Crazy Canucks Gaming Community

** This thread discusses the content article: Bots for Team Fortress 2 **

Some time ago we added Team Fortress 2 to the games we have available to play, and I have to say, that up to this point, setting up the TF2 server and keeping it updated has been just about a complete waste of time.  And yes, we even have stats for it, which if you look at them, has been an even bigger waste of time.  However, we've kept hanging on to TF2, and not removing it from the rotation because it really is, a terrific game.  And it keeps getting better.


One of the reasons why we've never played it is even when someone has voted for it, we haven't had enough players vote to make it worth running the server.  Well that might be about to change, and it may well be that the effort that has been put into it will be worth it.  Valve is developing full fledged bots for TF2.  TF2 has always had bots, but they haven't had much in the way of a.i., so you couldn't really play with them or against them.  They weren't good for much more than testing purposes, or taking screen shots, and questionable even for that.


Well now the a.i. for the bots is in the process of being fully developed.  If you are interested there is an official forum for discussions regarding the bots, and hopefully it won't be long before we will be able to add them to the server, which will I think mean that we will finally actually get to play some TF2.

I think we've tried it twice (in my memory any way) and both times it really was a matter of not enough players. with less than 6-8 a side, one person with a slightly higher skill can fully dominate the game.
Like some of the other games we've tried (empires in particular) TF2 needs a good 8 a side to play. I look forward to seeing bots allow us to try it again. I'd even be willing to attend a beta-test night on our server to try out beta bots...
If the bots work, I can see TF2 fully replacing TFC since it is soooo much more fun (when there are enough players). I think with bots it will be a much more popular choice...

Well, I'll look into the bots, and there might even be a plugin that makes managing them easier. I'll look for that as well.

Currently the bots are in a bit of a WIP stage (I've been messing around with them). They don't play scout or spy at all atm, but otherwise they play the game well enough. Although they're not particularly challenging for an experienced player.

One downside is that I think they might be quite resource intensive. Running a listen server on my machine can cope with a 8-a-side match with me + bots, but occasionally it can get sluggish.

Well, hopefully with a max of four on a side it will work well. I'm also considering dropping the server size to 12 which would also improve performance. It also appears as though Valve is actively developing them, so I would expect that it won't be long before we see significant improvements in them.