Available maps in vs AI mode

Bug Report
138

Exactly the same as me. I too experienced the “anomaly” and since then I’ve had the exact same maps as you. And my AI’s are also still intent on defending their own immortal, despite the patch notes claiming they “now have a better understanding of when to attack”… :confused:

139

In response to this:

I almost always play with AI’s only. So no other human players are involved.

Shouldn’t there be a blue post here about this also?

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140

Hey Elyxia!
That is a great idea. As mentioned in the other thread, while I have nothing to announce at this moment, we are aware of this issue and looking to find the root cause of this issue to identify a fix that is comprehensive and is safe for everyone.

If you have this issue happen to you, please make sure to include answers to the questions below as this information is crucial for us to help narrow down a root cause.

  • Were you playing VS AI with AI Teammates or Coop (with other human players)?
  • Are you playing with a group of friends? If so, do you always play with the same people?

I will continue to check into this thread (and the forums as a whole) and will update you all once I know anything new.

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141

Although at first it does appear like it affects everyone, it’s not the case. This can be checked easily by playing games with 9 AI. Groups have nothing to do with it, except in the sense that if one player if affected, rest of the group will be forced to play “the same rotation” to accommodate that one player. This is the same case for random queue games as with premades.

Different users experience different map limitations which change on the fly at a somewhat regular interval (new brawl, new patch, new hero rotation???), but noone is sure if it is based on player level or a specific day in the week.

142

To further explain our reasoning behind the questions I posted, GriM, our current understanding of this issue is that this is caused by people who (almost exclusively or exclusively) play VS AI with AI teammates OR people who play VS AI with the same group of people, causing all the players in the game to fall into the same map pool.

The data we are looking for is trying to see if this issue can happen to players that frequently play with other, random, human players. Due to how the map is chosen, if you do not play with other humans, you can fall in to a rotation of maps that will also be changed up when a new patch is deployed. Since the system for choosing a map is built on systems that have systems built on it, we want to make sure we are 100% correct in this assumption before touching it, as rushing to make a fix without that information could make even more issues.

If you are affected by this, this could be tested by playing a couple matches of VS AI with other players either via finding new friends in client or playing VS AI not with AI Teammates. After a handful of matches, you can return to VS AI with AI teammates and should see a different map rotation.

I appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience with us while we gather this data and look to find a solution that works best for everyone!

Thanks!
Huginncord

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143

sorry I was a bit unclear,

if you feel like you are getting same 4 maps in COOP vs AI, try launching a 9 AI game and if you get a map that differs from those same four you’ve been experiencing at a given day, you are not directly affected by the problem

if you keep remaking any kind of AI game (after forcefully quitting early), you will keep getting the same map you just quit, until you complete it - you may try switching a hero and you should get a different map in that case

this is from my experience at least, one day it seems like I’m stuck with the same four maps and the day after I’ll be playing 5, if not many more maps, depending on who I end up in a game with

but I don’t play vs AI consistently or exclusively, like many others sometimes when I don’t have much free time, I try to knock out three daily quests with zero effort fast games while I’m drinking my morning coffee

145

I play with AI teammates and Co-op, solo and in parties. I have yet to see the map pool ‘reset’ by playing co-op, then returning to 1v9, if that’s helpful. Sickroom summarized the symptoms very accurately. I do notice that playing Co-op yields a larger map pool, and I agree with his assertion that whatever determines the map choice seems to attempt to accommodate each player’s map pool. I’ll try to do some more testing over the weekend. It’ll have to start by finding someone who isn’t experiencing this limited pool.

Also- Thank you! for your attention to this problem. I was disheartened when I found this thread seemingly abandoned, so this is a welcome development.

Also also, for the record- my last 7 games, 1v9 vs ai, have been Alterac, Sky Temple, Towers of Doom, Spider Queen, Alterac, Sky Temple, Towers of Doom.

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146

A guildy by name of Jaewyn, provided me the following information;

"Jaewyn: Played 7 games and started an 8th vs AI with AI teammates. It seems to repeat four maps in order.

  1. Alterac Pass
  2. Tomb of the Spider Queen
  3. Towers of Doom
  4. Sky Temple
  5. Alterac Pass
  6. Tomb of the Spider Queen
  7. Towers of Doom
  8. Sky Temple"
147

that’s great information, if she is experiencing the problem solo no doubt it will carry over to others in CO-OP AI.

but what is their level, how often does s/he play, is this the first time she noticed a limited map rotation, do they play outside of AI modes?

I did some testing with full AI teams and I seem to be affected by this problem again, fixed order of 4 maps that keep repeating.

Sky Temple, Towers, Blackheart, Battlefield - played up to 10th game to see if it was just unlucky chance but it started repeating again in specific order (saturday 20th, EU server).

Did a co-op after that and the first map was different from the four I got by playing alone, which is inconsistent with my previous experiences. I expected to get one of those 4 and tie other teammates down with my map pool.

edit:

played 7 more AI games in co-op and they were all on different maps, I can’t explain what’s going on, in all previous testing limitation was in co-op while in full AI mode there was a full map rotation - now it is complete opposite.

148

4 map rotation here too. 32 games.
Sky Temple
Towers of Doom
Blackheart’s Bay
Battlefield of Eternity
-: repeat :-

2 days of AI battles, sometimes with my human partner, sometimes by myself, always with/against AI.

I/we use different heroes, we play at different times of each day, always with the same network.

We have uninstalled HotS, and reinstalled.

The previous 4 map rotation was ST, BH, BoE, GoT - this lasted about 80 games. Same above circumstances.

149

I did my own personal tests too, and like everyone else, same 4 map pool in repeating order.

  1. Sky Temple
  2. Towers of Doom
  3. Tomb of the Spider Queen
  4. Alterac Pass

I’m on the US servers

150

This is what I have at the moment too.
Solo vs AI

152

Thank you for posting! It helps us feel like we’re not being ignored, and that the issue is being investigated.

Even posting to report that there’s nothing to report is appreciated :smile:

153

Not sure if this will help or not.

I constantly play AI team mates, ether with myself or up to 2 other friends. We have all had the same 4 map rotation for around the last 2 weeks.
We jumped on Brawl 2 days ago to give ourselves a break from the repeated maps. None of us are competitive and Brawl isn’t something we enjoyed (due to the competitive nature and human showmanship), however the different maps was a relief.
I attempted the suggested idea of choosing vs AI and started the matchmaking process and indeed I was placed in a different map from my standard 4. After playing a match I returned to my AI Team mates only to be placed back into the 4 map rotation I’ve had for the last 2 weeks.

On a side note I’m so glad I’m not the only one with bugged AI hugging there Gods and leaving there cores wide open.

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154

I play with my husband vs AI with AI team mates. Had the same four maps for what feels live forever. I tried playing a Coop AI game by myself and got a different map. Partied with my husband again, same four maps as before. I really hope this issue gets fixed soon!

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156

Well…after half year break i tried to play again…6 games vs AI, all 6 games - Sky Temple… Why Blizzard cant add all maps to rotation with bots? Its not even Quick Game, its not a ranked. Whats the problem? Why am i get the same god damn map 6 times in a row? Very upset with this situation…
P.s. Sorry bor bad English, its not my mother tongue.

158

Hey Sickroom!
To answer your question, probably. However, the purpose for my earlier post was an attempt to focus the data on this so we can provide a precise report on the problem. It is premature to find answers before we 100% understand the scope and root cause of the problem. This is especially true as the complexity of this problem and the high potential for more problems to spin off this.

Currently, all data has proven our theories accurate but to be safe we are keeping an eye out for use cases that break our theories, hence the questions I asked earlier in this thread. I also offered a potential workaround, to see if people who are affected were able to find some relief from this issue, as knowing the outcome of that workaround will also help nail down a root cause.

While on the topic of the workaround, to get the best effects, try and play a handful of VS AI maps with other random human players a couple of times not just once, and make sure the maps you get during these games are not the ones you are seeing in your rotation. According to our investigations, the more games you play in VS AI with other random human players, the better chance you will not have this issue anymore.

I understand the desire to see this issue fixed and appreciate everyone’s patience while we work on this. Every bit of help and data I get from this thread will help. So please make sure to post the answers to those questions above and let me know any other information you think might help!

Thanks again!
Huginncord

160

Thanks for the update.

Does this mean you’ve been able to replicate the problem in the lab, and that this has worked as a solution? I bounce between sessions (5-8+ games) of only coop, and other times strictly ai teammates. Forgive me for repeating my last post, but that’s never had any effect on breaking the 4 map pool for me.

I haven’t played much since the new patch hit, I’ll have some time this weekend to do some testing.

2 Likes
161

playing more with other people will make the issue go away? how?

you’re missing the point that if 20% of population has this problem, they will drag other 80% of population down to the downsized map pool to accommodate the limitations, or people would otherwise end up waiting 25 min for AI games considering two different players could have a different map pool limitation same day of the week

we already concluded how you can check if you are affected by the problem - play games with 9 other AI - you won’t be able to figure this in COOP as there are 5 player factors where only one could be a problem, or all of them are the problem

but then we have the inconsistency with the issue, you can put the player population in four categories

  • those that are experiencing a limited map availability in COOP and have a full map in +9 AI
  • those that have all the maps in COOP but limited pool in +9 AI
  • those with limited pool both in COOP and +9 AI (albeit different sets of four maps)
  • those that experience FULL proper map rotation in ALL modes (hard to determine since many focus on different game modes, but sample size indicates no one is left unaffected in some form)

on an any random given week since the problem started I’ve had experienced all of these situations more than once first hand (with a decent sample size to exclude the random factor) and the “player status” keep changing at random

Unless you’re running 100 accounts at the same time to check how things work there is simply no way to figure out what is causing this and what causes further variations between different users unless someone goes and checks line by line of code.

Only thing we can agree on is that we know it started around October 2018, when the problem first started happening (four years after game launch)

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162

Just knocked out 5 games 1v9, ai teammates.

Sky Temple > Volskaya > Blackheart’s Bay > Hanamura > Sky Temple. I’ve gotta run but i’ll edit and update this evening if i get a chance to see if i keep looping.

edit: Yup, the rotation continued. Picked up with Volskaya > BHB > Hanamura > Sky Temple

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