Bots in QW official?

(Nail) #41

unfortunately, the way online gaming is going, pretty soon 56k will only be good for multiplayer notepad

(raztafar1an) #42

Yea, why are netcodes getting worse and worse? I remember when you could play Q2 seemlessly on 56k. When I switched to Q3, I was surprised that it was virtually unplayable on 56k. Now a lot of games are fairly bad even with an 80 ping. It’s not like its impossible to make a good netcode on today’s games. arQon turned Q3’s netcode into a beauty with CPMA, and I’m sure he can do it with Q4 and other games.

(Nail) #43

I think games these days just require too much bandwidth to accomodate 56k, unfortunate but true

(BrightSoul) #44

I think not all developers care to implement an optimized network communication protocol. Some do. For instance, ArenaNet made a kick ass job on their game Guild Wars. Sure, a MMO is not as fast paced as a FPS but I assure you it is a game where timing is important and the whole thing runs perfectly on a 56k.

Hopefully, the “area of relevance” featured by Quake Wars will have a major role on network code optimization.
Also (just an opinion here) if I set /rate 2500 I should still be able to play with narrowed down packet resolution. Ie. If the server normally streams a 16 bit integer 50 times per second to define another player’s aiming direction, then it just might stream a byte 10 times per second to the person who has an analog connection. It’s fine as long as I don’t get “Connection interrupted” messages or big warps.

(raztafar1an) #45

I agree BrightSoul, there is no accuse that a game should be unplayable with a ping of 80 on a broadband connection. Broadband connections these days are suitable for playing games online, in fact I think the majority of games only require around 12KB/s of constant bandwidth, with a few exceptions.

(Lemming) #46

Why would you want bots? To try things. To see how good a weapon actually is. To maybe practice your aim. To learn the maps! At least if you learn things with bots on you can set the difficulty down, learn where things are, where bottlnecks are etc, without the pain of dying every second

(Lanz) #47

Why would they have balancing issues with bots? If you implement bots with some thoughts (good forbid they might have a brain), you make it piss easy to change some of the fundamental rules the bots follow to accomodate the game balance, if they think that is needed. Just because you add bots doesn’t mean you make the game into a single player game - it’s just means you can play the game offline or with some friends or on a lan. It seems a lot of people would like that, and some people would actually buy the game for just that reason so it’s good from a sales point too.

That is if anything of this is actually true and just not a misinterpreted rumor floating around.

(zenith-ply) #48

I’m glad the idea was/is considered. Last pure mp game I played w. limited bot support outside of et mod(s) was OP Typhoon Rising iirc. I love bots for 2 reasons.

  1. ai in general fascinates me. dumb bots humor me.
  2. fond memories of playing a certain ww2 game, holding up in some bunker while the game slowed my machine down to a near halt trying to figure out a way to cheat at weeding me out. kind of like chess. not excitement for everyone but i like it.

I think it’s just a nice development situation for sd. Either way its an asset for them to be familiarizing themselves with another facet of the game developing environment. I guess they may have held back on it because they would have proffered to innovate the concept a bit instead of just incorporate it. Anyways…accolades where they are.

(Nail) #49

afaik, it’s been id Software with bot development not SD

(Joe999) #50

because i don’t think that they can implement bots in a way that it reflects the multiplayer experience. i think that for people who buy it only for it’s sp part the game will only be a medium class game. i might be wrong though, haven’t seen anything in action so i’d be positively surprised if it’d work. but then again i’m asking myself on which hell of a machine such a single player version would run.

however, thinking back of a fuel dump session where all axis were proning on the hill sniping the allies, some duck-bot hunting for aim practicing could be fun :smiley:

(ouroboro) #51

What’s all the fuss about? Some people enjoy bots. As long as it doesn’t delay release, the topic should be of no concern to people who don’t enjoy bots. One way or another, there will be bots, either official or community-created.

(Nothus) #52

You got it exactly right ourboro! :slight_smile:

(Nail) #53

As I said before, the bot guy was hired by id Software, not Splash Damage, I assume that means separate development, same guy released “fritzbot” for ET, not a bad bot, obviously not a replacement for a thinking human, but as good as alot of pub players I’ve seen. Handy for new players now that most of us have had 3 yrs practice. I think there will be bots, but an independant development as ouroboro said, either from id or some bright spark

(Lanz) #54

There has never ever been a bot smarter than a can of beans. So bots living up to a game built for humans is of course out of the question. Bots avoiding stronger enemies, doing objectives but having no clue about what happens 2 feet away to the side is as good as it gets. Still for some people, that seems to be enough.

(Fritz) #55

If anyone wants to see this bot programmers work then pop over to my server which is running his Fritzbot mod.
85.14.220.211:27966 or pop in to the website at: www.botswanna.co.uk

The srever is down at the moment due to maintenance at the server company but it should be back up in a couple of hours :slight_smile:

Fritz

(Joe999) #56

i don’t foogging care whether qw will come with bots or not, i just can’t stand the whining of people who want them especially when they come with immature statements like:

… as if quake 4 would have been better with bot support … lol :moo:

(BR1GAND) #57

Or as if Quake 4 would have had a broader appeal to more ppl which is at least debatable. “immature” - lol thats just plain projection.

And if you didnt care… you’d stop posting in a thread about bots. Not that I dont want you to post… I think its great.

(Ifurita) #58

I would have gotten more utility out of Q4 with bot support

(Joe999) #59

i don’t care but if you keep on referring to me in your posts i kinda feel addressed and then i can’t resist :nag:

can’t resist on that one either :smiley:

(ouroboro) #60

Yes, clearly that’s why people want bots, to escape the big bad cheaters. :rolleyes:

Just drop it FFS. If you don’t like bots, don’t use them. Stop harping on people who might enjoy them.

Sheesh! And I thought I was a negative-Nellie! :nag: