Bot battles: They're pretty fun, and stuff.

[Laszlo]

They added a troop ratio slider to the single player custom battle, it's reasonable to have expected a similar feature for multiplayer battles.

I'd say that's sort of an apples and oranges issue, since the current gamemodes were designed around teams comprised of individual players. (That and the ratio slider simply sucks).

I'd understand that point of view if, hypothetically, Taleworlds never even added bots to multiplayer. I.e. You could say, 'well there are all these game modes that people play like CTF and DM and so on and the multiplayer scene is just designed for players'. I'd accept that argument.

But, they did add bots to multiplayer. They painstakingly (have you ever tried it?) covered every single map in an AI mesh. They allowed modders to quickly code in as many different bot types as they wished, or edit the existing ones. They did absolutely everything needed to recreate classic large campaign battles in a multiplayer environment except the troop ratio slider.

And come on, you can't just say 'oh the ratio slider sucked' all you need to do is add a 'lock' function to hold a single slider constant and it's very quick and easy to use.

 

[MadocComadrin]

I'll admit, the ai-meshing did take some effort (but then again, they're probably better at it than most modders by now). However, it doesn't change the argument I posted: the gamemodes are for teams of individuals. A human or a bot can be an individual, and I doubt they'd want individual bots smacking into walls and such.

For the modding part, you'd have to prove that relationship to me. There's no saying that they simply didn't go with that framework because it was easiest for them/encouraged separate development.

Frankly, the ratio sliders do suck. Compare it to say Total War's custom battle interface: you have a point limit and different troops with different costs. All M&B has is choosing a percent. I would have loved to have seen something similar.

All in all, it doesn't matter how easy it would be for them to do it--they didn't.

 

[Laszlo]

I'll admit, the ai-meshing did take some effort (but then again, they're probably better at it than most modders by now). However, it doesn't change the argument I posted: the gamemodes are for teams of individuals. A human or a bot can be an individual, and I doubt they'd want individual bots smacking into walls and such.

Okay, how is multiplayer battle unsuitable for bots, whereas single player battle is?

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Yeah I don't really get Madoc's point. They could have made multiplayer bot battles a lot better, and some people (like me) think that would've been cool. Isn't that what the thread is about?

 

[Scarf Ace]

I'll host a game right now. I'll edit this post when it's over.
My mod:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2eeyg430sa5phym

Let's see if anyone joins.

Edit: Server down.