I think its great you went to extra lengths to add bots, but I’m thinking to myself, “is this really a good idea?” I’ve had so many problems joining servers with bots running, and then just leaving because no human players stay. On the other hand some people won’t even rent a server unless they have bots to play with.
So its a negotiation process and in this case you have decided to go with bots. I haven’t seen them in action yet, so I can’t make a clear judgement on them. I will say, in the past I have had a lot of problems with the bots in online-based games (not just the crappy BF games, even in CS where the bots are fairly advanced.)
I honestly think we could have done well without them, unless there really is an outstanding advancement in their AI or playability. The worst thing to use with bots is simple pathing. You should have the pathing be determined by establishing a goal to reach, but allow the bot to “learn” from trial and error and figure out what path works best. Also, you must train them to stick together and work with their team, especially since this is a team-based game.
Basically, if the AI sucks like every other game, it will just be an extra feature rarely used except in empty servers. If its good, we might have a reason to play with them mixed with real players, and not have to worry if they can make it out of spawn or not.
I trust SD to do a good job, I’ve only ever seen positive things from them as a whole.
