@steemmonsters: Pure chance, or is something else happening here?
I've played this account four times in the past 24 hours - check out what has occurred and give your verdict below.
To the battlefield!
This observation started yesterday afternoon during my daily quest activities. Since finding out that you could actually change your quest splinter each day (yep, didn't realise for month and was stuck on my shittest splinter), I've been logging in to pick up a few cards in the hope of a legendary shiny. I've not had one of those yet but have picked up a few decent cards, making the 30 or so minutes worthwhile at least some of the time.
The first match against @smitop was a 'back to basics' round, with all splinters available to choose from. I picked fire, as it was my quest splinter for the day, and so did @smitop.
watch here
As the cards appeared, I noticed they had chosen the same cards, in the same order. Cool, mine are higher levels, I thought, I should win this one, which I did. Stick the giant at the front, slow the opponent down with the Ooze, and add a couple of low mana range attackers to make up the 15 allowed. Same tactics deployed, and I didn't think anything more of it.
Five battles later (I'd finished my daily quest) and @smitop appears again. This time its a 27 max mana game in which neutral monsters aren't allowed. This does restrict card choices, and I guess is the reason for:
watch here
Hmmm, same choices again, same order, again. I don't even like the Sea Genie that much, and had only used the recently delegated Frozen Soldier (thanks @flipstar!) once prior, I think. Six cards, same order, same summoner - well I guess it can happen a fair bit.
Just two battles later this time, my arch enemy, or should I say easy points earner returns and this time we have a 'standard rules' game - all splinters allowed, and a massive 32 mana available.
watch here
Dude, you are starting to creep me out! Either we are master tacticians and are both picking the absolute best deck for this battle (I highly doubt it!), or, I dunno..... are you copying me?!
I'm not sure of the exact number of cards, but included Alpha, Beta, Reward, and Promo I would guess around 100. The odds seem to be stacked against two players drawing the same 6, in the same order for an open round with such high mana?
I played a few more games (got hammered for the most part), and went to bed. Second game in today and my chosen splinter for the daily quest wasn't available......
Well, well, well, if it isn't @smitop again. Back one more time for another pasting I see? I wonder which cards you are going to play this round...
watch here
Yep, thought as much..... same as me!
This time though, I'm pretty sure we didn't play the best cards, or at least not in the right order. Discounting the Giant as the 'tank', the card at the back has the most 'hearts', or life, out of the remainder and so should probably go 2nd in the line-up. The pirate captain was chosen and (at my level) he only has 2 'life' points - seems like a mistake we both made.
Sooo, what gives? Just a coincidence? Must be, right?
Cheers
Asher
EDIT:
@smitop has stated he is using a bot to mimic the opposition cards: https://busy.org/@smitop/cheat-at-sm-view-your-enemy-s-cards-early
There is a workaround in the Settings page at steemmonsters.com
I activated this setting and the next time I faced @smitop, our cards were different:
Wasn't a coincidence. As I explained in a post, it's possible to view your opponent's team before you submit your team, and that's sometimes what my bot does. You can stop my bot (and other bots) from doing this: it's the last item in your settings. (Settings are near near the logout link)
Err, well blow me down with a feather!
Thanks for the information, I suspect something should be done about this.
Wow, so that explains the surrenders I have been getting for seeming no reason!!
@chromaticdragon surrenders a lot against me, but yes that could be why!
Probably wasn't me: if my bot can't "cheat" and figure out what team you're going to submit, it'll analyze your last 1000 battles and figure out what team is statistically most likely to beat you. The only surrenders it does are due to bugs.
Hmm. Interesting!! How are you doing with your bot? Are you ripping your opponents apart?
It's doing fairly well, but it's exactly tearing opponents to shreds. It tends to do worse when battling other bots, since they typically have good teams, a battle history that's harder to figure out a good team from, and because other bots won't let you peek at their cards early.
My bot, with a max alpha deck, has managed to make it to upper Gold 1, and maintain it's position in Gold 2-ish territory. I'm hoping to get up to Diamond league soon.
That's quite good. I used to aim for gold and occasionally diamond up until recently
well you did mention him few times and his last post gives the answer. not sure if it really is as i did not try it but it could be.
https://steempeak.com/steemmonsters/@smitop/cheat-at-sm-view-your-enemy-s-cards-early
and if that thing works (there is sense that it could) he is probably mirroring because he has no time to think how to counter it.
Actually it's my bot, not me mirroring the team. It should only mirror teams when it detects my team has more BCX than the enemy, but that detection is a bit buggy right now.
hehe, a bit? You lost all 4 games! :D
damn you code smart people, i did not even thought that it could be a bot 😀
Posted using Partiko Android
I didn't even think to look at his account, my bad.
A possible solution is found in the settings:
Do you have the "hide your team" button selected in the settings menu? This is johndoer by the way. Sorry. Im logged in wrong.
Good shout!
Seems the guys in charge already know about this and have worked around it. I will make the change, thanks!
Since the problem already has been solved, I'm not going into it again.
It's just that I noticed a mistake in one of your reasonings:
If monsters don't have abilities, there's no slowing down by the Ooze either.
Just so you'd know ;0)
I do remember there was a downside to this option to not reveal your team... I just don't remember which one it was...
And thanks for clearing up the smitop mystery for me... :)
Oops, good point :)
The read that the downside is that it costs more RCs, I'm not sure how much more but think I should be safe.
a quick tip: personally I haven't used the giant in ages. I found it to be more interesting to use the turtle and fill up the rest of the lineup with magic, making sure I have 1 or 2 mana left. I use that to put the ooze or cocactrice in the front, to take the first hit - seems to be working,since it has been a while since I lost a 'no abilities' battle ;0)
I'll need to look up what the downside of hiding your team was again... From the top of my head, I think it had something to do with a lot of fleds from your opponents, but I'm not sure about that - and I think it was only so in the lower levels
woah! i didn't realize that was an option!! doesn't look like it was working very well for him anyway...
You and me both!
Yes, his bot is malfunctioning at present :D
Actually that happened to me several times yesterday also... might be a glitch in the Matrix 😂
Posted using Partiko iOS
Dude has posted about it! Apparently you can change your settings to hide your cards until the opponent has selected theirs!
Well this is at least pretty strange!
To be honest I did give up on Steemmonsters. I am just playing the daily quests hoping on a gold legendary card to decrease the loss in investment.
It is getting harder season after season. This season I probably won't even make it to Gold I. How pitty is that :(
Sorry to hear about that :( Although playing the dailies isn't giving up, that's pretty much all I do too.
Solution found, in settings:
I did see that option but never touched it :)
Not that I would be able to scare people away with my collection in contrary. Maybe they are laughing their ass off so that they forget to submit their team :)
Maybe a bot that try to replicate your deck each time you play. Very stange behavior!
Posted using Partiko Android
Yep, that's exactly it. See the opponent's reply and post. But you can work around it via settings apparently:
You might activate it. ;)
I have never played so I have no idea but it is definitely strange to say the least.
Yep, check the other replies.
There is a workaround though it seems:
Ahhhh. Seems like a cheap thing to do on that players part but we live in an age where people cheat at Words with Friends so...lol
Posted using Partiko iOS
I used to cheat at words with friends :D :D
Lololol
I’m playing with a rando currently and I know she’s totally cheating.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Zine, Za, or Xu been played yet?
Id report this to @yabapmatt. See if theres foul play involved. I know that some time back folks could see your cards before the game starts.
Yep, I wasn't aware, and that is the case, unless this is switched on I guess: