Please add fully functional bots or consider removing the single player tag from the store page

[Zaphir]

Yes, the title is intentional provocative but I am currently extremely fustrated so please be lenient with me. It is also not my intention to be rude to anyone related to the creation, maintenance or support of this game. If it comes across like that I apologize in advance.

Also, please note that I purchased World War Z shortly before the Aftermath update and even afterwards I first had to wait a few months before the devs patched the DirectX 11 framedrop issue. And no, Vulkan still starts with a black screen so that was and is no option.
The point being: I do not know how the bots behaved before the Aftermath update, supposedly it was better. But from what I have seen on Youtube, not by much. Well, let's get on topic.

Introduction & complaints

Usually I try to not comment on anything in the forums as it is useless (in almost all cases) to do so anyway but recently I read a support (?) reply I just could not ignore in another thread when someone complained about supposedly broken bots.

Part of the reply is:
"If you are experiencing issues with the bots - record a video clip and share it with us. We will review each case and pass vital data on to the development team. Thank you for understanding!"

I am sorry, what? I get this is a valid standard reply but may I be direct here? What is meant with the "if you are experiencing issues" part? The things that are running around while playing solo technically count as bots, that is correct, but honestly they are so useless that they might as well not exist. The best they do, if you are extremely lucky, is to help getting your character up when knocked down, then die immediately afterwards. Also, when they have full HP they are meat shields for less than 3 or 4 seconds each, so I guess that kind of counts as useful? In any case, this state is considered working as intended? Well, fair enough. But if I am serious here, I personally would also call that "broken". Yes, this game definitely has bot support that can be considered working and complete, but it is not fully functional.

And I think the main complaints some other people have in other threads is about not adding fully functional bots because World War Z is literally also marked as a single player game. That bots are supported, as mentioned above, is of course not a lie but be real: It is not possible to (permanently) play this in single player at the moment and enjoy it. The difficulty with the currently implemented bots seems to be at least 3 times higher than supposed and I keep getting the feeling they where only added to have an excuse to slap a single player tag on the store page.

Why is the game at least 3 times more difficult you might ask? Easily explainable, because I grinded campaign level 1-2 for hours until I was already sick of seeing it. Again, why? Because that was the only level I was able to half consistently finish at Normal difficulty in the beginning, more on that later.

Anyway, the end result on a successful 1-2 run was usually around 1200 Zekes killed by myself and about 230 to 280 for the so called "working bots". Even if I substract about 100 stealth kills (which is just a guess) the numbers do not add up.
Lets give each bot 300 kills, that would still only be a total of 900 kills. So in other words 3 "fully functional" bots are not even worth a single casual player on normal difficulty?!
During this grind and through paying attention to the stat screen at the end I think I also found out the main issue with single player. Simply not enough damage output due to missing bot functionality. More details on that later.

Side topic: Personal first experiences as a casual solo player

So, what was the so called "single player" experience I got myself as an example? Well, basically the following.
(Note: At least half of the following part is me complaining. You may skip this skit, I'll mark the beginning and end of that with 2 lines.)

---------------------------------
1-1 (Normal)
After completing my inital control settings on the safe rooftop I made 2 mistakes. I did not notice that the pistol has a silencer on it... and I left the rooftop.
Regardless, that should be no problem, right? I mean it is the beginning, right?

So, let me tell you about my first try. I went down the stairs and made noise by shooting. Zekes came from 2 sides, I covered 1 side and got it clean in about 6 seconds. I turned around and ... yeah, all bots are down... "Excuse me?" was the last thing I thought.

So, let me tell you about my third try (while pretending the second one did not exist...):
While heavily babysitting the bots and using them as meat shields, their only real value, I finally got to the mall area where you have to clean the Zekes on the bottom level before you start the actual wave defense.
Nice, free vision for them to shoot. Also multiple heavy weapons on the ground that they seem to be able to carry. Surely that means the situation will be manageable when they use them, right.
... ... ...
Uh, they do not use them?! Nevermind, should still be manageable, right? Oh, damn. I looked about 4 seconds in one direction, surely the bots are not... Yes, thought so...

So many failed attempts later:
Nice, got into the malls lobby. Why is there a timer now? Ah, you can set defenses. Well, with defenses surely it will be ... ... ...

So many more failed attempts later:
Ok, so I got out of the mall into the underground. A collect quest then? Sure, that can't as bad as the waves before, right? Surely it will be possible to... Oh, they come from multiple directions, I wonder if the bots are... yeah, thought so...

Ok, screw this crap, on to 1-2.

I'll refrain from further narrating on 1-2 until the part where I found a passable solution to completing this level, mainly for my own sanity...
---------------------------------

Anyway, after experiencing the nightmare commonly known as grinding (including an unreasonable amount of failed attempts) I was finally able to brute force most campaign levels.
Meaning the workaround solution to the incompetent bots is getting enough damage output through leveled up weapons to compensate 2 and 1/4 missing players. Yeah, that is not going to work permanently. Also the costs for the weapon level ups and classes are getting ridiculous if you regularly fail to complete a level. And weapon perks are a distant dream, I will not ever get a weapon perk at this ratio. The only rewards I can get are the 2 daily challenges. And the reward is almost nothing.

[Zaphir]

Bots: Problems & proposed solutions

Frankly, I know this will not be done. No devs (in general) ever listen to issues with bots or have any interest of improving them, especially if they can somehow barely be considered working. Anyway, here is what I noticed and what I would ideally like to see.

First the current state of the bots as far as I noticed:

• The bots will follow around, quite well at that. I've seen way worse. (So, good job there I guess...)
  
• The above immediately ends, however, if the player or another bot is downed. They suddenly seem to have immense trouble reacting and moving. They do it but way to slow.
  
• On areas where bots are assigned to a fixed position (which in theory makes sense for sight and therefore fire coverage) they will not really move to rescue a downed player or bot.
  
• Bots seem to do practically no damage at all. First the good part though. They will not alert Zekes until the player gets loud or a wave is incoming. Which means they are using mainly the standard pistol. From what I have seen they need an average of at least 3 shots to down one Zeke, if they hit. Also bots seem to actively try to not hit the head, the only one shot area. (Also, please don't misunderstand, I do not want bots to only headshot. That would be ridiculous, but a realistic ratio could get implemented.)
  
• Bots seem to have only unupgraded equipment which would explain the extremely low damage they do.
  
• Bots are locked to Gunslinger class. Not that it matters, I have never seen them use a grenade anyway.
  
• Bots are unable to judge when to use a medkit.
  
• Bots are unable to use heavy weapons. They can carry them but that is useless, switching weapons from a bot and then targeting the Zekes takes far to long while being swarmed.
  
• The targeting priority of bots is ridiculous. They do not care that they are overrun and from long range... come on it is not that hard to prioritise clusters of Zekes and not single targets.
  
• Bots will prioritise special Zekes, assuming they have a direct line of sight. (This is sufficient in my opinion.)
  
• Bots will not engage enemies the player already alerted when they have no direct line of sight to the target.

Now what I would like to see on each point here:

• Movement seems mostly fine so no complaint here, however they need to be far quicker to react to downed players and bots. They need to hurry to get to them and help them up. They should however try, if possible to not get swarmed while doing that. Of course a perfect solution is unrealistic and not expected here.
  
• On areas where bots are assigned to a static position they need to be able to move away if a player or bot is down to get them up and then return to their static position.
  
• Bots need to do damage and frankly that should be the easiest part to implement. I mean just let bots start with the same weapons and the same perks on them the hosting player has. The starting weapons should be appropriate to their class of course.
  
• Replace the ability to swap or take heavy weapons from bots. That should not be necessary anymore due to a later point. The swap should instead swap the players currently equipped primary or secondary weapon with the bot. Why? So that we get the ability to equip bots of course. The player can basically use weapons on the ground as temporary storage for swapping without losing the players own equipment. If more players are available other players should also be able to swap their held weapons. Then the bot would also get their weapon levels and weapon perks. That should be relatively easy to implement? Also, regarding weapon use. If the primary weapon a bot has is equipped with a silencer the bot should use it. If both weapons do not have silencers it is the players fault, so let the bot use the primary weapon in this case. If the secondary weapon has a silencer that one should be used until an alert or wave is triggered of course.
  
• Bots should have selectable classes on the lobby screen. The used class upgrades can just be copied from the hosting player. Also, bots should be able to use class equipment. Since it would be ridiculous to expect a bot to manage its equipment though I would suggest a cooldown instead. For example a Gunslinger bot should always have a grenade available. When the bot uses the grenade it will set the ability on cooldown so the next grenade can only be used in X seconds (time discussable). In case of the grenade the bot should only use it on clusters of Zeke or keep it for later use of course. The trigger rules and cooldown may differ per class.
  
• Bots should be able to calculate when to get their maximum out of medkits. Let them use the medkits on them or others if a medkit can be 100% used. Of course the heal command should stay, in that case let the bot heal the player or bot with the lowest HP. And the give me a medkit function should stay too, of course.
  
• In exchange for the now missing weapon swap of heavy weapons bots should be able to not only carry but also use heavy weapons. The condition might be discussable but I think let them use the heavy weapons during horde alerts or big waves. There should be a rule, of course that they will not use them for single targets, that would be a waste. Make them fire at cluster of Zeke and also make sure the projectile can actually hit the target. If these conditions are not given they use their normal primary weapon. At least I think this compromise would make the most sense. But also make sure bots cannot ever pick up the flamethrower that needs to be used to melt the frozen doors in the campaign. That would be an issue.
  
• Bots should have better targeting. Meaning at "long range" I think they should target Zeke clusters, at least with automatic guns and anything that explodes. At "medium range" they should begin to pick off Zekes that are coming close to them. At "close range" self protection should have absolute priority, either with guns or melee weapons. Of course special Zeke should always take priority except when in "close range" combat. All ranges are discussable of course. Keep in mind though that only because a Zeke is standing on another height level than the bot this would not be necessarily "close range". Not sure how to define that, maybe with including line of sight?
  
• When the player starts combat and the bots have no line of sight to the target they will not move or shoot. Maybe consider moving them to the players location so they actually have line of sight? Honestly though this is the only quirk I can live with. It is not that important, just noticed it a few times.

So... I got frustrated, complained and wasted time writing this in a forum. What now? Nothing I guess, as mentioned before I expect nothing will change so I will probably just play something else.

[Zaphir]

Does that mean World War Z can be considered a bad game or failure?

Uhm... no? I never wrote the game is bad, just that the bots in this game are extremely bad but wrongly considered as complete. That is a difference. In fact, because I care about the game I even considered writing this. Usually I would just quietly move on. But in fact, with the exception of the bots, if I imagine playing with 3 friends the game would be very good.
It could use more campaigns and Horde levels which I did not mention here, because obviously, since the bots are a complete failure in the campaign it is impossible to play Horde mode in single player... yes, I tried a few times. One player does not have enough time to set everything up, then restock and get back into position. The player just gets overrun.
But I digress, in short World War Z is a good game but basically only has alpha bot support at best. Be prepared to suffer in single player.

So other games do bots better?

Ok, let's grill the bots of some other games then. I admit it is a bit unfair to not do so and only complain about World War Z. There are a few games of this genre I played before. Some of them immediately before World War Z. I won't go too much into details though.

Left4Dead 2 - Basically the classic comparison.
In my opinion Left 4 Dead 2 was an incredible game in its time. But frankly the only thing that is keeping it alive now, in my opinion, is mods and the ability the get more campaigns through them. If we look closer however, it did not age well. It has no perks, no weapon customization, no progression and while the bots are workable they are also not good. Still better than the World War Z bots though. At least if my memory is correct, it has been years since I played that game.

Back4Blood
Now this is a bit complicated, you can think what you want of the game. Regarding the bots. No ability to change their weapon attachments, no ability to set their deck, no ability for them to get cards during a run (without an exploit), no ability to change their weapon loadout (without an exploit) but they do get upgraded rarity of their weapons over time.
So are they good? Of course not, they are horrible! Even they are way better than the World War Z bots though. Simply due to the fact that they at least do damage...

Aliens Fireteam Elite
Finally! We finally have a game with actually worse bots than World War Z. Congratulations! (Not really... because there is an unofficial fix for this.)
The bots are also fixed to one class. Their behavior more or less acceptable and they do use grenades. But they also do not help on higher difficulty or with active challenge cards. So somehow I really believe they are worse than the mediocre bots in World War Z.
But wait! This game can be modded and someone made a mod that is making the bots actually useful on the highest difficulty. So are they overpowered? No, you can still loose. Quite fast to be honest. Still, the mod makes this the winner of "best bots" in this list, in my opinion. (And that is pretty sad.)
Should that be something modders have to do though... uh, no, not really...

Strange Brigade
So why am I mentioning this? Because it has coop and it supposedly supports single player. Which means it has bots, right? Uhm, no that was indeed my mistake, it uses scaling instead and it is quite boring without bots. Which is a shame because it has all necessary mechanics for an... acceptable experience. Still the same genre though so I wanted to mention this option.

So, as a conclusion, I guess I do not know a single game in this genre with fully functional bot support... sad.

Afterword

Anyway, I've really wasted enough time writing this. It did help getting my thoughts in order so enjoy it or rather don't. Seriously, who would even read this wall of text?

[interceptor2002]

I did :) and I found it both constructive and entertaining.

[Saberyoko]

Well said and explained. Unfortunatelly this is all in vain, they are not gonna listen to you.

You can see for yourself that over the reddit and twitter is all the same generic made answer.
"Record a video", "we're sorry for the incovenience", etc.

I'm not a World War Z steam player, my version is the PS4 version. Do you ever played the current PS4 version of WWZ? The game stutters constantly for about 3 to 5 seconds. Do you know how is to play that way? It's like, excrucitating. All the zombies get free hits and theres nothing you can do about it.

When I could stand anymore, I ask for help at the Saber support and they made their generic answer(I didn't know at the time they use the same pre-made answer). So I did everything they wanted. Recorded videos(4 vidoes) and sent to them. The fourth one was odd because when I sent to him, the guy answered as if I was talking for the first time(generic first answer). It was like I was talking to a bot.

And here I am. I only started posting here because theres no place I can discuss and vent my frustrations. It's being 2 years since the PS4 version suffers from massive stutters. And for anybody wondering, the PS4 runs the game pretty fine. It was an update that made the game terrible and so far they have no intention of fixing it, to the point of launching multiples content updates and left the PS4 version on the dust. The last update made the bots even more terrible so I can't even play on normal. The CPU gets beaten on easy(one skull), the only reason I win is because I play fixer and have to 24/7 babysit them.

This is why after decades of games, no one gonna ever beat Lef4Dead series. The guys behind it have a vision, love and care for the game.

[TsarFlow]

Also did, +1 to this. But you know the support answer as you said...

"If you are experiencing issues with the bots - record a video clip and share it with us. We will review each case and pass vital data on to the development team. Thank you for understanding!"

About bots on L4D and B4B, I'd say they're good enough to play casually and finish a mission on normal difficulties or harder if you're also carrying them. I've played a few hundreds of hours the L4D series (still now on Survival L4D1) and B4B (all success done and everything unlocked, higher difficulties farmed over and over...) so I can tell.

On WWZ, I just began the game a few weeks ago and enjoying it but I'm seeing the game is getting empty and I see why. As you said, even trying on the easiest difficulty is a challenge with the random AI running around us. I'd like to be able to play offline to know the maps better, to know the strats but I can't because I'm unable to reach the half of the map without struggling over and over again.

The game is really cool once you're in a 4 player squad, but as the game is dying you're hardly keeping a full squad the whole mission. I wont talk about a complete chapter, people leave between missions, if not during it. If the empty spot was filled by a joining player it would be ok, but you can spend a whole mission without anyone joining so...

Anyway, nice thread and nice try. As we say in my country "you're pissing in a violin" which means what you say will have no impact at all.

[Zaphir]

Originally posted by interceptor2002:

I did :) and I found it both constructive and entertaining.

I am glad you enjoyed it. I thought I should at least try to make it interesting to read in case someone actually reads through this text wall. And writing that took longer than I'd like to admit, so at least it was worth something.

Originally posted by Saberyoko:

I'm not a World War Z steam player, my version is the PS4 version. Do you ever played the current PS4 version of WWZ? The game stutters constantly for about 3 to 5 seconds. Do you know how is to play that way? It's like, excrucitating. All the zombies get free hits and theres nothing you can do about it.

Actually I only own it on Steam with currently 29,6 hours on it according to the logged time. Of course most of that time grinding level 1-2 to get the 300 coins somewhat consistently.

And the result is only a Dronemaster lvl 30, a slightly leveled Gunslinger and a tier 1 rifle level 9 while the rest of the weapons are mostly around level 2 with some other tier 1 weapons level 4 and 5. I'd have to check it for accurate information though. And I am still unable to get through 1-4 on normal difficulty. I am not even close on that one.

So while I cannot imagine how it is to have a previously working version of this game crippled, I at least know a different kind of pain...

Interesting is, however, that I had similar symptoms to what you described on PC when initially trying to run the DirectX 11 Benchmark. It would run a few seconds, then have framedrops from 144 fps to around 10 fps, causing stuttering that made it unbearable to watch, then go back to 144 fps and so on. And the Vulkan API is broken for whatever reason.
That is why I was unable to play the game for a few months. After the last 2 updates DirectX 11 just started working, but I am not sure why.

I do hope they also get whatever they broke working again on PS4. That issue should not even happen if you already had a working product. In fact, consoles should have way less problems than PCs due to their unique hardware which (in theory) allows devs to optimize their games to run flawlessly. This makes no sense at all.

Originally posted by TsarFlow:

Also did, +1 to this. But you know the support answer as you said...

Yes, I am fully aware nothing will happen... I just had this whole information in my brain trying to explain to myself what exactly is going wrong with the bots and I recurrently thought it over and over. So I had to somehow get rid of it, in this case by writing it down. For whatever reason in this forum. I am not even sure why I had the urge to post it.
I'll better take a break...

[Zaphir]

Originally posted by TsarFlow:

About bots on L4D and B4B, I'd say they're good enough to play casually and finish a mission on normal difficulties or harder if you're also carrying them. I've played a few hundreds of hours the L4D series (still now on Survival L4D1) and B4B (all success done and everything unlocked, higher difficulties farmed over and over...) so I can tell.

Well, shame on me regarding L4D2 (in my case)... Steam says I only have around 10 hours in it, I have no excuse for that. Somehow though, I can't seem to get into it anymore. I believe I retried it about a year ago. I am missing a few modern aspects. Except for modern bots, these can go to ****.

B4B I really liked. With 73,4 hours (which a relatively high time count for me) I did have enough enjoyment with it. I liked playing around with the deck composition and had 100% no issues with bots on normal difficulty at the end. However, hard was another issue. Nearly 100% failures, mostly due to the bots being garbage all at once at some point.
A shame, really. With fully functional bots I'd be still playing it regularly I believe.

But what I have seen in WWZ so far... I could not and still can't comprehend how that goes undetected through QA. The only explanation I could come up with is: There is no QA and they don't care.
Oh, well. It is, what it is. And I guess I should really let this topic rest now. I did notice there were enough other threads about this.


Anyway, @All
Sorry for making another useless thread that will be ignored anyway. As mentioned that was purely for myself.
Have a good evening or whatever time it is for you. I am out of here. :)

[[HTF] Eric]

Originally posted by Zaphir:

Bots: Problems & proposed solutions

Frankly, I know this will not be done. No devs (in general) ever listen to issues with bots or have any interest of improving them, especially if they can somehow barely be considered working. Anyway, here is what I noticed and what I would ideally like to see.

First the current state of the bots as far as I noticed:

• The bots will follow around, quite well at that. I've seen way worse. (So, good job there I guess...)
  
• The above immediately ends, however, if the player or another bot is downed. They suddenly seem to have immense trouble reacting and moving. They do it but way to slow.
  
• On areas where bots are assigned to a fixed position (which in theory makes sense for sight and therefore fire coverage) they will not really move to rescue a downed player or bot.
  
• Bots seem to do practically no damage at all. First the good part though. They will not alert Zekes until the player gets loud or a wave is incoming. Which means they are using mainly the standard pistol. From what I have seen they need an average of at least 3 shots to down one Zeke, if they hit. Also bots seem to actively try to not hit the head, the only one shot area. (Also, please don't misunderstand, I do not want bots to only headshot. That would be ridiculous, but a realistic ratio could get implemented.)
  
• Bots seem to have only unupgraded equipment which would explain the extremely low damage they do.
  
• Bots are locked to Gunslinger class. Not that it matters, I have never seen them use a grenade anyway.
  
• Bots are unable to judge when to use a medkit.
  
• Bots are unable to use heavy weapons. They can carry them but that is useless, switching weapons from a bot and then targeting the Zekes takes far to long while being swarmed.
  
• The targeting priority of bots is ridiculous. They do not care that they are overrun and from long range... come on it is not that hard to prioritise clusters of Zekes and not single targets.
  
• Bots will prioritise special Zekes, assuming they have a direct line of sight. (This is sufficient in my opinion.)
  
• Bots will not engage enemies the player already alerted when they have no direct line of sight to the target.

Now what I would like to see on each point here:

• Movement seems mostly fine so no complaint here, however they need to be far quicker to react to downed players and bots. They need to hurry to get to them and help them up. They should however try, if possible to not get swarmed while doing that. Of course a perfect solution is unrealistic and not expected here.
  
• On areas where bots are assigned to a static position they need to be able to move away if a player or bot is down to get them up and then return to their static position.
  
• Bots need to do damage and frankly that should be the easiest part to implement. I mean just let bots start with the same weapons and the same perks on them the hosting player has. The starting weapons should be appropriate to their class of course.
  
• Replace the ability to swap or take heavy weapons from bots. That should not be necessary anymore due to a later point. The swap should instead swap the players currently equipped primary or secondary weapon with the bot. Why? So that we get the ability to equip bots of course. The player can basically use weapons on the ground as temporary storage for swapping without losing the players own equipment. If more players are available other players should also be able to swap their held weapons. Then the bot would also get their weapon levels and weapon perks. That should be relatively easy to implement? Also, regarding weapon use. If the primary weapon a bot has is equipped with a silencer the bot should use it. If both weapons do not have silencers it is the players fault, so let the bot use the primary weapon in this case. If the secondary weapon has a silencer that one should be used until an alert or wave is triggered of course.
  
• Bots should have selectable classes on the lobby screen. The used class upgrades can just be copied from the hosting player. Also, bots should be able to use class equipment. Since it would be ridiculous to expect a bot to manage its equipment though I would suggest a cooldown instead. For example a Gunslinger bot should always have a grenade available. When the bot uses the grenade it will set the ability on cooldown so the next grenade can only be used in X seconds (time discussable). In case of the grenade the bot should only use it on clusters of Zeke or keep it for later use of course. The trigger rules and cooldown may differ per class.
  
• Bots should be able to calculate when to get their maximum out of medkits. Let them use the medkits on them or others if a medkit can be 100% used. Of course the heal command should stay, in that case let the bot heal the player or bot with the lowest HP. And the give me a medkit function should stay too, of course.
  
• In exchange for the now missing weapon swap of heavy weapons bots should be able to not only carry but also use heavy weapons. The condition might be discussable but I think let them use the heavy weapons during horde alerts or big waves. There should be a rule, of course that they will not use them for single targets, that would be a waste. Make them fire at cluster of Zeke and also make sure the projectile can actually hit the target. If these conditions are not given they use their normal primary weapon. At least I think this compromise would make the most sense. But also make sure bots cannot ever pick up the flamethrower that needs to be used to melt the frozen doors in the campaign. That would be an issue.
  
• Bots should have better targeting. Meaning at "long range" I think they should target Zeke clusters, at least with automatic guns and anything that explodes. At "medium range" they should begin to pick off Zekes that are coming close to them. At "close range" self protection should have absolute priority, either with guns or melee weapons. Of course special Zeke should always take priority except when in "close range" combat. All ranges are discussable of course. Keep in mind though that only because a Zeke is standing on another height level than the bot this would not be necessarily "close range". Not sure how to define that, maybe with including line of sight?
  
• When the player starts combat and the bots have no line of sight to the target they will not move or shoot. Maybe consider moving them to the players location so they actually have line of sight? Honestly though this is the only quirk I can live with. It is not that important, just noticed it a few times.

So... I got frustrated, complained and wasted time writing this in a forum. What now? Nothing I guess, as mentioned before I expect nothing will change so I will probably just play something else.

You can get the bots to use medkits at least. When NEAR a medkit, use G to tell them to pick it up, H to heal themselves and 4 (I believe) to heal you. Go to YouTube and look for the video by xoBritneyC.

[Moonfear]

Yep, have same grudge with game, i usualy play with AI (i just dont like PuG), and while some months ago i was able "usualy" clear hard with bots, now i can even finish NY 1-1 on easy.

I just dont understand mentality of devs. OK, you have coop multiplayer game, good, but i want to play with bots, and the CAN be usable. So, nerf them down, loose people like me who prefer bots, loose people who do not have static party and play sometimes with friends, sometimes with AI. Excelent strategy, bleed playerbase, so even people which stay will have noone to play with.

Same story as B4B, except bots there are usable on veteran, and somehow on nightmare.
Same story as A:FE, except bots are usable on normal, and modded bots even on harder diff.

I am really sad, because i liked WWZ, and enjoyed it.

[interceptor2002]

Originally posted by Moonfear:

now i can even finish NY 1-1 on easy.

You meant to say CAN NOT, right?

[Zaphir]

Originally posted by HTF Eric:

You can get the bots to use medkits at least. When NEAR a medkit, use G to tell them to pick it up, H to heal themselves and 4 (I believe) to heal you. Go to YouTube and look for the video by xoBritneyC.

Thank you for mentioning this, all (mostly) correct, yes. I did forget to list this.
I think the pick up function is useful, but apart from that they usually waste their medkits anyway. Also, if they die they seem to drop their medkits, which always happens, so I personally rarely use it.

To be precise it currently works this way:
When near a medkit and out of combat use G and the bots will pick up any nearby medkits (and heavy weapons).
Use H to let the bots heal themselves (and in most cases waste all medkits). As far as I remember as long as the bots have lost more than half of one health bar segment they will always use their medkit. So usually I'd say never ever use the H key.
Use 4 to request a medkit from a bot. You still have to use it yourself. This is indeed useful ... out of combat at least. (Because you would waste precious seconds in combat.)

Adding to the above:
There is absolutely no logic behind their behavior. An example: When requesting a medkit it seems to be random which bot gives you their medkit. Logically it should be the bot that still has most of its health and maybe is within a certain range of your character. But no, you just get a medkit from a random bot that currently carries one.

Which means the only effective way to use medkits from bots, in my opinion, is to use G to let them carry one. Then pray they survive and afterwards (out of combat) use 4 to get a medkit and then heal a bot that needs health - or yourself. Repeat this step but also remember to always keep one medkit for yourself.

And, before I forget this, bots do use medkits automatically sometimes when they carry one and are practically dead with another 1 or 2 hits. But I think only out of combat and in any case far too late. Also you can interrupt them by moving forward which is kind of funny...

[Zaphir]

Originally posted by Moonfear:

[...]i usualy play with AI (i just dont like PuG)[...]

[...]loose people who do not have static party and play sometimes with friends, sometimes with AI.[...]

Same story as B4B, except bots there are usable on veteran, and somehow on nightmare.
Same story as A:FE, except bots are usable on normal, and modded bots even on harder diff.[...]

I hope you don't mind me to only partly quote, if not apologies.

Exactly these parts for me.

Sadly (not WWZ related but in general), you usually get join matchmaking, it is a coop/multiplayer game as a reply if you have a question in relation to bots.
Well, in the past I played Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Battlefield 3, DOTA (WC3 map), League of Legends and others in multiplayer. And every single damn time some random (pardon me) idiots just start dissing you out of nowhere for whatever reason. Maybe because they have a bad day, who knows.

Which means my standard behavior is to disable voice chat, disable text chat and not play games that have some way to kick you out of multiplayer.
Anyone reading this may notice something. This does not make any sense for a coop/multiplayer game. So at some point I stopped playing these games entirely. Now I usually go with a personal policy to only play coop/multiplayer games with AI support and with friends I personally know.

But the issue is: It is not helpful to have these games tagged with single player when it is actually not possible to enjoy them in single player mode. If I knew that before I probably would not have bought it. And as it is currently, I cannot recommend this game to my friends.