Im sorry...I know you want everyone to think it's still in the game since you've coded you're own modified version, but playing a modded version of what the default and official out of the box experience was when the game first released are 2 very different things.
I won't go into all the differences between what the official experience was like as compared to playing what is now a "custom" match, except to say that beyond it just not playing as well as the official matches previously provided, it also doesnt allow you unlock any of the weapons and other content that make up a huge part of the overall experience in playing, and quite honestly what we were promised and what was delivered to us BEFORE they removed it.
Now when you play with bots on a custom match, it just doesnt play as well as the official stuff did and you can't unlock any of the content you've paid for, and it takes away all that fun. You also don't have access to just play it on any map you choose or in all the official modes for that matter. So there are many differences, BIG differences that take away not only the quality of the gameplay, but also the freedom to choose how and where you want to play, and your ability to get to play with all released content, be it weapons or other items...both for now and all the future content released which we had already paid for at launch.
Modified XP and lack of unlocks/challenge reward is something none of us have control over and probably won't return given that it is in direct conflict with the pay-to-win and battlepass progression and grind mechanics in the game (which are definitely not going away).
I never said that would return.
If you read the OP, they said they are fine with that being gone. All they want is a PVE experience that they say is now gone.
I am telling you, per the OP's definition, it is not gone. PVE still exists. The only thing gone is xp and unlock changes and the ease of implementation.
PVE in custom is no different than PVE was in verified-mode. It plays the same. It's the same AI. It plays as well. Try it. The only difference is how you spawn them in and, in some cases, what you need to do to trick them into heading toward an objective or region. How they actually behave, when you don't purposely change their behavior, is the same and is out of anyone's control. If I wanted to make them not shoot you or walk in circles or stand in a corner, I could. But I don't. Instead, I let the AI behave the way the game designed them to behave.
I did try it, several times, before uninstalling the game.
I speak from my own personal experience with it. it is my own opinion that it does not play nearly as well as the official modes did before being removed from the game. I know there are others who share in my opinion, and I'm sure some who may not.
But what is NOT opinion, is that the 2 ways of playing ARE very different because they each offer different ways of playing, as mentioned for all the reasons I pointed out earlier. Even you, can't argue that point. Which one is better is strictly opinion.
Which one is more popular, you could likely see in the numbers playing.
Your mod is better than nothing at all, and I've previously thanked you for all your work on it...but it is simply NOT the same thing we were playing when the game released, nor what we signed up for when handing over our money.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Unfortunately, if anything changed with the AI, it wasn't anything any one of us have control over.
I'm not sure what early PVE experiences you played that were so much better. Every one I saw was complete purposeful garbage.
I think it is more likely a rose-colored-glasses scenario. I think the majority of us felt that almost everything was better back then compared to our overall opinions of the game which have now changed. We felt excited for what was new and seemed so limitless, only to later find the limits and feel boxed-in.
What I can assure you of is that if you could create a solo verified-mode conquest against bots today, it would play identically because the map is essentially identical and the AI is identical.
I don't see anyone praising the quality of the bots in their matchmaking games. I think, if studdied, you will see that they are the same.
Even if someone likes the gameplay just as much as the official stuff before it was removed,.. there's still the complete lack of progression preventing us from obtaining all the weapons and attachments content that we've paid for.
If they're going to remove progression (which they obviously have done) then they'd need to provide a solo/coop mode (ala 2042), and make all the weaponry/attachments unlocked within it so we have access to use it (same thing COD does for it's PvE players). Then we could choose our map, choose our game type whether it be Conquest, Rush, Breakthrough, etc. and adjust the bot difficulty settings as preferred. That is NOT what your mod provides. It is not the same thing. I wish it were, but it's just not possible.
What you've provided is a terrific alternative, and I applaud and certainly appreciate the effort!
But it still doesn't replace what was taken from us, or make up in any way for the disrespectful, criminalistic ways of the developer.
