MG42's

[Denny]

Hey Mal, how come you removed MG42's? Is there plans to put them back in later?

[Maleficus]

Yes!

In the last version, I was working on the bots using the MG42s, but I never got it completed in time, so I just left them out, rather than have the bots use them half-assed and stupid.

They will be back in the next version, and the bots WILL use them.

[Denny]

Sounds good, thanks for clearing that up mal.

Another question, when you get the waypoint system down, is there any plans to have a way to convert wolfbot waypoints to whichever format you use?

[Maleficus]

Originally, I was going to keep the node format close enough to Wolfbot/UberSoldat that people could convert for any of the three with no problems.

Sadly, my needs/ideas/experiments have changed the format now too much to be used by either anymore.

Also - I'm working on plans for a scripting system that will break any cross bot support that much more.

Can't say for sure if or when that scripting system will actually be released as a part of Fritz: I'm only at the design stage ATM.

It wouldn't be impossible I'm sure - but as Fritz progresses, its becoming more and more unlikely (to convert from/to Wolf/UberSoldat).

[Denny]

It's cool, that's kind of neat how you'll be implementing a scripting system. That should boost the bots intelligence a bit more. Could you give us maybe a brief explination as to what the scripting would contain? Like what types of commands.

I'm not very good at scripting though

[Maleficus]

Originally Posted by Denny

It's cool, that's kind of neat how you'll be implementing a scripting system. That should boost the bots intelligence a bit more. Could you give us maybe a brief explination as to what the scripting would contain? Like what types of commands.

I'm not very good at scripting though

I'm still in the process of designing the scritping system and what it will do and allow.

I want to try to keep it as simple as possible, yet at the same time, powerful. Thats not easy to do for a game like RtCW tho.

[Denny]

I'm sure it'll be pretty easy, if the tutorial is easy to make out, it'll be no problem. I tried mustering up what a bot script would contain, and from what i can make out (in my head) is that, i wouldn't think i'd be too complicated anyway. I mean for the stuff you'd want bots to do anyway, and most of that will be in the bot code, so a script file would just contain more detail and certain actions to perform and such.

It also depends if you ditch the waypoint system and stick with just scripts, i'm not sure you can do that though.

[Maleficus]

No, you couldn't get rid of the waypoints - but I'd like to have the scripting system complement the waypoints. I'm even thinking it would be a good idea to allow the scripting system to turn off/on or otherwise change waypoints to keep the bots understanding up to date as certain conditions on the map change.

Your a waypointer and know the challenges of getting the bots to understand a map - I'd be really happy to hear the opinions of yourself and The Ghost on what you'd like to see in a script system.

What sort of commands/options would you like. What would you like it to look like, etc. I lean towards a very simple to read, C like scripting system.

[Denny]

Well, there's quite a few stuff that would help the bots fully integrate with a level. I never really had a gripe about how to get the bots to understand a map, it was having them move fluidly through the map without congestion and well getting stuck or roaming around in an area they shouldn't be.

So as you said it would be nice to make alternate events the bots can react on. So you can have it set to where you can lockout certain waypoints after an objective has been destroyed. Wolfbot kinda had this, but it would lock them until the objective was destroyed (then they'd be free), this also is a good thing to have as well.

Buttons are another thing that never worked, and would have helped streamline the maps a little more. Some maps couldn't be finished because there was no well written button support.

Another thing that buged me was one-way waypoints, even if they were set, the bots would still travel down them in the opposite direction. I mean one-way means, one way. This was very annoying cause this would cause the bots to wander and roam dead areas of the map.

One thing you could also use the script for is Engineer's paths. Say you could set the exact waypointing paths (it can be multiple ones) and they carry them out, and plant dynamite where the waypoint list ends.

Wolfbot was pretty much on the money, it's that Kaji needed to improve support on existing things. Ladders, Blocked Passages, Duck waypoints, and other status type events. The bots getting clogged on Ladders and in crawl spaces was really annoying.

Another thing i wanted to see was some sort of auto-sensing capability. When bots would get caught in places they shouldn't be, they'd just stick there, and your game would lag to the point where you couldn't even exit. And they'd get caught sometimes right next to a waypoint and not even move toward it and continue on their path.

It was super difficult to find the place where they'd get caught too. Of course some places bots can't get out of, but they should suicide if that's the case.

Anyways, your doing a great job so far though. The bots work great, and they even use grenades and air strikes almost perfectly!

For the script, i'd just have the advanced stuff use a script, and the rest i'd just auto-code into the mod itself (and or the waypointing system). Then just tweak the bots abilities with certain enviromental situations till acceptable. Simple script layouts are best, and they should be fairly understandable.

I'll leave it to you on what to use the script for. I hope this helped a bit.