I absolutely can't stand the bots in their current iteration. In fact, I was happy when I found out that the bots didn't restart on FFA right when I decided to jump back into that server solo. If I am playing and you hit me, I reserve the right to do every fluffing thing I can to ruin you, even when I know it will be an ineffective, or even unsatisfying use of turns, for no other reason than you hit me when I'd had a bad day, or even no reason at all.

(EDIT: I want to clarify that I very rarely react like this anywhere except express on non-GDI countries or countries that have broken GDI on me, and I don't advocate it. I merely think that the little guy has a right to defend himself just as the big guy has the right to target helpless smaller countries for their own gain.)

I'm certain I'm not the only one who feels this way, so the fact that 0% of the bots will ever retal even a single hit makes this feel like a complete farce. I'm currently tasked with hitting bots as part of a strat since it's actually so easy to do, particularly because of their lack of allies and because there is absolutely zero risk involved.

It's literally as if you added a form on the explore page (similar to the private market with oil) that allows you to spend jets and oil on increasing your explored acres per turn (probably with some kind of exponential decay).

Honestly, frustration with the dominance of bot grabbing on 1a was probably the last straw when I stopped playing in January (though not by any means the main reason), and I am already feeling incredibly demotivated due to this on Alliance. PLEASE don't bring the bots to this server. Though I guess if you ask me, I'd honestly prefer the bots gone for good until they retal, like, AT ALL.

TL;DR: Until you can dedicate at LEAST dozens, if not a couple hundred hours of someone's time to develop something more than pre-alpha code... Take the bots and shove them up your ass.