Edit: As of right now, I'm no longer taking requests, as I'd like to finish the some-odd 30 AI Bots currently in the works from prior requests. Thanks! =)

As some of you may or may not know, 88 Flak has a bit of a special feature, and one that serves as my nod to the fine members of the Freelancer community - AI Bots. Built in the name of existing players, these AI Bots are pretty much what you think they would be - special ships that either wander around doing their own thing, or - if playing solo - can be recruited into a squad of up to four. Each AI Bot carries its own dynamic reputation to individual players, bots, and even factions. Help out a particular bot when its in a jam, and it will repay the favor, potentially choosing to help you out when hostile NPCs or players attack - even if, depending on how much it likes you, that ship is in its own faction. Conversely, annoy a bot, and it may go out of its way to make your life miserable.

So, why am I bringing this up? Well, I decided to once again start expanding the bot roster, and figured some of you might like being tossed into 88 Flak as a badass AI Bot, wreaking havoc on things (with great vengeance).

So, interested? Provide the following information:


For example, here's Sushi's AI Bot loadout:


I will handle up to 2 ship/loadout requests per person/bot, and only one of those loadouts may be a Capital Ship. Please be as creative with your ship/loadout selections as possible - again, these are just the standard roster of vanilla FL ships, so try to pick a ship nobody else is using - also, in Flak, all of the ships are balanced by their class, so a bot flying a Patriot will be no less formidable than a bot flying an Eagle, so choose your favorite!

So, uhh, here goes!

Edit: If I left a major piece of info out, I'll fix it after dinner. I'll also post the existing AI Bots already in Flak, so you can see what the others are piloting.

Edit2: Here's a list of the bots currently in 88 Flak, for reference when making requests:

name snake plisskin
faction the order
ship anubis
weapons blue

XP, would you mind if I threw you in as a Corsair instead? Outsider's Followers are currently a pair of AI Bots registered under Outcasts, and I've decided it'll be more interesting if each bot is in its own faction - this way you'll have a lot more crazy inter-bot relationships going on.
Also, you by any chance want a Pursuit Dagger instead of a normal Dagger? It's basically a faster version of the ship, fitted with a third thruster, but with less firepower - Pursuit LFs run circles around VHFs though, so if it had some anti-shield capability it would be a formidable HF / VHF adversary.


Do you by any chance just want the Order weapons mounted on your ship? If not, I could slap some Flashpoints (blue/yellow) on, which would actually look pretty cool on an Anubis come to think. If I put Flashpoints on there, any chance you'd like Civilian (Yellow) engine? They'd match real well color-wise with the Anubis and color of the Flashpoints.


For the name, I'll just go with StarAvenger, as it's one people will probably recognize most. If it's okay with you, I'd like to stick you in a Banshee, as there's not much in the LF department currently in play, so that'd mix it up a bit. Big slow guns would be a good choice, especially on a LF - unfortunately, the Krakens are a bit too high-level, but how about the slow-firing Hogosha guns? Those are big mean red sluggers, and may look good on a Banshee. And I can definitely slap a missile launcher on there. =P

I'll work on getting these ingame, and post up screenshots of your bots shortly. To everyone else, please go ahead and post a request! This is my way of saying "thanks" to the community, and the more the merrier!

And no complaints from me, foxy!

If you'd like, I can also create a bot piloting the Mobile Ruiz Base, and that could be your bot's "Capital Ship" char (ChipBot already pilots a Mobile Depot).

Player docking does not, unfortunately, function on AI-operated ships - although, to be honest, it probably could with a little work. You'd have to ask M0tah about that though.

Alright, I've begun processing the bot requests. This is how it looks so far:

(general legality) - (voice) - (name) - (faction) - (ship(s)) - (loadout(s))


I did some minor faction change-ups, as I'm trying to maintain a balanced ratio of lawful:unlawful bots. As you can see, I'm assigning one voice per bot, per batch. I'll be doing the same for the 3rd batch. When this second batch is implemented, this will bring the total to 22 unique bots; by the end of the 3rd batch, the total will be 33, and so on.

Again, I'll be starting a 3rd batch of requests, so keep the requests coming!

Edit: Right, I totally forgot to mention - you can have bots registered under a generic "Lawful/Unlawful Freelancer" faction - this is the default faction players are placed under if they do not manually join a faction. It'd be nicer if you requested a real faction, as this is what most players themselves are registered under, but the option is there none-the-less.

Edit 2: Totally forgot, feel free to request shipping companies etc. as a faction - in fact, a dedicated trader bot could be fun. Transports, Trains, and Liners are all fair game; you can even specify the goods (vanilla) you'd like your bot to trade, if you wish.

Another long-due update on this.

As you can see, I've started building in-game loadouts of the new bot requests. So far I've nailed just about the entire 2nd batch, and will be moving onto the 3rd batch tomorrow. I spent a fair amount of time on each loadout, balancing the gun, shield, and equipment levels to be at least reasonably efficient. As a few of you requested specific equipment, I did the best I could to adhere to the requests, however I took the liberty of swapping out equipment here and there for a more efficient loadout.

At this point, I just need to finish the 3rd batch of loadouts, and write up the general code for the bot mini-factions! Hopefully in the coming days I'll be able to capture some video or screenshots of the AI bots in action.

For now, I snapped a few pictures while building some of the loadouts, incase you're curious as to how some of the new bots might look ingame:

SushiBot:

The first request I took. He requested (and beat everyone else to) the Dragon, armed with some purple weaponry. I ended up mixing together Skyrails and Scorpions in an attempt to get the color purple, and uhh it works I guess. I also strapped on an admittedly ugly Border World (white) engine, as it was the most efficient choice for this loadout.

SnakePlisskin:

Because no AI Bot collection is complete without our resident Nomad killing machine Snake Plisskin. Standard Order (red) equipment, Firestalker Homing / Decimator EMP Missiles (red), and finally a "Hurricane" tractor-beam (red). There's a lot of red here, because red stands for ass kicking.

Lonestar:

Lonestar loves that Serafina, so if you play Flak, don't be surprised to run into the Serafina in both bot and actual player form. XD Don't let the Justice MkIIIs throw you off either - low-class guns are very accurate and energy efficient, making them great for sustained fire, which is the best way to break through a VHF shield tank from range. Freighters can be very deadly when used like this.

NairaX:

This loadout's crazy. While the Tachyon guns are pretty standard fare, you don't often see slow, hard-hitting rares on PLFs due to rares being so inefficient with power. This should be an interesting one to fight.

He||oween:

This loadout's also crazy. I adhered to Helloween's high-class gun request, but as a result this freighter can only sustain fire for about 2 seconds, even with the high-power Rheinland engine strapped on. However, that 2-second volley can be enough to put a reasonable dent in a slow-moving HF. This should also be an interesting one to fight. Helloween's other loadout is a Sabre, but I didn't take a screenshot of that.

KillerJaguarBot:

KJ is currently holds the highest total kill count record in 88 Flak, and his Red Dragon, armed with Rogue Usiels and all three missile types, should prove an interesting opponent. KJ's other loadout is an Osiris, but I didn't take a screenshot of that.

AshBot:

This has the honor of using the loadout belonging to my oldest 88 Flak character still in existance, Doofus_the_Destroyer, which has over 1,200 hours logged. The loadout is tuned in favor of highly inaccurate, but quick, damage, and enormously high amounts of shield capacity with little shield regen. It is geared for extensive pirating raids and Transport hunting - ironically, AshBot will be flying under Interspace Commerce. (yes, the Lifeboat is a pilotable rare ship)

StilBot:


My own creation, StilBot will fly in the pair of Falcons shown above (currently, the Grim's Green and Outsider's Followers AI Bots fly in pairs as well). The red Falcon is geared towards quick, hard-hitting close-combat damage, while the blue Falcon is geared towards longer-range, sustained EMP damage - the general idea is that the slower blue Falcon harasses your shields and power supply from range, while the faster red Falcon moves in to deliver high hull damage. This should provide some entertaining PvBot engagements.