A:EftP - Challenger does something!?!?

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

I finished my first play through of the game, and just started my second using the remix mod and was upset to see the tooltip was changed to saying challenger does nothing? Is this confirmed by Jeff or something, because on my first play through I noticed a difference when I used challenger. I'm righting this because I found challenger very rewarding considering I played with 2 tanks and a melee range glass cannon.

 

I'll try and test this a bit more thoroughly somehow, but how I think it works so far and why is:

 

1. challenger only has a chance of working.

Before I put a point in challenger ranged monsters would attack the most fragile target in their current range 100% of the time. after putting a point in challenger on my tank the same monsters attacked the tank and the fragile character equally. (I never tried rushing early points in challenger as of yet).

 

2. enemy level effects challengers effectiveness.

This could have been my imagination honestly, but this is why I thought upgrading challenger wasn't making a noticeable difference over time.

 

3. enemies rarely move to attack a target with challenger.

I only ever noticed challenger make a difference when multiple characters were in the monsters attack range at the start of the turn.

 

4. level of challenger makes a difference

all throughout my run I had 2 characters with challenger, one at rank 3 the other at rank 2. The character at rank 3 was often prioritized but I admit the difference was easily arguable.

[Aoslare]

When people have explicitly tested for any effect of Challenger -- i.e., entering a set a commands, then reloading, adding Challenger points, and then entering precisely the same set of commands in the same situation (including exactly the same movement if any) -- no one has been able to find an impact.

 

That doesn't mean there's no impact, but if there is an impact it probably doesn't happen in many situations.

 

The default monster AI can settle on different targets depending on map locations and also if anyone has attacked the monster. This is why it's so hard to tell what is influencing the monster's actions unless you test for it in tightly controlled situations.

 

Challenger is not used in monster AI scripts so if it has an impact it would have to be hardcoded. That's possible. But it's also possible that it was hardcoded, and then effectively neutered due to a code change elsewhere.

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

Sounds fair, I can chop up what I noticed to coincidence; or possibly that certain monsters AI's don't instantly override challengers effect and one of those mobs was where I noticed it.