New update & improvements, thanks for the input from playtesters!
-> Bot is stronger again on the pit arena, I'm having difficulty beating him... (Other arena's map path w.i.p. see below)
GFX updates:
--> Rockets more visible now. Clearer flame & smoke trail
--> HUD updates: Health cross, weapon icons per selected item, HUD customizer in settings
--> Website UI work in progress
-> Physics big update: Rocket jumps work much better now, closer to tf2
-> Spire arena 1:1 copied from tf2 and first round of clipping cleaned up - still some glitches to be smoothened out
-> Multiplayer bugs fixed (multi-kill on SG & grenades, duel link also working again)
-> Tryhard mode actually working

Still in progress:
-> Prio 1: Re-sweeping all map-paths after rocket jump update (~200 Million flights... 76 Million done as we speak)
-> Bot learned to rocket walljump but not in the map paths yet. Will be added once the 200M flights are done, especially in Cannery looking forward to add wallsjumps.
-> Achievement icons in progress on the background. Done with 10/50
-> Map visuals

So at this stage, looking for feedback about the physics / feel of the rocket jumps... I feel they are a bit more boosted vs TF2 but maybe because I got used to the lower jumps, they feel much better now.
Any feedback on the bot's behavior on Arcadium or on The Pit? I know his rocket jumps are not good yet. Anything else that stands out let me know.

p.s. the different tiers don't impact the bot's difficulty yet. I'm first making a very strong reaper and after that his difficulty will be tuned down to make him easier all the way to bell pepper

https://scoville.gg/

new update, bot improved again, a bit stronger now
-> tryhard mode working better (e.g. if you kill him 3x with LG then he will also mirror that. same for prefire / sg switch)
-> 1st flight paths in for Cannary and Shoreline but not so satisfied yet, Arcadium stays best map to practice vs bot
-> demo reply system working, could already review quite a few demos and make the bot learn from it

Thanks for testing and helping to improve the game!
many more items to be worked on ...

update

www.scoville.gg

Improved the bots brain and playstyle, sniper rifle passive reload is in, mouse sense should feel better now (will enable 1:1 source sense in next release), and important: Every game vs the bot is now recorded and used to train and improve the bot. So the more people can play (Arcadium only at the moment) the better I can improve the bot.

Currently in progress:
- mapping CANNARY flight paths for the bot
- mapping SHORELINE v2 flight paths for the bot
- teaching the bot wall jumping
- tweaking the tryhard mode

WORKING ON IT

including MGE etiquette

added. I saw on your page you played in a mge world championship.
Didn't know they existed, and 2; then I definitely need your input to improve the bot!

added - the bot is far from being better than me but it is definitely my end-goal.

I want to go to a place where Scoville has 2 directions:

1) 'road to reaper' you start fighting a easy bot 'bell pepper' and move your way up through 'jalapeno' etc to the California Reaper -> the first to kill that one gets a prize and recognition, and is placed on global leaderboard + time trial. That could be one competition

2) 1v1 duel game: super quick access, send a link to anyone in discord and within 10seconds you are in the game. Play wherever you want without download. f2p. no pay to win, just decide who is the truely better player with no excuses

Personally It's a very fun project, I understand a lot of people have a negative opinion about AI being used in game creation. And I get it, I see a lot of "one shot" this one shot that, so many AI Slop being created, I don't really understand what is attractive at doing these one shots.
But in my case, it unlocks something I would have otherwise never been able to achieve. I spent ... maximum 1 month on it so far. Working on it during the evenings when I have some time, and I am able of achieving so much it's insane.
AI is a great instrument that in my case helps apply my creative side instead of taking over the creativity from me. The technical detailed part is where it takes the lead, but I am always the decision maker and I am always in control.

Some examples...
I build the bot on the foundation of the quake 3 bot, based on phd research from van Waveren (rip) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240430519_The_Quake_III_Arena_Bot
Then I expanded that and split the bot into 3 parts:
- Motoric skills: Aim & movement.
- Atlas: Map knowledge and flight paths
- Brains: Decision architecture and scenario 'reading'/understanding

Set up the whole netcode with the same idea as John C Carmack, set up a replay system, achievement roadmap, and many more.

In the end even if the game is not succesful or people can't get over the fact I used AI - I still learned a lot and most importantly am having a lot of fun...

Anyway sorry for the long writeup this is turning into a blogpost now...

https://scoville.gg/

Looking for playtest feedback!

Still very early stages, but you can play vs the bot on 'Arcadium' and 'The Pit'
Other arenas bot's map knowledge is not mapped yet, will finalize these maps first (geometry wise) and then ready the bot.
Next arena I'm working on in Shoreline (II) -> very heavy load at the moment bear with me, not optimized yet, but trying to make a "nice" looking map. Takes lots of time to get the right assets and textures in place but trying a new workflow.
And of course... I placed the SPIRE arena. Geometric shapes and slopes should feel OK. Even improved the game physics engine moving from box-shapes only to non-box shape that was needed to make the map work. https://imgur.com/a/UBTLmU3
Skybox just a random filler for now, trying to figure out how to make that look good

p.s. yes multiplayer is already live but please be aware the server is in EU. You get around 100ms from east coast USA, just tested. More servers will be placed globally later

Feedback needed:
- Fight the bot on the PIT: general feedback about his movement, rockets, prediction, etc?
- Fight the bot on Arcadium; Lots of improvements to be done on his rocket jump skill and speed. Any observations what makes him easy to beat? What to improve?
- Overall physics & settings feeling: Does it feel very off to tf2? I feel like there is a mouse accell going on that I'm getting changed. Rocket jumps feel slightly weaker than in tf2 - and wall jumps definitely feel less effective. Any input is helpfull here...

Thanks for the interest

Why?

lol me having fun with my virtual company
i can write a comedy sketch about my journey:

https://i.imgur.com/DO8qIpf.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_rVhuJMb6U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO-n2bVtQmQ

So I'm not sure if this is the right section and whether people are interested or not. But I basically started to create a game from scratch.
I know quite a bit about software development because I work for a software company, but I'm in sales. I don't have any coding experience, but somehow I managed to get quite far already.
Right now I basically have multiplayer working, a demo system, achievements layed out, a couple of arenas, and most importantly a bot that can already rocket jump; air strafe and fight pretty OK.
The bot already learned 'the pit' a ammomod_mge style arena and his aim + movement is pretty good. I'd say like a 2000 ELO player.
I also made a map called 'Arcadium' with a mini spire in it. The bot can jump to it from 3000 different cells in the arena. Using multiple different strafe options. It took me fucking 88million runs in 5 .bat files to create the total map_path for the bot to know how to go from A to B in the middle of the fight.

Anyway, the purpose of this thread is the following: I'm going to reach a point where the bot is too strong for me. I'm not that good anymore because I barely have time to play. Are there good players out here who would like to help playtest it and improve the bot, whilst fighting for a reward prize? I'm thinking just like 500 Euro or something for the effort. But I want to first be confident in the bot's skills...

Let me know if you are interested

disclaimer: yes I use AI to assist on the coding part. But I am always in control of the decisions and anything impacting the gameplay. I don't hide the fact I use Claude and can even make another post about how I'm running 18 agents with their own departments...

https://youtu.be/wfQRcXXvw0I

Unfortunately most players moved to ugc indeed...
What fixed some of the performance issues for me was disabling the html message via console.
Turns out majority of the lag/freezing was caused because the advertisements kept opening up in the background, every few minutes, and they keep stacking... negatively impacting my laptop performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDi_x4G4UPo

I don't play frequently anymore, but I just joined a MGE server and on ammomod_mge arena I see 2 soldiers with 2900 points playing with reserve shooter. After every single rocket shot they flick to shotgun. Every single shot! Is this the new playstyle?
Not hating just curious as I haven't played in a while, seems very tryhard for me and don't understand how this can be fun

C u @ !!!