Spring RTS Engine

Is there a way to force bots to start in specific locations, or do they always start in the numbered spot determined by their Order in the player list? Some friends and I are just messing around, learning the game and trying to beat more and more AI armies each match, but most of the maps have 2/4/6/8/10 and 1/3/5/7/9 for team grouping, and the AI always joins at the bottom of the list and messes us up.

This kind of stuff happens a lot with new players. No one should have to figure out this ridiculously convoluted method of bot placement.

there's this little button called 'single player' in tasclient nowadays. springlobby has a similarly named tab

"some players and I" in the quote means that somebody wants to play team games againist the AI, not purely single players. There's no way (that I know) to setup a game with players on one side and AI in the other side of the map. I have the same problem. Bots are always placed with highest "order" number (regardless of game join time), and that will place them in different places on map.
Only way to place them now, is to cheat at start.

technically it's possible; i don't know if any of the lobbies support it though.

if the host uses SpringLobby with fixed start position mode, map placement will be team(id in tasclient) = position

TASClient absolutely needs to incorporate that (ID -> fixed spawn spot).

Why in the world would it use "Order", something completely arbitrary and unchangeable?

I agree with the above.