I COMPLETELY DISAGREE! For the enter duration of the game’s release on console I have been posting and the PC/Mobile AI should follow the console. The PC/mobile AI is early-1980s chess boring.

  2. The fact (possible bug) that you have NEVER since day 1 been able to reliably Skull bait the console AI occasionally adds a wonderful element of unexpected moves.

  3. A former forum contributor wrote novels with videos how the AI was personally was out to get him.

  4. Look at all this incredibly small post here about the AI “cheating” (compared to the older ones).

  5. The Developers when porting accidentally captured lightning in a bottle… (or captured a bug)

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112

Hey @HADuke, again, thanks for putting in the effort for posting up the video. I did end up watching the 4 battles from your video and I do admit that there were some really close battles in there where it came down to the wire. From what I can see (again, my opinion), one of the biggest issues that I can say with your devour team was that half of your troops are gem transformers or destroyers. On both PC/Mobile and Console, when I play with those types of teams, there are many mixed results which results from that, which generally does not guarantee that you will get an extra turn, and can possibly even set up the opponent for some 4+ of a kind matches. I’ve always found them to be a double edged sword, although I’ll generally hold off casting until (if I have control) I can guarantee an extra turn.

The Dragon Soul match was painful to watch, just because of how close it was. I did notice that there were some instances where 4+ of a kind board matches were being left in favor of using spells, which did cause the board to change a bit, which would have given the AI a better chance of landing skulls. The Great Maw team on the other hand was a team build to feed as much mana into the Maw asap, and gained huge stats.

Again, from what I can see, I’m not trying to make excuses, from what I can see, the issue is not with cheating AI or standard board drops, but with moves which greatly modify/clear the board. I do have to say though, that changing this code would mean changing it for BOTH the AI and player, and I have also seen may cases where the luck is in the players favor on board clearing/mana transforming/destroying spells. I’m not 100% sure this would be a universally loved change though.

I never said I wouldn’t watch it, just that it was impractical to watch a 48 minute video (and referenced that others who suggested putting in some time stamps of relevant sections). FYI The next patch has now been delayed by 48 minutes, you may now blame @death for that wink wink.

@RyuuHou24 - That second video does seem pretty annoying. We may need to look into the code not spewing out that many of the same gem in a line how it did. That being said though, the board dropping code does not take into account what player’s turn it is, and for some other lucky player out there most likely would get a similar drop. We may need to investigate what is going on in that case, thanks for the video.

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113

Thanks, Obama…er…I mean @death! :wink:

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114

Well prepare to be surprised because many of us have watched it or are watching it now.

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115

Harold’s watching as well…

3000×2000 542 KB

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116

I’ve watched 25 minutes of your stream and that’s all I can afford to do right now. A few comments:
First, a big issue for you is team design. You are relying on Kerberos to charge and devour in order to win, but you put your most important troop in front with no protection. Put Kerberos and Kraken in the back and use a “tank” in front to soak up those skull matches. Astral Spirit is on your team, but you are treating her as an after-thought and aren’t using her strategically.
Second, there are a number of times when the very things that you are complaining about when they happen to the AI (i,e, “bad luck”), happen to you (i.e., “good luck”) with no comment. For example:

  1. at 12:48, as you are complaining about the AI getting a 3 match drop in from the top, that same drop also sets you up for a 4-match. When you take that 4-match, a 3-match skydrops in for you.
  2. at 13:35, after Behemoth casts and destroys some gems, the board that you get contains 2 4-matches. After you take the second one, you get a 2x cascade.
  3. 24:25, a 4-match falls from the sky for you just after you complained about the same thing happening for the AI.
  4. at 25:11, you are complaining about the AI getting a second skull match, but you set that one up yourself. Even after that, the board leaves you a red 5-match and you make no comment.

At 21:00 the AI had 5 red gems in a row drop in from the sky. This is the one thing that might be a genuine issue, and if you see my previous comments in this thead and others, you’ll see that I’ve been saying this for a long time. I think there is something different about the way gems are replenished between the console version and the PC/Mobile version. However, I am not convinced that this happens more often for the AI than it does for me.

For the record, your success rate on devours was 3/4 on Kerberos, 1/2 on Kraken and 0/1 on Sandshark while I was watching.

Overall, my assessment is that you had average to good luck in the fights that I watched, but were convinced that you were having bad luck because you failed to see the good that was happening to you.

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117

I like to be surprised :stuck_out_tongue:

118

I’m sorry @Sirrian and all the devs of this great game. I’ve been a little bitter towards you all lately. I apologize. Think my frustrations concerning the console version of this game have gotten the better of me lately

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119

Statistically, it’s happening far more than it should if you’re going by the assumption of fair play. If you haven’t noticed it, you either A) don’t play on console in the first place or B) don’t play enough to notice it.

120

Glad at least one of them helped showcase the issues we’re trying to report. If it helps any further, I can honestly say I have never had skydrops in the numbers or continuity that the AI has been getting since the AI change on consoles recently.

In fact, I’d go so far to say as in my entire time of playing your game, I’ve never had drops like what the second video shows. So if that helps figure out whatever it is that’s going on, then I’m glad :slight_smile: I’ll keep an eye out for instances like that in the future and capture/share them if it’ll help you guys out.

I will also say that the biggest problem area I personally see is from 3 trophy picks in PVP. IE, typically stronger (very much so, in many cases) opponents. I find if I tend to stick with 2 trophy picks until a 3 trophy one that is nearer my deck level shows up, the game seems a bit fairer. I realize that makes it sound like I’m prone to recall bias, and I can’t say for sure I’m not in some cases.

But I adamantly feel something is up. Always good to see devs listening to their community!