Bots.

[PetGhost]

Anyone who's tried singleplayer will know, bots are VERY bad. The new update that lets us assign multiple priorities is an improvement, but as soon as one small thing goes wrong, it's still essentially game over.

Bots need to react to threats. This is the single biggest issue with their behavior. They need to have some sort of simulated free will to keep the sub alive.

That's just my thoughts. I'd really like this game to be playable singleplayer some day, but the bots are just such a letdown.

[FourGreenFields]

They do. Not much, but they do.

They will go get a diving suit if there is flooding, even if ordered to man a periscope. They'll also look for tasks independently if idle, though many tasks (such as manning periscopes) will be ignored.

It is definitely playable. I've killed an endworm and pirate subs in singleplayer, with a sub I wouldn't consider cheaty. Just need to know what orders to give, and preferably not run a skeleton crew.

[KnEe_GrOw]

They aren't as good as players, but I have a fine time playing SP with bots. I've found the key is to make sure you have the right orders assigned to everybody. If you have at least one bot with the "fix hull" order any breaches are usually fixed promptly.

I like to keep my mechanic on repair broken machines with fix hull as secondary order. Using this setup, they always patch up any new airlocks the monsters try to install. Always keeping security or assistants on your guns is important as well!

[shrekstyle]

Yep i agree with the two above, bots are reliable at doing their jobs keeping the sub going when you give them the right orders but YOU the player are responsible for driving the sub, defending against anything that gets onboard, healing, quartermaster and EVA's.
Expect the bots to fail in those events and take charge.

I always have a minimum of 3 bots with fix leaks depending on the size of the sub, if you think you have enough crew a few extra fixers is always a safe investment.

Once you get good at single player, multi player is a cakewalk in comparison.

[PetGhost]

I guess I'll keep trying but getting killed by something that should be trivial because the bots refuse to leave the coilgun is not very fun. There's a lot of room for improvement and i wish it was a higher priority to the devs.

[RiggedQuarter]

Bots have been and continue to be unreliable. ESPECIALLY when you leave the sub for extended periods. There can be no attacks on the sub at all and you left a crew of 4 to maintain repairs only to come back to a broken mess and 4 dead crewmates.

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by RiggedQuarter:

Bots have been and continue to be unreliable. ESPECIALLY when you leave the sub for extended periods. There can be no attacks on the sub at all and you left a crew of 4 to maintain repairs only to come back to a broken mess and 4 dead crewmates.

Then there either was an attack, or you ran out of supplies. Or you had a sub that's not made for bots (missing or broken waypoints, maybe some weird wiring too). Or you told all of them to man periscopes, or shenanigans like that.

[RiggedQuarter]

Originally posted by FourGreenFields:

Originally posted by RiggedQuarter:

Bots have been and continue to be unreliable. ESPECIALLY when you leave the sub for extended periods. There can be no attacks on the sub at all and you left a crew of 4 to maintain repairs only to come back to a broken mess and 4 dead crewmates.

Then there either was an attack, or you ran out of supplies. Or you had a sub that's not made for bots (missing or broken waypoints, maybe some weird wiring too). Or you told all of them to man periscopes, or shenanigans like that.

Yea yea except i have tested in vanilla parameters with all of these taken into account. Hell a few updates ago i had to file a bug report for the bots not putting masks or suits on when you turn the oxygen off. I have tested the bots tons and they have alot of flaws. The waypoint system itself has issues and i can't remember anytime when bots didn't get stuck all the time in the kastrull.

[shrekstyle]

Originally posted by RiggedQuarter:

Bots have been and continue to be unreliable. ESPECIALLY when you leave the sub for extended periods. There can be no attacks on the sub at all and you left a crew of 4 to maintain repairs only to come back to a broken mess and 4 dead crewmates.

Never leave your sub for extended periods of time unless you have bots manning all the coilguns and have other bots set to repair broken, fix electrics and fix leaks or your just asking for trouble.

If your sub has blind spots the guns cant reach try to position the sub in such a way as to hug a wall to cover it, or risk unwanted guests to crash the party.
A sub with lots of blind spots (more than 1 is almost useless) is not at all good for single player.

Example: The Dugong i wouldn't leave it for extended periods without all 3 coilguns manned and another 2-3 bots set to repair and leaks, Even then i wouldn't leave it too long.

[RiggedQuarter]

Originally posted by shrekstyle:

Originally posted by RiggedQuarter:

Bots have been and continue to be unreliable. ESPECIALLY when you leave the sub for extended periods. There can be no attacks on the sub at all and you left a crew of 4 to maintain repairs only to come back to a broken mess and 4 dead crewmates.

Never leave your sub for extended periods of time unless you have bots manning all the coilguns and have other bots set to repair broken, fix electrics and fix leaks or your just asking for trouble.

If your sub has blind spots the guns cant reach try to position the sub in such a way as to hug a wall to cover it, or risk unwanted guests to crash the party.
A sub with lots of blind spots (more than 1 is almost useless) is not at all good for single player.

Example: The Dugong i wouldn't leave it for extended periods without all 3 coilguns manned and another 2-3 bots set to repair and leaks, Even then i wouldn't leave it too long.

Yea and that's the problem. even if u take all precautions it's still highly likely the sub will be sinking. The bots just don't function well enough to handle things even if left with instructions.

[Buggy Boy]

Only time the bots have had problems is when I didn't give them the proper orders required to keep the sub running, e.g. nobody set to run the reactor, or having enough fuel rods available (not in a storage case). Bots that I set to defend the sub do a very good job, the medic who is set to heal the crew keeps people (and me) patched up; they all do their jobs and in my experience are better than probably 50% of the players I encounter, either because those players don't work as a team or they just mess around and grief. Give me bots over griefers anyday!

[Elyrien Valkyr]

Considering I just had a game over after watching a bot engineer consistently spam the door open/close for a solid 3 minutes while slamming its face into the door... no, the bots are not even remotely reliable. If the solution to the dev's terrible AI is to find ways to NOT USE THEM, then the problem is not user error. If you cannot rely on bots to do what their told, and to do it in a logical way, then they are simply NOT reliable. Stop finding excuses for developers to fall back on. Nothing gets fixed when people go to the end of the earth to find ways to excuse terrible coding and design by saying it's somehow some user error for not understanding the pinpoint precise use case where an AI will work in its 1/1,000,000 chance.

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by RiggedQuarter:

Originally posted by shrekstyle:

Never leave your sub for extended periods of time unless you have bots manning all the coilguns and have other bots set to repair broken, fix electrics and fix leaks or your just asking for trouble.

If your sub has blind spots the guns cant reach try to position the sub in such a way as to hug a wall to cover it, or risk unwanted guests to crash the party.
A sub with lots of blind spots (more than 1 is almost useless) is not at all good for single player.

Example: The Dugong i wouldn't leave it for extended periods without all 3 coilguns manned and another 2-3 bots set to repair and leaks, Even then i wouldn't leave it too long.

Yea and that's the problem. even if u take all precautions it's still highly likely the sub will be sinking. The bots just don't function well enough to handle things even if left with instructions.

It'll be sinking because of attacks though (really, no other way; even if every device breaks down, the sub won't flood without attacks). I have seen issues with bots getting "stuck" in some cases, but it's rare (and you stand a decent chance of noticing it before even leaving the sub, allowing you to attempt to fix it). Had more missions ruined by the sub getting stuck than that.

Originally posted by Elyrien Valkyr:

Considering I just had a game over after watching a bot engineer consistently spam the door open/close for a solid 3 minutes while slamming its face into the door... no, the bots are not even remotely reliable. If the solution to the dev's terrible AI is to find ways to NOT USE THEM, then the problem is not user error. If you cannot rely on bots to do what their told, and to do it in a logical way, then they are simply NOT reliable. Stop finding excuses for developers to fall back on. Nothing gets fixed when people go to the end of the earth to find ways to excuse terrible coding and design by saying it's somehow some user error for not understanding the pinpoint precise use case where an AI will work in its 1/1,000,000 chance.

Angry man is angry. Angry enough to rant on several topics too.

Bots do have issues, nobody denies that. But most of the time they do work. The vast majority of the time even, if there are no attacks. If that's not the case for you, then it is indeed user-error.

And I'm not sure who said that the solution is to not use bots.

[Marquis de Salt]

Artie Dolittle should be renamed Artie Doesmuch. That bot runs around repairing things like hell was after him.

He's no bot anymore, he's family.

[RiggedQuarter]

Originally posted by 76561198071627966:

Originally posted by RiggedQuarter:

Yea and that's the problem. even if u take all precautions it's still highly likely the sub will be sinking. The bots just don't function well enough to handle things even if left with instructions.

It'll be sinking because of attacks though (really, no other way; even if every device breaks down, the sub won't flood without attacks). I have seen issues with bots getting "stuck" in some cases, but it's rare (and you stand a decent chance of noticing it before even leaving the sub, allowing you to attempt to fix it). Had more missions ruined by the sub getting stuck than that.

Originally posted by Elyrien Valkyr:

Considering I just had a game over after watching a bot engineer consistently spam the door open/close for a solid 3 minutes while slamming its face into the door... no, the bots are not even remotely reliable. If the solution to the dev's terrible AI is to find ways to NOT USE THEM, then the problem is not user error. If you cannot rely on bots to do what their told, and to do it in a logical way, then they are simply NOT reliable. Stop finding excuses for developers to fall back on. Nothing gets fixed when people go to the end of the earth to find ways to excuse terrible coding and design by saying it's somehow some user error for not understanding the pinpoint precise use case where an AI will work in its 1/1,000,000 chance.

Angry man is angry. Angry enough to rant on several topics too.

Bots do have issues, nobody denies that. But most of the time they do work. The vast majority of the time even, if there are no attacks. If that's not the case for you, then it is indeed user-error.

And I'm not sure who said that the solution is to not use bots.

Again, EVEN IF YOU TAKE ALL PRECAUTIONS. Sub can totally sink without attacks and even if you have a bot on every gun in every direction it won't stop the bots from spamming chat with "I Can't reach" when repairing even vanilla subs. So the entire grid goes down. one of many examples. bots are not good enough to rely on for singleplayer. You disagree.

[PetGhost]

On a similar topic, it would be nice to have an option to disable the constant idle bot chatter.