Comments on: Another Dimension: Puzzle Quest Galactrix Demo

By: Markoff Chaney

Markoff Chaney — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:18:50 +0000

The full fledged PC demo just released and this game may be a little more zonable than I thought and offer the other stat fun the other game did. I’ll have to see past level 5.

By: Dolphan

Dolphan — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:54:32 +0000

I won that no problems despite the AI getting far more big chains than me. Just keep hitting reds or blues if there are no mines, charging the shield and firing the laser. The shield’s the key, and the AI isn’t too clever about it – doesn’t favour blues over yellows greens etc.

By: SuperNashwan

SuperNashwan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:52:03 +0000

*yawn* Same utterly random chains ruining the game leading to undeserved victory or defeat. Rubbish.

By: Fraser

Fraser — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:33:09 +0000

A friend of mine is a developer at Infinite Interactive – he worked on this game and knows the code from Puzzle Quest. he says the AI in both games is embarassingly simple and it works like this:

* Look for five of a kind
If none:
* Look for four of a kind
If none:
* Look for skulls
If none:
* Play a random move

Someone above claimed the AI ignores fours-of-a-kind. Well, I can’t say you’re wrong, but I don’t remember it ever doing that and since the above explanation was straight from the developer’s mouth (and this was at the pub, not a public interview) I’m going to go with his version.

By: Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:52:35 +0000

The one thing that did actually irritate me about Puzzle Quest’s AI was how continually it failed to use its spells when it was clearly sensible to do so – in many cases, even when doing so would instantly win the battle.

Hopefully that’ll be fixed up in this new version.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:50:41 +0000

The AI definitely never cheated. From what I could tell, it didn’t even consider player responses more than one turn ahead — it just looked for good combos on that turn. They could have made it much nastier. I’d have liked to some ‘mastermind’ monsters who don’t have powerful spells or stats but do a complete min/max search of the whole board including all possible chains that turn and 5 or 6 turns ahead factoring in probable chains in the drops. That would have really made it feel like it was cheating, but it would have been fun once in awhile.

By: Stromko

Stromko — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:38:05 +0000

I’m fairly convinced now that the AI doesn’t cheat at all. At first I thought the AI was way too intuitive at least, but after about ten rounds I started to get a feel for the probabilities of what tiles would pop up next.

Sure the color/type of tile that appears will be effectively random, but the surrounding tiles are a known quantity so I can figure out how likely a new hex will either start a streak of wins or leave me wide open for a counterattack. I expect that’s what the AI is capable of doing as well, it may not know what’s coming next, it just weighs the odds.

By: Zentastic

Zentastic — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:30:18 +0000

Beat the AI on the 2nd try, after realizing that Trident Laser is my friend. Hogged the reds and the shields, and fired my laser whenever it seemed appropriate, and especially when my opponent was low on shield.

I’m really looking forward to this. It didn’t feel much more complicated than PQ for me, once I figured in the multiple directions and the fact that shield pretty much acts like a buffer replenishable through the blocks, which the first PQ did not have.

By: Arathain

Arathain — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:28:40 +0000

Anyway, I’m really excited about Galactrix. Puzzle Quest was such a clever, charming game. As long as they understand what they did with the first one it’ll be great.

By: Arathain

Arathain — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:58:14 +0000

The Puzzle Quest AI never cheated. I’m pretty sure of it. It has an OK grasp of the possible effects of its actions, which was a useful teaching tool for increasing your chance of lucky combos. It never did anything I couldn’t do, and it never got combos more often than I did. It just sucks when you’re on the receiving end of multiple extra turns and have to sit and watch.

By: Stromko

Stromko — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:26:35 +0000

Also my turn ends every time I use the Trident Laser, but the popup says it doesn’t end when I use that power. Bah!

By: Stromko

Stromko — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:22:43 +0000

The AI probably doesn’t cheat per se, and I only say this because apparently the developers maintain that it doesn’t cheat, and it’d be stupid for them to lie.

What I think happened in Puzzle Quest, and probably Galactrix as well, is that the AI knows the probabilities of X entering the board. Just about every turn it will take a gamble on something entering the board that will give massive combos, and strangely enough, it’s usually right!

It also never, ever misses an opportunity. In short it is as perfect as a human could ever be, and the only way you can win is a combination of luck and high-level strategic planning.

But you know, I played Puzzle Quest for probably 30+ hours. I’d like to believe the developers when they say it didn’t cheat (though I don’t remember ever seeing that personally myself), but my gut says … well it makes up for how scripted AIs are deficient in high-level planning by being omniscient and ‘lucky’ to varying degrees. Maybe that’s the best way to actually provide a good challenge and ensure maximum mental stimulation for the player, but it’s also a bit frustrating when it spanks you.