ToT Novice NPCs Got Insanely Smarter

DukeCybran · June 2023

I agree that previous proficient/expert NPCs were less than expected since they didn't react properly according to strategies by human players, and needed to be improved. But now this - when I'm to rush through ToT daily - I even got beaten by a Novice NPC once.

I first thought it was a glitch but then confirmed that it was not. Or maybe, my intelligence has, after some sleepless nights, just dropped to a level where the former version of me could smash the present one with ease.

ZOS_Icy · June 2023

Greetings,

This thread has been moved to the Tales of Tribute section, as it is better suited there.

Thank you for your understanding.

wilykcat · June 2023

It could be the advancement of AI.

Groundhopper · June 2023

The novice NPCs were insanely buffed and it has not been a positive change. There's a similar thread discussing all the NPC tiers now as a whole.

valenwood_vegan · June 2023

Hey, maybe this is the vet overland people have been asking for!

But in all seriousness, I don't play ToT anymore and haven't checked it out for myself... but this sounds like a change that will turn new players off of ToT before they even get started.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

my personal opinion is that they got worse lol

played 3 novice npcs and easily won all of the matches, most of the time they never got past 15 prestige because they frequently made extremely dumb moves with their power spending or patron uses

they do tend to actually use more patrons now (druid king, crows, reach, hlaalu) but they do it in the worst ways

one of my matches against a novice the npc turned crows using only 1 gold at the end of their turn, thus locking themselves out of crow and gained no power for the action

in some other matches the npcs used the druid king and reach patrons, but again at the detriment of their own power generation, it had no tactical advantage and gained them nothing

i also saw the npc using the hlaalu patron more, however they just sacrificed every card they possibly could and left themselves with basically no strong cards and almost never used the treasury so they had like 11 cards, mostly the starter cards and gold coins

when i was using the reach deck, the npcs also seemed extremely dumb about deck pruning cards, they would just remove almost any random card they had when they used the ragpicker or reach cards to remove cards from their deck

i also noticed the npcs are still adamant about burning power to kill agents, which again just drastically slows them down

NeuroticPixels · June 2023

I played a novice npc the other day. Game didn’t end until I got to 74 points. We just kept going back and forth with winning each round.

That’s not “novice” level in my opinion. The game shouldn’t have been that long or that difficult/complex.

FischyJones · June 2023

I cant beat the Novice NPCs anymore - which locks me out from the ToT Questline.
Who thought that buffing the NOVICE NPCs was a good idea?!

BlueRaven · June 2023

The theme for this chapter has been "Turning all of your daily routines into out right time consuming slogs."

RevJJ · June 2023

In my experience, proficient NPCs are now easier to beat than novice ones.

Also, I beat the new “master” in the Telvanni peninsula in seven turns with a patron victory. He was much easier to beat than a novice NPC.

Luke_Flamesword · June 2023

Before update I played novice NPC many times, when on purpose I built big combos just for fun and I never was even close to lose. I'm not big expert in this game, but I get to rubedite rank in PvP matches, so I'm good enough to know game. Now, after update I lost to novice when I tried to win WITHOUT fooling around. Complete newbies, who just learn how game works, they will lose left and right... I don't know why this change was even considered. Novice difficulty should be piece of cake, which gives opprotunity for new players to safe experiment with decks and try different combos before they match will end too soon.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

RevJJ wrote: »

In my experience, proficient NPCs are now easier to beat than novice ones.

Also, I beat the new “master” in the Telvanni peninsula in seven turns with a patron victory. He was much easier to beat than a novice NPC.

slightly off topic from the OP, but did you know what requirement let you play him? i found him the other day and he refused to play me even though im max tribute rank, and have all decks unlocked including the new one (though i dont have all of the card upgrades for the new deck, since 1 of the upgrades comes from beating him)

RevJJ · June 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

In my experience, proficient NPCs are now easier to beat than novice ones.

Also, I beat the new “master” in the Telvanni peninsula in seven turns with a patron victory. He was much easier to beat than a novice NPC.

slightly off topic from the OP, but did you know what requirement let you play him? i found him the other day and he refused to play me even though im max tribute rank, and have all decks unlocked including the new one (though i dont have all of the card upgrades for the new deck, since 1 of the upgrades comes from beating him)

I tried once and he refused, then I went back after completing Necrom’s main story and he accepted. So it’s probably that.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

RevJJ wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

RevJJ wrote: »

In my experience, proficient NPCs are now easier to beat than novice ones.

Also, I beat the new “master” in the Telvanni peninsula in seven turns with a patron victory. He was much easier to beat than a novice NPC.

slightly off topic from the OP, but did you know what requirement let you play him? i found him the other day and he refused to play me even though im max tribute rank, and have all decks unlocked including the new one (though i dont have all of the card upgrades for the new deck, since 1 of the upgrades comes from beating him)

I tried once and he refused, then I went back after completing Necrom’s main story and he accepted. So it’s probably that.

i ran into him again last night, which was after i had at least 1 almalexia card upgrade and had finished the main story and he let me play him this time (in which i soundly beat him to a pulp 40-0)

the funny thing was he even tried to use the rahjin patron against me, the first time ive ever seen an npc do that, but it was already way too late in the game for it to help him lol

Roxxsmom · June 2023

I agree that the novice npcs are playing better than the proficient, and maybe even the master level, npcs now. They seem to be more aggressive, and (maybe this is just me) luckier too. I've noticed that there's been more incidence of a great card coming up in the first 2-3 turns when it's their turn and they have the coins to buy it. The proficient player still sometimes passes on good cards when they could afford to buy them early game (in order to exchange a card), but the novice never does anymore.