I figure this may as well be a discussion for the new forums as it was covered briefly earlier. My brother plays Pox with me and I am also wanting to introduce some friends. This brings up two points. Player vs AI It would be great to be able to play AI games that match the multiplayer experience. This would be a good place for new players to start and would be a much more fun version of single player as campaigns are very monotonous after playing through them once or twice. Co-op vs AI I would really like to play more with my brother, but the only way to do this is either vs each other, which can become frustrating for whoever loses or as a 2v2 which is unfortunately plagued with imbalance due to certain runes and the amount of nora each team has to nuke opponents with spells. I would love a Co-Op vs AI that acts the same as multiplayer as well. This would let me and my brother play as a team without the cheese associated with the multiplayer mode. It would also act as a perfect starting point for people introducing friends of a lower skill level. Not only can you play as a team and both enjoy the same game, but you can easily teach your friends the game in a more friendly environment.
Please if nothing else just make a SP mode that has the 2 minute time limit... It would be a great exercise for the new, like myself. After around 40 matches I'm still struggling mightily, though at least now I generally put up a fight.
Gedden is really into AI and I know he has plans for expanding on what's currently in the game. I'll forward this thread to him.
Was happy to see this! This i think might have to be something that can be optional and toggled on or off for campaigns. There are some campaigns on legendary where a 2 minute timer would be impossible to play your runes in time.
I'd copy paste all of my "Please give us an actual normal-game AI mode" threads, but I think you guys have gotten the idea by now <3
I think this is a good idea. I really want to spend some time with the AI here in the next few weeks, and I see no reason why "skrimish" matches cant be done. The co-op may take a bit more time, so that may come later. It's on par with the co-op vs bosses stuff that I have seen some threads about.
I don't know whether "skirmishes" would be easy or difficult to implement, but it'd be an awesome addition to Single Player! I really hope you can give it a try!!
And who knows, maybe you'll end up fixing the AI crashes that cause the AI to SIT THERE FOR THE ENTIRE 10 MINUTES
Woah! If that happens, send a message to Senshu! Our goal is to try and re-create it. If we can setup a scenario where it happens consistently it will get fixed right away. Whats going on is the AI is getting stuck on some ability or interaction and the server is not letting it do. The AI has basically been completely ignored for years, so i'm sure there are problems with any number of the thousands of new interactions and updates that have taken place.
Right, it's just that the AI gets stuck at times when it makes hard decisions - i.e. trying to walk over a damaging tile like lava to go to a place it wants to go but it doesn't want to be damaged, when it is scripted to try to move a unit that has been temporarily removed, stunned, rooted, etc. from what I have seen. Or at least that's how it was the last time I saw it. The question I guess is that the AI will be the same once it is ported over I assume? Will changes be made subtly and pushed to live or will it take a large patch?
When we first transition bots will be the same -- so many systems to work on it was a bit of triage. I know I want to implement some more of "deep thinking"/"control field" systems I wrote for Void Rim. In that sense it will be a big patch, and we traditionally release big updates like that alongside expansions. However I want to feed in some bug fixes along the way. This is me just thinking out loud, which is probably not a good idea to do on the forums, but depending on how much time I get to do AI updates I may do some more genetic stuff with the skirmish AI. That means doing more "learning and reacting" to the current meta, maybe let the bots create their own decks and try to be creative with 'em.
30 Goblin Brute decks? For a lot of the casual players and the players that want to grind gold to try to get some of the more desirable runes, any change to the AI I'm sure will be welcomed =P =). When they come over, should we also bring over the events that bring about unwinnable conditions from the AI? (i.e. in order to win, the AI needs to deploy a unit, however, that spot where it is supposed to be deployed is blocked, therefore, the Boss unit never spawns). It may be helpful, somewhat, if we had an ability to copy/paste/export the battle log as well, though not sure if that would be possible at all.
Sometimes the freeze happens when you use some form of movement control on a unit the AI wants to move. You could try to root or give wandering to some melee champ from the AI in the skirmishes
I'll message Senshu on Forums or in game next time it happens then. I can see no pattern between the events. One time all that had happened was that I had deployed a unit to grab the center font (on the daily where the UD cultist with Attack:LoL is the boss), the first enemy unit was a turn behind me in grabbing it and for no apparent reason (i hadn't even used any abilities yet) the AI just stood there for 10 minutes. No movement control, no weird terrain, nothing had really even happened.
I would hope the aim is to homogenize gold gains across single and multiplayer so either option is viable. No one likes grinding. One idea aside from the homogenization might be some sort of gold surplus with a cap that builds up over a few days and can double the gold you earn in a game. This way casual players (who work, etc) get a boost to look forward too. Players who have more time on their hands will still earn a good bit more, but the difference would be less severe. The ability of some people to grind all day really hurts the potential gains available to those who can only play a couple of games. I assume the First Win bonus was a mild attempt at solving this, but I don't think it does quite enough.
From my experience, grinding isn't that much of a problem. Most people don't have an issue with putting in a lot of time to work towards a desired goal. When they achieve their goal, they get a feeling of satisfaction and they feel that they have been rewarded for the amount of work that put in. Of course there needs to be a balance, it shouldn't be just a carrot a perpetual stick, but making it too easy to gain something tends to make people unsatisfied. I have no problem though with the idea of unlocking boosts, or other achievement based ways to gain gold.
