The Rise and Rise of Passive AI
Palanthrax
Member Posts: 918 ★★★★
I think most of us base our gameplay around the game's "classic" aggressive AI. We bait them to run in and parry, or we intercept a dash, or we pummel a missed heavy, or we bait a special. It's the same AI still used for AQ bosses and LOL fights, etc. I've heard it referred to as the "hard" AI, personally I find it the most comfortable to fight. As human beings, our only chance to beat the AI is to react and punish its mistakes, we can never beat the reaction time of a machine.
However, it seems that Kabam has been gradually phasing this AI out in favour of the infinitely more annoying "passive AI". You know, the one that dashes in, stops a few feet in front of you and just stands there, sometimes open baiting you. It can be found in the majority of fights these days, it's particularly pronounced in the symbioid fights in AQ, but it's also common in the earlier arena matches.
It's a lot harder to parry or intercept the passive AI because it doesn't give you the openings you've been trained to expect. It can also be far more difficult to bait specials, the aggressive AI allows you to dash in and hit the enemy's block, the passive AI will happily intercept you or unleash a special as you run in. It's also common for the passive AI to ignore specials entirely until the SP3 is ready.
How do you feel about the gradual phasing in of the passive AI? Does it impact your enjoyment of the game? How do you prefer to deal with such fights?
However, it seems that Kabam has been gradually phasing this AI out in favour of the infinitely more annoying "passive AI". You know, the one that dashes in, stops a few feet in front of you and just stands there, sometimes open baiting you. It can be found in the majority of fights these days, it's particularly pronounced in the symbioid fights in AQ, but it's also common in the earlier arena matches.
It's a lot harder to parry or intercept the passive AI because it doesn't give you the openings you've been trained to expect. It can also be far more difficult to bait specials, the aggressive AI allows you to dash in and hit the enemy's block, the passive AI will happily intercept you or unleash a special as you run in. It's also common for the passive AI to ignore specials entirely until the SP3 is ready.
How do you feel about the gradual phasing in of the passive AI? Does it impact your enjoyment of the game? How do you prefer to deal with such fights?
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Comments
I've learnt to try and adapt to it. Passive AI? Two can play at that game. I just block a lot and do the occasional parry on them (since I am usually using wolvy, I can afford the damage). If they make themselves look open, I just refuse to dash forward at them until they actually do something.
Joke aside, however I do feel that the AI has been "tuned" once awhile, when we were getting used to some muscle memory and fighting style, then the AI got tuned to slightly diff style, even affect some of the game mechanics a little, at times we have to re-adapt again, but until we re-adapt, it'll cost us potions and revives, which means MORE UNITS SPEND and more earning for Kabam. Hmmm... economics is so weird ...
You won't get one... the developers are invoking a passive AI
Mate, would be great for us, but why would Kabam do this? This is their business, they need to make money from it
Yeah, I think that’s the intention. They also like to charge the heavy for a longer period of time to catch you out running in too early.
Baiting the passive AI is a nightmare as they generally won’t play along and will just keep closing the distance. If they corner you, then you’re going to have major difficulty evading the heavy due to the random timing.
The best strategy seems to be to go for parries or punish heavies, but it’s easy to start taking a little too much blocking damage, which I guess is also intended. Parries aren’t as reliable as they’ll often dash in and then use a light attack, something a human player would rarely do.
I’ve just observed that this version of the AI is starting to appear everywhere in place of the previously more common aggressive AI, even the monthly event quest is going down this route. Personally I find it far less enjoyable to fight.
All jokes aside, I hate how hard they hit. A mystic symbiod hit me with a 2k crit on a l1.