Bots apply nav pathing penalties based on weapon limits by sunzenshen · Pull Request #1805 · NeotokyoRebuild/neo

sunzenshen · 2026-03-09T03:54:34Z

Description

Bots consider relative level of exposure of a NavArea when deciding paths through the NavMesh

Bots with shotguns shy away from NavAreas that have many visibility connections
Bots with pistol caliber weapons slightly avoid areas but to a lesser degree
Bots with scoped/semi-auto weapons favor exposed NavAreas with long sightlines
Generally, a minor penalty is applied for NavArea exposure for bots to avoid wide open exposed NavAreas, unless they have a scoped/battle rifle

Toolchain

Windows MSVC VS2022

sunzenshen · 2026-03-09T04:18:46Z

Gallery of interesting paths now that bots are incentivized to avoid the most wide open areas when traversing the map:

Bots now generally hug walls as those NavAreas have fewer visibility connections along that edge:

A bot with a Supa takes the slightly long way around to take advantage of the closed off visibility area:

The cars, particularly the bus and truck, provide defilade protection when advancing:

The nudge away from exposed NavAreas encourages bots to use the defiladed ponds as cover.

The NavArea valleys under the rocks also have a reduced visibilty penalty for traversal and are now relatively less costly for bots as path choices:

An NSF Recon bot with a ZRL advancing to the garden (bottom center) moves to a NavArea that has many visibility connections due to exposure to both the garden and the pathway:

A bot with a semi-auto battle rifle uses a path that has wide open views:

sunzenshen · 2026-03-09T04:19:45Z

 	"How often to check for friendly path dispersion", false, 0, false, 60);

-ConVar neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier("neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier", "100.0", FCVAR_CHEAT,
+ConVar neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier("neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier", "1000.0", FCVAR_CHEAT,


Now that NavArea pathing costs are slightly elevated, need to bump up the penalty for jump paths to match the relatively increased baseline penalty costs.

sunzenshen · 2026-03-09T04:21:10Z

    "Path selection penalty added to a nav area each time a bot dies moving through that area.", true, 0, false, 0);

-ConVar neo_bot_path_reservation_onstuck_penalty("neo_bot_path_reservation_onstuck_penalty", "10000", FCVAR_NONE,
+ConVar neo_bot_path_reservation_onstuck_penalty("neo_bot_path_reservation_onstuck_penalty", "1000", FCVAR_NONE,


When working on ladder climbing, I noticed that the previous penalty cost was so heavy that bots would fail to climb a challenging ladder a couple times and then never touch that ladder again for the rest of the match. So I figured toning down this penalty was warranted.

- Bots with shotguns shy away from NavAreas that have many visibility connections - Bots with pistol caliber weapons slightly avoid areas but to a lesser degree - Bots with scoped/semi-auto weapons favor exposed NavAreas with long sightlines - Generally, a minor penalty is applied for NavArea exposure for bots to avoid wide open exposed NavAreas

Rainyan · 2026-06-06T07:24:50Z

@sunzenshen What was the console command to display those orange paths as shown in the screenshots above?

sunzenshen · 2026-06-06T20:06:17Z

@sunzenshen What was the console command to display those orange paths as shown in the screenshots above?

nb_debug path

NeotokyoRebuild#1805 (comment)

sunzenshen

Changing the CNEOBotPathCost penalty from distance to cost for weapons enhanced the bot tendency to hide behind cover, which results in bunching up, so I further increased the path reservation penalties to encourage taking alternate paths or to dividing up a room.

This is the script I paste into the console for observation:

(Divided up into forcing TDM mode, speeding up the round resets, showing grenade paths, showing pathing, and speeding up the rounds 2x.)

sv_neo_gamemode_enforcement 3; sv_neo_gamemode_single 0; neo_vote_game_mode 0; mp_restartgame 1;

sv_neo_bot_grenade_debug_behavior 1; mp_chattime 2; sv_neo_preround_freeze_time 2; cl_neo_grenade_show_path 1; sv_neo_grenade_show_path 1;
sv_neo_pvs_cull_roaming_observer 0;

nb_debug_path;
host_timescale 2;

sunzenshen · 2026-06-06T22:00:44Z

 	{
-		CNEOBotPathCompute( me, m_path, pGhostCarrier->GetAbsOrigin(), DEFAULT_ROUTE );
+		// FASTEST_ROUTE: don't waste chase time looking for cover
+		CNEOBotPathCompute( me, m_path, pGhostCarrier->GetAbsOrigin(), FASTEST_ROUTE );


With DEFAULT_ROUTE on this PR, bots don't chase ghost carriers fast enough as they sneak behind cover which wastes pursuit time. I decided that it's better to risk bunching up while taking the FASTEST_ROUTE, and then let the dispatch to the Attack behavior above to use DEFAULT_ROUTE when actually attacking enemies. So pursuers beeline as fast as possible to the ghoster until they contact the enemy, and then split up along different paths at that point.

sunzenshen · 2026-06-06T22:03:50Z

-ConVar neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier("neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier", "100.0", FCVAR_CHEAT,
-	"Maximum penalty multiplier for jump height changes in pathfinding", false, 0.01f, false, 1000.0f);
+ConVar neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier("neo_bot_path_penalty_jump_multiplier", "100000.0", FCVAR_CHEAT,
+	"Maximum penalty multiplier for jump height changes in pathfinding", true, 0.01f, false, 0.0f);


Further increasing the jump penalty as I increased the path reservation penalty below.

sunzenshen · 2026-06-06T22:05:41Z

+						{
+							// Weapons that don't have max first shot accuracy
+							const float exposurePenalty = neo_bot_path_penalty_exposure_pistol.GetFloat();
+							cost += visibleAreaCount * exposurePenalty;


Changing the penalty addition to cost enhanced the effect of bots bunching up together behind cover, so I tweaked the other penalties to encourage bots to spread out if they are in the same room.

sunzenshen · 2026-06-06T22:08:02Z

-ConVar neo_bot_path_reservation_penalty("neo_bot_path_reservation_penalty", "100", FCVAR_NONE,
-    "Pathing cost penalty for a reserved area.", true, 0, true, 1000000);
+ConVar neo_bot_path_reservation_penalty("neo_bot_path_reservation_penalty", "10000", FCVAR_NONE,
+    "Pathing cost penalty for a reserved area.", true, 0, false, 0);


Encourage bots to spread out in a room if they are traversing the same room as other bot teammates. Otherwise bots bunch up together to take the same covered path.

Rainyan

LGTM, cool to see the bots taking more nuanced routes!

sunzenshen requested a review from a team March 9, 2026 03:54

sunzenshen commented Mar 9, 2026

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sunzenshen added the Bots Related to bot players label Mar 9, 2026

sunzenshen force-pushed the bot-shotgunners-prefer-enclosed-spaces branch from 0b2be5c to f6b8450 Compare March 13, 2026 03:32

sunzenshen force-pushed the bot-shotgunners-prefer-enclosed-spaces branch from f6b8450 to 9d80dd3 Compare March 21, 2026 01:39

sunzenshen force-pushed the bot-shotgunners-prefer-enclosed-spaces branch from 9d80dd3 to 3e11e84 Compare April 3, 2026 04:58

AdamTadeusz previously approved these changes Apr 4, 2026

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sunzenshen requested a review from a team April 4, 2026 17:05

sunzenshen force-pushed the bot-shotgunners-prefer-enclosed-spaces branch from 3e11e84 to dcc9d1d Compare April 4, 2026 17:08

sunzenshen force-pushed the bot-shotgunners-prefer-enclosed-spaces branch from dcc9d1d to 25114e3 Compare May 28, 2026 01:28

Rainyan requested review from Rainyan and removed request for a team June 5, 2026 09:55

sunzenshen force-pushed the bot-shotgunners-prefer-enclosed-spaces branch from 25114e3 to eca69c6 Compare June 6, 2026 04:30

Rainyan requested changes Jun 6, 2026

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Comment thread src/game/server/neo/bot/neo_bot_path_cost.cpp Outdated

Comment thread src/game/server/neo/bot/neo_bot_path_cost.cpp Outdated

Comment thread src/game/server/neo/bot/neo_bot_path_cost.cpp Outdated

Comment thread src/game/shared/neo/weapons/weapon_neobasecombatweapon.h Outdated

sunzenshen added 3 commits June 6, 2026 14:55

Code review feedback

824d781

NeotokyoRebuild#1805 (comment)

Discourage bots further from taking same paths and jumping

2ff7598

Take direct path when chasing ghoster

0d3c381

sunzenshen dismissed AdamTadeusz’s stale review via 0d3c381 June 6, 2026 21:56

Remove unneeded header

9aea8eb

sunzenshen commented Jun 6, 2026

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sunzenshen requested review from AdamTadeusz and Rainyan June 6, 2026 22:13

sunzenshen mentioned this pull request Jun 6, 2026

Bots swap for more powerful weapons #1800

Open

Rainyan approved these changes Jun 8, 2026

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sunzenshen commented Mar 9, 2026

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Rainyan commented Jun 6, 2026

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sunzenshen commented Mar 9, 2026 •

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