[louis10162]

I'm always been impressed with the implementation of bots in eqemu, but I can't help but think they've never reached their full potential and were never really completed.

I have numerous times attempted to play with bots from lvl 1 to max level on my server and always end up quitting in favor of boxing due to various issues. Ideally I would love to never box again, but the current bot implementation doesn't make it a great alternative.

The biggest issue I have is that you cannot choose targets for spells. Bots buff everyone with all buffs no matter the targets class. I'm not sure how it plays out at higher levels, but it makes playing lower levels very irritating when your mage bot is trying to keep a damage shield on your whole party, when you only want it cast on your tank. Combat spellcasting is ok, and I like the stances, but would still be nice to issue a command to cast a one-off spell on an npc sometimes. Obviously, none of this is an issue when boxing.

I think the simplest way around this would be to implement a spellcasting command, something like ^bot Botname1 spellcast Shield of Thorns Botname2. The logic would need to check for correct class, level, targets level, etc. but would not be that hard to implement. It would also work for casting one-off spells on npcs and could also be used to start the code to implement bot clickies.

I'm wondering if its possible to get something like this implemented? So much great work has been put into bots and it feels like its close to being completed, but not quite there yet.