Has there been a change to the Stalemate algorithm?

[PhilyFooFighter]

In three different instances today I've had Leshy refuse to concede a game, even though we were just trading the same damage back and forth. This has never happened to me before. What on earth is going on?

The one common feature is that I used the Cuckoo, although in the first two instances the Cuckoo had dropped a Raven Egg rather than a Broken Egg. Maybe that messes with the algorithm somehow. The last instance was the most frustrating though. It was at the very beginning of the game: the first battle. That's the exact time when Leshy is supposed to concede matches the most often because the player doesn't have a fully optimized deck yet.

Anyway, I hope this gets fixed a.s.a.p.. I appreciate all the hard work that goes into developing the game, but honestly I have never had so much joy sucked out of me as dealing with these pointlessly elongated matches, especially if Leshy is totally incapacitated. Once Leshy stops playing cards and isn't able to deal any more damage to creatures or the player, that should be game.

[Renfrew]

Correct me if I am wrong, but starvation will inevitably appear, thus it's not a stalemate. Unless for someone reason starvation didn't appear?

[Crisp pizza]

Weird

[RequiemsRose]

I was under the understanding that a few turns after Leshy runs out of cards (i want to say 3, could be wrong) is when he concedes, it just happens more frequently at the start of a run because he has fewer cards to place that early on due to the limited deck you so far have. He'll concede regardless of how the battle is actually going though when this condition is met normally, ive had a few matches where I would have 100% lost if i didn't accept his surrender. If that has recently changed, I'd also like to know it though.

The inverse is usually starvation, where if you run out of cards he starts dropping starvation cards, and it seems that his surrender condition is entirely removed at that point, never had him concede when I've hit starvation at least (and i did have him retract his hand after offering surrender for 4 rounds because i wanted to see what would happen if i starved AFTER he offered a surrender). If you hit this, fliers or a heavy hitter in a lane that isn't blocked yet is about the only chance you have left. The only true stalemate I've seen is an incredibly niche one where you use something like mirror tentacle to beat the moon, where if you have no way to deal damage after the moon is gone there doesn't seem to be anything in place to solve that...so if cuckoo is the reason behind this stalemate issue, you might have found another niche stalemate the dev hadnt considered previously. Best i could think is maybe cuckoo's egg may mess with what Leshy defines as "out of cards" but that's just a guess under the assumption the cuckoo is indeed the common factor.

[StayPuftMM]

He can concede once there are no more cards for him to put down for the current non-boss encounter AND he determines that the cards that are out right now can't win the game for him based on what you have out. He sometimes makes mistakes/is merciful on that second part. I've created a temporary stalemate using squirrel chump blockers and he decided to concede rather than let me run out of cards.

[PhilyFooFighter]

@Renfrew Correct, Starvation will eventually appear if he doesn't concede, but what Leshy usually does is if he cannot actually win the game and there is no more dynamism in the game anymore, he concedes.

So in a first example, the player and Leshy are just trading the same damage back and forth, he usually concedes (the fact that he didn't is what I find so strange). But in a second example, if the state of the board is able to change and the player still hasn't achieved a stable position, then Leshy just allows Starvation to appear to finish off the player because the player took too much time to exercise a workable strategy. Also, Leshy does not seem to concede during boss battles.

@RequiemsRose Yeah, that's exactly what my impression was about how that worked too; we're in 100% agreement. I do think maybe there's been a change, but if there has been I don't think it was a good idea. Otherwise maybe using the Cuckoo messes with how the algorithm calculates the probabilities of victory somehow, making it think that the state of the board is still dynamic and victory is possible for Leshy when it isn't at all.

@Garent Exactly. There was no way for him to win because he couldn't play any more cards, and those cards couldn't deal any more damage to my creatures. We were just trading the same damage back and forth. I agree with you that he concedes in these cases normally, so that the fact that he didn't multiple times in a row yesterday was odd.

That's why I'm wondering if the algorithm was changed or something. I know for a fact that other changes have occurred since Kaycee's Mod was officially released. For example, you remember the thread I made talking about my surprise that cards that transform into entirely new cards (rather than just change their name and stats) cannot double transform with the Fledgling Totem into an "Elder" form or whatever. Well, now they can, and I had it happen to me just yesterday (my Elk became a Moose Buck which then became an Elder Moose Buck on the following turn). So that's a change just within the last few days.

[PhilyFooFighter]

This happened yet again!! This time without involving the Cuckoo. I'm seriously getting annoyed.

I play casually on extremely high difficulty levels, these days close to 'Skull Storm' level, so having to pause or not continue a run because the A.I. isn't able to recognize a Stalemate is extremely frustrating. I have no idea what is going on.