Cheating AI

[Grygor]

Goddamn Phantoms and Banshees in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer: Both have intant kill attacks and do huge damge from half a continent away.

Phantoms' Iron Man palm lasers kill in four hits, and their intant kill attack actually causes you to gravitate towards them like they're magnetic. Banshees do the same thing, except their attack can be interrupted (somehow) and they are much easier to hit.

Now granted, players themselves have the instant kill over-cover grab attack that causes enemies to move slightly closer for the animation to play, but you have to be in cover, and the enemies have to stand still long enough for you to attack. And it doesn't work on Phantoms! Goddamnit Bioware!

You know what's kinda funny though? If you use Sabotage on an Atlas, their instant-kill attack does work on Phantoms.

 

[Scrubiii]

The Insane AI in Starcraft 2 does actually cheat. It gathers 8 minerals per carry instead of 5 and 6 vespene instead of 4, meaning it can fund far more off one base than a normal player. It just does ridiculous early attacks that you can't defend without tricking it (doing things like putting a spine crawler behind the mineral line, so all the AI's zerglings sit in the choke attacking it one at a time).

 

[joe-h2o]

I forgot about the last level of Quake III Arena, when playing against Xearo.

I know he's meant to be tough, but

a) he has *absurd* accuracy
b) he has a high rate of fire
b) the map is set up to be extremely open so he always knows where you are
c) the map has a railgun on each platform

On anything above "hardcore" he's virtually impossible to beat since he can nail you with a railgun round the millisecond you come out of cover. Your only chance is to wait for him to come to you and kill him quickly, then he respawns on the same platform as you. If he spawns on the other he'll grab a railgun and you're back to square one.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I personally nominate the Virtua Fighter series, mostly because of their counter system which rewards you for guessing your opponents attacks. Since the AI knows what buttons you pressed, it makes fighting certain characters (Aoi) really really hard.

I second this notion but for DoA 4 as it has the same problem. Serious that games end game boss suffers from a severe case of SNK syndrome. Sure, I may be able to roflstomp her on occasion with Kasumi but the boss is just so damn inconsistent and god help me if I want to play it with another character let alone a slow throw based one.

When you go through the arcade or time attack with times around a minute or 2 and then spend a full hour on 1 character something has gone awry(Happened on Jann Lee). God forbid you have to beat her twice in a row like in Time Attack.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Every FPS campaign ever. Seriously, I'll be sneaking around and just have a guy turn around and target me before I turn the corner, before he's even seen me. Seriously fuck Brink's security campaign, it happens all the time while I play it.

Call of Duty does it too. Those are the only two FPS games in existence right? Nah, but seriously, almost all of them do it.

 

[Cyfu]

Whoo, boy, Starcraft...yeah. I think the AI doesn't cheat per se, it's just able to do 100-ish APM with a high degree of precision and almost no thinking time. In short, yes, cheating.

But as for my worst, I'd definitely nominate Worms. The enemy can pull of shots that should be impossible for any human. sometimes it manages to get a bazooka through a gap that's smaller than in. By using the wind to guide the projectile. Oh, and then hits your worm square in the body for maximum damage. But the bazookas are somewhat easy, they totally mock you with grenades. Bazookas miss occasionally, or at least don't inflict maximum damage, grenades almost exclusively do full damage when the AI is using them. To make it worse, the slimy bastards set up the timer and the throw so the grenade would explode exactly before it hits your worm, even if it had to ricochet one or three times beforehand. The AI is actively trolling with those shots. They suck with pretty much everything else but damn the bazooka and the grenade.

Also, Heroes 3. The AI is a cheating bastard it is. At least it's slightly more manageable...until you are hit with an army that you simply cannot counter even had you had awesome resource influx from the beginning.

Heroes 6 is exactly the same though.. unless you play on the easiest difficulty, you will lose.

 

[Kroxile]

Fighting games come to mind.. Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter in particular, when an AI opponent can suddenly put up a block or insert a counter attack when you finally manage to get that combo off is a pain in the ass.. and to make it worse is that the AI doesn't follow the same rules players do because I have tried to block in the middle of said combos and etc and it doesn't work.

/rant off

But yeah a lot of AI cheats its ass off.

 

[nothingspringstomind]

All the Tekken's after Tekken 3. After reaching near God-like status on Tekken 3, i pop in Tekken 4 and think; "Most of the characters still have the same move lists and work the same way, i should rule at this."

20 minutes later, i'm throwing my pad at the wall because Yoshimitsu just cannot be grabbed for a throw, and dodges every attack i make.

 

[joe-h2o]

Every FPS campaign ever. Seriously, I'll be sneaking around and just have a guy turn around and target me before I turn the corner, before he's even seen me. Seriously fuck Brink's security campaign, it happens all the time while I play it.

Call of Duty does it too. Those are the only two FPS games in existence right? Nah, but seriously, almost all of them do it.

Actually, Halo doesn't - at least the original one. If you want to use stealth you can in many parts of the game. Enemies, even on Legendary, have "realistic" detection allowing you to sneak past them, creep up and stealth kill Elites, dodge around and flank them quietly etc.

Not sure if they kept that up in the later versions. I don't have an Xbox 360 so I have not played them.

 

[Unsilenced]

Hard mode in Mario Party (1,2), The AI is PROGRAMED to click buttons faster than the controller can pick up.

You know what would be awesome? If the game had an Impossible difficulty setting and was literally made impossible. xD

That'd be some serious trolling right there.

I wonder how long it would be before people figured it out.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Recently Sniper Elite V2 on highest difficulty. Enemies have telescopic X Ray vision. I can get shot and killed by a German soldier 200 meters away with pin point accuracy (with MP 40's), they know where I am at all times even if I stay out of sight and move to another location.

Enemy snipers also have wallhacks. I literally cannot avoid enemy snipers, at all. Aside from one situation, they always see and shoot me the moment I'm in their general field of view, even when I'm behind cover. I tested it, popped in and out of cover for a split second and was shot the moment my elbow came out, before I could even look down the sight, it was that fast. On "Sniper elite" difficulty it's incredibly difficult to play counter sniper to the point where you'll die a few dozen times and rage quit.

I can understand making it difficult, but this is just stupid. The AI in the game is so badly designed that it actually breaks the game by making things impossibly difficult.

 

[Palmerama]

I would have to say the Gears of War games! The AI for the bots in multiplayer is ludicrous! The bots on the opposing team will hit you most of the time from the other side of the map. When you're in a shotgun duel with one of them they will kill you while not even facing in your direction. Of course these are the bots on the other team. The bots on your team will run in to cover, fire a couple of shots then stand up and swing a smoke grenade until their head gets popped off. Not to mention they all seem to take at least twice the amount of damage as you can take.
In Gears 3 in Capture the Leader if an enemy bot captures your leader its near impossible to rescue them, they seem to be able to move about the map with no hindrance & their pistol seems to be more powerful than a rifle!

Also I have encountered a fair few henchman on the Arkham City predator challenges that were able to detect me throgh a wall or spot me from across the map and shoot me with supreme accuracy.

 

[Arakasi]

The Dark Sims in Perfect Dark would cheat.

They'd do shit like teleport when you weren't looking. It was pro.

 

[Vrex360]

I remember thinking that the AI for a Sangheili Ultra in Halo: Reach was kind of cheating because he was doing two things that, following in game rules, are impossible to do.
First, he was dual wielding plasma rifles, which is something you can't do while playing Halo: Reach and second he was able to melee attack while dual wielding plasma rifles and you've never been able to melee attack and keep both weapons in your hands before.

But then I guess it just goes to show, Sangheili are just naturally better and more handsome and therefore the rules of the game bend to their mighty whim!

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I personally nominate the Virtua Fighter series, mostly because of their counter system which rewards you for guessing your opponents attacks. Since the AI knows what buttons you pressed, it makes fighting certain characters (Aoi) really really hard.

I second this notion but for DoA 4 as it has the same problem. Serious that games end game boss suffers from a severe case of SNK syndrome. Sure, I may be able to roflstomp her on occasion with Kasumi but the boss is just so damn inconsistent and god help me if I want to play it with another character let alone a slow throw based one.

When you go through the arcade or time attack with times around a minute or 2 and then spend a full hour on 1 character something has gone awry(Happened on Jann Lee). God forbid you have to beat her twice in a row like in Time Attack.

I had the same issue... but somehow managed to beat Alpha-152 with Tina, my worst character, on first try. It took me 5 tries with my best (Christie) and yet I win on my first try with Tina... the heck...

Yeah and that is what I hate about the game. I have no problem with ridiculous fighting game bosses as long as they are consistent in their difficulty or moves.

 

[TimeLord]

Playing against the AI in Magic 2012 has me convinced it can see my cards. I had two cards in my hand and it was the AI's turn. I was confident I could survive anything the AI could throw at me and with the two cards in my hand I could easily end the duel in my following turn.

Then the AI pulled [mtg_card=Mind Rot]

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

It's minor compared to some of these examples, but the AI in Dark Souls can hit you with weapons through walls. Your weapons just bounce off. This is especially bad with the Titanite Demons, as they have long poles that they hit you with and swipe straight through walls and columns that you hide behind.

 

[rednose1]

But as for my worst, I'd definitely nominate Worms. The enemy can pull of shots that should be impossible for any human. sometimes it manages to get a bazooka through a gap that's smaller than in. By using the wind to guide the projectile. Oh, and then hits your worm square in the body for maximum damage. But the bazookas are somewhat easy, they totally mock you with grenades. Bazookas miss occasionally, or at least don't inflict maximum damage, grenades almost exclusively do full damage when the AI is using them. To make it worse, the slimy bastards set up the timer and the throw so the grenade would explode exactly before it hits your worm, even if it had to ricochet one or three times beforehand. The AI is actively trolling with those shots. They suck with pretty much everything else but damn the bazooka and the grenade.

Oh god, I forgot about Worms! Tose shots were just ridiculous! I'd have to calculate wind vectors, acceleration and gravity 's effects just to come up with some of the shots they made.
Seriously, the military should just use the Worms AI for all their guidance needs. It would save tons in the cash department, and be WAY more accurate.

 

[Smithburg]

I'd love to see a game where enemy AI has ammo management. It's hard if your pinned down, taking a few shots when you cn, and are low on ammo, when the enemy is spraying endless clips at you