39,327
edits
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (clean up) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 17:
Note that this is not a place to complain about enemies that have skills you don't have, or bosses who have stronger skills than you, or about how unlucky you are and how many times you missed (unless the computer has a different chance of missing with the same skill), or about how hard [[That One Boss]] is, or how the computer is actually half decent at some of the game's more advanced maneuvers that you happen to suck at. This is only for scenarios where it would be expected for the player and the AI to be on even footing. For example, in the campaign of a strategy game, it would be natural for the computer to outnumber you and/or have more resources than you—that's part of the challenge of a campaign. However, in free battle or skirmish mode, a computer starting with more resources than you is usually cheating, since you would expect to be on even footing with the computer (unless you can set what everyone starts with).
Sometimes this is justified due to the [[Rule of Fun]]. Computers are often prevented from using certain tactics that are open to the player, either [[Scrub|because it's "cheap" when your enemies do it]] or [[Artificial Stupidity|there's no freaking way that a computer could manage to pull it off at a crucial moment]]. In order to make up the gap and still present a challenge, cheating is required. Ironically, players often think the AI is cheating when it isn't, such as strings of [[You Fail Statistics Forever|good luck from a RNG that is actually perfectly fair]], while not noticing at all the subtle and behind-the-scenes ways that the computer is ''actually'' cheating. In fact, some games deliberately manipulate the RNG in the player's favour just to avoid the appearance of cheating.
See also: [[Fake Difficulty]], [[Rubber Band AI]], [[Nintendo Hard]], [[Random Number God]], [[Computers Are Fast]], [[Gang Up on the Human]], [[The GM Is a Cheating Bastard]].
Line 33:
* [[My Rules Are Not Your Rules]] <br />Where the AI players break the explicitly laid-out rules of the game.
* [[Not Playing Fair with Resources]] <br />In strategy games, the game compensates for the player's intelligence by giving enemies unfair abilities to gain or gather resources.
* [[Rules Are for Humans]] <br />In a computer adaptation of an existing game (e.g. chess), the AI may have the ability to pull off moves which are against the rules of the game.
* [[Secret AI Moves]] <br />Where a character (generally in a [[Fighting Game]]) has some crazy move when played by the computer which human players can't do.
* [[SNK Boss]] <br />A [[Nintendo Hard]] boss in a [[Fighting Game]]. Known side effects include [[Rage Quit|thrown controllers]], [[Blood From the Mouth|frothing at the mouth]], [[Atomic F-Bomb|F-]][[Cluster F-Bomb|Bombs]], and the worst case scenario: Explaining to your parents [[Critical Existence Failure|just why their new television is pulverised]].
Line 118:
** ... will almost never get a question wrong.
** ... will always have luck on its side.
** ... will often just gang up on the human player(s) if there are multiple ones.
** ... will just about always be dealt the best hand.
* In action games in general ...
Line 184:
* In ''[[Super Mario Kart]]'', the AI opponents didn't just have [[Rubber Band AI]], but had infinite stores of super-special weapons and items that in several cases the player was never able to use—namely, the poisoned mushrooms, dinosaur eggs, and meandering fireballs. Then there's the Mario brothers, who could activate Stars at will, making them nigh-impossible to beat if they were in the lead. For the items the player ''could'' launch, the AI opponent also had the ability to dodge by ''jumping'' the kart its own height above the track. <br />They also out right clip through course obstacles like Thwomps and pipes while you need a Star to smash through the same things yourself. The only thing they they ''can'' bump into that slows them down are the walls, and that's if you push them hard enough into a wall. <br />Furthermore, the Grand Prix mode would select an order of skill for each of the computer-controlled players, based on your own character selection. If one of the Mario Bros. were picked as the "champion" racer (which happened if you chose Bowser or Koopa Troopa), you could expect perfect racing lines and cornering coupled with infinite and arbitrary use of the Super Star, allowing them to go at increased speed with no slowing down, plus invincibility. Having one of the plumbers trigger this on the final stretch, powering either past or ''through'' the player and being unable to stop regardless of what's fired at them (or even more annoyingly, just as that red shell was about to knock them out of first place) meant that it was often easier just to start a new game and hope you didn't get one of them as the top racer again.
* In Mario Kart: Super Circuit, whichever AI racer has the most cup points at the time will get their special powerups more often. Luigi and Bowser will always start with "champion" level skills, but if you attack them and cause them to lose to other AI racers, the new points leader among AI will take up the "champion" mantle instead. If Yoshi or Mario get this points lead, they'll start to spam consecutive Super Stars from nowhere and finish races 5 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack. Conversely, since poor AI Wario always starts in the back of the pack, he's rarely seen using items at all and is doomed to finish last every race.
* Another ability the computers have in ''[[Super Mario Kart]]'' and ''[[Mario Kart 64]]'' is the ability to instantly recover from items as long as they weren't on screen when the item hit. The best items would simply stop computers for a moment if you couldn't see them, while the same items used on you would make you fly through the air.
* Choco Mountain. The final part of the track involves a few item crates, a 90 degree turn, and then three "hills". You better be lucky and get a mushroom from those crates, else once you jump from the first hill, you'll collide with the second and third ones, while the CPUs that are right behind you (thank you rubber-band AI) magically have enough speed to jump both. Not getting a mushroom in those crates indeed makes the difference between being first or fifth in this race.
* Apparently, the computer player chosen to be the first-placer in Mario Kart DS always has a maxed-out speed stat, regardless of what the kart they're driving should have. This makes characters that drive karts with already high acceleration {{spoiler|(Dry Bones)}} nearly impossible to beat. This may be because the designated top 3 are given boosts in top speed with the first placer given the biggest boost. If it happens to be a kart with high acceleration, your only chance of winning is to snake, simply put. <br />CPUs in Mario Kart DS will also move back into place if another kart knocks them away in midair.
Line 228:
== Fighting Games ==
* While the AI in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee'' and ''Brawl'' isn't of Rubber Band variety, it still can [[The All-Seeing AI|always see everything in the stage]].
** The computer also knows what effect clocks will have. If you see a clock, and don't see the computer gunning for it, when you pick it up, it will slow you down. The same can be said for Poke Balls and assist trophies.
** This started way back in the ''original'' [[Super Smash Bros.]], where CPU players are able to pull things off on humans that won't work on them. Example: if a CPU Ness gets you into his PK Fire, you're stuck there shielding until it goes away. But any CPU can escape it. Fox can spam his laser and practically keep you in place indefinitely.
* In the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series, there are moves known as "charge moves" which require holding the joystick in a certain direction for a short period. The computer, however, doesn't have to do this and can often perform a charge move in the middle of moving in the ''opposite'' direction, such as using Blanka's charge-back roll attack while ''walking forward''. This also applies to "spin" moves (moves which require a 180 degree, 360, or more cycle of joystick motion). Most obvious the 3,000th time Zangief hits you with a full-strength spinning piledriver (the "air" version, triggered by any upwards joystick click, is approximately 3/4 the damage of the ground version).
** Worse yet was Balrog. He could execute dashing punches faster than the player could recover from a block. He had the option of using them exclusively until the player's life was bled away. This made him potentially the most difficult boss in SFII Classic, where the player would still be hit when ducking under these punches. Only a perfectly timed Dragon Punch, Flash Kick, or Spinning Lariat could stop the nefarious beast. Or just invert it back on him: use E. Honda and bulldoze him right over with the fierce hundred hand slap, the only punch attack faster and with longer reach.
** Guile also became a [[Game Breaker|game breaking]] character in Classic, due to him lacking any projectile recovery time for his sonic booms. With human players, this was balanced by the charge time. With the computer, not so much. Jumping forwards over one would result in a Flash Kick. Jumping in place or using a projectile against it and he'd have time to close the distance while you recovered. Possibly resulting in a flash kick.
** The charge move behavior has been fixed in later Capcom fighters, such as Vampire Savior. But perhaps as a throwback to the cheating AI in Street Fighter 2, <s>Little Red Riding Hood</s> Baby Bonnie Hood has a super move that enables her to use her high-damaging charge attack, Smile & Missile, without charging (replacing her normal punch attacks) for a short period of time.
** In Street Fighter: The Movie (the game of the movie of the game), when fighting M. Bison at the end, there was a fairly high chance that if the player was winning, Bison would stop taking damage from player attacks, or insta-kill the player with a weak attack, or the player would take damage from his own attacks.
** Another from Street Fighter II: AI opponents could deliver a barrage of crouching kicks at lightning speed. Fortunately for the player, the AI will usually only connect once, which sends the player's fighter flying away from the opponent.
** Hyper M.Bison of ''[[Street Fighter Alpha|Street Fighter Alpha 3]]'' and his [[Wave Motion Gun|Hyper Psycho Crusher]]. AI-only? Check. Special AI-only combat style (-ISM)? Check. '''Fucking gigantic, screen-tall and screen-wide attack with NO charge time, NEAR ZERO recovery time, UNBLOCKABLE IN THE AIR, and that deals nearly 30% damage WHEN BLOCKED (and is perfectly capable of dealing 100% if taken head-on)?''' Oh motherfucking check.
* In the ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' arcade series, the computer player often blatantly cheats.
** In the original ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', computer characters ''ducked and slowly slid across the floor'' to counter a barrage of player fireballs.
** Here are some gems for ''[[Mortal Kombat 2]]''.
Line 254:
** The AI will suddenly block every throw, land their throws on your character despite being theoretically out of range, block or counter every move the player has used so far in the "set" of battles (even if the CPU character's back is turned, and it's ''not Voldo''!). Read: ''The computer opponent will read your controller inputs. Every. Single. Time.''
** [[SNK Boss]] Night Terror is an [[Egregious]] example, nulling the time-honored Ring-Out defeat by flying back when knocked out of the arena (sure [[Word of God]] stated they're trying to de-emphasize the use of Ring-Outs...), and a stance that rendered it invincible.
** Setsuka, when controlled by the computer. Just... ''Setsuka''. She is the destroyer of controllers and the crusher of souls. Not only is she incredibly fast, but she's able to land devastating combos while the player character is still in midair even when using air control, giving said character absolutely ''NO CHANCE'' of fighting back!
** Even when you DO actually have a good chance of winning, the opponent will suddenly go completely batshit insane in terms of speed and power, ''and will demolish your entire life meter in two or three hits.'' Really, really noticeable in Chronicles of the Sword. Chronicle 5 and onward will make you snap your controller in sheer frustration. Even worse is that you ''have'' to beat this mode once in order to unlock some of the custom parts for custom fighters that cannot be unlocked via abuse of versus mode.
*** Thankfully, a handy fix for most of this can be found, [[AI Breaker|Anti-Ai moves]]
Line 262:
*** In Soul Calibur 3, ''every'' fighter does this.
** On a simpler note, also in Soul Calibur II, the AI has instant combos. Ivy in particular, has Summon Suffering/Calamity Symphony which requires moving the control stick across the pad 3 times, creating a delay long enough to make it unusable against a non-stunned opponent, but the computer can do it any time.
** ''[[Soul Calibur]] 4'' fixed most of the AI issues with 3, but also introduced a new element of it's own: Skills. Depending on the gear your character has equipped, your character will gain points that can be used to equip skills like Shave Damage or Drain Health. However, your character also gets stat bonuses from their armor, and generally pieces that give high skill points give low stats (and vice versa), so you'll usually end up making either strong characters with weak or no skills, or weak characters with good skills. Many of the computer opponents blatantly ignore this and come with custom programmed stats and skills, giving them overpowered combinations the player couldn't possibly get themselves. There are also a few skills that aren't even available to the player (usually improved versions of existing skills, Like Auto Nullify Ringout S -The best the player can get is Auto Nullify Ringout A).
** In Soul Calibur V, the cheating AI gets an entire mode dedicated to it: Legendary Souls, in which you have to battle against several input-reading AI characters in a row, each one requiring 3 KOs to be defeated. Expect to take about half an hour on each fighter. Beating parts of this mode is required if you want to unlock some characters.
* ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is very... well... [[Just for Pun|guilty]] of this. On top of the usual array of unfair [[SNK Boss]] attributes for the "boss" versions of otherwise regular characters—dealing dramatically more and taking dramatically less damage compared to their playable counterparts, doing even the most absurdly impossible-to-input moves ''in the middle of combos'' completely at will, gaining a full bar of tension with a thought, etc.--''all'' AI characters on high enough difficulty settings or close enough to the final match of Arcade mode gain the ability to psychically read controller input. Many characters rely on having a good mix-up game, placing continuous pressure on an opponent until they finally make a mistake in their blocking, and going from there. It works pretty well against humans so long as the attacker doesn't get too predictable. Against the CPU, though, mix-up characters are almost completely useless, as every attack is more or less a polite request for the computer to please consider allowing this next one to actually connect for once. Which is usually denied.
Line 292:
*** Oh, and the fight mechanics don't apply to them. Land a strike through a block? Sure. Counter a strike with a throw? Go for it. Block a throw? Absolutely. You'd love to be able to do that too, wouldn't you? Well too bad.
* In ''[[Castlevania]] Judgement'', Dracula WILL put his back to the screen, and thus you will not see what attack he is going to make.
* In ''[[Naruto]]: The Broken Bond'', the computer is seemingly able to use the Rage Mode (which speeds them up and makes them take no damage from anything but damage-dealing jutsus) in the middle of a combo.
** Nevermind that if you make one mistake you get totally owned. They'll juggle you, never letting you even block. If the computer makes a mistake it doesn't matter because you have to have pretty much perfect timing to hit them at that moment anyway. Not to mention that they'll almost ALWAYS be able to charge up their jutsu but you'll never get even one chance.
** The [[Clash of Ninja]] series (also [[Naruto]]) avoided this for the most part, usual computer tendencies aside. Then English releases began to be developed by [[American Kirby Is Hardcore|American developers instead]], and now we have story mode enemies who have no stagger animations and [[Perfect Play AI]] mindsets- sometimes in 2 on 1 matches ''against you''. These aren't even optional challenges- you HAVE to kill these people to proceed. The ''optional'' challenges involve similar things, only with the difficulty turned [[Up to Eleven]] by ''better'' AI.
Line 306:
* 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.
** And we won't even mention {{spoiler|Chaos}}, who cheats like a cheating cheaty-thing, especially with his Summon. (Every single other Summon in the game can only be used once per fight, except in one specific, rule-based case. He however can use his purely at will, as often as he wants.
** 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.
* [[Blaz Blue]] is guilty of this. Particularly Unlimited Nu and Ragna in Score Attack Mode.
** Nu on her own is bad enough, she has projectile swords that basically fly out of the air. Many characters, particularly Hakumen and Tager, have no way at all to approach Nu in her NORMAL state. Based on tournaments, they have around a 20% chance of winning a match against a Nu player of equal skill. Unlimited Nu is Nu, except she summons 3 swords with every attack instead of 1. Yeah. It's hell.
*** Don't forget she has little recovery time on these attacks, and can (and will) combo any and all hits into her Distortion Drive, which hits for about 50% life. Bear in mind, this will happen if you fail to block ''even once'', while you will require about 40 minor miracles in a row to beat her.
Line 315:
* [[Battle Capacity]] had major issues with Pyroak in the past. Pyroak has a lot of HP, excellent projecile attacks, and a useful anti-air attack which comes out quick at adjustable heights. He is slow, however, and suffers against most characters close up. When the AI was using Pyroak, there was literally ''no'' slowdown between launching projectiles and using his anti-air, making him all but unapproachable.
* This one is easy to miss, since you usually fight against human opponents in [[Rumble Fighter]]. However, in Survival Mode, the enemies can use the [[Desperation Attack|Panic Attack]] an unlimited number of times, whereas players are limited to using it once per round.
* ''[[X-Men Next Dimension]]'': your counterattacks will work approximately one time in seventeen. The AI can pull them off whenever it wants. And the game engine treats interrupting a string of attacks as the ''worst'' kind of impoliteness.
* [[Smackdown vs. Raw]], particularly when the [[Rubber Band AI]] breaks. The CPU will become a [[Perfect Play AI]] who [[My Rules Are Not Your Rules|ignores the rules]].
** In WWE 12 at least, and probably earlier games as well, it seems like matches are predetermined. If the player is meant to lose then counters are ignored to the point that blatant cheating will occur. If the CPU is slated to lose on the other hand then the game is a cheating bastard for the human character, with the computer all but lying down for the pin, and you really have to work to even drag a match out of them.
Line 338:
** In ''Tag Force 3'', F.G.D. and all other dragons on its side of the field deal piercing damage (Their Atk - the target's Def) when they destroy a defense position monster, and no trap or spell cards can be activated when F.G.D. attacks, unless you're the one controlling it...
** And the trend has continued in Duel Transer, the game will always follow the March 2010 Banlist even if you change it to the September 2010 Banlist. Sure, you'll be able to use Dark Hole and Monster Reborn when your opponents can't, but they get Heavy Storm, Brain Control, Rescue Cat, and Substitoad in exchange. Oh did we forget to mention the post-game content where the game doesn't even hide that it's cheating. Multiple Pot of Greeds, Graceful Charities, Harpies Feather Dusters and RAIGEKI's abound
** ''7 Trials To Glory'' was relatively good about the banlist. You had to obey the banlist, and the same cards wouldn't show up in the computers' decks.
*** To be cynical, however, you'll eventually notice a pattern of the days when Card Destruction is off the banlist (it works that every card is cycled on and off it), it will show up in your opponent's hand within the first three turns about half of the time. Aside from the AI also knowing your facedown monster's defense before it's flipped, it's pretty fair otherwise. The only place the cheating really shows up is when you're facing the anime characters, as nameless side characters will usually display pretty jarring [[Artificial Stupidity]].
*** One other place where you'll see cheating (or just really, really good planning) is in the Limitation duel against Joey. In this duel, trap cards are banned, and almost all of the monsters he has in his deck have at least 1900 ATK. So you summon Gora Turtle, which prevents anything with 1900 or more ATK from attacking. Within two turns of summoning this, guaranteed, he'll summon Spell Canceler, the only monster he has with less than 1900, and it still has 1800. It's also a card he never uses in any other duel.
Line 350:
** Savestates show that the computer always gives you the same predetermined "random" roll, regardless of any luck manipulation that would work in games with fair RNGs. The CPU players are essentially saying, every turn, "I want to move X spaces". At least this doesn't carry over into combat.
* The generally fair AI powerups for ''[[Total War]]'' games have a few cheat moments (free money, quick build/recruit times etc) to balance the fact that it's an AI and you're not (I hope). However, a blatant cheat in Medieval II: your own crusader/jihad/warpath armies will gradually lose units to desertion if you don't progress towards the designated target each turn. The AI however can raise such an army, park it near your settlement and wait 50 years until the crusade/jihad/warpath is over, without losing any units, at which point it will be free to turn the army against you. Of course, there's nothing to stop you pre-emptively attacking that army anyway, excommunication aside...
* ''Scrable'' on the Playstation 1. Firstly the game seemed to arbitarily decide if something was an authentic word, many common words that are in any dictionary would be denied to the player but the computer could seem to use any combination of letters even total gibberish such as "gxfsetf" and score, the harder the ai was set to the more nonsense it would score with.
Line 364:
** Marked Man, on the other hand, is a bitch on Class A and Elite levels. There are way more parked cars, gridlocked traffic and they throw the best aggression cars in the game at you regardless of what you are driving. Sometimes you will be lucky to make it a mile in a four mile Marked Man.
* In ''[[Crash Team Racing]]'' for the [[PS 1]], the final boss would literally start the race ''before the green light'' that signaled the race's start.
** That isn't all. All the bosses would have an unlimited ammount of weapons after passing through the first crate. (Or "Passing by" the first crate area, if you jump ahead and take the crate they would, they would still get the items even if they didn't break a weapon crate.) The only advantage is that they would only use one weapon type and would always fire behind them. The Final Boss uses weapon types of every other boss in the game!
* Abused to a bizarre end in the Super Nintendo game ''Super Off-Road: The Baja''. Each and every one of your competitors had their own preferred place in the lineup, and Heaven forbid you should attempt to take that place from them. For example: Should you take third place from the AI driver who typically came in third, he would become a super driver fueled by rage; he would gain speed, cut corners, ram your truck mercilessly, and pretty much suddenly become the Uberdriver in his efforts to dislodge you from third place. Once you dropped back to fourth place, though, that driver would return to normal, and never challenge Mr. Number Two for HIS place. (Of course, then Mr. Fourth Place would have ''his'' turn at harassing you.) Coupled with the tendency for the AI in first place to absolutely obliterate you should you dare violate his sacred position AND stage last-minute comebacks at speeds approaching those of a low-flying jet fighter, winning any race at any difficulty level became far more based on luck (and your ability to keep from being rammed into oblivion) than skill.
* ''[[Wipeout]]'':
Line 395:
** Every PSP version of Need for Speed seems to put a lot of effort in ensuring that its AI has a new annoying trick at its disposal. By the time of NFS Undercover, the cpu cars could drive faster than you, no matter what was your car and how well it was upgraded, were not affected by crashes (they were back on your tail in just few seconds), could TELEPORT if you somehow managed to make them stay really behind, or TURN MID-AIR! In one of the urban stages, there is a 90 degrees turn just after a really long straight that ends with a significant bump. To drive past it you simply have to slow down, but the cpu cars can drive into it at full speed, jump and turn in the air. Funny sight when you are looking behind at that time.
* Your opponents in [[Need for Speed]] Shift 2: Unleashed are rather fond of the Reverse PIT manoeuvre. It's performed in exactly the same way but it's the guy pushing that spins out. It's incredibly annoying when you've got a fast car and it gets congested. Generally, your opponent's cars weigh twice as much as yours according to the physics engine.
* In Need for Speed: Undercover (non PSP), even if you have the pedal thoroughly buried in a Mclaren F1, police SUVs will still lazily pull in front of you as though you were parked. For those still confused; this is a scenario in which a Cadillac Escalade is represented as faster than one of the fastest production cars ever produced.<ref>The F1 remains as of 2011 one of the fastest production cars ever made; as of July 2010 it is succeeded by very few cars including the Koenigsegg CCR, the Bugatti Veyron, the SSC Ultimate Aero TT, and the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.</ref>
* In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode I: Racer'', the AI racers never crash, never run into walls, always hit turns perfectly, and never have to use the boost.
** And they know pretty much every shortcut; if you miss one, they'll take it and get way ahead, such as the upper route on Abyss.
Line 408:
** Midnight Club 2 actually has a ''literal'' example: in one of the Career races, Angel gives himself a head start. It doesn't help, though, as he's almost deliberately one of the worst AI opponents you'll ever face.
* On that note, Midnight Club: Los Angeles was criticized in an IGN review because of its rubberband techniques making the game often harder than it needed to be. Not only can they rocket off the line faster, but they have NOS by the bucketload, often blowing right past you. Another gripe by that same review was for markers being in places that are hard to spot, such as on corners you will often blow past.
** A patch eased some of the Rubberband problem for the first third of the game.
* [[Wii Sports]] Resort is a partial subversion. The [[Boss Battle|Champions]] have ''flaws'' in their techniques, making them realistically beatable, but are still blessed with ridiculous reflexes and reaction times—they're ''Champions'', after all.
** Bizarrely, after you've beaten the Champions, those following immediately after are generally ''easier''.
Line 433:
*** There is a way to limit the ruleset, involving initiating and then canceling card games until your opponent offers to play by a different set of rules. Do it enough, and you'll spread favorable rules from earlier in the game to a new area. However, it took a disassembler to find the mechanics of this, making it something of a [[Guide Dang It]].
** The ever-hated Random rule. [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], it picks out completely random cards from your collection for the current match. Whereas most players are trying to complete the collection and therefore have a LOT of weak cards and a few strong ones, it's to be expected that you'll end up with 2 or 3 (or more, if you're really unlucky) low-level cards, but you'll almost never see the computer with the same weaklings you just drew. There's a reason everyone loathes this rule, and god help you if you let it spread...
* The big battle at the end of ''Tales of the Sword Coast'' (the expansion for the first ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'') had an ability that allowed a save—but blatantly overrode the results of the save to affect the target anyway, ''every single time'' to ''every single party member'' in over a dozen tries. Even when not a ''single'' one of the main character's saves was greater than 1 (and some were ''less'' than one). Without a save penalty on that ability of at least -10, it is...highly improbable at best to miss all the saves.
** Various NPCs have stats that should not be physically possible within their class. For example, Minsc's wisdom is too low. His case is justified in-story, however; Minsc is described as having gone insane following a head wound. Several characters suggest to him he get restorative magics for it. [[Story and Gameplay Segregation|Don't ask us why the head injury never goes away despite how many Heal spells you throw at him]].
** From ''Baldur's Gate II'' and onwards, all high-level mages (and there are a lot of these) get something called a 'tattoo of power', which is a spell trigger that can activate any number of defensive spells instantly and without any action from the user and stacks on top of existing spell triggers and contingencies. Oh, wait, did I say 'all mages'? Silly me, I meant 'every mage except you and the ones you can have in your party'.
Line 449:
** 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.
** One boss in the Karazhan raid is essentially an NPC Mage. When his mana is low, he will cast a mass Polymorph spell, drink some water to refill his mana, and hit the entire raid with Pyroblast just as the Polymorph ends. How is this cheating? First, a Polymorph spell cast by a player will rapidly restore health and can't affect Druids that are currently shapeshifted; his does NOT restore health (a change that was made sometime after the raid was introduced) and will break through the Druid's immunity to Polymorph effects. Second, players can only use food and water to recover outside of battle; he does so ''as you're wandering around as a sheep, with everyone still counting as being "in combat"''.
** 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.
Line 472:
* The ''[[Monster Rancher]]'' series suffers from the same cheating as Pokémon, that PC simply ignores the missing rate, and top on this, your monster has far more chance of doing "foolery" instead of attacking, even when both are supposed to be equally unloyal due to master inexperience.
* In [[Endless Frontier]], Forced Evasion is a [[Scrappy Mechanic]] that kicks in when an enemy either hits or is about to hit the ground, whereupon three things will happen: First, the rest of the damage they receive during that character's turn is reduced to 0. Second, the character's turn ends immediately, ruining any chance of a combo and bringing the otherwise speedy pace of combat to a screeching halt. Finally, it allows the enemy a chance to counterattack, every bit as powerful and unblockable as their normal attack. Meant to be a mechanic that punishes players for not juggling enemies in the air well enough, it's partly-justified that only the enemy gets it - after all, they don't get to use items or Spirit commands to heal, and can't combo with their allies. It becomes ridiculous, however, when enemies ''hit Forced Evasion without ever being knocked up into the air''. How exactly does a juggled enemy hit the ground if they were ''never juggled in the first place''?
** Whether or not they look or feel like juggles, the fact is that every single hit that your characters make bounces the enemy upwards, meaning that every single combo you try to do on them is ultimately a juggle combo and as a result, the enemies can always do a Forced Evasion regardless of how and where you hit them. What's even worse that if the enemy touches the ground during a wallbounce (usually caused by the wallbouncing hit hitting the enemy too close to the ground), they can do a Forced Evasion off THAT as well.
* Several enemies in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' screw the rules on numerous occasions. You have to be in overlimit to use a mystic arte. Several bosses that have them can use it randomly. They may also not only go into overlimit numerous times in a row. The final boss does both - when you take out half his health and get a cutscene mid-way through the boss battle, he may use Celestial Elegy without even going into overlimit or immediately go into overlimit twice in a row.
* The major antagonist of ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' , {{spoiler|Alexei}} is famous for ripping out his Mystic Arte, Brilliant Cataclysm, multiple times in a battle. [[It Gets Worse]], he can do it up to 10 times on higher difficulties. Did I mention that Brilliant Cataclysm has a huge area of effect and does enormous amounts of damage?
** He actually cheats in multiple ways. First, he can use a skill that is a powerful attack and a healing spell at the same time without consuming TP, often spamming it to a point at which he heals faster than you can damage him. If you set your AI to stay away from the enemy, they will move in on him before he uses Brilliant Cataclysm to ensure that they are within the area of effect. If you get close to actually winning the battle, he can activate Brilliant Cataclysm without having to go into Over Limit, and it will override an All-Divide (that is supposed to halve all the damage dealt by both you and the enemy), usually killing your entire party in a single blow.
* In ''[[Suikoden III]]'', there are quite a few rune spells that, while they may seem like useful area-of-effect spells, are quite hampered by the fact that [[Friendly Fireproof]] is ''not'' in effect; if your melee attackers are in the area, they're going down too, meaning that they will rarely see use by you. The computer, however? When the computer uses them, the enemies that would get hit ''run out of the way of the incoming spell.'' Exceptionally annoying in the boss fights against the [[Big Bad|big bad team]].
** This is actually the effect of a magic skill called "Precision". The higher the skill level, the less likely your own team is to be fried by a spell cast by the possessing character. The bad part? Only THREE characters in your entire army can learn this skill. The three main characters (i.e. the candidates for the True Fire Rune, which would be the biggest offender in the matter of roasting your own team with non-friendly fire) are not included in that list. It's still possible for your allies to run out of the way of your spell without the skill, but the chances are so low that most players plan around half their team dying if they need to cast one of these spells.
** This is more [[Guide Dang It]] and [[Scrappy Mechanic]] than this trope. Characters can move a limited amount each turn. You do not get to control how characters move outside a very general order given each turn. If you character has enough movement left over, he can run out of range of friendly area effect spells. The odds aren't actually low, there are no odds. Most people attack every turn with melee, which almost always uses up most, if not all, of their movement.
Line 484:
*** And yet you can still smoke him with a maxed out Goldie.
* Speaking of Final Fantasy, the Chocobo spinoff title ''[[Lighter and Softer|Fables: Chocobo Tales]]'' has the minigames. When you're against the [[Goldfish Poop Gang]], they're competitive, but fair. When [[That One Boss|Volg]] joins in? You're ''screwed''.
* Referenced in ''[[Star Wars]]: The Essential Guide to Droids'', when explaining the dealer droid. These are programmed to deal for sabacc, and are occasionally told to ensure a house victory by, you guessed it, cheating like a bastard. This is usually reserved to gambling establishments that routinely frisk their guests, because droids are expensive and cheated customers are prone to using their weapons, [[8-Bit Theater
** Pazaak in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is ridiculously biased toward the computer. It's played similar to blackjack, but with a side deck to modify the total value and the top is 20. The computer always goes second, so you're more likely to bust than it is. If you go bust, the computer wins without having to take its next turn, but then this applies to you, too, so it's more than likely a rule than cheating. It counts cards, so it knows when it will get a 20. Finally, it gets 20 more often than you do. The only advantage you have is that your side deck is better by the time you leave Dantoonie. There's also a guy in the first game who actually does cheat... more than the computer usually cheats, that is. Fortunately the player can cheat by [[Save Scumming|saving before each game]].
** ''Knights Of The Old Republic II'' is far better about this. You now trade turns with the opponent and 20s are equally likely on both sides. The only minor unfairness is that the NPCs have cards you flat out cannot buy; you have to beat them for their best card. Some are real killers, too, like a tiebreaker card that beats even a straight 20 on your part. Cut content has Atton lampshade the unfairness of the first game. He accuses T3-M4 of counting cards and forcing him to go first in pazaak. The little droid will then proceed to clean him of credits anyway.
Line 493:
*** Maybe the computer resigned, though this would be unusual for a computer. A checkmate would have been notated as Re1# (or maybe Re1++ ) instead of Re1+.
* This is part of the premise of Extra Mode in ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', the 9th game in the ''[[Touhou]]'' series. In Extra Mode, the AI opponent is invulnerable at the start of each stage, until a timer runs down to zero, with the timer getting longer in each successive stage. To compensate, it is also on an [[AI Roulette]] and extremely weak, so it will usually die within seconds of the timer running out.
** A common flaw in the ''Phantasmagoria'' installments is that the AI can literally dodge like the machine it is, meaning that barring the use of an [[AI Breaker]], a computer opponent can ''choose when to eat a bullet''.
* In ''[[Spyro Year of the Dragon|Spyro 3]]'', you have to race a gang of rhynocs to get a dragon egg. The good news is that you get a special skateboard that can do turbo boosts. The bad news is that they have this too. It's even more frusterating when you find out at the start of the race that they can ''automatically'' use the boosts whenever they want while ''you'' need to use tricks in order to fill up the turbo meter at the start and whenever it gets empty.
** Can be inverted by the player, by refusing to start the race, walking onto the track and standing under one of the auto-boost star sitting above the track for 5 minutes, the auto boost effect stacks, and you can beat the race whiout ever doing a single trick. The ''Player'' Is A Cheating Bastard, indeed.
* In every [[Splinter Cell]] game, enemies alerted to your presence will ''never'' miss when firing at you with a pistol, even if the enemy in question is outside the range of the player's scoped rifle... Even if the enemy is far outside the range of the game's ''draw distance''. Oddly, they will occasionally miss if shooting with a rifle. Also, once enemies spot you they will never lose sight of you, even if you're in perfect blackness.
* The flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik cheats a lot (even discounting nasty surprises from the random mission generator, like being strafed on the airfield, before you can even get off the ground). CPU planes ignore much of the hardcore similationist aspects of flight, no matter what settings you use: they never fall into spin (which allows CPU to pull fairly ridiculous aerobatics even on planes unsuited for that); their pilots do not suffer from blackout/redout and have 360-degree field of vision, allowing them to unerringly foil surprise attacks and notice you even in heavy clouds; they pretty much ignore the severe winds and other adverse effects of the weather; they also can fly at maximum engine power as much as they want, while human-controlled planes, on the other hand, risk overheating and damaging your engine on realistic settings.
** They also micromanage their trim and engine settings much faster and more precisely than a human can possibly manage and can outclimb aircraft that normally climb much faster than their own.
* The "enhancements" to the Sentinel remake ''Zenith'' include fog, which can be so thick as to make it difficult or impossible for the player to see what's happening; the game can be totally unplayable because of this. Of course, the Sentinel and any Sentries are totally unaffected by even the densest fog...
Line 541:
* [http://online_casino_news.hundredpercentgambling.com/2011/02/rigged-blackjack-vip-golden-club-sets.html This report] is on what just might be the most hilariously badly-programmed rigging in the history of Blackjack. Evidently, the dealer has an ace up its sleeve - or rather, about four of the Ace of Diamonds.
** 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.
* In ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games, enemies usually can manoeuvre better than you can using the same planes and lock-on much faster. Some, like {{spoiler|Solo Wing Pixy's}} Morgan from ''[[Ace Combat Zero the Belkan War]]'' or Alect Squadron's Fenrirs from ''[[Ace Combat X Skies of Deception]]'', even have capabilities you'll never get to use.
** 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.
| |||