Anyone still occasionally losing to the NPCs?

SeaGtGruff · April 2023

Besides me?

I almost always win-- maybe 98% of the time-- although with the "smarter" (more aggressive) NPCs there are more matches where they get an early lead but then sort of slack off on gaining more ground and instead just start buying cards foolishly as if trying to give me a chance to catch up, such that I end up winning by a large margin or else by flipping all four patrons my way.

But every so often, both before and after the recent "smartification" of the NPCs, I run into a match where the NPC gets to go first, is able to buy a really strong card in their first move, then another in their second move, and from there on it just snowballs as they steamroll their way through the match and I never have a chance to catch up to them. Basically, it's like RNGesus strongly favors the NPC over me, but also the NPC doesn't slide into the "I'm going to go all complacent and relaxed now so the poor human can catch up to me" thing that most of them seem to do.

Last night I ran into the "Father Sithis" Argonian lady and she beat me twice in a row before I finally beat her. That was the first time on that server that I'd lost to an NPC after the recent tweaking. On the other server I lost one time a few nights ago, but easily won the second match. So it feels like I'm losing a little less often-- maybe an increase from winning 95% of the matches before, to winning 98% now, or something like that-- but there are still those matches where I just can't seem to get traction.

I've been thinking about keeping track of my matches by noting which four patrons were chosen and who got to go first, because it does seem like the times when I've lost tended to be when Pelin was involved and the NPC got to move first, but I'm not sure about that.

Anyone else? Is it just me, or do you occasionally lose as well?

WitchyKiki · April 2023

I lose every now and then when I'm not paying attention, or when sometimes I make unwise choices to give the NPC an advantage to try and make the game harder for myself.

SeaGtGruff · April 2023

WitchyKiki wrote: »

I lose every now and then when I'm not paying attention, or when sometimes I make unwise choices to give the NPC an advantage to try and make the game harder for myself.

I do feel as though some of my losses might have ended up as they did through mistakes on my part, such as assuming that I was going to win (in spite of the NPC's early lead) and failing to take steps to hedge my bets, such as beginning to flip the patrons in my favor in case I needed to resort to a patron win.

But whenever I do lose-- as infrequently as that is-- I've usually done my best to try to catch up with the NPC's early lead, but the luck of the draw just seems to be squarely in the NPC's favor all throughout the game.

As for not paying attention, sometimes I do make bonehead moves because I'm rushing and am feeling a bit complacent in the match. For instance, the other night I accidentally clicked on the 1-gold Hlaalu starter card when converting a card to a writ with the treasury, instead of clicking on the 1-gold treasury card next to it, which meant I was unable to combo (in later turns) with the Hlaalu card I'd just purchased from the tavern. And I often play cards in a less-than-ideal order because I'm not being attentive enough, and end up missing out on a bit of extra power, prestige, or gold because of that. Edit: But I usually still win the match despite making those kinds of mistakes.

spartaxoxo · April 2023

I almost never lose. Haven't since the patch. Last time I lost to the npc was somewhere after they nerfed Orgnum.

LunaFlora · April 2023

yea i still lose occasionally

Necrotech_Master · April 2023

every once in awhile i lose, but thats been the case as soon as i started figuring out tribute a lot better, so i probably lost more in the first week or so i started playing, but since i would say its consistently 95%+ win rate

SeaGtGruff · June 2023

After I got used to the NPCs' new logical (and illogical) decision-making processes, I was able to win 100% of the time again, primarily by using patron wins (since the NPCs seemed to have no concerns about preventing that) if it looked like the NPC was going to run all over me.

But then I started varying my choice of patrons, choosing Pelin and Crow instead of Hlaalu and Crow, which made it harder to get a patron win in some matches. And with the update to the NPCs' logic, I found myself losing a match on Monday. So now I'm back to Hlaalu instead of Pelin, at least until I get the NPCs' logic figured out again!

Nestor · June 2023

NPCs have been Buffed in the last patch. Big time.

I started grinding out to Level 5 as I want to get the per. So i did dozens and dozens of NPC matches this past weekend going from L2 to L4.6. Won every one, and they were lopsided victories. NPCs never used Patrons, would always leave good cards in middle etc. Did not matter if they were Proficient or Expert.

Anyway, after the patch, OMG, even the Proficient NPCs are almost unbeatable. Experts, fuggedebouit. The NPCs needed a buff, but this is ridiculous.

SeaGtGruff · June 2023

So far I've played 11 matches against Expert NPCs and lost 2 of them, which is about 18% of them. That's much more often than I used to lose, but that percentage will go up or down later today when I play on the PC NA server. If I win all 3 of those matches then the percentage will go down to about 14%; but if I lose 1 of them then it will go up to 20%. In the past, when I've lost a match, I've almost always won the next match; it's been extremely rare for me to lose 2 in a row. Of course, that could change with the improved NPCs.

merpins · June 2023

I lose on occasion when I'm playing a new character and my wife pulls a train of enemies on top of me. Happened yesterday to my new Arcanist before I got the beam attack, so maybe the first 10 minutes of playing the class. But usually no, I don't have problems. Unless I don't slot a healing skill of some kind on occasion, but that depends on the class.

meekmiko · June 2023

Nestor wrote: »

NPCs have been Buffed in the last patch. Big time.

I started grinding out to Level 5 as I want to get the per. So i did dozens and dozens of NPC matches this past weekend going from L2 to L4.6. Won every one, and they were lopsided victories. NPCs never used Patrons, would always leave good cards in middle etc. Did not matter if they were Proficient or Expert.

Anyway, after the patch, OMG, even the Proficient NPCs are almost unbeatable. Experts, fuggedebouit. The NPCs needed a buff, but this is ridiculous.

I only started playing ToT last week and grinded to level 2 after a ton of matches and doing the dailies everyday, it is a SLOG to level, and now after the update the novices are now super annoying to play against.

It took me forever to actually understand HOW to play. I finally figured it out after so many matches, and now they're just steamrolling my butt over and over. Beginners are supposed to play against this??
This needs to be toned back down a bit.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

merpins wrote: »

I lose on occasion when I'm playing a new character and my wife pulls a train of enemies on top of me. Happened yesterday to my new Arcanist before I got the beam attack, so maybe the first 10 minutes of playing the class. But usually no, I don't have problems. Unless I don't slot a healing skill of some kind on occasion, but that depends on the class.

you know this is a thread about playing the NPCs in tribute right? lol

SeaGtGruff · June 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

merpins wrote: »

I lose on occasion when I'm playing a new character and my wife pulls a train of enemies on top of me. Happened yesterday to my new Arcanist before I got the beam attack, so maybe the first 10 minutes of playing the class. But usually no, I don't have problems. Unless I don't slot a healing skill of some kind on occasion, but that depends on the class.

you know this is a thread about playing the NPCs in tribute right? lol

Are you saying that other players can't pull enemies over to you and interrupt your match? Where's the fun in that?

Bartender to player pulling mobs into the tavern: "Hey! We don't serve their kind in here!"

SeaGtGruff · June 2023

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

So far I've played 11 matches against Expert NPCs and lost 2 of them, which is about 18% of them. That's much more often than I used to lose, but that percentage will go up or down later today when I play on the PC NA server. If I win all 3 of those matches then the percentage will go down to about 14%; but if I lose 1 of them then it will go up to 20%. In the past, when I've lost a match, I've almost always won the next match; it's been extremely rare for me to lose 2 in a row. Of course, that could change with the improved NPCs.

I won all 3 daily Expert NPC matches on PC NA (although it was a near thing in a couple of the matches), so my current "loss percentage" is about 14%.

Aside from becoming familiar enough with the NPCs' behavior to be able to anticipate its moves, winning or losing can come down to ones choice of patrons-- and the luck of the draw, of course.

I'm pretty sure that most of the times I've lost (under the current and previous updates to the NPCs' logic) were when Pelin was involved and the NPC got lucky during their first move, then proceeded to blow me out of the water.

So experimenting with different combinations of patrons can help one figure out which patrons tend to make good counters to other patrons.

DukeCybran · June 2023

Also, do not ignore them even if they keep taking Psijic. Any combo may turn fatal.

SeaGtGruff · June 2023

I've started losing 2 matches in a row to the smarter NPCs, which has never happened to me since I was first learning how to play Tales of Tribute. I don't like losing, but at least we get white coffers when we lose, so it just means more coffers to open after finally winning 3 matches.