I think it’s been a while since this has been talked about lol… the ai is still super dumb and could be vastly improved with just a few simple fixes. If the ai is smarter, then maybe it won’t need to fall back on buffs so much. They don’t necessarily need to give them the ability to skip, just a few improved strategic decisions on certain monsters. Open to any other suggestions you can think of, anything that the devs could do for their long neglected ai. Note that these problems aren’t necessarily exclusive to the monsters I explicitly mention, any other monsters with similar movesets may suffer from the same problem.
Any monster with aoe/basic attacks: The ai loves these moves wayyyyy too much. This habit right here is honestly like 80% responsible for how weak the ai is. Just really try to encourage them to branch out, quit exposing themselves so much.
Epic one on ones: this is definitely one of the most glaring shortcomings I’ve seen tbh; if you damage one of these before they get their turn, they simply don’t use one on one, and default to a normal attack. This plan probably made more sense back when One on one’s purpose was to be, you know… a one on one. But it’s simply not used like that anymore. Might as well help the ai get with the times, make them always use one on one on their first turn, unless a few or more of the enemies are poisoned or sleep immune. Oni’s already figured it out, so just give these guys a break too.
Boxjaw and Bronzeshell: The ai could definitely be better at getting rid of these. It ALWAYS hits accelerate with shell, which while arguably useful, is definitely not always the right call. And I often see boxes using blight despite there being absolutely no reason not to explode. Gotta stop doing that.
Galvbane and Icefang: Speaking of shells, I really don’t think the ai got the memo that these fellas can’t be stunned anymore. Very often the ai simply cleans up my shells for me by stunning them to death. It’s very amusing to say the least, but it’s also really dumb. They gotta stop doing that.
Aurodragon and Drakozord: Very often content with using mist only once, then just spamming aoe for no good reason. Maybe allow them to use aoe only if they’re stealthed already, or there’s an abundance of hg/shield/stealth that needs to be cleared out.
Shivadragon: He’s already part of the way there, just needs a little more love. He should ALWAYS use purify or hp share when the situation calls for it, because he’s a support monster above all else. He should also probably avoid using blast so frequently. Another thing he could do is prioritize stealth and shield while his crescendo is still weak, that’d be WORLDS more useful than dealing 200 damage to some other monster.
Any monster with a blood move or killer move: I’ve seen a few monsters such as the SE TTs and storm/hunter pull this off, but most of the time the ai fails to grasp the use that these moves have when uncharged. Picking off wounded enemies, removing shield/stealth, or simply keeping their TU low as opposed to using aoe, becoming either deadweight or timestrike fodder.
Any monster with reusable sleep moves: I actually have seen the ai sleep lock quite well before, but most of the time they just dreamhunt the instant they get a chance to. Try to encourage them to really be the game slowing menace they’re meant to be; maybe even teach them to use sleep merely to stall, allowing the sleep opponent’s turn to go by, so that dreamhunt won’t ironically be their salvation.
Djinzar: Seriously, what the heck is wrong with this guy? He somehow has the complete opposite problem of other sweepers, and just spams uncharged bloodfury and gets absolutely nothing done. He has a clearly laid out plan, he should stick to it. The team may not have much use for an extra turn or healing, but who cares. It brings him one step closer to sweeping, so he needs to get on it.
Carapasca: This is a rather minor one; I often see him to default to beetle strike right away, which isn’t a terrible idea, it’s just that beetle boost is arguably even better, not to mention the TU’s insanely low so they’ll likely be able to use strike anyway. I feel like boost should always take priority, because if you get a strike off then lose cara, you’re stuck with a useless, unbuffed Chainhorn. There may be times where a target needs to immediately be taken out, but I doubt they’re outweighed by the times chainhorn is left unloved.
SE twinkillers: another minor one; I often see them prioritize timestrike over PK/SK. I think that’s a bad plan; much better to deal with the pesky protectors and sleepers that haven’t been stunned to kingdom come first. They really shouldn’t ever touch timestrike unless PK/SK aren’t crackling.
Soulstealer and Sanctistag: if they are the last monster standing they will sleep all over and over and over. You’ll beat them eventually, it will just take an hour
While many of these points are good, I also think it’s important the AI doesn’t play perfectly and it is fairly predictable with its actions so we can fight against it strategically. If you want to face a really smart opponent then PvP is for that, PvE is a different challenge.
A large number of huge buffs to the AI have come over time like to overwatch use, sleep locking (situation dependent they will do this) and killing off low HP monsters to charge blood moves. However, something like their tendency to AoE spam I would say is a perfect example of what we need the AI to do so they don’t destroy us too easily.
A couple of niche cases should definitely be addressed like Djinzar (detailed above), OoO monsters using the move when your team is poisoned/stealthed and monsters using stun pulse on a stun counter/converter monster. I think as long as the AI doesn’t make dumb mistakes then we’re all good… we don’t want them to play perfectly and make the game a lot harder for newer people to get into.
I would be sad if the AI gets any smarter. The huge buffs are enough of a disadvantage for us. Offcourse top players with top monsters will find it easy. That is not a reflection of the majority though. Imagine dungeon challenge any harder than it currently is!
In fact, the plot of hell mode is basically a variety of poison teams. I haven’t played the full hell chapter until now. I’m in Chapter 7, I think I still need two months to play the full chapter
Best thing I ever saw was Dragaia backstabbing himself at the end of a battle, the perfect ‘I give up’ move from AI . This kind of stuff occurs quite rarely.
That being said I’ve seen AI do jaw dropping POGchamp moves (usually involving backstabbing or cannibalising) which have decided the battle in its favour. So I think overall the balance is fine.
I’ve definitely seen them do a couple of insane things. The AI learned to sleep lock in the last AI update, which has caught a few people out. I think they do it when they have 2+ sleepers on their team. That sounds like clever AI programming to me.
Some other things I see the AI doing regularly which are very smart:
specifically targeting charged sweepers when there is no other obvious threat
targeting survivor/megabomb monsters from about 100-150s in advance of their move getting charged
chaining together a few random moves that the AI wouldn’t normally use to lower the health of a specific monster of yours low enough so they can kill it off before it gets a turn, mostly seen when they have finishing snap / execute (this I see quite often and is SUPER smart where the AI is clearly aware of exactly how much damage moves are doing and how to bring the monster’s health down to HG / 0 with 2-3 moves in sequence)
The AI still does the dumb thing of giving preference to targeting your monsters that are on high TU. All good human players know to do the opposite. However, I think this is a good thing for balancing the difficulty of the game as it is very forgiving to players, letting their monsters out of play be killed off and new monsters enter they can fight with. Also, it can be manipulated at times to help protect something important on your team by spamming a hit single/all attack with another monster.
Take a monster like Revenarchion… if the AI was too smart then the monster would have a really hard time working. We need it to be killed off by an enemy and for the Noxegg to hatch. Right now we can Ultrablight at the right time to draw in a timestrike, or when the enemy has a blood move charged we use Ultrablight and have a good chance it gets targeted. The monster has basically been designed taking account of the way the AI works. Similarly, the starter monsters with last stand will often get left until last by the AI. This is great for new players so they don’t have to go to great lengths to make their last stand work and they can have more fun playing.
Very good post Killerdog , but please don’t give the devs any ideas to make the AI smarter. If they stop Targeting high tu moves I’m blaming you for drawing attention to it!
. This kind of stuff occurs quite rarely.
, but please don’t give the devs any ideas to make the AI smarter. If they stop Targeting high tu moves I’m blaming you for drawing attention to it!