POD-bot back into shape.

[sPlOrYgOn]

wait i'm going to test the newest version right now..
look at the demo files i upload a few pages back.

okay now i see..
it just takes a long time for this slow computer to do the visibility tables.
but it doesn't lag when it says "visibility table out of date..."
and when i change map now it doesn't lag because you save them to .pvi files now!
thanks

OS: Windows 98
CPU speed: 400Mhz
RAM: 192MB SDRAM

15bots

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

holy crap yes! o_O
Ah bah no wonder it lagged so much then !!!

Anyway, glad you got it working

I can say without a doubt, that the bots still make the game crash when you enable the HUD messages in the stats (AMX) plugin. It does NOT crash with people and no bots. If no HUD messages are displayed, it doesnt crash, even though the stats module is still loaded. For instance, if you enable attackers list, victims list, show attackers hp/ap, ect then it will crash. I have a full console and debug log if needed.

hondaman
www.hardgaming.com

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

9_9 ...that's because HUD messages are sent over the network for the receiver's client.dll to handle it. And since bots have no client DLL, the game crashes. It's a known problem.

You must load the bot DLL *BEFORE* all your other plugins. If a plugin tries to send a network message to a bot before the bot DLL has a chance to catch the message, it can't work. Put the podbot_mm.dll as the first line in your plugins.ini. If that doesn't work, perhaps metamod processes the plugin in the reverse order; then, put the podbot_mm.dll in the LAST line and see if it helps.

...and even, nobody can guarantee it will work. It WILL work, if the coders of the stats plugin used the metamod API correctly, but if they chainload directly through the engine functions bypassing the metamod API (which is a nasty thing to do), then nobody can do anything and it will crash whatever you do.


Anyway, new release.
Fixed a few bugs, notably a nasty crash bug and a bug where bots would clutter together while navigating ladders.

+ Changed the waypoint copyright message back to what it used to be in PB 2.5
+ Fixed bug where bots would clutter together while navigating on ladders
+ Re-arranged some global variables and rewrote parts of bot.cpp for better
ANSI C compatibility
+ Fixed very nasty crash bug in IsGroupOfEnemies() function

I hope this one will be the last one 9_9
http://racc.bots-united.com/releases/podbot.zip

I think your podbot.zip file is corrupt :/

hondaman
www.hardgaming.com

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

normal, I cancelled the download myself. I just found out that this release is f*cked up and so was the last one !! Both crash randomly on cs_ maps with NUM_FOR_EDICT: bad pointer errors!

I can't make it break into the debugger so it's a hell of a PITA to figure out where the error is !

I'd fancy the help of a good developer here. In the meantime, stick to the older releases (i.e, don't upgrade). I can't upload them, they've been overwritten ...

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

I've found the error, !
If you want to read the explanation it's in the HL SDK coding forum (the thread is titled "botmaaaaaaaan" )

I've uploaded the bot again, same URL, it should work perfectly well now.
http://racc.bots-united.com/releases/podbot.zip


**EDIT** for those who complain:
If it doesn't work, remove all your other plugins. Remove AMX, AdminMod, the fun stuff, admin and slap plugins, and all this crap. Keep ONLY metamod and podbot. Test it now. It works ? So. Well, don't come and annoy me then. It works. Look for the cause of your problem by the author of the plugin that makes the bot crash. Usually these people code their plugins without even thinking that some players on the CS servers may not be players but bots. It doesn't even strike their mind. It's their fault, not mine.

[heavensoul]

umm... i Mean the bot navigation system is same with 2.5... I've tried to change the waypoints and erase the .pxp files.. But bots always attack from same way....
When i use IVp the navigation is better than POD...
Hope u'll fix this prob...

[sPlOrYgOn]

its not a problem..
what you're saying is to improve podbot..
PMB doesn't want to improve podbot he just wants to fix it so it can be as stable or even more stable than it was in 2.5

[>BKA< T Wrecks]

Well, all that depends on how you define "improving". IMO, a fixed PB 2.5 is already an improved PB 2.5...
But before we start nitpicking here, what heavensoul mentioned IS a problem. While you're right in saying that Pierre didn't want to make a whole new bot but rather fix PB 2.5, the navigation should have changed from the original PB 2.5. PMB implemetded this new A* pathfinder, which resulted in the bots taking different routes and as-maps being fully enjoyable because the VIP also uses different routes. If this feature were suddenly missing, it would indeed mean a major drawback. Does anybody else have this problem? I don't want to mess around with new PB versions right now, because I'm testing and fixing waypoints all the time...