Servers with bots annoy me and are a problem

Sev

If anyone here is like me they probably have the servers sorted by how many people are on. Well what gets me is that usually goon haven is on top and then like the next ten slots are taken by empty servers with a bunch of stupid bots. Who plays bot servers! :-\ Then there are those servers that say they have 32 people on 16 of which are bots but its really just an all bot server. If there is anyone to blame for goon haven being the only server with people ever really on it, its the hosters of these dumb bot servers because most people like my self take a glance, see there is really not many real people one any servers besides goon haven and go on goon haven. If the bot servers where not there people like myself might actually join the 2nd or 3rd server down and more people would actually see it and join because there are real people. Don't get me wrong I think goon haven is a great server. But these dumb bot servers pretty much leave it as the only option because there are no other servers populated enough to play on so if you don't like how the goon server is going your only choice is to stick it out or leave tribes for a couple hours.

Eolk

Make a filter to filter out bot servers. It's as simple as that. ::)

kamishizuka

This is just me, but I wonder if the problem could be solved or at least alleviated by somehow removing bots from the calculated player count. So instead of a server's count reporting, say, 16/64 (16), all bots, it would report 0/64 (16), still all bots, but no real people.

There's one server up there, Wisconsin Bot Fest I think, that I've seen run over 32 bots, which is actually quite fun. Trying to run 32 bots on my own usually causes issues with the pathfinding and all sorts of AI quirks. Granted, that server is usually only populated by bots, but on the odd occasion I'll join in just so I can mess with more bots than the 16 I'm limited to at home.

Sorting by player count is possibly a common practice; we want to go where the action is. Bots don't really ever equal action, and so to have, say, the top ten servers by count be almost all bot servers (with the exception of Goon Haven and sometimes Branzone Central) is a little disheartening.

If it is possible in the first place, I think removing bots from the total player count (perhaps with lowering the max capacity, so 16/64 (16) becomes 0/48 (16)) would help better illustrate where the real people are.

Blakhart

Some of the t2 bots are pretty good players.

teratos

Lagg's bots are better than most of you. Since Sev hasn't learned how to setup filters in the last 8 years, I'd guess he is one of those players.

Abstract

I'm in agreement with both Sev and Terratos lol. I'm tired of seeing empty servers simply because they contain bots. The problem lies in the fact that no one enjoys owning a bot. Ditch the bots, we can do that at home. Except botfest, Shiz got that one right. Botfest is kind of fun to screw around on.

Sev

Eolk February 2009

Make a filter to filter out bot servers. It's as simple as that. ::)

Lol for some reason I never use filters. I guess I could, but still lots of new players are not going to start playing tribes and right at the start make a filter for no bots amd then they'll probably never even think to go on anything but goon haven. Plus bot servers are useless.

Kryand

Really you have to wonder what the hell bot server hosts are thinking. They have the resources to host a server, and they choose to intentionally host a server that no one ever plays on.

AnarchyAo

Filters don't even work for me any more, they haven't since the real authentication server went down. I'll make a filter and it does nothing, it'll still query the entire server list. And yes, I agree with Kryand, why do these morons even host a server with a bunch of stupid bots on them? No one plays on them, ever. I thought they'd go away when TribesNext came out, I thought maybe someone years ago accidentally left the servers running and had forgotten all about it. Apparently not, because now they're back up. That means someone actually went and installed TribesNext onto their server that no one ever joined in the first place so that no one could continue joining for years to come.

Seriously, servers with bots on them are retarded. If you are one of the owners of these servers please reply to this post so we can make fun of you and ask you the obvious question:

Why the fuck are you so stupid?

MotoXbudd

:signed:

-moto

AnarchyAo

I just did a trace on the IP's of several of the bot servers. It seems like most of them are hosted by people's own personal computers/connections. (i.e. guy in canada using Rogers, person in New York using Comcast, etc).

TheOracle[xXx]

As an actual bot this thread offends me. Not all of us jump in front of the enemy turrets and eat plasma you know.

Threatcon

Shizuka February 2009

This is just me, but I wonder if the problem could be solved or at least alleviated by somehow removing bots from the calculated player count. So instead of a server's count reporting, say, 16/64 (16), all bots, it would report 0/64 (16), still all bots, but no real people.

There's one server up there, Wisconsin Bot Fest I think, that I've seen run over 32 bots, which is actually quite fun. Trying to run 32 bots on my own usually causes issues with the pathfinding and all sorts of AI quirks. Granted, that server is usually only populated by bots, but on the odd occasion I'll join in just so I can mess with more bots than the 16 I'm limited to at home.

Sorting by player count is possibly a common practice; we want to go where the action is. Bots don't really ever equal action, and so to have, say, the top ten servers by count be almost all bot servers (with the exception of Goon Haven and sometimes Branzone Central) is a little disheartening.

If it is possible in the first place, I think removing bots from the total player count (perhaps with lowering the max capacity, so 16/64 (16) becomes 0/48 (16)) would help better illustrate where the real people are.

I can incorporate this into my web based master query, but don't bots drop as humans fill up the server? Say 16/16 bots, one human joins and the bot count goes down to 15? So the player count is now 16/16 again with only 15 bots?

Shadowex3

Filters don't even work for me any more, they haven't since the real authentication server went down. I'll make a filter and it does nothing, it'll still query the entire server list

Strange, they work fine for me. What personally pisses me off is that there's several servers that don't just list bots but seem to somehow circumvent the bot filter by changing how many bots they display while at the same time spoofing their playercount so it LOOKS like it's just a few bots and a lot of players.

kamishizuka

I'm not sure if bots drop. I haven't tried putting a bot server on the master list yet (I always mess with them on the -nologin side of things), but I get the feeling they don't drop. Servers with all 16 bots plus the odd human now and then show that, methinks.

Now if bots could be told to drop when humans join, that could also help, but it still doesn't change the fact that we'll go browsing, see a server with 16 bots and no humans on it, and completely pass it up on our way to real people.

To add to AnarchyAo's second observation, maybe not all of these bot servers intend to get listed on the master server? I'm fairly certain that when I host a server to mess with bots that it doesn't go to the master list (I always use -nologin when with bots); maybe a small handful of these bot servers didn't make sure of that?

I think another really big problem is the bot-doubling bug that's been mentioned over in Support a few times, where a server with 16 bots reports 32/xx (16), but without 16 actual people to make up the difference. Sorting by population brings those servers higher in the list, pushing servers with a smaller handful of real people down. I don't recall exactly how or why that bug exists, but getting that universally fixed couldn't hurt.

Purest

Bot servers with different ping might be useful for new players to practice aim (maybe even on their own bot teammates) and get a feel of how weapons work. They could even design bots to move in some Lakrabbit fashion. Then again, they would be called practice servers.

Other than that yeah, you gotta wonder about those hosts.

AnarchyAo

Purest February 2009

Bot servers with different ping might be useful for new players to practice aim (maybe even on their own bot teammates) and get a feel of how weapons work. They could even design bots to move in some Lakrabbit fashion. Then again, they would be called practice servers.

Other than that yeah, you gotta wonder about those hosts.

Bots don't act like humans do, even if you were a master of owning bots it wouldn't help you against a player because they react differently. It's kind of like comparing how sometimes new players are hard to hit because their movement isn't as controlled and it's extremely unpredictable because they don't know what they're doing and you aren't used to anticipating that as a veteran player.

Purest

^ Obvious.

I'll make it simpler: For new players to get familiar with weapons without being distracted.

One such weapon might be the shocklance. I shouldn't have to explain.

teratos

I remember a server setup with 16 bots that auto-kicked the bots as players joined. The guy did some research and came to the conclusion his server filled up quicker when running the bots. However, that was a long time ago and now there aren't so many players, so players aren't looking for empty servers to start a new game.

TheOracle[xXx]

Bots always left as players came online to take their place. The game has been that way from the beginning.

Kryand

No, the game has never been that way. It requires a custom script.

Sev

well i tried making filter by setting max bots to zero and it didnt work. bot servers still showed up. anyways i think the idea of not having the bots add to the player count is a great idea.

Unknown

I believe having bots is not a problem, and like teratos said some bots are better then many people. I think servers are best when the server only have 4. Because they don't take a lot of slots, and if you are someone that wants to play something and no one is in you can have fun with the bots first. In Havoc Heaven, witch is a Havoc2 server hosted by Defender and run by him and I, there is some smart bots. They are okay, we didn't make them hard killing machines, but they make fun of you when they kill you.

Glad

I've been hoping dggs fast v2 would dump their bots for a while now, or at least have fewer. It is nice when they repair stuff and deploy defense (tho i hate when 1 of my turrets goes down and they redeploy somewhere retarded and i have to hunt it down). RB10 keeps saying 'we'll boot the bots and go to more maps when more people join' but he never does it. I think the admins are just scared of having an actual empty server and the number zero.

I agree with the OP it's really annoying to see all those empty bot servers.

Eolk

Glad February 2009

I've been hoping dggs fast v2 would dump their bots for a while now, or at least have fewer. It is nice when they repair stuff and deploy defense (tho i hate when 1 of my turrets goes down and they redeploy somewhere retarded and i have to hunt it down). RB10 keeps saying 'we'll boot the boots and go to more maps when more people join' but he never does it. I think the admins are just scared of having an actual empty server and the number zero.

I agree with the OP it's really annoying to see all those empty bot servers.

Well, more people haven't really joined, yet.

Glad

At peak times we get up to like 10 folks which is great. I don't see how the bots make anything better anyway. The worst things are how they spam voice commands and limit the map rotation to the same 5 default maps!

Blakhart

If you want bots, run bots. If you don't want bots, don't run them. Running bots to lure players into your server and then dropping bots as players join is retarded, this bs is done in cs all the time. But if you do run bots, make sure they're Lagg's bots. His bots will eat your lunch every day. They come with Lagg's maps, and in the community patch.

teratos

Blakhart February 2009

If you want bots, run bots. If you don't want bots, don't run them. Running bots to lure players into your server and then dropping bots as players join is retarded, this bs is done in cs all the time. But if you do run bots, make sure they're Lagg's bots. His bots will eat your lunch every day. They come with Lagg's maps, and in the community patch.

It gives people something to do while waiting on others to join. Again, this made more sense years ago than it does now.

TheOracle[xXx]

Kryand February 2009

No, the game has never been that way. It requires a custom script.

You're right. I was thinking of Counterstrike. Man I've played so damn many games I can't keep all this crap straight.

teratos

There have been people with setups like that though (as I mentioned in post #18).

Sev

well i just figured i'd clear up one thing. turns out the filter did work but only after shutting down tribes and turning it back on. still new players probably wont be doing this. at least i got to play some rabbit yesterday.