Adding a waypoint is really easy. Just walk to the position where you want a WP to be inserted, bring up your waypoint menu:
This is the main waypoint menu.
To add a waypoint, simply select "1. Add". A new menu will appear, the "add waypoint" menu. All waypoint types described below can be added by using this menu.
The "waypoint add" menu.
Once you have selected a waypoint type from the "add" menu, you will hear a sound, and the selected waypoint will appear in the map, at the exact position where you stood when you pressed the key.
NOTE: If you are standing while selecting a WP, a standing WP will be inserted. All bots will run or walk towards this waypoint normally.
If you want bots to crouch when approaching a particular position, crouch down when inserting the waypoint. You will notice that the waypoint you just added is only about half as high as normally. As you inserted it when you were crouched down, it automatically carries a "crouch" flag (see below for more details). Bots will now crouch automatically when trying to reach this waypoint.
Now that you know the basic method used to add a waypoint, let's have a closer look at the waypoint types that exist:
Normal waypoints are the points you need in order to make bots walk through the map. They are used for navigation only and will not trigger any particular behaviour. You can add a normal waypoint by selecting "1. Normal" from the "add waypoint" menu. The colour of normal waypoints is green, as you can see in the picture below.
A normal waypoint (right) and a crouched normal waypoint (left)
This type of waypoints can be navigated just as a normal waypoint by all bots, but it has one additional function: It marks strategically important points for a terrorist team. Adding a terrorist-important point in a room will tell terrorist bots to go to the room and check it frequently. The following pic shows two terrorist-important points; their colour is red.
Two terrorist-important waypoints, normal (right) and crouched (left)
IMPORTANT: The use of terrorist-important points depends on the map type!The function of this waypoint type is exactly the same as the terrorist-important waypoint described above. The only difference is that a CT-important waypoint obviously marks strategically important places for the Counter-Terrorist (CT) team. You can add this type of waypoint by selecting "3. CT specific" from the "add waypoint" menu. The colour of this waypoint type is a deep blue (see screenshot).
Two CT-important waypoints, normal (right) and crouched (left)
IMPORTANT: As with the other team-specific waypoints, CT-important waypoints should also be placed according to the map type. On maps where the CT team is forced to move out and reach a certain goal - either hostages to rescue or a VIP escape zone to reach safely - CT-important points can be useful to make a particular route more attractive. You DON'T need to place CT-important points near a map goal (hostages on cs-maps, VIP escape zone(s) on as-maps); CT bots will go there anyway. It's the most important point for them, and adding several other important waypoints right next to it doesn't yield any benefit.Ladder waypoints are only used for waypointing ladders, as you possibly guessed. To enable your bots to use a ladder, simply walk up to the ladder until you get "stuck" on it (you will see your crosshair grow wider once you are on the ladder). Now place one ladder waypoint at the bottom of the ladder. Then climb up the ladder until you are almost completely over the edge. Place a second waypoint here and make sure that the two ladder waypoints are connected.(This should have happened automatically if the ladder waypoints aren't too far away from each other). That's all! The colour of ladder waypoints is bright pink (see screenshot below).
A waypointed ladder; one ladder WP at the bottom, the other near the top
Some general hints & notes concerning ladder waypoints:Rescue waypoints are only needed on cs-type maps, i.e. in hostage rescue scenarios. They mark the zone where the CT team must bring the hostages, the rescue zone. Place one of these waypoint inside each rescue zone there is. If there is only one, you only need one rescue waypoint. Placing more points in one rescue zone is unnecessary bulk and will rather cause problems than improve anything.
A CT bot that has succeeded in "activating" the hostages will determine the position of the nearest rescue point and lead the hostages there. As soon the bot has reached the rescue point, it will consider the hostages as rescued and turn back to return to combat. Badly placed rescue points may lead to bots turning around before the hostages have reached the rescue zone. As a consequence, the hostages will be left standing a few inches away from the rescue zone while the bot considers its mission as completed and turns back to fight, ignoring the deserted hostages. That's why you are advised to place a rescue waypoint well inside a rescue zone, not at its edges!
In the editor, rescue points will be displayed in bright white (see below). Their radius is set to zero by default and shouldn't be changed. All bots can use this waypoint type for normal navigation as well.
A rescue point. You can also make this point crouched, of course.
As the name suggests, camp waypoints are used to mark good sniper spots. They can be navigated by all bots. However, whether a bot may camp there or not is determined by the flag you can add to the camp waypoint: You can make camp waypoints team-specific or leave them "open" to any team. The colour of normal camp waypoints is cyan; T-specific camp waypoints have a reddish hue, CT-specific ones are a bit blueish (see screenshots below).
Two normal camp waypoints, crouched (left) and standing (right).
Team-specific camp waypoints: Two T-specific points to the left, two CT-specific ones to the right.
Although there are two entries in the "add" menu ("camp start" and "camp end"), the camp waypoint is in fact only one point. However, it carries two "markers" that tell a camping bot where to look while camping. When you are camping yourself, you will monitor a certain area. If you wanted to define this area, you could describe it as an angle. This angle would be specified by two lines going out from your position: One that marks the left edge and another one for the right edge. The monitored area would be between these two lines. The mentioned "markers" fulfill exactly this function. They are displayed as more or less horizontal beams going out from the top of a camp waypoint. The camp start marker is yellow, the camp end marker orange (see picture).
A crouched normal camp waypoint with camp start (left, yellow) and camp end marker (right, orange).
When a bot approaches the depicted camp waypoint, it will turn to face the direction of the camp start marker (the yellow beam to the left) first. Then it will slowly scan the area between this marker and the camp end marker (orange beam to the right). An enemy moving outside the two markers may escape the bot's attention, unless it hears the enemy coming. In the example pic, both markers are pointing to the same height. However, you can also specify different heights for each marker. This is very useful for making bots monitor a ramp, a slope, a stairway or other uneven surfaces.Some quick notes and hints about camp waypoints:
This waypoint type obviously indicates the map goal:
On an as-map, it tells the bots where the VIP escape zone is. Make sure the escape zone symbol is visible on your HUD when you place a map goal waypoint there. Otherwise the VIP may end up reaching the point and running away again.
On a cs-map, the map goal waypoint marks the position of the hostages. It is NOT necessary to place one map goal WP per hostage. Unless the hostages are standing really far away from each other, one point per hostage group will perfectly do.
On a de-map, the map goal waypoint marks the bomb spots. It must be placed somewhere inside the bomb zone, i.e. the bomb icon must be blinking on your HUD when you place such a WP. In contrast to cs-maps, on de-maps it makes sense to set various goal waypoints in one bomb zone. This will enable bots to choose from several spots to plant the bomb and make them less predictable. NOTE: Bots will always croucb down while planting the bomb. While it is perfectly possible to make the map goal WP crouched, this is not necessary if you want to make sure that your bots crouch to plant the bomb; they will do so anyway.
Finally, on es-maps, the map goal WP marks the escape zone for the terrorists. You can follow the same rules as for as-maps.
Now you may wonder how to determine the exact function of a map goal waypoint. Don't worry, this is entirely map-specific; you don't have to do anything about it. All bots of both participating teams will automatically know what the map goal is; they only need the point to guide them there. In the editor, map goal waypoints will be displayed in deep purple (see screenshot below). This makes them easy to tell apart from the pink ladder waypoints (see above).
The purple waypoint on the marked spot is the map goal, in this case a bomb spot.
The radius of a waypoint is indicated by means of horizontal blue beams that go out in all directions from the position of a waypoint. Viewed from above, the beams form a pattern that reminds of a star or a flower. The photo below was taken from above; we are looking down onto a waypoint, and you can see the blue "flower" around it:
A waypoint and its radius indicators viewed from above.
These radius indicators are a great means to see how big the radius of a waypoint actually is: It ends exactly where the beams end.The good news first: You don't have to set every single radius manually; the editor will do much of the work for you! It will automatically calculate the radius of a waypoint depending on the area around it. If the editor detects higher (= approx. more than knee-high) obstacles like walls nearby, it will automatically adjust the radius to reach up to the wall, not further. However, the maximal radius is limited to 96 units. This means that even on a totally open plain, where the nearest obstacle is hundreds of distance units away, the radius will not exceed 96.
Now you might wonder "Well, if the editor does all this for me, why would I change radii by hand?" The answer is simple: The editor helps, but it isn't perfect. It cannot detect all kinds of obstacles. I can't go too much into detail here because all this is pretty much map-related. Anyway, you will see places where the radius cuts into an obstacle - it could be a very thin pillar, a fence, or even a solid-looking car that's parked in the streets... as I said, it depends on how the mapper built these elements.
Another problem is not with walls, but with holes and cliffs: If there is no high obstacle, the editor will regard an area as clear and set a big radius - it doesn't care if right next to the waypoint there's a yawning abyss where bots will fall to death!
So these are areas where you will have to keep a watchful eye on your radii and, if necessary, change them by hand. In narrow corridors and especially around narrow doorways, you will see that even a small radius calculated by the editor doesn't make the bots navigate precisely enough. In such places, I strongly recommend lowering the radius to zero.
In order to change the radius of a waypoint, bring up the main menu and select "3. Set Radius". The following menu will appear:
The radius menu with all options between 0 and 112.
Simply select an option by pressing the corresponding key, and the radius of the currently active waypoint will be changed to the selected value. You will quickly get a feeling for these numbers if you play around with them a bit.
Please note that some waypoint types will always have - and require - a radius of zero. The radii of thes waypoint types should NOT be changed! The types with fixed radii are: Ladder, rescue, camp (no matter if team-specific or not) and map goal.
Waypoints alone aren't sufficient to make bots move the way you want. They must be connected with other waypoints in order to let bots reach their goal. By default, connections up to a certain distance will be made automatically.
You can select the automatic connection distance (AutoPath Max Distance, apmd) by bringing up the main menu and selecting "9. Options".
The waypoint options menu.
Now select the entry "6. AutoPath Max Distance". The following sub-menu will appear:
The apmd menu.
Select the desired distance from this menu. After selecting a distance, connections up to that distance will be drawn automatically.
Of course, you can also add and remove connections manually. However, this needs a little bit more explanation, and it's better to explain if you know the different connection types. So let's first have a look at these - afterwards you can read how to add and remove such connections by hand.
The vast majority of all connections in a waypoint set will be bidirectional. Obviously, these connections enable bots to walk both from point A to point B and back from point B to point A. They are shown as yellow lines in the editor (see picture below).
A two-way connection between the two depicted waypoints.
One-way connections enable bots to walk from point A to point B, but not vice versa. They can be useful to make bots drop down a wall or a high crate, but prevent them from attempting to get up. Of course, there may be more places at which a one-way connection can make sense, but that depends on the map.
In game, one-way connections will be visible from 2 waypoints, their start and their end waypoint. In order to show you the direction of one-way connection, it will be shown in different colours depending on from which perspective you view it. Let's say you have a one-way connection from point 1 to point 2. In this case, when you are standing at point 1, you will see the connection displayed in white (see following picture).
An outgoing 1-way connection, i.e. a connection that leads TO the point in the background, but not back from it.
The picture below shows the same two waypoints and the same connection, but this time I took the screenshot while I was standing near the second waypoint. As you can see, the incoming one-way connection is shown in teal.
An incoming 1-way connection, i.e. a connection that leads FROM the point in the background TO the point where the picture was taken.
The fact that one-way connections are shown from both involved points is a great feature. It makes spotting errors very easy and saves you the trouble of running around to check if there is a connection TO the point where you are standing.
Jump connections are a bit special as they cannot be drawn like any other connection. But that's not all: apart from that, jump connections can also be one-way or two-way connections. To make matters even more complex, their 2-way version can come in two flavours: A "pure" two-way jump connection, i.e. a jump connection from A to B and another jump connection back from B to A or a "mixed" two way connection, with a jump connection leading from A to B and a regular one-way connection back from B to A. The latter version will be very rare, though. Now once again, this sounds more complicted than it actually is.
The screenshot below shows a jump connection, viewed from the waypoints where the bots will start their jump (i.e. an outgoing jump connection):
An outgoing jump connection; it will make bots jump to the WP in the background.
Here is the same connection viewed from the waypoint where bots will land after their jump. As you can see, it is shown as a normal incoming connection. From this side, you cannot tell whether this incoming connection is a jump connection or a normal one. Given the fact that there's a gap where bots can fall down, it had better be a jump connection... ;o)
An incoming jump connection; bots start their jump at the WP in the background and land here - hopefully.
Now look at the last screenshot: I could add a regular one-way connection back to the waypoint in the background. (I know it wouldn't make sense at this spot, but let's just pretend there were no gap between the waypoints.)
After making this connection, the connection line would turn yellow when viewed from the position shown in the screenshot. It will show you that there's a way to get TO the WP in the background and back FROM it. At the same time, you will know that bots will walk back to the WP in the background. Why?
Because a "pure" 2-way jump connection shows as a red line from both sides. If i added a jump back from the point where I took the screenshot to the point in the background, the connection would show as a red line, no matter from which of the two waypoints I look at it. This will tell you that bots will jump between the two waypoints, no matter in which direction they are following the connection.
Now you know the most important things about connections in general and the different types of connections. You also know how to adjust automatic connection lengths and how to add a jump connection by hand. But how do you add or remove a connection by hand?
In older PODBot versions, you could add and remove connections by means of console commands. You will be glad to hear that PB 2.6mm uses a much more comfortable method to accomplish this: You simply aim at the desired waypoint and select the action to perform from the on-screen menu!
Here's how it works: Look at the screenshot below. Let's pretend we wanted to delete the connection from the waypoint where we're standing to the left waypoint near the wall. Aim at the waypoint with your crosshair. As soon as the waypoint is selected, it will become bigger, and a little blue cross will appear on top of it.
NOTE 1: This only works if you are standing near a waypoint AND aiming at another one!!! If you are standing in a waypointless area, you won't be able to use this function because it needs two selected waypoints: The one where you are standing and the one you are aiming at.
NOTE 2: You can override whatever apmd value with manual connections, but there's a limit of ??? 300 units ???.
The left waypoint is selected, although the crosshair isn't exactly on it. Note how big it is in comparison to the other, unselected waypoint! Besides, you can see the blue cross on top.
You will see that the crosshair doesn't have to be exactly on the waypoint; it's usually enough if you aim somewhere near the point. Sometimes you will even have to aim a little bit away from the waypoint in order to activate it. Simply move your crosshair around the waypoint until you see that it gets bigger and has the blue cross on top of it. Leave the crosshair where it is and perform whatever action you want to perform. If you have problems activating a waypoint, you can also try changing your position a bit: Walk a step forward or to the side, aim at the desired WP from a slightly different angle. You will get a feeling for it quickly!
The following picture demonstrates some of the peculiarities of this aiming system, especially over longer distances: The crosshair is actually nearer to the right camp WP in the background, but nonetheless, the left one is selected!
Despite the crosshair being nearer to the right WP, the left one is selected!
In the screenshot below, I stood at the exact same position and aimed until I had the right WP activated - you can see that the crosshair is off to the right quite a bit. But you can also see how well the activated waypoint is visible even from such a large distance. Normally it would be even slightly thinner than the left WP, as it is a tad further away. But here it is nice and fat, easy to tell apart from unselected waypoints.
Now aiming at the right WP - the crosshair is a bit off, but the waypoint is selected.
Now you know how to activate a waypoint by aiming at it. In order to add a connection now, bring up the main menu and select "6. Add Path". The following sub-menu will appear:
The "Add Path" menu where you can select which type of connection to add.
Well, this is almost self-explanatory: Select the connection type you want to add, and it will be drawn. You have read about the available connection types above, so this should be no problem.
"Outgoing path" means a one-way connection from your current position to the WP you're aiming at.
"Incoming path" quite obviously means the opposite; a one-way connection pointing towards your position.
"Bi-directional (Both ways)" - I don't have to explain this, do I? ;o)
As you know, jump connections can only be drawn by performing the jump; that's why this connection type is not available in this menu.
Removing connection manually is even easier, but works slightly different because you don't have to choose what to remove. Just aim at a waypoint and select "delete path" from the waypointing menu. If there is a one-way connection (no matter in which direction) between the WP where you are standing and the WP you are aiming at, it will be deleted. If there is a two-way connection between the two waypoints, selecting "delete path" will first delete the connection that leads from your position to the other waypoint. Thus, a one-way connection from the WP you are aiming at back to your own position will remain. Simply hit "delete path" again, and it will disappear.
In some cases, especially with ladder waypoints, you may run into serious problems to aim at a waypoint. Let's say you want to connect two ladder waypoints. You're standing at the lower end of the ladder, but you just can't get the upper ladder WP activated. In such a case, simply bring up the waypointing menu and select "9. Options".
The waypoint options menu.
Select "7. Cache this WP". You will see a message on your HUD: "WP #nnn has been put into memory", where "nnn" is the number of the waypoint you're standing at. As soon as a waypoint has been put into the cache, all manual connection adding / removing actions will affect the cached waypoint, no matter how far you are away! So be careful with this function. If you put a waypoint into the cache, then walk to the other side of the map and manually add a connection somewhere, the connection will lead to the cached WP, even if this means going through the entire map and thick walls!
But back to the example: You are still standing at the lower ladder WP and have just cached it. Now you can climb up to the upper ladder WP and add a 2-way connection. This new 2-way connection will automatically be made between your current position (the upper ladder WP) and the cached WP (in this case, the lower ladder WP).
In order to clear the cache, simply walk to any point in the map where there is no waypoint nearby. Then, select "Cache this WP" again. You will see a HUD message: "Cache cleared! (no waypoint nearby)". Now the cache is empty, and you can continue working just like before.
HINT: As I mentioned, this function can cause errors if you don't pay attention to what you are doing. Therefore, I recommend clearing the cache immediately as soon as you don't need it anymore.
Waypoint flags are anything that makes a waypoint "behave" in a special way and serve for more (or different) things than mere navigation purposes.
Flags can be divided into two categories, and if you wanted to invent some nice names for these categories, you could call them exclusive and cumulative flags.
What does that mean? Well, exclusive flags are flags that exclude each other - a waypoint carries EITHER one flag OR another, but never two at the same time. Such a flag will change the type of a waypoint. For example, if you have a normal waypoint and add a "rescue" flag to it, the waypoint will turn into a rescue waypoint, with all its functions. It cannot be a normal waypoint AND a rescue waypoint at the same time.
The following flags are exclusive: goal, ladder, rescue, camp and team-specific*. Adding one of these flags to any waypoint will turn it into the selected waypoint type.
*: Team-specific is really a special case, because with camp waypoints, it's cumulative - but with all others, it isn't.
Cumulative flags are flags that don't exclude each other, i.e. a waypoint can carry one of these flags AND a another one at the same time. For example, a waypoint can be team-specific AND carry a button flag at the same time. It can mark a strategically important position for one of the teams and at the same time tell all bots to push a nearby button.
The following flags are cumulative: button, lift, crouch and nohostage. Team-specific is only cumulative when applied to camp waypoints.
The following list will show the effects of each flag in detail.
This flag will tell bots that they need to push a nearby button every time they come past the flagged waypoint. You can add this flag to any waypoint type. It is shown as a little green cross near the top of a waypoint (see picture below).
This flag is not necessary for button-triggered doors, because bots that are about to go through a closed button-triggered door will "see" that their path is blocked and automatically look for the button that opens the door.
However, there might be situations where the bots can't detect an obstacle in their path but still need to push a button in order to reach their goal. Imagine a deadly laser beam that can be temporally deactivated with a button, for example. Bots won't be able to detect the laser beam as an obstacle and thus ignore the button and die. But if you add a button flag to the waypoint next to the deactivator button, all bots will be forced to push the button before they continue.
This normal waypoint is marked with a button flag.
You won't be too surprised to read that a lift flag is.used to enable bots to use lifts. Lift flags must be applied to the waypoint inside an elevator shaft. Imagine a normal elevator that can move between ground level and 1st floor. You will have one waypoint inside the elvator cabin at ground level, and another one you added inside the elevator cabin when you were at the 1st floor. Both waypoints will be connected to each other. If there were no connection, bots wouldn't know that one possible path to get from one storey to the other leads through the elevator. Now the problem is that bots are supposed to hit the button, walk into the elevator, stand still until they have reached the other storey and walk out of the elevator. This is where the lift flags are needed: They tell your bots to hold their position until the elevator has reached the other storey.
Lift flags are not visualized in any way in the editor, i.e. they do not change the appearance of the waypoint they are applied to.
??? Is this paragraph complete bullshit or am I actually making sense ???
Adding this flag to a waypoint will not change the waypoint type (e.g. normal, goal, ladder etc.), but it will make the selected WP a crouched WP. You will see the effect when you look at the waypoint to which you applied the flag: It will be smaller, just as if you had made it a crouched WP in the first place.
However, I recommend placing crouched WPs the normal way instead of adding a crouch flag to standing WPs. It's taking two steps where only one step is necessary, and besides, if you add the crouch flag to a standing WP, the WP will float in the air several inches above the ground.
This flag will turn any waypoint into a map goal point. It can be quite useful if you waypointed the area around the map goal with normal waypoints and then realized that you would rather have a goal waypoint in place of one of the normal waypoints. Instead of deleting the normal waypoint and inserting a goal waypoint, you can just use this flag.
A ladder flag will obviously turn the WP it's applied to into a ladder waypoint. If you accidentally added a normal waypoint where there should be a ladder waypoint (for example when jumping to a ladder), this flag can come in handy.
Forgot to add a rescue WP in the rescue zone? There are already so many waypoint around that you don't want to add yet another one? Well, this flag will turn any waypoint into a rescue WP.
This flag will turn any waypoint into a camp WP. Right after adding the flag, however, this freshly made camp WP will not have its camp start and camp end markers correctly set. You must do so manually by selecting "camp start" and "camp end" from the "add" menu, just as you'd do with any camp waypoint.
This flag is only needed on CS-maps, but there it's absolutely important! It will block a waypoint for a CT bot that's leading hostages towards the rescue zone. By using this flag you can prevent bots from choosing paths where the hostages cannot follow them (up a ladder or through a narrow vent, for example). The flag must be applied to the first WP that should NOT be reached with hostages. In order to make it easier for you to keep an overview over which point are blocked and which aren't, the "no hostage" flag is graphically displayed in the editor as a bright red cross on top of the waypoint it was applied to (see picture below).
This normal waypoint carries a no hostage flag. CT bots with hostages won't be able to use it.
Upon selecting this flag, you will be prompted with a sub-menu where you can choose for which of the two teams the waypoint will be specific.
This menu will appear when you select the flag "team-specific".
When applied to normal, ladder, rescue or goal waypoints, this flag will turn the waypoint into a team-specific one - a CT-important waypoint if you selected "Counter-terrorists" and a T-important one if you selected "terrorists".
With CT and terrorist-important points, you can use this flag to change the team the WP is associated with. For example, you can use it to turn a CT-important waypoint into a terrorist-important one. If you select the third option, "both teams", you can turn any CT or terrorist-important waypoint into a normal, unspecific one.
With camp waypoints, however, this flag works a bit differently. You can add it to any camp waypoint to turn it into a team-specific camp waypoint. Only bots of the associated team will be allowed to camp there. Of course, you can also change a team-specific camp waypoint to a normal camp waypoint by selecting the third option "both teams".