What ever happened to bots?

[slipknot4]

They died along with the birth of character progression and massive online games where you could easily go online and play a few games without having to pay 20£ for using the phone line. That and the fact that modern kids rather sit alone by them self playing with their friends online then going to a friends house going on a frag fest to 1000 kills against bots.
I also think that XBL and PSN has something to do with it too.

 

[Tharwen]

TF2 just introduced prototype bots. they work quite well IMO.

How can I get hold of these, good sir?

 

[LWS666]

i'm playing L4D2 now, BOTS!

 

[Jonny49]

Despite it's flaws, HAZE 1 vs 15 with bot's is a laugh. Rather scary too. Worth the £8 I paid for it alone.

 

[Prometherion]

Anyone remember XIII(13)?

Multiplayer with bots was awesome, i love multiplayer offline. Spilt screen is so crap.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Anyone else have any opinions on this?

Online multiplayer happened, that's what.

Most PC shooters still have bots, either fan made or coded in.

But from a developer's point of view bots no longer make much sense. For your multiplayer mode you can spend hundreds of thousands programming, bug testing and playtesting an set of extremely complciated AI programs that will still be vastly inferior to human players, especially as their entire set of actions will be procedural rather than scripted. Or you can not bother, bang together fifteen or so maps for 16 people and call it multiplayer.

Humans are a thousand times more unpredictable and adaptable than any bot, to most developer's there's just little point adding them.

 

[Hobo Joe]

Most of the time they have incredibly poor AI; plus this new multi player craze has killed them off rather effectively. I miss them though. Timesplitters 2 *Hugs*

 

[HandfulofWolf]

maybe all the developers gave up on bots because they knew that they couldn't make an FPS with bots, as epic as Timesplitters

This.

 

[Luke5515]

You have to add them in your server. Mind you, this is PC only.

 

[muffincakes]

Perfect Dark (N64) had really good bots for the time. I used to play 2 player and fill in the rest with several Dark bots and some easier ones just for fun. The Dark bots were very tough. At least I think that's what they were called, it's been so long...

DarkSims, baby! Yeah!!

[sub]sorry. I get excited sometimes.[/sub]

And PD bots are still great, especially since there have been relatively few games since that include bots. Also, I love bots. Why did they have to go?! Why??!!

 

[Squilookle]

Just the other day I had an absolute blast playing XIII with my gf's brother, doing CTF loaded up with bots. There really is no excuse not to have them in a multiplayer shooter.

An FPS without bots better have a fucking good singleplayer.

Yeah, this too. It's already at a massive disadvantage in my books. In fact when I hear about a new game, finding out if it's multiplayer has bots is usually the first thing I look up.

 

[rt052192]

online is accepted as something everyone should have, but i feel your pain. i personally miss destroying the bots that came along with Medal of Honor:Rising Sun(most notably rickshaw) but Gears of War 2 has bots that are remotely challenging and fun to play offline

 

[Singularly Datarific]

I don't know, especially since Terminator said they'd've taken over now...

 

[Kae]

maybe all the developers gave up on bots because they knew that they couldn't make an FPS with bots, as epic as Timesplitters

probably that but they were still awesome to have while you were playing offline to make everything more chaotic and awesome specailly in Time Splitters my favorite FPS , also Perfect Dark was great fun with it's bots I especially remember KazeSim and CowardSim they were so awesome

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I hope no one has mentioned Red Faction 2 yet, I loved that game, I actually gave my bots names and they leveled up (Im pretty sure the more you played with them the better they got) and I treated them like people

 

[Joshdemon]

Anyone else have any opinions on this?

Online multiplayer happened, that's what.

Most PC shooters still have bots, either fan made or coded in.

But from a developer's point of view bots no longer make much sense. For your multiplayer mode you can spend hundreds of thousands programming, bug testing and playtesting an set of extremely complciated AI programs that will still be vastly inferior to human players, especially as their entire set of actions will be procedural rather than scripted. Or you can not bother, bang together fifteen or so maps for 16 people and call it multiplayer.

Humans are a thousand times more unpredictable and adaptable than any bot, to most developer's there's just little point adding them.

A fair comment, but if Turok: Rage Wars on the N64 has the processing power to handle bots and lots of maps, then surely a latest generation game, e.g. Modern Warfare 2 can!

 

[VGCATZ]

Timesplitters series was one of the finest for bots.

I recently found a game (which I got for free, don't ask me how) called Perfect Dark Zero o Xbox 360 that does Bots quite well, in fact, I thinks its a lot like Timeplitters with the bots and multiplayer.

I too loved the Timesplitter bots. They made for the most interesting games when you could out animals versus zombies. I do regret finding out that Mr. Giggles was a clown though. I loved using him until that point. I hate clowns but that's off-topic.

 

[FoiL]

Bots usually enhance the multi-player, even if by only adding sillyness. But they are considered too expensive to be well pulled of, so they were kind of abandoned.

 

[MR.Spartacus]

Perfect Dark is getting rereleased. How could it NOT have bots?