Cheating AI

[NintendoCN]

I know of several games where the AI cheats, either by having exactly what they need when they need it, or drawing the exact same cards every game. Last game I played that has a cheating AI was 100% Orange Juice, 4 consecutive rolls were all 6, The chances of that is 1 in 1024! So let's discuss other cheating AI, any you find super annoying?

 

[Spirit]

F-Zero GX cheats and it is so damned annoying, the game is already difficult to master and pain in the arse AI really doesn't help.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Any and all Racing games (Mario kart for example) have deliberate rubber banding AI you can never get TOO far ahead of them, some racers have it set so that if your in first the 2nd place AI will rush ahead and stay ahead.

Worst issues with AI is in games such as For Honor, where the AI will be incredibly dumb and stupid at one level and the next level on will be able to execute frame perfect dodges and blocks and even read your own input to get attacks in first

 

[Dizzi]

in goldeneye on the n64 the ai were doing all these fancy schamncy jumps and rolls but we mortals couldnt do them...

 

[Castle]

It's almost impossible for fighting games and racing game AI not to cheat because there's almost always one dominant strategy to play. The fastest car with the shortest route between point A and point B will always win. The fighter that counters every move will win and a computer doesn't need to have reaction time. The only real way to make a racing game fair to a human player is to make the AI screw up and play an imperfect game. The only way to make a fighting game fair is to try to program the AI to simulate the mental game human players are playing against their opponents in their heads.

Strategy games that offer a bunch of different approaches to a win state for any given side are usually dumb b/c the computer preprogrammed to stick to a scripted routine and doesn't change up its tactics to changing circumstances. This makes it easy for players to cheese victory. The Civilization games take a unique approach to this by having each computer faction stick to an approach it's particularly good at, like warfare, trade, or diplomacy.

Half Life 2 does an interesting thing where each fight will start out with the AI super accurate but the more health you lose the less accurate the AI will be. They'll even start to shoot slower, move less and hang around out in the open. This is actually meant to give players the impression that they're "good" by providing a solid challenge up front but then dialing back the roughness to make players think they "win." But once observant players catch on it's actually obvious that the game is providing artificial difficulty and then just taking it easy on em.

 

[beste-spellen]

First of all, it is very difficult to create an "honest" AI like @Castle describes. Besides, people quickly will label the AI as cheaters simply because AI players are non-human players and thus cannot have luck. As in the given example, 1 of 1024 is a very small chance but it can happen. This is why e.g. single player Mario Party will never become fun.

For me, it really depends on the implementation of the AI. Current implementations of AI are pretty good but there is still lots of room for improvement. The solution that currently is being chosen by most people is just to play against real people, using the possibilities that broadband internet provide us.

 

[Princess Niki]

One of the worst cases I have seen is when PBG and Space Hamster tried playing Dokapon Kingdom which is a board game with RPG elements for the Wii. The AI literally had everything handed to them while the human characters lost so badly it was so rigged.

 

[A Link In Time]

I think "cheating" AI in racing games is fair so the game stays interesting as Magic Bean Seller mentioned.

But I hate when AI do things that normally aren't possible in other genres. There was this game mode added to League a few years back where the AI did things that were impossible normally, so you essentially had to resort to cheesing the mode.

 

[the8thark]

A good example of this is in Boom Street (Fortune Street in the USA). Imagine if Mario characters and Dragon Quest Characters came to gether to play a version of Monopoly where the winner is the person who has the most cash and stock value. Yes there is a share market in this game.
To unlock the later boards in this game you have to win the previous ones. Near the end of the game this becomes almost impossible as the AI gets perfect rolls to maximise their net worth. You can cheese this by setting yourself to the expert AI and on the last turn swapping back to human controlled. However for the last few boards even that does not work. The AI is so perfect, without almost every one of your dice rolls being perfect you can not win. This does mean the last few boards are near impossible to unlock.

Waluigi in something that is not a sports game? Shocked!!! But it's true.