Fights Meow, GI Jazz, and the cost of retreat

[Brother Null]

It happens all the time: a player has GI Jazz on the ropes and then his SA kicks in. He gains five stacks of Heal and three stacks of Armor. Buoyed by this respite from the furious pummeling he had just received, his first move is to...tag out?

Now, as that player I guess I do not mind. But GI Jazz is a defensive icon. His ability to recover with Heal, resist further attacks with Armor and commence the Big Band Beatdown in earnest is the stuff of legend. Well, it doesn't happen anymore.

Retreats are too easy for the AI, even when it is tactically stupid to do so. If Meow has Last Stand, she shouldn't be running. If GI Jazz leaves during the heal and armor, he surrenders his only real advantage. If we want to put our best fighters into the Rift Battles, we need to know that our best fighters will stick around and fight, yeah?

I do not know if this is an easy exception to make, but I suspect that there could be a Meow/GI Jazz exception that builds their SA triggers into the decision to stay or flee. Please consider this.

 

[Liam]

Retreats are too easy for the AI, even when it is tactically stupid to do so. If Meow has Last Stand, she shouldn't be running. If GI Jazz leaves during the heal and armor, he surrenders his only real advantage.

100000% agreed!

It's something that has bugged the design team for a looong time. Unfortunately getting the AI to understand that they should not tag out when they have buffs and debuffs will require engineering time, which we haven't had a lot of to spare right now.

Hopefully sometime in the future we can take a crack at this! I'd usually say something like, "I'll bump it up on the list", but I was talking about this only a few days ago, so it's fresh in our minds.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[TonyPartridge30]

100000% agreed!

It's something that has bugged the design team for a looong time. Unfortunately getting the AI to understand that they should not tag out when they have buffs and debuffs will require engineering time, which we haven't had a lot of to spare right now.

Hopefully sometime in the future we can take a crack at this! I'd usually say something like, "I'll bump it up on the list", but I was talking about this only a few days ago, so it's fresh in our minds.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I was just thinking, maybe for M&F and G.I. Jazz, their SAs could be modified so that they also get a "Disable tag ins" debuff when their abilities proc? Not ideal, I know, but it would give the AI the benefit of actually using the full extent of their SAs. Maybe this could be a temporary option until a more robust, dynamic solution to AI behavior can be developed.

 

[Liam]

I was just thinking, maybe for M&F and G.I. Jazz, their SAs could be modified so that they also get a "Disable tag ins" debuff when their abilities proc? Not ideal, I know, but it would give the AI the benefit of actually using the full extent of their SAs. Maybe this could be a temporary option until a more robust, dynamic solution to AI behavior can be developed.

That would work for the AI, but it would be detrimental to the player. I'd prefer to hold off until I can do it the right way, but yeah I realize this is more of an issue in light of Rift Battle defense bases and such.

 

[TonyPartridge30]

That would work for the AI, but it would be detrimental to the player. I'd prefer to hold off until I can do it the right way, but yeah I realize this is more of an issue in light of Rift Battle defense bases and such.

Yeah, it's definitely not a perfect suggestion. Any player using either fighter who wanted to tag in someone else for whatever reason wouldn't be able to. But in support of my idea, both GI Jazz and M&F are pretty low on the attacker tiers list. While applying a "Disable tag in" debuff to these fighters along with their SAs could present issues to players using them in offense, I wonder how often people are actually using them like that, and whether the detriment would outweigh the potential benefit provided to the fighters as defenders.