Re: Spoon bots
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 8:22 pm
Well... It's certainly possible to script movement randomly, or even somewhat intelligently, but to make them automatically plot routes on every map without getting stuck is a bit tricky.
That's why I suggested tracing the routes players take. Bot's could spawn where players spawn, and trace the routes a player previously took from that spawn point.
Imagine spawn rushing the enemy base, snagging the flag, bouncing off the boundary and flying back for a quick capture, then a bot spawns exactly where you did and launches across the map, capping the flag just like you did...
Maybe they'll even walk up to inventory stations and buy the same load-out you did.
As for teamwork bots, that's a bit more difficult. You see, the ones launching mortars are specifically looking for that one player's targeting laser. So, maybe we code targeting laser on mount to pair with any friendly bots in range...
When it comes to healing assets, I think you might as well turn base healing on rather than worrying about programming bots to do that. It's already an admin/vote option in the tab menu, I think.
And lastly, by the time you've perfected the AI code so bots never get stuck and behave like regular players on every map, someone's gonna make a new map that is incompatible, with like teleports or something that the bots cannot find. If you're gonna be testing the code on every map, you might as well draw up some paths on those maps and re-save the mission.
One thing I'd like to do, is instead of duplicating every map, one with bots and keeping the original without, just add bots to each and every map, but have an admin/vote option to prevent them from spawning.
Likewise, there's no reason to have maps categorized by mission objectives. Every map should have all of the elements required for each mission objective, but voting to change the objectives could hide/show flags, increase/decrease point values for destroying things, etc...
Personally, I'd categorize maps by planet... In other words, every map built on the lush broadsides/blastsides terrain would be in one category, all of the variants of roller coaster in another, etc... Then you could pick a terrain you like to ski on and cycle through all the different base configurations mappers have thought up, while voting to toggle objectives and bots to mix things up...
Woah, I went off on a tangent there.
That's why I suggested tracing the routes players take. Bot's could spawn where players spawn, and trace the routes a player previously took from that spawn point.
Imagine spawn rushing the enemy base, snagging the flag, bouncing off the boundary and flying back for a quick capture, then a bot spawns exactly where you did and launches across the map, capping the flag just like you did...
Maybe they'll even walk up to inventory stations and buy the same load-out you did.
As for teamwork bots, that's a bit more difficult. You see, the ones launching mortars are specifically looking for that one player's targeting laser. So, maybe we code targeting laser on mount to pair with any friendly bots in range...
When it comes to healing assets, I think you might as well turn base healing on rather than worrying about programming bots to do that. It's already an admin/vote option in the tab menu, I think.
And lastly, by the time you've perfected the AI code so bots never get stuck and behave like regular players on every map, someone's gonna make a new map that is incompatible, with like teleports or something that the bots cannot find. If you're gonna be testing the code on every map, you might as well draw up some paths on those maps and re-save the mission.
One thing I'd like to do, is instead of duplicating every map, one with bots and keeping the original without, just add bots to each and every map, but have an admin/vote option to prevent them from spawning.
Likewise, there's no reason to have maps categorized by mission objectives. Every map should have all of the elements required for each mission objective, but voting to change the objectives could hide/show flags, increase/decrease point values for destroying things, etc...
Personally, I'd categorize maps by planet... In other words, every map built on the lush broadsides/blastsides terrain would be in one category, all of the variants of roller coaster in another, etc... Then you could pick a terrain you like to ski on and cycle through all the different base configurations mappers have thought up, while voting to toggle objectives and bots to mix things up...
Woah, I went off on a tangent there.