Source: https://shadowfrag.com/blog/shogun-bots-across-the-highlands/

# Getting Shogun bots across the Highlands

By the SHADOWFRAG developer · Development · Oct 26, 2026 · 3 min read

[Highlands](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-shogun-highlands) [bots](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) were fighting in the north and scarcely attacking the south. I traced the imbalance to squad deployment, capture decisions and a bridge their navigation could not cross.

[Shogun gameplay and its settlement display in the native game client.](https://ds9.dynostatic.com/media.php?id=01M5TFSR3YRKC6K392YD70BY1Y&revision=1)

[Shogun](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-shogun) gameplay and its [settlement](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-settlement) display in the native game client. Engine capture: 2026-10-24.

The northern part of [Highlands](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-shogun-highlands) was busy, while the south saw almost no attacks. Making the map large had not made the [bots](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) use all of it. The review found several rules steering the same groups toward the same places, along with a bridge that a player could cross but a [bot](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) could not plan a route through.

## Giving smaller teams a way to spread out

Spawn rows and squad roles shared a six-player pattern. That tended to give northern groups attacking jobs and southern groups screening or harassment jobs. A small team did not even fill enough places to reach the third deployment row.

Squads now adapt from **two to six members**, and the first three deployment groups can receive attacking assignments. Membership persists through deaths. When assigning objectives, the controller also counts squads waiting for their next decision, so their existing commitments are not overlooked. A marching assignment expires after **30 seconds** without useful progress toward its destination.

Combat decisions needed adjustment too. A [bot](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) now chooses its spacing for the weapon it is actually using for the attack. A squad equipped entirely with bows still keeps members on capture duty, and a harassment squad with no immediate fight can finish taking an empty gate. Capturers stay inside their court instead of giving up progress to chase a distant opponent.

## Repairing the route the bots could see

The southern bridge was walkable down its center, but the [navigation graph](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-navigation-graph)—the sampled points and connections [bots](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) use to plan routes—was disconnected. Cover blocked nearby rows of that sampling grid. Successfully walking a player across the bridge did not test those connections.

Moving the cover **one [world unit](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-world-unit) outward** reconnected the graph without removing the bridge's objects or changing its materials and overall layout. The graph's local bank-to-bank route had previously taken detours with an estimated travel time of roughly **four minutes**. After the change, it was about **33 seconds in either direction**. These are route estimates, not a promise about every [bot](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot)'s travel time during a fight.

The tests now cover all **six bridges**, including commands that actually send [bots](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) across the repaired crossing with [chi-jumps](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-chi-jump) both enabled and disabled.

## Watching where the fights went

In the retained **three-minute, 64-[bot](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) comparison**, recorded southern attack events rose from **zero to 145**, and the southern bridge registered **18 crossings**. Smaller populations also used the south. The north remained busier. These observations show that the repaired routes received traffic and attacks; they do not impose an equal regional quota or guarantee the same result for every [random seed](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-seed).

The controller still updates assignments on a **two-second cadence** and limits [route planning](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-navigation-graph) to **four plans per simulation tick**. It does not search globally for new paths every rendered frame. Human play is still needed to judge the broader strategy and reinforcement pace.

The review also found ordinary arena [bots](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) inheriting [Shogun](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-shogun)'s long weapon standoff distances. Those distances now apply only to [Shogun](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-shogun). In [free-for-all](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-free-for-all), Teams, [Capture the Flag](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-capture-the-flag), Scroll and [Demolition](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-demolition), ranged [bots](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/#term-bot) continue along their normal patrol or objective route while aiming and firing.

[Explore Shogun's rules](https://shadowfrag.com/blog/shogun-conquest/) or [look around the Highlands](https://shadowfrag.com/maps/#shogun-highlands).

[Back to blog](https://shadowfrag.com/blog/)[Browse the glossary](https://shadowfrag.com/glossary/)

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