The dumbest thing the AI has ever done?

[bdt2002]

Apparently I already commented on this thread, but I can't remember doing so. That being said, here's some of my weirdest moments.

1. My level 6 Togepi somehow killing Whitney's Miltank with the burn damage from a Metronome Sacred Fire on a scrapped run of HeartGold from way back in the day after it had swept the rest of my team. Oh, and that was after the Lum Berry was removed previously. Still not sure how that happened. Not really AI related but I just had to share :3

2. Various Gym Leader Pokémon spamming Work Up a little too much allowing easy KOs in the Gen 5 games

3. Ultra Necrozma choosing random moves for no reason because my Magnezone resisted its entire moveset (that battle was easy for me uwu)

Also, this has never happened to me but it just popped into my head: I wonder if anyone has ever sent out an Eelektross against an Earthquake spamming opponent and actually gotten away with it; usually the AI doesn't take Abilities into account, so would that actually work?

 

[Pikachu315111]

Welp, it happened again!

Day 2 of helping my youngest cousin, since he barely collected any of the TMs we decided to go around and get all the free TMs. While getting TM44 Play Rough (GF can we make this a permanent TM for Gen 8? While not a lot of Pokemon learn it from Gen 1, I think when you include all the Pokemon it'll make it worth having as a TM) in the Celadon Condominiums, we visited the GameFreak offices... and got into a battle with Morimoto (who's a Coach Trainer which is pretty neat). First Pokemon out is Kangaskan... and it happened again. Kangaskhan kept doing Sucker Punch (well, after it did Fake Out) while we had Mewtwo just Calm Mind 4 or 5 times (it was enough for Kangaskan to run out of Sucker Punch and switch to using Outrage). But by then it was too late, swept the rest of Morimoto's team with Psychic (and one Thunderbolt on Gyarados).

 

[Worldie]

I don't think the AI of the trainers is particularly well developed in Let's Go other than just "click highest dmg move" fortunately.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

It's really too bad you can't take advantage of save states, just to make sure Kangaskhann didn't have a really bad RNG roll and was expecting you to attack any moment now. And... is the AI known for being bad with Sucker Punch mechanics or not?

 

[Worldie]

It's really too bad you can't take advantage of save states, just to make sure Kangaskhann didn't have a really bad RNG roll and was expecting you to attack any moment now. And... is the AI known for being bad with Sucker Punch mechanics or not?

The AI doesn't really play around Sucker Punch mechanics (in both directions, defensively and offensively).
I don't actually recall that happening even in actual facilities either...

 

[Jerry the great]

My rival in gen 1 using tail whip every turn in the first battle of gen 1. Yes, I mean EVERY turn.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

The AI just loves to use Mud Sport or Water Sport whenever they get the opportunity. They also seem to love using Foresight as well. Is there really any reason using any of those moves? I always found those "sport" moves to be an utter waste of a slot but I guess Game Freak programmers disagree?

 

[Jerry the great]

The AI just loves to use Mud Sport or Water Sport whenever they get the opportunity. They also seem to love using Foresight as well. Is there really any reason using any of those moves? I always found those "sport" moves to be an utter waste of a slot but I guess Game Freak programmers disagree?

Well, NPCs can be pretty dumb, and I'll admit that's happened with me before. Geodudes love to use Mud Sport on me, and Budews love to use Water Sport on me.

 

[Pikachu315111]

It's really too bad you can't take advantage of save states, just to make sure Kangaskhann didn't have a really bad RNG roll and was expecting you to attack any moment now. And... is the AI known for being bad with Sucker Punch mechanics or not?

No, I think the issue was the same issue that made Lance's Dragonite in Gen I easy to beat with a newly caught Tentacool with Toxic: the AI is using a move that Type is super effective against my current Pokemon out. Though they've fixed in since Gen I to only do that with an attacking move, the AI (at least in the main game) still isn't smart enough to know Sucker Punch only works if the opponent attacks first, thus if the opponent starts to buff their stats they should switch to another move. Honestly would have been better if they gave Kangaskhan Crunch.

My rival in gen 1 using tail whip every turn in the first battle of gen 1. Yes, I mean EVERY turn.

Wouldn't be surprised if in that battle it's random what the Rival does as there's only two moves. There's no reason not just to attack, so you just got lucky with the RNG.

The AI just loves to use Mud Sport or Water Sport whenever they get the opportunity. They also seem to love using Foresight as well. Is there really any reason using any of those moves? I always found those "sport" moves to be an utter waste of a slot but I guess Game Freak programmers disagree?

Well it sort of makes sense using it once...

Water Sport decreases the power of Fire-type moves making them further resisted by Water-types (though you'd probably not use a Fire-type in that case anyway), there are some Pokemon which get this move that could actually make use of it like Budew and Masquerain (there's also a number of Pokemon that learn it that are neutral to Fire).

Mud Sport decreases Electric-type moves, and while useless for the Ground-type that learn it, there's plenty of Water-types that learn it too. Also GF probably have Doubles in mind when making the move, though its usefulness goes down as once the user leaves the field so does the effect.

However I know the AI will sometimes use it multiple times which, yeah, what is the AI thinking if it's not a random choice thing?

 

[Worldie]

However I know the AI will sometimes use it multiple times which, yeah, what is the AI thinking if it's not a random choice thing?

Wild guess: even high-level AI generally has Field Conditions as highly favored in the move selection (queue memes of Florges-2)
Considering those 2 moves are field conditions as well, I could assume the AI also favours them for the same reason, even though they are basically pointless.

 

[Jerry the great]

Hey Pikachu, that was still dumb of him to spam tail whip. I mean, AIs can always be stupid

 

[bdt2002]

There is one thing that hopefully we can all agree on: the new Generation 8 games better have more intelligent AI than the other games. Not only is the game newer and has higher expectations, but it's also on a more advanced system, and if Game Freak wants to actually acknowledge the fanbase for the first time since the DS era, there is absolutely no reason why whatever new opponents might be in Sword and Shield couldn't have at least three brain cells left. In other words, hopefully it's not the kind of AI that's like "Hey look a Ghost-Type, Geodude use Selfdestruct!"

 

[Jerry the great]

There is one thing that hopefully we can all agree on: the new Generation 8 games better have more intelligent AI than the other games. Not only is the game newer and has higher expectations, but it's also on a more advanced system, and if Game Freak wants to actually acknowledge the fanbase for the first time since the DS era, there is absolutely no reason why whatever new opponents might be in Sword and Shield couldn't have at least three brain cells left. In other words, hopefully it's not the kind of AI that's like "Hey look a Ghost-Type, Geodude use Selfdestruct!"

I'm so glad Game Freak is beginning to listen to the fanbase for once on challenge like it was before gen 6.

 

[Anna says hi]

I'm so glad Game Freak is beginning to listen to the fanbase for once on challenge like it was before gen 6.

they better have frontier

 

[Jerry the great]

they better have frontier

Hopefully. The battle frontier is really fun.

 

[bdt2002]

(Calling it right now: Sinnoh remakes are gonna have the Frontier shafted just like ORAS did for Hoenn.)

At least battle facilities try to be smart. That's really all I have to say.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Hey Pikachu, that was still dumb of him to spam tail whip. I mean, AIs can always be stupid

Not saying it wasn't, just pointing out why it probably happened. If I was programming battle scripts I would have the rival use the Status move once and then attack from then on, MAYBE have them use the status move again if their Pokemon gets below half HP.

they better have frontier

If they do it won't be until the third game/second paired games.

At least battle facilities try to be smart. That's really all I have to say.

That one of the frustrating things about the Battle Tower-expy, it would be "easy" to add additional modes to it but they don't want to divert from the basic battling formula for it. They could easily have Rental Pokemon, Inverse Battles, and Little Cup modes; they just need to set aside the time to program the NPC teams and rental Pokemon on offer.

 

[Jerry the great]

Well Pikachu, explaining why Blue did that was a great thing. Not against it or anything!

 

[Zowayix]

If I was programming battle scripts I would have the rival use the Status move once and then attack from then on, MAYBE have them use the status move again if their Pokemon gets below half HP.

If I recall correctly wasn't the first rival battle in Platinum programmed very intelligently? You will almost always lose if you just spam the damage-dealing move; I'm not sure how it works but it seems like the AI actually calculates how useful a status move will be relative to how much HP each side has remaining. Anyone else experience this?

 

[thdhted]

One thing I will say is that the Kahuna AI seems to be fairly smart for whatever reason. I recently finished a US Egglocke and the Nanu fight was surprisingly smart for what it was. He consistently went into sableye both times I tried going for a fighting move(from a Kommo-O), which really caught me off guard considering the AI is usually more than happy to sit there and let the pokemon die.

 

[King Feraligatr]

One thing I will say is that the Kahuna AI seems to be fairly smart for whatever reason. I recently finished a US Egglocke and the Nanu fight was surprisingly smart for what it was. He consistently went into sableye both times I tried going for a fighting move(from a Kommo-O), which really caught me off guard considering the AI is usually more than happy to sit there and let the pokemon die.

As someone who's been making and playtesting a UM hard mode hack, I can confirm the top tier AI in Gen 7 can be surprisingly competent at times (for Pokemon AI that is). Sure it's still dumb plenty of the time, but it switches more than previous Gens and is actually capable of inducing mindgames with me. All in all, it can be surprisingly smart and challenging (again, for Pokemon AI).

 

[Ironmage]

Emerald Battle Pike: In a stall war between my skarmory and the AI's chansey. Chansey has seismic toss, and brings skarm into the red. It then realizes that it should use another move to conserve PP, and goes for shadow ball. Which, being a resisted physical hit coming of chansey onto skarmory, does 1 damage, which I easily out-heal with my item.

Diamond monosteel playthrough: Final rival fight before the e4, bring him down to staraptor. My bronzong is down, so it can use close combat until it wins. It does so four times, then abruptly stops when I'm down to my last mon, giving me the victory

Heartgold battle factory: My vileplume against the AI typhlosion. Obviously, I switch to my fire resist (I forget which it was), to then immidiately be OHKO'd by a coverage move. It then uses its fire moves on my third mon, so I'm back to vileplume. It refuses to use a fire move thereafter, letting me stall it down and set up double team. AI sends out salamence. I get it into the red as it misses dragon claw several times. Then it reveals it had aerial ace this entire time and KO's me.

 

[Siggu]

Heartgold battle factory: My vileplume against the AI typhlosion. Obviously, I switch to my fire resist (I forget which it was), to then immidiately be OHKO'd by a coverage move. It then uses its fire moves on my third mon, so I'm back to vileplume. It refuses to use a fire move thereafter, letting me stall it down and set up double team. AI sends out salamence. I get it into the red as it misses dragon claw several times. Then it reveals it had aerial ace this entire time and KO's me.

This one sounds less like it's dumb and much more like the AI was mocking you.

 

[SwampySwampert]

A handful of in-game coding quirks or AI stupidity I noticed on my last playthrough of Sun:

1. There's a pair of Ace Trainers in Vast Poni Canyon who have an Alolan Ninetales and Alolan Sandslash in a Double Battle. For whatever reason, they are programmed to both use Hail on the first turn every time, meaning that the slower one will effectively waste a turn. (This cropped up in a previous playthrough too.)

2. When battling Guzma's Ariados in Aether Paradise, I sent out my own Ariados. Guzma decided to start off its battle strategy by doing nothing but use Sucker Punch until it runs out of PP for that move. Sure, just let me set up to +6 with Swords Dance real quick.

3. Lusamine's Milotic using Safeguard. While it's in KO range from my Vikavolt and has PP left for Recover and Hydro Pump, which could have possibly KO'd me. While it's already paralyzed. Sure, it could've been useful in case I decided I wanted to status her Bewear for whatever reason, but this decision just defies logic.

 

[Anna says hi]

Gonna explain the reason these happen, one at a time.

1. There's a pair of Ace Trainers in Vast Poni Canyon who have an Alolan Ninetales and Alolan Sandslash in a Double Battle. For whatever reason, they are programmed to both use Hail on the first turn every time, meaning that the slower one will effectively waste a turn. (This cropped up in a previous playthrough too.) Multi battle trainers are completely unaware of their partner's actions. The trainer with the Ninetales and the trainer with the Sandslash both thought their best play was to set up hail, not realizing that the other trainer was also doing that. Notably, both trainers setting (and then reversing) Trick Room is possible. This issue doesn't occur in Double Battles, only in Multis.

2. When battling Guzma's Ariados in Aether Paradise, I sent out my own Ariados. Guzma decided to start off its battle strategy by doing nothing but use Sucker Punch until it runs out of PP for that move. Sure, just let me set up to +6 with Swords Dance real quick. In the Aether foundation encounter, Guzma's Ariados has Fell Stinger(Bug 50 BP), Shadow Sneak(Ghost 40), and Sucker Punch(Dark 70). Sucker Punch outdamages Ariados's other moves by almost a factor of 2, meaning that on each individual turn Guzma's best play is to use Sucker. The AI does not adapt to this.


3. Lusamine's Milotic using Safeguard. While it's in KO range from my Vikavolt and has PP left for Recover and Hydro Pump, which could have possibly KO'd me. While it's already paralyzed. Sure, it could've been useful in case I decided I wanted to status her Bewear for whatever reason, but this decision just defies logic. Safeguard was a field condition that Milotic could set that wasn't already active, similarly to the Hail in example 1. It didn't matter that it wouldn't have helped their Milotic at all in the current circumstances - the AI just needs to set field conditions. You probably weren't in Hydro Pump KO range, since the AI favors grabbing KOs over anything else.

So yes, these do have simple explanations. The AI a) is not aware of their own multi battle partner, b) does not adapt to your playstyle, and c) is bad at prioritizing status moves are involved.