I don’t buy that their AI would be set up any differently. And besides, Next Step has helicopters and mechs as well.
I will agree that they prioritize aircraft, which would make it appear like they have different AI programming if there aren’t any aircraft present, but it wouldn’t make any sense to actually set them up with different parameters.
In my experience, they behave the same in PVP and Patrol. Prioritizing aircraft is the same in either, if aircraft are present (or still alive).
For years I’ve seen players insist there has to be some kind of skill based match making, and I have sporadically done tests to try to find it, but I’ve never been able to see any proof.
If it’s there, it’s very subtle.
My explanation for losing streaks and winning streaks is simply that there aren’t many people playing the game, and that groups are allowed. It’s easy to get stuck in a queue against a single group during slower periods. Sometimes that group sucks, sometimes they’re a kill squad.
To me, when you look at the game through this perspective, it explains a lot of what some people think is skill-based matchmaking.
I think of myself as average when it comes to video games overall, but I’ve been playing Crossout long enough that I know I’m able to perform better than average because of my experience level and the items I’ve accumulated. But a skilled veteran player will still easily steamroll me.
There just aren’t that many of those players though, so when they’re in the mix, it makes the game feel drastically different. That can make it feel like the devs are putting their finger on the scale and creating unbalanced teams deliberately.
You never see a bad player claiming they’re getting easy wins because the matchmaker is helping them. It’s always “I’m losing because I’m so good”.
LOS I’d agree with for bots that don’t have something already triggering agro mode. I would even suggest range of detection being a second similar focus event. I mention that simply because breaking LOS doesn’t always stop them from following. Steath and radio Jamming seem to be the most common ways of fully breaking off agro mode but they seem to retarget if the effect doesn’t time them out. I’m not sure if there is a secondary mechanism that makes them switch from already agro’d targets beyond that.
There are plenty of times where I take advantage of an aggro’d bot to attack them and they don’t often break away so long as the player or bot they’re already targeting is within LOS or Radar range.
MM does seem to flux depending on if you are consistently in the upper or lower scoreouts per batch of matches. This only really seems to effect if you’re in the top or bottom of the next matches PS range. It doesn’t seem to effect the actual aggressiveness of the bots but just from the PS range change this can be detrimental sometimes. I don’t really think of this as skill based though as it seems to have upper an lower limits and it’s rather situational for where you end up.
Slight correction, it doesn’t EVER stop them from following. If they spotted you once, given that you’re a singular player left in your team, they wouldn’t stop pursuing you. They also know where you are at all times even if there is no radar in their team. (wow, how fun!)
The only way to break their targeting is go invis, hope they wil re-target or go capture (happens REALLY rarely)
Degunning triggers run for base even if aggro’d. The radar jamming works as well as invis for the most part though you still need to break LOS. I don’t really want to say doesn’t ever though as occasionally they will retarget. I’ve had a few times where I went invis right next to a bot before it finished turning to target me to have it target something else instead. It does happen. Getting them to break target though is hard unless you can get well out of the way.
im a long range fighter. i can also do medium to close range but my best way of attack is at a distance. usually i take my position and shoot bots from afar. my team mates would be in there and id be hanging back with support fire but often times this results in me being focused despite a bunch of my other team mates being open to attack. if i duck back in and the bots are far enough away theyll focus on someone else, but the instant i poke my head back out they instantly focus me again.
just had another match where i was heavily focused to.
i cant use helis because of how absolutely unbearably aggressive the bots are in a heli. i literally only use ground units and i do not use walker legs either which i know can get aggroed pretty aggressively by bots to, especially the ones that jump.
i rarely use invisibility as my builds are optimized for damage and accuracy. invisibility wont help much as bots hold onto that aggro for a very long time even after your invisible, on top of that the cloaks dont last long enough to make a difference.
nope. my builds are usually short and compact.
i have noticed a few of my builds being heavily targeted though.
naguals, avalanche, darlings, toadfish, sometimes narwhals, starfalls / cyclones, typhoon / arbiter mix, sometimes jotuns (about 15% of the time), sometimes fortunes (about 20% of the time).
some weapons im rarely targeted if im using them like charons for some reason im rarely targeted by bots, kaiju, porcupine, gungnir and nothung, retchers… and a few more.
its so weird to me because the weapons i listed above are some i use and like to use.
thats the same with me, they will literally ignore everyone else and take the shortest path to me to attack me.
yeah and i use jotuns very often so this is a big problem for me.
this can work and ive seen others use this tactic at times to.
i even seen someone try this with the yaoguai since they have alot higher firepower and it works ok.
i also noticed something to, if bots are in a group, the instant i shoot one they literally ALL look at and start firing at me. i think this has to do with their mechanic they put into the game before of “if your near an enemy and you attack them the other enemies team mates will target you and focus you down”. its funny because this doesnt happen very often in raids, even on hard raids, but it happens in patrol vs ai? common now.
Try taking note of whether you’re on an elevated surface when you get targeted.
If you’re in playing long range, you’re often going to be perched on a hill, or in places like the top of the rim of the crater.
My current theory about some bot behaviour changes is that when there are multiple targets in line of sight, they’ll prioritize the more elevated target, probably put in to deal with the addition of aircraft and mechs. But this can also impact ground vehicles who are elevated by the map.
This isn’t a theory I’ve tested in any serious way, so I might be wrong, but try to see if you notice the same pattern I think I’m seeing.
It has felt very noticeable playing TOW while parked up on a cliff, and some other long range weapons.
The other possibility could be that some bots are programmed to prioritize certain weapon types or weapons with certain ranges.
I’ve done some patrols lately and i didn’t noticed any difference, “business” as usual.
Maybe the playing long range has to do something about that impression of it’s just me or…
bots must prioritize long range builds like helis over dead close foes, weapons tier and type must have a saying, also. which modules
