NewDM Revival

[Baker]

I think I'm going to prioritize a slightly modernized version of the "How To Run A Successful Public Server" guide. You are doing a good job in general, but this information can be valuable to anyone.

QuakeOne Guides - How to Have a Successful Public Server

[bta.monster]

Thanks Baker.

I actually did skim through that list a while back. Hopefully the issue with the server being at my home connection will be solved soon ! I hope to stick with this map selection for quite some time... Unless I find some that are too cool to not add to the maplist .

These custom maps I've selected are more "non-traditional" maps. Many of them are singleplayer maps, just in deathmatch mode. I consider many custom maps out there to be boring... They all have the same layout, usually in layers of some type, with boring to pretty much no atmosphere. Those are mostly QW maps, meant for professional players looking for nothing but a pure 1v1 experience.

The ones I chose have nice architecture a good sense of atmosphere, and are all unique and new in their own way. The Manson series is simply brutal... If the world had a fragcount (traps, lava, etc) and was actually a "player", it would definitely be the victor

[Lightning_Hunter]

How did I miss this? It looks like you have done a great job here, Monster!

Would you happen to have the source code for the modifications you made with the Frikbots, or a standalone version minus your server modifications? It sounds like you've made a few fixes that I've been meaning to do forever, such as the aim offset.

[bta.monster]

I was wondering when you would reply ! I hope the server will make well use of your waypoints for the Frikbots!

Yes, I do! I'll upload it in a bit for you here. I'll just send you the bot_*.qc files... I also added igor9's (I think that's his name) advanced item pickup code that he used for FBX+. I didn't make the aim offsets myself, I dug around in some old mods I had laying around, and found that Wazat's Jeht mod (awesome mod by the way) had aim offsets implemented. Granted they aren't perfect, but make things much more fair.

Wazat also added in some aiming delays so you don't get nailed with a rocket the instant you come through a teleporter or whatnot. Those behaved sort of odd for me however (bots waiting 3 seconds to fire much too often), so I never added those to NewDM.

Later I may add in some simple interpolation code that r00k suggested to make the aim offsets not appear as jerky. Dividing the offset angle by / 65535 is what does it. I'll have to try that and playtest it myself to see how it works.

-- I've also updated the main post with a thanks list!



Link to modified Frikbots -

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/fi...updatedfbx.zip

**You can change the offsets as much as you'd like if the bots are too difficult at certain skill levels. I've changed them from the default values a bit. Just load up bot_ai.qc do a CTRL+F search for Wazat, and you'll find his additions.

[Lightning_Hunter]

I was wondering when you would reply ! I hope the server will make well use of your waypoints for the Frikbots!

Haha, it took me a while to notice this, didn't it? I'm happy to see that my waypoints are getting some use.

Yes, I do! I'll upload it in a bit for you here. I'll just send you the bot_*.qc files... I also added igor9's (I think that's his name) advanced item pickup code that he used for FBX+. I didn't make the aim offsets myself, I dug around in some old mods I had laying around, and found that Wazat's Jeht mod (awesome mod by the way) had aim offsets implemented. Granted they aren't perfect, but make things much more fair.

Sounds great! Did you keep the other features that Igor9 implemented, such as random Spawnpoints, a deathmatch 3 mode, and waypoint improvements for dm1, dm4, dm5, and dm6?

Later I may add in some simple interpolation code that r00k suggested to make the aim offsets not appear as jerky. Dividing the offset angle by / 65535 is what does it. I'll have to try that and playtest it myself to see how it works.

I'm glad someone is still working on updating the Frikbots, even if it's just a little. I still think these are the best and most convenient bots for Quake, and deserve some bug fixing.

[Baker]

I consider many custom maps out there to be boring... They all have the same layout, usually in layers of some type, with boring to pretty much no atmosphere.

It's true.

It took forever to play test the maps for Dredd to find interesting and unique levels that weren't "me too plays like every other map" (a weakness of the very original 2006 QuakeOne map pack). Noteworthy since you found many of the Dredd levels interesting enough to make waypoints for them.

[bta.monster]

Sounds great! Did you keep the other features that Igor9 implemented, such as random Spawnpoints, a deathmatch 3 mode, and waypoint improvements for dm1, dm4, dm5, and dm6?

Yes. I've added all those to NewDM.. those however are in other .qc files..

Which are also heavily modified for NewDM's purposes. You could just look at the code igor9 edited and copy/paste into the correct .qc files...

The random respawn code is in client.qc, and the DMM3 code is items.qc. Search for //~ random respawn start in client.qc to find where the random respawn code begins, and search for deathmatch to find the correct places where deathmatch == 3 is implemented. For the waypoint improvements I'd guess just copy and replace igor's with the default FBX ones.

Some of the things you've done with the waypoints really blew my mind! Just observing the bots playing on some of these maps.. is pretty awesome. Watching them jump around corners and perform these crazy trick-jumps like its nothing You've also seem to set up specific paths for the bots to follow, and heavily streamlined the waypoints so they don't get as confused and follow ordinary paths as often... That's awesome.

[Lightning_Hunter]

I'll check out Igor's code and try to add it to the code you sent me.

I'm glad someone noticed the effort I put into those waypoints! I wanted them to be unpredictable and more human-like, but also not get themselves stuck all the time. Some of the hardest tricks took me forever to set up.

I'm also very happy that some of those old obscure maps are getting notice in this mod! There are so many unknown maps floating around out there. These were the ones I was especially happy to see in your mod:
cmania2
lunar
lunar2
ikspq2
crcdm1
chapel

The only other incredibly rare map not included that I wish would gain more popularity is Stomper. I don't know how this map plays online, however. I've only played it with bots.

[Baker]

lunar
lunar2

By Wendigo.

Wendigo is one of the 6 play-testers in the Romero video who were DOOM fans offered to play QTest at id Software's HQ.

QTest was Ground Zero|planet romero

Both maps are in the RQuake map pack and feature no exit so RocketGuy inserted a special EF_BRIGHTFIELD entity as the exit.

[Polarite]

Just tested your server Monster and it plays very well , stable 150 ping with no packetloss whatsoever.

Its nice to see that if there are not much people around u can simply add some frikbots and frag.
This is a very nice update of the NewDM mod good job !

btw : If u want I can run one on the flanders box.

[metchsteekle]

If the world had a fragcount (traps, lava, etc) and was actually a "player", it would definitely be the victor

oohh hmmm

[bta.monster]

Have I given you some map ideas metch?
I was actually considering doing that... maybe for certain maps let the world have a fragcount... heheh

I'll check out Igor's code and try to add it to the code you sent me.

I'm glad someone noticed the effort I put into those waypoints! I wanted them to be unpredictable and more human-like, but also not get themselves stuck all the time. Some of the hardest tricks took me forever to set up.

I'm also very happy that some of those old obscure maps are getting notice in this mod! There are so many unknown maps floating around out there. These were the ones I was especially happy to see in your mod:

Let me know if you have any problems adding in the code.

Yes, some of the things the bots do are very subtle, but make a huge difference in gameplay. I've tried to make some waypoints myself lately, for the maps in the cycle that haven't been waypointed yet.

I've made some for manson3. However, there is one part in this map which I think is impossible for the bots to reach... I wonder how you would approach this? theres a platform rotating around a pillar very fast with lava underneath, and on top of the platform is a lightning gun No matter what I've tried, I simply can't get the bots to wait for the plat at the correct time, and jump so they can land on it smoothly (without first taking a lavabath)... Then ride the plat until it completes its revolution around the pillar, so they can successfully exit the area with no scratches. Maybe you can figure this one out

I've done some for Hell's Castle (castle.bsp)(originally a single player map)as well. I cannot figure out how to make them perform complex button sequences and for them to just go straight through the door that was triggered every time, instead of them always having to hit the buttons. I thought maybe a 'door flag no open' would do the trick... but no success.

The Well of Lost Souls (well.bsp) is another map that has been a pain for the bots to navigate well, without constantly falling in lava Theres plenty of catwalks that the bots have difficulty navigating.. even when using precision flags they still like to jump everywhere to reach their target.

The ones I've made that I consider to be complete are castle, village, gore1_wip, and mexx9. Seems weird that I'm waypointing the mexx9 series, which are purely singleplayer, but those maps are too damn awesome to pass up (16 player Tower of Twilight anyone? ). The start map, Monastry of Time Monks, just has an amazing atmosphere, you can almost feel the evil bleeding from it. I still have left all the other maps in the mexx series to do, which may prove quite a challenge, as they have many complex button sequences and secret areas to reach.

I still have kasteel, cam0c, mexx7, mexx8, and the rest of the mexx9 series left to waypoint. I also need to revise waypoints for well and castle.bsp perhaps.

I walked around that Stomper map a bit... and I wondered why I didn't add it to the cycle when I was browsing around those maps to begin with. Seems like it'd be extremely fun in FFA If more awesome maps arise that I haven't taken notice of, perhaps I'll update the map download link.

Just tested your server Monster and it plays very well , stable 150 ping with no packetloss whatsoever.

Its nice to see that if there are not much people around u can simply add some frikbots and frag.
This is a very nice update of the NewDM mod good job !

btw : If u want I can run one on the flanders box.

That's great news Polarite! Glad to know my little laptop and the Darkplaces server runs well.

That's my whole reason for adding Frikbots to NewDM So people can still play on those huge 16 player maps, just by adding some bots to fill in the void.

Sure... If you want to you could! Just so you guys can have a server to ping nice to as well! I know if the server gets the Dredd serverbox in Dallas (right now it is hosted on the east coast USA), you'll probably ping worse to it

Glad you enjoyed the mod!

[MasterSplinter]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but, if you are the only human player on the server, and you have some bots going.... and you vote to change the map... it would be nice to have the bots yer'se it for you.

[MasterSplinter]

Oh, and I love the smack the bots put out. It would be cool if they talked smack and included real-time human-player screen names... It would make some of us forget that we are playing bots.

Also, some special bots should be selectable that have been dedicated to real players... give them some of the behaviors, smack talk, and routines that the real players portray.

[BOT] Disco
[BOT] Mark

[bta.monster]

Yes.. I thought I saw you connect
The thing with that is, if the bots automatically yes it, then people could just add bots and skew the vote in their favor. For now you can just remove the bots, vote, and add the bots again.

I'm thinking just ignore the bots completely in the vote counting.. I can probably do this easily by adding an if (self.ishuman == 1) check somewhere. I'll implement that soon !

heheh that'd be fun.. but probably very hard to do Especially to make their combat behavior different. scar3crow and I discussed this awhile back, to make each bot have their own "personality" and playstyle. Kind of like the UT bots where you can adjust their aim, how much they jump around, and whatnot. Only much more advanced Make them have an actual chat-AI too... each with their own personality. I was thinking of making the bots show up in the server browsers as well...