Challenge ProMode Arena: Enhanced Bots -------------------------------------- Date: 28 Apr 03 Well, go figure... Thanks to Qrealka and Diamant, I've put some effort into the bots. None of this would have happened if they hadn't been willing to help out, because it would have taken more time than I have to spare. Pretty much all the DM AI has been improved over CPMA1.1 with new decision-making code. The bots are quite a bit smarter than before, and at times you can even "see" what they're thinking if you watch them. They're still completely ignorant of many things though, and unfortunately are still dependent on AAS files, which are invariably flat out wrong about level connectivity. Swelt or I may write a guide to how mappers can fix some of the worst problems if we ever get time. I've ONLY focused on DM, so I expect they're still absolutely awful at TDM/CTF/etc. Fixes are generally for the new bots only, but some have been applied to the standard bots as well if the bug is too pathetic to tolerate. Those are marked with an 'I' (e.g. the 1.1 RL aim bug was a "fixI") and are implicitly id bugs, obviously. The skill thresholds are: 79- has pretty sucky aim 81+ enables evil RL 86+ tries to avoid "bad" RG shots ** bot_challenge 1 enables evil hitscan at skill 91+ after you're open for 0.5-0.25s doesn't degrade accuracy at close ranges aims faster after using a tele does NOT otherwise affect aim skill uses the "alternate" weapon choices (more hitscan) ** At 86+, you'll see a noticeable jump in hitscan accuracies. This DOESN'T mean that they've suddenly become all-aim bots. They actually still only hit as many shots as they do at 85, but since they FIRE far less often when they know the shot is a "bad" one, the percentages become much higher. Skill level also affects movement speed to some extent. There are some new bots as well, with slightly better strategic play and some "personal" properties. They can only be used at skill 6 and above (CPMA AI). Apheleon faster than all other bots has improved RL uses the "alternate" weapon choices arQon only slightly faster than normal bots has godlike RL uses RL a LOT rat (the LPB version) faster than normal bots has godlike RL uses RL a LOT add: strafejumping, yay! Qrealka and Diamant get all the credit for this one add: tanked bots will hunt you down and spawnrape you >:) add: evil RL prediction (quite ratlike at times :P) add: a bit of dodging and ducking for cover chg: skill 6-100 uses the new AI (1-5 are the id bots) chg: rewrote item choice management (esp wrt health and armour) chg: weapon selection now biased towards killshots chg: removed bot_boost fixI: bots completely ignoring enemies 3ft away from them fixI: bots unable to hit enemies at very narrow angles Date: 20 Mar 03 CPMA's bots have undergone several dozen bugfixes and tweaks over the past few years, especially wrt melee, but have continued to use the id code for the bulk of their "decision" making, which is essentially "wander around at random collecting items until we blunder into someone." I've generally been reluctant to work on the AI as I don't consider it a particularly challenging or interesting area, since the vast majority of its problems are buried deep within the engine itself and the BSPC/AAS process, improvements generally have to be made by fighting against Q3 every step of the way. However, the continually decreasing "quality" of my ISP, the staggeringly inept Charter Communications, has forced my hand. You can thank their sheer incompetence and near-total inability to run a network that functions at all, let alone at an acceptable level, for these improvements. :/ With 1.1, the "strategic" gameplay behaviour of the AI has undergone some fairly drastic changes, which is to say it actually exists now. :P Bots are aware of armour and health, and will time them to a reasonable degree. They also have a basic understanding of the relative value of items, i.e. given the choice between an RL and a box of MG ammo they'll usually go for the RL; and they will no longer walk within inches of a YA and ignore it completely to collect a shard 20ft away instead. How well this approach works is however strongly dependent on the map. Since bots still use the id code for their movement, they will still play fairly poorly on the vast majority of maps, including id's own. In many cases, the combination of defective AAS files and limitations of the movement code will result in them performing WORSE than before as they continually try and fail to reach certain items. The CPM maps have always been designed for the most highly-skilled human players, and as such are usually something of a "worst case" environment for the Q3 bots. CPM3a however (Swelt's remix of jude's classic CPM3) has undergone extensive tweaking to make it as bot-friendly as possible, while retaining the exact same human-gameplay as the original. The other key bot-related change in 1.1 is a fix to some defective math in their use of projectile weapons. While it's historically been true that there is nothing LESS dangerous than a bot with an RL, this is no longer the case. While still very much inferior to a good human player, they can now be quite a threat. Bot skill as used by g_spSkill and the addbot command now ranges from 1-15. 1-5 is "vaguely-id" AI, which is to say that it uses the id melee code but otherwise doesn't really have much in common with baseq3. I'm not going to back out 3 years of bugfixes. 6-10 is "standard" CPMA AI, i.e. what 1-5 was in 1.0 11-15 is "enhanced" CPMA AI, as outlined in this file. Since I've barely spent a day on this, it's really only DM-aware so far. When I get time I'll teach them about TDM and CTF: splitting the map into zones of responsibility; sharing weapons with teammates; etc etc. Regardless, skill 100 bots will absolutely thrash normal "Nightmare" bots, and when combined with friendly maps and bot_boost 1.5 can actually be decent opponents rather than mindless cannon fodder. They're fun. :)