Bot difficulty based on level?

[Harm!ess]

Just curious, seems like the higher level I get the cheaper the bots get. tonight I went 0-7 in between 3 servers, literally just boom, as soon as Im LoS HS first shot, every time.

Meanwhile Im speccing some guy out there literally dancing around and playing in gunfire and the bots are shooting at him like they are Star Wars Stormtroopers.....

A little consistency here? EH?

[LoneDeranger]

Your level has zero effect on the bots its pure randomness at work!

[A Table]

Bots don't get better depending on the opposing human player level.

[=TAC= Stuermer]

There are some people thinking the same, me included. Sometimes it seems, the more you're top of the board or highest level (or both), you are being targeted more often and/or oneshot instantly.

Devs said there isn’t any mechanics in the game responsible for this strange behavior and I believe them.

Then on the other hand there might be certain patterns of your playstyle leading to a conclusion like that. I noticed, I died very frequently as commander (HVT) or Machinegunner (PT), so maybe it makes sense.

Problem of the game is the high accuracy bots have sometimes, they don’t miss and every single shot is a headshot.

Seeing the same exact mates standing in the open after your death, not being hit is really strange and I experienced this a lot of times.

So even if it’s not a deliberate mechanic, it maybe is a combination of AI behavior and playstyle and it happens. Not only me who's experiencing this, I know some other higher level players with similar experiences.

[DILLxDOE]

bots are just bots, level& k/d has no influence.
sometimes they dont hit ♥♥♥♥, and sometimes they see a pixel through a bush and just insta- headtap you, no matter the range.
you can see that in EVERY fps game with ai. that is normal.

[Bait]

I too have this impression sometimes, but for in my case there was surely some confirmation bias at play. Reviewing replays I noticed that I didn't register the numerous times they missed or were just stupid, but surely noticed when they went full Terminator and I died. Of course, I didn't notice when they went Terminator and I didn't die.

One thing is for sure, we tend to be more aggressive and take more risks with experience, and bots seem to prefer targeting lone players than teams, and also react to whoever shoots them or nearby bots. These might explain some of our impressions.

On the other hand, the game for sure increases difficulty the more players there are in the map, and I'm almost sure the number of high-experienced players is also a factor. I've had very different matches with lower-level teammates than with high-level ones - but again these might be due to the aforementioned.

[JtDarth]

A lot of that impression comes down to playstyle. Higher skilled players tend to play in a way that makes them aggro more of the bot annoyance than other players.

For example, I had a situation where a teammate dumped a whole mag from an AKM in full auto at a bot over 100m away. Bot didn't return fire. Me, from 25m away, poke out and nail a second bot in LOS of first one, I got domed.

The more aggressive and lethal your play is, the more bots aggro on you and as such, nail you more. At least on official servers.

Community servers can have all sorts of irregularities, including so many bots that all of them get stupid because there isn't enough server horsepower to go around.

[Parker9044]

Originally posted by JtDarth:

A lot of that impression comes down to playstyle. Higher skilled players tend to play in a way that makes them aggro more of the bot annoyance than other players.

For example, I had a situation where a teammate dumped a whole mag from an AKM in full auto at a bot over 100m away. Bot didn't return fire. Me, from 25m away, poke out and nail a second bot in LOS of first one, I got domed.

The more aggressive and lethal your play is, the more bots aggro on you and as such, nail you more. At least on official servers.

Community servers can have all sorts of irregularities, including so many bots that all of them get stupid because there isn't enough server horsepower to go around.

this seems the closest to my experiences. haven't experienced stupid bots on community servers tho.

Personally I noticed if someone alerts a bot and misses a lot of shots, and you sprint around the corner to peak them. You have a 9/10 chance of getting insta'd.

[Tovarish]

Originally posted by Hubii:

bots are just bots, level& k/d has no influence.
sometimes they dont hit ♥♥♥♥, and sometimes they see a pixel through a bush and just insta- headtap you, no matter the range.
you can see that in EVERY fps game with ai. that is normal.

Actually, It ISN'T normal. Simply saying it's 'normal' doesn't make the terrible AI design "normal."

If you've ever messed around with bots in COD, the AI exhibit zero of these BS RNG mechanics. In Destiny 1/2, the AI does not exhibit any of these mechanics as well. In Tarkov, Scavs exhibit zero of these BS mechanics as well. Heck, if you even go back to Ins2014 you can clearly see the bots are on a order of magnitude better in every single way, even on harder difficulties. I'm sure I can name more, but you should get the point.

The AI in this game are way too easy and WAY too BS. I'm of the belief that NWI simply doesn't have the ability to fix it - they can barely fix their own game in a orderly and timely fashion.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Tovarish:

Originally posted by Hubii:

bots are just bots, level& k/d has no influence.
sometimes they dont hit ♥♥♥♥, and sometimes they see a pixel through a bush and just insta- headtap you, no matter the range.
you can see that in EVERY fps game with ai. that is normal.

Actually, It ISN'T normal. Simply saying it's 'normal' doesn't make the terrible AI design "normal."

If you've ever messed around with bots in COD, the AI exhibit zero of these BS RNG mechanics. In Destiny 1/2, the AI does not exhibit any of these mechanics as well. In Tarkov, Scavs exhibit zero of these BS mechanics as well. Heck, if you even go back to Ins2014 you can clearly see the bots are on a order of magnitude better in every single way, even on harder difficulties. I'm sure I can name more, but you should get the point.

The AI in this game are way too easy and WAY too BS. I'm of the belief that NWI simply doesn't have the ability to fix it - they can barely fix their own game in a orderly and timely fashion.

Those bots that you are bringing up, with the exception of the ones in INS2014, possibly Tarkov, are also much more heavily scripted regarding what they can and cannot do and how they should respond to 'x'.

Multiplayer bots in COD do pull similar crap to what the bots in I:SS do. Or at least, they did back in BO1, which was the last call of duty I bothered trying their offline pvp modes in, assuming they even still have them these days.

When it comes to INS2014 (where I have seen bots do the same crap as Sandstorm a ton of times. Take off your rose-tinted goggles before you run your mouth) and Tarkov, not only are they on different engines, but the AI are not keeping track of as many variables. Then there is the different types of environments Tarkov tends to run in, with very different design goals to boot.


Something as simple as a different map can drastically change how AI acts unless it is specifically modified on a map to map basis. The AI in FEAR, that is so lauded, is the EXACT SAME (behaviorally. Things like aim accuracy and such were tweaked, but bot decision making is nigh-indentical) as what is in FEAR 2. The only real difference, is in the arenas you tend to fight them in. FEAR 2's arenas are more straightforward with less flanking paths, so the AI comes across as dumber.