[Suggestion] We need bots

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by changeusdtoreal, Apr 24, 2020.

  1. changeusdtoreal

    We need bots. There must be constant war, nonstop. Ever fought on one only open continent with inbalanced pop during off hours, something like 40/40/20, but total number of players is maybe 100 (why isn't it possible to view the playercount?) were the 20% faction isn't even attacked, yet alone warpgated? All interesting fights are between the currently bigger factions, so you've to get deep into their terretory for some fun.

    What if we had AI NS robots equalying out the balance, to get an always perfect 33.3̅/33.3̅/33.3̅. These AI NS robots would always strive to capture ~30% of the continent and defend all bases where enemies pop up, additionaly make the bases which are 2 or 3 hexes away from the WG have auto turrets, further away, make some bots dedicated turret gunners. Why wouldn't it work? What's the max pop in numbers for one continent? 1200? If nobody is online start with one NS platoon for each faction, a consistent squad with one defector MAX, some HA, 2-3 engies, one LA who positiones at odd spots, one infil for surprises, something like that. When people join they replace the bots, more than 50 people on each faction online, equal it out with bots if inbalances occur.

    The new 4th faction for members is a nice idea, but most people want to stay on their main planetman, or are simply not paying for memberships. I understand the approach, instead of bots, let's have actual humans do the equalying out. But it doesn't work, especially on servers during off hours. Couldn't devs analyze the movement of planetmans, how they get from base to base and copy it for AI? Waypoints aren't complicated, if they end up in a deadend spot on their way, make them redeploy, we do it all the time. We already have AI turrets. Make the bots have difficulty, if one faction get's severly outnumbered, make the bots more difficult. Give them the default sunderer, lightning and valkiyre. You could still play as 4th faction.

    C'mon DB, empty servers are boring, ghostcaping is boring, having nothing to shoot or explode is extremly boring. In the end, NS robots are bots, planetmans are mans.
  2. strove

    Creating mass AI in a live play and balanced way is a logistical nightmare. Each AI would need behaviour tree defining what it does and when at all times. Having that series of inputs and output ticking over constantly on hundreds of bots is insanely taxing, not to mention the balance issues of how good do you make the bots? If they are dumb bots they are just free xp or an annoyance, if they are good, the game becomes a PVE game where everyone hates the bots.

    Just play on a regional server that is closer to their local peak time.
    • Up x 3
  3. TRspy007

    I'd approve having a few bots and dummies you can change resistances in VR, but if the servers are empty, the solution would be to tackle the problems that cause players to leave, instead of just dumping unpractical bots all over the map.

    Really, if players are leaving, there's reasons for that. Fix those, find ways to retain them, and attract new ones, and you'll fill up your servers and create community that funds your game. Bots aren't going to fix that, and if everyone leaves, what would the bots even be doing anyways? The game needs players to make money, so if there aren't any, it should be finding ways to get some, and not adding bots to replace them.


    And we've all played games with bots before. How fun are they? They're either so weak/predictable it's boring, or they're monsters that are a huge annoyance and programmed to win. And those aren't games like Planetside 2, which prides on having a massive scale. How would robots create/end fights, help with logistics, synergize with other players, etc?
    • Up x 1
  4. changeusdtoreal

    but it wouldn't be so many bots in total, around 200 max per continent. They wouldn't have to be smart, just walking AI turrets with class flavour. Difficulty would come from hitting better, having less cooldown. Having nothing to shoot at makes me log off, others too, that creates a faction gap were people say to themsvels, we can't have fun here anyways, because we're totally outnumbered, which then makes the bigger faction log off too. PS2 feels alive only during certain hours a day. That doesn't help this game atall, it needs to be fun (=explosions) 24/7. Personnaly I'm a NC loaylist, only have one tr and vs man for testing their stuff in VR. Switching to tr or vs if they're the lower pop faction feels wrong, why do you even need the NS bots with membership if this is the intended porpuse.
  5. strove

    200 bots, each ticking in real time determining which direction they need to be going, if there is a target, if a point has been capped, if there are spawn points spotted, do they need ammo, do the medics revive, the the heavies use shields, how accurate are the infiltrators. If this is all being handled by the server, is ping accounted for, can these bots make decisions before the ping of a player even allows them to know what happened. Do the bots burst fire their weapons or just hold down the button and achieve nothing, do the bots pull and operate tanks? Do they stick to the roads? Do they switch to engie before doing so, do they stop to repair? Do they know to shoot rockets at planes and how good is their ai at tracking those mobile targets...

    If the answer for these questions leaves them on the dumber side, they are worthless and are running 200 versions of a script and clogging up the net code which is already a nightmare to handle. If they are on the smarter side, each bot has a higher tax on the server (and the players trying to use it) than actual players do...

    Play on a different region. If youre playing in the morning in the states, make an EU character.

    Ultimately i think the only real solution would be to mix servers so that there are playing at all times of the day because the severs are international. But as im sure youre aware, ping is a big deal, where would these servers be located, is there server architecture that would support a cloud based server for lower latency internationally or is there a way to shift the workload between regional server access points to keep ping low enough for international players to compete on the same battlegrounds
    • Up x 1
  6. changeusdtoreal


    People leave because there is nothing to shot at, the bots are programmed for war. Bots don't need logistics, zergifts don't need it aswell. Don't you play solo sometimes and wonder that all those people you're fighting against and with are just like bots. Turn you mic down, close the chat, now you play with bots, atleast it feels so. I still have fun this way. Just make bots spawn one sundy, drive from base A to B, deploy, rush to the capture points.
    • Up x 1
  7. TRspy007


    Easier said than done.


    Yes, at times I feel like I'm fighting bots, at times it doesn't. But bots aren't going to fund the game, and it goes both ways; there is nothing to shoot at because people leave. Even with the escalation, which brought many players (to shoot at) to the game, people are leaving. So it's not because there's nothing to shoot at, or at least not just because of that that players leave.
  8. changeusdtoreal

    but id rather shoot bots than nothing, i dont want to create a new man for different server, I would have to get thousands of certs again to have fun, my ping would be around 250 and the same problem exists on all servers. If bots are not possible because of netcode or something, atleast devs could state so. If not, why not try it? Try it on all live servers only on one continent.
  9. strove

    I can tell you with absolute certainty that bots are not a logistically viable solution. I play from the UK on the US East Emerald server with no real issues caused by ping, give it a shot because thats your best bet right now for out of hours and likely will be for a good while until server and net provider tech gets some major overhaul world wide with some new tech
    • Up x 1
  10. Johannes Kaiser

    I'd recommend a little survey for players who uninstall that game. Code it into the uninstaller of the launcher (if that is possible, dun't know) and/or coordinate that with Steam for those who play PS2 over it.
    With the results, as TRSpy said, the devs could fix some retention problems.
    • Up x 1
  11. ChUnKiFieR

  12. strove


    They could find that out if they read their own forums... (also, forcing people who resent the game to then also fill out a form before uninstalling aint gunna work)
    • Up x 1
  13. Johannes Kaiser

    Probably not, but better than bots or nothing at all.
  14. strove

    Best off spamming the reddit at this point if you want to get your point across...