Ideas for improved bot AI

[Dokujisan]

I thought it wouldn't hurt to have a discussion about some things that would make bot AI more enjoyable for future versions.

Of course, some of these are probably not even possible, and many are likely not that important, but it doesn't hurt to brainstorm for interesting ideas for improvements. Some of them might turn out to be pretty easy to implement.

Feel free to add your own ideas.

- use weapon combos (all gamemodes)
- react to sound (track via sound)(1v1/DM/TDM)
- change in behavior related to teammates (TDM/DM)
- difference tactics relative to enemy's weapon (TDM/CTF)
- being able to figure out congestion points/busy areas on a map (DM/TDM)
- jump ability (all gamemodes)
- ability to laser jump to get to items/ledges (all gamemodes)
- ability to laser off walls to improve speed (all gamemodes)
- ability to assume a role depending on match activity (attack/defend/assist/control a resource area) (CTF)
- using player prediction to some degree to adjust tactics (all gamemodes)
- roughly time resource respawns (all gamemodes)
- develop a weapon preference depending on what is working during the particular match (all gamemodes)

[Xeno]

- respond to team messages to some degree


Perhaps this could be done by implementing a limited set of commands that could be added to team messages (say_bot_attack, say_bot_defend, say_bot_help_me, say_bot_goto_here, etc) and could get them to change their behavior (perhaps even react to waypoint sprites).

I think this could be particularly useful in KH (being able to tell my idiot bot teammate to stop running away from me with the keys would be very nice).



Is it at all possible for the server to keep track of trends in player movements and to use that data to create bot paths dynamically?

[divVerent]

As for your KH problem - bots usually do NOT run away from you, but they update their thinking only every N seconds. If you stay where you are, he will find you with the key (RUN HERE already has top priority for them).

As for autowaypointing, LordHavoc planned to do that once but didn't have time for it yet.

[[-z-]]

Somewhat related...

can they NOT pickup weapons for the first 10 seconds or something... it really pisses me off when I spawn and all the bots grab the weapons/items and stand still.

[Xeno]

As for your KH problem - bots usually do NOT run away from you, but they update their thinking only every N seconds. If you stay where you are, he will find you with the key (RUN HERE already has top priority for them).

As for autowaypointing, LordHavoc planned to do that once but didn't have time for it yet.

When I have 25 hp and 3 people just behind me, staying where I am to wait for the bot to "think" and turn around isn't an option. N seconds can be a long time. :/