Am I playing with bots?

[CheetosInChocolate]

There's 0 reason for ppl to be so easy to defeat.

[Hiei]

You can tell it's a bot when it's name has : in it (Example :Sherman:)
If you're brand new you'll have people with the same number of games as you for 200~ something games (I think) or until you play your first t5 game

Otherwise there are sometimes bots mixed in from t5 and down because there aren't a lot of people who play below t5
Quests and stuff start at t5 and up so most people play those teirs.

[CRCGamer]

If the name is enclosed like :Tirpitz: then indeed you are facing bots. New accounts are in a protected matchmaking queue for either their first 200 matches, or when they play a tier V or higher ship. Treasure the easy matches and pad your credit stash as you train multiple lines up through tier four.

Because once you leave the protected queue space you are in for having matches with a mix of newer players and some that have been playing for ten thousand plus matches and are liable to sink you in just one or two of your mistakes.

[Engine-ear]

Sometimes new players or people who came back from a long hiatus mistakes COOP as PvP. Met a few in COOP who thought that COOP was PvP only to realize they fighting bots.

[CheetosInChocolate]

Originally posted by CRCGamer:

If the name is enclosed like :Tirpitz: then indeed you are facing bots. New accounts are in a protected matchmaking queue for either their first 200 matches, or when they play a tier V or higher ship. Treasure the easy matches and pad your credit stash as you train multiple lines up through tier four.

Because once you leave the protected queue space you are in for having matches with a mix of newer players and some that have been playing for ten thousand plus matches and are liable to sink you in just one or two of your mistakes.

thx, that's good to know.

[TheToRN]

please stop assuming the devs are not putting bots with full real names to fill games when low player count.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by TheToRN:

please stop assuming the devs are not putting bots with full real names to fill games when low player count.

They aren't. That's why you see real bots when there's low player counts.

[Banzai]

Originally posted by TheToRN:

please stop assuming the devs are not putting bots with full real names to fill games when low player count.

Evidence? Seems rather unlikely since at off peak times you can have much smaller teams due to less players being about even to the point where you can have 1v1s in random at T6 and above and actual :bots: can appear below that.

Conspiracy theories with zero proof are just conspiracy theories.

[Ace42]

Originally posted by TheToRN:

please stop assuming the devs are not putting bots with full real names to fill games when low player count.

It is right to assume they are not doing this because it's self-evidently ridiculous.

What on earth is the point of implementing bots that are "fake players" when - depending on the tier and the player counts - they have to already populate the matches with clearly indicated WG bots anyway?

Why would you turn players off by showing tons of WG bots in the baby-tiers, creating the impression the game is empty - if you can just fill it with fake players that are so well coded that they are indistinguishable from actual incompetent human players?

If this already exists in the game - *why are the Russian region developers' notes talking about implementing WoWP style pseudo-human bots to disguise playercounts* when according to your theory *it's already active in the game, and far more subtly and effectively*?

To be doing this they'd have to be creating a good hundred thousand bots at least - over a staggered period of time to create the impression that these are organic sign-ups rather than done in big simultaneous batches, giving each one a unique username and profile (thereby limiting the choice of usernames for actual real people), and then *only ever put that bot into a very few games, so that their profile both corresponds to the matches those bots actually play *and* have it reflect a typical nub's account statistics.

There's a million ways to look at this conspiracy theory, and *not a single one of those ways makes it seem like a practical sensible use of anyone's time*; and *all* of them involve an implementation that would just be obvious to a cursory examination of player data.

[bstangeby]

I hear in chat now and then people asking in chat if player are afk. And then others saying that a bot will pilot ship if do not start playing after 5 minutes. No idea if true or not.

[Banzai]

Originally posted by bstangeby:

I hear in chat now and then people asking in chat if player are afk. And then others saying that a bot will pilot ship if do not start playing after 5 minutes. No idea if true or not.

Nope thats not a thing. You do see people who are completely stationary for the whole duration of the match at times, although that requires them to not be sunk by someone opportunistic who notices.

Honestly wouldnt be a bad idea as long as the AFK in question wasnt credited with whatever the bot did. Its never ideal if someone is AFK on your team since it immediately leaves you with one player less than the opposition but tbh having a bot wouldnt be much of an improvement.

[christof]

I have seen bot use by players actually. It is fairly obvious if one does. But those accounts were still actual player accounts who were using those bots to farm credits/xp in Coops when they were off. And later were playing themselves in PvP (which you could clearly see by the vastly different numbers they got there, looking up the profiles).

That however has nothing to do with the devs. And in several years of playing, I have found a grand total of five players that at times or regularily have done this.

It is against the EULA, by the way. Unfortunately, WG doesn't seem to care enough about Coop to actually check any reports with replays sent in about this. Stating their system would have caught any such use anyway. But it is obvious that either the system is not as fool-proof as they believe. Or it isn't running at all in Coop (which actually seems plausible since there will always be bots in those games anyway and the system may thus not even be applicable).

[Ace42]

Originally posted by christof:

I have seen bot use by players actually.

Yep, there's some AFK bots players use. How effective WG's policies are at dealing with them is certainly a matter for debate.

I seem to recall the game being inundated with them the first time WG did that "we pay you real money via PayPal for recruiting if the recruits achieve such-and-such" - and all of a sudden there were tons of botting Nurnbergs match after match being farmed on an industrial scale.

[Jaynoble55]

Originally posted by christof:

I have seen bot use by players actually. It is fairly obvious if one does. But those accounts were still actual player accounts who were using those bots to farm credits/xp in Coops when they were off. And later were playing themselves in PvP (which you could clearly see by the vastly different numbers they got there, looking up the profiles).

That however has nothing to do with the devs. And in several years of playing, I have found a grand total of five players that at times or regularily have done this.

It is against the EULA, by the way. Unfortunately, WG doesn't seem to care enough about Coop to actually check any reports with replays sent in about this. Stating their system would have caught any such use anyway. But it is obvious that either the system is not as fool-proof as they believe. Or it isn't running at all in Coop (which actually seems plausible since there will always be bots in those games anyway and the system may thus not even be applicable).

Co-op is a dirty hellhole that WG likes to keep out of view of the guests. The mode is so broken that all you need to do to get credits and xp is get in a destroyer and nose dive into bots. They dont dodge mostly so its free damage. I have done this before myself but I have found it very lame and not fun so I went back to playing whatever. I do not co-op much but its a nice break from the other modes and allows players to take sub-optimal ships without fear of hurting the team or getting farmed.

That being said, the real problem with co-op is simply the bot AI. They need to to port in the AI from Asyms as the bots in that mode are pretty decent as in they will dodge torpedos and have superb accuracy after the first volley. Right now co-op is a farm face roll with no real challenge or worth outside of farming. Its why I stick to OP's when I want to PvE.

Wish they would fix this. Ok, rant off.

[Hiei]

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Originally posted by christof:

I have seen bot use by players actually. It is fairly obvious if one does. But those accounts were still actual player accounts who were using those bots to farm credits/xp in Coops when they were off. And later were playing themselves in PvP (which you could clearly see by the vastly different numbers they got there, looking up the profiles).

That however has nothing to do with the devs. And in several years of playing, I have found a grand total of five players that at times or regularily have done this.

It is against the EULA, by the way. Unfortunately, WG doesn't seem to care enough about Coop to actually check any reports with replays sent in about this. Stating their system would have caught any such use anyway. But it is obvious that either the system is not as fool-proof as they believe. Or it isn't running at all in Coop (which actually seems plausible since there will always be bots in those games anyway and the system may thus not even be applicable).

Co-op is a dirty hellhole that WG likes to keep out of view of the guests. The mode is so broken that all you need to do to get credits and xp is get in a destroyer and nose dive into bots. They dont dodge mostly so its free damage. I have done this before myself but I have found it very lame and not fun so I went back to playing whatever. I do not co-op much but its a nice break from the other modes and allows players to take sub-optimal ships without fear of hurting the team or getting farmed.

That being said, the real problem with co-op is simply the bot AI. They need to to port in the AI from Asyms as the bots in that mode are pretty decent as in they will dodge torpedos and have superb accuracy after the first volley. Right now co-op is a farm face roll with no real challenge or worth outside of farming. Its why I stick to OP's when I want to PvE.

Wish they would fix this. Ok, rant off.

They've made them harder and people complained it was too hard, also the Asymmetric bot isn't that much of an upgrade, the reason that battle type is harder is solely because of the numbers. The bots have minor improvements but hardly.

[Jaynoble55]

Originally posted by Hiei:

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Co-op is a dirty hellhole that WG likes to keep out of view of the guests. The mode is so broken that all you need to do to get credits and xp is get in a destroyer and nose dive into bots. They dont dodge mostly so its free damage. I have done this before myself but I have found it very lame and not fun so I went back to playing whatever. I do not co-op much but its a nice break from the other modes and allows players to take sub-optimal ships without fear of hurting the team or getting farmed.

That being said, the real problem with co-op is simply the bot AI. They need to to port in the AI from Asyms as the bots in that mode are pretty decent as in they will dodge torpedos and have superb accuracy after the first volley. Right now co-op is a farm face roll with no real challenge or worth outside of farming. Its why I stick to OP's when I want to PvE.

Wish they would fix this. Ok, rant off.

They've made them harder and people complained it was too hard, also the Asymmetric bot isn't that much of an upgrade, the reason that battle type is harder is solely because of the numbers. The bots have minor improvements but hardly.

Asym bots can and will dodge a good deal of torpedos. Deep waters do ok. And as far as bots go are way more accurate than co-op bots. Co-op bots are pretty much floating bricks with the aim of first time player. I have never lost a co-op match above t5. Not a single one. And thats not because I am a good player (im average) its because the bots suck so badly. The only reason you lose t4 and under is because no one plays it so its bots vs bots. And even then its rare to lose.

Simply put, its a braindead farm mode. Which as you have stated, people like. Not for me however.