I'm just wondering, does anyone know why AI bots for multiplayer modes are hardly used these days? I remember during the Past generations, games like Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Jedi Outcast, and Unreal Tournament have AI bots. These days, the only games I could think of is Gears of War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
To me, It seems like a no brainer to make AI bots an industry standard due to the benefits. People can play offline if their internet is bad or just to practice. I cannot think of any reason to not put them in a game. Does anyone know why?
AI Bots- Why are they hardly used anymore?
That's a good point, I don't often play multiplayer shooters, but it does seem strange that not every multiplayer shooter has them.
Especially since you largely need to program them anyway for your singleplayer campaign.
I think it's the explosion of Multiplayer online gaming. With Game consoles having networks that "find the game for you", no one wants to play against scripted AI computers. Games that have an MMO element certinaly is not going to have bots (though I understand your comment about training). I think before when LAN games were popular along with Internet gaming, you found more bots because friends wanted to team up and maybe you didn't have enough players to make a 12 player match.
That said, At my work, we still use bots for simulations and testing (but the entire match is BOTS, no Humans are playing).
Even today, bots would be a fantastic feature to have. In modern shooters, it would be nice to be able to practice with the ludicrous amounts of unlockable weapons/perks/accessories (and combinations thereof) instead of getting slaughtered in multiplayer until you get a hang of them. Or to practice on a new map before facing other humans on it...
I stopped playing Battlefield 3 partly because the initial multiplayer learning curve was absolutely tortuous, and getting smoked by experienced players over and over just wasn't worth the eventual payoff in my mind... which could have been avoided if I had a better handle of the basic dynamics of the game by playing bots. Which is actually exactly how it worked for me in Battlefield 2.
One of the selling points for Black Ops 2 with my group of friends was that it supports AI in local multiplayer. We'll gang up on the bots or use them to fill out our teams, which makes it far more enjoyable than yet another session of 2v2 against each other. The lack of split screen and local AI support is one of the biggest reasons I've lost interest in many mainstream titles. I do happen to enjoy spending time with my friends, which seems to be a foreign concept to most games. Short of each of us bringing a console and TV with us, of course.
Thus one of the driving interests in game development for me. I don't know of any other way to solve it.
The fps project blackout has a bot mode, as well as combat arms and I think crossfire has a mode. But its co-op only- you can't team up with the bots. However I agree i do find it annoying to not have bots to train on so you can get used to the rotation speed in the game and such. I would imagine part of the split screen disapearing is because game makers wanted to make games look stunning, and thus didn't make it so it could render with 4 cameras,
It's because "everone" has a decent internet connection now. Bots are not really needed anymore (sure there are exceptions, but these are, well, "exceptions" :D).
From your title you make it sound like the whole industry is abandoning AI in games.
I just want to point out a few major games that use somewhat advanced AI for enemies:
Mass Effect series
The Elder Scrolls (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim)
Borderlands + Borderlands 2
Path of Exile (mmo-ish)
Defiance
There's even a mmo (or coop rpg depending on how you want to argue it) - Guild Wars 1 - that had full bots for combat (npcs you could take with you in lieu of real players)
Most other MMOs also have, if mostly simple, AIs for the enemy mobs - the AI for boss enemies is usually more complex)
If we're talking strictly the modern day shooters of the Battlefield, CoD, etc, then you may have a point - but I think that's a minor part of the entire gaming industry. I see those games these days as a Counter-Strike type games of quick player v player matches.
I think it's far from the truth to say that bots in general aren't used anymore.
I'm surprised nobody said that one reason why major FPS games don't include AI bots anymore could be to encourage people to get on-line (and since these days everything goes through their servers for the purpose of matchmaking, it can double as some sort of DRM).
Also probably because making a good AI bot takes effort and there aren't enough resources within the budgets to allow it (they'd rather push more budget on real multiplayer than on AI bots).
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