Grinbots file

THE GRINBOTS
The first and Only Artificial Opponents for HereticII
Version 0.9
16th September 2000
Email: grin@raven-games.com
Home Page: www.raven-games.com/grin/


Contents:

What's New
Installation
Cool Stuff
Supported Maps
Known Bugs/Issues
History
Credits

What's New

Small tweaks this time.
- Support for Ropes (still pretty basic and not too clever, but it's better than nothing !)
- Navigation code changed so that they will pick up their route better after combat.
- Changed the code dealing with platforms. Still not perfect, but definately better.
- Made a few improvements to their blade AI.
- New routes - Mosque, Karvok and Skulls.


Installation

Important - The route files and respawn.rsp files from releases older than V0.8 are not compatible with this release. If you are using a version older than V0.8, delete these files from any previous installation before installing V0.9. Failure to do this will make the bots act stupid, and probably crash your system !

If you want to get the bots up and running with the mimimum of fuss, here's what to do:

Download the latest version and unzip into your main heretic2 folder. Make sure you unzip using directory names.

Run Heretic2 using the command line +set game grinbots +set deathmatch 1
If you don't know how to do this, I have included a batch file which will run H2 and set it up for the bots. Open up windows explorer, go to your H2 folder, double click on Grinbots.bat, and you are ready for action.

Bring down the console, and type:
map dmlight then press enter. When the map has loaded, bring down the console again, type:
sv bot spawn and a bot should enter the game. Type this again to spawn another bot.


Cool Stuff

Using Custom Skins and Models
To spawn a bot with a custom skin or model, type:
sv bot spawn name skin into the console. For example, to spawn a bot called mildred, wearing the FSD skin, type:
sv bot spawn Mildred female/fsd
You can also use custom models this way, eg:
sv bot spawn Nutter ogle/ogle will spawn a bot called nutter, using the ogle model and wearing the ogle skin (assuming you have downloaded that model). If you enter any of this information incorrectly, one of the default bots will be spawned insted.


User Definable Weapons Preferences
You can specify 3 parameters for the bots that control the bots use of weapons. These are FAVOURITE WEAPON, BANNED WEAPONS and ACCURACY. These are specified at the end of the spawn command, after the skin definition:
sv bot spawn name model/skin fav-weapon banned-weapons accuracy

The FAVOURITE WEAPON is a number from 0-9, 0 indicates no favourite weapon, 1 indicates blade is their favourite weapon and so on. A bot will always use its favourite weapon if it has it.

The BANNED WEAPONS are specified in a manner identical to the deathmatch flags. Each weapon has a unique number. Adding together the numbers for each weapon banned gives a value for the banned weapon field. Bots will never use a weapon specified as banned. The numbers are:

1 -Blade
2 -Fball
4 -HellStaff
8 -Array
16 -Rain
32 -Fwall
64 -Pbow
128-Sphere
256-Doom

So, to stop a bot from using the Iron Doom, the Firewall and the blade, the banned-weapons value is 256+32+1 = 289. A value of 0 for the banned weapons indicates that no weapons are banned.


ACCURACY - The accuracy of the bots aim is a number 0 - 5, with 0 being the best accuracy, and 5 is the worst accuracy.

I have include a config file bots1.cfg that shows how to use these values. View the config file with notepad. To use the config file, run H2, load a map and type exec bots1.cfg into the console


Bot Chat
Bot chat is enabled by default. If you are fed up with their slander, type:
set botchat 0 into the console. The bots phrases are stored in the smacktalk.txt file in the grinbots directory, and can be edited to your liking.


Bot Challenge Teamplay
This introduces a bots vs humans gameplay mode. Enable this by typing:
set botchallenge 1 into the console.


Kicking Bots
Type:
sv bot kick into the console to remove all bots from a game. Type:
sv bot kick name to remove an individual bot (the name is case sensitive).


Blade Bots
If you want the bots for blade matches, specify a value of 1 for their favourite weapon, and they will always choose the blade. They do not know 1on1 rules yet, but you can have some good ffa and team games this way. If you want the bots to submit when they lose their blade arm, type:
set botblade 1 into the console. To return to normal, type:
set botblade 0.
For blading with the bots, they like it best if there are 'real' shrines on the map. If there is no shrine model, they do not know the shrine exists.


Supported Maps

As the bots use an external file for navigation information, they only play intelligently on supported maps. At the moment, these are:

DMZARDOZ - Plays really well.
PHOENIX, - The bots love this one. Tomed doom ?? hehe.
DMLIGHT, - Plays well, some glitches.
DMOZ, - good, but the rope can confuse them big-time.
DMJERSEY, - Great fun.
H2NEDSSACRUM - Good, but some jumps make them confused.
DMSEVEN - Oh yes, but can't reach the teleport.
DMGOTTMOS - Good fun, but can't use the platform.
EISENBLATT - Nice. A couple of glitches.
DMCLOUD - Plays well.
DMANDORIA - Nice.
DMSUICIDE - Excellent fun.
DMSTONEHENGE - Fun, but you may find a bunch of bots queuing for the elevator!
DMOUTPOST - The bots like this one now that they can swim.
H2SCARY1 - Plays nicely.
DMKLESK - Not bad, but they can be really dumb at times on this one.
DMJETSKI - Great Fun.
DMSignArzV2 - Fun, but they like to camp in the secret area :)
DMTORTURE - Fun, but they like to take baths - in the lava or water !
DMDOGLAST - Excellent.
DSDM4 - A blast, but the tight spaces can confuse them a bit.
KARVOK - Good fun, but they get squashed under the platform a lot.
MOSQUE - Great.
SKULLS - Very good FFA blade madness.
I will be creating navigation files for more maps in due course, and will make a page for downloading the routes. If there is a specific map that you would like a route file for, email me and I will make one.

If you need any of these maps, check out www.hereticii.com/atlas/ or all of them can be obtained via ftp from Grimlocks Four Winds server ftp://h2maps:fragme@207.152.119.5/.

You can play them on non-supported maps (not recommended though). Run around for 5 or 10 minutes, picking up items and visiting shrines. The bots will learn how to navigate the level from you. At the moment this information is not saved, so you will have to do it again if the map changes. Their performance is not very good using this method.


Known Bugs/Issues

Sometimes, they are not very clever. You may find them getting lost, or generally acting a bit stupid. Don't worry, things will keep getting better. The bots have some trouble with ropes and platforms. The bots will run on a dedicated server, but with some instability.
Sometimes you will observe "zombie" bots. These look alive, but are not solid and are fixed in position. This is due to a bug in the Raven game code, and the only cure is to either ignore it, kick the bot or re-start the map.


History

Version 0.8
- Added user definable 'personality' attributes - Favourite weapon, Banned weapons and accuracy.
- Improved navigation / goal finding code.
- Greatly improved the bots perception of shrines. (invisible shrines still not supported)
- Improved the targetting code.
- Re-written the combat movement AI that deals with ranged weapons.
- Changed the client emulation to make the bots movement more fluid.
- Completely relaxed the constraints on bots blading in DM.
- New teamplay game mode - Botchallenge.
- Bots die realisticly.


Version 0.6
Lots of tweaking for this release. Version 0.4 concentrated on the bots blade abilities, so I decided that their DM skills needed some attention for this release.
- Improved the bots jumping abilities.
- Lots of changes to the way the bots select weapons.
- The bots use the PBow a lot more intelligently now.
- The bots will aim ahead when using slow moving projectiles.
- The bots navigate better and get stuck less often (I think).
- The bots will dish out some smack talk (pretty basic at the moment).
- Increased the maximum number of bots to 16 (only recommended for fast systems).
- Changed the way the bots are initialised for dedicated servers.
- The bots will remove themselves from a dedicated server to make room for humans.
- The bots will ignore a player in God-Mode, so you can watch them at work.


Version 0.4
Lots of new goodies this time :)
- A dedicated melee AI for blade only combat !!!
- Added support for custom names, skins and models.
- Bots will automatically re-join after map changes.
- Improved compatibility with dedicated servers (still not recommended though !!).
- Teamplay is now fully implemented.
- Added a kick command to remove bots from the game
- The bots have had some swimming lessons !!
- They will occasionally use their blades in DM (mostly against a player with reflection)
- The bots will now drop the tornado spell at strategic spots but they don't know how to avoid them yet
- Chicken bots now actually do something. (Beware of the Monster Chicken Bot!).
- Changed the movement code and tinkered with the AI to make them more realistic.


Credits

Huge thanks to Steve Yeager, the author of the ACEBOT for Quake2.
Big thanks to Everyone who has given me feedback on this project, especially Grimlock, Dr Gargor, PurpleWulf and Aycardus.

These bots borrow heavily from the ACEBOT base sourcecode.
The ACE Bot is a product of Steve Yeager, and is available from
the ACE Bot homepage, at http://www.axionfx.com/ace.
This program includes modified code from the ACE Bot, and is therefore
in NO WAY supported by Steve Yeager.
This program MUST NOT be sold in ANY form. If you have paid for
this product, you should contact Steve Yeager immediately, via
the ACE Bot homepage, or contact me via grin@raven-games.com.

This readme file MUST be included with any archive containing the Grinbot.