The A.I. is completely broken?

[Kenneth]

There is a number of strange behaviours, that render the game too easy to exploit and the difficulty completely undone.

 

A Enemy trainers almost NEVER use healing items. Even when their pokemon's health drop in red. Even if it's their "ace". Not even Gym Leaders/Rivals. And even if they do, it's usually 1. Extremely rarely more than one. Only once, somebody used 3 while battling me. I thought every battle of importance, used to throw away 3 heals at their pokemon?

 

B They shift too much. It usually gets out of hand, because they shift all the way to defeat, wasting turns pointlessly. Something's wrong with shifting. And especially concerning daily trainer battles (the ones for gathering money/XP), this is bad, because it destroys your farming process, unless you have EXP Share.

 

C Enemy opting for weaker moves against you. Now, this is dumb. They start using weaker moves, even before your health drops in red. No more wipeouts. No more challenging battles that force you to change teams, find a counter pokemon, raise and train it to beat the "wall" which blocks your progress. You can rest assured that whenever you are in danger of fainting, your enemy will throw at you a move that 90% makes certain you survive and faint theirs, by using your strongest move, in return.

 

D Not very sure, but now fewer enemies have held items on their mon? I always used item manipulating moves/abilities and i notice them to be fewer. Although, i think Pulses had some? Did you already implement Pulses having their own held items?

 

E Pokemon not using their highest damage and/or supereffective move, against yours. Or, spamming a move with no effect/no effectiveness on you and get stuck with it.

 

* Special mention: I noticed that in previous epiosodes, too but i always forgot to ask about: Why do moves that an enemy pokemon is immune to, first time you use them against it, display the text about accuracy failing, instead of particular move not being able to affect it at all? Treating it like missing an accuracy check, instead of downright saying it's immune to that?

 

Are those functionalities as intended? Did you really intend to make the game easier, or are they out of hand, at present? Are they issues, or normal things?

[andracass]

this is not "completely broken" though i wouldn't say any of it is good

who were you fighting for these?

[Kenneth]

Pretty much anything from wild pokemon encounters, to daily trainer battles, to random trainer battles... But most importantly, Rival (Fern, Cain, Victoria) and Gym Leader battles!

 

I am very certain, that in episode 16, every battle of significance, had the trainer throw at least 3 heals on their mon. Example, Cain at Beryl Graveyard, before Orphanage. Now, he used only 1 heal on 1 of his pokemon, while in old times, he used 3. Likewise, in Coral Ward fight (the one he gets the water fairy starter of 7th gen), he used to utilize 3 ice creams to heal his mon, when it was Oshawott there... Now he didn't use any, not even 1! Fern, outside factory, also never used any recovery. But even Leaders! 1 potion at most and many times, 0! I am shortly before Noel right now, in my fresh new 18.2 run and all tricky "gamestoppers" were a joke... Neither Bug leader nor Ice leader, put any stress, like during the older days (earlier versions)... Plus, the bug leader, no longer uses Rain Dance immediately.

 

Most wild pokemon, use moves that you are immune to, like poison-powder on poison pokemon, stun spore on electric pokemon etc. Not only that, the message displayed is relative to move missing/accuracy issue, instead of not having any effect. And all trainers, when your health bar reaches middle or a bit lower, they always start using much weaker moves, whereas had they continued to utilize their main one, you would have fainted. Especially during important fights, this is like a natural safeguard, against a wipeout.

 

I don't know what else to say, but i am going to finish all the content... If i notice anything else, i will write it down, just in case. Thanks for your hard work, i love this game!

[LilyX]

4 hours ago, Kenneth said:

There is a number of strange behaviours, that render the game too easy to exploit and the difficulty completely undone.

 

A Enemy trainers almost NEVER use healing items. Even when their pokemon's health drop in red. Even if it's their "ace". Not even Gym Leaders/Rivals. And even if they do, it's usually 1. Extremely rarely more than one. Only once, somebody used 3 while battling me. I thought every battle of importance, used to throw away 3 heals at their pokemon?

 

B They shift too much. It usually gets out of hand, because they shift all the way to defeat, wasting turns pointlessly. Something's wrong with shifting. And especially concerning daily trainer battles (the ones for gathering money/XP), this is bad, because it destroys your farming process, unless you have EXP Share.

 

C Enemy opting for weaker moves against you. Now, this is dumb. They start using weaker moves, even before your health drops in red. No more wipeouts. No more challenging battles that force you to change teams, find a counter pokemon, raise and train it to beat the "wall" which blocks your pregress. You can rest assured that whenever you are in danger of fainting, your enemy will throw at you a move that 90% makes certain you survive and faint theirs, by using your strongest move, in return.

 

D Not very sure, but now fewer enemies have held items on their mon? I always used item manipulating moves/abilities and i notice them to be fewer. Although, i think Pulses had some? Did you already implement Pulses having their own held items?

 

E Pokemon not using their highest damage and/or supereffective move, against yours. Or, spamming a move with no effect/no effectiveness on you and get stuck with it.

 

* Special mention: I noticed that in previous epiosodes, too but i always forgot to ask about: Why do moves that an enemy pokemon is immune to, first time you use them against it, display the text about accuracy failing, instead of particular move not being able to affect it at all? Treating it like missing an accuracy check, instead of downright saying it's immune to that?

 

Are those functionalities as intended? Did you really intend to make the game easier, or are they out of hand, at present? Are they issues, or normal things?

Maybe you mentioned it and I missed it: Which version are you on? 18.2?

[Kenneth]

Yes. 18.2

[dondon151]

9 hours ago, Kenneth said:

C Enemy opting for weaker moves against you. Now, this is dumb. They start using weaker moves, even before your health drops in red. No more wipeouts. No more challenging battles that force you to change teams, find a counter pokemon, raise and train it to beat the "wall" which blocks your progress. You can rest assured that whenever you are in danger of fainting, your enemy will throw at you a move that 90% makes certain you survive and faint theirs, by using your strongest move, in return.

So I have not yet had the chance to play 18.2, but this problem also existed in previous versions, and I'd like to highlight it specifically, because this also affects partner battles and can really screw you over. It seems that the AI often prefers to use its weakest move that has a chance of KOing a Pokemon rather than its weakest move that is also most likely to KO a Pokemon. For example, if the AI uses Smack Down instead of Brick Break against a low HP Pokemon, you could argue that it's justified to cover a possible switch to a Flying type. But at least in 18.1, it will use Smack Down even if it's not guaranteed to KO, but Brick Break is guaranteed to KO, and that shouldn't happen.

[JoJoDeath]

6 hours ago, Kenneth said:

I am very certain, that in episode 16, every battle of significance, had the trainer throw at least 3 heals on their mon. Example, Cain at Beryl Graveyard, before Orphanage. Now, he used only 1 heal on 1 of his pokemon, while in old times, he used 3. Likewise, in Coral Ward fight (the one he gets the water fairy starter of 7th gen), he used to utilize 3 ice creams to heal his mon, when it was Oshawott there... Now he didn't use any, not even 1! Fern, outside factory, also never used any recovery. But even Leaders! 1 potion at most and many times, 0! I am shortly before Noel right now, in my fresh new 18.2 run and all tricky "gamestoppers" were a joke... Neither Bug leader nor Ice leader, put any stress, like during the older days (earlier versions)... Plus, the bug leader, no longer uses Rain Dance immediately.

I saw you are using 18.2. I've recently restarted the game after not playing for a long time, but I still had version 18.1.1. In there, the bug leader Shelly did use Rain Dance all the time, as soon as possible. The potion problem I am not too sure since I didn't keep track of it to compare, but it does seem that the healing seems to have been reduced. I wouldn't say it makes too much of a difference though, as in my experience, it felt like the AI used pots mostly in cases where I could easily bring the mon down to red again in 1 or 2 moves, which made them either use another potion, or not. More potions would not have made too much difference I think, but then again, I can't be fully sure about it.

[Kenneth]

Itemization from enemy trainers AI is absolutely flawed. I was battling Amaria and even though she had the chance to use one of her 3 potions before her "ace", she didn't, leading to me wiping out the rest of her team. I was unlucky and the seed buffed Lapras' Sp.Def, while it used Curse to buff Att. + Def. The Freeze-Dry from my Lapras on it, did minimal damage. After a small chip of its healthbar depleting, amaria used the potion, instead of waiting for it to go down considerably enough. While previous pokemon of hers, i dropped them to orange/red and she didn't bother to use it there. Lapras had rest + status cure from the water anyway, so the potions had been a complete waste, there... Let alone she spammed all three together, at that exact same spot, right after i barely touched her lapras with its health at ~90% and deep in the greens!

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I believe super effective prioritization is largely replaced in this game by field effect prioritization, meaning instead it prioritizes the move or moves that gets the field boost. 

i.e Typhlosion + Eruption = Burn field for Charlotte. 

When this can't be applied I suspect it creates a random effect similar to Noel's U-turn though that was a legitimate bug. 

 

You forgot that the AI seems to have psychic abilities as their move selections can feel rather anticipatory of the Pokemon you're switching into. 

i.e Solaris's Garchomp might knock out a Charizard with a Rock's Edge and then in the next turn when Nidoqueen is sent out will switch to Earthquake as though it knew Nidoqueen was the next Pokemon coming out. 

That's really infuriating. About as much as how everything and its damn brother knows Earthquake in this game!

 

 

[andracass]

7 hours ago, Devilish said:

I believe super effective prioritization is largely replaced in this game by field effect prioritization, meaning instead it prioritizes the move or moves that gets the field boost. 

i.e Typhlosion + Eruption = Burn field for Charlotte. 

When this can't be applied I suspect it creates a random effect similar to Noel's U-turn though that was a legitimate bug. 

 

You forgot that the AI seems to have psychic abilities as their move selections can feel rather anticipatory of the Pokemon you're switching into. 

i.e Solaris's Garchomp might knock out a Charizard with a Rock's Edge and then in the next turn when Nidoqueen is sent out will switch to Earthquake as though it knew Nidoqueen was the next Pokemon coming out. 

That's really infuriating. About as much as how everything and its damn brother knows Earthquake in this game!

 

 

no

[Lucifer Morningstar]

On 3/12/2020 at 10:01 PM, andracass said:

no

What does this mean? 

[andracass]

On 3/12/2020 at 3:24 PM, Devilish said:

You forgot that the AI seems to have psychic abilities

it does not

[Lucifer Morningstar]

7 minutes ago, andracass said:

it does not

Ah. No certainly not, but it can feel like it. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Devilish