PodBot v1.0 to v2.6
How To Play with Podbot:
Important:
Since v1.4 of Pod-Bot a helpful User Menu is available for
performing the most used actions.
It's bound by default (you can change it in podbot.cfg) to the "=" key.
Waypoint Folders:
If you're using POD v1.2 or older the default folder to unpack the files is the main PODBot Directory " \PODBot\".
If you're using POD v1.4-v1.4x the default folder for wpts is " \PODBot\WPTCS10\".
If Your using POD v2.0 the default waypoint folder is " \PODBot\WPTDefault\".
The PODBot User Menu:
Pressing the "=" key in game a Menu with the following options should appear on your Screen:
- Quick Add Bot - This does what it says. It quickly adds a Bot giving him a random name, team, skill and model. Skill will be chosen randomly between your
minbotskill/maxbotskill values specified in podbot.cfg.
- Add specific Bot - Allows you specify all things for adding a single Bot.
- Kill all Bots - Kills all Bots in all Teams. You can use this to end Rounds faster if there aren't any humans alive and you don't like watching Bots playing better
than you :)
- Newround - Same as above, but kills every Client including human players.
- Fill Server with Bots - Fills all free Server Entries with Bots. After selecting this option you can specify the team or to auto-assign them. If you especially select
a team for the Bots the Server Variables " mp_autoteambalance" and " mp_limitteams" will be set to 0 (thus not caring about balancing teams
anymore) and all Bots will only join 1 Team. You can use for example this to play alone or with your friends against all Bots.
- Kick Random Bot - Kicks the first Bot in the List.
- Remove all Bots - Kicks all Bots off the Server.
- Select Weapon Mode - Opens another Sub-Menu where you can select the Weapons Bots will buy (and use in combat). Selecting Knife Mode will also turn on Jason-Mode.
Selecting Standard Weapons will turn it off again.
Using Commands besides the in-game menu (using the console):
If a map has loaded, press the key below "Esc" ( or the ~ key) and the console screen scrolls down. Now you're able to type in commands like the ones used to control POD-Bot.
Some examples:
Just type "addbot" and a new Bot will be connected... If the Bots are stuck or you just want to start a new round type in " killbots" which
will force all bots to be dead instantly. If you're sick of playing with Bots type " removebots" which will kick all Bots from the Server.
NOTE: This will also set the min_bots and max_bots settings from the podbot.cfg to zero, so you have to add Bots manually if you want them back in your game. Of course you can always use "kick" to remove single bots. To manually change maps, use the substitution for the map command. Type " newmap mapname" to change to another map. So for
example to load the map "de_dust" you type "newmap de_dust". Bots present will join the Game if the map is loaded. For all console commands
please read the summary below...
Summary of Console Commands:
Most of the time you will only need the POD-Bot User Menu which is by default bound to the "=" key. You can change this easily with any text-editor in 'podbot.cfg'.
All commands in square [] brackets are optional and don't need to be specified and brackets are not included in actual command. Most of these commands will also
work in podbot.cfg.
- addbot [skill] [team] [class] [name] - Adds a new Bot with skill (0-100) to team (0-1 selected teams, 5 to auto-assign) using model (1-4 selected models, 5
auto-assign) with the specified name. If you don't use the name argument it will be filled randomly from "podbot\botnames.txt".
- botchat on|off - Turns chatting Bots on or off
- botsvotemap x - Orders all dead Bots to vote for Map x, where x is a valid number of a map in your mapcycle.
- imaborg on|off - Let's the Bot AI take care about the (Host) Player. Doesn't work perfectly yet, use with caution !
- jasonmode on|off - Turns on/off "JasonMode". In this Mode, Bots are only allowed to use a Knife and they won't buy any weapons at all.
- killbots - Kills all POD bots on the server.
- newmap mapname - Substitution for the "map" command you're used to. Loads a new map. This will work 100% with Bots and no client should get
disconnected.
- podbotmenu - Displays the User-Menu by default bound to the "=" key.
- removebots - Kicks all Bots off the Server. Note that this also changes the min_bots and max_bots variables to 0.
- wptfolder foldername - Specifies the Folder for loading waypoints. No special chars like Spaces or quotation marks are allowed. Also note that the Folder must be
inside the POD-Bot Directory and thus the name ONLY consists of the folder name.
FunModes:
These are just leftovers of my HL Engine tests and were left in to give you (hopefully) a good laugh.
These Fun Modes weren't fully tested out by me and it might be that this or that isn't working properly with them.
If something doesn't work with them I honestly don't care that much.
- omg imonmars - Half' of the normal CS Gravity, meaning you can jump a lot higher than normally and you don't get much damage when falling. Try this if you like John
Woo Movies!
- omg imhaunted - Bots are a bit translucent, making them look like ghosts and they are much harder to detect. (Good for making your game harder if u find the bots
easy)
- omg itstoodark - Every Bot has a bright lightsource Aura. Quite useful on very dark maps to spot Bots easier. (Good if u find the bots too hard....for noobies ;))
- omg itsnewyear - Bots celebrate New Year! :)
- omg tronisback - Adds a shiny hull over each Player which reminded me of the old movie "Tron". T Bots are Red, CT Bots are blue.
- omg imstoned - You don't want to know... ;)
- omg imsober - Turns off all Fun-Modes.
Ordering Bots through Radio Commands:
You can use some of the Radio Commands to get more support from your Bots
Note: When you issue a 'Follow me' Command Bots won't follow you in 3 cases:
- The Bots have their own will and they issue a "Negative" if they don't want to follow you.
- They don't see you.
- They see an enemy and engage the target.
A Terrorist Bot carrying the C4 or picking it up, will also issue a "Follow Me" sometimes to have some assistance with him. (Note: that they have problems following on ladders at the moment because the movement is unwaypointed.) They also do some other Radio Commands like "Need
Backup", "Enemy down", " Enemy spotted", " I'm in Position" (to tell you he's camping) but not very often,
otherwise it would surely get on your nerves...
Summary of Bot Reactions to Radio Commands:
- Follow me - Forces Bots in the near to follow you. You can specify the maximum number of bots following in the podbot.cfg (defaults to 3).
- Hold this Position - Makes a Bot who's following you, stay a while at that position and look around for enemies.
- Taking Fire, need assistance - Makes all living Bots (not engaged in a Fight) run to your position to assist you.
- Need Backup - Basically the same as above, but limited to distance and also the Bots use it sometimes to get some support.
- Storm the Front! - Mighty command! Forces all Bots in the near to rush in the direction you're pointing to when using that command. Basically their level of
aggression is increased so a pathetic frightened Bot could also turn around and flee.
- Get in position... - Bots in the near will try to take a covered position and stay there until they either encounter an enemy, you order them to leave, or they waited
too long.
- Go,go,go - If a Bot follows you, this commands stops him from following. If there are other Bots in the near, they will stop camping and going to roam the map again
(normally used in combination with "Get in position...")
- Team, Fall Back! - Opposite of "Storm the Front". Increases Fear and decreases aggression of Bots in the near so that they are more
likely to fall back and stay covered for a short period.
Bot Skill differences:
There is a file called botskill.cfg were you can tweak most skill parameters of the bots by editing the file 'botskill.cfg' with any text-editor.
Also take a look into 'podbot.cfg' to adjust some more things to your liking...settings for the Bots if you find them too easy/too hard,
First, Bots with low skills will pause/camp longer and more often, Bots with low skills have a bigger surprise time and they shoot slower and are lucky if they hit something..
Then there are minor behaviour differences. For example Bots with a skill above 80 use the Knife more often if you're near them.
If you want to get headshots all the time and attack really fast add some Bots with a skill of 100.
Bot Personalities:
There are 3 different Personalities in POD now, if you have 'detailnames' turned on they are shown through the Prefixes like this:
- [P*D] = Agressive Bot
- [POD] = Normal Bot
- [P0D] = Defensive Bot
Right now the Personality is randomly chosen if a new Bot gets created. I want to extend a lot of stuff around Personalities so there's no sense in a specific selection and it can't be done.
BotChats:
The botchats are files which store what the bot can say during the game and when it's spectating.
They are located in the podbot\botchats Folder where you installed the Bot.
The translated versions (except the German and English ones) don't use the new Text replacements and the dynamic keyword chat is still in English language.
Rename and copy one of these to "botchat.txt" in the main podbot folder to have your localized Bot Talk.
These translated versions of the Botchat are available:
- BotChat.txt (default english version)
- BotChatBulgarian.txt
- BotChatCroatian.txt
- BotChatCzech.txt
- BotChatDanish.txt
- BotChatDutch.txt
- BotChatEnglish.txt
- BotChatFinnish.txt
- BotChatFrench.txt
- BotChatGerman.txt
- BotChatHungarian.txt
- BotChatIceland.txt
- BotChatIndonesian.txt
- BotChatItalian.txt
- BotChatNorwegian.txt
- BotChatPolish.txt
- BotChatPortuguese.txt
- BotChatRomanian.txt
- BotChatRussian.txt
- BotChatSerbian.txt
- BotChatSpanish.txt
- BotChatSwedish.txt
- BotChatTagalog.txt
- BotChatTurkish.txt
Running POD-Bot on Win32 Dedicated servers:
Install POD-Bot as described above and create a game the way you normally would. When running a dedicated server the POD-Bot commands that are normally available in the client console
are disabled.
To create a bot you must set the CVAR "pb" to the command you desire.. To use the "pb" CVAR you would use one of the following commands on the dedicated server command line...
- pb "addbot"
- pb "addbot 100 5"
- pb "addbot 20 1 DumbAss"
In addition these commands are supported:
- pb "fillserver 5" (Fills server with auto-assigned Bots)
- pb "fillserver 1" (Fills server with Terrorist Bots)
- pb "fillserver 2" (Fills server with Counter Bots)
- pb "removebots" (Disconnects all Bots from the Game)
- pb "killbots" (Kills all Bots in the current round)
- pb "newmap mapname" (Changes the Map)
When using the dedicated server, bot will also be automatically spawned using the podbot.cfg file. You can also use the min_bots/max_bots settings or the addbot command explained in
that file.