Preaching to the choir, brother (/sister)?
NPCs in CQC would be a great form of low-risk combat training for new Cmdrs.
If they get the NPC AI done for that, they could look at using the AI with the 'full-game' ships in a CQC-like mode, so you could practice combat in your own ship, and it could become a weapons/ship testing ground.
And, obviously, it means people could play while they wait for Cmdrs, rather than waiting in the lobby.
Seems like a win, win win for me.
NPCs in CQC would be a great form of low-risk combat training for new Cmdrs.
If they get the NPC AI done for that, they could look at using the AI with the 'full-game' ships in a CQC-like mode, so you could practice combat in your own ship, and it could become a weapons/ship testing ground.
And, obviously, it means people could play while they wait for Cmdrs, rather than waiting in the lobby.
Seems like a win, win win for me.
I did hear that they were looking at reducing the number of players needed to start a deathmatch - while it's better with more players, you could have one with just two players, which would make it a lot easier to get a game at quiet times.
Or even just one player - at least that way you could fly around and look at the scenery, find some good hiding places, practice those corners.
Or even just one player - at least that way you could fly around and look at the scenery, find some good hiding places, practice those corners.
This is actually a viable way forward.
They already have the bots, NPCs in game are bots, just port pirates into CQC, disable the scan behavior. At least, for deathmatch. Doesn't seem too much of a stretch to add other behaviors.
Sadly there is more to it than that.
AIs can work out basic collision avoidance , but they will need a series of scripts , bot pathing or navmeshing around every map.
I hope they take the time to do it I hope they do , because then that work could be maybe be transfered to the universe. depending on how they do it.
Its needed , but its something that will take time. thats why its not here. thats why more need to ask for it. but sadly just porting the normal AI would give us AIs that mostly fight in the open areas of maps or get stuck in the tighter parts.
The AI in elite is very well programed , I think its been hadicaped to be weak on purpose. but no matter how well programed working out maps and shortcuts in real time is a hard thing.
But with more demand there is a higher chance FD do it
I've always opined that CQC Bots would serve both FD and the players well as it would be the perfect test bed for SJA Mistress of Minions to test new Alarmingly Intelligent routines against us without having to wait to a beta, and it would make it so much easier to get a damned game of CQC without the matchmaking headache and waiting.
Bots should have been in the game from the very beginning. The AI is able to put up a fight, we know that from Sarah's uber minions in 2.1. 
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
Her work is amazing. she is awesome.Bots should have been in the game from the very beginning. The AI is able to put up a fight, we know that from Sarah's uber minions in 2.1.
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
But I do feel they are being held back. whenever I kill a NPC it often feels like they miss the shots on purpose
I remember the HUGE wave of (mostly older) players complaining about the, as they called it, hard-core difficulty mode and was often referring to not being able to kill NPC Condas with their Vipers anymore. AI was then nerfed beyond reason before finally settling at a reasonable level (IMO). I rarely do combat these days so I don't know how the NPCs are reacting.
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Bots should have been in the game from the very beginning. The AI is able to put up a fight, we know that from Sarah's uber minions in 2.1.
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
The 2.1 "uber minions" playing CQC rules would be utterly destroyed by even mid ranking CQC players. The simple matter of them losing a target lock when their target flew behind something would make them completely impotent, not to mention all the other CQC requirements they would need but currently don't have. If ED NPC's played CQC as they are, all they could likely achieve would be to form a group of ships flying around each other shooting which, when you think about it, is what they do in the main game. That's not to say it couldn't be done of course but just shoving ED NPC's in CQC would not really help.
What would help and is simple to do would be to lower the requirement for a game to start to be just one player. I guess you would need some strategy for merging players together in the case where people start leaving one match while some people are playing in another. Thinking about it, that is a problem they already have.
I might add at this point that I think the 2.1 uber minions thing is a bit of a myth. I remember them being a lot harder but seem to recall that was mostly because they had engineered weapons and ran away when their shields were down. Might be wrong about that though.
Bots should have been in the game from the very beginning. The AI is able to put up a fight, we know that from Sarah's uber minions in 2.1.
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
The point is to remind FD that CQC is important to you. The more people they see "please do something about CQC" posts from, the more they see there's demand, and the more likely it is to get bumped up the priority queue.
It might help to post in the suggestions subforum rather than here, I suspect the devs spend more time reading it.
The AI is pretty good. There are definitely some awkward bits: AI missing or holding fire altogether for no apparent reason on one hand, or dodging your aim with frustratingly perfect precision on the other (without even looking at you, they can tell exactly where your crosshairs are relative to them and jink accordingly, it makes using fixed weapons vs smaller ships extraordinarily painful).
I think that you could get "barely OK" bots by dropping the existing AI as-is into CQC, but it would be pretty weak and not a lot of fun. Probably still better than nothing, but I suspect Frontier is holding out to "do it right" if they're going to do it at all.
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I've just been fighting around an Unauthorised Installation (basically Asteria Point minus the powerup rings, destructibles, and surrounding asteroids) and the AI really does not handle it well - lots of collisions even when just flying past it, never mind anything fancy like "fighting". Surprisingly badly, in fact, given how rarely they crash into asteroids in a RES.
(Also, now that I know you can fly a FDL down the tunnels at Asteria, I'm going to feel even less happy every time I scrape my fighter on the sides...)
IMO shoving bots into CQC is better than no CQC. Now, it can takes hours for people to find a game. That doesn't make the player want to go back. Deathmatch is something that an NPC can cope? And Team Deathmatch isn't so far off from REZ sites, right? As I see it, it would be better to actually have a polulated feature with both bots and players, than empty servers.
And yes, you're right. I'd say scrap the ranks and requirements for normal Deathmatch. It would be better to have 1v1, 2v2 or 5v5 arena combat style with ranking instead.
I definitely don't see the uber minions as a myth! My Vulture once took such a bad beating after almost losing to a Sidewinder that I had to go repair my ship. He was flying inhumanely (taa-daa) smart and was trying to stick to my Vulture's back all the time. He outmaneuvered me and my modded Vulture (unsure if I had modded thrusters). Add to that those engineered weapons...
Perhaps, but CQC needs to be completely renovated with new ideas mixed with old ones. Having three modes in 2017 isn't near good enough!
Bots should have been in the game from the very beginning. The AI is able to put up a fight, we know that from Sarah's uber minions in 2.1.
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
perhaps if Fdev read these posts, they'll listen,
Bots should have been in the game from the very beginning. The AI is able to put up a fight, we know that from Sarah's uber minions in 2.1.
The irony is almost frustrating. Frontier will not work on CQC unless more people play it, and people won't play CQC if Frontier won't work on it.
I have multiple ideas for how to improve CQC, apart from having bots. But what's the point of posting them if Frontier isn't gonna do anything about it?
I agree, except for this part "The irony is almost frustrating.", I'd replace "almost" with "completely".
Bots are definitely needed now, CQC is just in a ridiculous situation, where it appears except for maybe once or twice a week at specific times, not enough people are trying to use it at the same time, which means nobody is ABLE to use it. Anyone new that tries to use it, in all likelihood simply can't and so never plays it and those of us that aren't new try on occasion, but since we can't we lose interest and try less frequently until we stop trying. The problem isn't that nobody wants to play it, the problem is those that want to play simply can't play it most of the time. Bots will at least let us play it and who knows maybe since people are playing it against bots, there will be more chance of people actually being able to play against each other.