Hmm, I really don't know how the bots work (not being the one who programmed them) but I suspect they "prefer" open areas because they have a fear of getting stuck in the more narrow places. Thus, they probably usually take the more "open" paths when available instead of risking a trek through a narrow pass (which any human could safely navigate). I notice they sometimes change their minds about what they want to do too, like they'll be going for the middle, but then suddenly a prime node goes down, so they stop, turn around, and go for that node instead.
Also, nodes inside structures have "vehicle parking" pathnodes to let the bots know that they can't go past this point unless they're on foot. That stops the bots from trying to drive up a flight of stairs in a scorpion or trying to squeeze a tank through a door frame. The jungle also has these so that bots don't try to fit vehicles in between the trees.
Now, if a human spawned and wanted to capture the jungle node, they would pop out their hoverboard, ignore the tanks at their current node, and head straight for the jungle, hoping over rocks and barricades, and trying to keep out of line of sight of the enemy. Now, if a bot spawns and decides it should capture the jungle node, it will detect that there is an unused tank nearby and decide the tank would probably be useful in capturing a node. It would grab the tank and then try to plan the best way to the node. It realizes it's in a big vehicle, so it will head towards the open areas because it's less likely to get stuck on something there. It then makes it's way towards the jungle node, when it hits a pathnode (just outside the dense jungle) labeled as a vehicle parking spot for the Jungle node, so the bot decides to exit the tank, and proceed on foot.
Obviously, if a human player did this, they would win come kind of "n00b of the month" award because not only did they waste a ton of time taking the long way to get to the jungle, they really shouldn't have taken the tank at all if they were going to the jungle because tanks don't fit there in the first place! Also, they totally wasted the tank by driving it away from the node and parking it out in the open where it'll get blown up, or worse, hijacked!
Unfortunately, "AIs" are currently incapable of this higher-level planning in new environments, and thus will inevitably act in ways that seem irrational to humans but are fully rational to them. Actually, I guess it's probably a good thing they're not capable of higher-level planning otherwise they'd have enslaved us and taken over the world by now
.
Also, nodes inside structures have "vehicle parking" pathnodes to let the bots know that they can't go past this point unless they're on foot. That stops the bots from trying to drive up a flight of stairs in a scorpion or trying to squeeze a tank through a door frame. The jungle also has these so that bots don't try to fit vehicles in between the trees.
Now, if a human spawned and wanted to capture the jungle node, they would pop out their hoverboard, ignore the tanks at their current node, and head straight for the jungle, hoping over rocks and barricades, and trying to keep out of line of sight of the enemy. Now, if a bot spawns and decides it should capture the jungle node, it will detect that there is an unused tank nearby and decide the tank would probably be useful in capturing a node. It would grab the tank and then try to plan the best way to the node. It realizes it's in a big vehicle, so it will head towards the open areas because it's less likely to get stuck on something there. It then makes it's way towards the jungle node, when it hits a pathnode (just outside the dense jungle) labeled as a vehicle parking spot for the Jungle node, so the bot decides to exit the tank, and proceed on foot.
Obviously, if a human player did this, they would win come kind of "n00b of the month" award because not only did they waste a ton of time taking the long way to get to the jungle, they really shouldn't have taken the tank at all if they were going to the jungle because tanks don't fit there in the first place! Also, they totally wasted the tank by driving it away from the node and parking it out in the open where it'll get blown up, or worse, hijacked!
Unfortunately, "AIs" are currently incapable of this higher-level planning in new environments, and thus will inevitably act in ways that seem irrational to humans but are fully rational to them. Actually, I guess it's probably a good thing they're not capable of higher-level planning otherwise they'd have enslaved us and taken over the world by now
.
.
. But anyways.... What do you say? The two versions would be completely separate from each other - I'm not suggesting you make these changes to a map that is perfect already for gameplay.
