NPC AI and Red Eagle - Still Very Wacky Behavior

disky · January 19

I'm very curious about why the NPC AI is still consistently handling Red Eagle's discard effects so poorly. It seems to have zero sense of priority in which cards it discards, when to stop discarding, when to discard multiple cards (it only ever seems to discard a single card even when it has the option to discard more) and why, if given the chance, it will discard its entire deck. This has been a major issue with the AI behavior since ToT was released, and while I understand that because making good decisions about discards can be complex it may not be the simplest issue to address, surely certain parts can be resolved by establishing priority behavior (based on card value, power, deck preference or a combination of these), and preventing a full deck discard.

This is an old image but it's still valid today. Can you spot the problem?

Necrotech_Master · January 22

doesnt seem like a problem to me, seems like an easy win lol

not to mention its hilarious

even without the red eagle deck, they are still very bad with deck pruning actions (ragpicker treasury card, converting cards with the treasury patron, and sacrificing every card they get to hlaalu)

its just more noticeable with red eagle in play because theres significantly more deck pruning cards with that deck

disky · January 22

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

its just more noticeable with red eagle in play because theres significantly more deck pruning cards with that deck

Oh I agree, but this is the easiest way to inform/remind the devs that the problem remains ongoing. I'm sure that if they do get around to addressing it for Red Eagle, they would do the same for all other decks as well.

Jusey1 · January 31

disky wrote: »

while I understand that because making good decisions about discards can be complex it may not be the simplest issue to address

No, it would be extremely simple to address in all honesty. ESO should have some kind of tag system pretty easily which tells the AI what to do and what to priority, so it should be extremely easy to use a blacklist tag at the very least to tell the AI to NEVER discard one list of cards and a high priority tag to cards that should always be discarded first before anything else. Which will heavily improve the AI to this problem as it should focus on specific cards first whenever it gets the option to discard and will never get rid of high value cards that it wants. Sure, this might cause an issue where it won't use the Hlaalu Patreon sometimes when it could've but I think that's a better deal than using the red eagle deck as an easy cheese method of beating the AI every time.

disky · January 31

Jusey1 wrote: »

disky wrote: »

while I understand that because making good decisions about discards can be complex it may not be the simplest issue to address

No, it would be extremely simple to address in all honesty. ESO should have some kind of tag system pretty easily which tells the AI what to do and what to priority, so it should be extremely easy to use a blacklist tag at the very least to tell the AI to NEVER discard one list of cards and a high priority tag to cards that should always be discarded first before anything else. Which will heavily improve the AI to this problem as it should focus on specific cards first whenever it gets the option to discard and will never get rid of high value cards that it wants. Sure, this might cause an issue where it won't use the Hlaalu Patreon sometimes when it could've but I think that's a better deal than using the red eagle deck as an easy cheese method of beating the AI every time.

This was the gist/intent of my suggestion at the end of the post, yeah. Hopefully they come around to the idea and assign someone to do it, because it's really bringing the NPC game down for me.

El_Borracho · January 31

Its not confined to Red Eagle anymore, either. Played an expert NPC using the Mora deck. He got Cipher of the Eye, a card I was more than happy to see him get. He used it to destroy a card in his hand on every turn, giving me 3 coin every time, until all he was stuck with was Cipher of the Eye.

Whatever the AI is for the NPCs, its hilariously broken with the destroy a card mechanic.

Necrotech_Master · January 31

El_Borracho wrote: »

Its not confined to Red Eagle anymore, either. Played an expert NPC using the Mora deck. He got Cipher of the Eye, a card I was more than happy to see him get. He used it to destroy a card in his hand on every turn, giving me 3 coin every time, until all he was stuck with was Cipher of the Eye.

Whatever the AI is for the NPCs, its hilariously broken with the destroy a card mechanic.

they are bad with the treasury too

i played a game the other day where an NPC had an armory and a midnight raid, and within a few turns converted both to writs of coin lol

Personofsecrets · January 31

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

El_Borracho wrote: »

Its not confined to Red Eagle anymore, either. Played an expert NPC using the Mora deck. He got Cipher of the Eye, a card I was more than happy to see him get. He used it to destroy a card in his hand on every turn, giving me 3 coin every time, until all he was stuck with was Cipher of the Eye.

Whatever the AI is for the NPCs, its hilariously broken with the destroy a card mechanic.

they are bad with the treasury too

i played a game the other day where an NPC had an armory and a midnight raid, and within a few turns converted both to writs of coin lol

Wow, how embarassing

Pixiepumpkin · February 2

El_Borracho wrote: »

Its not confined to Red Eagle anymore, either. Played an expert NPC using the Mora deck. He got Cipher of the Eye, a card I was more than happy to see him get. He used it to destroy a card in his hand on every turn, giving me 3 coin every time, until all he was stuck with was Cipher of the Eye.

Whatever the AI is for the NPCs, its hilariously broken with the destroy a card mechanic.

Lol. I had the same thing happen. I can't say what I called the NPC on the forums. But it started with a d, rhymes with "bum" and ended with the slang term for donkey.

My head shaking (due to disbelief) would not stop. Lol