Dogs in MP

[Grassy]

G'day all,

I have had dogs in our Spearhead server for some time now, at first they were great. But now they loose the plot after some time, it also hapened again today on my local server when we were testing out a new routine.
The errors reported in the console were refering to not found anim movements for an unarmed entity ?? All the maps with dogs and AI have a .pth file for them. The AI behave well, but the dogs loose it and burn rubber at walls, and can't be killed. Even a map restart wont cure the error loop. Here is how I am spawning the dogs in.
Oh and the tik is precached as well.
Am I right in thinking that the dogs were never intended for MP use, hence they lack the level of detail that the human AI have?

local.mut_a = spawn models/animal/german_shepherd.tik
local.mut_a.origin = ( 1670 2515 186.61 )
local.mut_a.angles = ( 0.0 -172 0.0 )
local.mut_a targetname "aldefenders"
local.mut_a.leash = 2048
local.mut_a.mindist = 0
local.mut_a.maxdist = 256
local.mut_a.health = 300
local.mut_a.enemysharerange = 1000
local.mut_a.hearing = 3000
local.mut_a.sight = 3000
local.mut_a.fov = 180
local.mut_a forceactivate
local.mut_a german
local.mut_a light 0 0 .5 50
local.mut_a lighton
local.mut_a.runanimrate = .85

Thanks for any advice in advance.
Grassy

[Master-Of-Fungus-Foo-D]

local.mut_a "gun" "none" ?? would that work... Im no scripter....

[bdbodger]

Does your script use any move commands for the dog like runto ? I know how to over come that but it is not serverside .

[lizardkid]

er, i dont think dogs were meant for any tactics. they were given simple algorithms that say basicaly this.

"see someone."
"bark."
"run at person."
"when within x number of units begin biting anim and rip his crotch off."

but the RATED-R server has dogs in it, ask stiffler. i know this because i used to be in RATED-R.

[bdbodger]

You can make custom dogs that act more like ai . I have done it I made a new_generic_dog.tik . In that tik which is a copy of the animation aliases from the models/human/animation/human_unarmed.tik and others that have dog animations instead of human animations .

[Grassy]

G'day, sorry for the delay.

Bdbodger.... it's your fault !! haha, I spotted your ealier work with dogs some time ago and since then they have driven me mad...

What I have is a simple routine based on switches for oposing teams to spawn in backup in the form of a few dogs and some Ai players.
The ai are fine, but the dogs will go for some time with no problem and then whamo.... they loose the plot big time... the errors reported in the console when this happens don't help at all pinpointing why this happens.
It is also a random thing that cant be reproduced, sometimes they work for hours and other times they fall over after 15 - 20 mins.. I have noted that the more players in the server the sooner the dogs loose it....

Interesting to note your last post re: using the models/human/animation/human_unarmed.tik .... the errors I am getting look like they are pointing to this tik.... "can't find unarmed_walk.anim" or something like that, same for all the anims, stand , run, hurt etc....

It's like the game has forgotten that they were dogs and tries to use the above anim instead........ or does it use this right away?

Does your script use any move commands for the dog like runto ? I know how to over come that but it is not serverside .

No I just have them spawned in and rely on the increased sight and hearing plus the .pth node path file... oh yeah.. also use your looping routine for payer team id and threatbias.
Sorry I can't give more detail, I will make it a habit of running a log file and try the get you some copies of the reported errors when it happens next time..

Grassy

[bdbodger]

I understand what you are saying now understand what I am saying . A command like runto will cause the problem you are have but it does happen randomly as well , the game it trying to control the dog like an ai and it can't because the dog does not have the right animations in it's tik . Take out all those ai values like leash and mindist and maxdist etc they do not apply and the default values for the other things will do . I did over come the problem of dogs not being able to use commands like runto etc but only with custom dogs in maps that have a .pth file or pathnodes if made with them . If you click on my sig and download the rescue the map I made and play it you will see that if you use the use key on a friendly dog that is on your team the dog will follow you . This works because I made a new_generic_dog.tik and in that tik are the aliases for the animations that the console is complaining to you about only dog animations have been substituted for ai animations . All execept some of the death animatins because I like seeing the dogs die like ai's like the grenade flip etc lol . With that you will still get some errors relateing to facial animations but you can ignore those . This won't work serverside though so I guess you are out of luck . I think it is the pathnodes in the map that are causeing your problem it is a bug .

[Grassy]

I understand what you are saying now understand what I am saying

I understand very well.. Seems we both understand each other now.
Thanks for your thoughts and link to your modified mut.tik, I recon it would work server side ok, but the client would need to dload the tik as well.... Er that didn't make much sense did it? hahaha... What I have done is I made up a patch.pk3 for people to download, this pk3 incorporates all the required sounds, ubers, dialogs, anims (dog and custom ai tiks) in it. We have some maps on our server that include server side only mods, but as you know it limits what mods you can do to stock or custom maps.
As I am learning scripting I find it hard to avoid the need for client side additions.
With your permition can I grab your modified dog.tik and incorporate it in my mod pack for our SH server?
Grassy