They fixed poker, literally. Cheating NPCs
 

Yeah, I was winning 880 a pot in poker a few days ago and now it obviosly has drastically changed. All of the cpu players fold everytime I get a decent hand. Very rarely can I win a pot of 400. This takes place at pdf, i am sure all the others a programmed to do this, but take it from me, its extremely lame to do this. No one can win like this, and this was 1 of 2 reasons I even subscribed to premium. Now you cant even make decent gold from playing cards, no matter how good you are. The fold and you end up with the starting pot. Occasionally you get 200 but only because you manage to bid one cpu up till the end. The rest fold. I have seen this time and time again, and see a HUGE difference. Played different servers, and its ridiculous, lame and will make me end my subscription. It wasnt luck, but I remember winning 12k in a night... I remember the type of pots I won..

Not to mention there was an update fixing the supposed crash when you get up from poker. It wouldn't suprise me if they changed the way the cpus played while they were at it. I noticed immediate change over the past few days. Like I said, playing cards was my favorite thing to do, and now the fun is gone, there exists no point. Although it could be that they have it set to automatically fold when someone wins a **** load. Either way its got me angry.

This concluding my post, I must ask one question... Has anyone else noticed this?

That concludes my whiny post.
Thanks for your time.

I thought it'd be something like that.
Yes, I've noticed.
It took me over 5 minutes just to get 100 gold yesterday, because everyone kept folding the first turn. It really sucks. Now I have to resort to sinking ships to get some decent gold.
*sighs in frustration*

Dude, do what I did, send in a complaint through bug report. The problem is, they did this at the start of the game where no one would notice. This sucks also because not many play now and there are several to come. Still, send in a complaint like I did, everyone send one in.

It is especially unfair because they cheat, its not that it was easy money before, its now that you cant even play a good hand. It is BS in and of itself. They have to at least even it out... Unless everyone sends in complaints, it won't happen, poker isn't a huge part of this game. In my opinion, not many like it much, just the few. I for one love it, it is my favorite feature, it is why I subscribed.

It really sucks, I had a system set up to earn 10k a night easy in order to purchase the 60k ship. U-n-f-a-i-r.

Cheers.

If you can risk getting to Padres Del Fuego, you can still get some good pots on poker. Matter o' fact, there was someone I was playing with today won 2,546 gold in one pot there. Of course, I also went from 1,718 gold to 412 gold in 5 minutes. ^^

Bro, 2 days ago I was winning 700-800 every few rounds. Occasionally 1000. Trust me, they changed it so that they all fold when you get good cards. Like I said, I earned 12k in one night, that is not luck. I noticed the hands I was getting and they never folded as much as they do now. I even bothered switching severs and going to other islands, no dough. Now I can't even get up to 1k, they play superficially.

In short bottom line, they know all cards that will be laid out on the table before they happen. Even my friend sat down and witnessed it happening, all cpus folded nearly every damn time. The only time the pot exceeds 500 is when the cpu has cards that will 100% surely win.

Keep in mind also, whenever they are betting nonstop, they have something better than you. They know your cards.

Here is how my last 5 games went, as logged...

***** wins 80 gold
***** wins 60 gold
***** wins 110 gold
***** wins 60 gold
***** wins 30 gold

I didnt include the cpus winnings.

My last winnings a few days ago went a little something like this..

***** wins 880
***** wins 700
***** wins 400
***** wins 550

I don't know when you feel this changed, but last night I was winning fairly good pots at both Padres and Cuba. They only folded a few times when I've had good hands, not every time.

I felt it after the 15th, it wasn't luck. However it is really ticking me off.

See? Do me a favor please, the few that actually care about Poker, show you care by sending in a bug report about it. They need to at least level it out a bit, it is utterly pointless to gamble at this point. I have spent this whole day switching servers and finally earned my way up to 600 gold, then lost it all on one bet. Either make them change it, or we will simply have to walk on eggshells playing poker with cpus. By this I mean be as careful as possible when we bet, literally knowing 100% that we will surely win the hand. I am not a fan of this new system, so I will simply cancel my unlimited account after the month is over, until someone tells me some positive news about poker.

-Kidd

I somehow doubt they would bother changing how the NPCs reacts to players hands to make players win less.

I mean, with the slew of other more pressing issues to fix why would they touch something that clearly isn't broken. And the only means of trade/barter for this game.

Still, they are my initial doubts, and I'll have a look on the server tonight more closely at padres and poker, but I noticed a week ago, the NPCs had a tendency to fold pretty consistently unless they had a decent hand.

I find if you raise, more often than not they will fold.

Also, it would be great if searching for a card game actually worked, and would put people together.. We could get rid of these NPC's almost entirely from the card games.

Obviously, everyone's mileage will vary, but based on what I've seen when playing Poker since the 15th ...

- the cpu folks fold early and often for several hands
- if nobody ever gets up from the table, they eventually quit folding (probably just bad luck on my part, but they sure seemed to be getting lots of 2-pair/3 of a kind hands).
- if you still stick it out, and nobody gets up from the table, it appeared to start playing out like it had in the past, and I was getting some bigger winnings.

The key for me was that I usually played with only 1 other "real" person, at the most, and neither one of us got up from the table for a long time. If they did change it, perhaps they are just discouraging the 'hit & run' poker player :).

I played a lot of poker the past few days, and I noticed the CPU players were playing a lot smarter. They didn't keep as many bad hands as they used to. I was playing cheap tables while waiting for crewmates to finish errands, but I was winning some big pots for the table size.

Its blaintaintly obvious that they are trying to end the hit and run poker deal, but why not level it out so they don't cheat. Yes I noticed that when having 1 more player there with you, they fold a lot less, but you get dealt *** hands. Not to mention, have you tried finding one other person to play some poker with you in padres? It's more rare than finding a diamond in a camels stomache.

Oh and as for your idea, I don't even get a chance to bet or call before 2 of the cpus fold! By the time it gets to me, 2 out of 3 already made the choice. Anyways, I have unfortunately developed my own system for edging myself further along in winning, still will never be the same as it was before the 15th. Getting that 60k ship will be a lot more of a challenge, and I cannot bare sailing+plunder=70 gold each trip, no way.

Poker is my main source of income, and I find it very relaxing. Some people don't always want to sink ships to earn gold, not to mention killing enemies is no good for income. Poker and sailing are the only means of earning good money in this game so far. Now at this point, they have messed it up, I am dissapointed in the way this game is going. I'm not the only one.

Sorry to do this, but I really feel the need to point out a few flaws in your theory that I found from a 3 hour card playing stint last night.

Um, I have to call your bluff, so you don't get good hands? fold, thats what the NPC's do (NPC = Non Player Character)

Um, thats because the CPU(NPC's) have *** hands

70 Gold too much for a trip? I tend to rake about 300-500 gold soloing with a midsized frigate, Unless your looting rakes in under 80 gold each trip, you should be making money on sailing and plundering.

Still are, I managed to walk away 4000 Gold up last night from Padres Holdem' and damn, that War Frigate I was on after, if we only got to dock a few times we would have been so rich...

I totaled about 10 Royal chests we could've had if we just played it safe...

You won't ever earn good money from poker, or sailing unless you stop playing it safe basically..

You have to risk a lot to gain a lot I have found.

I guess it would be good to actually know if they have made any changes to the gambling system since it went live. Maybe they did some ninja updates and didn't tell us.

It does look like they are less stupid now,(the NPC's) but still, I have seen them raise a pot upto 500 or so Plus with just a mid sized pair and while I have a flush.

It's not like they will all fold if they know you will win, I managed to milk a few hundred out of npc's that won't fold when I have a godlike hand.

I only had about an hour to play yesterday, and I spent most of my time in Tortuga and Port Royale occassionally helping guildmates. In between sessions, I was playing holdem. The NPCs players only unanimously folded three times. Of those times, my hand was only average. Granted, these weren't the high stakes tables.