About Le Bots

[Baker]

Frikbots, Omnicron bots, Frogbots, Reaper bots?

I couldn't tell you the difference between ANY of these bots.

We've got a couple of practice vs. bots mods (Chuck's RQP bots and Paraboil's FBCA) stocked in the File Downloads section (Section with the bots) but I admit that I don't have the energy to experiment with all the different types of bots.

I know Tremor comes with a built-in practice vs. the bots option and those are Frikbots. I know Trinca is the bot waypoint master (Trinca's site)

So what is the difference? What is the best?

[scar3crow]

Frikbot dont obviously follow the waypoints you set, their motion is much more natural, it has a nice ingame waypointing system, its completely open source, and it emulates player input.

And by emulates player input, as far as Quake is concerned, a skill 0 Frikbot is playing with the keyboard, and higher ones play with mouse and keyboard. Also due to it handling things more properly as such, you can patch Frikbots into any mod and if its a weapon, they will know how to treat this new entity as a weapon, at least generally. Also they can be coop bots, and play on servers including QW servers (if anyone here is interested in such).

Frikbot basically, instead of being an odd monster with a player model, is actually more of a true client to Quake, and thus very easily expandable as what you code for a normal client, can basically be passed on to the Frikbot no problem. Oh and they can ride the func_train on dm2 to the grenade launcher intelligently.

That and it is indescribably cool to lay down waypoints in the waypoint editor and then summon a testbot who doesnt fire, merely idles, that can be told "come here", and he will follow the waypoints provided to do such (including teleporters, rocketjump when it helps, etc). Quickens the process a lot when you can see a non-agressor bot using them... and illustrates how they dont treat the waypoints like bread crumbs, but rather suggestions and guidelines (though you can tell it to follow them precisely, handy in areas with lava).

If you cant tell, I support the Frikbot, it is an example of the direction mods need to move into Quake - emulation rather than simulation when it comes to how the engine sees it, and open source so people can incorporate it with their own work, which is then benefitted from that emulation.

[Monster]

Frikbot has horrible combat and navigation. Who wants all those stupid waypoints which don't work all the time?

Frogbot has the best combat stuff, but has horrible map support, and is very hard to make waypoints for it.

OMICRON BOT all the way, the BEST navigation, 2nd BEST combat next to frogbot, it can learn any map extremely quickly. The only downside is that it can't be plugged into mods easily. I also didn't like the skins that came with it, as it didn't make for a "true" quake experience. But, all you have to do if you don't want the skins is to download a player.mdl with the normal skins and overwrite it in your omicron directory. You can also play RocketArena with this bot, I used to practice on them all the time in my HPB days. It helped me a lot.

[Sajt]

As everyone knows Frogbot and Omicron bot are out of date and suck compared to Frikbot. The only problems Frikbot has as far as I can tell are

1. They tend to ignore items and can run right past or even circle around rocket launchers without picking them up, when all they have is a shotgun. Same thing with red armour, etc.

2. They're a little too good with the shotgun and have a habit of headbutting you constantly while wielding the shotgun.

3. They used to have troubles with lava and ledges, but that's mostly been taken care of. Just don't try them on q1dm17. I did. They tend to fall off ledges, and other Frikbots tend to chase them off ledges like lemmings...

Also they like to pause in the middle of a skirmish, and I mean they'll just stop randomly in the middle of a rocket fight, to type something... :p But that's not too bad

[FrikaC]

Frikbot has horrible combat and navigation. Who wants all those stupid waypoints which don't work all the time?

They do work all the time, I think you missed the point of what scar3crow was saying about them. I'll agree with you on horrible combat, the FrikBot combat AI is intended to be very generic, so that it is very adaptive to different weapons and rules, I didn't try to make the best combat ai, but rather the most adaptive and 'realistic' - in that it uses aiming techniques available to the players. A lot of bot authors at the time called me insane for doing so, but I think it gives them a slightly more realistic quality.

[Monster]

I make waypoints for FrikBot when I'm bored, and alot of the time they don't work. Like I tell the frikbot to go to one place, and it just sits there. waiting. and secret doors that you have to shoot a switch for them to open, is a bitch to do and half the time it doesn't work. The bot just sits there, cluelessly, until someone comes along and kills it, instead of going back to the previous waypoint. A lot of times it seems like the bot has to "warm up" before its brain works right. Like it gets stuck in one spot, then it respawns and has no trouble going over that spot.

[golden_boy]

omikron bot is my choice because it doesn't need waypoints. If I want to try any whacky map, omicron bot will learn it faster than I do.

They also learn _from the player_. The player "drops" waypoints while moving, and the bot will use those to learn.

Also, I like to frag Bill Gates.

Frikbot is good, too.

Frogbot has bad map support. But on the maps it knows, it's good.

I have all 3 installed.

Zeus bot is also ok, especially for coop. But you need to bind its "teleport here" command to a key. You'll need it often.

i like to frag omicron bots on e1m2.

[scar3crow]

Monster - Hrmm... Are you linking the waypoints bothways? As in Create Waypoint & Link x2 ? Because just last night I sat down and waypointed all of E1M2, successfully. They use the teleporters, use the func_plat in the water to get out, even reach the quad behind the wall (without me opening it), and jump up the steps to the YA. That was the first time I tried waypointing and it worked without a hitch, using the test bot and just playing with the bots in straight dm.

Also have you tried using the Check For Errors function in the menu? That identified a waypoint I had that I had failed to link and thus was useless to the bot.

[Monster]

Yep, I do do link X2 and error check. Most of the time I have no errors.

[FrikaC]

You could look at the included DM2 waypoints. The bots, in that set, shoot open a secret door, can fire at the button to get the red armor, understand all the doors over lava, etc. DM2 was the yardstick test level for building the bots, and those waypoints do work fairly well.

[Trinca]

I like frogbot becouse of is intensive combat!!! Parboil did a excelent work with then... they even sent team msn and the swin in water very good the big problem is dm2 map... :\ i modified the Parboil source with Spike (code part ), me waypoints and some small stuff of code and it work perfect with 375 diferent maps!!!

just need to type maps in console!


http://trinca.no.sapo.pt/temp/qwprogs375.rar

http://trinca.no.sapo.pt/temp/src375.rar

cheers

Trinca

P.S--> these are qw bots so... fuhquake,ezquake and zquake only...