Gears 5 TU4 Broke Enemy AI

Gears 5
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There are two sections of this post: One for Co-op v AI Beginner enemy AI and another for Master Escape Enemy AI. Read whichever you care about, or both, but it’s all the same problem: TU4 messed with enemy AI!

Also, let me say right up front that I really feel like this thread won’t be cared about too much by TC because it doesn’t affect Ranked play, which is all they seem focused on right now, but I just had to vent and see if others are feeling my pain as well…

CO-OP V AI BEGINNER BOTS

First off, let me say that I am not a “super sweaty” Gears player, but much more casual, so please no trolling as far as skill level… I get it, I’m not that good, but I am also a loyal Gears player, having played/complete nearly all of the game, including PC and Japanese versions.

After Title Update 4, my friend and I were continuing to earn ally experience by playing Co-op v AI, Guardian on Beginner over and over. We were really good at all the maps before the update and had enemy behavior pretty much down pat. Now, what that statement means is that my friend, who is a Gold ranked player, would be doing lots of killing and I would have some moments of brilliance and overall could at least contribute.

One enemy behavior that was consistent before TU4 was when you got knocked DBNO, you could crawl away from the enemy and the enemy would walk away from you. This would give you enough time to press A to stand back up and fight again. The important thing to note, though, is that the enemy would eventually begin walking back towards to in order to execute you .

But now, there is no more executing! Once the enemy starts walking back towards you, it just uses it’s Lancer to kill you from far away, leaving you no chance at getting back up!

Also, even before TU4, the Beginner bots in Co-op v AI have always played like a tight group of MLG players. They walk around in packs of 3 or 4, have laser accurate Lancer fire that no amount of dodging or wall bouncing will shake off, and constantly use cross-fire tactics. If you do happen to pick yourself up from a DBNO, they are firing on you the second you start to stand up, meaning you have less than half health before you’re able to do anything!

Even my Gold player friend is having trouble with Beginner bots sometimes, which is pretty ridiculous… But for me personally, I have always been a solid Bronze player (again, not that good), but I can actually do BETTER playing against other Bronze players in Versus than I can against these freaking “Beginner” bots.

We went from having 35 to 45 second rounds, winning the first three rounds, to having 2+ minute rounds and losing 2/5 on a really bad match. Now again, I know I’ve said I’m not a good player, but I’m not THAT bad AND my friend is GOLD!

If anyone is new to the series and wants to get a feel for the game, this is NOT the place for them to start! It is so frustrating as a casual player…

MASTER ESCAPE ENEMY AI

Now for the one I suspect most of you will care about the most. After being totally frustrated with Co-op v AI after the update, I decided to try to complete my last Escape map on Master.

I consistently play as a melee character, mostly Lahni, which means that on Master, I get downed a lot. Here again, before TU4, I would have time to crawl around to safety to get picked up, but you couldn’t really “mess around” or you could have someone try to execute you, meaning they would jump on you trying to beat you down and you would have to press B over and over fending them off, hoping to be saved by your teammates.

But now… there is no chance at all! If you are knocked down in front of an enemy, you are IMMEDIATELY melee’d to death… NOT executed, just melee’d, instant death style. It has made playing as a melee character in Escape almost impossible because if you miss your melee combo even once with an enemy, your punishment is death, period.

TL;DR

I believe TU4 has had some consequences, either intentional or unintentional, to enemy AI across the board from Beginner bots in Co-op v AI to Master Escape hives. With no mention of enemy AI tweaks in the title update notes, I’m hoping this is just a “whoops” and will be fixed. Otherwise, the game for casual players like myself has become even more frustrating…

10 Likes
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Lol I’m not good either :laughing:
Tbh I found Co-op VS AI in Gears 5 to be 10x harder than in GoW 4… I can kill 3 bots in GoW 4 easily but in Gears 5 a single bot kills me…

You know what I did, I went back to GoW 4 :thinking:

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Have you thought about posting this on Ryan Clevens, thread “spending more time here”, he tells ppl that’s OK to do in his thread

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Couldn’t agree more! Gears of War 4’s “Casual” bots were truly casual, whereas Gears 5’s “Beginner” Bots are like Silver/Gold ranked players at a minimum!

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The way you are describing the bots sounds like how they have always been. I’ve not noticed any notable differences in master Horde or master escape. And co-op vs ai sounds like exactly the same.

It is possible the something has changed, but from personal experience, it is quite normal behaviour.

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The part about them acting like MLG players was there before the Title Update (as mentioned in the OP… that part was just me venting in general, lol), but having played 700 rounds of Co-op v AI Guardian while grinding for the BFFs achievement, I can say with 100% certainty that I was never Lancer killed from far away while DBNO until after this update.

And for Escape, again, I’ve made many, many attempts on Master to get all of the launch hives mastered for Seriously 5.0 and I have never been immediately melee killed after being hit to DBNO. I was always given at least a small chance to crawl away or was jumped on to start the “hit B” QTE until my squad could rescue me.

As for Horde, I can’t speak to that because I have only played it a few times. But I’ve got more than enough experience of Master Escape attempts and Co-op v AI rounds that I can confidently say something has changed.

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In Horde, the enemies would always go for you very quickly if you went down(which makes it very annoying if a Pouncer decides to bypass all your fortifications with a mile-high leap and try killing a downed player). But in Escape, they would almost always ignore you for quite a while until they decided to pay attention to you if downed, pre-TU4. Even when there was nothing else for them to attack. I played a bunch of Master Escape matches so I know that for sure.

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Escape and Horde ai always had strange differences.

It always seems like in Escape they give you more chance to get up compared to Horde. It might be a deliberate choice but it is annoying when transitioning to different modes.

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I play a lot of Coop, but I have to admit I hardly ever play on Beginner (mostly intermediate/advanced) - donno why, I think it’s left over from Coop in GoW4 when casual and normal bots didn’t use/have gnashers, so it was annoying for ammo - so I played hardcore…

So I don’t have any comments about the bots on Begineer, but yeah, bots in General on this game are very unpleasant to play again. In GoW4 bots on the higher diff levels were mostly gnasher shooters. And when you were dancing around them, you could see them turning to try and track you and you were able to outplay/outshoot them… If you missed, you died, but you had an even shot.

Now?? In Gear 5?? It’s all laser accuracy lancer fire, from half a mile away, multiple lancers at the same time… Bots are the poster boys(bots) of everything GoW4 players hated when playing ranked in the days of teams spamming OP Hammerburst loadout weapons. It’s stuuuuuuuuuuuuupid, IMO… there is no gnasher based combat against bots. And the bots KNOW WHERE YOU ARE! Even through walls… I had bots start to lancer at me BEFORE I came around a corner… i have them lancering the cover I am hiding behind, even though they can’t see me/hit me… They KNOW…

And if/when they have gnashers out, it’s all instant! Instant target lock, instant fire, no delay for rotation/tracking of the target, etc…

And I love how they roll away the INSTANT you hit fire on a boomshot or the instant you it RB when holding the mace… Even before ANY animation starts to indicate something is being fired or the mace is being swung, they are already reacting and rolling away…

Like with their Horde ammo and energy changed, designed to make Horde “tougher”, TC completely and totally missed the point - the game has to be FUN, first and always…

I was one of very few people who actually enjoyed Coop in GoW4, as a break from ranked (Onyx)… I don’t enjoy coop in G5, I use it for testing ranged weapons tactics, nothing CQB, like in 4.

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If it was a deliberate choice, then they have deliberately un-done that choice, lol

I think it makes sense to have Horde DBNO’s punished more-so than Escape because you have four teammates in Horde AND multiple defenses like sentries and barriers. But in Escape, you have two allies and… well, that’s it!

I get that “Master” is supposed to be hard, but my point is that melee characters in Escape are now basically worthless.

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Just curious… Have you ever tried knifing & jumping back ? It works pretty well if you’re using melee hero Lahni, Emile, or Grace.

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I would argue it is deliberate for AI to not go for downs straight away in Escape because you only have two other teammates to fight with/save you, and as such losing one is going to complicate things significantly on Master in particular, if not make them impossible(unless you somehow still are able to clear Gauntlet runs on Master with two players like DaxterDude). It helps makes the mode more playable, kind of breaks a few things if enemies just kill you straight away whenever you get downed. I sort of understand it in Horde even if it’s kind of ridiculous you can defend yourself against a Drone but a Leech or Juvie can immediately kill you when downed. Although I’d give slightly more of a window of opportunity to save a teammate, personally. Nobody can save you in one second unless they are standing right next to you or Jack’s healing beam is within range. Edit : Forgot the COG Gear ult.

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Yeah, I’ve tried that, especially with Scions. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but when it DOESN’T work, and I get downed because I didn’t time something right, I was granted a chance of crawling away or fighting for my life.

Now, there is none of that. One tiny mistake and it’s down to two people to make it to the safe room to respawn me… For instance, sometimes I’ll miss my melee combo by not pressing B fast enough or sometimes the combo won’t initiate at all because I hit the corner cover the enemy was on first. Either way, now those mistakes are instant death.

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Co-op VS AI was (and still is) my favorite game mode.
Really good they don’t decide to Kill it with the final GoW 4 update :persevere:

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Play pvp scrub :grinning:

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I noticed the melee deaths on escape straight away. I posted on the thread that was asking to post issues - that thread like most, end up in people arguing because they have nothing better to do. Anyway, you also get melee killed.on insane too. This change, if it’s intentional, will make melee characters pointless and make escape stupidly difficult for most.

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Lol, there’s always one person… :joy: I figure you’re joking with the smiley face at the end and this is why I was very explicit in my opening post that yes… I’m a scrub, haha! That’s why I’m upset with the AI change because I’ve always loved playing against AI

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Gears 5 bots can and WILL lancer you down even behind cover!
That was never seen in Gears 4 neither if bots or humans used good old Hammerburst.

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Yeah I’m joking-obviously people can play whatever they want.

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Does anyone ever read the what’s up or patch notes for TU yes they changed the Ai to come kill u once they down u instead of waiting a year before they do it and it better now if u guys dont read what’s up just Google gears 5 TU4 patch notes