Energy projections in scifi follow a straight ray casted line. Projections can be shot at an angle (lateral and horizontal), but they follow a straight line. Drones explore areas on behalf of the owner bot and if a drone detects an enemy it automatically goes into seeking and attacking mode.
Are you redrawing the whole screen? The fan of my notebook spin like crazy.
Are there low height obstacles? Perhaps the bots can shot over the block, but not walk over it. On the other hand until you get enough users it may be useful to have an "easy" mode so the bots can play in a almost-2D word.
I make a note for myself that Docs could use a search function.
I've made several optimization passes on the viewer draw functions (and in the engine) and it doesn't redraw the whole screen. I will make new passes later and see what I can do. The browser/cpu load is already majorly reduced from what it was originally. There are options but they mostly mean degradation of some kind. Options could be made available in the viewer menu. I will focus on the viewing experience once I've implemented Space ruleset, which is a major new slice.
In the build menu you can add "cover" elements which block the projectiles but allow for observation and to drones fly over them. I made cover elements more prominent in the current open arenas where applicable. Their density varies when the public arenas auto-reset.