Hey people!!!
An amazing Saturday AGR Session today, which we ended with an (unplanned) battle of the bots. It was pretty intense, me and Jonan [EDIT: ‘Jonan and I’] had 10? bots each, and they battled it out!! The thing is, yes it was exciting for the (less than) 5 minutes it lasted, but at the end of the day .. bots are easy to kill. One tanky player with a minigun and mirvs can do major damage, so bear in mind while you listen to this bot discussion, that the Bot Army in AGR will always be a ‘spice’, no more powerful than any other (similarly priced) SuperPower, and the sight of 10 bots will always be a special occasion, ok? I didn’t upload last weeks chat (‘Battle Of The Bots 3’) because I didnt think it was ‘good enough’, so I just made this weeks’ one ‘Battle Of The Bots 4’ (yes more bot talk). I listened back to last weeks one though, and couldn’t see a problem with it, so… here they BOTH are. The latest is 4(IV). You should probably listen to this one first because it’s the latest. Or, maybe listen to III (below) and *then* IV. It’s your call.
A lot of ideas there, and I expect more to come. Meanwhile, I’ve lowered the max bots to 5, made them slower, and you only get the (super fast) 60 second deployment option in tough_maps.
Ok, heres last weeks (never released) video:
TESLA FIRES THROUGH TEAMMATES
I didnt know this was the case, but as pointed out by Jonan, Teslas don’t damage teammates.. even when firing ‘through’ them at enemies. I suppose you could argue that it’s a ‘smart weapon’ and isolates targets.. Well anyway, I thought it would be an interesting thing to change, so I did. So if a Red stands between a Blue Tesla and a Blue player, the blue player will get zapped … as well as the Red player. I can’t see this as being ‘controversial’ so… lets see how it plays out.
NEW AGR MAPS
Heist, Rampaholic, The Plank …. and now…? Well, yes, I’ve been working on some other maps … secret projects.. fine tuning, waiting for the moment when I think they are ready, and worthy to make their debut in the AGR world. I think that time is now. No, not this week. Next week. I’m typing this now, knowing that I’m committing to it. The moment I press ‘update’, the wheels will be in motion. Shall I reveal anything about them? What’s better – anticipation .. or surprise? Maybe I should say nothing, and just ‘BOOM’, let the a new map just ‘appear’, and freak people out.. Hmm.. For now, I need some sleep. it’s 4:30am, session starts in 4.5 hours!
BUG FIXES (cut pasted from my notes)
- Made bots slower to move, slower to shoot, slower to think.
- Bots dodges grenades
- Fixed Army menu to show new prices and times
- Made it so Teslas shoot teammates who stand before them and enemies
- Made it so if you shoot projectiles at martyr, they bounce off and fall to the ground
TO DO:
Automatic restarts have stopped er.. restarting…
Players on the BGM continue to appear as ‘suspended animation specs’ even after the join in a game
Doc ‘Abominated’ today after 20 kills – it should be 50! (more?)
Meanwhile, see you at this week’s:
What: Weekend AGR Session
Where: tastyspleen.net:26666
When: Every Saturday & Sunday 23:00 GMT. Convert this to your timezone here. note: Arrive early so as to not miss out on the action!
Who: Real Men
Why: Because chicks love Real Men.
MAP SCHEDULE: something manly
Here’s some nerfs you could have.
Each additional bot you get, makes them all upgrade even slower.
Each additional bot you spawn, starts with 1/2 the health of the previous one.
Perhaps their ranges could be tied to their upgrades. Especially with single barrel shotgun.
They could only spawn in your team spawn. Since they should be able to go anywhere, you could call them. More of a reinforcement player, rather than spawning anywhere.
Also, once you’ve placed the maximum bots down, your stockpile counter should stop. As it is, you could just lose your 5 bots, but if you had them already for 5 minutes, you’ve already go replacements. It’s too much. Perhaps 1 stock pile after max could work.
Yes, I agree about the stockpile constantly increasing ‘no matter what’ being ‘too much’.
At the end of the day – There’s gotta be some difficulty attached to obtaining (eg) 5+ army bots. What shows the ‘skill’ of someone who has Army bots? Keeping them alive? Putting them in terrific spot? The number of enemies they kill?
Limiting where they can spawning (eg in your team spawn) makes sense. Otoh that might cause issues w fragging teammates.. maybe the BotDispenser idea could work..