What are bots good at?

Well, you can make bots different to vehicles in much more complicated ways then in just changing their cost/damage ratios. (It just depends on how much uber can invest in different unit functions which usually are very costly to do.)

You could have bots auto-avoid some incoming fire, vehicles couldn't do that. (Its just a jump to the left...)

Some bots could have jump-jets to go over obstacles (wrecks, terrain even enemy buildings and defenses).

Some closer range bots could have a boost ability (passive ofc, no micro please...) to get into enemy range.

Only bots could be unitcannoned. (Its a word, look it up. ) Its less silly then flying tanks...

On the other hand, tanks could ramm and crush bots to death (much larger mass and top speed)

And then you can get increasingly silly with units specilizations... :mrgreen:

I personally like the idea of vehicles being fast, and bots being agile

Me too, I would add that there is a lot of potential with the new pathfinder.
If bots could "flow" through wreckage field while tanks must destroy or bypass them it would make the use of bot/tank really dynamic.
( instead of have some maps good for bots, and other good for tanks )

I wonder how meaningful this can be with a high quality pathing engine. Even a stupid, cumbersome unit can move gracefully through a maze if he's smart about it.

Well it would encourage players to play to units strengths, and if the Bot is faster then a cumbersome unit won't cut it. Making bots useful for scouts or surgical strikes on an enemy base. Where as a tank would be more suited to a full scale attack.

A high quality pathing engine doesn't change the underlying attributes of an unit, it just makes it not react stupid. (Tank drives forward, path closed, backwards, path open, forward, path closed, backwards... the tank was just too big to pass through but the pathing didn't knew...)

Ie. cumbersome tanks will still have a lot of trouble to travel through narrow paths, as long as the tank can't turn around in an instant and it takes it time to get to top speed. If a tank needs 4 seconds for a 180° turn and 5 seconds to accelerate to top speed, even the most optimal path will make it take forever to traverse a wreck field compared to the bot that can turn around in 1 second and takes 2 seconds to reach top speed.

The tank may not bump into stuff while slowly manouvring through it, but the 2 minutes it takes it to get through under enemy fire would still kill it. :twisted:

Cumbersome tanks won't even waste their time on narrow paths. They'll go around.

That sounds good to me. Big difference between bots and tanks: Tanks can't (won't) go there. :mrgreen:

I was thinking TA style where bots have an easier time with hills. If they turn faster too then they would be able to navigate tight quarters faster, having a smaller footprint would enable them to fit into tighter spaces. Could even make them able to step over smaller obstacles such as small wrecks or rocks etc.

Even with good pathfinding all this would contribute to a unit that would be significantly more maneuverable in difficult terrain.

One of the main problems is that if tanks can't go over, they are very capable of going through.