History Main / AIRoulette

* In ''VideoGame/PokerNightAtTheInventory'', this is how Max's AI works. All the computer players in the game have two stats: skill (their ability to figure out how likely they are to win a given hand) and aggression (how much they're willing to bet on a given hand). Max has the highest skill, but his level of aggression changes with every hand. Sometimes he'll play incredibly conservatively, and sometimes he'll go all-in at the blinds. A few of his lines have him claim he doesn't know how to play poker.

* In ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', the Egg Dealer is literally this. Its attacks are decided by hitting buttons (using a homing attack) on a slot machine that's on its front.

* In ''VideoGame/SpongebobSquarepantsBattleForBikiniBottom'', there are robot boss versions of some of the characters which follow this trope. Robot Sandy can do her clothesline move 15 times before she shows her weak spot move!

* In the Microprose ''VideoGame/MagicTheGathering'' game, the AI has a particular talent for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory because it randomly selects its moves. It's particularly amusing to see it countering its own spells. It is rather obvious to anyone who plays that the AI does not understand the game.

* There are several situations in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' where most characters, and even parties, can be wiped out if the enemy mages randomly cast the right spells unless the character is specifically built and equipped to have massive generic spell resistance. This isn't a completely bad thing because there are several fights in the game that would be impossible to win if the AI was intelligent.

* The boss of the WebGame ''[[http://www.kongregate.com/games/firebeaststudio/zombo-buster-rising Zombo Buster Rising]]'' is how one should NOT do an AI Roulette for a TimeLimitBoss. One of the randomly selected moves that the boss can use [[AdvancingBossOfDoom is to move closer]], and if it gets close enough after 4 steps, it {{One Hit Kill}}s you with a massive punch. As such, the boss becomes one huge LuckBasedMission depending on whether it decides to step forwards of not- if it steps forwards too early too many times, it becomes nearly impossible to win.

** In the original ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', this also applies to your ''allies''. In order to represent that everyone aside from your hero is an experienced warrior by the time you recruit them in Chapter 5, the player only gets to directly control their HeroicMime. All the other heroes have their own AI, which... doesn't work out that well in practice. Such as having [[TheMedic team Cleric]] [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Cristo/Kyril]] constantly casting his [[UselessUsefulSpell rarely-hitting insta-death spell]] against ''bosses''. Thankfully, they added a manual command option in TheRemake. Even the original NES version has a UsefulNotes/GameGenie code that allowed manual command.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokémon}}'':
** Nearly all wild Pokémon in every game uses the Roulette. This is justified by the wild Pokémon not having the decision-making skills of humans, but can reach noticeably silly levels when, for instance, a wild Gastly decides to use Curse (which inflicts a nasty status effect, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half the user's HP]]) when it's at half health or less, [[TooDumbToLive causing it to immediately lose]]. Exceptions are typically those where you cannot catch the Pokémon, like the fused Necrozma fights in ''VideoGame/PokémonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', as well as the [[BossInMookClothing Alpha Pokémon]] in ''VideoGame/PokémonLegendsArceus''.

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'' features the [[SuicideAttack Sacrifice]] spell. It destroys the party member who casts it, but also insta-kills every signle enemy in the fight with 100% chance to hit. Unfortunately, certain foes ''also'' have Sacrifice, and will use it when low on health. There is not much more frustrating than having your [[TotalPartyKill entire group]] killed randomly after a lengthy dungeon crawl.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Nearly all wild Pokémon in every game uses the Roulette. This is justified by the wild Pokémon not having the decision-making skills of humans, but can reach noticeably silly levels when, for instance, a wild Gastly decides to use Curse (which inflicts a nasty status effect, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half the user's HP]]) when it's at half health or less, [[TooDumbToLive causing it to immediately lose]]. Exceptions are typically those where you cannot catch the Pokémon, like the fused Necrozma fights in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', as well as the [[BossInMookClothing Alpha Pokémon]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''.
** In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]], most trainers behaved like this as well. Outside of not using status-inflicting moves if your Pokémon already has a [[StatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep), they'd pick their moves completely at random, not accounting for [[ElementalRockPaperScissors type-effectiveness]] or if a move will have any effect[[note]](e.g., using moves the opponent is immune to, trying to do Whirlwind/Roar when those moves had absolutely no effect in trainer battles during Gen I, etc.)[[/note]].
*** Certain trainers, like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four operate under a command that fans refer to as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' prioritise using attacks with a super-effective typing against your Pokémon. Said AI doesn't differentiate damaging moves from non-damaging moves, however, leading to an AIBreaker which can render particular trainers practically harmless. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, where a Level 36 Venomoth (a Poison type) killed Lance's Dragonite due to it spamming the Psychic-type Agility (a non-damaging speed buff) in lieu of anything actually harmful.

** There are two ways that fights can go in ''VideoGame/Persona2 Eternal Punishment'': the bosses either spam a manageable attack or a useless move that makes for a fair a decent fight, or they'll keep spamming their respective ThatOneAttack until you are dead. In the latter case, you need careful planning, pre-peperation and a deep understanding of each boss's moveset to win, so better be prepared because you cannot count on the AI being stupid.

* ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'' has this for a few enemies, but notably, also has it for Mousse, a playable character. Mousse can't be selected for an action each round, but will attack automatically each turn, [[LoopholeAbuse allowing more than three members of Wain's party to act per turn.]] It can perform basic attacks, use stronger Mousse Punch attacks, use Mysterious Bubble to lower a target's defence, or — very rarely — unleash Tail Illusion, which is extremely powerful.

** For that matter, mobs generally use their own abilities at random as well. Bosses tend to be less random overall but within the confines of the cooldown timers they also work pretty randomly. Including targetting of the ranged abilities - woe is the raid if the boss randomly starts focusing on the healers.

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings 2'', the A.I characters make decisions based on random weights. These random weights are based on their traits, and they may make bad decisions if their traits give them a low rationality score.

* A common issue with ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' and ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' mooks and bosses, especially later in the game. Rikti suffer horribly, as Mentalists will spam sleep powers on Heroes stuck in poison gas, Guardians will heal allies at full health and shield almost dead ones, and Drones can spend a lot of time running from characters with accurate ranged attacks. The Praetorians and the Freedom Phalanx tend to suffer from this, too, especially Numina and her evil counterpart. They'll beat you to within an inch of your life, turn on an invulnerable force field, and then run away.

* [[VideoGame/CrusaderKings Crusader Kings 2]]: The A.I characters make decisions based on random weights. These random weights are based on their traits, and they may make bad decisions if their traits give them a low rationality score.
--> '''Darkrenown''': The AI doesn't actually have a plan for prisoners, it just periodically picks something to do to them. It could be torture, release, or it could be torture, torture, torture. [[https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/ck2-dev-diary-22-quarantining-the-bugs.967369/page-7#post-21802351]]
* While a standard problem in turn-based strategy games, Steel Panthers used to really take the cake, as going harder WIDENS the roulette. It's not unheard of for a king tiger to suddenly turn around to fire at the crew of a destroyed tank while the entire enemy army is lining up on it, or to overrun a position just once, then drive harmlessly away if it doesn't succeed. In short, mid-tier difficulties were the hardest, as easy is colossally stupid, and expert-level difficulties afflicts the enemy WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity as they will pound you into gravel, then randomly give you a game-winning opening, provided they haven't blown up all your guns or chased off your tank hunters. Also the AI's support vehicles have a tendency to get 'stuck' and drive in circles until they finally decide to flee giving you a LOT more time to get to them and shoot them. Sometimes you will even see such insanity as an enemy transport getting its passengers killed because it spotted 'soft targets' before the 'hard targets' and it will attempt to charge up and engage your recons with SMG fire despite the fact there is a tank or AA gun one hex over, [[TooDumbToLive all while forgetting]] to let the soldiers on board disembark. The remake World at War fixes a lot of that, but not all.
* Occasionally seen in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', where sometimes the AI starts creeping and expanding as normal, but sometimes does nothing until it gets its second hero, putting it two or three levels behind everyone else, but also leaving them short one hero. Even worse for the Night Elves, who sometimes trap themselves inside their own base due to randomly putting down buildings (said buildings can ''move out of the way''). Averted where spellcasting is concerned however, as they will always fire off their spells as needed.

* It takes less time. Complex AI routines would require a lot of coding for each individual creature to use its attacks most effectively, which increases the time it takes to create a new monster. In games with hundreds of different creatures (even if some are PaletteSwap creatures), AI Roulette is a reasonable alternative to writing hundreds of AI routines.

** In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]], all trainers behaved like this as well. Moves were picked at random, with no regards to type-effectiveness or if a move will have any effect[[note]](e.g., using moves the opponent is immune to, trying to do Whirlwind/Roar when those moves had absolutely no effect in trainer battles during Gen I, etc.)[[/note]], much less utilizing any sort of strategy as they would in later games.
*** There are two exceptions to this: they aren't ''quite'' stupid enough to attempt a status-inflicting move if your Pokémon already has a [[StatusEffects non-volatile status]] (i.e., burn, freeze, paralysis, poison, or sleep). In addition, certain trainers like Gym Leaders and the Elite Four operate under a command that fans refer to as the "Good AI flag", where they ''will'' take type advantage into account and only use moves of an advantageous typing if available... but this still manages to be a case of ArtificialStupidity, as they'll continue spamming a move even if said "super effective" attack isn't an actual damaging move. For example, Agility is denoted as a Psychic-type move, but all it does is [[StatusBuff increase the user's speed]]; a "good AI" will deem using this move (and only this move) as the best course of action against Poison-types regardless. And since AI opponents in Gen I have unlimited PP, they'll never be forced to stop using this tactic either. One of the most memorable moments in the first ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' directly resulted from this, allowing the mob to win against Lance using a Level 36 Venomoth.
*** Some Gen I trainers additionally have random chances of taking special actions like using an item or switching. Gym Leader Blaine is infamous for this, as he's coded to randomly use a Super Potion... but the coders forgot to specify any clause about HP, meaning that it's surprisingly common for him to [[TooDumbToLive use it on a full-health Pokémon.]]

** ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIHeroesOfLagaard'': The Ur Child plays the trope straight if you attack him at night, and averts it if you do so during day.

* The bonus boss of ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' subverts this. It has three elemental attacks, any one of which will wipe out your entire party if not blocked by the specific, one-turn-only anti-elemental technique. The only way to beat him is to memorize the entire set 50-turn-long sequence of attacks he uses so you can counter them at the appropriate time; so strictly speaking (barring an insanely defensive tactic), he's only ''beatable'' because he subverts this trope.
** Similarly, the bonus bosses of the second and third game follow a similar pattern, only the second game's bonus boss plays this straight if you attack him at night. The third game's bonus boss also plays it straight after losing only 1/4th of its hitpoints. Since all of its moves are lethal, both common tactics for beating it involve simply shredding it in a single turn using one of the game's two most broken moves.