Cheater-y A.I. ?

[guywiththemorningstar]

I'm not sure if this is an A.I. bug or actually just something I haven't learned to do, but the computer opponents seem to have some very interesting tricks up their sleeves. For one, I've seen on two occasions so far where my opponent has swung LtR up to 6 times consecutively. One opponent was wielding a cleaver, the other a two handed sword.

Another trick they do is like this attempt to block but i miss and they come over the top with a lightning fast light chop that requires no momentum and is rather devastating. I've tried to mimic this with no success.

Is this possible and I just haven't leveled up enough? Anyone else experience this?

Edit: this all has taken place in arena

 

[Elimenator89730]

I've experienced this as well on several occasions, and it frustrates me quite a bit. The most common thing I've noticed that the AI do that I find myself unable to do is to hold a swing. By that I mean, they go into the wind-up phase of a swing, but just hold it there (usually until I, myself, attempt to swing). When I try to swing at them while they're doing so, they're able to immediately skip the wind-up phase and strike me before i have a chance to go through wind-up. It annoys me quite a lot, and I'm curious as to whether its possible for the player to do.

 

[Taohn]

I've experienced this as well on several occasions, and it frustrates me quite a bit. The most common thing I've noticed that the AI do that I find myself unable to do is to hold a swing. By that I mean, they go into the wind-up phase of a swing, but just hold it there (usually until I, myself, attempt to swing). When I try to swing at them while they're doing so, they're able to immediately skip the wind-up phase and strike me before i have a chance to go through wind-up. It annoys me quite a lot, and I'm curious as to whether its possible for the player to do.

I've found you can sort of approximate this by left-clicking repeatedly. Maybe a bit more than once per second? It's annoying, but I have managed to get some quick slashes off that way, especially the overhead. Mount and Blade avoids this problem by clicking to chamber and swinging only on release of the key. Tends to look silly, though, especially when enemies chase you half across the map with their arms raised. Maybe the solution for Exanima would be to have different default combat stances that could be toggled with a key?

 

[CandleStickZombie]

Yeah iv experienced this too, like a lighting left with a halbird, and that was without a wind up to

 

[Don Kanaille]

The AI is built so that they use the exact same controls as a human player does and have human reaction times. Unless something is bugged, anything the AI fighters can do should be possible for the player as well.

Mind that especially the better AI opponents love to use "feint" a lot, a technique which you have to learn first but then allows you to stop and change or delay attacks during windup. It can really throw your timing off, but if you call a feint you can abuse the opening which your enemy created for you. Works especially well with long-range weapons, where the AI actually feint so too much so you can just keep hitting them.

 

[jdnvodka]

I've been able to consistently recreate about 98% of the things I've seen the A.I do. They have to use the same control methods we do, anything they do you can pull off. You can "chamber" a swing with clever use of left click, you can feint and switch directions fairly fast with the right combinations and timing, you can most certainly do lighting strikes with little build up, It's my bread and butter with short swords and spears.

 

[jdnvodka]

Also you can, if very lucky or skilled use the momentum of an opponents swing to redirect your own swings very quickly and with quite an astounding amount of force. I've just recently been toying with this mechanic.

 

[Zoltan]

Well in my case I'd like the Experts and Masters AI to have even more tricks up their sleeves, I would not complaint to have an increased difficulty, but it's true that I wasn't thinking that way some time ago when I was still having cramps from clenching my mouse during arena fights

 

[jdnvodka]

I would like to see that too and I bet that is on the way, when the A.I gets more refined, when more skills are added in and weapons and the animations are worked on a bit more, I'm sure there will be more to a fight with someone highly skilled down the line. I agree though, after my first like 15 hours ever playing I thought I had the game down. I'm into likely 1000 hours now and I look back at my 15 hour self and laugh. This game takes a ton of time to really understand, I love that.

 

[guywiththemorningstar]

Thanks for bringing that to light, guys. I've noticed my own play style becoming very stale and redundant. Are there any videos of these techniques or would anyone like to make one showcasing these techniques? Also, this doesn't exlain why they are able LtR endlessly.