Korath's Shandalar Updates: Bug Reports

[quatrocentos-e-vinte]

Don't know if it has already been pointed out, but...

Zo-Zu the Punisher and Ankh of Mishra seem to trigger twice for each land that enters the battlefield (i.e. land controller takes 4 damage, rather than 2).

[jiansonz]

Don't know if it has already been pointed out, but...

Zo-Zu the Punisher and Ankh of Mishra seem to trigger twice for each land that enters the battlefield (i.e. land controller takes 4 damage, rather than 2).

Yes, that's been pointed out and the cause (and possible fix) are understood. This goes for Fastbond as well.

[Korath]

Not sure if this qualifies as a bug or just an AI weakness. I was duelling a Priestess who chose to play with a copy of my deck (Priestess and Mind Stealer have this ability). She played a Stingerfling Spider and did not use its 'enters the battlefield' ability to destroy my Rorix Bladewing.

Yes, please consider AI decisions this obviously stupid to be bugs.

This is fairly perplexing. How the AI decides which order to active its triggers is one of the few remaining areas of duel that aren't understood at all; but I had thought that it always activated optional triggers. Though maybe I have that backwards and it instead never does; I haven't looked at the function recently. Either way, if I make Stingerfling Spider's trigger mandatory, it correctly picks my flyers to destroy, so the problem isn't with the card itself.

[simzard]

Hello

This is my first post - thanks for working on this excellent game. I think I found an unreported bug.

I attacked with Krenko's Enforcer which has intimidate and the opponent could block it with his Timber Protector.

Keep up the good work!

[jiansonz]

but I had thought that it always activated optional triggers. Though maybe I have that backwards and it instead never does; I haven't looked at the function recently.

The only card in classic Shandalar that immediately comes to mind for me when it comes to the 'you can do X if you want to' is Verduran Enchantress, and the AI always uses that ability (even when it's close to getting decked).

I haven't yet seen the AI play any of the cards with 'optional tutoring ability when entering the battlefield' (like Heliod's Pilgrim, which I grew to like a lot in my first campaign) so it will be interesting to see how well those will be used by the AI. It looks to be working very well in Manalink, at least.

[Korath]

AI isn't blocking my Krenko's Enforcer with its Timber Protector, simzard, and it doesn't let me do the same when our positions are reversed. I expect it's some other card interaction. (Unless Krenko's Enforcer didn't have the intimidate icon? I seem to recall fixing a couple of missing abilities since releasing.)

Verduran Enchantress is hardcoded to never draw for the AI if it has 8 or more cards in hand or 6 or less in its library; it's never optional. Looking at other MicroProse cards that have optional triggers - for example, Ring of Ma'ruf, Tablet of Epityr, Urza's Chalice, Wooden Sphere - they're essentially all hardcoded to be non-optional for the AI, so I guess I did have it backwards. A notable exception is Nether Shadow, which is always marked optional; that's probably why the AI never reanimates it.

I can fix my triggers that require targets to be non-optional for the AI, but allow cancelling; but for untargeted triggers like on, say, Rockslide Elemental, it's either going to have to always activate or never activate unless the AI can be fixed. (And before you say +1/+1 counters are always good, think about Meekstone and so on.) On top of this, the AI doesn't speculate at all during the untap, upkeep, and draw steps; I fixed that for upkeep in Manalink, but it was a fair bit of effort.

[gmzombie]

One thing that I still notice is the multiple canceled activations from ai on mishras factory. Don't know why but it eventually gets it right

[Korath]

I'll probably release a bugfix version tonight or tomorrow. Current confirmed, unfixed bugs are:

• Ivory Cup triggers on Ancient Den! And it can be countered. (Dryad Arbor too.)
• hand_count[] getting out of sync, sigh.
• Desert has terrible AI.
• Giant Growth still has poor AI.
• Mana Vault sometimes can't be activated to untap. Missing a flag? And the AI never, ever chooses to do so.
• Living Lands, Kormus Bell - not affecting dual lands.
• Serendib Djinn - should sac, not bury, and should do so during state-based actions instead of continuously.
• Jihad - should sac, not bury; should do so during state-based actions; and state-based actions should get checked after first strike damage and at end of combat.
• Weird crashes against Fungus Master and Shapeshifter decks, probably caused by Clone.
• Brainwash seems to affect everything, not just enchanted creature.
• Triskelion needs a rewrite to use modern wording (i.e., any +1/+1 counter instead of just its own).
• Remove Soul (and its three clones - Essence Scatter, False Summoning, and Preemptive Strike) can't target artifact creatures.
• Creature Bond effect doesn't resolve immediately.
• Radiant's Dragoons don't have echo cost
• Animate Dead doesn't zap itself off when enchanting an illegal target.
• Nafs Asp's effect deals damage instead of causing life loss, and can end up being the wrong color if the asp that originally made the effect hasn't been in play a while.
• Tapped blockers don't deal damage.
• When something like Two-Headed Giant of Foriys blocks, the AI seems to get fake effect cards added to its hand, which it plays for free.
• It still uses ancient mulligan rules.
• Plenty of old artifacts still turn off if tapped.
• Guardian Beast is a victim of whoever put in shroud without checking whether the bit was already used.
• The AI never activates optional triggers in any of the new cards. (stopgap measure in)
• The AI never activates Nether Shadow's reanimation trigger, either, despite it not even being a new card. And there's still at least two ways for it to get into your graveyard without making its effect card (being milled and being counterspelled).
• Mana burn is unconditionally enabled.
• Quests that require to trade in a card don't say so on the scroll on the lower right once you have the card.
• Quests requiring a white card display spaces instead of "white" when given.

Anyone see any of these as critical? None look to be less than an hour to fix, and some of them (mulligan, Guardian Beast, rewrite two thirds of the remaining MicroProse artifacts) considerably longer. (And while I personally see fixing optional triggers (at least partially) as critical, it's too risky for a bugfix release.)

Also - have I missed any from earlier in this thread?

[jiansonz]

[*] The AI never activates optional triggers in any of the new cards.

I agree that this is the major one. So many cool new cards won't be as fun to put in the AI decks if this isn't working.

[*] Giant Growth still has poor AI.

Yes, but I think it's at least passable on Wizard difficulty (usually getting it right).

[*] Animate Dead doesn't zap itself off when enchanting an illegal target.

Do you mean that an Animated White Knight will remain on the battlefield? It never did before.

[*]The AI never activates Nether Shadow's reanimation trigger, either, despite it not even being a new card. And there's still at least two ways for it to get into your graveyard without making its effect card (being milled and being counterspelled).

For the cases where the effect card is indeed created, is it possible to make it mandatory for the AI to return it? I think there are very few situations where it would be to the AIs disadvantage. Also, has anyone tested if the player can return a Nether Shadow?

[*] Tapped blockers don't deal damage.
[*] It still uses ancient mulligan rules.
[*] Plenty of old artifacts still turn off if tapped.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer it this way.

[Aswan jaguar]

About Giant Growth you probably know that it is not only Giant Growth I have seen AI do the same with 4-5 other new instants that boost power/toughness - AI boosting my creatures and even worse my blockers instead of his own.(at least on 2nd and 3nd difficulty level)..
Does any one remember if other instants that boost p/t that target creature had this problem? Righteousness for instance?although Righteousness is a bad example as it can target only blockers.

[quatrocentos-e-vinte]

About Giant Growth you probably know that it is not only Giant Growth I have seen AI do the same with 4-5 other new instants that boost power/toughness - AI boosting my creatures and even worse my blockers instead of his own.(at least on 2nd and 3nd difficulty level).
Does any one remember if other instants that boost p/t that target creature had this problem? Righteousness for instance?although Righteousness is a bad example as it can target only blockers.

Yes. At the very least, Howl from Beyond and Titan's Strength also seem to display the "Giant Growth bug" (i.e. AI generally tends to cast them on the player's creatures).

[jiansonz]

Does any one remember if other instants that boost p/t that target creature had this problem?

Blood Lust.

[Korath]

Yes, the same problem will affect essentially all temporary power/toughness-boosters.

[*] Tapped blockers don't deal damage.
[*] It still uses ancient mulligan rules.
[*] Plenty of old artifacts still turn off if tapped.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer it this way.

I can make the first two optional, but maintaining an option for the third will be a nightmare. (And I'm certainly not going to add it to all the new artifacts.) To be honest, I've only ever noticed it with Winter Orb.

---

I've put in a stopgap measure for AI and temporary triggers, as described above; in essence, it makes all triggers mandatory for the AI, but it (and you) can cancel during targeting if the triggered ability is targeted. I've made Nether Shadow's legacy card's trigger mandatory for the AI as well.

Fixed Remove Soul (and so also Essence Scatter, False Summoning, and Preemptive Strike); they'll still need a real rewrite when I get around to doing counterspells in earnest, so that they cast at instant speed and can target any spell on the stack, but for now they're no worse than the Manalink version.

I'll put in something to keep Mana Crypt from crashing, and put in at least a minimal implementation for Radiant's Dragoons' echo (it'll likely only require payment once, even if it changes controllers); and then release later today.

[Aswan jaguar]

You haven't mentioned if you have fixed or just missed these:

- I see what's wrong with Overwhelming Stampede. It won't affect other cards.
- hexproof ability multiple icon displayed.
- Shadow works for me, though I notice that Soltari Trooper doesn't have it set
- Protection from creatures used to be Battering Ram's "banding while attacking" ability; I missed one check while removing the old functionality.

[Korath]

All four were fixed.