I wouldn’t be surprised if AI Gargos just has a loop you can exploit, like do blocked something and then just DP over and over. The guy looks extremely cheap but you can nearly perfect Shadow Jago doing exploits like this, and if they are using the same shell for the AI, I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up finding something like that.
Beating the AI “fair” with all buffs on is probably nearly impossible, but that’s partly why fighting “read your input” AI in fighting games is not fun. The best way to beat them is to do something that never works against humans, so for people who often play against humans, it’s just a matter of finding (or looking up) the exploit that works. There’s not a lot of fighting game “skill” employed in beating AI, because you can’t using conditioning or spacing to win. AI never gets frustrated and makes a bad decision.
So yeah, I’m a little bummed that they didn’t somehow incorporate the shadows AI into this (at least, it doesn’t seem like it’s using it). After seeing the demo, I guess I’m not exactly sure how they would do that, because shadow AI that has been trained by real fights isn’t going to know about new game mechanics like parry and stuff. But I feel like there’s probably a way with some brainstorming?
The other first impression I have is that the UI looks pretty overwhelming… there’s a lot of gauges, maps, and icons on every screen, and every few button presses a new pop-up window appears telling you about something happening. But having not played the mode myself, it’s hard to judge how it will feel when you get it in your hands. Clearly they were rushed on stream trying to fit everything in, so maybe it came across more overwhelming than it actually is.
I do appreciate the idea behind the mode, though… when you do single player FG content, your goal should be infinite replayability (just like multiplayer is), and these sort of “game changing” cards you can play is a cool idea. At the end, I’m still going in a little skeptical, because when you get down to it, you are still fighting button-reading AI and that has limited appeal to me personally. But the mode looks very large in scope and it’s clear the team spent a lot of time on it. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I would design a single-player fighting game experience if I had the opportunity. It’s a very difficult challenge, so I will be sure to check it out and see what cool new things Shadow Lords does well, and add them to my thought process!
You are going to change have to change that line from now on…it will be four stages you will be asking for from now one, seeing as to how Gargos is getting his own stage
Yeah, some of us “older types” have jobs, families and very little time to spend playing, unfortunately. But I guess your lack of an emotional interface prevents you from assessing these considerations.
BTW this reply was directed @FengShuiEnergy but, alas, I even lack the time and skill to correctly quote and reply in these forums. Well, gotta go. Tempus fugit.
Tbh, I was never intended to play this mode since I never played hoh on umvc bUT I must say IG dropped the ball IMHO so instead of trials for characters or stages we get this like really yall tripping especially due to the fact that this game has such good net play why would I play this over regular fights. You guys over at IG r truly great but this is a major waste of resources and adds nothing to the competitive scene. Just my two cents.
People are probably going to be hella salty at me for even bringing this up. However, I’m wondering on a personal level just how much enjoyment I can get out of this being that I have no sight. However, I’ve been in discussions with a few people and it might change things if what I think could happen does, but that’ll be way down the line.
All in all, I’m not surprised, but I’m not massively optimistic about getting any actual entertainment out of this mode until there’s a way for those of us with no sight to access all the menus, items, information etc that is available.
I like the idea though, don’t get me wrong and I like what it’ll theoretically do for the community. Just concerned as @Blindgamer102 is about accessibility, especially as it’s a solo mode.
@dayvo, I hear u bud It’s that KILLER INSTINCT is bare bones as hell as is and shadow lords seems more a bonus than main draw. This over stages or trials or characters? I’m good like I said not my cup of tea bit please enjoy. The does nothing for me on any level. But fight on brother!
That is a massive point that crossed my mind. It has been shown as a mode with a hell of a lot of gauges, icons, pop-ups and text dumps all over the UI. Not to mention all the crafting options!
the way it’s currently shown off the accessibility really isn’t there. Even if you learn’t where in the menu all your different equipable items were it would be constantly changing as you get more and use consumables. Not to mention you wouldn’t know what fights you were entering and if you were making good strategy choices. Then there’s all the added effects to the actual fight which much like the modifiers in Mortal Kombat half of them you’d have to guess at what the effect is.
Really though I suppose it wouldn’t take massive amounts to change the accessibility. What they would need is to have an option for a voice over to read all the pop-ups and text dumps (maybe ARIA), an option for a voice explanation when highlighting items, an announcement at the beginning of each day of what continents are in danger and a few other tweaks here and there. Mainly though it would be a LOT of voice over work to make this feasible
Speaking of reading the inputs AI is cheap… the regular KI AI is awfully “psychic as of late”! It seem to be even harder now on just HARD difficulty as it will throw you every time you make a move.
This gets me saltier than anything and I can see my self getting very salty against SLords! lol
And being that my Shadow Lab is still broken since S3 release… I just cant stand the AI even more at this moment.
I took a nap during the SL presentation and tried to watch it late last night, but was so tired that I was micro-napping through it, and finally just gave in and completely passed out. From what I saw though, I’m mildly impressed - while it looks good, I’ve seen similar modes in FGs before and have yet to be impressed by any of them.
I can imagine boss Gargos with an infinite, always on, no-negative instinct (stoneskin without movement penalties) that’s invulnerable to projectiles and that moves faster than normal, while also having regenerating shadow meter and life-gain and having the ability to do infinite wing jumps.
I’m surprised some people aren’t excited for this. I really don’t care about fighting AI so much if the core game outside the fights involving the planning is good enough. I guess I’m just more of a strategy genre enthusiast at heart more than a fighting game player, because I can see myself just playing this over online matches. I think this mode is the best thing to happen to KI.
