Are the AIs at different levels?

[Wuthred]

The question is kinda confusing from the title so I'll explain better:

I feel like different characters have AIs that are on different levels of difficulty.

Painwheel for example, she's an absolute goddess and has probably developed self awareness. The amount of mix-ups she puts in her combo while i'm blocking confuses me. Sometimes she does the full ground combo, sometimes she ends it early and does an air attack, hitting me because I unblocked to get a hit in after the combo, and sometimes she just starts with an air attack.

Now Eliza, she's really bad, I probably could kill any Eliza that wasn't able to damage me enough while I was blocking. My strategy is simple: get a bit far and block, she'll do either a charged attack or a dash attack with it's followup, both of which are really easy to punish. Rinse and repeat until she dies.

Anyone else noticed this?

 

[Lililira]

Yes, absolutely. Each character has slightly different AI based around how their moves work. For example, it seems that characters with longer-distance charge attacks (like Cerebella and Valentine) will seem to favor them more often. Also, special abilities like Ms Fortune's head games also play a big difference in how they behave. Characters whose abilities are based around throws (like Cerebella and Beowulf) seem to use them more often. Characters with long-distance moves other than dash will tend to mix things up by using both to close the distance between them and the opponent. And, of course, the AI's skill when it comes to properly using various special moves and blockbusters is all over the place, which also has a big effect on how easy it is to fight against any specific character. EG: Don't put a Taunt on someone you're using for Rift defense, that's just asking to get punished, but on the other hand the AI is really good at properly using Bursts.

There's also different levels of difficulty for each of these character AIs, which control how active they are in general. Stuff like how good they are at intercepting dashing opponents, punishing unsafe attacks, etc. It's pretty easy to see the difference when you compare the AI in Fishbone Basic with the AI in a gold PF once you reach a high streak. I'm pretty sure the Rift AIs are the strongest of the bunch though, generally speaking. I'm not 100% sure what exactly effects it, but I get the feeling it's based on both the game mode that they're in and their fighter score.

I do agree that some characters are easier to deal with, generally speaking. Eliza is easy since when she's far away from the opponent she tends to use one of her three moves that move her pretty far (charge, down-swipe, dash), all of which are easily countered. On the other hand, you've got Headless Fortune, which bamboozles me on a regular basis because the AI is inhumanly good with her. She's really good at getting up close and not giving you an opening for any sort of counterattack, which can be very aggravating on a Scratching Post rift node, where letting her enter Headless is basically a death sentence.