PTS Update 34 - Bug Reports for Tales of Tribute

Mujuro

xgoku1 wrote: »

During the questline, in the matches against

Bragas

and

the Khajiit lady

the NPC's turn wouldn't end, requiring a Concede match and starting the game again. It's really frustrating because it happened both times near victory condition, around 40 points.

In both cases, they would play their cards, but their turn wouldn't end. I don't know if this is relevant but since I had loaded their Decks with the Bewilderment cards, they would "skip" playing those cards. Maybe that bugs out?

I've run into a good number of instances where the NPC turns don't end; the common factor for me was when the NPC got an "Agent" card.

xgoku1

Mujuro wrote: »

xgoku1 wrote: »

During the questline, in the matches against

Bragas

and

the Khajiit lady

the NPC's turn wouldn't end, requiring a Concede match and starting the game again. It's really frustrating because it happened both times near victory condition, around 40 points.

In both cases, they would play their cards, but their turn wouldn't end. I don't know if this is relevant but since I had loaded their Decks with the Bewilderment cards, they would "skip" playing those cards. Maybe that bugs out?

I've run into a good number of instances where the NPC turns don't end; the common factor for me was when the NPC got an "Agent" card.

Yeah this report was for 8.0.0. It's definitely a lot worse on 8.0.1, I couldn't complete a single NPC match.

WIZZARD2K

NPC Novice Tribute Player in The Rift got an agent card. Their turn forever Happened twice in a row on my attempt to do step 1 of my daily challenge.
Guess I'll play next week.

Sly80

As it took me a while to work out that the daily quest involved playing 3 NPCs at the same location, by the time I twigged, the lesser 2 of the 3 would not play me, so I could never complete the full quest.

I then did what others have reported: made a second character and attempted the Tales of Tribute from scratch. Of course, character 2 turned out to share the same skill level as character 1 and only the top NPCs would play (and then freeze since the latest patch).

To add insult to injury, character 2 who has never played a single game of Tribute, received a ‘defeat reward’ coffer in the mail (presumable on behalf of character 1 who froze at 42-0 before stomping off in a huff). While I could understand account-wide skills, account-wide rewards seem a bit odd.

Also, why stop people from playing lower skilled NPCs? Any practice is helpful, plus the daily quest is impossible once you reach a given level.

Kelinmiriel

Sly80 wrote: »

As it took me a while to work out that the daily quest involved playing 3 NPCs at the same location, by the time I twigged, the lesser 2 of the 3 would not play me, so I could never complete the full quest....

The daily quest I had to play NPCs was to play one game in one location. I could then return and claim a "bronze" reward, or go to a second location in a different zone and play another game. After that one, I could return and claim a "silver" reward, or I could go to a third location in a different zone and play another game, to earn a "gold" reward.

I don't know if I had to win the games for the reward or only play them, since I won them anyway.

The confusing part was that I leveled up during the quest, and could no longer play NPCs of the same level, so even though the quest arrow directed me the "Novice" NPC, whose dialogue challenged me to a game, there was no option to play.

But when I talked to the "Proficient" NPC, and the dialogue rudely informed me that I needed more practice before they'd be willing to play against me - the option to play was there, so I did. And THAT counted.

So the daily quest isn't impossible. Just confusing. Or at least it wasn't impossible until the NPC AI was "improved" in the latest patch.

SantieClaws

The NPCs seem especially dim this week yes.

Khajiit keeps winning now and this doesn't seem quite right somehow.

They don't seem to understand getting power points and so are still on a score of 10 or less when this one hits 40.

This one knows she is not an especially good player and so it feels like they have all had sleeping powder poured in their drinks at the tavern.

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Epona222

Still unable to complete the quest "A New Venture" on other characters, none of the novices in the gaming hall will play me so am stuck on that quest objective.

AliasRed

ToT game always seems to crash/freeze directly after opponents plays an agent that remains in play!

Only way of exiting game is is to exit the game/client fully and log back into game and restart the match from scratch,
this will be awful if it makes it to release like this!

Frustrating

Erorah

Again, with the Agent Cards in play. They used theirs to minus 2 from mine and we froze that way...
Had they completed their turn, I would have won and completed my daily

Kelinmiriel

There are a few other things I've been noticing about playing against NPCs. They're all very minor compared to the huge issue about the game locking up when an agent is played, but still, here they are.

1. The "Snake Draft" doesn't appear to be working as intended, or at least not as it has been described. The NPC always gets to choose the first two decks, and I always choose the third and fourth. Either I should be choosing the first and fourth, or the second and third.

2. Perhaps this is an AI issue, but is it possible the NPCs aren't always playing their entire hand? It appears that some cards are simply not being played. The NPC sometimes SHOULD be getting power that converts into prestige, and it doesn't happen. Sometimes at the end of the NPC's turn, I see the last cards going directly from the hand to the cooldown as if they weren't played. At some point I started watching the NPC's deck very closely, to see if there was an Agent card in it, since we now know that Agent cards are the trigger for crashing the NPC AI and causing a game to fail. One of those games, there WAS an Agent card in the deck, but the entire deck was played through and reshuffled without the Agent card being played. The card was beneficial; there was no reason why it should've been skipped.

One more point - I played one game where the NPC bought a Contract Agent card, and it didn't lock up. Perhaps because it was a Contract Agent? I think it was also the last card played that turn; maybe that made a difference too.

Overall, I've just changed my strategy vs NPCs: Buy up Agents to keep the NPC from getting them, and/or try to win before the NPC can play an Agent. It may not be the original point of the game, but for now -- it is.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Kelinmiriel wrote: »

1. The "Snake Draft" doesn't appear to be working as intended, or at least not as it has been described. The NPC always gets to choose the first two decks, and I always choose the third and fourth. Either I should be choosing the first and fourth, or the second and third.

Second this.

wenchmore420b14_ESO

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Kelinmiriel wrote: »

1. The "Snake Draft" doesn't appear to be working as intended, or at least not as it has been described. The NPC always gets to choose the first two decks, and I always choose the third and fourth. Either I should be choosing the first and fourth, or the second and third.

Second this.

Just from what I've found, the Snake Draft, 1-2-1 only happens when playing another player.
Against NPC's it's 2-2.

xgoku1

NPC AI doesn't freeze when playing Contract Agents like Karthstalker. When playing regular Agents they always bug out.

BoloBoffin

I have screenshots of two games where the NPC stopped responding when it was time to end their turn. I conceded to check if the game would crash. It didn't. I'm sure this has nothing to do with my being well on my way to win both games. *stares at NPC*

Both times the NPC had just in that turn played an active agent card. This is the only similarity I see in the two hands.

BoloBoffin

BoloBoffin wrote: »

I have screenshots of two games where the NPC stopped responding when it was time to end their turn. I conceded to check if the game would crash. It didn't. I'm sure this has nothing to do with my being well on my way to win both games. *stares at NPC*

Both times the NPC had just in that turn played an active agent card. This is the only similarity I see in the two hands.

I was finally able to win a game, but this time the NPC AI never played an agent card. I don't think it had a chance to even acquire one this time, to be honest.

Also, I'd managed to get the favor of three Patrons by end of game. The last one required the opponent to have an agent card in play. Then I could pay 6 gold and get the favor of the last Patron. Is it possible that the NPC AI satisfying their part of the Patron action proc is what is hanging up the game when the NPC plays an agent in their hand?

I will add that I played two agent cards and had no issue with ending my turn (or indeed, the NPC AI being able to eliminate the agent card with their own actions).

xgoku1

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

It's been 3 days since multiple people have reported this bug (which has a reproducibility of 100% btw). This is the big feature for the year.

At the very least please acknowledge the bug and if there are no plans to do anything about till 8.0.2 next week, please say that. This minigame requires strategy and thought, and not being able to complete NPC matches after spending 10-15 minutes in a game is really frustrating.

ZOS_Kevin

Hey all, wanted to address some of the last few notes on Snake Draft and AI after checking in with the team.

Snake Draft is working as intended for PvE and PvP. For PvE, some NPCs are tuned to play specific decks and as a result, the snake draft operates differently than in PvP.

As for the AI, our teams are looking into the comments related to that in this thread. The team wants to relay that they will be working to ensure that the AI is smarter around playing its cards and using patrons. This change will not happen in this PTS, but they are aware and working on it. The team is focused on making sure AI is enhanced and the game is functioning properly.

Thanks for sharing your bugs so far and please continue to do so as they come up. The team is monitoring this thread and working on bug fixes.

xgoku1

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hey all, wanted to address some of the last few notes on Snake Draft and AI after checking in with the team.

Snake Draft is working as intended for PvE and PvP. For PvE, some NPCs are tuned to play specific decks and as a result, the snake draft operates differently than in PvP.

As for the AI, our teams are looking into the comments related to that in this thread. The team wants to relay that they will be working to ensure that the AI is smarter around playing its cards and using patrons. This change will not happen in this PTS, but they are aware and working on it. The team is focused on making sure AI is enhanced and the game is functioning properly.

Thanks for sharing your bugs so far and please continue to do so as they come up. The team is monitoring this thread and working on bug fixes.

Thanks for the update.

prodiginous_D

When playing an NPC, if the NPC does a combo, the NPC stops doing actions and freezes the game on their turn, forcing the player to concede the match to reset the game.

WIZZARD2K

here's what happens to the UI when my NPC opponent gets an agent.... i can't click anything in game. escape brings up the auto play or concede menu. /bug brings up the auto play or concede menu. all I can do is concede.
default 4 decks. I don't know if you can imagine how frustrating this is, but it's EXTREMELY frustrating. been like this all week.
is there any other way i can help? I feel like this is a SHOW STOPPING bug. can we reiterate how big of a deal this is? completely unplayable as soon as the npc gets an agent.
https://youtu.be/ClcILpWW3rE

Erorah

Personally, I am either buying and not using or sending Agent cards out of the game when possible. That way NOBODY gets hurt! LOL

WIZZARD2K

I turned off addons, played a couple, won 2 games where the NPC didn't get any agents. Was ABOUT to win my third for the gold daily reward, and then they got an agent. It looks like they finished playing their turn, as they played more cards after that, and instead of the game ending, it just hung. No amount of waiting helps at this point.

asuitandtyb14_ESO

ToT is basically unplayable whilst this agent bug goes unfixed.

Vexen

I can't click on any of the patron cards despite meeting requirements during the tutorial. I don't know if that's intended or not but haven't played outside of the initial tutorial to know if that carries forward.

Kelinmiriel

Vexen wrote: »

I can't click on any of the patron cards despite meeting requirements during the tutorial. I don't know if that's intended or not but haven't played outside of the initial tutorial to know if that carries forward.

Tutorial forces you to play only the cards that you're told you should be playing. It's very confusing in a number of ways, starting with the fact that the first thing you're told you should do is buy a card from the Tavern.

The first thing Brahgas should tell you to do is play the "gold" cards in your hand so you have gold to buy the tavern card with!

Maybe that's blatently obvious to anyone who's played similar games, but to someone who hasn't, it's not. After you've seen it, or done it, it's pretty simple - but for the FIRST TIME, if you've never done anything like this, the only thing that's highlighted is the card in the tavern, and that's the only thing you've been instructed to interact with, but you can't.

It didn't take me long to figure it out, but there are a lot of different people from different backgrounds playing.

Kelinmiriel

There are problems with a couple of Patrons in NPC games. (I haven't been playing many games vs players, so can't say about those.)

Ansei Frandar Hunding: Neutral state tooltip sometimes says, "Opponent pays 2 power..." instead of "You pay 2 power..." When this occurs, it's not possible to gain the favor of this patron.

Grandmaster Delmene Hlaalu: Tooltip says that you can sacrifice a card with a value greater than zero, but it will sometimes let you sacrifice any card at all. Since it gives you Prestige equal to the card's value minus 1, you lose nothing by sacrificing a card of value zero - in fact, it might benefit your deck to do this. (I wonder if you can sacrifice a cursed "Bewilderment" card created by Rahjin?)

Also, the tooltip for this one during the game is often replaced by "You cannot gain the favor of this Patron" despite the fact that it will let you do it anyway. When the tooltip is missing, it's gone for the entire game.

Suggestion for Rahjin and Orgnum: Add a brief footnote text to the end of the tooltip to give a clue about the "Bewilderment" and "Maormer Boarding Party" cards. (Also, "Maormer" is spelled wrong on the tooltip - the "r" is missing.)

"Bewilderment"*

* Has no effect; must be played first when drawn

"Maormer Boarding Party"*

* Add 2 Prestige

Like that.

AJTC5000

Unsure if this has already been mentioned but thought I would post it anyway.

The card "Legion's Arrival", an upgrade to the card "Reinforcements" (both from Saint Pelin) appears to be using the play effect/combos from "Reinforcements", and vice versa. "Reinforcements" currently has more play effect/combos than "Legion's Arrival", so this upgrade currently makes no sense - it is in fact a downgrade. Pics attached!

Synaryn

Pelin's Patron ability to return an Agent to the top of your draw pile is sometimes not working when I activate it.

Erorah

In my latest game, the NPC played and Agent, and played 3 more hands...
I was about to use my next hand to turn the last Patron and end the precarious-seeming game, WHEN THE GAME HUNG!

AliasRed

Also games with the founders seem to be bugged.
Tried starting a game with "the author" numerous times, get the play tribute option, click play tribute option and then nothing happens
Completed all the ToT quests and am master level player so as far as i understand i should be able to play the founders?