Bots on Blue

[Brillow_Head]

It seems that when he hit a new map we loose a good portion of those playing...that is not the issue. What I have noticed is that when the game fills up...slowly I might add...red team will fill up first and leave 5 or 6 bots on blue team versus and entirely human red team.

 

Why is this...does it have something to do with the reserve slots for us members and that we are suppose to default to blue team...so it fills up red thinking it needs the bots spots for when GC dudes come in?

 

Makes for either really challanging games...or all out slaughter of blue team.

[Brillow_Head]

Not A Newbie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

<-----------------

[00b3rN00b]

Hey this just happended to me (me and 6 bots vs 7 humans) but I still managed to pull off overtime in the first round...muhahahaha.

 

Still, not usually fun.

[Fatty]

There's no way (that I know of or that I have preset) to determine where the bots go.

[hyperactiveChipmunk]

I honestly don't think we need nearly that many bots, anyway. Less bots also means that people who would normally join red and be compensated with by a bot on blue would be forced to join blue (and presumably replace a bot there), thus balancing the teams instead of making them more lopsided. Furthermore, bots in Onslaught are more often than not a hindrance than a help. Sure, you can take command of Goliaths and Leviathans (and Hellbenders if you're fast enough) from them, but when it comes to the quick, single-man vehicles...they're usually long gone when the match begins (the most critical part of the game!), forcing you to stand at the power core and wait for one of them to finish a node (a dubious prospect), or, more likely, start running to the next potentially open node that might or might not be open when you arrive, depending on the whims of the bots.

 

There is a lot of room for tactical improvement in small-forces games. In fact, I believe you can learn much more in a 2v2 match than even a 10v10 match with all humans. Putting bots in the game washes out the opportunity for us to improve those skills on this server.

 

Am I making any sense...?

 

-hC

[Fatty]

Here's where I come out on this:

 

I picked the number of bots for one reason: I wanted MOBO up on the first screen when someone is using the ingame browser to look at ONS servers sorted by numbers of players. It's an attraction, and it's been working as you can see by our growing popularity.

 

People jump for games that are 18/20 because a) they actually see it up in their browser, and b)they want to play in a decent sized game.

 

It can all be changed, but there's the reasoning.

[hyperactiveChipmunk]

I figured that to be the case...and I am wondering, though, if we might have a solid enough core now that we can risk lowering the bot count. We usually hit the max on normal maps, anyway, and I've found that many people get frustrated and leave when the server is more vacant and there are so many bots. Ideally, we'd want it to be as small as possible, but even 10-12/20 servers are still attractive. And honestly, they're much more fun to play on than than a server-full of bots.

 

-hC

[Fatty]

Before we started messing with the 3rd party maps the server ran 24/7 with real people.

 

Here's what will happen if we removed the bots:

 

1) Player Frank would stick around to d/l the new map, but come in to an empty server....and leave. If Frank saw people running around, he'd stay. In the meantime, Bob, Bill, and Buddy are d/ling too...and they arrive...but if they see an empty server, they leave.

 

Let's say we decrease to 10 bots:

 

2) People looking for a game don't see it. Only people that see the server are those sorting by ping and / or have us as a favorite (increasing, but needs to keep increasing).

 

 

I honestly think that we should consider how hard and fast we're growing, and all the very positive feedback that comes from MOBO.....and then weigh that against the bots (which I truly believe is part of our success in the ways that I've tried to explain here).

 

Again, anything is up for a vote around here, but I'd ask that we'd seriously consider everything in the whole picture. I don't like playing with bots either, but you have to consider: I just saw yesterday 20/20 on valarna.....that's growth...making a major change right now wouldn't make sense to me.

[urk?!?]

Generally speaking, I HATE bots. They cause server lag periodically. They're dumb. They get stupidly hard kills at random times bcs the comp decides that the bot gets 100% accuracy at that moment... and on and on.

 

However, I 100% agree with Fatty's logic. I would like to see, that as the community grows, and mobo fills up more and more consistently, taht we scale back the bots. Be nice if UT stats worked again... but until then... keep the bots!

[AfterTaste]

The problem is it's no fun. I just left a game now for that very reason. We started out 8 vs 2. Then two people joined the game, somehow on red, the server then gave us two bots to match. 10 vs 2 :/ at that point. Things started to get better but I left after a few rounds because it only got to 10 vs 4.

 

In regards to needing to be at the top or near top spot, has any thought been given to the fact that many people filter out the bots when they search?

 

Part of the problem seems to be that people don't really recognize it. Asking people to even up the teams just doesnt seem to work. Perhaps changing the bot's names to something like BOT1 BOT2 etc.. that would allow people to see that they are playing against a team of bots instead of humans.

 

Also another solution would be to patch the server, the new patch balances teams better - altough I don't know if it shares the problems that the client side patch has.

 

IMHO it's worse to see your own members switch to play on a different server, not because GC is empty, but because it is not fun. Reducing the number of bots to 14 or even 16 would help. If it doesn't it's not a big deal to change it back.

[Brillow_Head]

Okay, here's my skinny on the deal.

 

I like to jump on quick and get to fragging with a packed house...I'm a learned player but if I didn't have the Mobo set to favorites I sort by two means.

 

Ping....the lower the better

 

Team size...the map must be at least 18 player max...with at least half full. And the half full means the number comes up 10/20...I rarely look at actaul human players until in server.

 

I will go to a higher ping server to get a better player count.

 

--->I agree 100% with Fatty's his logic...he's been doin this for 6 years and the idea has its merits.

 

The large player counts keeps players comming back...bots or no bots. We only really have the bot problem on the new maps and durring non-peek times (yeah I know I sound like a cell phone salesman ). The problems with the new maps are the d/l size and the lack of interest in trying something new...thats why I stay away from random map servers (player maps, random node setup).

 

What I don't understand about the bots is when I'm on red...with 6 humans...and I switch to blue with 1 human....then red team loses me...and blue team keeps all the bots and only kicks a bot when a new player comes in.

 

Secondly, the bots AI has been set to "stupid". This has been done serverside and probably by defalut as well...perhaps an upgrade on thier brainpans might be a good compromise.

 

And I think I can acount for very few times when playing a standard map that does not have a full house or come close to by the time the first round is over....am I wrong?

 

Oh, and the patch will only crash the server...I wouldn't risk it.

[Nubus]

Is there any way to increase the bots skill level? If so I think it is time we take them to the next level. People wont complain about them if they get there butts kicked by them....