Bot Backfill

Bot Backfill is a modular script that fills in NPC bots into a match in order to substitute players until real players are able to join in. Bot Backfill is easy to use as it only requires a supported mode to be loaded up, which allows for the Bot Backfill functionality to work on any map.

The Bot Backfill logic itself is a custom-made script snippet that can be added onto any existing mode with a feature dubbed 'node mode' in Halo Infinite's Forge. Due to every mode variant requiring a version with the Bot Backfill logic attached, I've created ~80 variants of modes that include the script logic within them. All that the end-user needs to do is to load the desired mode.

The need for the script came from there not already being a solution available that suited my needs. As with many other things of that nature, I took it upon myself to create a solution that not only suited my needs, but took feedback from the community and improved on the design in order to make it even better.

Bookmark the script modes here to use them it in Halo Infinite.

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The script works by running logic that checks what the player count situation is at the current moment, compares it to a predetermined value of the desired amount of total players and then adds or removes bots based on the needs. This cycle is repeated until the desired conditions are met, at which point the script halts. The script will be ran once again on set triggers such as On Player Joined, On Player Exited and On Player Team Change.

A single bot is added via the pre-game mode options at the start in order to store the bot's difficulty variable for later. This means that the lobby host can also change the difficulty of this first bot in the mode options, resulting in that difficulty being assigned to every bot for the duration of that match.

The logic also has a condition for making sure the team sizes are equal. When bots are added or removed, the script does so by always adding a bot to the smallest team first or removing a bot from the largest team first. In a situation where somehow a team is larger than the other, such as when a player voluntarily switches team, the logic picks up on this anomaly and adjusts the bot count per team accordingly.

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This scripting project taught me the importance of writing modular and future-proof node graph code as I noticed on multiple occasions how easy it was to add onto the script due to the foundation being so strong and easily expandable. When adding new features such as checking the team size, I was able to utilize my modular custom events for adjusting the bot count instead of having to write bespoke logic for that specific action.

This script has had a high positive impact on Halo community members who are looking to host custom game lobbies, but don't quite have the required player count. It has been used to fill in testing lobbies in order to get a full player count experience and I personally always use it when starting up any custom game as it helps with player retention rates due to new players seeing that there are already eight or more players running around on the map instead of just one.

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Development summary:

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