I don’t understand the term “AI Combo-Breaker Off” what does that mean?
It means the AI can get “lucky” drops just as much as you are. For a long time, it only happened in the tutorial phase, and then the combo-breaker was off, so that you’d play the game with as much luck as the AI. The devs had removed it because people felt like the AI was “cheating”, getting all the lucky drops, even if it was actually random. The hard mode basically just means you’re playing the game on the same level field as the AI, instead of getting more lucky drops than it does.
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Thanks for the definition. So, hard really means even then.
Exactly! ^^
I would replace “Normal” with “Easy” and “Hard” with “Normal”.
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Unfortunately it’s the same AI in all the difficulties. It can’t see that it can do a one-step chain to match 3 skulls or get an extra turn, leaves “take an extra turn” spells sitting there charged while it does other things, etc.
Wait, what is “lucky drops” then or what exactly does that mean?
Archenassa meant it as “lucky” drops (quote, unquote), as in sarcastically speaking because of users complaints over the computer randomly getting cascades by pure accident. Some went so far as to claim it was purposefully cheating them out of victory because the computer generated orbs didn’t fall in their favor.
Eh, I’m personally happy with the addition of an easy mode, so to speak.
Makes the game less stressful in a way, you know?
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Zelfore pretty much explained it perfectly. 
The reason I ask is because someone on the Steam forums posted that with it off, the computer no longer “filters” the new gems being created on top to create matches or cascades. So I was trying to get verification of what turning the combo-breaker off really meant.
The correct phrasing would be: with combo-breaker turned off at Hard and up, the computer no longer “filters” the new gems being created on top to AVOID CREATING matches or cascades (like it does, for the AI only, on Normal).
Yes, thanks, that’s more correct.
But is there some post or thread that actually “officially” states that’s what’s happening (either referencing the combo-breaker or what happens in the tutorial/new players until they reach x level, etc)? Not a post by a player but from a dev? I can’t seem to find a Search function here if there is one.
Sirrian had a post on the 1.0.7 Patch Preview 2 blog post:
In version 1.0.5 and earlier, all gem drops were totally random… the AI and the human both had an equal chance of lucky drops – cases where gems drop in to set up or activate good skull matches or 4-of-a-kind matches.
Unfortunately, a lot of players felt that the AI was cheating (for the record it definitely wasn’t). It’s an unfortunate way that our brains are wired so that negative events are remembered more clearly than positive ones – it’s called “recall bias”.
We implemented a “combo-breaker”, something that detected if the AI player was about to get a lucky drop, and if you (as a human player) hadn’t had a bunch of luck yourself, then it altered the gems dropping in to disadvantage the AI player.
The complaints have mostly stopped since then, but we know some players enjoy the tension of a more-evenly-matched contest, so we’ve disabled the combo-breaker in all difficulties above normal in 1.0.7.
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Ah, thanks. Exactly what I was looking for.
Soooo… minor question just because it popped in my head while reading that, not that it personally matters since I play on Hard, but what is “[a player] hadn’t had a bunch of luck” mean? It sounds like not making a lucky match in x moves?