Coop AI difficulty (bug or feature?)

I have ran into a bug ( or feature, IDK TBH) where the server will either start with really difficult bots or it will switch to difficult bots mid game.
It seems like if your team is doing really good vs the AI some sort of nightmare mode takes over and you have to fight enemies that are on a whole new level.
I noticed this about a month ago and I though it was just me going crazy, however I saw this happen twice this last weekend as well so i know its not just me.
The last time i saw it, the AI called in an artillery strike that took out the whole team even though we were all indoors ( seems like an artillery aimbot since we were all hit directly while in cover) and when we respawned for the next round, they were acting differently, shooting much more accurately and rushing the attackers.
These bots also don't move in groups of 2-4 like the regular bots do, they usually move alone and try to sneak up on you. It also seems like there are less of them.
In order to defeat them you are forced to be way more careful than usual and its not uncommon for the whole team to be wiped out within a few seconds.
Also, it seems this "mode" prevents you form using artillery strikes as well, since my team called one and it never landed.
BTW this was through matchmaking, so official servers.

Am I the only one that has seen this happen?

I'm not complaining... it actually 100 times more fun to actually have to be careful while playing.

@snakelegionnaire I noticed something similar.

For me it was that after a couple of good rounds or rounds I performed particularly well in, 0 deaths double next highest kills for example, suddenly id be faced with bots head shotting me from across the map with a pistol. Or spottng a bot at my 12 and getting killed before I can even ADS.

Feels like a feature to me. Shame that if it is the way they chose to increase the difficulty is also the most lazy. At times it feels like im back in MW2 in a lobby filled with aimbots.

I've noticed that the AI in Co-op seems discriminatory. Over the past couple of days I've been facing bots that can see me through walls and instantly headshot me, regardless of range or weapon. After I'm dead and watching my teammates, I see them standing around taking fire from multiple directions without any cover and not getting hit a single time.

A couple thoughts cross my mind after witnessing this:

  • It's really not enjoyable to be playing a completely different game than my teammates are playing. Especially when those teammates have no idea that it's happening.

  • For a company that's so vehemently against cheating or exploiting, they don't seem to realize that playing against a bot that is using wallhacks or aimbots is just as infuriating as playing against a player who is using them. It instantly and irrevocably makes playing the game a negative experience.

  • I could use this "functionality" to troll other players by staying as close as possible, but behind, them in order to get them killed by the unfair AI implementation that was attempting to shoot me in the head through 2 walls. While that doesn't sound fun to me, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would love to do it.

Personally, I play co-op specifically because I just want to enjoy the gameplay mechanics of the game. If I wanted a challenge, I'd play against other people. But a game without normal respawns simply isn't enjoyable because it inevitably turns into everyone hiding from each other. Thus co-op was my refuge because I was able to actually keep playing for the whole round, enjoying the experience, rather than being burdened with the unnecessary stress of playing with "competitive gamers." But, unless they stop purposely ruining my (and others') experience, it seems I have simply wasted my money yet again.

@plppln same here. I start first game with normal boots, than as it is easy to mow them down they switch to on shoot headshot across map as soon as my head is visible for second

Its not lazy if they still have better algorithms than older bots, in multiplayer games there is not many contenders is it (single player games are not comparable) but bots would preferably always have room for upgrades to "ai" of course. At some point their hit rate must be adjusted as part of scaling up the difficulty or you have to make them bullet sponges. I definitely prefer them to be more accurate so the game forces players to play tactical and cooperate at a higher extent. More difficult than ins2 brutal bots would be cool for me subjectively, the rushing across the map by players gets old fast and is not for me at all (I dont care about cosmetic points). But it is not cool at all to not allow players a lower difficulty option. Its a game after all, why not let everyone play it like they want it - There will never be a sweet spot that reflects most players, so discussing what should be the bot difficulty for everybody is impossible if you dont want to marry just one customer segment.

That being said it should imho be consistency in difficulty for a match with players being able to choose a difficulty together, so that people can group up with their preferred difficulty on a team who likes the same type of difficulty. Maybe a bug or maybe devs experimenting with dynamic difficulty or maybe a feature. Some info from the devs about future "ai"plans would be cool, or is it laying around in some video already that anyone knows about?

Again this would just be subjective for me, there is too many different ppl playing the game to have the answer to what difficulty suits all - That difficulty does not exist.

I disagree that its a problem with bots having "higher senses", they need to make certain shortcuts when they are bots, and I don't find it frustrating to be taken out by bots, though it depends on the case. I dont like airstrikes that much at all against bots.