Fighter AI Realism vs Difficulty

[Skynet]

So with the game slowly coming out and getting in people's hands, there is a small window in which we can try to act on early feedback. Hopefully we can get some reasonable and accurate feedback (not knee-jerk one-fight reactions) that can be incorporated into the next patch.

This thread is for how specific AIs fight at different difficulties. Ideally, I'd want to see what fighters you're using, what difficulty you're playing, what experience you're wanting out of that, and how it either is or is not matching your expectations. Preferably with a few fights under your belt with any AI that you have opinions on, as a single fight really isn't a lot to go off of unless there is a glaring problem. If you've got any slider changes, those are also necessary to note!

For instance, are you seeing certain fighters perform too many takedowns? Not enough? Are they throwing way too many kicks? Are they staying in too tight and pressure fighting, or perhaps they are not engaging enough? Are they posing enough of a challenge or are they proving too hard? Maybe you've seen some grapples giving up positions too easily, or standing up while on top.

Our goal with offline AI is that Legendary difficulty is purely for challenge, with the fighter style coming through but not being 100% true to life. This is where the AI will be by far the least forgiving with its defense and counters, grapple denials, and combo length. They have better cage control and timing as well.

Pro is our ideal difficulty for competent players who want an intelligent AI that is still fighting like their real life counter-parts. This is where most offline/sim players will ideally end up after playing for a while. Keep this in mind when giving feedback, as if you fall in this category, then we want this difficulty to be the most appealing to you. Let us know if it isn't, and why!

Hard and below start to lose a lot of fighter IQ features, and in fact start reversing that and making intentional mistakes and poor choices, to give a more engaging and inviting experience for new and learning users, or those who prefer a slightly more relaxed experience, perhaps with the aid of some sliders.

This is the best time to test a bunch of the game out, and not immediately settle into any habits, settings, or modes. Try things even if you think you won't like them, because your feedback is very important, and those things likely won't change to be more appealing if you never let us know!

Thanks for playing, and let the feedback flooowwww.


EDIT: For reference, there are currently seven AI archetype templates, which most of the roster is assigned. They are Brawler, Muai Thai, Striker, Wrestler, Submission Specialist, Greco Roman, and Ground and Pound. These templates are heavily customized themselves, and represent the largest spread of fighter styles while still having meaningful differentiation from each other, given the resources we have to work with. Customized AI's use one of these templates as a base, and then we change any/all values that we find necessary to create an AI that is used specifically for that one fighter.

These control a great many things, but do not include move-sets, stats, perks, combos, etc. They are almost purely tendencies; how often do they use the different tools in their bag. These tendencies are the things that are more easily controlled or changed, as that's really what a player is doing. They decide which tools to use, not what tools they have. So for feedback, try and keep that in mind as those are the kinds of changes that I can most easily act on.

An AI as a whole package is made up of a ton of different parts, and some are notably easier to change than others. These parts all intertwine and interact with each other in very dynamic ways, so certain changes can seem simple on the outside, but have unseen side effects when actually put in action. One good example of this is a fighter's preferred range and their aggression level. If the AI is often on the outside, then both they and the opponent have less opportunity to engage each other, so it naturally happens less. If an AI is setup to stay in the pocket and constantly advance, they will inevitably end up in more exchanges, which makes them come across as more aggressive, even though you didn't change anything about their actual strike output!

[AeroZeppelin27]

Great post, I've bookmarked this page and will post any/all AI feedback/issues I come across as of the 30th.

Loving what I've seen of Pro and Legendary so far, it actually looks challenging, and that is utterly awesome, keep up good work!

[Falseperception]

Really great to see this thread - will def be leaving a lot of feedback on the pro difficulty once i get my hands on it as i prefer to play against ai and am hoping for a sim style of play

[ImAnOlogist]

I've watched a lot of gameplay (so my opinion might not be as valid) but some fighters with what seems to be default "Fighter type A" AI throw too many body kicks/kicks in general.

[ERsports]

Skynet how does the difficulty translate to career mode. For instance is normal the equivalebt of hard in the other modes? I find that the pacing of the fight on normal career is much more realistic regarding staming for the player character as on pro the stamina drain is insane for the player compared to the cpu. I wish you had a soecific ai for real clock fights so the punch count was more realistoc in that area. Also, the simple subs need adjustment as I land them every time and the cpu submits me every time as well. Also is it possible for sub switches to happen during simple submissions?

[sdpdude9]

I would add that most of the generic template AIs seem to be extremely aggressive.

[ERsports]

I also wish the simple subs were more rhythm vased than how fast you hit the button as I love being able to watch the subs play out but hate smashing the button.

[rob3563]

A lot of complaints are that takedowns are way too hard to pull off even on normal. Has anyone tried takedowns against the AI on beginner and easy to see if you can get them,even so normal difficulty should not be anywhere near that hard.