[2021] Are bandits still planned for the game?

Originally posted by lvl. 50 honkler: Devs promise to introduce bandits into the game before every update but never actually do. Currently they plan to add them in A20, but I would take it with a grain of salt.

No they don't. They've been saying since a17/18 that they wouldn't arrive until after a20-21, and they are currently slated for a21. They started work originally around a13, and at the time had hopes to have them by a15/16, but the AI wasn't where they wanted it, so it got pushed back. Then for a17 there was a major update to the Unity engine, along with a lot of sloppy code that needed to be fixed by a coder that was dismissed from the team.
Similar to the reasons fixing water was started in a11/12, and has been pushed back until a21/Beta.

Maybe instead of making blatantly false claims to troll the community, you could come up with some actual facts.

Originally posted by Wally_c64: Anyone here ever enabled bandits with a mod? I haven't done it since alpha 15 and boy were they tough. A whole different experience with the bandits.

There are several mods that have done this. In the end the code is pretty buggy though, and you may end up with broken region files.

Originally posted by lvl. 50 honkler: I mean, you first said that they didn't promise anything before a20 and then listed all the times they did promise and didn't deliver on it. Also, how am I a troll if I'm just stating my point view on the matter? You seem overly defensive for some reason.

Here is what you stated.

Originally posted by lvl. 50 honkler: Devs promise to introduce bandits into the game before every update but never actually do.

They have never made any promises. And most definitely not before every update. They have alluded to possible release timeframes a couple of times, and are currently saying that they have a solid plan for introducing them in a20.

Up until they clearly stated that they planned them for a20/21, they never promised anything. It was never stated that they were coming in the next update, or any specific update prior to that. Hell back in a12/13 they were thinking a15/16 might be the last alpha, but then they discovered that they couldn't accomplish what they wanted with the current limitations of Unity at that time.
Your statement there is inflammatory and blatantly false. People like yourself seem to pop up regularly to do nothing other than troll the forum and make inflammatory statements to throw shade on the developer.
Maybe it "seems" like it's true to you. Don't market it as a factual statement though when it isn't.