Honest question: Does the opponent AI operate the same in every mode?
ESF
Member Posts: 2,037 ★★★★★
Hi, folks! Hope all is well.
This is an honest, straightforward question. I think it’s something that players, if it’s not the same everywhere, deserve to know, so we understand how the game actually operates.
I am Thronebreaker, I have been here since the first week of the game itself. I know how to bait specials.
This isn’t a “me” problem.
My concern is in Battlegrounds, where a little too often, the AI won’t do anything except throw heavies and try to back you into the corner.
Yes, I intercept, though sometimes I miss. I am not a perfect player. I understand when I make mistakes and don’t complain about that.
But I just fought a Hit Monkey where I literally had to push it to an SP3 because the AI wouldn’t do ANYTHING after I had multiple Concussions on it. It was like the AI said not to do ANYTHING other than throw heavies if it’s Debuffed.
I have never been so frustrated in Battlegrounds — the AI can’t be passive IF you are baiting and intercepting! It’s a two-minute fight! It has to do SOMETHING
This is an honest, straightforward question. I think it’s something that players, if it’s not the same everywhere, deserve to know, so we understand how the game actually operates.
I am Thronebreaker, I have been here since the first week of the game itself. I know how to bait specials.
This isn’t a “me” problem.
My concern is in Battlegrounds, where a little too often, the AI won’t do anything except throw heavies and try to back you into the corner.
Yes, I intercept, though sometimes I miss. I am not a perfect player. I understand when I make mistakes and don’t complain about that.
But I just fought a Hit Monkey where I literally had to push it to an SP3 because the AI wouldn’t do ANYTHING after I had multiple Concussions on it. It was like the AI said not to do ANYTHING other than throw heavies if it’s Debuffed.
I have never been so frustrated in Battlegrounds — the AI can’t be passive IF you are baiting and intercepting! It’s a two-minute fight! It has to do SOMETHING
Post edited by Kabam Porthos on
3
Comments
As for BG AI, it's frustrating as hell. Especially with the new meta where you gotta intercept.
Then sometimes I come across a trigger happy AI that keeps throwing specials and won't let you catch a break. I faced an Apoc and a Knull this morning that just kept throwing sp1s. Hyperion is also weirdly cooperative.
IMO without a doubt AI behavior changes based on champ. How many characters immediately launch a heavy attack when the fight starts? In my entire time playing the game I've only experienced that against Sersi and America Chavez recently as well as Mysterio during previous events. You just don't see other champs do that. Yes, I'm salty because I was in BGs facing a Chavez, she did that, and I wasn't nearly warmed up to react fast enough lol
That ain’t great
using hulkling the AI does not want to be passive and never holds block unless you heavy and place the debuff
using herc, intercepting seems to always get countered or at least seems the AI is favored when doing simultaneous dash ins. intercepting AI seems to exponentially increase. they also become super passive somehow even when debuff is applied to them to become more aggressive.
using BWDO holding block you will see her widow meter start to activate. as soon as you see it pop up, dash in and it will 100% always be a guaranteed intercept even if the AI is standing in block, they seem to dash in in time to get intercepted. if you dash in early 50/50 you either get intercepted or you hit into block.
using many other champs the AI is just really passive in a lot of situations where it benefits them, for example having power gains they tend to hold block or become super passive. if you get lucky you are able to bait a special and keep them in a rotation(highly unlikely tbh)
Here's the honest answer. This is probably an unanswerable question.
This is going to sound like a dodge, but the phrase "operates the same" is one that has no specific technical meaning. Which is to say, the answer could be yes or no, and yet still be consistent with what we see.
The AI runs on things referred to as "profiles." But we don't know, and the devs have never explained, what's actually inside a single profile. The profile could contain all sorts of rules and contingencies that make even one single AI profile behave differently in different conditions.
And that's the technical stumbling block to answering this question. It could be literally true that if you were somehow able to magically pick up an AI defender from one part of the game and drop them into another part of the game they'd behave slightly differently without any change to the code or the data. Since the developers look at code and data, they would say the AI was identical. Since players do not look at code and data, they look at behavior they could come to the equally solid conclusion that the AI was different.
What complicates this is that (and this is just my opinion: no one has ever directly told me this) I believe two factors make this problematic to discuss with the developers. First, AI subsystems are notoriously complicated in games like this. They are often black boxes of tangled wires no one wants to touch. And second, there's often the belief that if the players understood how the AI worked, they could come up with behavioral exploits.
If you believe the players are smart enough to outsmart the AI, and it is a tangled mess you don't want to touch, the one thing you don't want to do is educate the players on how it works. If they outsmart it, you can't fix it (or it would be incredibly complex and rime consuming to do so).
Again, this is my own theory on the issues surrounding AI. It is complicated enough that the AI can behave in sometimes different unpredictable ways when placed in different unique circumstances. It is also complicated enough that no developer wants to touch it. And they are worried about what would happen if they gave away too many details to the players, who are likely to be able to outsmart it if they knew too much.