What decides which abilities the AI uses, because........

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Only within this past month of playing (since I’ve STOPPED leveling my entire roster), has the computer all of a sudden started using different abilities, whatever it feels like it. This is instead odd the tried and true, where you can “count on” or at least PLAN on the AI using the same abilities over and over.

Now, before you all come in with your “LOLs” and your “get better and stop whinin”, I am ONLY complaining about this now because it had never ever ever ever been an issue in my other two hundred days of playing.

For instance, I just left a match against Venom, Ares, and Doom. Needless to say, this fight is ALREADY ridiculous, since they are all scaled 20 levels higher than anyone in my roster (not counting my ONE crappy Jean cover), but thats bull for another time…

For the first 5 minutes of the match, EVERY SINGLE TIME the game got enough black AP, it would automatically use Summon Demons. That happened at least 4 times. After wiping out my blade and my Magneto, it gets my Jean down to about 2000 points of health, but I assume that I will be perfectly fine as I only need another two matches to end the game. Then, out of nowhere, venom uses his freaking Devour and just like that the game has once again wiped me out and I get to sit for hours upon hours before I can play that node again.

Why is this happening?

2

It realized Devour could end the match, immediately. So it did so.

Why would it not?

3

If they’d already filled up all the Red tiles with Attack tiles (which would be very possible after 4 casts and you having Blade on the board to drop Red Strike tiles), the AI wouldn’t try to cast Summon Demons again and it could save up for Devour.

4

LOLs get better and stop whinin

5

It’s hard to say why AI decides to use one ability over another. I’ve noticed, for example, that while grinding a node carrying a Juggernaut and Ragnarok, the AI would trigger either red ability during the same match. There is no apparent preference at all. I suspect it could simply be a random decision by the AI.

6

Murphy’s law

7

It seems sometimes like the AI will hold an ability until my weakest/lowest character is in front to unload on, but that’s prob just luck of the draw.

8

It sems weird indeed. My Jean Grey required node (that’s the one right ?) is average 101 while the majority of my roster is soft capped at 114 (NB. I do not have Jean Grey). My last node is around 178.

9

SD and Devour have the exact same cost of the same color. This probably breaks down to something as simple as the AI checking the target characters HP, and determining “If target HP is less than Devour Damage, use Devour, else, use Summon”.

Which is absolutely logical to do, I mean, as a player, I wouldn’t use Summon in that situation either. Summon has more potential damage, but in this situation, immediate damage took priority.

10

Omg the AI has a learning algorithm and has just gone sentient. It is merely a few hours away from cracking the launch codes.

… Sorry could not resist.

11

Well, one strategy that I know works, is that if there are two characters that use the same color, but one uses more AP and thus is more dangerous, if you have a stun ability, use it on the more dangerous character. At that point, the one with a power in that color uses his or her power.

12

i blame the Skynet alliance…

13

If you’re concerned regarding scaling, the scaling of nodes depend on your roster level FACTORING IN ALL BOOSTING (event/ weekly/etc). For example, 166 HT is boosted to 240 for the event, and scaling factors that 240 to determine the enemy levels.

14

I always thought that the AI prioritized matching and ability usage based on strongest colour.

15

In my experience, if it has the AP it will use the highest cost ability.

In the situations where it has less than the maximum ability, it seems to assess the board and your character in front to determine if it should cast the lower cost ability, or in case of a tie which one to choose. I assume that because of the number of people that have reported “The AI waited for OBW to get in front and then suddenly used Onslaught!” It could be random there, but it never feels random.

Now with that said, how on earth did you allow the AI to collect 60 black?

16

I have noticed changes in the AI recently.. it no longer fires whatever ability it has AP for, and it no longer uses an ability once it is able to.. for instance.. if the AI has the AP for a Righteous Uppercut (it didn’t care about battleplan apparently), it tends to wait to use it until my strongest color user is out front.

it is learning…

17

Im thinking people are overthinking this specific scenario. Just like the AI will realize Im using groot and save abilities to burst him to death if at all possible, doom will almost -never- used Diabolical plot if it’s not a kill shot, from my experience, and other examples.

This all ticks down to both abilities being equal cost and same color, and the AI realize one ability would end the game immediately, and the other would potentially end the game in several turns, why would it -not- go for the instant take down maneuver.

I mean, would you choose Summon over Devour in that situation? Sure, it will use Summon a lot of the time earlier, but that’s also because the power has a lot of potential damage that can outdo devour, depending on number of red tiles.

The AI will then randomly match away it’s own tiles, of course, because sometimes, the AI is also dumb, and performs contradictory separate actions. IE, it will see that it can’t kill the target, use Summon, and then a new check begins and it goes “Oh, I need Red AP for X ability/character damage” and matches it away.

The situation described in the OP would be a single check and would be a logical action for it to take.

It’s already been stated the AI is throttled as well, and could be much more severe than it already is, IE: All those L and T match 5’s it’ll skip to make a match 4 instead.

I highly suspect there’s a check in the AI where it goes “Will X Ability kill current Target, if Yes, activate, if no, continue to next check” and it’s as simple as that, for the situation listed in the OP.

18

My understanding of the AI (100% Conjecture though):

  1. AI will always prioritize any Match 4 or 5 regardless if Color is not for an active ability
  2. AI will never use same ability more than once per turn
  3. AI abilities are always fired top down (this is why Ares can wreck your face with Green > Yellow > Red in one turn or why HB can use his Black but not his Red on same turn since Red is above Black)
    3a) If one or more characters have same top color (i.e. Red at top), then a random Roll is done to see which ability will be used
    3b) That roll persists until ability is used after gaining AP or character dies, then second character can auto use ability if enough AP or if 2 still exists at same ability level, another random Roll to determine ability usage
  4. AI will never go for a L shape Match 5’s by design (think a Dev said this so it’s not too powerful or something)

Other observations:

I saw this a lot in recent PVP with Psylocke/HB on team, once I killed HB, then Psylocke would unload both Red and Black even though her abilities are cheaper and technically she has priority. Also seems like AI likes to match TU’s, but maybe I’m imagining that and that it seems to want to match your CD tiles now more than it did before (other than matching it’s own all the time, lol). Could be a good thing with XFDP coming up possibly, I dunno.

Again, all of the above just my guess/observations, could definitely be wrong though.

19

This is close but not entirely correct by my observation. It’s not the ability sequence of the character, it’s color sequence of the AP list.

Yellow->Red->Blue->Green->Purple->Black->TU. That’s still why you don’t get smashed by IMHB in one turn, but why Mystique can be devastating (Infiltration → Shapeshift → Masterstroke in one sequence).

I’ve also seen rare occasions where the AI will use two different abilities of the same color in the same turn, as long as it re-collects the AP via cascade. For instance, a GSBW-Ares team could cast Sniper Rifle for 19green, cascade 5-green, and hit you with Ares behind it. It must be something where it re-calculates after cascade, but it still won’t reverse sequence. So a Sniper rifle that cascades yellow won’t get you hit by Sunder that turn.

I’ve never seen deviation from the sequence though. So never Thor red into Thor yellow, but always Thor yellow into Thor green (when possible)

20

In this case of gsbw ares, I guess this happens because the AI re-reads the ap value due to the extra turn. But the thing about HB not using black->red is because it chooses and fires everything it can on said turn as soon as the turn starts. Because HB did not have enough red when the turn started, then red is not on the casting list for that turn.

Also not rarely the AI does get enough AP after a critical but does not consider it a new turn and won’t cast anything else, just makes a new match.

About the 2+ powers of same color, usually the AI goes for the more expensive one. So if they have a 9 ap and 12 ap cost on same team they -usually- do not cast the 9ap one right as they get 9ap. But then seems that next round onwards it rolls if it’s gonna save ap or fire with what it has. Usually because I don’t remember seeing some specific characters miss a chance, like patch always using green even with other greens.