bots are inconsistent

sometimes they instantly flick headshot you, sometimes they can't hit the broadside of a barn. they're always too dumb to know where they want to go, often walking backwards, aimlessly zigzagging, or just standing still. it's not uncommon to see them ignoring the objective entirely, but if they do play the objective, they always camp the same spots. there's no logic to them, and that makes fighting them annoying. more often than not, when i die to them it feels more like i was cheated than outplayed. what's more, it seems as though they know where i am through the walls. often i will try to flank them, intentionally avoiding the objective when i previously had not. no bots had appeared from the flank then, and yet when i go to flank them next round, there's 5 of them waiting there just to fight me. it's just annoying.

I've also come to realize that final objectives are often far easier and filled with less action that they should be simply because the bots are milling about outside and never storm the building.

That's the standard aim bot that we know and love from insurgency. Bots jumping off rooftops whilst firing RPGs, cross map iron-sight headshots with an mg, firing while at full sprint, and so on.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't fix it but, there is a very low chance that they will.

I also wish bots would be more sophisticated. If you watch them in spectator you might actually think they're using the cheapest logic possible. Bundled with sudden rushes of lighting-fast reactions now and then (very inconsistent) this makes for a really boring and sometimes frustrating gamemode. Really hope NWI will work on the bot logic.

absolutely. you can watch them on spectator cam, aiming through walls at where someone is. sometimes theyll look at me for 15 second before they shoot. sometimes they pop me from a mile away, through a wall. you can also frequently see them walking in a straight line together. heres a screen of some super bot camping. There was a couple more in there too.
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last edited by tphilly1911

I also hope they would improve the bots if they have time and resources. But I hope that the devs allow full modding of the bots, because UE4 has good tools to create a powerful AI bot! 🙂 This area has so much more potential on this new engine for modding compared to source engine.

I have no idea how much resources they are using / can use to AI at the moment. Considering how popular COOP is however, it would make sense to invest in this area at some point. Not sure if that time is right now, when there are other issues that need fixing.

It's even worse with these big maps. A bot crests a hill 300m away and INSTANTLY sees me (not moving or shooting) prone in the grass in full camo looking through my 7x scope through a slit in a window... Sometimes they even get an instant headshot on me, while running...and hipfiring...from 3 hundred fucking meters away.... It was bad enough in the old game that you just learn not to try to engage bots at long range because they're all perfect snipers, but now the maps are even bigger, some with some pretty long sightlines...

Yeah it seems like the behavior is more like Ins 2 than I'd have hoped. For Ins 2, I had created a "better bots" config (which I guess is subjective) that made the bots move more, shoot more, and suppress the player constantly.

Those might be applicable to this game as well.

I dropped their accuracy at distance, and increased it close up, so that engaging from farther away was encouraged.

I decreased the time it took them to recognize a player, and begin firing.

I set them to approach players aggressively, while suppressing with reduced accuracy.

Added accuracy for crouched or stationary bots, to encourage players to target the supporting fire elements.

It worked pretty well, with the exception that sometimes it'd make bot machine gunners insta-headshot targets while deployed. But it made for a much more tense but manageable experience, so as long as players weren't making mistakes or moving too quickly they made it through.

They also can break the rules of vaulting and taking seats of vehicles, where a player has to look and be near the seat these fuckers will hop in the driver seat of a techie, drive it, and if they spot you hop out facing you, step backwards 2 steps (to the rear seats...) and POOF into the MG and instantly fire...with pinpoint accuracy.

I used the MG the entire round and got 20 kills on BLOBS of AI because players are required to have inaccuracy but these fucks can shoot lasers because reasons...they can wipe an entire team for being in the open for 3 seconds too long.

@jballou Since you've obviously gotten your hands dirty in the code, I have a question... do the bots actually have ammo reserves, or is it unlimited for them?

@amurka in the previous game, the bots received loadouts via the same theater rules as players. I never checked to verify that ammo wasn't infinite, but I am pretty sure it wasn't unlimited. That said, since there are so many bots, and they usually don't live very long, 7 magazines is probably more than they can ever use.