@ joe that’s exactly why I want bots.
I have numerous copies of several games for my LAN, Ravenshield 5, Hidden and Dangerous2 6 and Battlefield2 5 and Joint operations 2, Planetside 6, City of Heroes 4, and WOW 3 for example.
I have to say, this really bites, as mentioned in my above posts this is new element in games purchsing that wasn’t always the case. Older games specifically catered to my needs by providing “Spawn” games. And certain recent game manufacturers (notably Ascarion) have gone as far as to patch the games to enable Lan play from one disc on request by their customers. It’s a question of value for money and customer satisfaction in my eyes. I buy games. I have money. Who wants it?
Ravenshield and Hidden and Dangerous 2 failed to work. With Ravenshield the cd key checker was unable to work with a NAT. And with Hidden And Dangerous 2 the game did not route nicely.
In these 2 cases having spent an outlay of over a hundred pounds I was very irked that the games did not function nicely. It might not surprise you that I now alert manufacturers of games I wish to play to these issues well in advance of their release.
The next purchase for me is Red Orchestra another online WW2 shooter. This game includes bots and is available for only $25 next month through Steam. I think it’s like a realism/simulation version of ET with decent graphics. This will be my first outting with Steam, and I am intrested to see what problems it will bring.
I will at least buy 1 copy of this game for the bots. If the online is any good, I may buy more.
Obviously I would much prefer it if the game worked online without a CD key like my last purchase “The Regiment” a week ago. This is a much better value purchase as all of my computers are able to play online at the same time for £18 and instead of £146 and I recommend it highly as a worthwhile budget title.
Value for money is a factor in my purchasing decisions. The sums are pretty large and I cannot afford not to take it seriously.
In all honesty you are right, after BF2, I will not be buying one copy of this game for each of my PC’s. I’m not that excited by it. I would definitely buy at least one, if it had bots. I have mentally booked myself in for an addiction to Huxley roundabout the same time as this game releases. I don’t guarentee buying it all.
Though, I still buy my own software, and dont let my friends use mine. Having a master server is really all you need IMO, It doesn’t help for lan parties, but it does for pubbing, and thats really the main thing.