Can you make the bots dumber?

Not sure if you can make them negative (you can control their starting scores from the in-game menu), but be sure that the bots are not set on auto-adjust skill, or they will keep getting smarter if you keep killing them. Supposedly they get dumber if you are doing bad, but I have yet to see this.

I find the unreal bots to be much more of a challenge than the ut bots you know, they kick my ass all over the place!
Deck-16 has become my own private botmatch nightmare

Absolutely, UT bots are waaay easier, even on skilled level. If you wan't a fair botmatch, get UT. Hmmm, I was playing some Unreal levels with oldskool and the bots seemed harder. I'm beggining to think that Unreal's weapons are more difficult for humans to wield than the ones in UT, but easier for the bots to own you with.

Yeah, I think Epic realized everyone wasn't as 1337 as them and made the UT bots much more... diverse (newbie).

I'm not sure in Unreal but a bot with 0%accuracy really sux in UT.

To err is human... etc.

I think the difference may be because the bots in Unreal tend to find their target and then fire like f***ers without moving about much, while a less accurate human is busy dodging them - they beat you by moving around a little less and getting in more hits. The bots in Unreal Tournament are better programmed to behave a little more like humans - they dodge, and they also miss more at the lower accuracy settings - the have reflex times and whatnot.

I have to agree about the weapons though - one thing about Unreal is the lack of kill-frenzy weapons. What I mean is that they all take a certain skill if you wanna kill without taking yourself out. The weapons in UT are a little less finnicky, and a lot more fun.