Bots? Why Bots?

Tiax

<div class="IPBDescription">I hate em</div> Ive seen about 4 servers now with a bunch of bots in them. These have 5 ping and stand in the ready room. When I find a server like this I tag it with the word "BOTS" and avoid it lik ethe plague.

Ive never seen the draw to using bots as they always seem to suck. I find them less fun because they are to predictable and they never fall for tricks or traps. Meaning, with bots in the server its just a matter of how well your aim is and quickness to spot and enemy compared to the bots settings....yawn.

The only pro to bots that ive ever seen is the ability to have one person enjoy a game all by himself but I personally dont' think thats fun. Nor do I see the need to have one bot in game to 'keep teams even'.

So for those of you who use BOTS....why? And for those who don't and those who are unsure....Continue NOT using them.

Align

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><u>Why use bots?</u></span>

To test stuff, and to learn how to play the game.
Using it to attract people is LAME, avoid those servers.

That_Annoying_Kid

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some servers have placeholderbots, one of these I can think of is [WHO]Modifed

that server isn't one to avoid like the plauge

however the bots they use just sit in the ready room when no one is on the server, when someone joins, one of the bots goes away, there is a max of two.

don't automatically condem a server unless you have spent a couple days playing on it and get to know it, bots like those have use in making it so that the server isn't filtered if you look for servers that aren't empty...


most servers these days, and the ones that are good and well known in the community don't use bots regularly, if they are then the probably have a logical reason for doing so

Tiax

Well thats another reason I instantly condemn it. It pisses me of when im going down my list looking for servers with players only to find a server with 9 player...join...and find out each is standing in the ready room with a 5 ping.

So I instantly leave the server and mark it on my crap list.

Why can they not program it so that bots simply don't exist when no one is in the server? That way people won't be using bots to try and make their server look full.

Servers I avoid like the plague due to bots:
Dominant Speciies NS v1.04
QuickFrag.com | Natural-Selection Zone (17 bots of 18 people! good grief)
Deadly Intentions Public NS Server

I suggest everyone else avoid these and other servers that use bots to try and draw people in.

SoopaFlyYT

what is being referred to as bots here is actually a plugin for the server called fakefull.

I am a server admin and run 4 servers currently with 2 more on the way for my community.
Whenever I set up a new server I install fakefull for anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks in order to attract people to the server. Say what you willabout it but it works. It brings people in. As it does, more people see the players and more join. Before you know it 16 live players are in the server battling it out and your mission is accomplished.

I call this good admining. Yep, I am confident in the quality of my servers. I am PAYING good money for them and want to see people enjoying them. So, by using the plugin, everyone wins.

Of course, as soon as the server starts sustaining traffic on it's own, I off the plugin and enjoy a good game with live people when I get the chance. Usually every day of the week.

This is just my 2 cents and I'm sure many of you may disagree but this has worked for me on CS servers, FA servers, NS servers, TFC servers and DOD servers.

Case closed.

Tiax

I guess that makes sense but I still find it very irritating when I waste my time going into an 'empty' server. At any rate the servers I mentioned seem to run the 'bots' or wahtever 24/7. I dont' think ive ever seen a real person in them. Probably because the admins run that fake full so much that no one ever believes there is really a player in it.

CEldin

Good tactic or not, its irritating when you join a game and your the only person there.

Tiax

hence why I think it would be cool for 1.1 to have something to prevent this...though I figure the 'prevention stuff' would have to be the program you use to check # of people in servers.

clamatius

WhichBot's auto-team balance doesn't exhibit the faux-player syndrome you're complaining about - it just tries to keep the # of players on each side constant, so if there's noone playing on marines, there'll be no bots on the server either.

Also, since it's trying to keep the # of players constant on each side, if a player joins the alien team a bot is auto-kicked.

If you hate our bots for whatever reason, you can also add a filter to your game launcher of choice (All-SeeingEye, etc) against the whichbot_version server variable from v0.3 upwards.

Just pointing out that not every bot program is the same <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->

Tiax

bots suck, period. Ive never seen one I like.

If I wanted to go against the computer id be playing single player.

verbose

Single-player NS? Ooohhh, someone should hire an external company or three to take 4+ years to make that...

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[WHO]Them

I think that most of my players would agree that I run a good server. But surprising as it may be. I run fakefull 24/7 as well. I find that running fakefull with a minimum player setting of 2 really works. Most people don't want to play a game all by themselves, but most also don't seem to feel quite as "let down" when they wanted to join a server with 2 people and instead it was actually none. They already knew it wasn't going to be the most exciting game ever.

But in all honesty. You players have no idea how hard it is to get a large set of "regulars". And without at least 12-15 regular players, your server is condemned to be empty 24/7 .

SoopaFlyYT

thank god someone else knows what i'm talking about here.

As an admin of 4 servers, it's a huge task to populate a server, let alone 4 of them. Fake full has worked well for us as it does it's job and attracts people there. I think that once people see the inside of my server, they want to stay. (at least I hope so) Fake full gets them there, the server keeps them there.

Amped1

Deadly Intentions no longer has fake full (at least it didn't yesterday).

Eviscerator

Getting a set of regular players is a not an easy (or fun) task. I've run a HL server for over 4 years now. Started as deathmatch, then TFC, then CS, and now NS. All along, regulars have come and gone. There are a few that have played for years. I switched to NS in February of this year. Early on, it took me quite a few nights of sitting alone on the server playing with sv_cheats and practicing my lerk/JP skills before I'd get a decent population. If I wasn't there to get things going, no one would have joined. I've spent at least 5-6 hours since that time playing alone. I spent 30 minutes straight one night before someone finally stayed on. Of course, he was a noob and wanted to learn <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> Today, every time I join the server there's usually at least 10 players and many times it's full. There are about 25-30 "regular" players now that come just about every day.

While I don't use fakefull or bots, I can see the merit in them. And you can't argue against their purpose. If there isn't a live person willing to play alone for a while to attract in other players, admins really don't have much other choice. This is a problem specific to NS, since it is so team-oriented. In the CS days, I never had to play alone to draw in others. Two people was enough to get the ball rolling. With NS, most people want to join a server that's like 3/4 full.

For admins out there starting a new server, one thing you can do to develop a following without bots or fake players is be willing to "loan" your server to a clan for practice/matches. They'll be more than happy to use it, and if they like your addons and plugins, they may spread the word and bring in others to play on it during public times. If you still struggle with bringing in players, look to a stats program or maybe some fun DM-style maps in the rotation. Or, bring in some fake ones <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

Tiax

I just looked at deadly intentions and it says 0 of 10...however I still have is marked as "BOTS" and im still passing it up everytime I see it. Waste my time once and dont' expect me to be comming to your server anymore (whoseever it is)

Not that, im sure, they care.

PetitMorte

I run bots on my server. Not the FakeFull Placeholders, but Cheese's RCbots. They're not as good as real players, but they're not simple placeholders either. They can play, although not as smartly as a human, and they do follow orders. I've had a number of new players stop by my bot-infested server to try their hand at commanding, without having people vote them outta the chair.

Also, I use the bots to draw people in. I have the server set at maxbots = 4, and minbots = 0. That means that as long as there's noone there, 4 bots play, 2 to a team. When 1 person joins, one of the bots leaves. This keeps up until 4 people have joined and there are no bots running. After that, more people will keep joining until the server fills up.

And as far as bots go, Cheese's RCbots really aren't that stupid at all! Give Cheese some credit here. I would probably guess that writing a bot AI that is good enough to "Turing" you isn't as easy as all that.

So you won't come and play on my server. Meh. You probably wouldn't play there even if I didn't run bots, and you CERTAINLY wouldn't go and sit on my empty server trying to attract live players. No loss.

Thank you for your opinion. I respectfully disagree with you.

Major_Chrome

I happen to agree that they are good as well. When you have a good enough number I don't mind joining a server and waiting for someone else to join, It usually fills servers up much quicker