The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Difference between revisions

 

Almost every game that can have this trope does, so please post infamous examples only.

 

* [[The All-Seeing AI]] <br />Where the computer's AI has information that the player is denied.

* [[Contractual Boss Immunity]] <br />Any overpowered or instant-death skill will be useless on big bosses.

 

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* In [[Real Time Strategy]] and [[Turn-Based Strategy]] games, the computer ...

** ... builds faster, or just has new units magically appear out of nowhere.

** ... is immune to [[Interface Screw]]s.

 

''Note: Since The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard is so ''incredibly'' common, only [[Egregious]] examples should be listed here, otherwise this entry would take over the entire wiki. Aversions or subversions should probably be left out as well, since that's (hopefully) the default.''

 

* The original [[Civilization]] for the PC has a lot of ways for the computer to get a huge advantage over you:

{{quote|1) Improvements in the Emperor Level are about a third of the cost for the computer.

 

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' has some boss enemies who are granted immunity from the game's law system, while you're stuck playing by the rules. Ice abilities are illegal for the battle? The boss will laugh while casting Blizzaga every turn and the judge will just yellow card him repeatedly. Some other characters are given ribbons, granting them immunity from the law.

** What's even worse is that in the Judgemaster extra missions, you almost got this yourself. But since [[Good Is Dumb]], Marche and Cid bust the Judge before he could bestow you with it.

 

 

* Grand Prix is tough but fair. In GX's Story Mode, however, everything is stacked against you. ''Everything.''

** [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=711267 I'll let SA speak for me on this one..]

 

 

* [[Mario Kart]] 7 is the biggest offender yet (Which is saying a lot honestly). There was an exploit that has been discovered in the Maka Wuhu track that allows you to skip one section of the track. Pull it off, and the CPU pack is no less than 5 seconds behind you when you are ferried onto the upper section of the course, rendering the entire exploit moot in 1-player mode.

* 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.

 

 

* NPCs, even ones with no plot significance, often have [[Pokémon]] that learned powerful moves about five levels early. In later games, Pokémon learning moves early is actually [[Justified Trope|justified]]—a skilled breeder can get level-up moves and moves the Pokémon otherwise couldn't know (Egg moves) bred onto Level 5 (and, from Generation IV onward, Level 1) Pokémon if the father knows it, so presumably the computer-controlled trainers bred their own. While the player can't do this at first, many [[Tournament Play]] fans use this in the [[Metagame]].

* On the other hand, Lance's Dragonite in Generation I has Barrier. Go on. Check. Done? Yep. Dragonite's line has forever been incapable of learning Barrier, no matter how much breeding you do. What's more, in ''Gold, Silver and Crystal'', his Aerodactyl knows Rock Slide, which it couldn't learn until ''FireRed/LeafGreen''.

 

 

* 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.

 

 

* Up until ''Vegas'', ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' seemed quite unfair in that the AI could somehow detect you even if you couldn't figure out where it was. And a major problem with the first games was that being spotted once, even if the guy didn't alert his comrades, meant [[The All-Seeing AI|everyone knew where you were]].

* On higher difficulty levels, the bots in ''[[Quake|Quake III Arena]]'' can [[The All-Seeing AI|track your character through walls]] and can one-shot kill you via Railgun the moment a single pixel of your hitbox is exposed.

 

 

* A certain [[Chess]] program, when it was close to losing, would actually flash the message "The [piece] has escaped!" and that piece would appear back on the board. Obviously, only the computer's pieces ever 'escaped'. One suspects this ''isn't'' how Deep Blue beat Kasparov.

* All ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' games have a list of restricted cards, just like the real card game, and usualy matching the official one when said videogame came out. But computer opponents were not bound by it. The computer could have 3 copies of [[Game Breaker]] cards that you were only allowed to have one of (many of which would later be outright banned with the introduction of the real-life game's "Advanced" format used in official tournaments). This was probably to make up for AI [[Artificial Stupidity|so stupid]] that it often seemed like it was ''trying'' to lose.

** 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...

 

 

* Road Rash 3 for the Genesis thoroughly abuses this trope. One racer (Lucky Luc) always manages to stay ahead of you. You can have the same bike as him, and he still manages to get ahead of you so he can spam his oilcans. If you decide to grab the next higher bike, or two after that, he STILL is usually a bit faster than you, or can at least catch up to you with no problem.

** The game also has some ''serious'' [[Rubber Band AI]]. The super secret bike tops out (when not using the nitro) at around 215 MPH. You get this bike (with the proper code) on the first races (if you decided to cheat back). You can speed past every other racer and take first place within the first 11 seconds of the race, but if you crash any time after that (most noticeable when you're at the end of the race), I can almost guarantee that at least five other racers will pass you before you can get back onto the bike.

** ''Wipeout 3'' is nice enough to prevent the AI from even getting the two most powerful weapons available. Somewhat justified in that said weapons are extremely destructive, one of which is an instant kill. Given some thought, thank everything holy and sacred the AI can't get that. It would be too much, as instead of rubberband AI, they just have god-like skills all the time.

** In ''Wipeout XL/2097 it is virtually'' (maybe completely?) impossible to advance to the head of the pack in a single lap. No matter what items you use or what accelerators you hit, the last four or so cars ahead of you will remain out of reach, on the edge of visibility as tiny specks in the distance until you pass the starting line again and they become chumps like the first few cars you passed were.

*** Imagine for a second Mario Kart where the blue shells would insta-kill you. Yeah, I just crapped my pants too.

* ''[[Sega GT 2002]]''. While not necessarily rubberbanding, in the later races you can be assured that one tiny crash = no chance of winning. Even if you're driving newly-repaired, mint condition cars that are at the very top of your price range (and thus better).

 

 

* The Triple Triad card game in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' had another blatant example of cheating. Normally, the human player and the computer can see each other's hands, making the card game fairly easy to win. However, whenever the hands are concealed, the computer's win rate goes up more than tenfold, as it seems perfectly aware what cards you have, and its cards are not so much "hidden" as "the computer's single remaining card has the exact combination of three values, in three specific locations, needed to win." This is especially frustrating as you watch it happen ten times in a row.

** Made even worse when you're on the Lunar Base, where practically ''every'' card rule is in effect.

** Sniper Rifles in UFO: Aftershock are strangely inaccurate unless the user is a level 3 sniper, then combat becomes a joke, however hostiles are all able to fire them like normal weapons without any penalties for stance or injuries. On the plus side they don't get any bonuses for these either and Cultist psychics almost never wear Trueshot aura Bracers.

* The old Microprose game ''[[Master of Magic]]'' initially had a shapeshift spell that would disguise one unit as another. The manual noted that this illusion would not affect the computer players. Too bad ''Master Of Magic'' was a one-player game with no network, internet, or even hotseat play capabilities.

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Outcast]]'' and ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Academy]]'' games, all Force-using characters (enemies and friends) but you possess immense (though not bottomless) Force batteries, have bullshitime perfect reflexes and cannot be surprised. Furthermore, their Force powers don't cool down and can be reused instantly. All this is designed to make them impossible to kill without a lightsaber, since they will deflect blaster bolts and telekinetically redirect missiles and explosives straight back at you. (Theoretically, one could lure them into a heavily-mined area, but that's more trouble than it's worth.) When you have a Jedi NPC, a Dark Jedi NPC and a missile launcher (or better still the concussion rifle) in the same room, it is actually possible to get the two to play an infinite game of Force Push tennis.

** Also, similarly to enforce lightsaber combat, if you do attack them with normal weaponry, their powers and sword strikes are suddenly mega-effective and you will die in five seconds.

 

 

* In the ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'', [[Boarding Party|boarding operations]] against [[AI Is a Crapshoot|Xenon]] capital ships fail automatically if there are less than eighteen (out of twenty-one max) surviving marines when they reach the computer core.

 

 

* ''[[Re Boot]]'' is a show about the inhabitants of a computer, where a lost game results in damage to the system and (what is effectively) ''death of the participants''. As you can imagine, they will pull every trick possible to keep the user from winning games. This includes things that are so unfair that it's surprising the User even keeps on playing on that computer, like moving ammo and extra lives from where they're normally situated.

** ... leading to {{spoiler|Megabyte-}}Bob encouraging Matrix to break the game rules when caught in a game parody of [[Pokémon]]/DragonBallZ and the user is clearly going to win. "You're a renegade! CHEAT!!!"

 

 

* Many arcade games are programmed to only make the jackpot or grand prize possible to hit once out of so many games. This is usually set via some kind of mechanism inside the machine, behind the coin box, or in the operator menu activated by a button behind the coin box for games with a monitor. One common implementation is to have a setting can go from 1 (or some other small number) to some maximum value X, or alternatively a "difficulty level" with each level mapping to a numerical setting in that range. Every game, the machine rolls a random number from 0 to X-1. If the roll is less than the setting, the jackpot can be won on that game; otherwise, the machine rigs the game to be [[Unwinnable]]. The other common implementation is to allow setting a minimum number of games that must pass since the last time the jackpot was won before it becomes winnable again. This is why some arcades will have one of those "stop the light" games with a four-digit progressive jackpot that hasn't been hit in over 1,000 games in spite of skilled players who can hit the jackpot at least once every 10 attempts on the same game at other arcades.

* On British pub fruit machines, when a player spins a winning combination he is given the option to go higher/lower for the chance to win the next biggest payout. The machine decides in advance how far the player will be allowed to go, and there will come a point where a player who chooses to go higher/lower is guaranteed to lose regardless of the option taken. This has been proven by the Fairplay campaign, who ran the fruit machine software on a PC emulator, saving the game state before the choice is made. The machine cabinets are now required to display the message "This machine may occasionally offer a choice where the player has no chance of success".

** The British National Lottery online games do exactly the same thing. For instance, there is a game where you can guess whether the next ball from the machine will be higher or lower, giving the illusion that skill is required to win. However, whether you will win or lose the game is decided beforehand. Sometimes it's funny to deliberately choose the least likely answer and then watch as a highly improbable sequence of balls emerge - again and again.

* Coin-operated pub quiz machines were fair for a few years after they first came out, until the makers realised that some [[Renaissance Man]] types were making serious money off them. The response was to introduce gambling elements to the games that reduced them to [[Luck-Based Mission]] even for people who knew all the answers to the questions. Some games even introduce elements ostensibly requiring manual dexterity - for example, on ''Bullseye'' a player must hit a prize segment with a dart, and ''Battleships'' involves hitting it with a revolving turret. However, even when aimed perfectly, the game decides whether or not the shot will hit.

** In case you had any doubt, there's no warning of this (at least in Canada).

* Claw Machines. Good lord. It's amazing how many people don't know this, but almost all claw machines are rigged in various ways. For instance, many machines lower the claw slowly and then pull it up quickly, tending to drop the prize with this sudden motion. The most common method of rigging a machine is to rig the claw so that it only actually closes tight enough to grip a prize every so often. If the machine is set to grip a prize, an experienced player will almost always win...but these instances are rare. On some machines, you get a chance to win every X amount of plays. Someone in-the-know could let other people play until the machine is ready to spit out a prize, then swoop in and take it. However, most modern machines use a Random Number Generator.

** Also, it's often easier to grab a prize if it's lying on its side...and more often than not, the items (usually toys) are placed upright or some other way to make grabbing even more difficult.

* Japanese pachisuro (a.k.a. pachi-slot) machines spin until the player manually stops the reels, attempting to time the button presses to line up a winning combination. However, the machine is legally allowed to skip up to 4 symbols after each button press before stopping the reel; this is most frequently done to make the third reel skip past a winning combination. (The slot machines in ''[[Pokémon]]'' also do this, since they're based off pachisuro as opposed to Western slot machines.)

* Many argue that having [[Computers Are Fast|lightning reflexes]] when it came to buzzing in is how IBM supercomputer ''Watson'' managed to completely curbstomp ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in Feb. 2011. Though he was a good sport about it, Ken later [http://ken-jennings.com/blog/archives/2554 suggested some ideas to level the playing field] should a similar experiment ever occur.