History Main / RubberBandAI

* Quite a big problem in the PlayStation 3-exclusive ModNation Racers. For the first quarter of the career mode, it's fairly simple and, while challenging, possible to win every race and get every bonus in each level. But then... At a clear point (the Flaming Jumps track, specifically), the AI's rubber band is folded over itself twice or thrice, and doesn't compensate for players who aren't as good. The slowest computer opponent can almost always drive faster than your maximum speed, and all constantly launch Level 3 targeting weapons at you, guaranteeing you'll run out of boost by the third lap.

* Quite a big problem in the Playstation 3-exclusive ModNationRacers. For the first quarter of the career mode, it's fairly simple and, while challenging, possible to win every race and get every bonus in each level. But then... At a clear point (the Flaming Jumps track, specifically), the AI's rubber band is folded over itself twice or thrice, and doesn't compensate for players who aren't as good. The slowest computer opponent can almost always drive faster than your maximum speed, and all constantly launch Level 3 targeting weapons at you, guaranteeing you'll run out of boost by the third lap.
** Not to mention the bonuses get practically impossible by this point. After struggling just to get 3rd place to continue the story, the game tells you to blow up "Nato's explosives," which aren't located or even mentioned before then, and to get 1st place at the same time. You can blow up all three of the explosives and, on the final curve, be exploded by a million billion missiles and come in 11th place, losing the bonus.

* Many games in ''SaGa'' series, especially ''RomancingSaga'', are open-ended games where you go anywhere you want at anytime, so random monsters are designed to suit your team's power level at the moment you face them.

* In SonicR, there is an option to disable or enable rubberbanding called, "Catch Up."

-->-- '''BillSimmons''', ''[[http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/020814 ESPN.com]]''

Of course, to be fair, this sometimes happens ''in reverse'', with the AI easing up when winning to give you a chance to come back, stealing any satisfaction the player might gain from "victory." The classic example is a [[VideoGame/MarioKart racing game]] in which opponents never gain a substantial lead on slow players but cling to the tails of even super-humanly skilled players, creating the impression of the AI's car being attached to yours by a literal rubber band! Sometimes gamers notice proof of rubber band AI (particularly in Mario Kart-style racing games) when their actual racing time in seconds when they take 1st place may be the same or similar when they race the exact same track and take as low as 6th place. Even though the times were the same, the racer's rank can fluctuate wildly due to rubber banding competitors.

Also seen in a few {{RPG}}s, where enemies are adjusted according to your character's levels, which can make any non-levelable stuff (like items) useless pretty quick. This is sometimes referred to as "punishing you for your experience." See EmptyLevels and LevelScaling

* ''{{Okami}}'' features a bonus mission where you can race a character through a forest maze. Your opponent is much faster than you if you decide to take the normal route, so you must exploit every possible shortcut on the course in order to stay ahead. However, the race is split into three areas with load screens in between. If you were losing at the end of a section, the opponent will be far ahead of you at the beginning of the next section. If you were winning, no matter how far ahead you were, the opponent will suddenly be racing neck and neck with you in the next section. This leaves very little room for mistakes on any part of the course.

* The multiplayer game ''{{MULE}}'' will inflict whichever player currently has the highest score with with bad "random" events, while whoever is bringing up the rear will only have good things happen to them.

* Inverted, for the most part, in the "Brucie's Races" side missions in GrandTheftAutoIV, which feature AI that tend to get knocked out of the race or held back within the opening seconds of virtually every race, making the remainder of the race a rather dull cakewalk for the player...

Compare DynamicDifficulty. May also overlap with (or even result in) FakeDifficulty. When a game allows human players in on it, it's a ComebackMechanic. Games that give you an easy race or level after a particularly difficult Boss (or vice-versa)do not count.

** Though you can simply just cheat. Before each race you just aim a gun at each racer and they will get out of their vehicle with no penalty to you. After doing so to all the vehicles you can race with no competition.
*** Or just use the machine gun upgrade to your Aurora to destroy the competition.

Wrong, because suddenly the AI is twice as fast as you, knows what play you're going to run, and shuts down your offense, forcing you to punt - or, worse, your running back with a high "Hands" rating fumbles the ball, or an AI defensive back makes a miracle interception. On their drive, the AI marches downfield with no difficulty by completing several consecutive bombs, scoring an easy touchdown. Rinse and repeat, and before you know it you've lost what you thought was a safe lead. The video game has just experienced a MiracleRally.

Of course, to be fair, this sometimes happens ''in reverse'', with the AI easing up when winning to give you a chance to come back, stealing any satisfaction the player might gain from "victory." The classic example is a [[VideoGame/MarioKart racing game]] in which opponents never gain a substantial lead on slow players but cling to the tails of even superhumanly skilled players, creating the impression of the AI's car being attached to yours by a literal rubber band! Sometimes gamers notice proof of rubber band AI (particularly in Mario Kart-style racing games) when their actual racing time in seconds when they take 1st place may be the same or similar when they race the exact same track and take as low as 6th place. Even though the times were the same, the racer's rank can fluctuate wildly due to rubber banding competitors.

** The blue car was a more traditional example of Rubber Band A.I. When you got ahead of him for a bit, his top speed would boost to slightly above yours so he'd catch up and pass you, but if he got far enough ahead of you, his top speed would drop a lot so you could pass him. Collecting a higher top speed powerup would keep him from catching you for that track though, since he worked off the top speed you had coming in.

* Drastically averted in the original ''TOCA Touring Cars'' for the Playstation, in a way that was a revelation for driving games at the time. Sixteen cars on the grid at the start of the race, accurately modelled circuits with few walls and long grass runouts, pretty accurate physics meaning that if you put a couple of wheels on the grass at speed you were definitely going to spin out, and then when you do, the AI opponents give no quarter at all. Spin out at any point early in a race, and you'd do very well to even SEE the rest of the cars again, they'd be so far in front. Equally, on a short track, if you managed to nudge an opponent into a catastrophic spin, you'd have a reasonable chance of lapping him.

* [[SonicGenerations Sonic Generations (for the 3DS at least)]] have you race against Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver. You'd think Rubber Band AI would be put in so you couldn't just boost your way to victory. But it [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard works more in the favor of the AI.]] Metal Sonic and Shadow boost right behind you, even if you left them in the dust 3 seconds ago. If they collide with you (and they will), you'll take damage and fall behind. And did I mention both characters boost FASTER than the "World's Fastest Hedgehg"?

** What is truly bad however, is how far this overadjusts the enemy, especially towards the last missions. If the player has a cap-sized fleet, in one mission, the enemy might as well destroy what the player is to protect before his heavy ships are even in firing range, and even then, are badly outnumbered, without the targets hp getting adjusted at all; a later mission lets the enemy start with as much as ''seven'' battlecruisers, while the player is capped at ''two'' ...

*** The ''NFL Blitz'' series is infamous for rubberband AI too. Again, it's always active against the cpu, but can be turned off with a code against a human. Manifests usually through fumbles and cheap interceptions, or people just magically blowing past blockers and sacking you.

** ''BattleGaregga'' is a particularly guilty offender. You have to keep your shot power and number of {{Attack Drone}}s low for the first five stages, as well as limit your shooting and avoid collecting excess powerups. Failure to do so would make enemies more durable and shoot more bullets, items fall off the screen faster, and overall make the game nearly impossible to survive.

Casually, TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubberband_AI a comprehensive article]] about Rubberband AI.

** And you white collar workers thought you were safe? There is a theory -- The Peter Principle -- that if you show competence in a position, you will be promoted to a new one. If you keep getting good at these new positions you'll get assigned to higher ones. The resultant effect is that a person will keep getting promoted until they reach a position they are incompetent in.
*** Which has led to "the ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} principle", named by Scott Adams. Companies now leave good workers in their current positions, and only promote incompetents, because they can hurt the company less as management. Adams snarks that this does not prove to be [[SarcasmMode the winning strategy one would imagine it to be]].

* Teal'c faces a Rubberband AI in an episode of ''StargateSG1'' - every time it looks like he's winning, the game throws in a new twist. New twists include more enemies (and making those enemies tougher by making the usual method of killing them ineffective and giving one of them the power to turn invisible), and having [=NPCs=] who are supposed to be on Teal'c's side suddenly turn on him at the worst possible moment.

* ''Left4Dead'' has this, thanks to the AI Director. If the group is doing very well, there will be less pills and med kits to find (not counting the ones in the safe room and the finales) and special infected will spawn at a more frequent rate. Also, a Tank is likely to appear if the group is playing too well and there's usually a high chance that after you killed a Tank, the director will spawn a Boomer, Smoker, and Hunter right after that to make sure you don't have it easy. Naturally, if the team is doing poorly, there will be more health items to find and enemy count is lessened somewhat. On Expert, the director will punish you every step of the way if you even spend as much as 10 seconds in one area.
** It should be noted that in the case of Left4Dead, this is seen as a good thing and generally works very well.
*** Inversely, in ''Left 4 Dead 2'' the director [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard HATES YOU]] and revels in your misery.

** The blue car was a more traditional example of RubberBandAI. When you got ahead of him for a bit, his top speed would boost to slightly above yours so he'd catch up and pass you, but if he got far enough ahead of you, his top speed would drop a lot so you could pass him. Collecting a higher top speed powerup would keep him from catching you for that track though, since he worked off the top speed you had coming in.

*** Note that the RubberBandAI of this game works less like RubberBandAI and more like a twisted form of scaled levelling-if they're behind, they'll take shortcuts, speed up, or when neither of those is an option, seem to literally vanish and reappear just behind you going half again as fast. But if they're ahead, they'll still speed up as you do. So oftentimes about the only way to win a race in this freakin' game is to gain a lead in the first lap and then ''never make a freakin' mistake for the rest of the race''. If you crash, die or run out of AIR even once, you may as well start over, because there is no making a comeback.

* Subverted in ''[[SegaSuperstars Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed]]''. The AI does rubberband, and will get the "Swarm" item a LOT if you're in first [[hottip:*: It sends giant insects to try to block the first place racer, but it is completely dodge-able and you get bonus EXP for it]]. That said, it also has a rubber band "snap", where if you're far enough ahead of the pack the AI won't even ''try'' to catch up anymore.

** You can watch it by playing Time Trials in any course that has alternate routes. Say you are behind it, and both are at the bifurcation. He'll pick the default route, and you pick the shortcut route. At the moment you pass the CPU, it's cursor will shake a bit then teleport to your route, right behind you. If you stop, you can watch it pass you.

* ''DiddyKongRacing'' averts this... at least, from the outset. While the original game's racers did not initially rubberband or gang up on you, there was a secret code[[hottip:* :TIMETOLOSE]], inputtable in the cheats menu, that activated this. Opponents got real cheap ''real'' fast.

** Oh, even better. Silver '''TELEPORTS'''. And throws boxes at you. The only way to actually win one is to Boost yourself. BUT, Boost works differently in the 3DS version, meaning it doesn't last 5 seconds without proper (read: little) usage. The fever gauge works badly too.

* Perhaps the most noticeable example is the ''VideoGame/MaddenNFL'' games, which are often accused of featuring an "AI catch-up mode", in which opposing teams inexplicably become drastically more potent in the final minutes of a close game, often to the point where preventing them from completing long bombs and scoring touchdowns seems like an impossible task (sometimes called "Robo QB"). Some Madden players, however, dispute the existence of RubberBandAI in the game, arguing that this is more likely the perception of players who are unable to adjust to the AI's late-game all-out offensive strategy. It may also be possible that the difficulty level may have something to do with it.

* {{Sierra}}'s outer space RTS ''{{Outpost 2}}'' features this not only with enemy AI, but also with your population. You can opt to research items that improve the quality of life in the colony, however by doing so, the colony knows it exists and demands that you meet their needs. If you research any weapons systems, unless [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the enemy already has them]], the computer will start attacking your base. You could say researching anything that remotely deals with these two aspects aren't worth researching.

* ''[[SiN Sin Episodes]]'' was released with a much-touted dynamic difficulty system -- kill the enemies too quickly and they'd send more next time, get too many headshots and the next group will wear helmets, etc. Unfortunately, encounters that were ''supposed'' to be easier or harder were counted in this, resulting in situations that a hard encounter would be made virtually impossible due to how quickly you dispatched an easy one.

*** By turning on the map-view in Mario Kart 64 it's possible to watch opponents suddenly accelerate to unrealistic speed when they are far behind.