The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Cheating Computer 9567.png|link=Hearts of Iron|frame|Most games aren't [[Difficulty Levels|this honest]].]]

 

* ''Super [[Godzilla]]'' for the Super Nintendo did this against, well, pretty much everyone. Your own fighting spirit (a measure of how strong your techniques are) rises pretty slowly, compared to the UFO which is nearly permanently at maximum, or Mechagodzilla, who can go from nothing to max in a heartbeat, and teleport-body-slam you in the process. He will then use eye lasers just to mess with you.

* [[TNA]] iMPACT! the game. Anyone who is an established wrestler will automatically be twice as good as you, no matter who you choose. Certain matches in story mode can consist of you spending 90% of the match beating the hell out of them, only for them to come out of nowhere with enough counters to use a special move, hit it once, and win.

* In ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', the AI also ignores equipment and accessory rules. Every piece of regular equipment (swords, shields, etc) has a level requirement that your character must meet in order to equip it, but almost every AI opponent will be wearing at least one item above their level. Accessories work somewhat differently. They are ranked from D to Star. The higher the rank, the fewer of that accessory you can use at the same time. Many AI will have three or four of the same Star-ranked accessory.

** The [[Expansion Pack]] adds to the cheating—if the game wants to play a character like an [[SNK Boss]], it will—dodging will be instant, attacks will be instant (even if you're playing the same character), their priority will be scores higher than yours, etc.

* In ''[[Bleach]]: Blade Of Fate'', the human character can only [[Flash Step]] or use RF Special Attacks when they have enough Spiritual Power to do so. The AI opponents have infinite Spiritual Power.

*** All things considered, though, only a handful of Chrono Cross bosses were unfair. The secret boss from whom you obtain the Mastermune is the only character in the game that will instantly counter literally any element you throw at him, based on his own system of preset counters that will *always* immediately follow any element you use. Not knowing this ahead of time and attacking normally is a very speedy return to the main menu, but you are given no warning whatsoever of this unique ability a single enemy in the game has. On the plus side, once you figure out what he's doing, it's very easy to [[AI Breaker|game the AI]] and turn it into a cakewalk.

* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', some enemies can use Psyenergy, and generally have huge amounts of PP. Now, you have an ability called ''Bind'' that seals it off and a Djinn that can do the same thing, but this only stops attacks that start with the word ''casts'', and not with ones that start with ''used''. Not to mention that attacks that start with ''used'' are more frequent that ones that start with ''casts'' and aren't tied to PP. Did I mention that some enemies can seal off '''your''' PP and you have no abilities that can be used after that?

** At the same Tournament, the mechanics mean that the player must maintain a small range to use power attacks, wait several seconds between using them, and execute slow, ponderous turn after one of said attacks. The AI can execute pinpoint turns (on HORSES), to execute both attacks at the same time while outside of attack range and immediately stop to attack you again.

** The Faction Champions encounter of the actual Argent Tournament raid pits you against 6-10 randomly-assigned race/spec combo NPCs that typically adhere to a set of [[PvP]]-ish aggro rules (ignoring threat to focus-fire people with lower health/armor, etc.) While this would be fine on its own, to drive the point home, you are subject to the rapid diminishing returns on crowd-control spells typically employed in player encounters... and they are not. It's not uncommon to have such a spell last 2–3 seconds if its target hasn't already been rendered outright immune, while people on your side can be locked down for 30 seconds or more at a time by the enemy's spammage of the same skill.

** Mobs have a tendency to use moves that a player of their equivalent class can't use at that level. For instance, the naga mages in Blackfathom Deeps can use the spell Blizzard at around level 23 or 24. Player mages don't learn Blizzard until ''level 52''.

** Mobs can also be race-class combinations that are not available to players, for instance, the human shamans in Stranglethorn or the undead paladins found in certain areas in Lordaeron.

* The RPG ''[[Metal Hearts]]: Replicant Rampage'', is just this trope incarnate. When the player gets to the first part of civilisation they will note the following: By moving, the PCs will be penalised and completely lose their dodge bonus to range attacks, and when the guards are moving, the player will almost never hit. Small scorpions with poison at the start are easier to hit lying down from about 10 metres away with a handgun than point blank with a shotgun, SMG, or Sniper Rifle. Allies with firearms are less likely to hit than the players, but they tend to have weapons and gear that give bonuses to marksmanship, have the weapons strong enough to hurt evil guards. The players can't use those weapons due to stat requirements.

* Whilst technically not an RPG, the ''[[UFO]]'' series use RPG mechanics for pretty much everything in the first 2 games, ''UFO: Aftermath'' and ''UFO: Aftershock''. The computer cheats when it comes to pretty much anything explosive. Grenades in Aftermath are chancy but if the character's Throw skill is high enough it can clear entrenched hostiles, but the character is still going to be using the shotgun as the grenade throws fail in spectacular ways. Most often the player's soldiers will fumble the grenade and drop it under them, throw it behind them into the civilians being evacuated, overshoot the target by half the map, Lob onto a higher floor inside a building behind them, with no windows or doors on their side. This applies to rocket launchers, unless the user is in a heavy exo-skeleton, which is a waste as there are better Machine guns that can only be fired with those suits and don't run the risk of failing the mission by destroying the objective and entire team in one shot. In Aftershock, these effects are applied 2 at a time and also to rocket launchers and grenade launchers (Actually by adding an underbarrel grenadelauncher to any weapon the player will have corrupted the savegame their running, and also result in a more explosive fumble when the character drops it from a fricking launcher). Needless to say the aliens, mutants and cultists from the second are immune to this and can be reliably expected to incapacitate if not kill at least one character a shot.

** CT-2 is very harsh. There's no offside, so if a goalie catch the ball you throw at him, he'll send it directly to an offside player that you can almost never catch up.

** [[MOTHER 1]] has this happen in [[Death Mountain|Mt. Itoi]]/[[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon Holy|Loly Mountains]]. There's a mook named Satania that, should it attack in threes, have a potential to cast [[HP to One|PK Freeze γ]] and another in the group that ''almost always'' attacks with PK Freeze Ω . You better hope Ninten and Ana don't perish from the area of effect attack, or you're pretty much screwed.

 

=== Simulation Games ===

** ...and Matrix shooting the player from behind. In a miniature golf game.

* Cartoons often have games cheating to exaggerate how hard they are. Especially if they're coin-guzzling arcade machines.

* Teal'c encounters this trope in a season 8 episode of [[Stargate SG-1]]. He says a computer simulation is too easy and the computer takes him at his word. Hijinks ensue.

** Notably the computer cheats so blatantly and repeatedly that in the end they resolve the situation by doing what any self-respecting gamer would do: [[Good Bad Bugs|exploit a bug in the program]] to cheese the system, sending Daniel in to help while granting him tactical precogniton.

** The most hilarious (and by that we mean ''cringe inducing'') is the player having his ''blackjack'' beaten by the dealer's ''soft 17.''

* Sometimes in the [[Blood Bowl]] computer game, the AI does something no sane human would do (e.g, a hand-off and pass with dwarves past a high-agility intercepter, ''while'' it's possible to score another way'') and succeeds. Although the nature of [[Blood Bowl]] mechanics is such that actually succeeding on just about anything is certainly possible, especially with re-rolls, the computer seems to succeed almost every time it tries something so unlikely that only the most desperate human would dismiss the possibility out of hand. Furthermore, frequently the AI has set up so it can attempt this but then doesn't even try, so it's not like the AI has some bizarre preference for high-risk moves. The sequence of dice rolls in any given game is set before it begins, so the most likely explanation for the computer's overall behavior is that it consults the list of rolls then randomly decides whether to exploit that knowledge or to calculate odds like it doesn't have access.

** The most blatant use of this trope: Hostile planes in ''[[Ace Combat 5 The Unsung War]]'' can '''fly through the goddamn ground'''. It's rare, though.

* Similarly, AI planes in ''[[Tom Clancy]]'s HAWX'' can accelerate and maneuver at speeds that should be not only pasting the pilots but breaking the planes apart; they can instantly change direction 90 degrees or more if they're supposed to be fighting you, and your allies will instantly go to full speed when you give them an attack order.

* In ''[[Madden NFL]]'', the AI on higher difficulties will know exactly what play you called and respond accordingly. If you audible back and forth between run and pass plays, you can watch the defense react to them even though none of your players moved. And this happens early in the game, long before they could figure out a tell. Similarly, the AI can audbile into, out of, and within the Wildcat formation, which the player cannot do for Game Balance reasons. There are many, mnay more examples.

 

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Robot Roll Call]]

[[Category:Index]]

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