So is the current WD AI here to stay?

So as the title says, is the current WD AI here to stay or are they working on new AI? Does anyone know or has anyone heard anything about it? I'm just curious as I notice everyone that's attacking me now that use the old Jugg/Gunner combo don't even use a WD anymore, I just switched back to try out Juggs/Gunners again just now (I've been using Skellies) & in both attacks the WD died straight away, seems to be completely pointless using a WD with that combo.
So did they just implement the old AI as a fix to the invincible WD bug? I really hope they are working on new AI as I really hate this AI, so if anyone knows anything it'd be great.

 

Sure seems like they reverted to the unpopular WD, he appears to sit in the center of the highest HP group and die rather quickly.

 

His only real worth now in my opinion is resurrecting troops near the end of a battle.

 

I guess my avatar is going to stay for awhile

The AI is the exact same as it was before the invisible bug hit. Looks like we are stuck with the staff waving poo dancer for some time now.

 

I've been using 3 WDs. 2 survive and 1 die.

1) send in Brute/Jugg combo (NO WD)
2) Send in LP in weak spot (WD)
3) Send in your heavy hitters with the LP WD
4) Send in helper crew (ie. Raiders, HGs) +WD
5) send in mop up crew and final WD

 

Yes but we don't want to use 3 when 1 used to work fine.

 

3wds, mother of god where do find enough grog to recruit.

I use one to revive the dead skellys and skeletons but as far as protecting my crew he's garbage.

 

WD is still good for stopping bunkers from shredding juggs during their initial approach, and for making gun towers useless while bombers initially breach the wall.

If I don't care about grog, I send one WD with the juggs and one more with the rest of the troops for most designs. In one certain design, I split into two groups and send one WD with each group.

Alternatively if you only want to use one, let your juggs lead your other troops a bit at the start (you have to judge this based on beach size, so it takes some practice), and then send one WD with your bombers after the juggs get a bit of a lead, and it will walk up to the juggs (which walk slower) as your bombers charge ahead. If you get the timing right, bombers will stay under the bubble until the wall is breached, and gunners will be released at the right time to be on the other edge of the bubble until juggs have gotten in far enough to draw most of the fire. By then it doesn't matter if the gunners are under the bubble because most of the defenses are focused on the juggs (so keeping juggs alive longer is their priority at this point anyways, since it keeps fire drawn longer until the gunners get attacked, and zero damage to a gunner is better than reduced damage to a gunner). Your gunners should be standing far enough back that splash doesn't really reach them. If you use HG instead of gunners, you have even less of an issue, since literally any defense is lucky to reach them in the off chance its not already targeting a jugg.

Things go fine as long as you adapt to their AI - you know how it works, use it to your advantage! Just because your old attack style doesn't work anymore doesn't mean you can't develop a new battle plan that works with the new AI.

Yeah it sucks that attack styles you may have used before don't work, but you know how things work now, and you can adjust to the new AI and take advantage of it. I'm not saying I like the new design, it makes many attack styles useless, and I hate that it frustrates a lot of my friends, but you can still work with it. Its not unusable, you just might have to relearn how to fight.

 

I really don't think Juggs needs protection from the WD, if you do that they will stand right next to Juggs and die super fast, the WD job nowdays is more to resurrect than to protect, he's still of great use, I always bring 2 but most of the time only need 1, once you adjust their new AI and understand how troops behave then you will start finding new ways to use them

 

Yes I like that attack style you mention, but my WD dies every time I use Juggs now so I don't bother using them anymore, I just stick to Skellies which leaves attacking some bases very difficult, if I have to add a second WD it brings my crew cost up to 500k per attack, which is just ridiculous.
The problem is we shouldn't have to change our whole attack style, & an AI tweak shouldn't leave most attack strategies moot. The old AI was soooo much better it's actually funny, it had very few people complaining here in the forum about it, but this new AI still has everyone complaining about it.
When you mess with a crew member so much that people just stop using it, I think that means you seriously failed, as evident with all the people hitting me now with Juggs/Gunners don't even bother using one anymore.

 

lolz....If I use 3 WD it will bring my crew cost up to 600,000 Grog, I'd never make a profit in Grog ever.

 

Assuming all your training is done (as mine is) grog doesn't really matter anymore, as long as you pick a base that gives you enough back to afford retraining your army (you can hit a bit under cost given how much grog regenerates during the 1h it takes to retrain an army, and splitting your rumble reward out over the course of a day). My serious business army costs about 650k. If you have no other use for grog, why not go all out?

WD only has to really live until it makes it to the wall. Bombers already breached it (WD helps keep them alive during this), WD can resurrect the bomber skeletons, and it doesn't really serve much purpose after, since the rest of the defenses should be focused on juggs or the little skeletons at this point. So as long as you get the timing down so the WD lives until it makes it to the wall, which I promise it can easily do if you time things right, it will have served its purpose. It doesn't have to live to the end of the battle to be useful. 15 seconds is more than enough usually to make it worth more than spending those 2 slots on something else in terms of how useful those slots end up being.

 

^^ your attack science is amazing and I don't doubt you for a second because reading your posts you have this game nailed. But please remember that most of us don't have the same knowledge as you. We play off and on and get use to a certain way and then when it changes quite drastically it's hard to adopt.

 

Yes that's what I've been doing for the last while, well forced to do it as all 19 Bombers I use were dying before breaching 3 layers of wall, but sometimes my Skellies all get wiped out without WD protection if they wander into GP fire before they are taken out. And having a living WD to resurrect the dead Skellywags is a big advantage, I'm not finished upgrading my crew so crew cost matters to me, I can't afford an extra 100k per battle.

 

Yea that's exactly right, I do think sometimes that Skye thinks everyone is as good an attacker as he is haha.

 

I'm a terrible attacker and mess up half the time :c

 

Whaaaaat, don't crush my dreams

 

I do think they should change it back because it would help a majority of players. All I was trying to say was if a good player took a couple battles to learn its behavior, they could adapt to it with a bit of practice and still make it act in a useful manner.

 

I agree....if you are dev since they have the time to test and use the Pirates as they so created. For us normal players that only get a few attacks in per day, (not wanting use gems), it's hard as hell to learn all the quirks especially when the AI of every pirate is somewhat whacky.

But yes, please bring back the original WD AI, that would be oh sooo nice.

 

I always have a WD on my crew, but rarely use him. And I have stopped using Juggs completely. I would use the WD more often if the AI was improved. As it is now, it is only used as a mop up near the end when I need some skellies or skeletons resurrected to finish the job. But as often as not, I use thieves for that job since they are faster and can come in under the radar.