I’ve been playing some campaign matches today just to sort of observe the bots… The bots on hard kind of amaze me. Playing defense, I had hard bots complete the the first 3 objectives of Security Tower, and nearly win Reactor. (They planted the charge with 30 seconds left, but it got defused.)
Obviously, the bots are much better at defending than attacking, and this is to be expected. Offense requires a much more nuanced ability to read a situation… The windows of opportunity to complete an objective in Brink are usually very small. I doubt any AI is advanced enough to be able to say “there are two defenders in the area, but there is enough chaos going on that I can probably sneak plant the charge.” Bots are probably limited to checking whether the area is completely clear or not, unlike humans. So, as the time ticks down, the defensive AI is turned down and the offensive AI is possibly turned up. I think that before the last patch, the defensive AI tended to just disappear and stop trying to defend towards the end of the match, leaving the area completely clear. But now…they do seem to try to setup in the objective area…but they just get killed very fast.
Even though turning down the defensive AI is kind of cheating (but understandable), I’m still really impressed with how the offensive AI operates. The push together the majority of the time. On Reactor they like to send the entire team through the vents at once which is kind of cool (but rarely works out for them.) I’ve seen the entire team use the tunnel on Shipyard. But most of the time they group up and take a direct path.
If you try and stay with the group, and try to support them… then they are a lot more effective. I feel that a lot of players are trying to lead the attack, and wanting the bots to adapt to them (push when they push…cover them when they are trying to perform an objective… but AI can’t be expected to do that. When the player tries to adapt to his bot teammates, it goes a lot smoother.
Once they do clear out an objective area, its really cool to see how they take positions and hold it. I love how on Reactor, most of the team will go to the courtyard (about 4 bots) and stall the defense as they come out of their spawn, which is something that not enough players do in pubs on that map (they usually have everyone inside the room with the hacker.)
By far, the most difficult map to complete on Campaign Hard is Shipyard as Security. The offense has a hard time holding the hack objective area for long, and the defense easily defuses. It’s really hurt by the fact that 1-2 bots always seem to get stuck on the bridge, which makes it 7v8 or 6v8. But its interesting because its one objective where the player can’t really win if they are trying to do the objective themselves (unless you get very lucky). The player really has to try and provide cover and let the bots hack it. But they usually do a good job of hacking it once its clear.
I haven’t seen many games where AI was able to complete nuanced tasks. AI in RTS games have always been incapable of doing anything after their starting build order. We always praise Unreal Tournament 99 for its bots, and they are great…but its a much simpler kind of AI.
The closest thing I’ve seen to Brink style AI (other than Fritzbot and ETQW of course) are the bots in Killzone 2/3’s botmatch mode. They are really impressive…but still completely incapable of competing against humans. They do a lot of smart things, but they simply can’t recognize opportunities to complete an objective… they are way too slow in deciding when to plant a charge. (They also did silly things like climb down ladders instead of simply jumping down like a real player would.)
Brink’s AI is a huge step up above Killzone 2/3s…they react faster, they move better, and they are much more aggressive, but Killzone’s was praised and won awards, while Brink’s was criticized. I think the reason for this is simply that Killzone’s botmatch was offered as a training mode…so no one expected them to be able to play like humans. Brink’s botmatch was presented as a “Campaign”, so people had unrealistic expectations. But even if they can’t act like humans all the time, there are a lot of moments where Brink’s bots do really natural things that make me smile.
