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Plea to server owners. (bots)

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Ossius

Grizzled Veteran
Jun 9, 2011
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Please guys, I'm begging you from the bottom of my heart, cut the number of bots to 2-4 per side, or remove them completely. Bots are completely ruining many people's RO2 experience. I for one have killed more bots then I can count and honestly there is no fun in it, I literally feel like its just an annoyance at this point. They aren't good enough to fight even a decent skilled player at any range greater than 50m, and they only get lucky on their insane quick draw otherwise.

I was just playing the beta yesterday with 64 players and it was so fun, but later one when there were less people, like 12, bots started coming back. It was so horrible seeing bots running in open fields like idiots, I put one Ivan down that was just dancing about in the open. Later I stumbled upon a bunker and fired a few shots and threw some grenades in, I was disappointed to see it was just a pair of Ivans. I like killing other players, it feels like something is accomplished, you succeeded in outplaying someone else, Bots are empty and are meaningless.

Do server owners really think bots add anything to their server, or attract more people? I honestly am the opposite and avoid these servers.
 
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Agree

Agree

I stopped playing the game three months ago and started playing Arma 2 in anticipation of Iron Front coming out end of this May.

But i went back to RO2 this weekend to see if anything had changed. I was disappointed to still see the same maps for the most part being played. And every game i joined that showed good numbers was just full of bots. I also noted still no new tank only maps that i could find. Some of my best memories playing RO was the tank maps. Spent many nights with my wine and playing folks all over the world.

I was almost tempted to buy the Steam version of the old RO so i could play Darkest Hour again. But am looking forward to trying Iron Front, a little competition is always good and may make RO2 improve.
 
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I was almost tempted to buy the Steam version of the old RO so i could play Darkest Hour again. But am looking forward to trying Iron Front, a little competition is always good and may make RO2 improve.
Just FYI, once you've purchased RO (box or steam) you always own it. Thats the beauty of Steam. All you have to do is download it and download the DH mod and you're good to go. It should be in your game's library in Steam.
 
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Just FYI, once you've purchased RO (box or steam) you always own it. Thats the beauty of Steam. All you have to do is download it and download the DH mod and you're good to go. It should be in your game's library in Steam.


I purchased RO on disc; not from Steam. And just cannot see buying it again on steam at this late a date just to play Darkest Hour.
 
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I purchased RO on disc; not from Steam. And just cannot see buying it again on steam at this late a date just to play Darkest Hour.
It makes no difference how you bought it in the first place, it is always yours,and should be available and downloadable through Steam,and unless you've changed your Steam id.,it should be in your Steam library under "all games"
 
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.... Do server owners really think bots add anything to their server, or attract more people? I honestly am the opposite and avoid these servers.

Hasn't this already been discussed, pleaded & begged to death already?

I tried to join back into playing yesterday since the last time I played was in December. I didn't play for long due to some bug I already posted, but i noticed that my server options had changed since last I played. Before I'd have about 7-10 servers with pings below 100, with usually 3-4 servers being populated or full. Yesterday there was one full server and about 5 empty servers. The two empty servers I managed to join before my bug kicked in had no bots, thus I was not going to wander around by myself doing nothing, so I left.

Bots keep me entertained until enough players show up. Without them & without players joining in shortly, there's no incentive for me to stick around. Bots keep players on the servers long enough until more show up. If all I see are empty servers, I'll either play single player or another game.

Which is what I ended up doing.

And in past similar threads, many server admins have said pretty much the same thing. If you only have 2-4 bots on the server, that's still not enough bodies to have any decent sort of game, and you might as well just have none.

You may not want to join a server with bots and decide to leave, but other players have no interest joining an empty server waiting for you to show up when they could be doing something else.

It's a catch 22, chicken & the egg situation. Pherhaps the bots are turning some people away, but having empty servers with the random chance 1 other player coming along in the next 15 mins of waiting is worse. #1 who'd wait that long & #2 you can't have a decent game with just two players.

Remove all the bots and you might end up with one server in your area to play on, if you're lucky cuz every other admin will just take their's down.
 
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As everybody do this then it logical that the servers keeps empty..:mad::p

I understand what you are saying, but I don't have time to sit around all day searching for servers. When I reinstalled there was a single server with players on it and it was full all the time and I couldn't get in. I might try again when Tripwire lets the game go free weekend, but for now it's just too difficult to find a game.
 
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There is a simple trick how to join server automatically when someone leaves, without needless clicking:

- Enter the main menu of the game.
- Alt + Tab to go to Windows' panel.
- Open Steam.
- Go into "Servers" (either right click on steam icon in your lower right corner of the screen and select it or go to Library -> View -> Servers).
- Select Red Ochestra 2 game in filter.
- Right click on desired server -> View server info.
- Press "Join Game".
- If you fail to connect (because server is full) press "Auto-Retry" -> Select second option "Join the server as soon as a player slot is available".
- Select the game again (should be on your start belt where usually all icons of currently running programs are) and wait.

Takes about 60 seconds to enter, but that depends on the people on the server.

I think bots are useful as they help to fill in the server and keep the players entertained before more people joins. If people will see simply empty servers then they won't fill them, squaring the circle.
 
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And now to shamelessly plug my groups servers which run the botdetonator mutator, that allows you the player, the ability to KICK THE BOTS. That's right, if you don't want to play with them, you can vote kick them off. ;)

LMC Countdown 24 slot @ 68.232.162.205:7777
LMC Territory 64 slot @ 96.250.44.198:7777

Just join the server, open your console and type in: mutate kickbots. You will need a 50% majority, but if you bring your friends in with you, that shouldn't be a problem. Everyone's invited! There's a scrolling message telling you how to do it as well, so it's easy peasy lemon squeezy.

And of course I need to shout out to Ducky, who made this wonderful, wonderful tool. THANK YOU DUCKY!!! :D
 
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Interesting, mowskwoz...didn't know that.
And if a server is running that mutator, than my server-browser should tell me, correct?

He put kickbots in their server names (see his sig)

--- SNIP---
And of course I need to shout out to Ducky, who made this wonderful, wonderful tool. THANK YOU DUCKY!!! :D

Your welcome. My next mutator will be AdminDetonator ;)

KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!
 
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If it weren't for bots, then a lot of servers would be way emptier or everyone would try and jump in 2.fjg, which is great for them, but bad for the community. We adjust the number of bots based on the popularity of the server, which right now isn't so popular even though it is a 64 player well performing server.

Right now we have a 64 player server (mentioned earlier by mowskwoz) that has 40 bots where bots disappear every time a human player joins. Most People will not join an empty server and wait. I wish there was a way to make 2 bots disappear for every 1 player that joins.

Bots are essential. I just wish they were a bit smarter. It's seems as though the AI is a bit lacking. I think they are looking for an AI programmer.
 
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