So as some folks know, we've been doing some work on a bot API system, which allows countries to be played using scripts.

This is done so that we can make some AI elements which take over inactive countries (which is important as we grow the game and get the inevitable dropouts) and to provide additional countries of varying skill levels in the games.

Right now, Slag and I have written some bot strats that are pretty simple, and we're debating starting up some countries in the Alliance game to see how the bot reacts to being outside a fishbowl.

We're looking for thoughtful thoughts on the idea of adding some bots to this server.
Anyone got some? :p

the bot API is pretty sweet, and if you're into AI/bot making (which you all shouldn't be! *shakes fist*) it could be a good opportunity to work on something that's beneficial for the game, once we open it up to the semi-public. People who work on bot API's with us will be on a very short leash cheating-wise, but we'll discuss that later :)
There's been a group of 5-10 folks who have been discussing this -- i don't think they're tagged, but the group includes a verity of folks from across disciplines and alliances.

cheater

yes, you should.

i can ps him once without getting nuked four times?
i say yes

OMG DIDNT YOU GUYS SEE MATRIX?!?!?!?!

No but really, taking over dropouts may be a fine idea, allthough I'm not sure I see any big benefits. I don't think having bots starting countrys on their own either at start or later during a set adds anything to the game though.

I'd say to start them up in Primary first before you put them in Alliance.

And you should specify whether or not they are self-sufficient rainbows, or if they use the public market. And make sure to code in a price-check for them so that they don't autobuy $1000 oil if someone clever does an oil buyout.

Should tag the bots, "Skynet". Maybe have a bots vs. humans war down the road? Walling would be challenging.

That indeed would be challenging.

Yes, but you will have to be careful how this impacts the market or whether you play them so they don't impact the markets.

i like the idea of bots
I would like to see more life in a server, if that means to include bots than yes plz do so.

When you are trying it out and need people for some sort of beta, i'm your guy!

OMG yes! bring in some land!

BTW, where is Hungry at when you need him :P

PPS: RD should be all over this bot API. Put your talents to good use this time :P

MY BOT CAN OUTNET YOU

mystic: can you do the robot? that might help.. ! =)

yes so we can stop this retarded land trade going on

no. that's not what this game needs.

land trading = player interaction = bonds/friends made = retention.

if the only thing keeping you playing a game is the number of AI Bots you can hit... you won't have anything really to come back to.

we have to be very careful that this game doesn't become a weird mix of single player and multi player. countries interacting with other countries is a must.

i'm opposed to anything that makes locket potentially happy, so I say no to this=)


j/k sounds great...do it!

Okay, here are a few questions:

- Will they be farmland or will they be able to retal hits on them?
- Will they be able to LG even if not attacked?
- Will they run efficient strats, or self-sufficient rainbow types?
- Will they run untagged?
- Are they capable of performing special attacks?
- How many bots will there be? A percentage based on active countries?

I think you should make a new individual server with bots and test it out and see how it goes

ya, the point isn't to make land freely available to everyone so you don't need to interact with others on this server. the place where bots would be useful on this server is to provide some additional untaggeds and small clans.

hitting other players for land is a good thing for the server and game. we're not looking to remove that element at all :p

My thought is that it will alleviate some of the plight put on smaller alliances which has caused them to either fold or merge elsewhere. It's not by any means a silver bullet, but making the server more attractive for all types of players is the goal here.

Other servers have very different requirements than this one! :p

When the bots are introduced, can they please run in long extinct tags?

I want to be able to LG UCN, RoCK, Arrow, HAN and all the other oldies again :)

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

Landtrading leads to people being douchebags leads to people quitting.

Rockman, if you don't want land trading you might as well be playing on a server by yourself.

Land trading is competition. Some people quit because of competition, but more people quit without it.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

TTT

I dont see the harm in adding a few countries but if yer adding a lot then theres a difference

If you get to add your bots, do we get to add ours?

But isn't the point that we want to make a difference? Adding just a few bots won't change anything in-game... so there's no point in doing it.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

theres definately a number of bots that will be too many

i like this idea

I'm totally against bots and they will ruin the game imo.

If there are bots in the game it would also not be fair for admins to run countries at all due to conflict of interest and knowledge of the strats they play. way too easy to abuse them if you know the logic they are built on, then again i guess you could just tell your friends the logic anyway. heh

I guess we should shut down the game because I might tell my friends how many turrets your country has.

Slagpit has 3 turrets.

One in each corner of his room.

as far as the questions Thomas poses -> that would be different for each set of countries played I guess. I've always wanted to eventually see a system where we have some that are basically just dead-weight all-x countries that will just put their head down and explore, others which will play like an untagged player, but with a memory of who attacked it, and even some which will play in tags and play in a more organized fashion.

That's why we're making it an API based system, so we can leverage the community to help create some of these systems. Anything that would be on a "live" server would be run locally by the admins, though. This is the kind of thing that we could spend a TON of time on, so outsourcing it is the best bet :p

Bots?... Pang is a bot no?

chevs has a good point, even though he may be speaking in hyperbole about "it will ruin the game". No need to be so defensive...

it does make it tough on u guys to play "fairly" now if u know 4 SS and u are ok but 5SS and this country will just build tanks and AB u the rest of the set..

Slagpit lives in a triangular room?

I can't imagine they would know any country specific details. I am sure all countries would have their strats/intelligence/attacking personality determined randomly and the variables they would control are the weightings on the different factors to ensure balance.

i think you're flawed in your thinking about how bot-logic works :p

the goal isn't to have any hard & fast rules in the bots which you can exploit. If we could exploit that kind of thing having admin knowledge, you better believe by the end of the first set that everyone would know the same criteria just from experimenting with the bot countries. That's not what we're aiming for -- that would just be another way to extend the gap between new players and long-time players, and bots are meant to narrow that gap moreso.

That's why I would look to avoid that model to start with.... but we're kind of getting down to nitty-gritty fringe use cases that aren't really that relevant to the grand scheme of things.

No bots!

Although if they all were 100% tanks and prone to suiciding on a moments notice, I think it would be entertaining :D

I would find a way to make them tag with PDM...

Yes. Bots would be awesome.

against

i think we should just add more new players and i could train them to play like bots

lol detmer :P good one ;) I was just gonna make the same joke...

no bots

and what was date when skyline got started?

Against. Keep things natural.

Bingo. Smart post, please follow it.

against

we need more real players, not virtual ones

Or people could just get the defense to bounce retals. Or alliances could go to war. Or people could find willing partners to trade land with, rather than grabbing unwilling targets.

For.

And I love the idea of having them play in old, defunct tags.