Are Bots becoming too powerful?

Curious if anyone has considered reducing or resetting the bots levels?
Annika is now 505
Blackjack is now 487

Makes it very difficult for us low level players to kill monsters and stay alive when bots are filling player's slots.

HighwratH wrote:

Curious if anyone has considered reducing or resetting the bots levels?
Annika is now 505
Blackjack is now 487

Makes it very difficult for us low level players to kill monsters and stay alive when bots are filling player's slots.

Interesting. I've been thinking along the same lines since Rapier and I were playing with 3 bots on a map and it seemed like we were shooting soft peas at the monsters.

Regardless of the bots levels, doesn't it go by the lowest level player alive? If your only 30 or 40, shouldn't the monsters by ranked towards that?

Flak Monkey wrote:

Regardless of the bots levels, doesn't it go by the lowest level player alive? If your only 30 or 40, shouldn't the monsters by ranked towards that?

To some degree, yes it is based on the lowest level player. Actually, the monster level formula is dictated by the levels of all of the players on, including bots.

When Rapier and I was playing, I was the lowest level player (242) of the 2 players and the 3 bots, thus the soft peas shots.

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

To some degree, yes it is based on the lowest level player. Actually, the monster level formula is dictated by the levels of all of the players on, including bots.

When Rapier and I was playing, I was the lowest level player (242) of the 2 players and the 3 bots, thus the soft peas shots.

I always thought it was an average of all players or some similar formula.

The monster level in Invasion gets set to one quarter of the level of the lowest player alive, plus double the wave number.

I just wish they played as well in INV as they do in DM... They seem to dumb down in INV for some reason.

When it comes to playing as a low level, the problem with having bots around is that they're too good at killing in the lower waves - the times when low levels need their space the most to get xp - and are too incompetent in the higher waves - the times when, generally speaking, low levels need some backup. Exceptions exist, of course, like if you're playing with Riker and Annika in a subterranean map and all they do is stand around like lobotomy patients pointing their non-firing ion painters at the pupae biting their legs off. Or when certain maps cause bots to stand in one location for the entire game as they launch their trans at a powerup, miss, and repeat ad nauseam.

IIRC, the cap for monster DB was set for 374, meaning a player level of 300 on wave 16, and monster DR is capped at 180 against RPG weapons, meaning a player level of 78 on wave 16. So, considering the most common bots (Jakob, Annika, Blackjack, etc.) are well above both those limits, they don't do much to help high level players, either.

Perhaps the practicality (or lack thereof) of bots is more cause for concern than their power?

Locrian wrote:

When it comes to playing as a low level, the problem with having bots around is that they're too good at killing in the lower waves - the times when low levels need their space the most to get xp - and are too incompetent in the higher waves - the times when, generally speaking, low levels need some backup. Exceptions exist, of course, like if you're playing with Riker and Annika in a subterranean map and all they do is stand around like lobotomy patients pointing their non-firing ion painters at the pupae biting their legs off. Or when certain maps cause bots to stand in one location for the entire game as they launch their trans at a powerup, miss, and repeat ad nauseam.

IIRC, the cap for monster DB was set for 374, meaning a player level of 300 on wave 16, and monster DR is capped at 180 against RPG weapons, meaning a player level of 78 on wave 16. So, considering the most common bots (Jakob, Annika, Blackjack, etc.) are well above both those limits, they don't do much to help high level players, either.

Perhaps the practicality (or lack thereof) of bots is more cause for concern than their power?

I'd just soon not have them on at all

(DC)DEMONSLAYER wrote:

I'd just soon not have them on at all

I think I would love that, especially as a berzerker.

Well I like those bots, especially Annika or whoever is the highest level bot, because if you happen to kill them in Deathmatch, they give you a ton of xp and since they can't think you can kill them the same way over and over... hence my 4 400 level characters

ahhh so the answer to your high rank is reveled

Elite wrote:

Well I like those bots, especially Annika or whoever is the highest level bot, because if you happen to kill them in Deathmatch, they give you a ton of xp and since they can't think you can kill them the same way over and over... hence my 4 400 level characters

Interesting Elite, but I have played deathmatch recently without any players and none of the bots are the high level ones that fill spots in invasion games. They are all very low level bots we don't see in invasion.

The high level bots do play DM, they're just rare. It seems like certain bots were given an order of precedence for playing INV games above that of other bots shortly after the Big DC Bang. Since INV is the most commonly played mode with the largest XP return on average, those bots leveled up the fastest. In DM, all bots are candidates for gameplay, so that puts the high-level bots in the minority.

It'd be cool to have a way for the bots to match the average player level in DM games. I usually play my low-level general when it's just weak bots because it's boring playing my WM.