Currently bots are
- ineffective
- basic
- devoid of character
- frustrating
On malice they’re practically suicidal. Playing with bots doesn’t feel good.
Yes, Darktide is a co-op game for humans. But there are instances where bots are inevitable(can’t find players, dc’s, etc) and there are players who prefer to play private games.
My basic suggestions to make bots tolerable would be to
- scale them with difficulty(stats, weapons and cosmetics)
- teach them to use cover/avoid running into kill boxes
To make bots lovable you could give them the loadout, appearance, name and voice of a players alt character
or (slightly ambitious)
Introduce an in-game system for creating bot characters. The mission could then select from a pool of these characters. You could make it completely freeform and allow customization of the loadout and cosmetics.
If you want to go even further ( Very Ambitious)
You could integrate it with the game economy, allowing players to purchase gear and cosmetics for their bots. Maybe you could also send them on missions for passive income and develop this into it’s own peripheral game system.
I don’t actually actually expect anything like this as I understand it often doesn’t make sense to allocate development resources to niche side content. However, I believe that bots are a somewhat significant aspect of the game experience(whether you want them to be or not). This kind of system would also make more use of the customization systems you are putting so much effort into.
I would love to love the bots 