Game Coding Q&A

[artimies7]

Is there any possible way to damage your opponent after a SoG kicks in? Just hypothetically, of course. With the turns and all...Not. I'm just trying to get an EM. Trololo.

[OldTrees]

Is there any possible way to damage your opponent after a SoG kicks in? Just hypothetically, of course. With the turns and all...Not. I'm just trying to get an EM. Trololo.

Your permanents trigger sequentially. It you have a damaging permanent (say a weapon) after SoG then you will damage your opponent with the weapon after SoG.
The weapon is the 10th permanent to trigger (1-3 Misc, Mark, Shield, 5-9 misc, Weapon 11-19 Misc)

[Xenocidius]

I know the AI has played nightfall with eclipse on the field... or other way around.. it did it because whichever one it is gives a bigger +/+. although they dont stack the AI does put out both if the first one is the weaker version.. only in Arena did i see this though. There are many situations like catapult and others where having a card in hand and not playing it kills them.. but playing it would kill me. There has got to be a way to have the AI look at our hp and add up the damage to be dealt already in play.. If it only needs X damage and it has X or more in hand or through a card effect on the field it should use it. also the way it draws is really obnoxious.. typically you want to do any and all drawing of cards FIRST, before any other actions.. instead it randomly draws all through the turn playing in between.. having cards in hand FIRST is best so you know what to play AFTER that.. unless you are close to decking out. Also i think that immolation should get a higher priority to play it over a buff just to prevent wasting cards.. ive seen the AI do it too many times now... photon, immolation, photon, armor, immolation.. in that order.. Also sacrificing only photons? is that hardcoded? unless i Antimatter a creature they only use it on photons or each elements -2 cost creatures that are more or less useless outside of that.. why not phoenix? is it to prevent not damaging the opponent by making it an ash on purpose?

Sacrificing only Photons is not hardcoded. Again, it gives each creature a score based on how 'useless' they are. Phoenixes are considered to be too valuable (this could and should be fixed).

as you stated about the shields, why the one that costs more.. More often than not the AI switches shields and screws themselves by doing so. should be some sort of rule set for each shield that only certain conditions warrant a change. maybe give each a rating?

The current system is just a simple way to determine value of shields. Zanz will probably change it in the distant future.

How Ai decides what creature to fractal?

It gives each creature a score based on this formula:

Score = (quanta AI has in element of creature cost + 1) / (creature cost + 0.2) / (number of cards in AI hand * number of cards in AI hand * 5 + 1)

So funnily enough, only the creature's cost is taken into account; how 'good' the creature is doesn't matter.

When does the AI decide to hit you with a spell instead of your creature?

All spells that can be directed at your HP use this formula for the score of your HP bar:

Score = -estimate / (your HP * 5)

Shockwave has estimate -4, Lightning estimate -5, etc. Scores of creatures vary wildly between spells; I'll detail it all in my sandbox. Generally, if your HP is low enough it will target it.

[mwaetht]

When I Nightmare a flying Dirk, why does the AI play every single Dirk it gets on the very next turn, replacing the previous Dirk each time (assuming it has no better weapon already there), but when I Nightmare a Ray of Light, the AI holds onto them for one turn before playing them all?

If I Nightmare a Ghost of the Past, the AI sometimes discards a Ghost and sometimes doesn't (even if it has enough quanta to play a Ghost). What determines how it reacts to this Nightmare?

[Xenocidius]

When I Nightmare a flying Dirk, why does the AI play every single Dirk it gets on the very next turn, replacing the previous Dirk each time (assuming it has no better weapon already there), but when I Nightmare a Ray of Light, the AI holds onto them for one turn before playing them all?

If I Nightmare a Ghost of the Past, the AI sometimes discards a Ghost and sometimes doesn't (even if it has enough quanta to play a Ghost). What determines how it reacts to this Nightmare?

Funny thing. When you use Nightmare on a non-GotP creature, the AI marks that card as suspicious (it sets a variable for that card called 'suspicious' to 1).

One of the conditions in deciding to whether the AI should use a creature is this:

(suspicious / (1 + def + atk) < 0.15

Obviously if suspicious = 0, that condition is ignored. In the case of a Ray of Light, suspicious / (1 + def + atk) = 1/3 = 0.333 ..

Suspicious cards are also discarding priorities. From what I can see, suspicious is set back to 0 when a card is drawn.

Of course, the suspicious variable is only checked when playing creatures, so weapons are played as usual.

I'm not sure why the AI would discard a Ghost when it has enough quanta to play it. Are you sure it did that?

[Sevs]

When I Nightmare a flying Dirk, why does the AI play every single Dirk it gets on the very next turn, replacing the previous Dirk each time (assuming it has no better weapon already there), but when I Nightmare a Ray of Light, the AI holds onto them for one turn before playing them all?

If I Nightmare a Ghost of the Past, the AI sometimes discards a Ghost and sometimes doesn't (even if it has enough quanta to play a Ghost). What determines how it reacts to this Nightmare?

Funny thing. When you use Nightmare on a non-GotP creature, the AI marks that card as suspicious (it sets a variable for that card called 'suspicious' to 1).

One of the conditions in deciding to whether the AI should use a creature is this:

(suspicious / (1 + def + atk) < 0.15

Obviously if suspicious = 0, that condition is ignored. In the case of a Ray of Light, suspicious / (1 + def + atk) = 1 / (1/3) = 3.

Suspicious cards are also discarding priorities. From what I can see, suspicious is set back to 0 when a card is drawn.

Of course, the suspicious variable is only checked when playing creatures, so weapons are played as usual.

I'm not sure why the AI would discard a Ghost when it has enough quanta to play it. Are you sure it did that?

Is it suspicious forever? and At least from what i remember when using day traiters, if you nightmare a RoL on the opponents side, the AI immediately plays all of them

[Jenkar]

When I Nightmare a flying Dirk, why does the AI play every single Dirk it gets on the very next turn, replacing the previous Dirk each time (assuming it has no better weapon already there), but when I Nightmare a Ray of Light, the AI holds onto them for one turn before playing them all?

If I Nightmare a Ghost of the Past, the AI sometimes discards a Ghost and sometimes doesn't (even if it has enough quanta to play a Ghost). What determines how it reacts to this Nightmare?

Funny thing. When you use Nightmare on a non-GotP creature, the AI marks that card as suspicious (it sets a variable for that card called 'suspicious' to 1).

One of the conditions in deciding to whether the AI should use a creature is this:

(suspicious / (1 + def + atk) < 0.15

Obviously if suspicious = 0, that condition is ignored. In the case of a Ray of Light, suspicious / (1 + def + atk) = 1 / (1/3) = 3.

Suspicious cards are also discarding priorities. From what I can see, suspicious is set back to 0 when a card is drawn.

Of course, the suspicious variable is only checked when playing creatures, so weapons are played as usual.

I'm not sure why the AI would discard a Ghost when it has enough quanta to play it. Are you sure it did that?

Is it suspicious forever? and At least from what i remember when using day traiters, if you nightmare a RoL on the opponents side, the AI immediately plays all of them

From what i remember, the ai tends to wait one turn before playib them all.

[ralouf]

you wrote :

(suspicious / (1 + def + atk) < 0.15

So for RoL we have 1/(1+1+1)= 1/3 = 0.33 not 3
Anyway it is still > 0.15

[BluePriest]

When I Nightmare a flying Dirk, why does the AI play every single Dirk it gets on the very next turn, replacing the previous Dirk each time (assuming it has no better weapon already there), but when I Nightmare a Ray of Light, the AI holds onto them for one turn before playing them all?

If I Nightmare a Ghost of the Past, the AI sometimes discards a Ghost and sometimes doesn't (even if it has enough quanta to play a Ghost). What determines how it reacts to this Nightmare?

Funny thing. When you use Nightmare on a non-GotP creature, the AI marks that card as suspicious (it sets a variable for that card called 'suspicious' to 1).

One of the conditions in deciding to whether the AI should use a creature is this:

(suspicious / (1 + def + atk) < 0.15

Obviously if suspicious = 0, that condition is ignored. In the case of a Ray of Light, suspicious / (1 + def + atk) = 1 / (1/3) = 3.

Suspicious cards are also discarding priorities. From what I can see, suspicious is set back to 0 when a card is drawn.

Of course, the suspicious variable is only checked when playing creatures, so weapons are played as usual.

I'm not sure why the AI would discard a Ghost when it has enough quanta to play it. Are you sure it did that?

Is it suspicious forever? and At least from what i remember when using day traiters, if you nightmare a RoL on the opponents side, the AI immediately plays all of them

From what I can see, suspicious is set back to 0 when a card is drawn.

I believe this means that they will play it the next turn. I could be wrong though/

[Xenocidius]

you wrote :

(suspicious / (1 + def + atk) < 0.15

So for RoL we have 1/(1+1+1)= 1/3 = 0.33 not 3
Anyway it is still > 0.15

Whoops, sorry. Fixed.

From what I can see, suspicious is set back to 0 when a card is drawn.

I believe this means that they will play it the next turn. I could be wrong though/

That is correct. I could be wrong though as well; but considering the evidence I'm fairly sure I'm right.

[furballdn]

What are the mechanics behind the AI immolating things? I noticed sometimes it immolates quite smartly (An antimattered creature), and other times not as smart (Immolating a photon and doing nothing).

[Xenocidius]

What are the mechanics behind the AI immolating things? I noticed sometimes it immolates quite smartly (An antimattered creature), and other times not as smart (Immolating a photon and doing nothing).

Skillscore is 3 if the creature has a skill, otherwise 0.

Score = (8 - (current defense + current attack + creature cost + skillscore)) / 5

For example, a Photon would have a score of (8 - (1 + 1 + 0 + 0)) / 5, which is 6/5 or 1.2.

Creature with the highest score is chosen, then Immolation will be cast if maxscore > ranscore.

ranscore > ((random number between 0 and 1) + 0.1) / (cards in AI's hand + 2)

Since the maximum possible value of ranscore is just under 0.55, Immolation will always be cast if the AI has a Photon.

Also, in the case of Antimattered creatures, the negative attack obviously raises the score quite a bit.