Permanent Targeting Priority Study

[Xenocidius]

As far as I know there is no complete list of permanent destruction priority. All everyone seems to know is that Eternity > Hourglass > ... > Pendulums > Pillars.

I've created a project with the ultimate goal: to generate a list of permanents by AI destruction targeting priority.

You can view the spreadsheet here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ata8eDzDu2YCdGk2MVRCVnhFaUJGVHdYbmRoWWRBT2c&hl=en_US).

Please do not edit it unless you are contributing data. If you're not sure exactly how it works, don't touch it.

If you would like to help collect data you can use the Trainer (http://www.elementsthegame.com/trainer).
This is the AI5 deck I import:

by Xenocidius

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 77f 77f 77f 77f 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dm 8pl

You can create a deck for yourself based on the permanents you're testing, and give yourself 100 quanta.

The spreadsheet itself is quite simple. Each permanent is matched up against every other. In the appropriate cell simply enter the higher priority permanent that you have found through testing. Bold the name if it is upgraded.

A few assumptions are made: for cards with the exact same functionality upped/unupped (i.e., Mindgate), the unupped (higher casting cost) version has higher priority. For those exactly the same except for skill cost (i.e., Pulverizer), the upped (lower activation cost) has higher priority.

When all data is collected I will post a list of all the permanents in order of targeting priority, for easy reference.

Special thanks to Jenkar for helping me with the spreadsheet.

Thoughts?

[Kamietsu]

While this sounds like a good idea in theory, i think it can be narrowed down. I've never seen an AI target anything other than an Hourglass over any weapon/shield I've had in play. Though i suppose you could figure out, based upon weapon and shield, which one gets destroyed first, but from what I've seen it's usually the weapon.

[Xenocidius]

While this sounds like a good idea in theory, i think it can be narrowed down. I've never seen an AI target anything other than an Hourglass over any weapon/shield I've had in play. Though i suppose you could figure out, based upon weapon and shield, which one gets destroyed first, but from what I've seen it's usually the weapon.

Wrong. Just throwing out one example, AI targets Mindgate over Solar Shield/Buckler and Turtle Shield.

There's a lot more investigation that needs to happen.

[Jenkar]

Just realised - you can't have two weapons/shields in same slot, so weapon/weapon priority or shield/shield is uneedded.

[artimies7]

Just realised - you can't have two weapons/shields in same slot, so weapon/weapon priority or shield/shield is uneedded.

Ninja'd.

[Rutarete]

This should be interesting.

[Jenkar]

Hammer/Gavel exists... *adds*

[Xenocidius]

Just realised - you can't have two weapons/shields in same slot, so weapon/weapon priority or shield/shield is uneedded.

Wrong. We will still need to list which has higher priority for the purposes of generating a list at the end. We can infer which has higher priority from all other information.

[RRQJ]

I'm fairly certain that hourglass and pulverizer have the same priority.  Most of the time the hourglass will be in the front row, so it'll be in an "earlier" slot than the weapon, which is why it seems hourglass has higher priority.  If you manage to land hourglass on the back row (i.e. a ton of shards/sancs in the front), then you should find the AI targeting the pulvy.

[Xenocidius]

I'm fairly certain that hourglass and pulverizer have the same priority.  Most of the time the hourglass will be in the front row, so it'll be in an "earlier" slot than the weapon, which is why it seems hourglass has higher priority.  If you manage to land hourglass on the back row (i.e. a ton of shards/sancs in the front), then you should find the AI targeting the pulvy.

Weapons always function last. Always.

Besides, if you think about it Hourglass is still effectively higher than Pulverizer.

In any case, we'll have to confirm it still.

[Jenkar]

I'm fairly certain that hourglass and pulverizer have the same priority.  Most of the time the hourglass will be in the front row, so it'll be in an "earlier" slot than the weapon, which is why it seems hourglass has higher priority.  If you manage to land hourglass on the back row (i.e. a ton of shards/sancs in the front), then you should find the AI targeting the pulvy.

Weapons always function last. Always.

Wrong :

[Xenocidius]

Well, there goes my theory to hell ..