64 slot Fritzbot Server

[Roach]

The folks at http://centralfragzone.com have decided to host a 64 slot Fritzbot Server. We are still learning the ins and outs of the mod but The server seems to be running pretty well. There are 16 bots on the server leaving the rest for humans lol.

The Server Addy is: 66.228.126.160:27960

Come and enjoy and you can post your comments at http://roach.centralfragzone.com just click on forum.

Happy Fraggin!

Roach

[hsAG3NT]

Nice server!
Played there for a few rounds today. Just a suggestion, but you might want to turn punk buster on. When I host a server from home, I use it and have not seen any problems with the bots and PB.

-agent

[Roach]

Turning pb on is not a problem, I just wanted to work out the bugs, and I have had a few, before I added pb.

Thanks for stoping by and Hopefully if time permits I can get some of the other maps set up. Our clan loves alot of the custom maps and we were happy to see support for a few of them. Hope to have a rotaton going soon.

Roach

[CrapShoot]

Nice. I played a few rounds. I'll play there more when a rotation is set up.

Btw, you have g_antilag set to 2 on the server. g_antilag is really broken in rtcw, and sometimes causes some issues with the bots. Occasionally you may see them warping a bit or 'flashing' on the screen.

[Roach]

yep, i have seen that, thanks will shut that off. and thanks for stopping by,

Roach

[the bindlestiff]

Hey Roach, I'm glad to see a Fritzbot server on the air. My buddy and I tried to set up a private server a few months ago but ran into difficulties trying to find an outfit that would allow enough bots to make playing worthwhile. After paying our money we were told that we could have only six bots total. We queried many other sites but found none that would allow more than a token number of bots. So we gave it up.

I've got a few comments about what I like to see in a Fritzbot server. Take 'em or leave 'em as you see fit. First, I find a long warmup totally useless, just an interminably long wait while the bots shoot at each other (why would they need a warmup anyway?) I have my rotation set up for no more than 5 seconds warmup. I'd turn it off completely but have not been able to do so.

Second, I like to play on the offense and several times on your server I found myself switched to the defense when starting a new round. I'd prefer to stay on the same team unless I choose to change sides.

Third, the number and classes of bots for each waypointed map have been chosen by the waypointer to give an optimum game for the particular map. I know that's how I've done it on my maps. Some maps need fewer players, some more, some with heavy weapons, some without. You have the same 16 bots on all the maps. On a small map like Lumber factory that would result in utter chaos, not too much fun to play. I hope that you'll give some thought about this.

I was glad to see that you have the bot_skill set to 2 and the bot_aimskill set to 1. Any harder and I'd be spending all my time in limbo! As it is, I was able to win several rounds on a few maps.

How about putting up some more maps? There are plenty more ready that are fun to play. Some of my favorites are Trenchtoast, Norway, Forest, Brescia, Foo Fighter TE, Market Garden, Wild West, Valley of Kings, to name a few.

Thanks again for putting up the server. Any idea if it'll be a permanent thing?

[Roach]

Ok let me see if I can take this in sections.

Most server company's are scared of bots, and understandably so, most bot programs/mods take up alot of resources on a server machine and to be honest we would prolly not rent/host a server of this kind. Reason being is most server companys make their money putting 20 hosted servers on a machine that should only host 5. The get away with this cause most servers rented sit there empty most of the time. Should one get real busy it is usually moved to a faster, better machine. WE DON'T DO THAT! However we have watched the Fritzbot server closely and have found that it does not require near as much cpu as most bot mods. The memory usage is no higher than any other RTCW 64 slot server, in fact it's a little less. However this 64 slot server was born as a tool for advertising our server company, however this effort has been cripled by the inability to change the g_motd and the absence of banners to let our players know where to download maps and the like, also no way to inform players that there is a web site and forum attatched to the server at http://roach.centralfragzone.com . nor can we say "need a server?" check us out at http://centralfragzone.com If we can not rectify this soon we will be forced to take the server down.

NOTE: every openion is valuable, sadly we can not use everyone's but we do value that input.

WARMUP
First, I have so many mods/cvars in my head I can't seperate them at times, lol but try seta g_dowarmup "0" I think that turns it off. But JMHO no warmup is crazy, thats the time I run to the coffee pot and fill my cup, while some are feverishly trying to get that bowl filled or that doobie rolled, some are running down the hall to drain their Wang, and some are just changing sides and classes. Your thinking in "local host" mode, on a dedicated server it sometimes take folks as much as 45 seconds to load the next map, so on map changes I allow 60 sec for warmup and on the second round only 20 sec to change classes and such. In my experience, not enough warmup time or no warmup time caused early dropoff and more spectators.

SWAP AND SHUFFLE
In my rotations, I shuffle teams at the change of a map and swap teams on the second round of that map, I do so cause Me and most of my clanmates " http://phatom1.org " can't stand stopwatch and most players I know don't like being on the same team round after round, since I have set up a generous warmup time you can use that to switch to the team you want to be on, but no system is perfect and not all will like it no matter how it's set. Now swap and shuffle may seem crazy in regard to the bots since they are fired and re-hired at the beginging of a new map, but My thinking is toward the 20+ "human" players I hope to see in the future.

MAPS
Yes, I would like to run more maps and diferent maps on the server and my clanmates and I spent 3 nights trying out several maps on the server, and choosing the most "stable" maps. We ran ypg_kings as well as tundra_rush_beta as they were some of our favorite maps, What we found out was several of the maps are not stable, and the bots would do funny things like not shooting at human players or just forgetting what they were doing and would just jump around. Crapshoot spotted this and uploaded a new waypoint file to me for ypg_kings but it would still do the same thing. We are finding out that there seems to be a diference in how waypoints and maps work between "home grown" servers and "real world internet dedicated" servers. Any of you that would like me to test a map/waypoint let me know at http://roach.centralfragzone.com in the forum and I will try to put it on the rotation and see how it works.

BOTS
I realize that diferent maps require diferent classes, however, running a fritzbot server is only a smidgeon of what I do and I don't have the time to customize every map so I chose a full condoment of bots that would get the job done, per side there is 2 medics, 2 engineers, 2 LT's, 1 sniper, 1 panzer making a total of 16 bots. I am going to add per side, 1 flammer, 1 venom, 1 fg42 and 1 more engineer bringing the total to 24 bots, but that will depend on resources. Remember this is not an "at home" server where maybe you and a couple of your buds will be playing, this is a 64 slot public dedicated server where there could be many human players, too many bots will spoil the action and "small maps" are out of the question.

SKILL
This is not my first time hosting a bot server, I hosted the early "Wolfbot" mod and found that too much skill level on the part of the bots would cause for an empty server. I like the fact that I can set their overall skill high and their aim lower so more new players can enjoy as well, In the future I am going to put a "ringer" on each side, that will have full skill level. Also this will be an additional bot making the total bots on the server 18, up from 16 since I have a class/weapon missing, I have no venom bot.

PUNKBUSTER
Sometime back I was asked to turn on punkbuster, I did and I didn't like the way it made the server run. Punkbuster is a joke for RTCW anymore anyway they have not done a real update for this game in a long time and those that are gonna hack already have hacks that punkbuster is not gonna catch. There is even a PB blocking hack now that really makes it useless. So for now PB will be turned off. I may however subscribe to http://punksbusted.com and use their ban list, I have not made my mind up yet.

ON THE SIDE
All this is moot if I can't whip this into a valid advertising tool, I know Mal has his head burried in ETBot right now and can't stand the idea of banners on the server, but from the point of view of a server admin and hosting provider, without the means of broadcasting information to the human players really crippples this mod. Maybe Mal can make a special version of the mod just for me that will fill my bill " hint hint " lol

Thanks again for the input and Happy Fraggin!

[Maleficus]

Originally Posted by Roach

However we have watched the Fritzbot server closely and have found that it does not require near as much cpu as most bot mods. The memory usage is no higher than any other RTCW 64 slot server, in fact it's a little less.



All this is moot if I can't whip this into a valid advertising tool, I know Mal has his head burried in ETBot right now and can't stand the idea of banners on the server, but from the point of view of a server admin and hosting provider, without the means of broadcasting information to the human players really crippples this mod. Maybe Mal can make a special version of the mod just for me that will fill my bill " hint hint " lol

1. Thanks for noticing. I spent a lot of time making sure the AI was the best it could be, without dragging down the server. Its the reason I made a lot of the choices I did (EX: the 32 bot limit).


2. The best compromise I can think of is a banner thats shown at startup. Like the Fritz version info banner. I have no problem adding something like that. It will be shown on connection, and upon every map restart. Also the MOTD fix.

I can't stand annoying banners ingame tho.



Now that the ET version is out the door, I will spend a bit of time working on a Wolf patch. I've promised a lot of other ppl various things, and it will be no problem to add them and the code for a config-able banner as well.

Cheers!

[the bindlestiff]

Roach, thanks for the detailed reply to my comments. Now I understand where you're coming from and why you made the choices you have. A couple of the larger maps I'd recommend adding are Market Garden and Forest, both of which can accomodate a lot of players.

On FREE server I would have no problem with banner ads. It is free, after all!

And Mal, I'm looking forward to the RTCW patch, especially bug fixes, barrier removal, dynamite throwing, and, hopefully, button handling.

[Maleficus]

Everything, but the buttons, are on the TODO list.