Bots? Yes or no?

[AMmayhem]

Simply what the title says. Are you in favor of having bots in the new Unreal Tournament?

I don't know how much of an issue it will be, many other games have bots just to help fill servers until real people join. I don't know if anyone would really object to having bots, but here's a thread for discussion anyway. Or this thread can be used to discuss bot design, skill levels, coding, etc.

My opinion is: Yes. While I love playing online with people, sometimes I just want to avoid dealing with ragers, whiners, etc. and just play a match against bots for a half an hour or so. Like if I just home from work and need to unwind, I can just frag some bots and not worry about finding a decent server and so on.

 

[DeathBooger]

Steve Polge made the bots in the original UT and he's in charge of the new UT so I'd say odds are pretty good they'll be in there.

 

[leilei]

He wasn't hired for nothing.

 

[UTNemesis]

Yes.

I've always preferred to play with bots on new maps until I'm familiar with them, and just for getting used to the game mechanics in general.

As alluded to earlier by AMmayhem it's nice to start and stop a match on your terms when you've got some time to kill. I've honestly had a lot of fun over the years playing bots.

 

[ambershee]

It's a shame UTs AI was never quite as involved. UT2KX's wasn't that bad, but UT3's was very lacking by comparison.

 

[Arnox]

What? Why is this even a QUESTION?

Yes!

Bots have extended the longevity of all UT games by an almost infinite amount. They are INDISPENSABLE. I'm just going to put it this way. If bots aren't in this UT, I will not be getting it at all until they are added in somehow.

 

[Rohit]

99.99% of my playtime with UT(99/2K4/3) is with bots.

...I vote yes.

 

[Blade_hunter]

Bots are great they can complement near empty servers and allow people to play alone.

 

[KaL976]

What? Why is this even a QUESTION?

Yes!

 

[Wormbo]

The Unreal Engine is all about showing off good bot AI for offline play.
Quake bots were just weapon platforms on randomly-moving bases, while UT bots were actually able to hunt you down or perform other basic tactical tasks. And they got better and better from there.

 

[AMmayhem]

Well, at the very least, we're making it very clear to Epic that we want bots. If for some [silly] reason there was any debate about it.

 

[NeoNite]

Yes, naturally. Wouldn't be the same without these bits of data.

 

[Skillz]

It's a shame UTs AI was never quite as involved. UT2KX's wasn't that bad, but UT3's was very lacking by comparison.

What? UT had the best AI of any game for it's time.

 

[ambershee]

Way to take out of context.

never quite as involved... as the reaper bot in the previous post - but I'm guessing you just skipped over that link.

 

[Skillz]

Way to take out of context.

never quite as involved... as the reaper bot in the previous post - but I'm guessing you just skipped over that link.

You should learn how to use the quote button. I did click the link and I am familiar with the Reaper Bot.

How was I supposed to know that you were comparing the AI of the Unreal games to the reaper bot in a thread about UT's bots.

 

[ambershee]

..because it was the post almost directly under it, and would have been directly under it had two people not been posting at the same time.

 

[evilgrins]

Hell yes, I'm pro-bots!

Thing is, not everyone that plays UT always plays it online or in LAN games. I personally was without a home internet connection for nearly 10 years up until 2011... and that's gone again, currently.

I played UT that entire time, against bots for the most part; hosted some LAN from home on weekends for about a year in the middle there.

Without bots I wouldn't see much point to UT.

 

[Teridax]

I think it would need bots to survive in the long term. One of the most frustrating things about MP-only games like XMP is that there weren't any bots to cushion the loss of players. Sure, AI will probably never be the same as fighting a human player, but it's a lot better than nothing.