Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Heyyo,

I reinstalled, n' played once between each patch, and it seems to be fine now.. maybe that's all I needed to do? :\

anywho, I gave it a go, very impressive there Mal. I was attacking a bot, n' it turned to attack me, shot me a bit n' ran back into a room n' naded out the door.. since I had a flamethrower he burned up seconds later, but hurt me bad with that nade.. nice. ;)

lol, bots do love their airstrikes.. a bot misplaced one by accidentally hitting the wall on the outdoor staircase going out of the trench on beach and I guess he was trying to do it while trying to jump to the ledge on the right near the ladder, but couldn't cause he kept hitting the wall, so that's probably just a waypoint issue, easy fix. ;)

I noticed one more thing: I planted a bomb at the beach wall, and another bot armed it before I could, and then he went n' planted a bomb at the same site.. that was interesting. It's kindof like a guarantee the wall's gonna go down, and him helping me with my bomb after I just threw it down is great! gj on that Mal. :)

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Bots work great mal! Those Skins are perfectly fine. I did notice a couple things.

1. I was on the allies and we got upto the bunker on beach and an LT called for a medic and a medic called for ammo and they both just stood there staring at each other calling for ammo and a medic back and forth. Finally the medic buckled and gave the LT health packs and then the LT finally gave the medic some ammo. They stood there for a good minute and half.

2. I was on Axis and up in the spawn area sniping allies as they came out of the bunker and a few of them seen me right away and they'd sit there running back and forth shooting at the trench wall.

This wasn't all that big of a deal though, neither was the first thing, but i figured i'd mention them anyway.

Those are actually pretty minor. In any case, Great work Mal! :D

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Those spaces tend to be pretty tight, to the bots anyhow, and they sometimes jump around to avoid getting snagged on some lip. The RtCW maps were not intended for bots, and there are a LOT of small clipping errors, tiny lips, and bugs within the maps (ESPECIALLY mp_beach). You don't notice them anymore after all this time, and you get around and avoid them subconciously, but the bots do notice them, and sometimes need to jump to avoid them.

I don't think you'll be able to play with 64 bots on a server, unless you put them on a seperate box that you use as your server, then connect to it. :'(

Sorry, but they are a MASSIVE CPU drain when you get to those kinds of numbers, and its only going to get worse as I improve them and make them smarter. The "official" bot count I support is, and will always be, 16, tho 32 is possible on some maps without too much of a drain. :-/

Thanks for the comments about their nade/airstrike ability - I've worked incredibly hard on those systems. :)

In the next release, any GFX extras I add will be an optional, extra download. That way if you just want the bots, you can get them, and if you want some extra eye candy, you can get that too.


MarD: I checked out your demo - it had to be something weird with your install, because even the bots were affected by it, and I can guarentee it has NOTHING to do with my code. The demo itself showed all kinds of weird graphical glitches too. I'm glad the re-install fixed the problem. =)

Eng bots are intelligent enough to see the bombs of teammates, and know to arm them too, incase you die or get distracted. Its a feature I spent a LOT of time adding, and so far your the first to comment on it. Thanks. :D

Denny: Heh, I've seen humans do that, tho for not as long. Hell, when I'm a med I won't heal a LT who wont arm me when I'm running around with only a knife, and I'm begging him for ammo. ;)

When the bots get in a "Hey! I need some supplies here!" mindset, they can be one track minded about it, hence the stare down. Its something I'll have to test better (this is the first time I've ever heard of it happening, but knowing the code like I do, can see how it could happen).

The wall problem is a shortcoming of the code ATM - I keep the use of the pathfinder to a minimum, and if they think they don't need it, they won't use it. Obviously in this case they are wrong, and they get stuck, because its still possible to see your enemy by backing up. Its something I need to work on in the future (TBH: all of their combat systems need a lot of work).

Panzers Gone Wild always starts with the panzer, but he is another case where after the wall blows, he can decide to switch weapons, to something that is better for close quarters combat. Hence the switch to the venom. If you re-start the map, you'll notice hes got the panzer again. Its something only the allied team did last version (switch weaps based on needs), but now I had the axis do it too.

Next version, the bots will also changes classes based on needs (more engs to blow the walls, but after they're blown, more LTs and MEDICs).

Thanks for the positive comments guys - I'm glad your enjoying Fritz! :D

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Would Hyper Threading or 64-bit CPU's help in lowering the CPU demands?

Also i did not notice that they do switch weapons, i think that's great! And if you get them to switch classes based on needs that be sweeter! Oh what was the shove command again Mal? so i can bind it. :D

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Somewhat, tho to get the benefit of the 64 bit CPU, the game code itself, and Fritz's code, would have to be recompiled to take advantage of it fully.

Turning down the GFX options can help also.

I have a P4 with HT, so I don't have a problem TBH, but I've been trying hard to keep the basic requirements fairly low, so that anyone can play. Currently, I'd say you'd need at LEAST a P3, 1ghz and 256+ RAM.

Until this past Xmas, my DEV machine was a P3 866 that only had 128 RAM, and Fritz ran fairly well on it. In fact, I still use the P3 for testing, to make sure the bot doesn't run too slow. On a map like beach tho, where so much of the map is visible at once, the combination of high GFX settings, and a lot of bots easily brings the P3 to its knees. :(

And TBH - this can't be helped: more brains = more CPU usage. :-/ Thats why I shoot for 16 bots, as a safe number I can support under various computer types and speeds.

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Heyyo,

Heh, remember folks, we are talking aboot RTCW and not Battlefield1942.. RTCW's maps are small, so a smaller player count's always good unless you want to be slaughtered every other second. So a bot count of 16 is plenty fine by me. :P

For cpu usage? your bot's not too bad for that actually Mal. Definately not nearly as much of a cpu hog as the CSSBot... sheesh, even 7 of those things bog down my computer a bit... darn rediculous..

Oh, and the bot that tried to nade out the doorway n' got me? that was PanzersGoneWild, and I think he had one of those mp's or a venom..

I'm gonna tinker around, i wanna get more bots in the map. Is there any bot quota commands or anything? I'll rtfm once I get home so if there ain't np I'll just mod those .cfg files. ;)

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

I always play with 20 (10 per team) and it isn't too bad, i usually average 100-200 FPS (around 50-80 FPS with all those air strikes, lol). I even played 20 with Wolfbot.

Specs:
Pentium 4 2.8eGhz HT (Prescott Core)
1GB DDR-400, Dual-Channel RAM
128MB Nvidia Geforce FX 5700 Ultra
And a partridge in a pear tree! :D

It seems (from what i hear anyway) that 32-bit applications get a massive boost from the new 64-bit AMD CPU's anyway. Even more so than Hyper Threading.

I can only imagine what 64-bit apps run like. Hey Mal, what's the shove command again? lol :)

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Heyyo,

Heh, ya know what I wish RTCW had in mp? the boot. I loved the boot in sp.. open door? boot! break alarm? boot! reloading gun while fighting badguys? boot!

flip a switch up or down?... boot?... BOOT WOORKS!! :D

Ah the miracles of a man and his ability to kick.. it's quite something eh? :P

now, for mp they should've tied the boot to the shove command, so I'd be more like a boot command. That would soo pwn.. I also miss booting nades back at enemy's in sp and they boot them back.. hot potato of pain. :w00t:

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

Well, the shove cmd isn't vanilla Wolf MP - its a feature of the Shrub mod that I really liked and included in Fritz. In Fritz, you can only shove teammates, not enemies or grenades. It would be fun to make it where you could kick enemies, but there is no model animation for it, so you'd never see it (imagine the confusion when someone was playing, walked up to a enemy, then got "magically" knocked back and wounded - it would be chaos).


Denny: Heh, I broke the shove cmd in the latest release. I was experimeting with something with the bots, and forgot to let humans use it again before I released the patch. 9_9 :|
So, currently only bots use it. :P If its missed, I'll add it back in the next release.

Re: The patched Third Release comments thread
 

It helps only if bots start coming back in the other direction (toward you) in crawl spaces. Or if you wanna shove bots from a camping spot.