The random rule is not okay

[Hasty_Touch]

Random for a player: Gets a deck with all one star cards.
Random for NPC: "I got Odin this time instead of Louisoix, whatever shall I do?"

and precisely because of this, it is thus challenging; the player getting random cards and the NPC getting not-so-random cards.
introducing anything else to change this would make it easier.

honestly, this discussion will never end..
some people like random rule, some people don't.
there is no right or wrong here, there's only difference in opinions.

[DarkDedede]

I think another big issue I've experienced is that the computer seems to place their cards around your hand, even with the "All Open" not being in place. It's bad enough that majority of the time your hand is random garbage, but it's an even bigger issue when the computer can also reference your hand, when you can't see theirs.

[Milleus]

My thought process when posting that was..
if you want it to negatively affect the NPC, it could potentially make it easier (as you've pointed out), and made a dropping comment "i guess these days everybody just wants it easy".

I was not very clear in showing what I was thinking about and I guess that may have inadvertently insulted you.
I apologize for it, and I hope you'll understand that it was never my intention to insult you.

I will edit my previous post.

EDIT: as mentioned below, asking for fairness will make it easier. I hope this helps you to see why, to me, it has to do with easiness.
This isn't a twist of argument.. just a thought process that wasn't shown clearly.

[Savader]

I am glad I'm not the only one who thought Landenel was total BS. Could not agree more with the OP, and it definitely should be made fair by at least forcing the NPC to follow its own damn rules, Square Enix... Seriously cannot stress that enough.

That aside, has anyone else gotten the feeling that some NPCs know what's in your hand despite it being a closed-hand game?

[Firepower]

That aside, has anyone else gotten the feeling that some NPCs know what's in your hand despite it being a closed-hand game?

I think so, I've had a lot of games against Vorsaile, and he has a few cards with 9's on the side, kan e senna, minfilia, cid. I delay playing my bahamut expecting him to play ramuh or mog to give it ascencion so it can overturn those 9's and somehow every one of these opportunities is missed because It is either his LAST card or he never plays it, as if he knows the ramuh/mog will ascend my bahamut into taking his other cards.

[JayCommon]

I think so, I've had a lot of games against Vorsaile, and he has a few cards with 9's on the side, kan e senna, minfilia, cid. I delay playing my bahamut expecting him to play ramuh or mog to give it ascencion so it can overturn those 9's and somehow every one of these opportunities is missed because It is either his LAST card or he never plays it, as if he knows the ramuh/mog will ascend my bahamut into taking his other cards.

Good example, here's another. And this one happens to me a lot, so I know for a fact the NPC has knowledge of your hand in closed-hand matches.

Swift is one of the only NPC's that I still need a card from, so I hit his window every time I'm not in a duty. Chaos ruleset, nothing open. Every time Swift starts and has Thancred chosen as his first card, he puts him in the top-right corner of the grid, so his high numbers are the only ones out (7 to the west, 8 to the south)

He does this every single time he gets Thancred to start.... Except for when he knows that my first card chosen is the only card in my hand that can't beat Thancred's 3 facing to the east. Then he puts Thancred in the top-middle spot as a giant middle finger to me because he literally knows my card that will be chosen and that it won't beat that 3. It of course won't beat the 8 or the 7 either.

And usually I'll put my card somewhere else in hopes to take that 3 next turn, and he blocks it.

I mean, it does seem like they purposely made the AI dumb if you keep getting wrecked, so eventually it will do something that seems completely stupid to let you win... They still know what you have, though.

[ReddAxel]

The Random rule should exclude the card limit on us if NPCs are allowed to have multiple 4 and 5 star cards. The rule itself is not okay the way it is now, I should have a chance to have multiple 4 and 5 star cards too.

[Rath]

Random under 30 cards against Rowena was nearly impossible for me, and I have no issue with a couple NPCs being so difficult early on. They made some NPCs a joke to beat with basic cards that rewarded 5 star cards, so that evens out. Getting odin wasn't bad and I did it with a 30 card deck quite easily. Rowena with a 30 card deck was about a 30% win rate and about 30% draws. Now that I have 60+ cards Rowena is about 50% win 25%/draw/loss. I only get Gerolts, but the difficult from "Random" drastically decreases with the rarity limit going up, at least once you figure out the AIs faults. Removing the rarity restriction for the rule would remove the need for anyone to get 30+ cards

Rowena is probably the only NPC that can't be farmed with a 70%+ win rate after you get 60 cards. They should have alternate decks for NPCs to use with stronger cards and better AI based on your deck size (with added MGP of course). Otherwise you are stuck with just Rowena for a challenge.

[Illya]

Landanel is a joke. His "Random" ruleset is actually give me all 1 star cards and one 4 star card. I have 52 cards, so I know my deck isn't only 1 star cards. Meanwhile his deck is perfect. Also he has Fallen Ace which means when I do get a 5-star card I have to protect it like 1-star card because he can always defeat A. He of course doesn't have a single 5-star card in his pool so you can never use his Fallen Ace rule against him. Oh and the best part is, you either fight him or you have to farm Odin for his card but NOBODY DOES ODIN BECAUSE NOTHING ANYONE CARES ABOUT DROPS FROM ODIN.

This is incredibly stupid, several other NPCs have Random including the infamous Rowena but Landanel's card pool is designed to torture the player and so is his "Random" rule which ISN'T ACTUALLY RANDOM SINCE EVERY TIME I FACE HIM IT'S MY 1 STARS AGAINST HIS STUPID DECK. He has Odin and Bahamut and I'm being forced to use Mandragora and Coeurl, yeah this is fair. The other random NPCs aren't nearly as bad, even Rowena. Whoever designed Landanel should be told straight up that it's easy to design a fight that players can never win, see original Pandemonium Warden for more information. The trick is to design a fight which can be beaten with a certain amount of difficulty and right now Landanel is PW levels of impossible.

Also why is there no Forfeit button? It would be so much easier if I could just click Forfeit when I saw that my deck was yet again 1-star cards rather than waste time having to play a whole match which I'm going to lose at a 100% rate. It would make losing to the Random NPCs much faster if I could just forfeit my "random" all 1-star hand and get on with the next match.

[DarkDedede]

I think the deck that the Random rule gives us should be similar to the "Recommended" built deck. It would still be random, but at the very least be made up of the highest cards that your current rank allows. Another viable option is to add additional npcs that give out a certain card. If someone really wants to endure the unique "challenge" that the Random rule offers, then more power to them. However, different players enjoy different rules, for different reasons. It would be nice to have a bit more variety available. The drop rate is a challenge enough.