Questwizard88
09-28-2008, 07:17 PM
I just recently got the game, and I've managed to beat all the missins with at least one star rank, and I've been through all four engine classes in GP mode. The AI in this game is the mst unfair load of crap I've ever seen. Here's a list of all the crap I hate about it:
First, I'll shoot down the whole battle mode. We'll get to the others later on:
1) Purposeful Red Turtle Holding
Why in the heck do AI players not shoot other AI players with red turtles?
I can easily answer that one:
They save them to shoot at human players ONLY about 90% of the time! Ridiculous if you ask me, considering they've got plenty of other targets for them besides only me, even in a team match, which I'll get to next. Try sitting on the top area in Block Fort or Pipe Plaza, and let the AI run about for a bit. You'll notice they prep the red turtles, but will NOT fire them until you go down there, at which point you'll get blasted to no end with them all.
2) Team AI is NOT Team AI
That's right. The team mode in a battle match is NOT team mode for the AI. If you play with teams on, the AI acts like they aren't on a team and shoots their own team instead of the enemy half the time. The last thing we need is a team of TK'ers, and that's obviously what the supposed "Team" AI is! It gets worse when team AI is off. You're in a 7-on-1 match, because they'll save every item they have just for you instead of using them on each other most of the time.
3) Ramming
The ramming part out of nowhere is ridiculous. Every time I turn around on Twilight House I'm being rammed off the edge of the level by someone who just shot around the corner with a powerslide turbo. They do it A LOT. If you don't believe me, try for yourself.
4) Mushroom Vs. Boo
The AI automatically gets like a 90% chance of getting Boo items whenever you get either a single or triple mushroom item, and they swipe it before you even have the chance to use a single one about 75% of the time. You're lucky you even see the item show up sometimes because they steal it away so fast. Stupid if you ask me. The AI shouldn't get a particular item just because I got lucky for once. That's just cheating in my opinion.
Well that's most of the major stuff for battle mode. Now to shoot down Vs./GP modes:
1) See #3 & #4 Above
That's right, both #3 and #4 from battle mode apply just as much to Vs. and GP modes as they do to battle mode, except the ramming is 100x worse this time around. They'll smack you into anything they want, whenever they want, regardless of what it is. In fact, I was just playing Rainbow Road in a 32-track Vs. match not too long before I wrote this, and this was the sequence of events on Rainbow Road:
- I get a turbo off the starting line, and get rammed off the track within 3 seconds of taking off. Now I'm all the way back in 8th.
- I get to the first set of item boxes, get a triple mushroom, and I get one fired off, then the AI steals the other two from me.
- Still on lap 1, and still in 8th place, I get a star and catch up to about 5th by the time it wears off, smacking into everyone I came by on the way. I actually knocked one off, which I think just got the AI even more angry at me. Before I can do anything, SMACK!, another ramming while I was in the corkscrew, which threw me off the track AGAIN!
- I finally manage to catch up to 2nd on lap 2, and get smacked by a spiny that was SUPPOSED to hit MARIO, who is a fair distance ahead, NOT ME. I hadn't been in 1st for the entire race, so I have no idea why it decided to be so cheap like that, other than because I was already 50 points ahead of 2nd as far as that goes.
- Now back in the bottom three, I resort to snaking because I figured its gonna be my only hope to get a decent spot. BAD IDEA. I almost immediately get rammed to oblivion.
- The third lap gets worse. I finally get caught back up again just before the loop, and happen to have a triple mushroom which I was lucky hadn't been stolen yet. I fired one off going into the loop to knock Daisy out, who was right in front of me. It works, but then Peach comes up behind me halfway through the loop and slams into me so hard it knocks me straight out of the loop and off the track (I'm using Dry Bones in the Dry Bomber here). There went those mushrooms. I guess they just had to resort to something else to get rid of them since they happened to not get Boo items that time around, which is quite rare.
- I catch up and get into 1st doing some VERY risky snaking (Its never a good idea on such narrow tracks), then all of a sudden I hear that annoying scream from the spiny just as I'm nearing the finish line. The next thing I know, I'm a half a second away from the finish line in 1st, and SMACK! Now I'm in 5th and get rammed across the finish line by DK as soon as I hit the track again.
2) See #2 Above
Team AI is totally backwards in Vs. Mode too. Why the heck is my own teammate in second blasting the crap out of me with red turtles to get first? Got an explanation?
3) AI Gets What They Want, When They Want, EVERY TIME
If the AI can get 1st with a particular item, they're GUARANTEED to get it. That's right, GUARANTEED. If you're in first, and second is not too far behind, expect to eat a red turtle, and if you've got something to block it with, they'll get three of them. If you're in 1st and you've knocked the one AI kart that's PROGRAMMED to get 1st place by any means possible back into 2nd or 3rd by means of an item, someone in the back four is guaranteed to get either a spiny or lightning, and most of the time its a spiny.
4) One Kart Is Always PROGRAMMED To Get First No Matter What
See excerpt from #3 above. You'll get the idea. One kart is always just about as fast as you are with a mushroom, even without one. There's no denying it when that one kart goes screaming by you into 1st all of a sudden without any items or powerslides, especially when you're either snaking or firing off mushrooms like crazy. All more proof that the non-team AI is really a 1 (you) Vs. 7 (them) team match.
5) Spiny = NO STARS
I've also noticed that if someone's got a spiny, your chance of getting a star if you're in first is literally ZERO. Ridiculous. At least give us some reliable way to block the most unbalanced item in the whole game. No the Bullet Bill isn't worse than the spiny for those who think it is. I've actually had to resort to going off the track and getting picked up by Lakitu because its faster than getting bombed to death by the spiny sometimes.
6) Where's MY Good Items?
How come the AI gets such good items when they're back in 5th-8th, yet when I'm back there in a kart with a MAX items stat, I get maybe one spiny or lightning out of every 20-30 races? If that's the case, then why does the manual say karts with a higher items stat have a better chance of getting those items? They obviously do if you're AI, but if you're a human, you DON'T.
7) Yoshi Falls Waterfalls = Unfair
The waterfalls you can drive on in Yoshi Falls to get a bit of a shortcut are unfair. The AI has no problem driving over them. Its like they aren't even affected by them at all, yet when I go over them, regardless of who I'm suing or what kart I'm in, I cannot make it more than 2/3 of the way over, even aimed towards the upper part with a triple mushroom. I ALWAYS end up falling off no matter what. Seems a bit on the unfair side to me.
That's the end of my list of huge annoyances. There's a lot of smaller things that I won't bother going into yet. What do you guys think about the game's AI?
First, I'll shoot down the whole battle mode. We'll get to the others later on:
1) Purposeful Red Turtle Holding
Why in the heck do AI players not shoot other AI players with red turtles?
I can easily answer that one:
They save them to shoot at human players ONLY about 90% of the time! Ridiculous if you ask me, considering they've got plenty of other targets for them besides only me, even in a team match, which I'll get to next. Try sitting on the top area in Block Fort or Pipe Plaza, and let the AI run about for a bit. You'll notice they prep the red turtles, but will NOT fire them until you go down there, at which point you'll get blasted to no end with them all.
2) Team AI is NOT Team AI
That's right. The team mode in a battle match is NOT team mode for the AI. If you play with teams on, the AI acts like they aren't on a team and shoots their own team instead of the enemy half the time. The last thing we need is a team of TK'ers, and that's obviously what the supposed "Team" AI is! It gets worse when team AI is off. You're in a 7-on-1 match, because they'll save every item they have just for you instead of using them on each other most of the time.
3) Ramming
The ramming part out of nowhere is ridiculous. Every time I turn around on Twilight House I'm being rammed off the edge of the level by someone who just shot around the corner with a powerslide turbo. They do it A LOT. If you don't believe me, try for yourself.
4) Mushroom Vs. Boo
The AI automatically gets like a 90% chance of getting Boo items whenever you get either a single or triple mushroom item, and they swipe it before you even have the chance to use a single one about 75% of the time. You're lucky you even see the item show up sometimes because they steal it away so fast. Stupid if you ask me. The AI shouldn't get a particular item just because I got lucky for once. That's just cheating in my opinion.
Well that's most of the major stuff for battle mode. Now to shoot down Vs./GP modes:
1) See #3 & #4 Above
That's right, both #3 and #4 from battle mode apply just as much to Vs. and GP modes as they do to battle mode, except the ramming is 100x worse this time around. They'll smack you into anything they want, whenever they want, regardless of what it is. In fact, I was just playing Rainbow Road in a 32-track Vs. match not too long before I wrote this, and this was the sequence of events on Rainbow Road:
- I get a turbo off the starting line, and get rammed off the track within 3 seconds of taking off. Now I'm all the way back in 8th.
- I get to the first set of item boxes, get a triple mushroom, and I get one fired off, then the AI steals the other two from me.
- Still on lap 1, and still in 8th place, I get a star and catch up to about 5th by the time it wears off, smacking into everyone I came by on the way. I actually knocked one off, which I think just got the AI even more angry at me. Before I can do anything, SMACK!, another ramming while I was in the corkscrew, which threw me off the track AGAIN!
- I finally manage to catch up to 2nd on lap 2, and get smacked by a spiny that was SUPPOSED to hit MARIO, who is a fair distance ahead, NOT ME. I hadn't been in 1st for the entire race, so I have no idea why it decided to be so cheap like that, other than because I was already 50 points ahead of 2nd as far as that goes.
- Now back in the bottom three, I resort to snaking because I figured its gonna be my only hope to get a decent spot. BAD IDEA. I almost immediately get rammed to oblivion.
- The third lap gets worse. I finally get caught back up again just before the loop, and happen to have a triple mushroom which I was lucky hadn't been stolen yet. I fired one off going into the loop to knock Daisy out, who was right in front of me. It works, but then Peach comes up behind me halfway through the loop and slams into me so hard it knocks me straight out of the loop and off the track (I'm using Dry Bones in the Dry Bomber here). There went those mushrooms. I guess they just had to resort to something else to get rid of them since they happened to not get Boo items that time around, which is quite rare.
- I catch up and get into 1st doing some VERY risky snaking (Its never a good idea on such narrow tracks), then all of a sudden I hear that annoying scream from the spiny just as I'm nearing the finish line. The next thing I know, I'm a half a second away from the finish line in 1st, and SMACK! Now I'm in 5th and get rammed across the finish line by DK as soon as I hit the track again.
2) See #2 Above
Team AI is totally backwards in Vs. Mode too. Why the heck is my own teammate in second blasting the crap out of me with red turtles to get first? Got an explanation?
3) AI Gets What They Want, When They Want, EVERY TIME
If the AI can get 1st with a particular item, they're GUARANTEED to get it. That's right, GUARANTEED. If you're in first, and second is not too far behind, expect to eat a red turtle, and if you've got something to block it with, they'll get three of them. If you're in 1st and you've knocked the one AI kart that's PROGRAMMED to get 1st place by any means possible back into 2nd or 3rd by means of an item, someone in the back four is guaranteed to get either a spiny or lightning, and most of the time its a spiny.
4) One Kart Is Always PROGRAMMED To Get First No Matter What
See excerpt from #3 above. You'll get the idea. One kart is always just about as fast as you are with a mushroom, even without one. There's no denying it when that one kart goes screaming by you into 1st all of a sudden without any items or powerslides, especially when you're either snaking or firing off mushrooms like crazy. All more proof that the non-team AI is really a 1 (you) Vs. 7 (them) team match.
5) Spiny = NO STARS
I've also noticed that if someone's got a spiny, your chance of getting a star if you're in first is literally ZERO. Ridiculous. At least give us some reliable way to block the most unbalanced item in the whole game. No the Bullet Bill isn't worse than the spiny for those who think it is. I've actually had to resort to going off the track and getting picked up by Lakitu because its faster than getting bombed to death by the spiny sometimes.
6) Where's MY Good Items?
How come the AI gets such good items when they're back in 5th-8th, yet when I'm back there in a kart with a MAX items stat, I get maybe one spiny or lightning out of every 20-30 races? If that's the case, then why does the manual say karts with a higher items stat have a better chance of getting those items? They obviously do if you're AI, but if you're a human, you DON'T.
7) Yoshi Falls Waterfalls = Unfair
The waterfalls you can drive on in Yoshi Falls to get a bit of a shortcut are unfair. The AI has no problem driving over them. Its like they aren't even affected by them at all, yet when I go over them, regardless of who I'm suing or what kart I'm in, I cannot make it more than 2/3 of the way over, even aimed towards the upper part with a triple mushroom. I ALWAYS end up falling off no matter what. Seems a bit on the unfair side to me.
That's the end of my list of huge annoyances. There's a lot of smaller things that I won't bother going into yet. What do you guys think about the game's AI?