Bot bugs

[the bindlestiff]

I've been playing Fritzbot extensively with my buddy for about a week now, mostly CP maps. Ran into a few quirks that you may be interested in.

1. Running the WildWestCTF_beta map with 3 Axis bots, 1 Allied bot and 2 Allied human players on a non-dedicated client server (my home computer). The closest flag to the Allied spawn point is in an underground stream, where you have to climb up the rope of a well to get out. Our poor Allied bot would immediately jump into the river, raise the flag, and try to climb the rope. But he would get trapped at the top of the well because it is necessary to rotate your position to get over the timber holding the rope. The bot was unable to do this, and would stay there, annoying the human players with voice messages like "follow me" and "need more ammo." I finally made a habit at the start of a new game to go to the well and drop a grenade in to send the bot to respawn. Then as long as we held the flag, there were no more problems.

Is there a console command to either kill or delete an individual bot? Currently to do this, I have to kick all the bots off and then reload them individually -- a process that is inherently frustrating because of my typing errors.

2. Running Lumber Factory and Trench Toast, I have seen bots stuck in corners jumping wildly up and down but unable to turn around enough to get themselves out. The only way to get them back into the game was a shot to the head.

3. I was under the assumption that the weapon assignment set in a *.bot file was the ONLY one that particular bot would use. However, I have seen one of my panzerfaust bots using a machine gun (in Destruction), and a lieutenant bot with a flame thrower (in Lumber Factory). Do they pick up weapons left by other bots, or what?

4. I also ran into the problem described in the posting below this. Had antilag ON to see if it would help my buddy's intermittent lag problem. The bots went CRAZY -- jumping all over, higher than usual, couldn't be killed, and jumping on top of a human or other bots and attempting to knife them to death. Removed antilag and the problems disappeared.

[Denny]

#1 (well it's not climbable anymore for now, i'm not sure if it can be but i'll keep trying though) & #4 have been fixed and will be in the next update.

About the bots being stuck in corners, where they medics? because they do it all the time regardless of how the paths are set up, they do it because of their revival system they sometimes get confused when they are required to revive bots on the other side of walls and such and they'll start running/jumping against the wall. Normally if a bot is totally stuck they won't do anything and just stand around lagging the game up so i bet it was medics.

To kick individual bots alot quicker, just call a vote to kick the particular bot you want gone, the bots can't vote and you're vote will be executed immediately and kick the selected bot.

[the bindlestiff]

Thx for the speedy reply, Denny.

About #2, I didn't notice if they were medics. What I can do is to set up a game without medics and see if the action occurs.

Voting a bot out seems like a good way to permanetly get rid of one -- I'll try it next time the situation arises. But is there a way to just send a bot to respawn to get him out of a stuck situation and then return him to the game?

[renartthefox]

Thanks for the information Denny, and the tips. Most appreciated, we will continue to work out the kinks, and make the forums a regular visit.

[Maleficus]

As Denny said, #4 was fixed last night.

#2 should be fixed in the patch I have right now, and will release within a weeks time.

#3 Hmm. I have never seen this. The game wouldn't allow a LT to pick up a flame thrower. If at all possible, could you get a demo or a screenshot of this behavior?

[Denny]

Originally Posted by the bindlestiff

But is there a way to just send a bot to respawn to get him out of a stuck situation and then return him to the game?

Like a suicide command or a kill bot command? That actually isn't a bad idea at all. Mal would this be possible? If so, i think it would make a great addition. Like say Sgt. Slick's bot gets caught you can enter /kill sgt. slick in the console and he'll automatically die and enter limbo like if he was killed normally.

[CrapShoot]

It sounds to me like a pathing issue on Trenchtoast.

I'll look at it. I believe that when they get off path (or the current short term goal timed out), they try to reach the closest node. And if the closest node is behind a barrier they can't pass, it creates a "loop" in terms of trying to reach the closest node (because the closest node remains constant).

I'm not 100% sure if this is accurate, but it seems to be somewhat correct after troubleshooting some of these instances with waypointing.

I fixed some of them on Trenchtoast before by making sure to have a node placed close enough to the trouble area that would get them back on track.

I suppose if there was some progression in terms of them seeking out a "reachable" close node, it would make it a bit less critical to find and path all of the trouble spots. By progression, I mean if they try to reach the first closest node, but can't, they would then try and reach the next closest node.

[the bindlestiff]

I encountered another bot bug while playing "Ice" last night. The Axis try to raise their flag in the Shipping Halls to make that a respawn point; the Allies try to lower the flag to prevent this. While I was defending the area after dropping the Axis flag, I noticed my faithful bot fluttering around the flag pole like a moth by a light bulb. I figure he was trying to raise a flag and, getting no "flag raised" signal, he just kept trying over and over. Finally had to vote him off to remove the distraction.

Am I right about this and can it be corrected?

[CrapShoot]

I'll take a look at that. Do you by chance remember if it was a medic that was doing this?

[the bindlestiff]

Actually, it WAS a medic: "NURSE Hot Lips."