TF2: Bots

Remember how much better Half-Life's AI was compared to the FPS's before it? How those guys would flank you, and if they didn't know where you were, flush you out with grenades.

Steve Bond, the lead AI guru behind the vicious enemies in Half-Life, will be the point man for the bot's AI in TF2. The base concept that the AI will be built off of is a "learning design," (the artificial combatants learn from their mistakes and successes.) A great example of this is the engineer bot, "he" will build sentry guns and then track the amount of time until each is destroyed, how many kills it achieved, where the enemy is, and so forth. After building sentry guns in a variety of locations, the bot will "learn" what works and what doesn't, and then will pick the best location for its defenses almost every time.

This learning AI is interesting because it will be incorporated into every players' individual games as well, charting their success and offering suggestions onscreen to improve their play. As players improve, the ghost bot will offer fewer and fewer pointers.

Teams will be able to practice against teams of bots, and bots can be used to round out teams short on members. Should a new player log on, one of the bots will drop out to make room; conversely, players who drop out of games will be replaceable by bots. In addition to that, a player could fill both teams with bots, and become commander of one team, thus having a true RTS game (ala Starcraft/CNC/ect).

For commander bots: there will be a bot able to control a team of bots so a player can take on a team completely comprised by the computer. Taking that a step further, the commander bot will also be able to command a team of human players. (Thanks to ben for that tid-bit.)