This game seriously needs bots

Post by **iluvquake4** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:42 am

From Quake 3 game servers for quite awhile, one thing I learned is bots really get a server going. For example, Quake 3, I had 2 bots running and they'd leave when there are 3 people on the FFA server . I recall people told me to remove the bots because they didn't like them. So I removed the bots then I got complaints no one would join the server. I soon realized that bots are essential to get a server busy.

Bots are essential for servers to get populated -- especially with a game like this and such a small community. The majority of players will not join an empty server, and will rarely join a server with just one player on it. Once a player sees a server with 2 or more players they will join.

This is just my own experience of admining Quake 3 servers. For the Quake 4 FFA community to survive (and to have admins keep their servers up and not down due to lack of activity), bots are needed ASAP.

Thank you.

Post by **GODLIKE** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:59 pm

I have mixed feelings on this.

1) It's not worth hoping for without mods.. It's possible that a successful mod team might choose to integrate bot code. (Sabot and Oak bots are not all that smart or effective, and frequently stall in corners, but it might count for something.) But id/Raven won't release a "bot_minplayers" style bot for generic Q4 unless it's a really good bot, and the dev time involved is steep. I'm quite happy that the game developers are still interested in maintaining the game, and while I think the 1.2 PR is pretty solid, I'm excited about 1.3... Still I think they're not going to do an official game bot.

2) If I run around my empty server for 5-10 minutes.. I will usually have somebody join in, even when I'm running a custom map (set for autodownload). That's not an unbearable amount of time to wait, for me... I can usually entertain myself with strafes and learning the level while I wait. So I would NOT agree that bots are "essential".. although having bot_minplayers was nice, as I also found that having a single bot to fire away at in an otherwise empty server made it more likely that players would hang out and wait.

Post by **iluvquake4** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:02 am

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this .. but ..

This game is better and has bots, liquids, etc.

http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21185

Sorry Quake 4. It was fun while you lasted.

Post by **GODLIKE** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:10 am

It's not worth flaming about.. W. just isn't that good a game..

Post by **iluvquake4** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:16 am

I guess I disagree. I'm finding it to be awesome and what Quake 4 should have been.

Post by **CheapAlert** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:55 pm

Fuck bots, real men play with enemies.

Post by **Foo** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:05 pm

The game came out over 6 months ago. It didn't sell very well. It's already in bargain bins and in massive numbers in second hand stores.

It's not going to get much extra work put into it. The whole episode is a dissapointment, but we're gonna have to accept it.

Post by **TTK-Bandit** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:06 pm

hm I agree with the first post, bots could bring little more life into q4.
its not so boring to wait for other players if your on an empty server.
bots are cool for development of maps and mods too,
so I'd be happy for bots even if they are simple.
but they wont be added to baseq4.

Post by **Foo** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:14 pm

Sorry I just read my post back and realised how doom and gloom it sounded, lawl.

Post by **GODLIKE** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:00 am

I actually see the bargain bins thing as a positive.. More people will play $29 bucks for a deathmatch game... And let's face it, one dead makron later.. This is still a multiplayer game, if you're keeping it on your hard drive.

Besides, that price saves me a lot of cash.. I bought copies for me, my wife's PC, my co-worker, the four decently-fast machines in the office.. LAN rivalry is what makes this game work.

Post by **iluvquake4** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:19 am

Ouch. If you bring up mods for the Warsow community people act downright paranoid. My only beef with that game is the weak/strong ammo system, it truly does slow the game to a crawl at times.

Post by **iluvquake4** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 10:52 pm

From what I hear, from coders, is since Warsow is open source it's going to be a cheaters haven and nothing will really stop it unless they use something like PB -- which at that point it would have be to e a retail product, even then the open source nature of it will still be problematic. Anyhow, back to Quake 4.