I believe this is a bug because the enemy doesn’t know what an hourglass gem does or it would match it on 3 gem matches.
Its the same effect as getting a 4 or 5 match to continue thier survival in gaining gem color selections but after playing this entire event for weeks so far they dont, from guild wars to any of the explore modes its exactly the same except when the hourglass is making a traditional 4 or 5 match.
But i think due to the inherited nature of the enemies desire to get matches that suits its needs or when a 4 or 5 match comes up that isn’t on thier color “radar” they will match it but this hourglass gem IS broken to me if the enemy totally disregards the FREE TURN.
Or it’s just the fact that it’s just a 3 match and the developers didn’t tell the enemy that the hourglass has a benefit to even collecting just 3 of them. Either way it sucks that the advantage of the hourglass always go to me.
Balance the game if you introduce a new hero gem into the game but forget to code it to the enemy.
The AI constantly makes sub-optimal moves. It’s likely an intentional feature, where the AI is coded in such a way as to make things a more pleasant experience for the human player and therefore set to a “lower difficulty”.
It’s not just Hourglass Gems. Play enough and you’ll see the AI eschew 4-matches and 5-matches on a regular basis. Not match skulls, especially at times it could kill a troop. Not cast spells in an intelligent fashion.
So it brings up my point, Is this gem solely for my game? If so then close the thread but if not then why is the enemy not knowing that the 3 yellow matches with the hourglass gem will give it an extra turn?
The only time it ignores a 4+ move Is when its ready to cast a spell. This is my only experience with your statement but i have to now prove it. But I’ll gladly do it. Hold on
These kinds of posts hurt my head (from banging it against the wall). We’re all at the table playing Blackjack and you’re telling the pit boss the dealer keeps hitting on 17.
Ok here the proof that the enemy ignored the board just to cast its spell
In the first shot its my turn and there was a 4 brown match but i wanted to preserve i
So all i did was take the 3 blue match with the frozen gem making my third troop now full.
I just had the AI use the hourglass (seconds before I opened this thread). And I’ve definitely seen it happen before. I don’t think it ignores this mechanic any more than it ignores other 4/5 gem matches. At least that’s been my experience.
That’s because the AI behavior is designed to be random. What happens is that the AI evaluates the things it can directly achieve with its very next action and assigns a point value to them. Example with entirely made up numbers:
Cast a spell (200 points)
Take an extra turn match (100 points)
Take a normal match in a color required for any spells (20 points)
Take a normal match in a color not required for any spells (10 points)
Then it rolls a random number in the range (200 + 100 + 20 + 10) and takes the action the roll ends up with.
Important things to know:
The AI doesn’t know what spells do, just that a spell is ready.
The AI doesn’t know what special gems do, just the basic color of each gem, meaning whether they can be matched or not.
The weight of each action (meaning how many points the AI assigns to it) is based on the game mode. When fighting your own defense team, all actions are weighed roughly equally, so you see a lot of “stupid” moves. Guild Wars has the “toughest” weights, so that defense team you repeatedly totally steamrolled when testing it may put up a much better fight.
Why random at all? Because initially the AI was way too predictable for players. Like, it always picked a skull match whenever you conveniently left one available.
This one I don’t agree with. At the very least, spells are categorized somehow and the AI will prioritize some type of spells depending on scenarios.
It’s not uncommon to see Thralls and Wand of Stars overcasting multiple times, and the AI will definitely prioritize Doomed books over casting a Generator Empowered Troop even when everything is full during Guild Wars. If the AI didn’t know categories of spell, it should be a 1 in 4 and any random spell should just come out to combo break… except it doesn’t happen as much as it should if the AI didn’t know.
