DescentBB

Hi all!

Just wonder how difficult it would be in a future version of Descent 3 to have the ability to play computer controlled bots on multiplayer maps. I'm aware that there is maps that replicate similar behaviour but they're somewhat limited to a few maps and the AI scripting isn't too great - repetitive. They don't gang up and hunt you down unless u look for them.

A feature like this would expand the longetivity of Descent 3 something chronic.

Just my two cents. I was wondering how feasibile it was and determining the interest for something like that.

Thanks!

Kiel

hmm voted yes, would be cool. on the other hand we already have two great mods, coop and roboanarchy, wich both are great fun and allow botmatches. they are just rarely hosted and played.

Voted no -- IMVHO it'll open the door to more cheating.

Someone did try to make AI-controlled ships. While the effort was good, the result was ships that were on par with a 3-week noob. AI is hard to script out, I know. But it would be stellar to have ships that chose weapons based on the surroundings and/or the other persons weapon(s), and also that could path the level and was able to determine 'best guess' cut-off points. (So if pilot A went down a tunnel that intersected another, bot A could go down that intersecting tunnel and try to ambush/surprise the pilot. Prediction patterns of any sort would be nice too, for dogfighting. The SP bots only move out of the way of your crosshair, they don't actually dance. Also, different styles of play (preferrably selectable), so you could fill a level with a pack of noob misslewhores, or some down and dirty plasma fights. Actually, I can go online any time and play a pack of noob misslewhores, never mind that part..

I'd love this. I play UT and UT2k4 with bots all the time. I configg'd each bot to prefer a certain weapon, so that when I load up an eight-bot game, it's not all losers with rocket launchers, and all the other weapons go unused. Much better than playing online. The bots are killers too at the highest skillset.

Super Cool!

I think if Descent 3 had bots, it would have had a much longer life. Even if you don't enjoy playing on-line, playing against bots in multiplayer modes is fun on its own. But designing an AI for a 360º world can be challenging.

it would take a long time im sure, but what if you programmed the AI to react completely on the players movements? It would ALWAYS fire at you, but if you slid to the right it would strafe around you firing while trying to dodge the laser blobs. meanwhile, things like pilliars would be objects, and whne the players were firing upon the bot, the bot would move so the pilliar is between the player and bot, occasionally coming out to fire a few vausss rounds

While it might be fun, there will never be any patch released along those lines. Trust me about that .

Obviously the AI is there in the Descent 3 game engine to do the stuff...

Will Descent 3 ever go open source? I'd have half a mind to start a team and implement a project like that

Kiel

There actually are some AI Pyros that can be found in level 4. If I remeber correctly they where pretty challenging too. They moved around fairly well.

There are 3 types of Black Pyros in D3. Super laser, vauss, and MD. The vauss ones are all but invincible at short range on even hotshot, whereas the MD ones seem to have just a little bit *too* good of aim.