AI and "practicality"

[Kenneth]

I am trying the new, 18.4.1 version for a fresh new run. The game has evolved a lot and the engine is a lot smoother, plus lagless. VERY nice.

 

AI though... I understand it changed. But it makes me scratch my head in confusion. The biggest turnoff i encountered and still is in play:

 

1 Enemy trainer pokemon, suddenly launch crappy moves against you, the very moment your pokemon's health drop in orange; not RED, but ORANGE. This IS a "wipeout-prevention", effectively. 9 out of 10 times i find myself in a bind, the enemy fails to finish my mon. Especially if it is well bred, this is like stealing candy from baby, since then it can endure 2-3 of those super weak moves. Needless to say, some of those moves can be weak against your typing, which goes against even how the AI should function and not only how it currently is. WHY? WHOSE idea was it, for friendlier enemy attacks but above all, what purpose does it serve; making the game easier? Really?

 

2 Daily trainers playing too smart and nullifying their purpose; xp grind. Now, that's a bummer. Are things being reversed a bit, or something? Shouldn't story or normal battles be hard as hell and grinding a bit more like, say, "grinding"? That ghost baloon using minimize that never used before AI revamp and gusting away all your party due to accuracy miss with NRG havoc and mayhem... Right. Charmeleon switching to Gardevoir right before fainting it and after you switched your own mons to split xp too and all of that goes to waste, really... Okay. But the Exp. Share is found much later and you need to gobble up chunks of xp early, much!

 

I can understand the newly established switching strategy, especially since many people avoid the "Set" playstyle, but even that has errors, sometimes (pokemon at certain points switching pointlessly/aimlessly all the time, not attacking, being wiped like cakewalk). But could you please re-evaluate the changes that make the game easier, at least? Tougher challenge benefits everybody... Unless you actually plan to bring later that higher difficulty mode, or something.

[Edo]

I doubt the AI was made to be easier. While using a weak move out of nowhere does indeed look like the AI is being dumb in that moment, it does it when you are at low health to conserve PP of its stronger attacks. But it only does that if it calculates that it can beat you with that attack. The problem is that damage has random deviations, so a low roll can lead to you still surviving. I guess the AI doesn't presently consider that.

 

As for the constant switching until the AI loses, this only happened to me when my mon was faster and had attack boosts high enough to oneshot every of the AI's mons, so basically when I would have won either way. The switching might be to try and switch into an attack with a mon that resists or something like that, since the AI has no other alternative. No idea if it's really due to this though.

 

The daily trainers would have probably done the same things if the same conditions were present as in the fights where the AI messed up. Again, not 100% sure on this, just my observations so far.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Edo

[Kenneth]

Specifically the weaker moves at low health are completely misused, since the AI chooses even "not very effective" moves against your pokemon. So, not only it doesn't calculate anything in all actuality, but goes and chooses the worst possible action, as well! And if you are a "switch pokemon" player (not "set"), then you can abuse that newfound AI behavior/pattern hard; your pokemon is at low health, enemy is guaranteed to use its weakest move, you switch into something else and buy time at your leisure (healing items? stalling? whatever?)... At one point, i thought they made the game easier on purpose, because many new players nagged, especially for wipeouts (at gyms, mostly).

 

The purpose of course isn't to make the game easier, but the end result of AI tweaks and changes, unfortunately is! Only this one issue and all by itself, equals to:

 

a Surviving wipeouts you wouldn't

b Cheesing hard fights

c Buying extra time out of nowhere, especially for your other mons

 

And it is always stationary and predictable. You drop in orange health? You are always going to receive the weakest nudge your enemy can inflict you, no matter what.