Bots

Every Floppa Heist server always feels full. Bots join to make up the numbers, and they play by the same rules as you: prisoners try to break out, police try to stop them.

Floppa Heist is an early prototype. The bots are a first version and will keep changing.

16 players, always

A server always has 16 players. If 3 real players are online, 13 bots play with them. When a friend joins, a bot leaves to make room; when someone leaves, a bot takes the spot again. Playing alone, you share the map with 15 bots.

About one third are police, the rest are prisoners.

Online, the server controls every bot, so all players see the same bots in the same places. Bots look like normal players: Floppa, outfit and name tag.

See what they think

Press F3 in game. Every bot gets a thought bubble with its state and what it is doing right now ("Waiting until no guard is watching", "Bringing $1,850 to the criminal base", "Driving to Pepper83 with the siren on"). Its planned path shows as a line on the ground and its goal as a glowing marker. Police show a red line to the person they are after. A bot map on the right shows everyone from above, coloured by state, with how many bots are doing what.

Prisoner bots

Prisoner bots play like players: they want out, they want money, and they don't want to get caught.

1. Breaking out. A prisoner picks a route and hangs around near the start of it. As soon as no guard is watching, it goes:
   • The sewer: crawl into the manhole in the yard and come out behind the back wall.
   • The punch box: punch the electrical box until the yard gate opens. The gate opens for everyone, so you can follow. Then through the patio and the parking lot and crack the main gate.
   • The fence hole: crawl through the low hole in the yard fence, run past the red building and crack the main gate.
2. On the run. Outside, it changes into criminal clothes and gets away from the police first.
3. Money. Then it goes for cash, like you would:
   • Rob the Cargo Train: it works out where it can meet the train in time (or waits by the track for the next one), jumps onto the vault car, blows the vault and fills its bag. When police come close it jumps off.
   • Rob a building: the bank, the jewelry store or a store (gas station, village store), whichever is open, nearest and has no police close by. It goes in through the front door like you would: in the bank it walks around the counter, cracks the vault and steps inside while the bag fills. It leaves early when police get within 8 m, and the alarm tells the police where it is.
   • Cash in: it brings the bag to a criminal base.
   • For long trips it takes a parked car and drives along the roads. If you are a criminal driving past with a free seat, it may hop into your car instead.
4. A gun first. Right after breaking out it gets a gun at a criminal base or the gun store in the city, unless the train is right there with no police around.

Bots find their way around walls, fences and buildings, step up kerbs and open doors. Outside the prison they follow the roads and bridges instead of walking into lakes. When police get close they run.

Shootouts: when police see an armed criminal, the criminal decides to either fight it out (if it is healthy and there aren't many officers) or flee, by car if one is close. Police shoot back at armed criminals.

Police bots

Police bots don't stand around. They play like a police player who wants arrests:

• They hunt criminals, but only ones an officer has actually seen. They go to where that criminal was last seen, at most two officers per criminal, by police car with the siren on when it is far. If nobody is there anymore, they search the roads around it for a while and then give up.
• Armed criminals get shot at. Unarmed ones get the taser and the handcuffs.
• When there is nobody to hunt they check the places where prisoners get out: the yard gate, the main gate, the fence hole and the sewer exit.
• Taser: with a clear line they raise the taser for a moment and fire. Crackling blue wires, sparks and a zap; whoever is hit falls over for 3 seconds. A hit needs 15 seconds to recharge, a miss 5 seconds.
• Handcuffs: up close they hold the handcuffs on you for a moment. Then they move straight on to the next one.
• You can pickpocket their keycard from behind, punch them, tase them or take them down.

Wanted only when the police see it

Breaking out is a crime, but it only counts if a police officer sees it. Punch the box while every guard looks the other way, and you are still innocent. Whoever was seen is wanted for 40 seconds after their last seen crime. Chain-link fences don't hide you.

Nobody can tell by looking who is wanted: prisoners all look the same. Police have to watch. Cuffing or tasing an innocent prisoner fails and costs the officer $100 and a strike; three strikes and you are off the police team.

Watch the bots think

Admins (offline or the host) can press F4 or the BOTS button to spectate any bot. The camera follows it, and a panel shows what it is doing, why, and its whole plan with what is done and what comes next. Q and E switch bots.

Death and respawning

When you die you fall over and respawn after 5 seconds: prisoners in their cell, police at the police station, criminals at the nearest criminal base. Bots die and respawn the same way.

Armor

The gun store in the city sells pistols, shotguns, rifles and armor: a shield that doubles your health. It takes the hits first, shows as a blue bar above your health and as a vest on your character, and is gone when you die or get arrested.

Taser, handcuffs and arrests

These work the same for players and bots:

Headshots work on bots too.

Cars: a car only knocks someone over when it drives into them fast. Walking into a parked or slow car doesn't ragdoll you. Wrecks disappear 20 seconds after they explode.

Coming later

• Police bots that set up road blocks and spike strips