When the computer has several attacks, which attack does it use? The attack that does most damage? Does it choose randomly? When Umber Bulks moves a player character what do they do? (My impression is that they will move a player character onto lava if possible, but otherwise they move you randomly. But I don’t have enough data to know if I’m right) When does the computer decide to not make a move? (It seems random.) Feel free to discuss other insights into how the computer plays.
http://www.cardhunter.com/2012/05/the-ai-in-card-hunter/ - An old blog post about how the AI works. I'd imagine most/all of the stuff is still relevant though. "Attack cards will therefore get a higher base score than movement cards. This score will be further influenced by how many targets can be attacked, how much damage will be done, and where the attacker will end up on the board, amongst many other things." As regards the Umber Bulks, they definitely have a preference for putting you on lava. Possibly they will also move you away from VPs? I don't know. It's possibly either randomly or, more likely I think, they evaluate the squares as in that blog post, and instead of putting your character on high valued squares, they put your characters on low valued squares. I'm not sure about the last one. I would say it has to do with whether or not you play a card or not though (if out of range of each other); it isn't completely random at any case. If you get to play against a GM (computer AI) in MP, then you can camp a victory square with one character vs one character (where the vps are far away from each other), and they will not move unless you do (you can sort of manipulate it into doing something silly sometimes). They'll usually/always play an attack card if they can, it seems to me. Perhaps if all the cards that can be played are worth less than 5 they'll pass. You can see that PASS is worth 5 points in the screenshot in the blog, possibly this is a fixed value or maybe it changes (if they are currently on lava for instance); though I'd imagine it's fixed, and rather, moves become worth more if they are currently on bad terrain. Another thing worth noting is that they have absolutely no idea how to handle laser/hypnotic beacons, but they'll usually move off other terrain.
The AI in caverns is interesting, because if you draw tougher mobs at earlier nodes, they definitely hold back attacks, even to the point of wasting them at the end of the turn. Once you get up to the nightmare nodes, the AI's going for maximum carnage. I noticed on a loot run today that the AI was hesitant to move for the first two turns, as if it could read my team-mate's hover into anticipating terrain attacks. It could just be a random quirk though. But it would be interesting if the AI anticipated character attachments as possible modes of attack.
I thought the AI was highly-trained CH monkeys... Sitting at computers for hours one end drinking coffee to stay awake...poor little guys
Monsters seem to be very bad with movement in general. I saw a monster once use the last card in his hand to step onto lava. Another time I had a monster use a control spell to push one of my chars off of lava. Neither situation involved victory squares. I don't think The Captain (Brainy Mutant) has ever injured a PC with his Rumbling Charge. Ogres consistently use Muscle Through to push my chars out of melee range.
Oak Slingers and Oak Bombardiers will sometimes stop playing cards. If you don't move your characters either, they will never play a card (except traits). You can exploit this by waiting until you have the perfect cards. But what are the circumstances in which they don't move? One of them is that you are out of range. Is it that even if they move your characters would still be out of range for them?
I *think* that the AI will never pass first turn if they have initiative, but may do so if you have it and have passed. similarly, I think they're less likely to move if you haven't, at least that has been my experience with a volcano deck
Actually, it sometimes will. This can be particularly useful after a volcano when some or all of them are on lava.
It is guaranteed to pass if all of your characters are where some of the 4 imps that are surrounded by walls if some other conditions are also met(I don't know them but if you haven't messed around too much you can keep passing unto you have the perfect hand)
One other AI thing is that the last enemy monster will often 'get depressed', and either stop fleeing, not attack, or move close to your character for a quick coup de grace. It often gives me the feels, especially when it's a minor monster who must be freaking out that all its big allies have been mown under. But not if it's a wyvern or troll or something, screw those guys.
