Fritz Phase Two Progress Thread

[sPlOrYgOn]

Originally Posted by Pierre-Marie Baty

You've already finished the movement code ??? o_O
that's what eating all my time !!!

yes amazing work in such little time.. it's been just a little under a month since you've said you broke the bot

[Maleficus]

Heres another movie of a feature I just got in today - the bots use nades now!!

In this movie, I'm fighting an axis bot who has a panzer. For those who don't know, in RtCW the panzer is a rocket launcher that can only be fired every 20 seconds or so, normally. After you've fired, your left with your pistol, knife, and grenades until you can shoot again. Smart usage of your grenades and pistol in this weak state (between panzer recharges) is critical to staying alive!

At the start of the movie, the bot blasts me around a corner with his panzer, then chases me. He tosses a nade around the corner then another in my face when he sees me again. Once visible, he uses his pistol, until I round another corner, in which case the nade comes out again and around the corner it goes!

Note that I'm in god mode this whole time, which is why hes not hurting me (else I would have been killed several times over!).

Nade support is still very new, and theres a lot of work to do yet, but its a start.

[Chronos]

Nice work,

Any idea when you will be putting out the next release?

[Maleficus]

Originally Posted by Chronos

Nice work,

Any idea when you will be putting out the next release?

I've decided Sept 15 (two weeks from today) - gives me enough time to work on a few things Fritz needs, and plenty of time to debug and look for problems (of which there are a few yet).

Mark your calendar.

[Maleficus]

Thanks to "The Ghost" Fritz also has a pretty sharp looking new look and UI.


Heres a pic of the main screen.


Special thanks to The Ghost for taking the time to create the new UI.

Cheers!

[Sniper]

I thought it already looked like that?

[The Ghost]

I just made a few changes, wanted to keep the file size small.

[Maleficus]

Originally Posted by Sniper

I thought it already looked like that?

There are more changes than just the main screen. A lot of it you have to actually see for yourself to appreciate - some new things: new console, credit screen, menu backgrounds, etc, etc. Some things were changed, others just reskinned or recolored to fit a theme for Fritzbot.

Also - I've added a few new features to the menus that will make starting a fritzbot game easy: the game will scan thru your maps, only showing CP maps, and only those CP maps that the bots have paths for, a few clicks and your in the game.

It looks really nice - sorta dark, yet simple.

Heres a pic of the default Wolf menu for reference.

[Maleficus]

Heres another movie. This one shows something I just added today: the bot's ability to detect grenades in the world, and airstrikes, and move away from them to a safe position.

In this movie, I toss grenades at Fritz, and he simply moves away until he reaches a safe distance. Then I toss an airstrike at him. As you can see - the airstrike has a lot wider damage radius, so Fritz moves a lot farther from it then he did the grenades. And he understands how a grenade works: if I had tossed it behind a wall, or in front of someone else, he wouldn't have worried about it.

Its not perfect - but it works.

Theres a lot of work to do to make it more "realistic" - they see and hear them a little too well, as well as balance it for the skills, but its a start.

Fritz WON'T be able to "see" artillery strikes in this version - those are a different beast altogether.

[Maleficus]

More progress made every day.....


One of the things I didn't like about the last version, was that if the bot realized it was low on health or ammo, it would call out for more, but it would never be smart enough to go up to a LT or MEDIC to get those supplies.

I've seen this on pub servers with humans too - some n00b screaming he needs ammo, and your behind him chasing him desperatly trying to give him some, and he just keeps running away!

Well, Fritz isn't a n00b anymore (at least on high skills)! He "sees" your class now, and if your someone he needs supplies from, he MAY decide to go up to you and bugger you for some!

Hes pretty smart about it too - he'll look around the area while you resupply him, to make sure no enemies are sneaking up on the both of you. One of the greatest n00b mistakes humans often make, is that while your resupplying them, they blankly stare at you and don't notice the enemy sneaking up to kill you both! >

The last version of Fritz was weak in that sense too - it was easy to catch two bots resupplying each other and kill them both because they would both be so focused on what they were doing.

Not anymore.


Heres the skill layout:

Low skill: your average n00b. Screams for everything, isn't bright enough to get it! You'll have to chase him down to resupply him.

Medium skill: smarter. Knows your class and will get ammo from you. Not very aware of whats going on around it while getting supplies tho.

Hard Skill: Very aware, very smart about getting supplies and following your ass around.



On a general note - a lot of the skill based differences aren't really in effect yet. Theres a good reason for this - for one, I think its easier to make a really smart bot at first, then dumb it down for the different skills. Two, since Fritz is still new, and people still don't know what its capable of yet, it'd be annoying for someone to play with only a skill 1 Fritz bot, then assume the bot sucks, instead of trying all skill levels before judging. So for now, Fritz will play at its best for the most part (there are differences in the skills, don't worry tho!).

Next version (after the one thats due this Sept 15), I'm going to work on creating "characters". For example: bots with a low sense of teamwork may not give ammo/health as much as a bot with high teamwork, some bots may be cowards, others Rambos, etc, etc.