SeaGtGruff wrote: »I haven't played against the Novice and Proficient NPCs in several months, but ideally their logic and skill should match the logic and skill of the majority of players who play at those levels. If that isn't the case, then it will be much more difficult for new ToT players to learn and enjoy the game if they have almost no hope of winning any matches.
emilyhyoyeon wrote: »Yeah... I've normally always been playing against expert NPCs. After the patch, they're still fun and even more engaging which is nice when I want to play a game for my level. But when I don't want to spend 20min per game for the daily with the chance of a loss even, I was like Ok I'll just do 3 quick novice games. I barely noticed a difference in difficulty between novice and expert. Like what?
I don't understand why the novice NPCs were even adjusted. Have experienced players been playing against them and saying they're too easy?
Anyone can play against novice if they want to, sure, but it should be balanced around new players.
Personofsecrets wrote: »emilyhyoyeon wrote: »Yeah... I've normally always been playing against expert NPCs. After the patch, they're still fun and even more engaging which is nice when I want to play a game for my level. But when I don't want to spend 20min per game for the daily with the chance of a loss even, I was like Ok I'll just do 3 quick novice games. I barely noticed a difference in difficulty between novice and expert. Like what?
I don't understand why the novice NPCs were even adjusted. Have experienced players been playing against them and saying they're too easy?
Anyone can play against novice if they want to, sure, but it should be balanced around new players.
The problem with making things to easy is that it let's people figure out ways to automate winning.
I am guessing the novice npcs might have been changed to prevent fast, easy patron victories. Since they never used to use the patrons at all (though prior to necrom the more advanced npcs hardly used them either), it tended to be easy as pie to get a patron victory, barring the inclusion of situation-specific patrons (like the psijic patron) that might come up in game. This was ideal for players who wanted to do some quick ToT matches for reward farming.
I am guessing this might be why the novice player nearly always turns the crow at the beginning of the match, now. That makes a patron victory very hard, though it also takes the crow out of play for them later in the game (if the human player doesn't need to use it).
However, this does make them rather challenging for newer players, and using ToT to farm mats and furnishings (the latter of which IME are hardly ever dropping in coffers anymore) was still as time consuming and as unreliable as other methods in the game. Now the pay off is hardly worth in, in my opinion.
MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »I like ToT but probably will play less if the novice NPC are buffed this much. A good part of the enjoyment for me is a relaxing game that doesn't require too much thought. If I wanted a challenge there are the expert players. Why on earth would you buff the lowest level?
I would like one, just one update that I could look forward to instead of dreading. Somehow it just never seems to happen.
AnduinTryggva wrote: »To be honest I just play ranked matches to get the daily rewards. I just give a *** for my position on the leaderboard. The leaderboard is broken and it will remain broken even if they repair the points system due to the many possibilities to manipulate the leaderboard. And because of the most extreme snowballish nature of that card game that puts more and more advantage on that player who had a bit of more luck during the early phase. I could as well just roll dice with my match partner. So who cares if I am top of the leaderboard. I don't as it has zero significance.
Sepultura_13 wrote: »AnduinTryggva wrote: »To be honest I just play ranked matches to get the daily rewards. I just give a *** for my position on the leaderboard. The leaderboard is broken and it will remain broken even if they repair the points system due to the many possibilities to manipulate the leaderboard. And because of the most extreme snowballish nature of that card game that puts more and more advantage on that player who had a bit of more luck during the early phase. I could as well just roll dice with my match partner. So who cares if I am top of the leaderboard. I don't as it has zero significance.
I see people manipulating the NPC matches on a regular basis. I'm not sure what macros or scripts they're running, but it seems odd when the NPC cards are flipping faster than fire, while my cards are slow as molasses. Add in the fact that the opponent's cards seem stacked in their favor, while my deck always has the lowest ones turn up first, no matter how many high cards I've purchased.
Then when the match ends, there always seem to be the same players lurking near the table - or they run off to avoid being detected/reported! I take screenshots when I can, but cheating players will always find some loophole to jump into.
Are you on PC? I played only a few rounds of ToT when it first came out, then stopped. Picked it up again in February. I forgot how to play the game, did a few rounds and relearned the mechs. Since then I'm still only level 2 (trainee) and playing novices, but they feel fine. I'm a beginner and they play about the same that I do, they just don't like to go for the patrons when nearing 40 prestige as much as I do. I usually win with 20-30 more points than them. Sometimes that almost makes it feel like they're below novices tbh since they ignore some blatant tactics that could let them win their final hand. But I'm on PlayStation, idk if the AI is different? Unless they changed the AI again since your post?
SeaGtGruff wrote: »Sepultura_13 wrote: »AnduinTryggva wrote: »To be honest I just play ranked matches to get the daily rewards. I just give a *** for my position on the leaderboard. The leaderboard is broken and it will remain broken even if they repair the points system due to the many possibilities to manipulate the leaderboard. And because of the most extreme snowballish nature of that card game that puts more and more advantage on that player who had a bit of more luck during the early phase. I could as well just roll dice with my match partner. So who cares if I am top of the leaderboard. I don't as it has zero significance.
I see people manipulating the NPC matches on a regular basis. I'm not sure what macros or scripts they're running, but it seems odd when the NPC cards are flipping faster than fire, while my cards are slow as molasses. Add in the fact that the opponent's cards seem stacked in their favor, while my deck always has the lowest ones turn up first, no matter how many high cards I've purchased.
Then when the match ends, there always seem to be the same players lurking near the table - or they run off to avoid being detected/reported! I take screenshots when I can, but cheating players will always find some loophole to jump into.
What are you talking about? If you see other players near the table while you're about to play, or have just finished playing, against an NPC, those are other players who are also there to play against one of the NPCs. Their matches have no effect on your matches, and vice versa. Players can't manipulate the NPCs against you while you're playing.