POD-bot back into shape.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Hi lads!

Here's something to play with.

v2.5 metamod
+ Ported to Metamod by Pierre-Marie Baty
+ Put all this mess into shape at last (indenting, alignment, comments)
+ Fixed an impressive number of bugs
+ Added support for CS 1.6 (shield code thanks to Wei Mingzhi). Be sure to
use the new bot_weapons.cfg file else the bot will crash.
+ Fixed all v2.6 bugs (bomb planting, etc) the way it's meant to be fixed -
directly at the spot. No ugly hacks, no "patching".
+ Before I forget: ported to Linux, too
+ Forced the bots to always use the A* pathfinder. It should affect greatly
the team tactics if used with mature .pxp files.
+ Fixed waypoint 0 with 65535 danger in default experience table
+ Fixed waypoint editor not working anymore
+ Added Austin's super-kickass waypoint editor that he wrote with SoUlFaThEr
for the now defunct PoXBot. At least this code won't be lost for everyone.
+ Fixed new experience database bug related to incorrect memset usage
+ Got rid of the ugly CVAR parsing for server commands. Using a real dedicated
server command handler now. No quotes needed anymore in server commands.
+ Fixed brainless CT bots taking the hostages through impossible routes
+ CT bots now pick up abandoned defuse kits (got the idea while reading Wei
Mingzhi's YaPB code - worth a look, he ported all the POD-Bot code to C++)
+ Fixed incorrect danger estimation of waypoint #0 to 65535 the way it's
meant to be fixed (diff. between signed int and unsigned short ?? ;-))
+ Fixed bots not coming back after a map change
+ I advise you to delete all your previous .pxp files UNLESS they've been
used with POD-Bot 2.5 ONLY (and not the buggy 2.6).
+ The overall performance has been restored to what it used to be with 2.5
+ Since I'm a lazy bugger, I'll stop here and code my own bot instead.

(added after the original post)

+ (some time later) GEEZ, looks like I had rushed this version. Back to it
again, and VERY ANGRY!!!
+ Rewrote the messy CS buy routines in a clean way at last
+ Fixed Count Floyd's experimental A* pathfinder. He was using no heuristic!!!
+ Fixed bots too shy, was linked to the absence of heuristic function. I wrote
a square distance heuristic (no sqrt involved. Fast and efficient)
+ Because of an important change in the way the pathfinder behaves, you should
delete all your .pxp files again, or use untouched .pxp files from PB 2.5
+ Fixed bots don't buy in CS 1.6 after the first round.
+ Fixed BotSpawnInit() calls zapping the bot's brains several times in a row
+ Fixed bots trying to pick up a new weapon without discarding the shield
+ Fixed VERY COMMON crash bugs in bot chat functions (ThreatTab index > 31)
+ Fixed yet another whole shitload of crash bugs on bad entities (w/ FNullEnt)
+ Got rid of the unused MOTD message catching
+ Bots now know when icons are blinking on their HUD: bomb, defuser, buy zone
+ Delayed bots buying so that they don't buy all in the same frame (lag issue)
+ Fixed bots having trouble at doors. Bot navigate doors perfectly now.
+ Bots pay much more attention to the mission goals now. They don't mess
around anymore doing idle stuff, they deploy and go to the goal.
+ Fixed bots getting stuck on ladders where a func_breakable would block them
+ Now using ServerActivate() instead of StartFrame() to catch map changes
+ The A* pathfinder should be faster now
+ Took the buying code out of the message queue. WTF was it doing there ???
+ Rewrote team/class selection function: 3 times shorter, twice as efficient.
+ Now the bot is pretty much more stable.
+ Enough for today. It's 05:21 AM and I'm going to bed. Bye bye ladies.

I have made no changes relative to the behaviour of the bot. Only fixed stuff and added CS 1.6 support. I took the shield usage code from Wei Mingzhi's YaPB bot source code, so most of the credits for this release go to him.

Source code included, of course...

http://racc.bots-united.com/releases/podbot.zip
uploading right now, so please wait a little

please READ the readme !!!

*edited* as you can see, another whole shitload of bugs have been fixed. Those who already had grabbed the file should redownload it again. This time it WORKS with CS 1.6, and EVERYTHING works, I tested it MYSELF. Spent my night on it, damnit!!!

Is the linux version compiled on glibc 2.3? I get a badf loading error, when i try to start it up.

Btw. i tried to compile it on my linux machine, but i get this errors:

bot.cpp:21: extdll.h: No such file or directory
bot.cpp:22: dllapi.h: No such file or directory
bot.cpp:23: h_export.h: No such file or directory
bot.cpp:24: meta_api.h: No such file or directory

[Austin]

WHOOOOAAAAAA.........

NOW I "MAY" "FINALLY" abandon the good old POD 2.5 in favor of something new!

Great news! GREAT JOB! WILL DEFINITELY check this out and let you know what I find!

PM, what would the CS bot community be like with out you ?

P.S.
Is Mingzhi's c++ source available, and if so where?


Thanks Man!!!

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

@eAnic: you need the metamod source code and the HL SDK to compile it. Check out the Makefile and adapt the paths to suit your installation.

@Austin: yes, Wei "Whistler" Mingzhi's source code is available at http://planet.time.net.my/TechnologyPark/weimingzhi - after looking it up. There seems to be a lot of cool stuff with it, especially the BotMixer port, which allows you to run the barebones PB 2.5 DLL with CS 1.6, I really wonder why none of us has thought about it yet !! Whistler, you're doing great stuff, make yourself known !

[Whistler]

Thanks PM.

+ Added Austin's super-kickass waypoint editor that he wrote with SoUlFaThEr
for the now defunct PoXBot. At least this code won't be lost for everyone.

Would you please tell me where I can get this PoXBot? Thanks.

Also would you mind my using your FakeClientCommand code? ;D

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

You should ask Austin, it's him who sent me the PoXBot code, he still has it because he was helping Steve++ with coding.

And for my FakeClientCommand code, be advised that there's a copyright fee of €49,342,667 and 23 cents that you shall pay me for each line of this code you use in your bot, UNLESS the motd states explicitly that I am the greatest weirdo in the world (in which case, the fee is lowered to 2 cents per line, preferrably paid in roubles, in pesetas or in kopecks). Payments shall be directed to God the Father, cloud #3, Sky, 43276 Above (preferrably by air mail).

Now honestly, you ask me that ?

Where can i download the HL SDK? I could not find it anywhere.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

The HL SDK it available on the metamod web site too (look in the "files" section)

BTW I fixed yet another bug in the waypoint editor, caused by the fact that Count Floyd wanted to display the visibility data for each of its waypoints, leading to a huge number of beams to be displayed which could cause the engine to crash because of network message overhead. Everybody who has already downloaded the podbot.zip file should redownload it again.

And tell me if there are other bugs that I haven't noticed yet ; I'll fix them ASAP. We want to reach the same level of performance than the old POD-bot 2.5 with Steam.

[Austin]

Pm is this version totally compatible with a non-steam 1.5 DS ???