RCBot Marine, Stop freelancing soldier ! Options

[Lyran]

Hi all.

I've just recently been able to make it so RCBot and WhichBot works well together. So far I must say I'm quite surprised by the Bots, especially WhichBot. I personally think RCBot is great, but there's one specific thing I can't stand.

The Marines (I always use RCBot for Marines and WBot for Aliens) always run at the Hive location right from the start of the game.

No wonder why they already know where the Hive located at ...they're Bots. So out of the blue they know everything. Ok, yes I know they're Bots. They don't "think". But I personally think that any Bots' job is to simulate human behavior.

My wish ?/Question ? Here it is:

Is there any way to make it so the Marines "patrol" the starting location and slowly go from a place to another ? Eventually to simulate like they would have "found" the Hive ?

Because what I must do, in each games I play with RCBots, as a Commander, is to select all the Marines, then form small Squads, so I can select specific Squads to build specific structures. Then when all required structures are built, I order them to "patrol" the map, but they always do so under my orders.

As soon as they arrive at their Waypoint, they "freelance" and always run to the Hive location.

What I want is a strategic, atmospheric game, not a Deathmatch, and not a challenge to "who's going to get to the Hive first and fire the first bullet at it" game.

Perhaps my request seems complex, but I'd really like it if RCBot would be able to feature such a simulated Marine behavior. A behavior which would make them "wait for orders", instead of "Hey commander it's boring so I'll run to the Hive since I already know where it is and I'll try to kill it right now so the game will last 10 minutes ok ?".

I don't know how to say it exactly...but I think you guys know what I mean

You know...at the Start of the game, whatever the number of Marine Bots, they would...dunno, just move here and there in the main base location, then stop, "scan" the area for...dunno, randomly chosen period of time between...let's say 5 seconds to 30 seconds. Then move to a random new location, a bit more away, then repeat the process.

It's a bit hard to explain, but you guys know what happens in a game when everyone is a human and plays seriously to have fun and a strategic challenge.

Usually everyone, as a Marine Soldier, waits for the Commander's orders and while the Commander builds up his/her strategy, everyone just move here and there in the map and scout it.

No one will ever run at the Hive location right from the start to end the game, unless the Commander's order is to do so.

Well...is there any way, actually at the moment, do create that behavior in the current A.I ? Or would it be possible, eventually, in a new future version of RCBot ?

Well, thanks for your time everyone. I'm awaiting some comments on this.

[Sandman[SA]]

Try this. In your rcbot/bot_config.ini, find the line:

[Cheeseh]

there is a bug with NS and waiting for orders because they took the damn commander meesage out without tellin me!!! I fixed it though for next release

[Lyran]

I tried the wait_for_orders 0 command. Well it wasn't what I expected. It's a nice command, but I don't want them to idle and stay still.

The thing I'd like really is...you know...if they could patrol to random places, until I give them orders. Instead of "Rambo'ing" to the Hive location right from the start. Perhaps creating such an A.I feature would be possible, maybe not. I don't know crap about coding and C++ stuff. One thing I know for sure though, is what they do by default is not something they should do. They should just patrol here and there, and form groups/squads by themselves.

WhichBot, for example, allows the "creation" of a leader, which is going to lead a group of "x" aliens to attack "y" target(s). It's a feature that surprised me a lot.

Don't get me wrong though, I like RCBot. They're intelligent enough to have fun and just mess around with them and practice as a commander.

A map I really like to play with RCBot and WBot is Ns_Eclipse. The waypoints must have been very well done, because they almost never get stuck. And they always find they way properly. Ns_Eclipse don't have a lot of ladders, to, which must help RCBots to behave correctly.

Anyways. I can't wait for the nest RCBot release that's for sure.

With time, RCBot will be the most respected and sought-after Bot program for use with Natural Selection. And I'm considering myself a proud supporter of RCBot.

Thanks to everyone involved in the creation of RCBot.

[Gruuunt]

[Cheeseh]

It should be actually fixed in the source distribuiton if you can be bothered to build it, I'll probably release somthing soon, although I have exams soon and must study like hell. I also want to add NS combat support, and there are new versions of mods ect out that it will need to be compatible with.