Match 3 results in another turn for the AI?

[Mogg]

Only happens when they get a mana surge. Never seen myself get an extra turn via matching 3 that gave a mana surge. None of the troops I've looked at from opponents side give this major advantage to them. It is infuriating to make progress with the computer chaining constant 3s, rearranging the board to combo more 3s and just wipe my troops away because of skulls that also drop.
I was wondering why I was losing so much. Paid closer attention and this is what I had discovered. Nowhere does it mention the AI gains an extra turn on mana surges when matching 3s. It also doesn't happen all the time which makes this an inconsistent unfair rule.

edit: happens on Story and Arena. Had to confirm it happening in places besides Story.
Also, inconsistent. Seen it match 3 skulls and 3 gems and no extra turn. Once again no troops provide this bonus to the AI.

edit 2: During challenge, it would just get an extra turn on rare occasion without triggering a mana surge on a 3 match.

[specoff]

There has been a strong imbalance in favor of AI in recent days.

[Mogg]

Originally posted by specoff:

There has been a strong imbalance in favor of AI in recent days.

It almost feels like this was on purpose to get people to spend money. Can't help but feel this way given how microtransactions and free to play games are designed in general.
I mean, there are already signs within the game design that it pushes people into making purchases:
Bringing up menus for buy things on special without ever clicking on them
Making notification numbers appear as if there was something new to collect.
The grindy nature of obtaining pretty much anything.
Loot box syndrome - so many troops to collect, and a pain to ascend.
Random difficulty spikes (going up against certain nasty troop combos)

but those don't bother me as much as the AI playing by it's own obscure set of rules, which makes the last mentioned thin (difficulty spike) ludicrous. Relying more on luck that the AI gives me enough turns to actually play a match.
Sometimes it's easy because of the troops I am pitted against, but other times it's just a brick wall with no way to beat. Worst are troops that spam destroy or convert on repeat. It's not hard to get a 3 in a row match... but to keep getting turns by just this basic requirement is really dumb.

[JokX]

all "hard" in this gam - this what devs tune AI for more and more cheating which add for himself all colours and especially skulls. just so impudent...
Im disappointent long time...

[rainartchik]

I've noticed the AI getting lots of extra turns lately and when I was playing earlier several of my extra turns went to the AI. Those 4 gems matches should benefit me, not the AI. I don't think it's a glitch, it happens too often.

[Mogg]

Originally posted by JokX:

all "hard" in this gam - this what devs tune AI for more and more cheating which add for himself all colours and especially skulls. just so impudent...
Im disappointent long time...

I've had 5 skulls drop for me in a vertical line twice in a row. Seems a bit odd. I mean cool I got to benefit from it, but this seems very odd. Also noticed the AI doesn't always take 4 gem matches when available. Doesn't make it less fair when they just get turn agains on 3 matches. I'd prefer the AI not to miss match 4 opportunities than them getting extra turns from match 3s.

Originally posted by rainartchik:

I've noticed the AI getting lots of extra turns lately and when I was playing earlier several of my extra turns went to the AI. Those 4 gems matches should benefit me, not the AI. I don't think it's a glitch, it happens too often.

Yeah, I've seen this happen too. I thought I was mistaken. Guess it's confirmed.

[cinedine]

There is a/was a bug when two or special gems are matched and it not registering correctly for 4/5 matches. It should have been fixed with the latest updated.

Originally posted by Mogg:

I've had 5 skulls drop for me in a vertical line twice in a row. Seems a bit odd. I mean cool I got to benefit from it, but this seems very odd.

Bonestorm?

[Mogg]

Originally posted by cinedine:

There is a/was a bug when two or special gems are matched and it not registering correctly for 4/5 matches. It should have been fixed with the latest updated.

Originally posted by Mogg:

I've had 5 skulls drop for me in a vertical line twice in a row. Seems a bit odd. I mean cool I got to benefit from it, but this seems very odd.

Bonestorm?

No bonestorm. It would have made sense if someone could put bonestorm into play. This is why I thought it odd to happen. If it really is randomized perfectly, it is possible to occur, it's just really odd seeing it.

edit: to clarify, none of the troops in that game could make any kind of storms.
I thought I'd add to the noise people are making about gem drops being super beneficial to the AI just to prove it can go the other way too. Although proof is by my word, as I didn't record my game. It's only happened to me once out of the several hours I've poured into playing this (almost) non-stop. At some point RNG is going to spit out a perfect combo. I just don't know in what way RNG is tweeked. Never found the AI to benefit from it any more than I do (besides 3 match extra turns which is BS and can make the AI have rather lengthy turns which includes wiping out my entire troop group)

[strata_ranger]

Originally posted by Mogg:

I thought I'd add to the noise people are making about gem drops being super beneficial to the AI just to prove it can go the other way too.
...
I just don't know in what way RNG is tweeked. Never found the AI to benefit from it any more than I do (besides 3 match extra turns which is BS and can make the AI have rather lengthy turns which includes wiping out my entire troop group)

I play on Switch and can concur with most of this -- while we don't know the specifics of the RNG or how a given AI level might influence it, it doesn't seem to have much impact in PVE. And yes, I've suffered the occasional team wipe by the AI getting too many lucky turns....

Case in point: I have farmed Silver Necropolis up to max Delve level (Lv.500) and have never noticed any trends in the AI getting lucky drops, i.e. that it wasn't getting just as easily at lower levels, or are just a result of its team composition (just watch two or more Necrocorns start casting their spells on each other and go grab a drink or something because they'll probably still be looping when you get back). Now to be fair this is an easy Faction and I was just beelining to the boss room each time (taking no side paths) so my reward level was lower than when I'm just farming for the rewards themselves, but....

Now if the AI is getting extra turns from 3-gem matches that is either a bug or you should be recording because maybe it was actually a 4- or 5-gem match (especially a T or L shape) happening so fast you missed it. (It's easy to record proof on Switch at least because it buffers the last 30 seconds by default, so if anything seems amiss just hit Capture and you can analyze it later.)

[Mogg]

Originally posted by strata_ranger:

Originally posted by Mogg:

I thought I'd add to the noise people are making about gem drops being super beneficial to the AI just to prove it can go the other way too.
...
I just don't know in what way RNG is tweeked. Never found the AI to benefit from it any more than I do (besides 3 match extra turns which is BS and can make the AI have rather lengthy turns which includes wiping out my entire troop group)

I play on Switch and can concur with most of this -- while we don't know the specifics of the RNG or how a given AI level might influence it, it doesn't seem to have much impact in PVE. And yes, I've suffered the occasional team wipe by the AI getting too many lucky turns....

Case in point: I have farmed Silver Necropolis up to max Delve level (Lv.500) and have never noticed any trends in the AI getting lucky drops, i.e. that it wasn't getting just as easily at lower levels, or are just a result of its team composition (just watch two or more Necrocorns start casting their spells on each other and go grab a drink or something because they'll probably still be looping when you get back). Now to be fair this is an easy Faction and I was just beelining to the boss room each time (taking no side paths) so my reward level was lower than when I'm just farming for the rewards themselves, but....

Now if the AI is getting extra turns from 3-gem matches that is either a bug or you should be recording because maybe it was actually a 4- or 5-gem match (especially a T or L shape) happening so fast you missed it. (It's easy to record proof on Switch at least because it buffers the last 30 seconds by default, so if anything seems amiss just hit Capture and you can analyze it later.)

It's not a bug. I do watch the drops and matches carefully. It easily seen when there is no possible way to match 4 - 5 on screen, the AI gets a series of extra turns by just matching 3s. Happens with gems falling from top of screen into a match 3 position too.
This has been the case since I started playing, and I am not the only one affected. I've seen streamers also suffer from this although they do not see it, or just ignore it. So it's not just a "me" experience. Naturally those streamers are so far into the game this match 3 bonus the AI gets doesn't do much to them, compared to me who noticed this very easily at the low level I was. I don't play this on Nintendo Switch. I play on PC. Not sure what the streamers play on that I used to watch for tips. I've played this game to the end (conquered all regions) and am done. They can keep their game that plays by loose AI rules.

[strata_ranger]

Originally posted by Mogg:

It's not a bug. I do watch the drops and matches carefully. It easily seen when there is no possible way to match 4 - 5 on screen, the AI gets a series of extra turns by just matching 3s. Happens with gems falling from top of screen into a match 3 position too.

Just yesterday I matched a column of 3 gems, 3 Brown gems dropped in and gave me an extra turn ... BUT there were also Brown gems on the sides resulting in a T-shape, so that actually checked out as legit.

I know there have been cases where the AI matched 4 or 5 gems that I could swear shouldn't have been there, but on review turn out to be just me failing to spot those matches first.

I have never spotted anything truly suspicious in any mode (including Explore runs up to Lv.12, Challenges up to Tier X, Delves up to Lv.500, World Events up to Lv.100, etc.), and am still curious to see video proof of these cheats (better if more recent, but just any to start with).

[Dirmagnos]

I am absolutely positive that game is rigged.
It depends on numerous factors, like player level, ai team level, win streak, etc.
About a year ago i did a ton of various tests to see how rng works and there is no doubt about game being rigged.
For example Death Mark for Ai and for Player, despite being described as having 10% chance to kill, has completely different probabilities. For player, after 500+ tuns tested, probability was 0.9%, for AI it was 23%(or 24%, i dont remember exactly). Meaning that player-applied Death Mark will kill unit every 100 turns on average, while AI applied Death Mark will kill unit every ~4th turn on average.
Same huge differences are for pretty much every aspect of the game relying on rng. From gem grouping, when using something like trolls, to probability of something happening. For example, just recently, when Elementalist class came out, during one combat i had Elemental Force applied to same AI unit 6 times in a row. Probability of that happening is 0.024%. And of course it was Astral Mother, unit with Impervious trait. How lucky of her. With this crap happening fairly regularly.
AI is also the king of getting 4 of a kind, when gems fall from behind the screen. Debuffs last on IA units for shorter periods of time. Board jumbles are far more beneficial to AI. Etc.
There are even certain units, that have hugely different rng, when played by AI and Player. Like any of the Worms or Siren. Difference between AI getting 4 of a kind from gem spawns, when using them, and Player, is enormous.
Mana Surges are easily testable in PvP. And of course, as per usual, AI will get a lot more surges, compared to Player. I have probability of all gems getting surge in mid 60s, while AI team, that has probabilities in mid 40s, can easily get surges twice as often.
All testing was done when account was 1000+ level.

[cinedine]

Pretty sure they admitted to that years ago. The AI gets an edge in manageneration to offset the lack of ability to use synergies properly or think a few turned ahead.

Regartding to your death mark observations I made the opposite experience. My kill them off far more often. Just that it often doesn't really matter. The round before I have a killing blow up, a troop that doesn't have much impact on the team or such. Whereas the death's I get (or rather remember) are more often inconvenient.

[Dirmagnos]

Originally posted by cinedine:

Regartding to your death mark observations I made the opposite experience. My kill them off far more often. Just that it often doesn't really matter. The round before I have a killing blow up, a troop that doesn't have much impact on the team or such. Whereas the death's I get (or rather remember) are more often inconvenient.

Its averages. Aside of testing, my Souls Farm team has Dark Troll on the top, so AI units spend a lot of time under Death Mark and in most cases its like nothing, after 2-3 turns they just shake it off. At the same time playing against AI teams that have something like Death on it, it is guaranteed to lose at least one units to Death Mark within 2 turns of it casing it ♥♥♥♥. Once i even lost 3 units on my very next turn.
I did notice that when AI is one turn away from losing, rng can suddenly flip in Player favor. But ive seen opposite as well, with AI last unit with few hp managing to get superlucky and a few times actually kill my whole team. Altho latter happens much less often.

[lahoward]

Same tactic EA uses on Madden and it is to get you to spend more money. I used to spend the $1.99 on the shrine on occasions but since I've noticed the scripting it's a totally free game now.