The Hidden Forest

Heya,

I like the idea of bots because it makes going through the game alot more convenient for someone who has off-hour play times and wants to feel a sense of progression and accomplishment while being hindered by personal constraints.

With this in mind, I have a few different ideas on how bots can be improved. I haven't trolled too much on the subject but here goes:

1) Bots can wear normal character armor as it stands. Creating bot only armor would be hard unless you create an alternate race so Player characters are unable to wear bot items. The Bot items would have stats the bridge the gap between PC and Bot. These items would be obtained by regular questing/killing.

2) If you are unhappy with bot aggro then maybe you could create a racial bonus (like Iksar Regen or Human Blindness) to have an aggro modifier which applies to all of the races.

3) Maybe bot melee can register with a mob (like some sort of debuff) and mobs couldn't be attacked by more than one bot at a time.

4)Also, opening the questing for other class Epics would be awesome.


I understand that EQ was never a solo-friendly game unless you played a handfull of classes. Opening an avenue like this up would probably create an opportunity for exploit but it makes the game friendlier for someone who needs a throwback without complete absorption.

I'm saddened by the fact that my solo (3box) progression stops at Tier1 because my bot doesn't have the ability to survive encounters. I love the progression that I have gone through until this point.

Open ended topic - Please post ideas/criticisms and at the very least answer this question:

"Should a single bot-assisted group of 4 be able to kill what a 4 person player-character group can kill?"

/prepares_for_social_integration

Deadspirit wrote:Heya,
I like the idea of bots because it makes going through the game alot more convenient for someone who has off-hour play times and wants to feel a sense of progression and accomplishment while being hindered by personal constraints.

I originally liked bots. And I liked them more after later playing everquest live with mercenaries. Mercenaries made the game more enjoyable as a casual player. In particular, they allowed me to solo AA, certain quests, and even some encounters that I otherwise could have taken without another person.

The issue with bots has consistently been that there has not been enough time to really work on them. Working on them can be time consuming with very little payout. As a result, they kind of fell behind.

Deadspirit wrote:1) Bots can wear normal character armor as it stands. Creating bot only armor would be hard unless you create an alternate race so Player characters are unable to wear bot items. The Bot items would have stats the bridge the gap between PC and Bot. These items would be obtained by regular questing/killing.

We have looked at this in the past mainly to address some class specific quest armor. It's possible to do something like this eventually.

Deadspirit wrote:2) If you are unhappy with bot aggro then maybe you could create a racial bonus (like Iksar Regen or Human Blindness) to have an aggro modifier which applies to all of the races.

I'm not that unhappy with it. It functions exactly as it would toward a player character atm. I like that aspect, but may could use some tweaks. I don't think I'd do it through racial bonuses though.

Deadspirit wrote:3) Maybe bot melee can register with a mob (like some sort of debuff) and mobs couldn't be attacked by more than one bot at a time.

I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I don't think this would be done. Elaborate on why this is needed.

Deadspirit wrote:4)Also, opening the questing for other class Epics would be awesome.

My impression is this will not happen largely due to the nature of epics. The belief has typically been that epic weapons result from epic quests. Since a bot cannot complete quests (only their owner can), they shouldn't be rewarded with an epic quest weapon.

Deadspirit wrote:"Should a single bot-assisted group of 4 be able to kill what a 4 person player-character group can kill?"

From my understanding, a bot should be slightly weaker than a player. So, it's likely a maybe-maybe not scenario unfortunately. Sorry, but I cannot provide a clear answer to that question.

As I stated, we are aware of the attention bots need. In addition, our view of bots is probably a little distorted since they were initially offered to help provide players with a way to level up (given the lack of players at initial release). And since then, they just haven't been revisited as of yet.

Deadspirit wrote:3) Maybe bot melee can register with a mob (like some sort of debuff) and mobs couldn't be attacked by more than one bot at a time.

I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I don't think this would be done. Elaborate on why this is needed.

You could have 3 players and a bot in a group or 3 players and 3 bots out of a group. Is this seen as exploiting?

Deadspirit wrote:4)Also, opening the questing for other class Epics would be awesome.

My impression is this will not happen largely due to the nature of epics. The belief has typically been that epic weapons result from epic quests. Since a bot cannot complete quests (only their owner can), they shouldn't be rewarded with an epic quest weapon.

If its a matter of lore or storyline then its cool. I have an epic i'm not using that I wish my bot had though. Swap Turnins/repeat epic FTW.

Deadspirit wrote:"Should a single bot-assisted group of 4 be able to kill what a 4 person player-character group can kill?"

From my understanding, a bot should be slightly weaker than a player. So, it's likely a maybe-maybe not scenario unfortunately. Sorry, but I cannot provide a clear answer to that question.

I tried to kill the Idol of RZ last night with a friend. We burned him to half quickly but the 6k rounds that a /discing warrior would never had received were painful. Maybe I should roll a warrior and stop dreaming =) (my bot had 11k hp and 2.5k ac. I consider him to be kael geared)

As I stated, we are aware of the attention bots need. In addition, our view of bots is probably a little distorted since they were initially offered to help provide players with a way to level up (given the lack of players at initial release). And since then, they just haven't been revisited as of yet.

They were a godsend when leveling - especially for caster classes. I understand that bots are probably "working as intended", and dont get me wrong, I absolutely love them, but desire for a stronger tank wont go away =p

Thank you for your labors! I'm sure bot modification would take a material amount of time so I have zero expectations.

On other servers ( SoA for exemple ) you could get 1.5 and 2.0 for bots only.


I already suggested a vendor selling bot only epic for a large amount of plat ( no idea what it should be , maybe 120 k 1.5 , 200K 2.0 )



I know they can do it , but I dunno if it would take a lot of backoffice time etc etc


Kiss

Part of what makes the epic good is the clicky - giving a bot an epic isn't even really that appealing as they are unable to use any clicky....

If you were able to buy Epics then people wouldn't need to do the quest since there is no distinction between Bot items and Player items. I think the Exchange idea works if you want to give yours up for a bot.

Making bot-only items seems like the best idea - but then again how much time will it take in creating/balancing and placing drops/vendors...

Thanks again for the hard work, devs.

Deadspirit wrote:Part of what makes the epic good is the clicky - giving a bot an epic isn't even really that appealing as they are unable to use any clicky....

If you were able to buy Epics then people wouldn't need to do the quest since there is no distinction between Bot items and Player items. I think the Exchange idea works if you want to give yours up for a bot.

Making bot-only items seems like the best idea - but then again how much time will it take in creating/balancing and placing drops/vendors...

Thanks again for the hard work, devs.

I agree with Dead that bots really don't have much use for epics. Even if I could buy a bot only epic I would rather just go find a decent enough drop for him. I know I have lots of drops that I would just let rot if I didn't have my bot.

Lately I have been going after weapons mostly just for the combat proc for my bots like this for my rog bot http://www.thehiddenforest.org/webtools/items.php?id=119996