Worst Cheating AI

[SoulBlazer]

Maybe I just suck at them, but it seems a lot of eletronic card games cheat also....no way I can lose ten hands of strip poker or Texas Hold Em online in a row.

[gdement]

Maybe I just suck at them, but it seems a lot of eletronic card games cheat also....no way I can lose ten hands of strip poker or Texas Hold Em online in a row.

If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend "Smoke 'Em Poker". It's an old Windows freeware. I love the AI in that game, which of course is what makes poker fun to play.

I don't know if it technically cheats, but I think it doesn't. Bluffing works when it's done well, and not if you overdo it. It feels very realistic.

[Frizo]

Sonic Shuffle (Dreamcast). The computer always gets exactly what it needs to win the game, every time. To win you have to be extremely lucky.

 

WRONG!

I own this, the REAL one, not emulated, if it makes a differance. The computer acctually has luck generated stuff. It doesnt get what it always needs. I win almost everytime. Play Mario Party if you are not a super-duper board gamer.

[The_Laird]

Combat Cars - This game cheats like a siv. Not only do they drive perfectly, but they clusterfuck you right off of the starting line like you were a 12 year old boy at the Vatican.

 

Agreed

[ericwierson]

Combat Cars - This game cheats like a siv. Not only do they drive perfectly, but they clusterfuck you right off of the starting line like you were a 12 year old boy at the Vatican.

Never heard of this one. What console is it for?

Edited November 27, 2009 by ericwierson

[kevincal]

The Mortal Kombat series has the cheapest AI ever in the world, PERIOD!

[Video]

Name a racing game. Nuff said For real, most racing games have cars that are just a little better than yours, always has the perfrect turn (not crashing into walls/other cars etc)

 

This is one reason I love Need For Speed, it was the first game I came across where the computer cars would screw up and crash (into each ohter, not just you) Of course, it does still have that "slow down if the human player gets to far behind" thing going on.

 

Any RTS game. Take Age games. I can go through them pretty easy on easy and normal, but hard, forget it. Thing is, I can set up my people, put them out mining gold/food/wood as fast as I can, and by the time I hit my first big advancement to level up, the computer is alreaddy sending max level stuff my way....granted, on all but the hardest setting, it's doing it slowly....but damn, there is NO FUCKING WAY to get leveled up that fast. I'm talking within two minutes of starting a game here, like I said, where any human would just be coming into their first level advancements. Age of empires: Mythology is my favorite game, but I still can't get anywhere on the hardest setting. I just haven't figured out the secret yet. Normal's the most fun, but like I said, the computer maxes out to fast...annd how does it keep supplied in money and food? It'll have tons of farms and such when you get over there, but it will have like one peeon working the crops (and for me, i have to have one person per farm to get anything from it)

 

Actually, that's how I useually win the game, I may not have a huge army, but I'll have over a third of my population working on food, and nearly another third working wood and money (empires lets you trade for money, really cool)

 

Anyhow, it's just one example, but almost every RTS I've come across does the exact same thing. Even the final level of Warlocked for the Gameboy Advance does this (though it's just that the computer keeps building people for free till you destroy some farms)

[gdement]

Any RTS game. Take Age games. I can go through them pretty easy on easy and normal, but hard, forget it. Thing is, I can set up my people, put them out mining gold/food/wood as fast as I can, and by the time I hit my first big advancement to level up, the computer is alreaddy sending max level stuff my way....granted, on all but the hardest setting, it's doing it slowly....but damn, there is NO FUCKING WAY to get leveled up that fast. I'm talking within two minutes of starting a game here, like I said, where any human would just be coming into their first level advancements. Age of empires: Mythology is my favorite game, but I still can't get anywhere on the hardest setting. I just haven't figured out the secret yet. Normal's the most fun, but like I said, the computer maxes out to fast...annd how does it keep supplied in money and food? It'll have tons of farms and such when you get over there, but it will have like one peeon working the crops (and for me, i have to have one person per farm to get anything from it)

 

Actually, that's how I useually win the game, I may not have a huge army, but I'll have over a third of my population working on food, and nearly another third working wood and money (empires lets you trade for money, really cool)

 

Anyhow, it's just one example, but almost every RTS I've come across does the exact same thing. Even the final level of Warlocked for the Gameboy Advance does this (though it's just that the computer keeps building people for free till you destroy some farms)

 

 

I'm not sure about Mythology, but I know that Age of Kings plays fair on Hard level. On hardest it cheats by giving itself +500 of each resource every 15 minutes.

This is on Standard/Conquest type games. If you play King of the Hill or some other variants I think it starts cheating on hard instead of hardest.

 

It's a good system I think. The AI plays it's best possible game on Hard, and if that's not enough to challenge you, you can let it cheat by using Hardest.

 

I can't keep up with it on hard either, but it's not cheating, it's just faster than I am.

A long time ago I started writing an AI script for that game, and it was slightly faster than the stock AI, without using any cheats. At the time, when I was writing the script, I was able to grow almost as fast because I had the script in my head. I can't do it anymore though.

 

The one thing I don't like about these games is that it depends a lot on how fast you are at clicking and hitting hotkeys and other such busywork. In that sense the AI "cheats" because it doesn't have to use a mouse or a keyboard.

 

The stock AI depends a lot on market trading, probably the same in Mythology. That can make it seem to get too much of a particular resource. If you want to watch the AI play a game, it might be possible to have the computer control your player. You can do that in Kings, but I don't remember Mythology as well.

[Kripto]

In Ye Olde WipeOut XL, I had always suspected that the computer was giving weapons to enemy craft when it felt they needed them, but yesterday I actually witnessed a competitor drop mines while his shield was up, which is impossible for us lowly human players to do. The game is still fun, but now I know the truth...

Edited November 28, 2009 by Kripto

[ericwierson]

Atari 2600 Chess. It even cheats on the easy levels which makes it no fun to play at all.

 

Are you sure? From what I've read it only "cheats" on the higher levels - and even that isn't cheating per se but rather messing up the board: Instead of having the AI cheat intentionally to make the game harder - which would be stupid for a game like chess - it's some bug in the code which affects the current positions of the pieces on the board. My guess is it is the result of an effort to minimize the amount of used RAM that went horribly wrong.

 

 

Someone mentioned C&C, yes that AI cheats pretty badly, but that never bothered me, at least in the campaign mode (the only mode available to play the computer in the first game). I never saw it so much as cheating but more as "the AI works differently". Also it needs to cheat that much to actually be challenging, and even that way you could beat it quite easily up until the last few missions of each campaign - only talking about those missions where you could build your own base. The ones where you couldn't build usually were quite difficult, at least until you worked out a proper tactic.

 

In the skirmish mode of Red Alert, however, I thought it was unfair, usually the AI tank-rushed you very early, so you had to start out very defense-heavy and even then you might not survive the first attack. Also, if you played multiple opponents, they would automatically ally against you. In skirmish mode the excuse "it just works different for them" didn't apply anymore, because it's supposed to simulate a multiplayer game, a symmetric situation.

Well I played it for awhile on the easy levels and did not get cheated. I might try again on different variations and levels and see, but for now I stand corrected.

[atarilovesyou]

Hate to mention another race game, but:

 

RC Pro Am for the NES

 

...once you get to the higher levels, all you hear is a "whhheeeeeeep!" sound and that yellow freakin' driver just puts on the JETS...basically at TOP TURBO speed and there isn't a thing you can do, other than finish second. It's lovely.

[accousticguitar]

In regards to chess, I seem to remember hearing that if you leave it on overnight the placement of the pieces will have changed in the morning.

[TI99Kitty]

In regards to chess, I seem to remember hearing that if you leave it on overnight the placement of the pieces will have changed in the morning.

 

In Chess Maniac 5 Billion and One, the computer would attempt to distract you (by having something weird happen in the background, or by having a busty woman in a bikini show up, for instance) and move pieces around, or "bump" the table, and other cheaty tactics like that. If you noticed the cheat, you pressed a certain key and the game board would be restored, while the computer player whined like a little brat. ^_^

[SoulBlazer]

In regards to chess, I seem to remember hearing that if you leave it on overnight the placement of the pieces will have changed in the morning.

 

In Chess Maniac 5 Billion and One, the computer would attempt to distract you (by having something weird happen in the background, or by having a busty woman in a bikini show up, for instance) and move pieces around, or "bump" the table, and other cheaty tactics like that. If you noticed the cheat, you pressed a certain key and the game board would be restored, while the computer player whined like a little brat. ^_^

 

Never heard of that game. What system is it for? And that sounds totally awsome.

[Video]

Atari 2600 Chess. It even cheats on the easy levels which makes it no fun to play at all.

 

Are you sure? From what I've read it only "cheats" on the higher levels - and even that isn't cheating per se but rather messing up the board: Instead of having the AI cheat intentionally to make the game harder - which would be stupid for a game like chess - it's some bug in the code which affects the current positions of the pieces on the board. My guess is it is the result of an effort to minimize the amount of used RAM that went horribly wrong.

 

 

Someone mentioned C&C, yes that AI cheats pretty badly, but that never bothered me, at least in the campaign mode (the only mode available to play the computer in the first game). I never saw it so much as cheating but more as "the AI works differently". Also it needs to cheat that much to actually be challenging, and even that way you could beat it quite easily up until the last few missions of each campaign - only talking about those missions where you could build your own base. The ones where you couldn't build usually were quite difficult, at least until you worked out a proper tactic.

 

In the skirmish mode of Red Alert, however, I thought it was unfair, usually the AI tank-rushed you very early, so you had to start out very defense-heavy and even then you might not survive the first attack. Also, if you played multiple opponents, they would automatically ally against you. In skirmish mode the excuse "it just works different for them" didn't apply anymore, because it's supposed to simulate a multiplayer game, a symmetric situation.

Well I played it for awhile on the easy levels and did not get cheated. I might try again on different variations and levels and see, but for now I stand corrected.

 

Actually, on the "easy" level, as far as I can tell, the computer never goes beyond level one (which is disappointing, but a great learning setting)

 

But on Normal and hard, the computer is simply upgrading faster than is possible.

 

All of what the above poster said is true, but there is one interface that wasn't taken into account when it was posted. Your characters. I can use the hotkeys, mouse keyboard etc just fine...but when you start a game, and have, say, 5 guys. You tell two to go mine gold, two to go chop wood, and one to build a farm (and immidiately build 4 more guys when they are finished, though you can build the fifth guy by the time those foure are finished)

 

The thing is, you click the guy, assign the hotkey, and tell him to mine, he mosey's over to the mine, dissappears for a bit (like 15 seconds I think) comes out and walks back to the base. The problem is, it's a set speed. A lot of the early part of the game, about 5 minutes actually, is spent waiting on the guys tomake the trips. And yet, here comes the computer with maxed out characters in just a few minutes.

 

That's what I'm talking about, the kind of speed required isn't possible, due to the design of the game engine. In fact, many of the maps (unless the computer screws up and puts us next door or something) it takes me longer to move my army from my base to the computers base, than it takes for the computer to start hitting me with max characters.

 

Yeah, you can say the computer has that speed thing going on, being able to say char1 do x, char2 do y char 3 do z (etc, etc, as fast as the clock cycles will allow) but if the computer was having to wait for its guys to mine gold, chop wood and build houses, it would take considerably longer for it to level up.

 

Anyhow, yeah, I can play it myself, I useually set it for four characters, have the 3 computers against me, and all but the hardest settings I can useually win on, even still. But come to the hardest setting, forget it, my friend is almost as good as I am, and both of us combined have only successfully conquered a single computer charactger on max once, and one of us died in the process. I KNOW there's cheating going on there, but eh, then again, that's why I stay away from the max settings on almost all games anyways.

[shadow460]

Speaking of RTS games, Westwood Studios said upon the release of Read Alert 2 that "there's no point in having the AI players fight each other in Skirmish mode, so we caused the to all gang up on the human players." Tiberian Sun employs a similar strategy; everyone fights everyone until one AI player surrenders, then they all gang up on the humans. From there, both games pick "hated enemies" at random and will attack that enemy exclusively until one or the other perishes.

both games give AI players multiples of the amount of ore/tiberium the miner/harvester brings back. For example, an Easy Enemy in RA2 who doesn't have an Ore Purifier gets $1000 from a Chrono Miner, a Medium Enemy gets $2000, a Brutal Enemy gets $4000, yet a human player gets only $500. Humans can take advantage of this, though, because their spies will steal half of what that AI player has. One spy can earn you half a million credits later in the game compared to $500 per load from the Chrono Miner or $600 if your Purifier is still standing.

 

I've also seen wipEout opponents launch weapons while their shields are up.

 

Red Alert 1 will only perform the most serious rushes if you attack the AI ore trucks. They can't crack extreme defenses, though. Walling off a several Tesla coils will usually do the trick. Allies need to build several turrets and plenty of light tanks. The light tanks are fast enough to avoid being hit as long as they don't stand still. Medium tanks are best saved for mopping up or for killing off the few stragglers that make it into the heart of your base. Also a flight of Apaches, MiGs, or Eagles (in RA2) can thin the ranks of an incoming rush long before they reach your base.

The cardinal rule in Red Alert 1 skirmishes, though, in any version, is to never attack the ore trucks. Not even one single shot.

[Rev. Rob]

Combat Cars - This game cheats like a siv. Not only do they drive perfectly, but they clusterfuck you right off of the starting line like you were a 12 year old boy at the Vatican.

Never heard of this one. What console is it for?

 

Sega Genesis

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU0JIhjzxRw

 

In the video, the player does about as good as I ever did. Notice how he gets creamed coming off the line, and how ridiculous the turns are. The real shit icing on the turd cake is that when you don't rank 1-3 in a race, then it's game over. No continues. No track selection. No chance to practice on a difficult track.

Edited November 30, 2009 by Rev. Rob

[rjchamp3]

I think Atari 2600 Real Sports tennis has the craziest cheating AI of any game of the early 80's

 

my brother used to say does this guy ever lose LMFAO

[Eltigro]

There's several games I thought cheated...

 

Many driving games:

Rubber band physics: where it doesn't matter how good you drive, the AI drivers always are right behind you to pass if you slip up

Superhuman driving: where the AI drivers are always on the line, never wiping out on their own

AI cars glued to road: if my car barely touches theirs, I go into a hard to control sliding mess, usually off the road and spun out, they just keep driving like I was a gnat on their windshield

Blue Spiny Shell: You know what I'm talking about. Every time you get in first place, it seems that the AI players just happen to, randomly, get the Blue Spiny Shell a lot. Some people claim that this item alone ruined Mario Kart games for them.

 

(Driving games are still one of my favorites, though.)

 

Many old school baseball games:

I thought they cheated mainly because, if I hit a fly ball anywhere to the outfield, the AI fielders were right under it to make the out... I always had to wait until my outfielder was on the screen to know which way to run

 

Many old school hockey games:

Similar to fielders, the goalie for the computer team was usually awesome, the goalie for my team, even if I let the computer control him, and even if he had awesome stats, sucked

 

Um... Games where teh cops are after you:

Thinking mainly of Grand Theft Auto III. Similar to comments above about C&C. Here's the scenario. I'm in a shootout with the mafia. The cops show up. They only focus on me. Am I the only one shooting? Are they all paid off and corrupt? If so, they must be paid off by every gang in Liberty City because it doesn't matter what faction I'm fighting, the cops always ignore them and come after me.

[Video]

seeing that video for Combat cars was cool. You know, there are a lot of racers where I would intentionally get "second" place, because if you get first place, the computer would fuck you up. And you could often pull off first over all anyways, cause most of the time, the same computer car didn't get first.

 

 

Um... Games where teh cops are after you:

Thinking mainly of Grand Theft Auto III. Similar to comments above about C&C. Here's the scenario. I'm in a shootout with the mafia. The cops show up. They only focus on me. Am I the only one shooting? Are they all paid off and corrupt? If so, they must be paid off by every gang in Liberty City because it doesn't matter what faction I'm fighting, the cops always ignore them and come after me.

 

Thank you!! You know how many people I've told this, and I'd say I didn't like the game because that aspect wasn't "realistic" (realism being the apparent reason the game is so loved) and people would just jump on my ass about how that's exactly how it would happen in real life. (not in the world I'm from, but eh....I just don't bring it up anymore cause apparently a bunch of deluded idiots play the game so...)

[jrok]

I think Atari 2600 Real Sports tennis has the craziest cheating AI of any game of the early 80's

 

my brother used to say does this guy ever lose LMFAO

 

Atari Video Chess is also a disgusting cheater. If you're not keeping track of the board on the side, it's possible to get reamed by an impossible move and not even notice. A totally safe piece will be captured, and you'll sit there wondering "how in the world did I miss that?" The answer is: You didn't. You got jacked. After 30+ fair and gentlemanly moves, Video Chess decided to mug you and dump you in the river.

 

The one thing I am curious about is if these "magical moves" were programmed on purpose to enhance the "challenge", or if they are simply the result of genuine bugs. Either way I'd be fascinated to hear Whitehead interviewed about this subject.... preferably while being waterboarded. :x

[TI99Kitty]

In Chess Maniac 5 Billion and One, the computer would attempt to distract you (by having something weird happen in the background, or by having a busty woman in a bikini show up, for instance) and move pieces around, or "bump" the table, and other cheaty tactics like that. If you noticed the cheat, you pressed a certain key and the game board would be restored, while the computer player whined like a little brat. ^_^

 

Never heard of that game. What system is it for? And that sounds totally awsome.

 

It was a PC game, from the early '90s. I remember getting it from Best Buy, back when I bought my first PC, then taking it home and finding out it didn't work with my equipment (I think it required more memory than my new Packard-Bell had, or possibly I didn't have enough hard drive space -- the install program was spread out over about 15 3.5 inch disks).

[Eltigro]

seeing that video for Combat cars was cool. You know, there are a lot of racers where I would intentionally get "second" place, because if you get first place, the computer would fuck you up. And you could often pull off first over all anyways, cause most of the time, the same computer car didn't get first.

 

 

Um... Games where teh cops are after you:

Thinking mainly of Grand Theft Auto III. Similar to comments above about C&C. Here's the scenario. I'm in a shootout with the mafia. The cops show up. They only focus on me. Am I the only one shooting? Are they all paid off and corrupt? If so, they must be paid off by every gang in Liberty City because it doesn't matter what faction I'm fighting, the cops always ignore them and come after me.

 

Thank you!! You know how many people I've told this, and I'd say I didn't like the game because that aspect wasn't "realistic" (realism being the apparent reason the game is so loved) and people would just jump on my ass about how that's exactly how it would happen in real life. (not in the world I'm from, but eh....I just don't bring it up anymore cause apparently a bunch of deluded idiots play the game so...)

 

Yeah, I think it would be much more realistic if, when the cops showed up, it became a three way firefight and actually gave you the opportunity to get "lost" in the confusion. Think about it, there would be maybe 20 cops fighting like 15 mafia and you. I think that many people all fighting could give you the opportunity to get lost in the crowd and slip away. Would make for some more interesting mission scenarios or strategies. Instead of going in and killing all the mafia, then running from the cops. Go in expecting to make the cops get involved, maybe kill the one guy that the mission wanted you to kill, then use the confusion to get away saving bullets and life.

[devwebcl]

I think Atari 2600 Real Sports tennis has the craziest cheating AI of any game of the early 80's

 

my brother used to say does this guy ever lose LMFAO

 

What did your brother use to say that?

can't it be beat it ?

 

I've played a lot of Activision Tennis and I thought RS Tennis was the same thing.

[devwebcl]

Atari Video Chess is also a disgusting cheater. If you're not keeping track of the board on the side, it's possible to get reamed by an impossible move and not even notice. A totally safe piece will be captured, and you'll sit there wondering "how in the world did I miss that?" The answer is: You didn't. You got jacked. After 30+ fair and gentlemanly moves, Video Chess decided to mug you and dump you in the river.

 

The one thing I am curious about is if these "magical moves" were programmed on purpose to enhance the "challenge", or if they are simply the result of genuine bugs. Either way I'd be fascinated to hear Whitehead interviewed about this subject.... preferably while being waterboarded. :x

 

I didn't remember that Video Chess has wrong moves... where did you read that interview?

Finally is it a bug?