NewDM Revival

[AAA]

Nice, I missed this server.

[legion]

hehe

[metchsteekle]

i was gonna join last night but i was so tired, this time i will!

[Mindf!3ldzX]

explain the squish?

[legion]

explain the squish?

You can step on a button (partially seen at bottom middle), which makes the spikey plates squish an unfortunate person standing between them. For now, it counts as a suicide for the squished person. I've noticed at shmack on dm2 when you squish someone you actually get a frag. Fun mod none the less.

Oh, and the corpse floating in the middle is random and not intended.

[R00k]

Floating corpse is an engine flaw, in dp though u can use sv_gameplayfix_* something...

[bta.monster]

Hehe, thanks for the comments. Manson1... fun map.. manson2 and 3 are also in the rotation. Lots of traps like that

I plan on adding in frags for squishing other players, shooting an explo barrel that blows up another player, or shooting a player that causes him to fall into lava/slime/falldeath. Yeah the floating corpse was probably from a bot that had been removed.

I have most of the sv_gameplayfixes disabled... a few of them interfere with the bots negatively. Though I bet when they're ported over to fully use the server-side DP physics, I can re-enable some of them without any negative results.

Sure is hard to get players though. Alot of people connect, see that the server runs custom maps, then leave and don't come back. Darkplaces/DirectQ should auto-download the map upon connection. The Quaketastic link is printed in the console for the map-pack download... Guess some people like the simplicity of instant connect and play.

Also Polarite stated that he couldn't connect with Qrack, and it just sat saying "server-to-client keepalive, client to server keepalive, etc". I have yet to connect myself with Qrack though. All other engines that I know of work fine... Using sv_protocolname QUAKE of course...

[WarHampster]

I really love this server, much easier to pick up and play than standard Quake DM (which I suck at ).

That trap map was ridiculous

[bta.monster]

I really love this server, much easier to pick up and play than standard Quake DM (which I suck at ).

That trap map was ridiculous

thanks for the comments... Really means alot, seems like the mod has accomplished what it was meant to accomplish!

...and speaking of that trap map

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xx3WvlzmQg&fmt=18]YouTube - Quake - NewDM Mod on manson2[/ame]


The video didn't come out as good as I expected... I used the full version of FRAPS (I actually bought it) and VirtualDub to combine/compress the files. It looked fine before the youtube upload... Guess youtube does extra stuff I'm not aware of

Had some good times that night.. at one point had almost 8 real players on the server... Souless and a few others came in. Exciting stuff

I've also uploaded a new version of NewDM to the server, this one has improved frikbots, now they work normally with DP and also show up as actual clients. They seem alot more human-like too . Thanks to Supa for basically doing that for me... Aside from that, fixed some bugs with map cycling and a few other minor issues.

[Lightning_Hunter]

I've also uploaded a new version of NewDM to the server, this one has improved frikbots, now they work normally with DP and also show up as actual clients. They seem alot more human-like too . Thanks to Supa for basically doing that for me... Aside from that, fixed some bugs with map cycling and a few other minor issues.

Any improvements to the actual frikbots in general, or are they just behaving normal in DP now?

[bta.monster]

Any improvements to the actual frikbots in general, or are they just behaving normal in DP now?

Hmm, not that I know of. But they certainly do act much better and much more human-like than they did before... I can look through Supa's changes and see if there's anything improved on.

Edited: Did a quick browsing of the frikbot code... Don't see any new improvements. I'll ask Supa though to make sure

[Lightning_Hunter]

Hmm, not that I know of. But they certainly do act much better and much more human-like than they did before... I can look through Supa's changes and see if there's anything improved on.

Edited: Did a quick browsing of the frikbot code... Don't see any new improvements. I'll ask Supa though to make sure

Cool, thanks for checking. You know, I sure wish someone would fix some of the biggest bugs with the Firkbots. This is my mini-list from observing them so much:

#1: When frikbots finish a battle that they were distracted by, they try to get back the previous waypoint they were at. So if they jump off a ledge to attack someone, they will try to get back up the ledge when the fight is over, despite the fact that they cannot get back up. This results in them getting stuck against a wall for a good 3 seconds or so. When frikbots engage in a battle, they need to re-calculate their paths based on the nearest waypoint...

#2: The frikbots sometimes try to use the grenade launcher to shoot buttons.

#3: Certain teleporters are buggy with the frikbots. They will sometimes go through a teleporter then instantaneously teleport themselves back, then lose track of their position (they try to run through random walls to get back to the waypoint they were headed toward). This bug obviously happens when there are strings of teleporters. It's hard to know what is actually happening with this bug, since it is all so instantaneous. You will sometimes hear the teleport sound twice, and the bot is back where he started. I think the bots should automatically re-calculate their path as soon as they pass through a teleporter.

#4: Precise mode sometimes stays on, even after they have passed the waypoints with the precise flag turned on. They also sometimes ignore the flag altogether and run through a waypoint with precise at full speed... No idea why this happens.

#5: The frikbots often get snagged on health boxes when they have full health. They will try to pick up the health box despite the fact that they have 100 health, and will then proceed to get stuck on the box for a good 3 seconds before resetting their path. This can happen with any ammo pickup as well, but is most common with health.

#6: Bots will occasionally shoot a secret door with the rocket launcher, hurting themselves in the process.

#7: Frikbots suck at reverse wind tunnels. For example, if they have to walk forward into the wind tunnel then change direction at the top - they often get stuck. This is one of the few situations that is nearly impossible to make them precise on, no matter how much you adjust the waypoints. Oh, and the "directional" flag is absolutely useless. All it does is make the bot ignore the waypoint with directional turned on, and head toward the next waypoint in the sequence. Basically, you have the same effect by just deleting the waypoint with directional turned on.

That's all the big ones I can think of off the top of my head. Of course, this is just my wish list... I doubt anyone will ever actually fix it all! If #1, #3, and #5 are fixed - then I believe we would rarely, if ever, see the Frikbots standing around (with good waypoints). Whenever you see a Frikbot stuck up against a wall, there is a good chance the bot either just finished a battle and is trying to return to the previous waypoint, or messed up during a teleportation and is trying to walk across the entire map to get to the wrong waypoint.

[bta.monster]

@Lightning_Hunter: Those are the same things I've been noticing... I'll forward these over to Supa, as I know she is interested in improving the Frikbots as well. I'll look around and see if I can't fix a few of these myself (the simple ones). Good list though... I think FrikaC's main objective with the Frikbot was to make a simple, easy to plug-in bot for mods. I guess he left the optimization and other things up to the modders. I'll see what I can do and let you know if anything happens

@Mark: Hehe... cool, thanks... Hopefully sometime this weekend I can get a decent amount of players on. The bots are good... but no substitute for a player at all . Keep in mind though that their skill level can be voted. The default they run on is 0 (easy). I'll have to make a command later to show the skill level of the bots, since as of now its unknown unless an admin rcons skill. =P

[LambentHammerBurst]

Bots are nice if you have that itch to DM but no one is online. I had countless bot battle's in N64's Perfect Dark - simply because I wanted to play but no friends over. Same thing applies but no friends over = empty servers

[bta.monster]

Yup... could try upping the skill a few notches.. but that may make them a bit too inhuman with the aiming at higher levels (on skill 3 they pretty much 100% auto-aim you ).

I used to play vs bots all the time years ago... Frikbots, Omicron, Frogbots, Reaperbots, BGbots, Squirtbots, I've tried em all . The frogbots are particularly good combat-wise, they emulate a human player extremely well in their movements. Only downside to those is they cannot be plugged into a mod and making waypoints is very difficult. They only support 3 or so maps by default. That and they cannot understand many of the complex button sequences and triggers that Frikbots can. So even if you did waypoint maps, you'd be limited in your choices. Frikbots are the best for modding and level support . They are fun for awhile, but yes, can get old rather quickly once you adapt to their combat strategies and thinking.

They are mainly on the server to stir up some activity and provide people with combat opponents while waiting for more people to connect.