Stringing in heavy attack at the end of a combo

Scymon

I'm not sure if anyone else has seen it or experienced it, but from what I've gone through, it feels like the heavy attack for the player is a bit unbalance compared to when the AI uses their heavy attack.

It just seems like when an AI wants to use their heavy attack, it's an instant use; where when a player uses their heavy attack, they have to wait for the input to read because of having to hold down the right side. Granted this is a similar case with console/arcade fighting games where the AI can input perfect combos because it doesn't have to do every input that the player has to, it's basically just a single button press for them. Now knowing this, I can understand to some point that it's a bit easier to program this way as well as give a relatively good challenge to players the higher you go up in difficulty.

But the point that I question it is when the AI are able to string together a normal combo and are able to attach a heavy attack at the end with no delay; but if a player tries to do the same, the AI still has time to avoid the heavy attack because of either player input time (holding right side) or being frame perfect. I'm not demanding an immediate "fix" to this situation, just bringing it up wondering if anyone else has gone though this as well and what they think.

Trailfire

I've never experienced it that way. I think once you get more familiar with fighting techniques and the various AI patterns you won't see it as "frame perfect". Often it's quite predictable.
Certainly there's always a delay in the AI between combo and heavy attacks. If they switch from combo to heavy, there's always a chance to evade. You just gotta be ready and waiting for it because it's very short

Halloweendm

I agree about the AI thing, and there is that "frame perfect" that the AI can do that no player can pull off. As far as heavies go, most especially with Megatron, I've had the AI string together combos and go into not just one heavy but up to 3 consecutive heavy attacks in about the same time it would take a normal person to do just one heavy.

As for "frame perfect", that happens ALL the time. It not just the AI backstepping or sidestepping less than half a second before an attack or projectile would hit them, but they have done that to be maybe just one or two pixels out of reach of the attack. They can do the backstepping or sidestepping to exactly the distance they want, immediately go into a forward rush from a backstep instantly without any pause or change in animation.

Fighting techniques is one thing, but lately this stuff seems to be happening more and more often. And "quite predictable" AI patterns = exploit, and I seem to remember some thread or two on here warning about abusing exploits, although I'm not sure how one would "abuse" an exploit like just knowing how a bot fights.

Trailfire

Predicting the AI pattern isn't an exploit. I just mean things like, Mega always does multiple heavy attacks in a row, so as soon as he starts, get ready to evade several times
Mega always does heavies when he has unstoppable on (because thats his skill set) so as soon as you see "you'll pay for this" or whatever it says, you know you've got half a second to get clear before he goes unstoppable, breaks your combo and smashes you with heavy attacks.

There's no "exploit" involved in this, it's just knowing the enemy

Scymon

Doing well to avoid attacks with back and side stepping is understandable with the AI, because they can read your inputs before their completely registered animation wise. But when I talk about frame perfects, I've experienced at times where the AI will hit me back while I'm in the middle of a combo string. And I don't mean they back stepped to get away and then hit back. I mean while in the middle of a well timed combo (which is any normal combo string) the bots cannot retaliate immediately, as seen from when the AI combo strings and your bot gets a slight stun after each hit (not a registered stun, more of an animation stun).

It doesn't happen often enough to the point where it breaks the game, but it has shown up enough to be noticeable and have me question if it's been programmed in or if the higher AI just knows how to maneuver/string attacks better.

KillMasterC

Firstly, AI seldom links heavy attack into normal combos except for +15 win arena opponents. Secondly, even when that happened, you can backstep from it if you anticipate. Heavies are never comboed into normals, blocked or landed.

lilbeastie

yeah - a heavy can follow a combo, but it isn't really part of the combo and you (or the AI) can't continue the combo after a heavy hit. They can do multiple heavies though (as Megatron will often do) but you can usually avoid one or more of them.

Predicting AI behaviour isn't an exploit, it's part of playing the game. Just like the AI will predict how you play if you continually use the same combinations.

You will see the AI does different things depending on where your fighting and the bot levels. The AI seems much more aggressive at higher AM levels for example than it is in story, and similarly rated bots will come at you much harder when at high arena streaks than they do at lower streaks.