Bot problems and immersion suggestions

Not sure if this is the right subforum but it can be discussed as a general topic

Ive been playing this game since beta, and the realism factor is out the window. Coop is the bread and butter of this game and the game modes are FUN, albeit I think I liked ins2014 survival a bit more, but it seems like ai behavior hasnt changed at all. 70% of the time I die its due to a bot firing without raising the gun the instant my arm shows around a corner, a bot 100m away running perpendicular to me (or AWAY) and tapping me in the head with an mg3, molotovs changing trajectory mid air, wallbanged by a bot across the map (that happened only once tho, but ive been wallbanged a number of times from close quarters. The rusher bots seem to only hit you when they dont swing the blade or when youre 10m away. The bots have been this same way since beta and its mind boggling they havent done much about it. If youre gonna say git gud, im 1st on the board 9/10 times, even using a deagle + bolt action, so dont say it. It also seems like bots just spawn behind you out of nowhere because I check my 6 very very frequently, and a moment after I turn around theres suddenly a bomber or rusher right behind me in an open corridor, and somehow right as im reloading lmao not saying anything just sayin. Sometimes these deaths are funny, usually theyre just a nuisance. Sometimes I also have bad hitreg with bots (4 desert eagle rounds to the chest and no blood) although this is least frequent of all aside from across the map wallbanging. Also almost every time a bot starts shooting 3 stacked players, they seem to aim for the one farthest away, the moment they step out behind the other guys. Anyway, I like this game a lot, thats why I play it, and thats why im complaining about it. Id rather die to my own mistakes than the game's mistakes, it makes it much more immersive than getting shot through a wall, killed by heatseaking molotovs, flickshot, aimbotted, spawn killed, farted on. It actually seems like your accuracy has a direct effect on bot 'accuracy' because most of the players ive seen swatting bots like pros are getting bs deaths near every time while the noobs rarely seem to have this problem. Not even your level, just your accuracy, I have decent accuracy at 25-40% headshots, and 50%+ hit count, sometimes its up to 70% hits (i counted, using the deagle out of 3 mags.) I dont mind making it more challenging for better players, I encourage that, but it would be much better if they could improve the behavior of AI to make them act more like players instead of just increasing the chance they kill you regardless of what theyre doing (ie running away, mollying you without even seeing you, fighting someone else) It just ruins the fun when you get killed by admins (the bots) so I quit when it gets out of hand. But I keep coming back because im a big fan of insurgency, especially 2014. Also, so far not even 1 map on this game has me loving it like insurgency made me love Sinjar, Precinct, and Ministry, even the new copies of those maps dont feel the same. Those maps seemed like proper cqb and ground warfare maps, made specifically for that reason --cqb tactical gameplay. Theres virtually no encouragement on sandstorm to play as a team either, because youll either get teamkilled, someone will be there to jump in front of your gun while youre still shooting and then blame you, or somebody will block you from getting out of line of fire and you get shot in the back, especially doorways. Anyway they advertised this game to be much more than it is. But its still good if youre casual and want to shoot up some bots. Side note on realism...they neglected to add trigger discipline... mod.io sucks, and hardcore sucks, on hardcore they just made your player do everything much slower, you sprint at walking speed, you aim like your gun is 50lbs, you reload like you dont want to scratch your gun, and thats the only thing that feels different, in no way does it make it more realistic or... challenging. Go ahead argue with me on that, i dont mind. Mod io is just a huge pain, slow downloads, forced downloads, no canceling downloads, they work about 20% of the time, and its just not even close to the buttery experience I had with Ins2014 workshop. Oh one last thing, using suppressors is useless, especially if youre playing offline bc bots are strategically inept turtles that push the objective in the open without suppressors (so i have to waste my ammo and kill them so I can move quietly). Ive never gotten the luxury of joining a game where I can be quiet and methodical (like the game wants) using suppressors, forget about nightvision the only one worth using takes up 4 points and still aint great. The flashlights are like using your phone screen as a light, they are pretty dim... Whats with bots seeing you in pitch black btw? Anyway I might have a few suggestions:

  • Make bots a bit more tactical instead of walk around with no fear of death, and have them be better at hiding to make it more challenging and surprising.
  • Allow you to get a couple of shots off after being hit by a molly (you have 2 layers of clothes on, it will take a second for you to feel your skin burning IRL
  • Give bots tactical differences based on the kit they use
  • Encourage team play by making each objective a strategically defended area that requires you and your team to move and fire AS A TEAM instead of a couple bots posted in the same exact position every time where you can easily barge in and shoot them all instantly, which makes it a race to the objective kinda game
  • Depending on bot distance, reduce time between shots, reduce accuracy
  • Make smoke and flashbangs a 2 way system that bots cant see through
  • Change bot accuracy based on player accuracy is fine, just not how it works right now
  • Allow players to switch between NVG Point shooting and sight shooting
  • Make reloading faster, seriously, I can reload my handgun AND AR faster as a civilian. The tactical reload (not dropping the mag) is a bit slow, the fast emergency reload (dropping the mag) is fine, Im super happy they added that, lovely feature. I can live with this though its not a huge issue, I would mostly like to see faster reload on bolt action snipers and maybe a bit on shotguns (although that might become unbalanced idk)
  • This suggestion may be far off but I think it would be awesome to have sandbags and light cover (possibly even caches) change locations a bit for each game, to make it more 'uncertain' for players adding to immersion. Set bots up in strategic positions to defend objective, forcing you to move slower and as a team.
  • Since there is a helicopter, why not give us team drop zones to chose on the map with a new game mode centered around securing a hostage or vip or something with immersive objectives, with random road blocks set up by insurgents rather than a repeat of last game
  • Make bot snipers more snipey, instead of just running around standing up lopping shots at you, put them in a window, farther away, in a position that makes sense (like setting the gun on a ledge in a window up high or on a roof far away) where you actually dont want get in his sights
  • Make bot teammates a little less like chickens with their head cut off
  • Make leg shots a temporary disarm or something, where instead of instant death you can shoot back while on the ground for a couple seconds or while a (new) medic class is helping you (that might be a tricky one)
  • Make rusher bots less "IM GOING TO KILL YOU' and run out from cover into the open where your shots are guaranteed to hit
  • Rusher bot footsteps are WAY too silent, they are completely mute at full sprint, in gravel, come on...
  • ADD BALLISTIC PHYSICS, there is none, I can have a 9mm glock and tap a bot in the head from 150m INSTANTLY, at 150m irl a 9mm will not travel from your barrel to the target instantly.
  • Make bolt action a little more practical, right now they're mostly just meme guns, like the bolt pistol. (I still like using them, sometimes they just get annoying to wait for reload, like why not add a bolt action THAT USES A MAGAZINE INSTEAD OF INTERNAL.)
  • The green dot sight has its reticle too large and looks like a floating ball
  • The reload animation for some guns is a bit off time, i have reloaded the desert eagle and had to repeat the reload even after the slide was closed just because I switched or sprinted milliseconds before the reload animation (in code) finished, if that slide release is hit, that should be the end of the reload. (Smaller issue) Sometimes i cant pull the trigger for 2 seconds after finishing a resumed reload or canceling a reload before the mag dropped.
  • Remove wallbanging, come on guys thats ridiculous
  • Remove heatseaking mollys, and replace them with normal mollys
  • Add a map that makes sniping a more strategically logical choice, because right now a 7x scope and bipod is just completely impractical.
  • Make bots move like a real team of people, come on all they do is walk around aimlessly until you show up on their radar and they start shooting instantly regardless of cover, range, or gun, seems like sniper bots are never even firing from more than 50m anyway
  • ADD MORE KNIFE ANIMATIONS for immersion, its goofy
  • Add a bit more logic to class selection, like having a medic that can partially heal wounds, a sniper that gets camouflage and is slightly harder for bots to see, make support class carry extra handgun ammo or grenades for team mates or something (similar to battlefield but less arcadey) and have observer use like a remote control drone or somethin. The breacher could have breaching explosives that can open doors that can be barred and only opened with breaching charge, namely those metal doors. Stuff like that

I could probably come up with more immersion mechanics but first and foremost, I think the bots need to be fixed up. LONG post but Ive played it enough and experienced these issues enough to where a writeup worth is making. The issues listed are very consistent and happen nearly every single game, I see them happen frequently while spectating as well depending on how well the player is doing. Many other players have brought this up and there is still no mention about it from the devs, dont say "oh this again" because its been the main problem with this game for a while. Whatever 'bot overhaul' they did, didnt seem to fix the most problematic bugs with the AI. I would love to hear some other player experiences and suggestions as well, my favorite casual game is insurgency, and I want it to continue getting better, right now it sort of seems to be at a stalemate, and Im not very impressed with the new map, it feels just the same as every other map but in red and orange.

PS When I said one last thing, i lied

PSS: when you crouch on a toilet in this game it makes a flushing sound (confirmed on power plant) which I found immersive, thumbs up

Final say: lovely game for casuals, just a lot of ai bugs that can get irritating, if these are fixed, fantastic game, fun, not too sweaty, and a good time with those who have a mic

I agree that the bots could use some work, but really they're pretty close to what they need to be. Bot AI is notoriously hard to improve, so things like 'work as a team' really isn't simple to implement.

There are some dumb things, like bots that can see through smoke, the respawn mechanics on Hardcore, bots that sometimes insta-shoot you and sometimes cannot aim at all, but broadly these are pretty minor for me.