(copy/pasted) from email just sent to devs).
Playing with AI should be tolerable. Not only tolerable, enjoyable. I have heard the argument before that the AI should be bad so people want to play with players instead. This is simply wrong, especially when you have such a low player base.
This is what happens: People log in, see few people are playing and know they are going to end up with nub players or bad AI. They log out. Player count lowered. The few people left are consolidated to only a few matches, which generally end up stacked. New people start playing and have a horrible time playing with bad AI against stacked teams. They quit. 3v3 and 4v4 matches are rare or impossible.
Everybody has a bad time.
Now let's change the AI to be actually worth a shit. They are now pretty good, about as good as an average player. You can control them much easier, give them loadouts, tell them what areas of the ship to cover, and what to do when. You can create, name, and dress AI crew with earned and purchased costumes, just like players. You can tell them to spot by marking a ship with captain's mark. They are always there for you to pick, just like ships. You can actually trust them. You can even share your personally trained AI with friends. What happens now?
People log in and see that few people are playing. They know they might end up with nubs, but will have their trusty AI if they don't have a full crew. They play some matches. Player count goes up. Other people do the same thing. More matches are created since matches now start with more AI. People (well, most people) still prefer playing with other players, so lobbies gradually consolidate as the player count rises, still producing the same amount of partial AI lobbies on top of the full ones. New players don't hop on for a few minutes, bitch about how the game is dead because there are only X players, then leave. They can even start a 2v2 with 1 AI ship on their side. Hell, Any match that has the full team ready up with an empty ship gets a full AI ship on their team. 3v3 and 4v4 become common. You could even start Custom 4v4 games with JUST ONE PLAYER if you wanted. Why the hell not? If that is what you want to do, it should be allowed. More people log in to see either a thriving community, or at the very least a game that is playable with few players. Some people will tell nubs to get the hell off their ship, they would rather have AI Tarzan. These people are asses that say the same thing now. There would be many other matches to choose from. However, with Better AI (TM) making full lobbies not matter so much, more new players will be playing in novice matches, and more vets playing in vet matches (even if sometimes mostly empty), making MM actually work for once, since it would NO LONGER always be trying to make full lobbies, pairing vets with nubs. Matches start MUCH faster. Like, ridiculously faster.
Fewer people quit on account of having bad, stacked, or frustrating matches. Population and retention increases. Much fun is had.
But.... but Guns is all about playing with other peoples...
What other people? I sit in a lot of lobbies that go on for ages just WAITING for one more player because it would be ruined by having an AI. Then an ALMOST full lobby dies because no one comes. I get bored and log out, just like everyone else. With decent AI, we would just pick an AI from our "ready crew", set their position and behavior, ready up and go with it. Fun would be had.
Bad AI is literally destroying the community, one almost full lobby at a time.
