a lot of bot questions

cp51 · Post by **cp51** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 12:01 am

hi,

i have a lot of bot questions, ill muber them so that they are easier to answer, so each thing has its own number.

1.) can i give a bot my own custom skin?(only one specific bot, not all of them)

2.) can i make it where only a few specific bots the caracteristic that when they see someone, they will run away?

3.) lets say i have 3 paths, a, b, and c that a bot can take. the bot will spawn next to path "a" and with nowhere else to gocontinue down path "a". now path a splits into path "b" and path "c".

3.1) i want the bot to have an equal chance at taking either.

3.2) However, lets say it chooses path "b", later on down path "b", it intersects with path "c". will the bot keep traveling down path "b" no matter what?

3.3) will it split off and go down path "c"?

3.4) can i make it so that once it is on either path "b" or "c" that it will never leave that path, and will stay on it forever?

4.) can i get the bot, while it is on a path, to stand and wait for 5 seconds?

5.) can i force only one specific bot to walk all the time?

ill probably have some more questions later on, but for now thats all that i can think of.

i need to know if i can do all this before i start my map, otherwise there will be no use for my map.

thanks

Post by **jv_map** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 5:59 am

Hmm that's a load of questions. Sadly the answer is 'no' to every question except 4.

Regarding No 3 I suppose you mean a bot route when you say 'path'. These routes are however not so much 'rails' for bots but much more 'guidelines'. They give a bot a hint that he can reach a certain destination from an other side. A bot hardly ever follows a complete route exactly: he may run away for cover or to attack an enemy. If a bot finds a 'shortcut' to his destination he will take it, rather than following is route.

Well I hope this will not mean there is no use for your map

Post by **Bjarne BZR** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 10:37 am

It looks as if you want to use the bots as regulare AI, cp51... I've never done these myself, but I guess you get the exact control you seem to need over the actors if you use regular AI.

The jv_bots are designed ( correct me if I'm wrong here jv ) to mimic real players... and you cant control real players in any other way than asking them politely and hope they find your request a good idea.

Post by **jv_map** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 11:52 am

Hehehe yeah exactly 8-)

cp51 · Post by **cp51** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 12:48 pm

ok,

you know how you have to have the pathnoes scatered around the map...? well, if i just have a route and now pathnodes at al for free roaming, the one bot would be forced to follow that route right? adn i know you can weigh routes, like have one with a greater chance of the bot taking it, right...? so can i give it an equal chance at taking any route? (if that makes sense, :-)

)

also, i was looking through the pk3 for your bots, and in the scripting i found all these cases, like case1, case2, case3, etc. does the bot randomly pic a case, and that tells it how to act? can i create another case, with 0 aggresivness and stuff so that it will "retreate"and then could i force that case on a speceific bot so that is the only thing the bot does when it sees someone?

im new to bots, so i dont know what i can and cant do, so im just really throwing out all the ideas i can think of, sorry if i sound a little...umm... "noobish" if that word works

o, and, if i cant get any of this to work then there will still be a use for my map, it just wont be as... special :-)

Post by **jv_map** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 5:11 pm

cp51 wrote:also, i was looking through the pk3 for your bots, and in the scripting i found all these cases, like case1, case2, case3, etc. does the bot randomly pic a case, and that tells it how to act? can i create another case, with 0 aggresivness and stuff so that it will "retreate"and then could i force that case on a speceific bot so that is the only thing the bot does when it sees someone?

Hmm where did you find that and what do you mean exactly? I generally don't use many switch statements

Alcoholic · Post by **Alcoholic** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 8:54 pm

they dont randomly pick cases. something is checked on the bot, and if its case 1, do blah blah, case 2, 3, etc...

in podbot, the bots varied their paths. like if it was de_dust, they might all rush through the tunnel, and a few rounds later, one would say "follow me" and lead a few bots down thru the bridge... that would be cool if you could do that here...

cp51 · Post by **cp51** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 11:37 pm

here is what i think i found, im probably wrong in thinking what it does but...

switch(self.weaponnum)
{
case 1:
case 2:
self.dodgepct = 25
self.aggresiveness = 50
self.backawaypct = 50
self.strafepct = 100
self.shootpct = 100
self.aimdodge = 1
self.aimtime = 0.10 * local.aimtimebonus
self.accuracy = 60 + local.skillbonus
break
case 3:

i just noticed like, aggressiveness, and back away and strafe, and thought it told the bot what to do, or the probability of the bot to do something, and each case is different, so in this one it has a 25 percent chance of dodging and a 50 percent chance at strafing, and a different case would have different numbers just to randomize the movements. however, i figure i am probably way off, and this has nothing to do with movement... right?

what Alcoholic is saying is pretty much what i want one specific bot to do. go one way a few times, then go a different way, then another time go another way, things like that.

i wanted the thing with where they all run away for (ok, now everyone can steal my idea, if its any good :-)

) civilian bots. bots that dont shoot at you but just run away when you get near. i think it could create some confusion, and also give hints as to where the other players are, like where the bots are running away from.

and that kinda leads to some of my questions my questions. i want them to have my custom skin of a civilian. i want them to run away. you know what i mean. then i had some other ideas, but i dont know what will come of it all.

Post by **jv_map** » Sun Jul 06, 2003 5:56 am

Ah now I see you got it from anim/jv_bots/attack.scr. I largely copied over the regular anim/attack.scr and modified a few things (like removing proning behaviour).

The script you are referring to is used as an attackhandler, which means it only runs when bots are attacking. Most of the numbers are only used to help a bot decide how to dodge: sidewards, forward or backward. I don't think it makes an obvious difference if you change them.

For fleeing civilian bots regular AI would probably be better like Bjarne said.