AI Behavior when Forgotten Ancient is in play

by **lozenge** » 01 Mar 2017, 04:33

I posted this in the suggestions thread but I would like to get everyone's opinion on this. I have played many a paper game with Forgotten Ancient against seasoned players and everyone plays spells knowing they are giving me +1/+1 counters. What do you all think?

lozenge wrote:This is kinda silly. When Forgotten Ancient is on the battlefield the AI players completely refuse to play any spells at all. They just go through their turns not doing anything (except possibly attacking if they have creatures on the battlefield.) I know they don't want to help me end up with a giant creature but I'll just win anyway because I'm the only one actually playing.

I have played hundreds of games with the paper card against seasoned MTG players and while they might limit excessive spell casting under certain situations, they general just continue playing as normal knowing that they are giving me a lot of +1/+1 counters and adjust their strategy accordingly, yet every game I've played against AI in xmage my computer opponents still outright refuse to play spells as long as Forgotten Ancient is on the battlefield. Each of these games I had won simply because the AI just wasn't playing... You can't win if you don't cast spells...

I have attached a screenshot of my current game. As you can see the computer players refuse to do anything. Poor computer player #1 is sitting on a nice amount of mana and nothing on the battlefield. Apparently he would rather keep it that way instead of giving me a few +1/+1 counters.

by **lozenge** » 01 Mar 2017, 05:15

They really don't care - what bad sports :p

by **L2i0n0k7** » 02 Mar 2017, 02:13

This reminds me of their behavior when they have equipment. They like to just move it around on their creatures if they have the mana.

by **poipoi** » 13 May 2017, 14:17

I have the same problem with Managorger Hydra and obviously Forgotten Ancient

by **escplan9** » 13 May 2017, 16:47

The AI is really dumb and is not meant at this time for serious play testing. I only recommend it for familiarizing yourself with the XMage UI, like playing with the different "Skips/Stops" and getting used to the interface altogether. Otherwise, give the AI a super basic deck or just all lands and you can test your cards. As developers we only use the AI for this 2nd purpose.