RealBots™ Mutator Idea

[spen83]

An idea to...

Stop discrimination against bots!

This idea is fairly simple but would make online bots a lot more 'real'.

• User-defined and/or fully automated 'real-looking' bot names:
  e.g. iN53m1n4tA or [FAKE]joe_kxk
  
• Fake ping details based on average of pings plus slight random variation because normally bots don't have pings.
  
• Automatic: gg and hf gl text comments when appropriate at start/end of game (but in moderation)
  
• Automatic responses to any text questions starting: Is this... are they...., do you... with stuff like: yeah, no, don't know jus play the game man.
  
• Option to have bots make text comments in polish / french / german saying sorry i don't speak english or a similar comment. Or, do you speak polish etc. Basically a repetoire of comments that makes players think, that guy doesn't speak my language, better just play him rather than chat with him :P
  
• Subtle "clowning around" behaviour to seem real - (in team games when bot has not seen enemy for a while or real player team mate is standing still...) 1. run in front of real player so as to be face to face with them, then fire single slow shots at them before maybe messaging them a comment on why they are standing still. 2. jumping round in circles around friendly teams mates - this shouldn't happen every time, just occassionally. 3. do silly wall jumps from nearby walls (again only when friendly team member nearby is not moving and enemy has not been seen for a while).
  
• No auto bot voice taunts giving the game away

[Sprint]

that would be really hard to code

[Malachor]

No auto bot voice taunts giving the game away

How about decepticon voice taunts then?

[spen83]

How about decepticon voice taunts then?

oh the hilarity

[spen83]

that would be really hard to code

why do you think it would be really hard to code?

is it really hard to code random changes to a player's name tag?

The bit I said about automatic text responses...
I wasn't for a minute suggestion intelligent responses... I meant have a list of fixed responses that look for any player comments starting with "have you" "do you" "is this" which can be given a straight "yes" "no"...."don't know" reponse. That's not rocket science.

[|Grayfox|]

i think the AI code has changed little since UT99

the bots seem to know where you are all the time, so they can HS you when you are hiding

but in UT2 you could give them custom names

[JD8]

I'm sure I remember seeing something like this in either 99 or 2k4. The guys you might want to talk to about doing this mutator are the Apoc clan. The are running a UT3 server right now with custom bot names. So maybe they could take it a step further.

Here is their UT3 server IP: 72.26.198.20:7777

[ThaMarine]

We can also make spawnraper bots, noob bots, cheater bots and ******* bots. Oh, I would also like to see some bots who accuse each other of cheating.

[Henrik]

There was a mutator that did this in UT2004. However, I honestly found it more irritating than anything. One part of me thinks it would be cool to see how convincing AI can get, but the other side of me.. just makes me think it will lead to even more anger and confusion from new players. The bots I speak of had fake pings, and would even respond to normal chatter. Only they would INSTANTLY respond, making it **** obvious.
It was also obvious when they were on a server because rather than their name being red or blue it would be yellow. I avoided those servers like the plague.

I guess that wouldn't be as easy now, but it would still soon become obvious which servers had this mutator running because they would always show the same "players" or even if they programmed them to randomly leave and have new "players" join, it would still follow a pattern that doesn't seem human, and people would catch on, and again I'd avoid those servers completely in all likelihood.

I don't really like playing against bots online period, but I'd much rather play against bots that aren't pretending to be anything but.

[Shadow Dancer]

An idea to...

Stop discrimination against bots!

This idea is fairly simple but would make online bots a lot more 'real'.

• User-defined and/or fully automated 'real-looking' bot names:
  e.g. iN53m1n4tA or [FAKE]joe_kxk
  
• Fake ping details based on average of pings plus slight random variation because normally bots don't have pings.
  
• Automatic: gg and hf gl text comments when appropriate at start/end of game (but in moderation)
  
• Automatic responses to any text questions starting: Is this... are they...., do you... with stuff like: yeah, no, don't know jus play the game man.
  
• Option to have bots make text comments in polish / french / german saying sorry i don't speak english or a similar comment. Or, do you speak polish etc. Basically a repetoire of comments that makes players think, that guy doesn't speak my language, better just play him rather than chat with him :P
  
• Subtle "clowning around" behaviour to seem real - (in team games when bot has not seen enemy for a while or real player team mate is standing still...) 1. run in front of real player so as to be face to face with them, then fire single slow shots at them before maybe messaging them a comment on why they are standing still. 2. jumping round in circles around friendly teams mates - this shouldn't happen every time, just occassionally. 3. do silly wall jumps from nearby walls (again only when friendly team member nearby is not moving and enemy has not been seen for a while).
  
• No auto bot voice taunts giving the game away

Dear God, I play offline to avoid most of this ...

[Xyx]

I play offline to avoid most of this ...

Same here.

I'd rather see a mutator that, instead of combining all the disadvantages of bots and real players, combines the advantages. Meaning bots that play more like people would play; no omniscience, no insta-reflexes, no random hit-or-miss spray aim, not parking the Goliath on top of the Scorpion and continuing on foot.

[|Grayfox|]

not parking the Goliath on top of the Scorpion and continuing on foot.

or crashing the hellfire in the hellbender, flipping the hellbender then getting out of the hellfire

[Nawrot]

Find good irc bot for fake conversation, look how it is done. But homing godlike bot with impact hammer would be hardest to change, they just love that.

[spen83]

Dear God, I play offline to avoid most of this ...

Well I must say, I miss your participation in online games tremendously

The problem is, there aren't enough real players online and bots are a necessary evil... When you play vs bots, sooner or later you think, **** - bots again. If you could play a game for 30 minutes without realising - that's the goal here.

and Xyx...

"I'd rather see a mutator that, instead of combining all the disadvantages of bots and real players, combines the advantages."

I didn't see any ideas that combined all the disadvantages of bots and real players. If by some crazy stretch of the imagination you are talking about my idea then you are saying that in your opinion a bot yelling "ownage" every couple of minutes is better than one that just shuts the hell up.

Maybe you like the repeated bot speech of "ownage" and "my house" and all the rest of it. I think it sucks. Funny how people have different opinions lol eheheh ownage.

[Xyx]

I'd rather have bots that yell "ownage" ever couple of minutes than bots with stupid names that "clown around" in an apparent attempt to imitate a type of player I would rather not share a server with.

What is the point of this exercise anyway? To fool people into thinking a server is populated? To make offline players feel like they're online? There must have been more to the idea than just shutting bots up... otherwise why not just turn off auto-taunts?