Home General Discussion
The Transformers Forged to Fight community has officially moved to Discord. For all the latest news and updates, join us here!

Why was the AI changed in the first place?


This was asked but weirdly never responded to and since the post is gone, I will re-ask in hope of an answer;

"So in all of the issues, all of the complaining... I still haven't seen this question posed?..

WHY was it changed in the first place? It was fine before... it was hard but that was great. Hard but not stupid and annoying. Not broken.

Can we not just revert to pre 2.0 and then sit down and ask ourselves if it is worth the headache to tweak it and risk breaking everything again?

Further, the heavy issue is going to be most complained about because it affects everyone, but mark my words, if the impossible to bait special behavior is still there for AM, it is going to hit the fan. At higher levels we were already having to really watch the clock in some fights, and if they are just going to be delayed even longer, it is going to break AM.

Finally -- the other issue that is not getting near enough focus is the supposed increase in special abilities for AI bots. I have played in arena with my Bonecrusher vs another person's evenly rated Bonecrusher who's stats I'm aware of (both non-forged, mine higher sig level, both r3 3*) and when I faced them in arena I was pulling bleed stacks from them nearly every time I hit them, yet my bone didn't drop a single bleed on them except for specials.

Feels like nothing is fixed and AM is fast approaching...."

Comments

  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    Been wondering the same thing
  • DreadspectreDreadspectre Posts: 123
    Did they change AI?

    I've been having like...3 minute swipe fests circling bots trying to get them to burn Special energy to no avail lately.

    **** is obnoxious.
  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    edited June 2017
    In the 2.0 patch, it was documented that they tuned AI to be easier in harder levels of AM (which we have yet to see) and that arena would be easier in higher rounds. They also documented that specials should be easier to bait.

    Since then they have acknowledged that the AI was tuned to play less aggressively. This change seems to have affected the behavior of baiting specials beyond any tweaking they did to make it easier to bait... as in, they are playing so defensively that the change to baiting specials is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall behavior.

    It seems to be most prevalent in Raids, and somewhat in arena. Haven't seen the behavior in story mode, but I'm thinking we will probably see it in AM if something doesn't change.
  • MAMILMAMIL Posts: 48
    Well said Dan. Just wait for the avalanche of criticism from top alliances if AI specials are as hard to bait in AM as they are in Arena. Timeouts galore!
  • ToxieAvengerToxieAvenger Posts: 68
    edited June 2017
    tekkn1kal wrote: »
    ...and that arena would be easier in higher rounds.

    I've seen the exact opposite since the 2.0 patch. Once you hit the infinite streak in Arenas (After win 15+), the AI starts cheating in a sense. It's a new behavior too, that was not present prior to 2.0.

    What happens is that the AI does not give you an opening to attack after you receive a combo from them. Traditionally, after completing a combo, you are opened up to a retaliatory strike. The AI completely ignores this combat rule now and blocks immediately after completing their combo against you.

    It makes for an incredibly frustrating combat experience and feels like it was put in place to end Arena Streaks.
  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    tekkn1kal wrote: »
    ...and that arena would be easier in higher rounds.

    I've seen the exact opposite since the 2.0 patch. Once you hit the infinite streak in Arenas (After win 15+), the AI starts cheating in a sense. It's a new behavior too, that was not present prior to 2.0.

    What happens is that the AI does not give you an opening to attack after you receive a combo from them. Traditionally, after completing a combo, you are opened up to a retaliatory strike. The AI completely ignores this combat rule now and blocks immediately after completing their combo against you.

    It makes for an incredibly frustrating combat experience and feels like it was put in place to end Arena Streaks.

    Yep, completely agree with you. I don't think it was intended by Kabam, but it seems in nearly every case that their intended changes had the opposite results.
  • ManthroManthro Posts: 2,752
    edited June 2017
    From what I understand the AI was changed due to players complaining about high difficulty in raids and arenas.

    Kabam has responded in another thread stating that the high dodge and blocking effect was an unintended result of lowering the AI aggression. The opponent now put defense as a priority, making it harder to hit, and in return, opening up more opportunity to counter which actually makes them harder to fight.

    As for baiting specials... Try this. Instead of circling all the time, just let go of your controls for 2 seconds. Your bot will slowly jog straight at the opponent.

    Once you close the distance by about half, then sidestep a couple times. If the opponent doesn't throw a special, repeat. Getting the range correct to bait a special will take practice, but there's a sweet spot where you'll get it out of him just about every time.

    Practice on low pi bots, you'll get it down.
  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    Trust me, I'm playing at a pretty high level, and played at a high level in MCOC... I'm not the only one complaining about the special baiting. It isn't an inability to bait them and it isn't consistent. Some fights it is completely fine, others you couldn't pay them to use their special.

    I'm fully aware of all the ways to bait specials... but if you get a fight where the bot decides he's not going to use his special, nothing that worked pre 2.0 is going to work.
  • Hey Guys,

    As we have stated in other threads, the AI was actually tuned down in difficulty and aggression, but there was the unintended side effect of a different fix that is making the AI dodge heavy attacks a lot more often than before.

    We are working on getting this fixed as soon as we can, and hope that there is something that we can do server side that will alleviate the issue, and may even have one ready by the time Alliance Missions start!

    As for it being harder to bait specials... That's the opposite of what should have happened. We made a change to make the AI less likely to hold until their Special 3. I'm gonna have the team check in on this, because I have not been noticing this myself in Chapter 3 or the Spotlight.
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    It's an arena issue, as far as I know, Mike. Having played both Chapter 3 and Spotlight, I haven't noticed anything amiss either. It seems exclusive to arena after getting past streak 25 or so.
  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    edited June 2017
    Thanks @Kabam Miike . Just to be clear I've also not seen it in Ch3 at all, seems to be mostly prevalent in Raids and Arena. Not sure if that means anything to you guys, but that's where I've seen it. I've got to the point where after 20 seconds or so you can tell it's "stuck" and I will start goofing off just to see how long it takes.

    @Mustangjon also noted the same behavior in the Poll thread from a day or two ago.
  • PeyotePeyote Posts: 163
    Missions in general are not the issue, they are relatively easy in general, as they were before.

    The mais issue is in the arenas and raids where we can definitely all the things mentionned above. And the Bots are still very agressive in arenas after the update. I even had a Rhinox pinning me on the side for the whole fight hitting me repeatedly and I couldn't do a thing.
  • Oh! I didn't get to comment on the AI's abilities versus yours. They're not different. The AI does not have a different set of abilities or probability, unless they're on a Module or something of the like. Making the AI have a different set or probability of activating abilities would require building another version of that bot, and that's not something we have any interest in doing because of both how much time it takes and the space it takes, and because it's just dishonest.

    So, it is totally possible for an opposing Bonecrusher to stack WAY more bleeds than yours, it's all up to chance.

    As for the Motormaster just randomly becoming unstoppable... Well that's not an ability. That's a bug we're looking into.
  • Synthwave wrote: »
    It's an arena issue, as far as I know, Mike. Having played both Chapter 3 and Spotlight, I haven't noticed anything amiss either. It seems exclusive to arena after getting past streak 25 or so.
    tekkn1kal wrote: »
    Thanks @Kabam Miike . Just to be clear I've also not seen it in Ch3 at all, seems to be mostly prevalent in Raids and Arena. Not sure if that means anything to you guys, but that's where I've seen it. I've got to the point where after 20 seconds or so you can tell it's "stuck" and I will start goofing off just to see how long it takes.

    @Mustangjon also noted the same behavior in the Poll thread from a day or two ago.

    Thanks Guys! I haven't paid much attention when in the Arenas, but I will make sure to pass that on to the team!
  • Hey All,

    We've just pushed a change that should help address this Heavy Attack evasion thing. You'll have to make sure you're on the latest version of the game (2.0.2), and you'll want to restart the game to maker sure the server change is active.
  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    Thanks @Kabam Miike ... I did some testing in a couple raids and it appears to be a marked improvement in landed heavy ratio.
  • KillMasterCKillMasterC Posts: 3,105
    Manthro wrote: »
    As for baiting specials... Try this. Instead of circling all the time, just let go of your controls for 2 seconds. Your bot will slowly jog straight at the opponent.

    Once you close the distance by about half, then sidestep a couple times. If the opponent doesn't throw a special, repeat. Getting the range correct to bait a special will take practice, but there's a sweet spot where you'll get it out of him just about every time.
    Tried, that's a good trick to say the least. Baited 4 out of 5 for those special holders like Grindor, MM and G1OP. But it's also risky to eat the special because AI sometimes throws it out when you're running forward (need to block quickly when you see the special), sometimes when you start sidestepping (vulnerable). The best outcome is when they throw it out AFTER your sidestepping.
  • In AM, I'm not seeing the promised reduction in difficulty. It seems like bots that are on nodes (boosting another bot) refuse to use any special til their L3, which they will then use instantly to ruin your day.
    The more defensive behavior is also making it harder to finish a fight in the time limit. I'm having to rush in and take way too much damage just to avoid the time up KO.
  • Is there any way to keep those load screens from eating up your time in timed fights? With all these updates, I'm having issues with failing raids due to 14 of the 15 min limit being taken up by loading screens.
  • tekkn1kaltekkn1kal Posts: 430
    edited June 2017
    As for it being harder to bait specials... That's the opposite of what should have happened. We made a change to make the AI less likely to hold until their Special 3. I'm gonna have the team check in on this, because I have not been noticing this myself in Chapter 3 or the Spotlight.

    @Kabam Miike just curious if you guys have found anything here. Definitely noticed this behavior in AM, and it was more of a frustration than anything today, but I could absolutely see it going further than that in the right circumstances.

    Dealing with AI not wanting to use special, against a bot like Ratchet who has power gain for instance, could be extremely frustrating since he will just hold til he charges his power up to SP3.

    If nothing else, there is no question specials are not easier to evade as indicated in the patch notes.
Sign In or Register to comment.