howto use or enable bots, is it possible

Defman · Post by **Defman** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 12:57 am

I have heard of and swear I have seen bots on public servers before, question is how do I enable them?

This past weekend I installed bz on my daughters computer, and setup a home network bz server (no interest as of yet to go public with a server).

I am running the kingcastle world so she can learn the map and some basic tactics without having someone blast her every few seconds.

I would like to be able to load a few bots in there for her to practice on (yes, yes - my score was negitive and hers positive while we were playing together LOL).

Is it possible? From what I found searching the web it sounds like I would have to somehow modify some programming or something in order to use bots - which is way outta my field.

I have no interest either into bringing bots onto a public server.

Kinda of on a related note, I have heard there might be problems if the two of us are connected to a public server... so far everything seems to be ok. Should I have any concerns about two machines connecting thru the same IP to a public server?

Tanks fer any help

Post by **MrApathyCream** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 1:56 am

bzflag -solo x

where x is 1 to 9?

not sure what the upper end is.

CobraA1 · Post by **CobraA1** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 2:37 am

MrApathyCream wrote:bzflag -solo x

where x is 1 to 9?

not sure what the upper end is.

Last I played, I don't think BZFlag had a limit - I've played with quite a few!

There's only one type of bot right now, and it won't jump (and it's fairly stupid).

If you want something better, you'll have to code it yourself.

DEATH[2-I] · Post by **DEATH[2-I]** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 4:07 am

:sniper: AND DONT LOG-ON TO SOMEBODYS SERVER WITH THOSE OPTIONS!

a friend of mine started a 'solo' client and accidentally logged onto turkey-moongroups (with his robotic posse!)
pretty funny for a while!!!!!!!!
i think the server can block it from happening, but i dont know for sure!

Terminator · Post by **Terminator** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 11:04 am

me and storm both connect to the same public server and we have the same ip beause we have a lan broadband connection. we have never really experienced any problems.

badger · Post by **badger** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 6:40 pm

CobraA1 wrote:There's only one type of bot right now, and it won't jump (and it's fairly stupid).

that's not quite true. there's only one type of bot right now, and it won't jump (and it's very stupid).

that's my fault. i never did much like ai programming so once i got A* working i punted on the tactical smarts.

-chris[/b]

Defman · Post by **Defman** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 6:44 pm

I happened to be in Iron Foots server when he loaded up a bunch of bots so I was able to find out from him how to do it.

It was sort of funny watching these bots... most of the time I couldn't even persuade them to move if I was near one of them.

Another *bug*?? I found when starting bzflag with bots was that although my settings have UDP turned on, none of the bots were using it...so I was kicked off my own server! LOL Would it be wise to configure bzfs to not use UDP for Lan use?

Both the client and the server are running Mandrake 9.0 and bzflag 1.7g0

I am able to do some Lisp coding - actually AutoLisp for AutoCAD, I imagine the programing language for bz is different. Would I be able to program something for bots with the knowledge I have in Lisp? Is the code simular enough for me to understand it?

Again, Tanks for all the help.

isfry · Post by **isfry** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 8:12 pm

Yeah the bots are very dumb. It is turn shot all your shots repeat till dead.. However it would be nice to config the bot to all be on one team rather then on a random team that wy you are no on the same team as them.

DEATH[2-I] · Post by **DEATH[2-I]** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 2:21 am

start your flag -solo 9

choose a colour (NOT ROGUE)

log onto somewhere - you and YOUR posse!!!!

do-not start server.

and dont tell kernel panik that i told you this

Post by **MrApathyCream** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 2:38 am

badger wrote:that's my fault. i never did much like ai programming so once i got A* working i punted on the tactical smarts.

-chris

Yes, but the halocinogenic drugs must have been something else when you wrote that region code...

Chestal · Post by **Chestal** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 2:45 pm

The current bots are anything but a worthy opponent and they even have some bugs which might have been introduced along with one of the newer releases because nobody is using the bots anymore, so no testing is done with them. There have been plans of course to replace the hardcoded bots with something that would allow people to write their own bots quite easily. It's not so easy to integrate this into bzflag, though, and thus AFAIK no work has been done on that subject yet.

isfry · Post by **isfry** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:20 pm

This is kind of a random thought here but here it goes. If that is the direction that the bots are going why not have a separate binary for the bots like a bzbot for it you could take out all graphics on it since you do not need to see anything on it. It just has to run you tell it want server to connect to and maybe what script to run and away it or they go. Maybe make some simple script language for it like if shot is x meters away turn at target and fire then jump at x% speed and X angle. Or look for closet and drive towards. I am sure there are a lot of commands people could come up with but it might be better to spin it off into a separate program. Just a crazy thought but might make sense.

Chestal · Post by **Chestal** » Tue Jan 07, 2003 10:50 pm

isfry, this is exactly the idea. For this to work, the game logic must be completely separated from the user interface. It's not that easy to change, I guess noone has done a full analysis, but I fear it would require major changes.

Post by **bryjen** » Wed Jan 08, 2003 5:23 pm

Chestal wrote:...the game logic must be completely separated from the user interface.

Maybe the game logic bits could be made into a library that's used by the normal client, the server (to do server-side state & verification), and external bots.

Dervish · Post by **Dervish** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 5:34 am

Cobra wrote:

Last I played, I don't think BZFlag had a limit - I've played with quite a few!

The only limite on the number of bots you can play with depends entirely upon the number of maximum players allowed on the server you use. If you go over this number, be prepared for your client to crash.

The more bots you use, the more demmand on your PC's processing power (if over the Internet, more demmand on your Internet Connection as well).

isfry · Post by **isfry** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:42 pm

Yeah i tried that with like 50 or so bots it would die. I think 40 is about the most you can get in a map at once. Then it starts to choke.

Dervish · Post by **Dervish** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 8:24 pm

Even with 40, if the server you're using has a lower limit, you'll have problems. For my client, I was able to get more than 50 bots running, but they didn't each log in at the same time (Even though my local server had a max of 100 players).

May be some PCs and Internet connection speeds just can't handle more than x amount of bots?

Dutchrai · Post by **Dutchrai** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 1:15 am

Oh very nice these bots, but just a note of warning to those experimenting with this option

If you logon to a public server like turkey or whatever and bring along a number of bots (bzflag -solo 5, for example), the administrator on duty might not like this and kick or ban you. I know I would do it...I know I have done it.

This is because the bots are quite annoying when you're playing a good game on a server and they are -in general- considered uninvited guests. So...if you REALLY want to do this, logon normally first and ask if anyone has any objections before you bring them along. Please.

Forsake this and you might be banned without any warning.

michaelh20 · Post by **michaelh20** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 3:35 am

I've been thinking of lobotomizing a bz client and taking the graphics out, then you can either (1) Connect it to stdin so that it can take either keyboard input or input from something piping to stdin or (2) cool... use sockets and be able to run some little bot around perhaps even across the internet.

Have to figure out that library stuff.. whatever it is.... first....eeek

Defman · Post by **Defman** » Fri Jan 10, 2003 12:45 pm

I never even desired to do such a thing. Heck, after playing with bots on the home server, I have no desire to use them anymore. They are nothing compared to the bots in Tribes2. Dunno why I mention T2, once I found bz I pretty much quit playing T2

-353-CAPPY · Post by **-353-CAPPY** » Mon Jan 13, 2003 4:18 am

where do you enable bots for a practice server for my kids?

i like to know soo i can run it on lan.

ty

Dervish · Post by **Dervish** » Mon Jan 13, 2003 10:30 am

T2 and just about all the other high-cost and high-profit games out these days are bound to have who knows how many coders writing AI for computer controlled players.

If only our developers had that sort of time and resources.

We'd have "god" bots running around the field, almost impossible to kill by a human player because they evaluate may be a set of a hundred or so variables a second.

A scary thought.

Dutchrai · Post by **Dutchrai** » Mon Jan 13, 2003 10:46 am

=353=CAPPY

Just start the BZFlag client with the extra -solo [number_of_bots] parameter.

Post by **DTRemenak** » Wed Jan 22, 2003 5:46 am

For dev types who want to know what needs to change (in very general terms), look at [url=http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph ... tid=353248]feature request 658074[/url] on SF.net. I'd work on it myself, but for some reason BZFlag won't compile on VC++ 5 (I know it will on 6, but I don't have it), and I am not really comfortable with existing IDEs for linux. I know, real men use vi and gcc, but it sure seems like a lot of work (compared to either Micro$oft products or Qt or Glade)...

Official forums for BZFlag.org

howto use or enable bots, is it possible

howto use or enable bots, is it possible

thanks to all who replied