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May. 22nd, 2016 06:52 amAccording to ShinyMoogle in the discussion page for TV Tropes: The Computer is a Cheating Bastard:
I think all of the current battle facility entries are questionable at best. Accusations of cheating regarding the institutions generally reek extremely heavily of confirmation bias. The very system is designed to stack the odds against the player. Many, many things can go wrong - a critical hit at the wrong time, a status inflicted, a move missing, a poor Pokemon matchup - and the player has to deal with these chances in an extensive string of battles. On top of all that, players have only a limited number of Pokemon to use for dealing with a multitude of possible threats, and many battle facility Pokemon also pack luck-based items. But losing to that is a result of randomness at work, not a cheating AI. The AI doesn't need to cheat in the actual gameplay, because the system is designed so that any stretch of bad luck in any form can ruin a winning streak - and there are many situations where luck is a factor.
People have cracked open the code of the game and found no conclusive proof of any RNG rigging nor Pokemon counter-picking. The Pokemon that show up in the facilities in each generation are drawn from predetermined pools which have been fully explored on sites like Smogon, and it's not just possible, but probable that any weaknesses in a team will eventually find themselves exposed.
There is one - a single individual one - properly documented instance of the computer being a cheating bastard in Pokemon Emerald's Battle Frontier: a Shuckle with a 252/0/0/106/252/0 EV distribution, which exceeds the maximum EV limit a Pokemon can have (510).
But aside from that, I think the current battle facility entries should be removed unless someone can dredge up a proper analysis or code examination that doesn't depend entirely on anecdotal evidence.
If that be the case, I think I might get back into Pokemon after all. Granted, there were other things that bothered me about the games since less than a year earlier, but I never experienced (or at least perceived) actual cheating on the AI's part personally. Having not played any of them since then, except briefly just shortly before calling BS on it, due to everything I listed shortly prior still, it is natural enough that I'd believe what was likely in retrospect just someone's perception skewed by frustration. Having just reread everything else listed on both TV Tropes and the hyperlinked entry, I'd say that what I felt, while valid enough, wasn't any more significant than what I only felt when I was playing Silver during December '01.
Right now, though, I still plan on beating the two Zelda games and possibly re-hosting Bonds before arranging my stay at Brian's apartment, since I'm too close to beating Zelda II to stop playing it now and am planning to leave my Super NES at his place and won't be able to play the copy I just bought of Link's Awakening afterwards. However, while I was able to fill in most of my time since Starbound's last update two years ago, something like Pokemon could have come in more handy than ever for the same reasons I got back into Zelda. In a way, maybe it's a good thing I ditched Pokemon four years ago, since I'll now have five games and counting (one from each pair since Black/White) to fill any empty time with. Regaining inspiration for Parasitic Trio would also help a great deal during times like this.
I think all of the current battle facility entries are questionable at best. Accusations of cheating regarding the institutions generally reek extremely heavily of confirmation bias. The very system is designed to stack the odds against the player. Many, many things can go wrong - a critical hit at the wrong time, a status inflicted, a move missing, a poor Pokemon matchup - and the player has to deal with these chances in an extensive string of battles. On top of all that, players have only a limited number of Pokemon to use for dealing with a multitude of possible threats, and many battle facility Pokemon also pack luck-based items. But losing to that is a result of randomness at work, not a cheating AI. The AI doesn't need to cheat in the actual gameplay, because the system is designed so that any stretch of bad luck in any form can ruin a winning streak - and there are many situations where luck is a factor.
People have cracked open the code of the game and found no conclusive proof of any RNG rigging nor Pokemon counter-picking. The Pokemon that show up in the facilities in each generation are drawn from predetermined pools which have been fully explored on sites like Smogon, and it's not just possible, but probable that any weaknesses in a team will eventually find themselves exposed.
There is one - a single individual one - properly documented instance of the computer being a cheating bastard in Pokemon Emerald's Battle Frontier: a Shuckle with a 252/0/0/106/252/0 EV distribution, which exceeds the maximum EV limit a Pokemon can have (510).
But aside from that, I think the current battle facility entries should be removed unless someone can dredge up a proper analysis or code examination that doesn't depend entirely on anecdotal evidence.
If that be the case, I think I might get back into Pokemon after all. Granted, there were other things that bothered me about the games since less than a year earlier, but I never experienced (or at least perceived) actual cheating on the AI's part personally. Having not played any of them since then, except briefly just shortly before calling BS on it, due to everything I listed shortly prior still, it is natural enough that I'd believe what was likely in retrospect just someone's perception skewed by frustration. Having just reread everything else listed on both TV Tropes and the hyperlinked entry, I'd say that what I felt, while valid enough, wasn't any more significant than what I only felt when I was playing Silver during December '01.
Right now, though, I still plan on beating the two Zelda games and possibly re-hosting Bonds before arranging my stay at Brian's apartment, since I'm too close to beating Zelda II to stop playing it now and am planning to leave my Super NES at his place and won't be able to play the copy I just bought of Link's Awakening afterwards. However, while I was able to fill in most of my time since Starbound's last update two years ago, something like Pokemon could have come in more handy than ever for the same reasons I got back into Zelda. In a way, maybe it's a good thing I ditched Pokemon four years ago, since I'll now have five games and counting (one from each pair since Black/White) to fill any empty time with. Regaining inspiration for Parasitic Trio would also help a great deal during times like this.