My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Games have rules. These rules aren't always fair: The average [[First-Person Shooter]] pits a single player against multiple groups of enemies, all of whom are trying to kill him.

This is one of the most [[Egregious]] forms of [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]], in which the AI players break the explicitly laid-out rules of the game. This throws any idea of equality out the window. However, since many games would be rather dull if the AI played fair, [[Tropes Are Not Bad|some believe this to be a necessary evil]]. Others, meanwhile, will take great, detailed pains to elaborate to their associates [[Catharsis Factor|what horrors]] they would adore visiting upon the game programmers.

 

 

Note that this applies only to games and situations where the human and the AI are supposed to be on an equal footing. If the rules say the AI is in a different situation to the human, treating them differently isn't cheating.

 

{{examples}}

* In the original ''[[Civilization]]'', Triremes built by the player couldn't leave the coast without being lost. Computer built triremes had no such restrictions, allowing them to circumnavigate the world.

** Most of the ''Civilization'' games have AI that largely ignore some of the basic game rules when playing on the higher difficulty levels with the recent edition of ''Civilization V'' being the worst, where the AI can just ignore some of the game rules. For example, when a player founds a city it decreases the overall happiness of his empire thus resulting in things like lower production and a lower growth rate. This is done to prevent the player from expanding too quickly via settler spamming. Plenty of players have reported however, that on the higher difficulty levels the AI can more or less just do as it pleases and produce vast number of cities without any penalties, and produce units at a much faster rate then the player for no reason. The actual AI itself however, does not actually appear to get smarter, making this a perfect example of [[Fake Difficulty]] and [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]].

** Back to Lance's Dragonite. In ''HeartGold/SoulSilver'', he has one at Level 40, two at Level 49, and one at Level 50. Dragonite can once again only be obtained at Level 55 or higher, except through an event at Level 50, which is STILL higher than three of Lance's.

** Goes back to the first boss in the game: Brock has an Onix that is much lower-level than any Onix you will encounter in the game. However, Brock could have bred Onix which hatch at Level 5 or Level 1 (depending on the game), then trained them to around Level 9. While breeding was not a game mechanic in ''R/B/Y'', their remakes imply that breeding is possible, just not in the region the originals cover.

** Now for an [[Inverted Trope|Inversion]] - the default "Shift" battle style allows players to change their active Mon after knocking out the opponent's, and they're even told what the opponent will be sending out next.

** One particularly annoying example is witnessed in the Battle Tower. Should the player and the opponent be down to their last Pokémon, the Self-KO (Kamikaze) Clause comes into play, where the player loses if he or she happens to command a Pokémon to use Explosion or Selfdestruct. But say the ''computer'' decides to finish the match with an all-out Explosion? The player '''STILL''' loses without the opponent being penalized, despite the sacrificial KO being ''solely'' the fault of the computer. Similar unfairness occurs when both Pokémon faint simultaneously due to the effects of Destiny Bond or Perish Song. So if you lose, the computer wins. If you "tie" with the computer, the computer ''still'' wins. To "win" (and thus preserve streaks), you have to '''WIN''', no questions asked.

** One WMG theory that may cancel all the angst about evolution levels: the game you play is only your experience, and the evolution levels you discover are not universal. So yes, ''your'' Pidgey always evolves at a certain level, but nothing says that ''all'' Pidgey do.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'', abilities are all learned by specific jobs. Blood Price, for instance, can only be learned by Spellblades, a Viera-only class. Now, there exists a job changing system, so you can use abilities from one class to another, so this means finding Red Mages and Summoners (both Viera jobs) with Blood Price isn't terribly out of the ordinary. However, AI units tend to ignore the exclusivity of support abilities like these, and you'll find plenty of enemy units with abilities they just simply shouldn't have. Illusionist (Humes and Nu Mou only) with Blood Price, despite lacking the Spellblade job necessary to get it? Sure, why not? And, whenever you compete in the "Cup" missions to get scions, some enemy units will have support skills that raise Magick/Resistance, or raise Attack/Defense (which can also be learned by monsters, but they could simply just be abilities only learned ''by'' those monster), or support skills that allows the unit to evade all ranged attacks (not Evade Magick, that's a reaction skill). Your clan will never learn such skills, oh no. What really rankles is when you fight with a certain unit using one of these unobtainable support skills ("Impervious", which makes them immune to ''all'' [[Standard Status Ailments]]), and then later on you get to recruit this character, and he's suddenly ''forgotten'' this amazing ability.

*** This could possibly be justified, however, in the sense that the law is applied to you because you are in an adjudged clan. The enemies, especially if they are monsters, are not adjudged, and therefore are not subject to the laws that the player has to follow. The downside to not being a part of an adjudged clan, [[Final Death|however...]]

** Speaking of Laws, let's speak of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]''. The law system in that game was, if anything, even ''more'' restrictive. There were anything between one and ''three'' laws up for any given mission, which were randomized depending on the day. The enemies actually had to obey the laws (Enemies that disobeyed would be red-carded and jailed just like your party members, and sometimes waiting for the right law would cripple an enemy), except when they didn't. Many enemies of any real importance would have a special medal on them (just a mark on their profile, not an actual item that you could steal or break) that made them immune to getting red-carded. So they could get yellow-card warnings all day for flagrant disobedience of the laws that would get ''your'' clanmates jailed on the spot. And you could ''never'' get this kind of law-protection.

*** Which is also purely for show since Vigora regenerates stamina, which player characters need to act. Enemies don't HAVE stamina and, as written above, can already act however often they're scripted to.

* Similarly in ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'', enemies who can use Techs can use them as a counter to your Techs/Magic, as a desperation attack when they're almost dead, or whenever they feel like it (even though the player needs to attack multiple times to use a Tech). This can be particularly dangerous near the end of the game when some mooks have Techs that can wipe out your entire party in one or two hits.

* In the original ''[[Dawn of War]]'', certain powerful units had a limit on the number of them that a human player could build. For some reason, the computer wasn't subject to said limits, allowing it to spam otherwise unique uber-units.

** Tau bases in the ''Dark Crusade'' expansion campaign could build listening posts around their bases rather than on strategic points. You, however, can only put them on SPs, since that is what they are ''for''. The discrepancy was due to the fact that the Tau had no static defensive structures except for these strategic point turrets. As the base building code demanded static defenses, the developers had no other option but let the AI cheat.

** The Wii version adjusts this: Little Mac now has three knockdowns he can recover from (barring a TKO), and can [[Determinator|occasionally force himself up]] on the fourth. (A fifth will end you.) The opponents all have secret knockdown values - once exceeded, they collapse in a KO on the next knockdown.

** In all versions Little Mac has to get to a full standing position before the KO count will stop, but the opponent only needs to twitch to stop or pause it.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts|Chain of Memories]]'' on the Game Boy Advance. Enemies have an unlimited deck size and never have to recharge. (Riku never does either, however, but he still needs to shuffle his deck) And enemies that ''do'' have to reshuffle appear to have infinite CP and can float out of the way so you can't hit them while they're recharging. You however, cannot do this. (You actually ''can'' attack them once or twice while they're charging, however. They only float out of the way when you ''do'' hit them once or twice.) Larxene is a prime example of this.

* Most enemies in ''[[Castle Crashers]]'' follow the same rules as the player, but a few, like Fire Demons, can cast magic without their magic field active.

* ''[[Sid Meier's Pirates!]]'' is really foul about this. [http://www.hookedonpirates.com/forums/portal.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1119017449&archive=&start_from==12& Not only is your ship ridiculously slow, even by 1660 standards], but the damn [[Big Bad|Marquis]], [[The Dragon|Baron Raymondo]], and everyone else on the board does not age while your player character does (with their skills going down the pan as they do).

* In ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] II'', resting in a city will restore your hero's magic points at the beginning of your next turn; if the computer attacks while you are resting no points will have been restored. The computer, on the other hand, has its points restored as soon as their turn is over; attack a city housing a hero who had no spell points left, and voila! they have them all back, even though in the same situation you'd have none.

** This is because you get the magic points restored (and other end-of-turn effects) after ''all players'' have had their turn. If you're player 1, everyone else gets a chance at you before you've recovered, but if you're the last player, nobody does. It has nothing to do with the AI.

* In ''[[Puzzle Quest|Puzzle Kingdoms]]'', your hero has four slots in which he can equip stat boosting items. You are limited in both type (one item each from Helm, Armor, Weapon, and Accessory) and by the point cost of each item. Computer opponents, OTOH, are given items completly at random, not only ignoring the points cap, but frequently stacking item types (which occasionally results in completely unfair combos like enemies with three shields, soaking up 90% of your attacks).

* The AI competitors in ''[[Railroad Tycoon]]'' get to build several track configurations that aren't available to human players, including stations with non-straight-through track (it can leave at a non-opposite angle and have multiple accesses - while humans are restricted to N-S (say), AI can build N-SE, N-E and N-E-W...), and diagonal bridges that can cross more than one square.

* Indy game ''[[AI War Fleet Command]]'' uses this as its central concept. The player is told outright that the AI team flagrantly disregards things like tech level requirements and resources. On the other hand, the AI team's current aggression and tactics are limited by factors known to and manipulated by the actions of the human team - much of the game's strategy comes from figuring out how to destroy objectives and taking strategic locations without pissing off the AI so much it declares "fuck this" and pulls an insurmountable tech-three fleet out of its ass.

** ''[[Ogre Battle 64]]'' does the same thing. Also, unlike the previous game where the computer followed the cap on how many units it could deploy at once, in this game the enemy can field as many squads as it wants, despite you being limited.

* Zig-zagged with mystic artes in [[Tales (series)]] games. In some games, you have to be in overlimit to use Mystic Artes. Bosses have to follow this rule too, although for some reason, they're able to just pull them out of nowhere as well as through overlimit. This is especially prevalent in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' and ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'', where bosses that have Mystic Artes more often surprise the player when they suddenly pull it out of nowhere. This is also part of why that makes a certain boss in ''Vesperia'' [[That One Boss]]; because he'll use his mystic arte ''numerous'' times, and chances are, you ''will'' be caught by surprise when he pulls it out of thin-air.

* In [[Freelancer]], you can only mount a level-3 or lower gun on a level-3 hardpoint like you get on the Defender. The corrupted Liberty forces flying the same Defender can mount level-''7'' Nomad Energy Cannons. AI-controlled ships also have unlimited weapon capacitance and [[Sprint Meter|thruster burn-time]].

* [[Wizard 101]] has this late in the game for an optional tower. Depending on the enemy, the cheat varies from casting spells that they don't have the pips (spell points), to super powered spell that do more damage than normal, to casting a defense spell on themselves during your turn. Justified though as the enemies that do cheat are in the most difficult parts of the games and are meant to be fought with a full team of level 50 (the [[Cap|LevelCap]] until Celestia was released)

* In ''[[Resonance of Fate]]'', your characters must take turns moving one at a time, but the enemies can all move at the same time. So, for every turn ''one'' of your characters take, ''every'' enemy gets a turn. The enemies are also aware of which character you're currently controlling and prefer targeting that one so you can't aim. This makes the limited run-while-shooting Hero Actions practically the only way to fight, since if you try to shoot while standing still the enemies will almost always interrupt your aim.

* In ''[[Stunt Car Racer]]'' the computer opponent cannot crash - any collision between you and the computer will most likely result in you flying off the track while they drive on unaffected.

* ''[[Aerobiz]]'': The game does this and [[Not Playing Fair with Resources|plays unfair with money]] at once. If your airline runs in the red for a year, it goes bankrupt and [[Nonstandard Game Over|you lose]]. If an AI airline runs in the red for a year, it goes bankrupt, changes its name and gets a huge influx of cash to start over and bounce back.

* The game [[MS Saga]] for the [[PlayStation 2]] has a system where you can upgrade and equip suits to fight other suits. The enemy ms's are not at all confined by your system having vastly more powerful suits and loadouts you can't duplicate.

* In [[World of Warcraft]], Whirlwind is a Warrior ability that strikes all targets around the user for damage that is lower than a typical weapon attack. When bosses and some enemies use Whirlwind, however, they will often spin for a few seconds, hitting anyone standing next to them multiple times for damage comparable to their typical weapon attacks, more akin to the Blade Storm talent (only accessible to Arms warriors at the very end of the talent tree, and having a cooldown of about a minute and a half). This is one of many examples of player abilities being different in bosses' hands.

* In later ''[[Disgaea]]'' games, you can merge your monster-type units into giant monsters with higher stats and increased range on their attacks, and you can turn monsters into weapons for your humanoid units to use (called "Magichange"). However, Fusion and Magichange normally only work for a few turns without a special ability. Unless you're the computer, for whom it will never wear off. (On the other hand, given the computer's tendency to fuse/Magichange on the first turn of battle, and [[Artificial Stupidity|its tendency to sit still doing nothing until player units are in range]], this can be seen as a practical way to keep the player from just waiting the fusion/Magichange out from the other side of the battlefield... but then, once the enemy unit is close and trying to murder your units, it STILL doesn't wear off.)

* One of the minigames in [[Ripper]] lets the play with different rules. It's a chess-type game where you and the computer are trying to capture each other's kings. But while the computer can move all its pieces from the beginning, the player can only use their knights after all of their pawns have been killed. The computer knows this, and will actively go out of its way to avoid capturing your pawns.

* There are plenty of [[Roguelike]] games (like ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'', and the first, but not the second, ''[[Izuna Legend of the Unemployed Ninja|Izuna]]'' game) where enemies aren't affected by traps. Most likely because their AI is so bad they tend to walk recklessly even into visible traps all the time, but it still can get annoying.

* Eye of Judgment: Legends for the PSP

** The final boss is particularly nasty about this in that the game actually ''lies'' about the extent to which he cheats. While the boss description states that he gets one mana off the summoning cost of any of his ultra rare creatures, he actually gets the summoning cost reduced ''to'' one. Prepare to see him pull out insanely powerful cards like Ouroboros Dragon out of nowhere while you're stuck summoning [[Cannon Fodder|bottom tier monsters]]. Oh, and he uses a [[Fixing the Game|stacked deck]]. Prepare to see his trademark card Scion Triumphant summoned around turn 5 every time you battle him even though he only has one copy of the card in his entire deck.

** The second to last boss has the ability to use any spell cards at no mana cost, and his deck seems designed to abuse this power to the fullest extent. This is particularly evident when he casts [[That One Attack|Elven Dismissal]], a card which [[One-Hit Kill|returns an opponent's monster to their hand]] by paying an amount of mana slightly higher than the monster's summoning cost. Since the boss essentially has an infinite amount of free spell mana at his disposal, the game interprets this as allowing him to sweep away ANY of your monsters for free. If he decides to take out your most powerful defensive monster and already has board control, you can [[Game Over|kiss the match goodbye]].

* In ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', building bonuses and special weapon abilities tend to vary depending on whether you're the player or not. For instance, units deployed from an Academy gain +50% EXP for players... but enemy units instead gain a sweet level-up each turn. If an enemy hits one of your troops with a mallet, you go down a level, but the same thing doesn't happen when your troop holds the mallet.

* In the ''[[Chaos Rings]]'' series, the harder bosses in the game all have the ability to take ''two'' consecutive turns while the player only has one.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]