merge Suggestion: Improve Friendly AI Collision, Pathfinding & Juggernaut Behavior

[EPIC-MO7 0]

Hello, Tankmen.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this suggestion.

I have been playing the game since the beginning and have always tried to contribute by sharing feedback and ideas for improvement. I understand that monetization, new goals, and challenges are important for keeping the game active, but I believe player retention and the overall gameplay experience should receive the same attention.

One issue in particular has become frustrating enough that it sometimes makes me leave a match or close the game entirely: friendly AI behavior.

I usually play defensively, protecting objectives and team assets, but friendly AI tanks can sometimes work against the team unintentionally. They may push allied tanks, block movement, self-destruct in bad positions, or interfere with combat.

The main problem seems to be that the AI does not properly account for moving allied tanks during pathfinding. Instead of recognizing a teammate as an obstacle and adjusting its route, it often tries to move through them. This can cost players positioning, kills, objectives, and sometimes the match itself.

Suggested Improvements

Ideally, friendly AI should recognize allied tanks as dynamic obstacles and adjust its path accordingly.

However, I understand that improving AI pathfinding may require more development time. As a quicker solution, I suggest reducing the AI's collision force or effective weight by around 70% when interacting with allies. This would allow players to push AI tanks out of the way instead of being blocked or pushed by them.

I also suggest reconsidering AI participation as the Juggernaut. Unless the AI has specific behavior designed for that role, having an AI-controlled Juggernaut can sometimes hurt the team more than help it.

Instead, when no suitable player is already controlling it, active players in a safe area could receive an option to become the Juggernaut. For example, the selected player could press [Y] when prompted, transforming their current tank into the Juggernaut without needing to destroy or respawn.

I believe these changes would reduce unnecessary frustration, improve match quality, and encourage players to stay in matches longer.

Bringing in new players is important, but keeping the players who already enjoy and support the game should be just as much of a priority.

Thank you for reading, and I would be interested to hear what other players think.

[NikmanGT 4,703]

Yeah, bots have been somewhat of a problem now. Nice piece of idea 

[Wry 137]

The devs added bots to the main servers in the 14th of July 2023 and from then till now bots have not received any meaningful change to improve their gameplay despite the constant feedbacks such as yours. The lack of communication about bots in the V-logs is also telling, despite players always complaining about bots. It does look like the devs wanted to add bots just to fill the gaps without thinking of improving the system later on.