Is there A Simple BOT?

I've been on the net for a while trying to get various versions of different bots to work with various versions of CS.

The reason behind all this was that I was hoping to remotely control artificial CS players. I wanted to be able to define very simply where a bot would run, look, stand, etc. This is more for creative purposes and NOT for actual gameplay. I yielded some results waypointing w/ PodBot, but there were minor things that weren't satisfying to me.

Bots would dance a round a bit, or jump in circles or just run around aimlessly sometimes, and I understand that was mostly waypointing mistakes on my part but I thought to myself, these complicated AI bots are probably not ideal for what I'm trying to do and the complicated programming might be getting in the way.

So My question basically is: are there more simplified bots that I could direct and control remotely around a CS map in a predictable predestined way?

Any help is much appreciated - thanx for your time.

More specifically - is there a way to program a bot to perform the same task on command? Kind of like football plays for bots - where I could get a bot to perform a predesigned "play" that he could repeat on command in the exact same way.

Also let me know if this is the wrong place for the post and I can move it accordingly. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

I don't believe such a thing exists yet... perhaps you'll have to code this yourself.

The "more specifically" part of your post makes me think of scripted sequences... is that what you are talking about ? Scripted sequences are a fixed behaviour whose start is triggered by an event, such as the player walking in a certain area. That's what the scientists do in Half-Life when you see them walking around and gazing at big machines in the Black Mesa base. These are scripted sequences.

For a bot to do that, the bot must have a very powerful and flexible "task manager", some sort of priority queue. POD-bot 2.6 has an embryonal priority queue like this, that Count Floyd had started to design in order to move all of his bot's behaviours into it, on time. I recall some IRC discussions where he was saying me that he wanted his next bot to be "easily scriptable" (but not scripted at all by default). At these times there was the shadow of Gearbox software flying above him, and the idea that most of the guys in the gaming industry only trust an AI if it is scriptable (which sorta pisses off the bot makers, since they want to create an AI, not a scripted automaton). Maybe botman or Turtle Rocker could confirm what I say...

The nature of my idea is simple I think, but because it goes against the very nature of AI programming, it seems kind of complicated.

Instead of wanting a Bot that acts in comletely independent life-like way, I am interested in a bot that will perform specific programmed tasks, such as walking to an exact point and looking in a certain direction.

This can be achieved to some degree through clever waypointing, however the programming of the bots make them very reluctant to act in scripted automatic way.

I suppose the ideal situation would be to be able to record an action by performing it yourself, like a macro, and then have a bot replicate the exact same movements. Kind of like the football analogy, if I had a button hook macro or something where when activated, the bot would run 10 yards stop and turn around.

[botman]

What you are talking about is a "scripted sequence". The AI in the single player SDK for Half-Life supports scripted sequeneces. You basically create a list of commands for the AI to follow...

1. Move to point A
2. Play animation X
3. Play sound Y.
4. Move to point B.
5. Play sound Z.
etc.

The "simplest" bot that will spawn properly in Counter-Strike is probably my HPB bot template source code. The bots will just randomly wander around (the template code doesn't support waypoints), so you would have to create your own waypoint or node-graph system to allow bots to maneuver around in a level.

botman

First off, I just want to say that I really appreciate your responses and your time.

Now, as this doesn't seem to be a matter of designing either a BOT or its AI completely from scratch, would this be a project that could be completed by someone (myself) who has a relatively introductory knowledge of C++?

If yes, could someone tell me what specific aspects of development I should focus my time on researching and in your opinions, would you recommend any particular reference materials?

If no, I really appreciate your time and will pursue another solution.

[botman]

If you aren't familiar with C++, it will probably be difficult for you to create AI code using the Half-Life SDK. You could spend 3 or 4 weeks learning C++ by getting yourself a good introductory C++ book (something like "Learning C++ in 21 days", etc). There are several free C++ compilers available on the Internet (www.mingw.org has one), that you could use to learn with.

Once you understand C++, you still need to spend time learning how things in the Half-Life SDK work. You'll need to understand how to move things around in the world. How to check for obstacles in the world. How to search for items in the world, etc. All of this will take you anywhere from several weeks to several months depending on how much time you put into it.

Even if you are a C++ expert, you probably won't be able to create an AI project for Half-Life in just a couple of weeks because of the learning curve involved in understanding how stuff in Half-Life actually works.

botman

Would the implementation of some sort of scripting system involve AI programming? Because I didn't necessarily need or want the bot to know where things are or how to search for things, I thought that creating an AI would be unnecessary.

Thats the only reason I thought that I might be able to even consider something like this. Now my concept of bot development could be completely off, and I may not be understanding what you're saying, but if I just want to design some sort of system where an artificial player is following scripts of my design, why would I need to develop a game-specific AI?

Again I'm not really sure about what I'm talking about so I apologize if this is just noob speculation, but it sounded like I could avoid the entire bot development process, and just use some sort of shell or bot template (as you offered above) and then devise some way of communicating the scripts to it in the game.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Think a little about it then... if you want to do a very simple scripting system, for example the bot will only do one thing at a time (for example walk but don't shoot, turn but don't move, shoot but don't move, etc.), then it may be fairly simple indeed. You just have to identify in the bot source code which are the parts that are responsible of the bot's movement and discard all the rest. You will end up with a source code cleaned up at 80%, and then you will be able to put timers in the bot structure and some text file parsing functions that will tell the bot to do some action for each line you read in a text file, looping until action is realized, then skipping to next action. This is a very basic scripting system.

However if you want your bot to be able to do several things at once, it's up to you to decide of which programming tricks you will use to accomplish it. But it will be a bit more complicated, indeed. I think you can do it if you are motivated enough

You guys are great. Thanks for your patience and suggestions. If you happen to think of some other piece of advice or information or criticism, please don't hesitate to let me know via e-mail or boards.

Peace!
~ Benny the Jett Rodriguez
AKA JohnPreston the MuffinMan