Im An Idiot Help Me

yeah well im a total idiot and i know nothing about bots so im gonna need some help here and dont get mad at me if i ask the dumbest questions in the world. i have just figured out everything about how to run my server and set it up with hlds and everything but as it turns out no one wants to play on my server so i have decided to add bots to the server. my server runs alot of custom maps that i have downloaded and added. i know you can add way points and such but will the bots even play on the map if they dont know it or have waypoints? i mean will podbot even load up and work on the map and if they do will i be stuck with bots running into walls and shooting each other and such? i wana play with someone so i figure bots is my best bet... so if you could let me know wether bots will work on my customs maps and what i have to do to get em to work i would really appreciate it.

[Terran]

If you don't have waypoints for your custom maps realbot WIP#9 would fit you best. It has some kind of autowaypointing by learning from human players - really cool

Or you can use an updated version of podbot. There are plenty of waypoints available for it, use google to find them . I did this today and came up with more then 1500 waypointfiles! I don't have the link handy at my home pc but I could post it here tomorrow from my office pc .

There are also other bots around which have waypoints for many custom maps, e.g. joebot. But podbot was the most popular bot back in CS1.5 therefore the probability for waypoints is at best for it.

alright thank you. now my second question is will the bots work without waypoints or will i just end up sitting in my server alone when i change to a custom map?

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Even if you use an autowaypointing bot such as RealBot WIP, the bots will stand still as long as no human player comes into the map and runs around. The bots discover the map by remembering the locations where real players run. They won't discover the map by themselves (at least for RealBot WIP). I hope I'm not mistaken, if so, my apologies to Stefan

[Terran]

tons of waypoints (2015 so far):

http://www.internewwws.eti.br/cs/waypoints3.shtml

[>BKA< T Wrecks]

Hey RickJames,

if you're planning to use PODBot with custom maps, I can assure you that eveything will work fine. I recommend using Pierre-Marie Baty's PODBot version that works as a Metamod plugin. I've finally been able to test it yesterday and it's as good as PODBot could ever get.
Concerning waypoints, there are loads on the 'net (like on the page Terran posted here), but their quality varies. If you encounter bots drowning in water, always falling down somewhere or jumping in front of a high crate as if they wanted to get on top of it, the waypoint you d/l'ed is likely to be sh*t. As a rule, any decent waypoint should exceed 30 KB; if it's below, it's most probably bad. If it's above, it might still be bad, though, because the size of the file only indicates the number of WPs used. Fortunately, there are some names you can trust: If you see a waypoint done by "TAZ", "Count Floyd", "bot_guy" or "SoUlFaThEr", it's gotta be good.
And if you think you have bad waypoints for a map or if there's a map you don't find any waypoints for, just tell me and I'll make some for you.
Which maps do you have in your mapcycle? I've already waypointed more than 50 custom maps, and from what my friends & LAN mates tell me, my waypoints are pretty good - I would be glad to share them and have some more feedback.
Oh, and one more thing: There are some maps that are not the best to play with bots. Why? Because there are some things (like doors you have to push instead of running into them, for example) bots have problems with. However, it's even possible to edit the map and change quite a lot. Austin is obviously quite skilled in this respect, and I'm also planning to modify some maps to make them more enjoyable in bot matches.
Well, so much for now - hope you'll get it all to work! Btw, is it a 1.5 or a 1.6 server you're running? Maybe me & my friends might pay you a little visit - if it's ok for you, I can at least ask them and see what they think.

that is exactly the answer i have been looking for. i really appreciate the help. i am running a 1.6 server right now with admin mod and some other non stupid plug ins. i dont care at all if you pay the server a visit once i get it running. at the moment we are on a temporary server that runs ok but soon we will be upgrading. i think all my questions have been answered. some custom maps we run are ummm de_rats, de_rats2001, fy_rambohulk.... oh my we have alot haha i cant even remember right now. but if ya wana know more i can post em all in a bit. i really appreciate your help though thank you very much.

[>BKA< T Wrecks]

Hehe, "non-stupid plugins"... good one! You're right, though, there are some really stupid plugins around...
Glad we were able to help you out a bit. So far I can only think of one more thing to say: IMHO, The "rats"-maps belong to those that are not ideal to play with bots. This is due to several reasons:
1) In most rats-maps you have a large, open room in the centre of the map. However, bots don't adapt their weapon choice to this fact and thus don't stand a chance when they're running around with shotguns trying to fight a human with a decent rifle right across the room.
2) Some rats-maps have elevators, and I think I remember one that even had a sponge lying on the floor that worked as a sort of "jump booster" - those are things you just don't get bots to use really well.
3) There are many long ladders (e.g. cables around the frame of a door etc.), and you can imagine what happens when two bots meet on the ladder - one on his way up from below, the other one down from above? Yup, flying lessons.
Well, just look if you can get decent WPs, and if you have the impression that you didn't find good WPs for a certain map, just post it here, and in the worst of all cases you'll have to wait some days for me to d/l the map and make some waypoints for it...

i was hoping not to have to make another post concering any problems with these bots but sadly enough i will have to. im having two problems.
1.the bots are not loading up on my customs maps which in turn means they are not learning these maps. i have turned on the learning function in the text file but they still will not load when i go to a custom map that does not have waypoints for it.
2. the other problem i am having is that the bots will becom inactive for no apparent reason after a map change. this problem takes a little more explination. first off this problem only seems to occur when no one is on the server because when me and all my freinds are on there playing the maps never become inactive between map changes or anything. but when i join the server and i am the only one in there with the bots they will simply stay in the spawn, jump up and down very slowly, and they will also walk very slowly but generally into walls. they also do not shoot at you if you go to their spawn.

both of these problems i have tried to fix several times. the second one is much harder for me to figure out then the first one. id appreciate any help i can get from you guys.

[>BKA< T Wrecks]

Umm... which bot are you using currently? And which version of it?