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[Lightning Count]

GAF, let's talk about troll AI/ gameplay mechanics.#1

GTA

AI drivers shift lanes to create collisions or make sudden turns across the road and worst of all, they will drive into the oncoming lane causing a head on collision.

Cops spawn from behind you in chase.

Cop cars are unrealistically fast and will always catch up.

Mario Kart

Two turns from victory, boom blue shell, now you finish 5th.

SNK bosses

Can read your moves, counter you at will, when near defeat will unleash a move that kills you instantly.

 

[DrGonzo615]

Overbearing rubberband AI.

One of the worst offenders of this was the Motorstorm series (which I love). I mean, I understand that its used to keep races more exciting but its just total BS. DriveClub just about nailed this perfectly. The other racers will push a bit harder when you start moving through the pack but they never seem to defy the physics of the game.

 

[EvilKatarn]

No intelligence but a heart of gold.

 

[antitrop]

I thought the Blackwater mechanic in The Order 1886 was kind of a troll. It's Gear of War's "down, but not out" mechanic, but in a completely single-player game. Unless the AI goes completely braindead for 15 seconds and just lets you revive yourself, it's just wasting your time until you can restart the checkpoint.

 

[Windforce]

Most of classic Mortal Kombat's arcade modes have input reading AI. Whatever you input in the control, it will counter.

Street Fighter V's survival modes go easy on you for most stages until the last 10% or so. Then the AI goes full rage borderline input reading to counter you. Sucks playing 40 manageable stages only to lose on the last ones, retrying feels like a chore because you know the real thing is buried under tens of stages.

 

[Lightning Count]

Too early for this topic to get lost in the stacks.

 

[PanicFreak]

NFL Blitz

 

[Calvero]

FIFA is fucking annoying. 70 players are suddenly running with the pace of a 90+ player. Your 90+ players are suddenly worse than 70 players. Passes thrown where you didn't want to even on fully manual controls. Lots of crap.

 

[pablito]

Most of classic Mortal Kombat's arcade modes have input reading AI. Whatever you input in the control, it will counter.

Street Fighter V's survival modes go easy on you for most stages until the last 10% or so. Then the AI goes full rage borderline input reading to counter you. Sucks playing 40 manageable stages only to lose on the last ones, retrying feels like a chore because you know the real thing is buried under tens of stages.

Came to post this. Usually input reading is whatever, but with colors being locked behind survival mode, it's infuriating. This will be the first time I'm actually bothered by Capcom's DLC practices when it comes to SF. Nobody is going to want to complete easy, normal and hard for every character, every costume. Fuck that.

 

[Shifty]

Dark Souls AI Invasions: The Thread.

Though on the topic of driver AI, the Showtime NPC AI from Burnout: Paradise can get ragetastic at higher scores/times. Cars literally flipping themselves 180 in order to avoid you, going juuuust slow enough that you can't reach them in time, etc, etc.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

In Chrono Cross, the hit % displayed before you attack doesn't take the enemy's evade stats into account, so you often end up missing despite percentages as high as 99%.

 

[Lightning Count]

Keep them coming, GAF.

 

[Sheriff_Battlesnake]

In Chrono Cross, the hit % displayed before you attack doesn't take the enemy's evade stats into account, so you often end up missing despite percentages as high as 99%.

Damn, good pull there.

I think I always went heavy first because they all felt relatively just as likely to hit

 

[tr00per]

In Chrono Cross, the hit % displayed before you attack doesn't take the enemy's evade stats into account, so you often end up missing despite percentages as high as 99%.

That's pretty freaking troll, alright.

I just played Tactics Ogre: LUCL (an srpg) which lets enemy characters spawn on the battlefield during battle. Which is especially aggravating because reviving your teammates isn't very easy and if you don't revive them they can die permanently

 

[UCBooties]

One of my biggest annoyances in Just Cause 3 was any time I had to clear heat to rescue someone. I'll be driving off road with no enemies around and it will just spawn Jeeps behind me. I'm already in allied territory, WTF do you want me to do?!

 

[Lightning Count]

The ultimate, falling or tripping over.

 

[GankzyMcfly]

How about the classic ai that moves only after the second you manage to get your crosshair on its head.

 

[Kuksune]

Alpha 152 in DOA 4.

Shotguns that can be used to snipe with, check BF BC2 for an example.

 

[Lightning Count]

Enemies that run away like cowards in games where you only have close combat weapons.

 

[Myriadis]

The rubberbanding in Burnout 3 is incredibly awful - it regulary happens that one AI driver suddenly gets a 20 second lead for one simple crash.

 

[danmaku]

I'm pretty sure the RNG in The Binding of Isaac is programmed to troll you. You have no bombs? let's spawn a ton of treasure rocks and also a couple of bombs in places you cannot reach! Did you fight super hard to get out of that challenge room? Let's give you a troll bomb and a couple of spiders as a reward!

I love it.

 

[KidB]

Marin Fuckin Karin

 

[Noaloha]

MGS1 Psycho Mantis got this.

 

[DrArchon]

I'm convinced the RNG in Darkest Dungeon is rigged against you in the higher difficulties. Enemies constantly hitting crits for stupidly high amounts of damage and stress is a huge problem in the late game. The speed stat is another annoying part. Each character has a speed stat of course, but before each turn each character gets a 1-8 point bonus in speed to keep you on your toes and make turns less predictable. Problem is that in the later difficulties you'll constantly see slow enemies outspeeding your fastest heroes because of this unseen bonus.

 

[nkarafo]

MarioKart 64 AI drivers. No matter what happens, they will be always near you.

 

[Glix]

MEDUSA HEADS.

Honorable mention to those fucking birds in Ninja Gaiden.

Honorable mention to Remote Play NHL 16 where you have to take your finger off the stick to hold down the speed burst button.... fucking troll city.

 

[DeathoftheEndless]

GTA

AI drivers shift lanes to create collisions or make sudden turns across the road and worst of all, they will drive into the oncoming lane causing a head on collision.

Simpsons Hit N' Run had this same problem. That game is awful.

 

[SoundPulse]

DarkSims in Perfect Dark are basically intentionally this.

All of the sims cheat. All of them can see the radar regardless of whether its on and there are shenanigans with secondary fire modes like instant homing rockets. The DarkSims, however, are blatant about it. They teleport, move faster than players that aren't strafing, have nearly perfect accuracy, and spawn with shields.

 

[Junahu]

The bosses in Megaman 2 that absolutely require you to use a full bar of a specific special weapon to defeat.
There's no way to gain more weapon energy mid-fight, so running out means you need to kill yourself and try the boss all over again. Oh, but dieing doesn't refresh your weapon energy, so you have to find enemies and grind them until they drop some. And that's assuming the level even has enemies to grind on. The final level lacks basic enemies, so if you mess up, you need to die multiple times in order to get a game-over and refresh your weapon energy.

 

[A Huge Battleship]

Repost from the last time we had this thread, but the stage 5 boss from Touhou 14 Double Dealing Character:

 

[Fisty]

World at War's "Heart of the Reich" on Veteran comes to mind. Less about difficulty and more a test of how fast you can press the throwback button and patience since you can only fire maybe one or two bullets every once in awhile. Seemed like a legitimate troll, they were completely out of ideas to make the game harder.

 

[EYEL1NER]

Any rubber band AI is annoying in a race but I have been playing AssCreed Syndicate lately and just finished all of the horse and carriage races. I've seen quite a few people online say that they stopped doing them or just finished them without placing first because the rubber band AI was so awful. You hit an object or bump another cart and you lose momentum, while the AI racers behind you power right through them. A pile up happens at a choke point and you easily pull ahead, almost gaining so much ground that you no longer see them in the radar behind you, before they all catch up and ram the shit out of you while passing. Just completely unfun and the worst part of the game.

 

[Fisty]

Alpha 152 in DOA 4.

Shotguns that can be used to snipe with, check BF BC2 for an example.

Lol sorry that was me. Neostead with magnum and slugs with recon mortar for scope was too funny to not use

 

[LurkerPrime]

Civilization 4, and I think 5: combat previews don't take into account your attacking tile, which can make a big difference if you're crossing a river (halving strength), nor does it calculate First Strikes (aka free attacks). In both cases it can massively change the outcome--like, with enough First Strikes, some units can win a battle without taking any damage whatsoever.

Civ4 (again): enemy AI does not take into account the fog of war, to which the player is bound.

And the big one...
XCOM 2: oddly, the game actually cheats RNG in your favour on all difficulties but the highest one. It's in the INI somewhere. Basically, the aim the player has is always higher than is displayed in-game. XCOM: EU was the same, I believe.


Firaxis has many aces up its sleeve.

 

[Tertullian]

I'm not sure there's anything I despise more in video gaming than a game straight-up lying to me about my % chance to hit. Any game that does that can fuck off and die. I hope any designer involved in such a game gets a job in a different industry, and no longer exercises any influence over this one. I hate hate hate it. If I tell my guy to shoot another guy (or whatever), and the game explicitly says I have a 75% chance to hit, I had fucking well better have a 75% chance to hit.

 

[Breads]

Dark Souls AI Invasions: The Thread.

Though on the topic of driver AI, the Showtime NPC AI from Burnout: Paradise can get ragetastic at higher scores/times. Cars literally flipping themselves 180 in order to avoid you, going juuuust slow enough that you can't reach them in time, etc, etc.

The DLC AI invasions from DS2 and some of the BB ones are nuts. Some of them have maxed stats and read inputs. In BB there are extreme cases like Bloody Crow of Cainhurst where they have unlimited quicksilver and can stunlock you with shots that take 1/3 to more than half your HP in damage.

HoMM games are notorious for difficulty settings that give enemy factions more resources/ units than they could possibly have following the same rules as you do.

Shield enemies in Destiny can be bullshit. Wizards in particular, flying units, can simply choose to retreat, regen their shields, and then return with their unlimited volley of explosive attacks. While knights have two shields - an elemental shield and a physical one. They are a nightmare in solo nightfalls where burns are involved.

 

[BadWolf]

That one AI partner from God Eater Burst that loved shooting you in the back, and then getting angry at you for being in her way.

 

[Ralemont]

Dismissing units in Final Fantasy Tactics always leads to a guilt trip, such as dismissing a monster giving you the message: "It doesn't seem to want to leave, probably because it has no home to return to."

 

[hydrophilic attack]

OP, you missed the most troll mechanic in GTA: The planes that would randomly crash into you in San Andreas if you had a low luck stat.

There was a guy in the Dark Souls II DLC that had great troll AI. He was wearing a ring to make him look like a white phantom to make players think he's friendly. He'd follow you around and wait for an opportunity to backstab you. Once you'd try killing him, he'd emulate troll human invaders and run off to hide behind strong enemies to heal. That was pretty fun.

 

[Erheller]

If an enemy squad in XCOM 2 has only one of its members left alive, there's a chance it'll run to another squad, join it, and bring them back to your position.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

GAF, let's talk about troll AI/ gameplay mechanics.#1

GTA

AI drivers shift lanes to create collisions or make sudden turns across the road and worst of all, they will drive into the oncoming lane causing a head on collision.

Cops spawn from behind you in chase.

Cop cars are unrealistically fast and will always catch up.

Mario Kart

Two turns from victory, boom blue shell, now you finish 5th.

SNK bosses

Can read your moves, counter you at will, when near defeat will unleash a move that kills you instantly.

I highly doubt those mechanics are in there just to personally annoy you.

 

[Lightning Count]

There is more out there, GAF.