Bot response to communication wheel commands (ForTheEmperor compat)

[hummat]

Context

Nexus user request: "Is it possible to make bots respond to For the Emperor?"

For the Emperor is a communication wheel expansion mod that adds configurable com wheel slots: "For the Emperor!" (battle cry VO), "Need Help" (with world markers), Yes/No, enemy/location pings, ammo/health requests, etc.

The ask is for bots to react to com wheel commands from the human player.

Possible bot reactions

Com wheel event	Possible bot reaction
"For the Emperor!" (battle cry)	Pop combat abilities aggressively (temporary aggression boost)
"Need Help"	Prioritize converging on the player
"Enemy here" / threat ping	Focus-fire tagged target (partially exists via #48 player-tag boost)
Location ping	Move toward pinged location
"Need Ammo" / "Need Health"	Deprioritize own ammo/health pickups in favor of player

Technical feasibility

Best detection point: Hook Vo.on_demand_vo_event — works in Solo Play, catches both vanilla and FTE wheel events. The function receives (player_unit, concept, trigger_id) where concept = "on_demand_com_wheel" and trigger_id maps to the specific wheel option (e.g. "com_cheer" for For the Emperor, "com_need_health", "location_enemy_there", etc.).

Full vanilla trigger ID table (from vo_query_constants.lua):

Trigger ID	Wheel option
com_cheer	For the Emperor
com_need_ammo	Need Ammo
com_need_health	Need Health
com_thank_you	Thanks
location_enemy_there	Enemy Over Here
location_this_way	Let's Go This Way
location_over_here	Over Here (attention)
answer_yes / answer_no	Yes / No

What won't work: FTE's "Need Help" chat metadata (#need_help via VivoxManager._handle_event) only fires for remote senders — broken in Solo Play where there are no remote players.

Location pings (location_ping, location_attention, location_threat smart tags) carry a world position but no target unit. BetterBots has no infrastructure for location-based bot directives — this would need new pathfinding/movement integration.

Cross-mod detection: get_mod("ForTheEmperor") ~= nil for FTE-specific features. The Vo.on_demand_vo_event hook would work with vanilla com wheel too — no FTE dependency required.

Existing overlap

• Bots prioritize player-tagged enemies (smart tag response) #48 player-tag response: already boosts scoring for human-tagged enemy units (+3.0 weight). "Enemy here" partially covered.
• Combat-aware engagement leash: reduce mid-fight break-off and post-charge rubber-banding #47 engagement leash: related to bot positioning/follow behavior.

Scope considerations

• The Vo.on_demand_vo_event hook is cheap and non-invasive — detection is easy.
• The hard part is the response layer: translating "For the Emperor!" into meaningful bot behavior changes requires a temporary state modifier that overrides normal heuristic thresholds (e.g. "ignore cooldown caution for 5s").
• Location-based commands (move here, go this way) require pathfinding integration that doesn't exist yet.
• Risk of annoying behavior if bots blow cooldowns every time the player hits the battle cry button.

Priority

P3 — nice-to-have, community-requested. No existing infrastructure for most responses beyond enemy tagging.