1) Improve the user's ability to train with bots on at least all small and medium maps. Personally, I feel shortchanged because I cannot train with the bots on 32-player maps, which are all I want to play online for the first few ranks - the 64 player maps with all the bombing is just too much for a beginner/intermediate to deal with.
2) Make bot chopper pilots not just sweep back and forrth out of bounds, flying orthogonal to enemy range attacks, and then spending 15 seconds completely out of play going out bounds, before turning around. Bot pilots use their flares well enough, but I get really tired of hitting F1 to turn the chopper around and switching back with F2 to try to target something with TVs. I am not sure what the coding answer is, but I do know that army bot AI routines have been in a pretty advanced state of art for some time now.
3) Add a facility to assign bots with specific kits, and assign them to squads of your choice,thus creating a custom team. This will allow the customer - who spent their hard-earned money on the game - to train with much more clarity and control.
Training with the bots before freelancing servers online is imperative in my view. Clans and groups of friends etc who are experienced at playing together are far too formidable for a beginner/intermediate to confront; especially when your auto-team joined is filled with sandbaggers and non-communicators. There is no way to even remotely prepare for this dilemma. It gets old pretty quick, playing fodder for clans online; this will be the end of the game for me if something is not done for those of us who need and appreciate the paramount importance of training. I would like to keep playing and find a niche or two.
I read over and over that the bots are idiots, but this is not true. On the surface, you will find that they are bad vehicle drivers, but formidable shots on higher level settings from 0.7-1.0. Their primary function is to engage, whether in a vehicle or not. When you keep training with them you find out that they do more teamplay than most humans in the general population of servers. Here are a couple of things I've seen them do that impressed me. Note: there is a radius of influence (distance from you at request time, it seems) where they begin to not obey you.
a) Playing FuShe Pass, US side, I planted 5 AT mines at US home, then went off in a vehicle to fight and keep the bots' in Armor and other vehicles repaired up while advancing. I came back to home base and there was an enemy engineer picking up my mines. They also lay C4 at captured flags.
b) Consistently, I can get in a vehicle and yell mount up and they will fill the vehicle with men to deliver to the front. They also shoot -- if needed -- the machine guns on said vehicles, on the way to the front.
c) Consitently, I can yell Give me a ride! and they will stop and let me on, even when their vehicle is full, thus delivering me to their perception of the front line with red carpet because I am defaultPlayer learning. Granted, on this one, you might want to go ahead and hit F! and drive the loaded vehicle to where you percieve the front line (since bots are not always the most efficient drivers).
d) Consistently, I can yell for a Medic or Supplies and by gods if they are with a half-block or so, one will roger it and trot right over to you and team play. How can a human (like Quark said it) like a program better than real humans? :)
e) They don't whine or sandbag you, but they will apologize if they run over you or shoot you :)
f) On Dragon Valley I've seen bots spawn two AT at the Power Station when I I have just neutralized the flag there, hovering in my chopper. This indicates a high degree of accuracy in what will resolve the situation.
These are some of the most obvious things I like about the bots. I want them developed for training purposes; I don't like being forced to go online to learn all the basic skills and facts and embarrasing and failing my team, and then having to endure being the ass end of it just because I don't know what I'm doing yet.
This game could be the ultimate team fortress capture the flag game with tools developement. Bots and maps are some really important tools for the many. The maps could use some major improvements but that is yet another of the myriads of topics in this neat game of ideas. It is the most chess-like of all FPS I've encountered, including Wolfenstein, Quake, and Half-Life, because of the class distinctions. I have hopes for this game. Proper development of bots can make this game learnable for even unseasoned masses with time and effort -- and still have loads of fun for the bucks -- as good bots did for CounterStrike. As in chess, let prebubescent children train against tactically formidable software, and these children produce profound prodigys. This game has the advantage of promoting a spectator sport that is intellectual and structured. It could be very good for the brains and character of humans.
I would be all about getting bots on SP 32+ player maps and MultiThread the game, so my second 64bit Athlon can digest a part of the loads. Incidentally, if you have a dual core Athlon and are encountering Affinity issues, be sure to go to AMD site and get the drivers for XP; that got rid of 90+% of the Affinity issues as compared to the stock XP drivers (if there were any, I didn't really memorize the service packs contents). The only lagin the game now is when I'm zoomed in with a scoped rifle trying to focus, say from the US spawn on FuShe Pass over at the Chinese base. Still have to try with Affinity set again to see if it clears it up. I found much more talk about the Affinity problems than acceptable solutions, so it was with great pleasurous Duh, that I discovered the AMD drivers for XP. I usually get all my drivers, too heh.
"Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way." --Gen. George Patton
I love this guy.
2) Make bot chopper pilots not just sweep back and forrth out of bounds, flying orthogonal to enemy range attacks, and then spending 15 seconds completely out of play going out bounds, before turning around. Bot pilots use their flares well enough, but I get really tired of hitting F1 to turn the chopper around and switching back with F2 to try to target something with TVs. I am not sure what the coding answer is, but I do know that army bot AI routines have been in a pretty advanced state of art for some time now.
3) Add a facility to assign bots with specific kits, and assign them to squads of your choice,thus creating a custom team. This will allow the customer - who spent their hard-earned money on the game - to train with much more clarity and control.
Training with the bots before freelancing servers online is imperative in my view. Clans and groups of friends etc who are experienced at playing together are far too formidable for a beginner/intermediate to confront; especially when your auto-team joined is filled with sandbaggers and non-communicators. There is no way to even remotely prepare for this dilemma. It gets old pretty quick, playing fodder for clans online; this will be the end of the game for me if something is not done for those of us who need and appreciate the paramount importance of training. I would like to keep playing and find a niche or two.
I read over and over that the bots are idiots, but this is not true. On the surface, you will find that they are bad vehicle drivers, but formidable shots on higher level settings from 0.7-1.0. Their primary function is to engage, whether in a vehicle or not. When you keep training with them you find out that they do more teamplay than most humans in the general population of servers. Here are a couple of things I've seen them do that impressed me. Note: there is a radius of influence (distance from you at request time, it seems) where they begin to not obey you.
a) Playing FuShe Pass, US side, I planted 5 AT mines at US home, then went off in a vehicle to fight and keep the bots' in Armor and other vehicles repaired up while advancing. I came back to home base and there was an enemy engineer picking up my mines. They also lay C4 at captured flags.
b) Consistently, I can get in a vehicle and yell mount up and they will fill the vehicle with men to deliver to the front. They also shoot -- if needed -- the machine guns on said vehicles, on the way to the front.
c) Consitently, I can yell Give me a ride! and they will stop and let me on, even when their vehicle is full, thus delivering me to their perception of the front line with red carpet because I am defaultPlayer learning. Granted, on this one, you might want to go ahead and hit F! and drive the loaded vehicle to where you percieve the front line (since bots are not always the most efficient drivers).
d) Consistently, I can yell for a Medic or Supplies and by gods if they are with a half-block or so, one will roger it and trot right over to you and team play. How can a human (like Quark said it) like a program better than real humans? :)
e) They don't whine or sandbag you, but they will apologize if they run over you or shoot you :)
f) On Dragon Valley I've seen bots spawn two AT at the Power Station when I I have just neutralized the flag there, hovering in my chopper. This indicates a high degree of accuracy in what will resolve the situation.
These are some of the most obvious things I like about the bots. I want them developed for training purposes; I don't like being forced to go online to learn all the basic skills and facts and embarrasing and failing my team, and then having to endure being the ass end of it just because I don't know what I'm doing yet.
This game could be the ultimate team fortress capture the flag game with tools developement. Bots and maps are some really important tools for the many. The maps could use some major improvements but that is yet another of the myriads of topics in this neat game of ideas. It is the most chess-like of all FPS I've encountered, including Wolfenstein, Quake, and Half-Life, because of the class distinctions. I have hopes for this game. Proper development of bots can make this game learnable for even unseasoned masses with time and effort -- and still have loads of fun for the bucks -- as good bots did for CounterStrike. As in chess, let prebubescent children train against tactically formidable software, and these children produce profound prodigys. This game has the advantage of promoting a spectator sport that is intellectual and structured. It could be very good for the brains and character of humans.
I would be all about getting bots on SP 32+ player maps and MultiThread the game, so my second 64bit Athlon can digest a part of the loads. Incidentally, if you have a dual core Athlon and are encountering Affinity issues, be sure to go to AMD site and get the drivers for XP; that got rid of 90+% of the Affinity issues as compared to the stock XP drivers (if there were any, I didn't really memorize the service packs contents). The only lagin the game now is when I'm zoomed in with a scoped rifle trying to focus, say from the US spawn on FuShe Pass over at the Chinese base. Still have to try with Affinity set again to see if it clears it up. I found much more talk about the Affinity problems than acceptable solutions, so it was with great pleasurous Duh, that I discovered the AMD drivers for XP. I usually get all my drivers, too heh.
"Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way." --Gen. George Patton
I love this guy.
Last edited by lsof (2006-02-23 03:26:33)