Singleplayer and Bots

7 tiers of more of the same

Though it's billed as a first person shooter version of Mortal Kombat, Quake 3's single player is actually a lot less compelling than that description might sound. Basically, the 19 DM and 6 tourney maps are split up into seven tiers. In each tier you'll play DM free for alls with several bots on each of the DM maps until you reach the level boss who you'll have to duel with on a tourney map. Every tier unlocks a new cut scene, which are all very nice, but other than that, there's no really compelling reason why you'd want to play through all the single player levels. A lot of that has to do with the bots and their behavior.

Nice detail!

Die, skater boy

Making an artificial player

Since the days of Quake 1, mod makers have been attempting to create AI opponents that mimic the behavior of humans. Coding the AI for these artificial opponents is no small task. Realizing this, id enlisted "Mr. Elusive," creator of the Q2 Gladiator bot, to help program the Q3 bots. Each one has its own style and personality, but they all have one thing in common - they like to talk trash. Q3 bots will in fact, chat with one another and actually hold full conversations. It's an amusing novelty at first, but one that can get old in a hurry. Aside from acting like chatty Cathy, the Q3 bots each have their favorite weapons. Klesk and Xaero, for example, like to rail you. A lot. So much in fact, that you begin to suspect they're using some kind of bot. Hmm…oh yeah, they are bots!

Direct hit!

Bastard is dodging

Bots in action

So, ok we've got bots with certain styles and favorite weapons, and they talk to each other. How are they in action? Let's just say that the Q3 bots are inconsistent at best, and hopelessly robotic at worst. Although it's very impressive that the Q3 bots don't need to follow preprogrammed routes to find their way around the map, they exhibit odd behavior that's decidedly not human. First off, they don't always pick up items that you drop after you die. It's not uncommon to die, drop a good weapon like a rocket launcher, spawn at the other side of the map, come back and find that your RL is still on the ground. Obviously this isn't acceptable. Also, on the higher difficulty levels, the bots exhibit ungodly aim. Expect to be humbled if you let Klesk or Xaero get a rail gun. Machinegun toting bots are often more fearsome than if they switched to a "better" weapon because with the default gun, they seem to hit you with every bullet.

Uh oh - he's got quad

Smile!

Interface please!

To make matters worse, the interface to control the bots in CTF and Team DM is skeletal at best, despite the fact that the bot control system is actually amazingly complex and fully-featured. It is actually possible to direct bots on your team to do a variety of specific tasks like defend an area, patrol between two items, hunt down and kill a specific player, escort teammates, perform a specific action for a specified amount of time, and much more. You can even subdivide a team of bots into squads. Unfortunately, all this info is hidden away in an html file called botcommands.htm under /Extras/Help/, so we have a hard time seeing a lot of people creating all the bindings they'd need to do proper bot control.