Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

RCBot Forums _ Unrelated _ The Definitive Guide To Botting NS 2

Posted by: ICEDajay Sep 25 2003, 06:49 PM

Right, after all the problems i've had getting bots working (my own fault) I thought i'd write this to make sure no-one else has to go through what I did =)
NB: This tutorial is aimed at Win32 users - if you run linux, then i can almost be certain that you know what you're doing anyway
Firstly, you'll need the latest version of RCBot, which can be obtained from http://www.rcbot.net/downloads/rcbot_new/rcbot101.zip
If that doesn't work go http://www.rcbot.net/files.htm and look for a link.

[Edit Cheeseh] If using RCBot 1.01 download this : http://www.rcbot.net/downloads/rcbot_new/dlls.zip after installing the bot as it fixes bugs in metamod [/Edit]

I'm using metamod for my setup, (which allows for the use of plugins/other bots like http://whichbot.sourceforge.net/)
Get the latest version http://metamod.org/dl/metamod.zip - once again, if that doesn't work go http://metamod.org

And if you haven't already got it, NS v2 might be a good idea, have a look for mirrors http://www.natural-selection.org/downloads.html

Let's get NS2 installed, if you already have it installed and have been playing around with it, installing bots or whatever then removing & reinstalling will make everything clean. After you have a clean install of NS2, the latest ZIP of RCBot should be decompressed into your half-life folder, (eg. C:\Sierra\Half-Life\RCBOT\.)
We now need to install metamod. Start by creating a directory in your "Half-Life\ns\" folder called "addons" then another within that: "metamod", and finally "dlls" within that. Should look something like '...Half-Life\ns\addons\metamod\dlls\' Now open the metamod.zip file, and extract metamod.dll into this directory.
To tell metamod to load RCBot, we have to create a file named 'plugins.ini' in the 'Half-Life\ns\addons\metamod\' directory. Mine looks like this:

CODE

win32 ../rcbot/dlls/rcbot_mm.dll

- that should be sufficient for now.
To activate metamod we have to edit the 'liblist.gam' file within the 'Half-Life\ns\' folder.
Look for these two lines in this file:

CODE

gamedll "dlls\ns.dll"
gamedll_linux "dlls/ns_i386.so"

Comment them and add this single line:

CODE

gamedll "addons/metamod/dlls/metamod.dll"

That part of your liblist.gam file should now look like this:

CODE

// gamedll "dlls\ns.dll"
// gamedll_linux "dlls/ns_i386.so"
gamedll "addons/metamod/dlls/metamod.dll"

Now run NS. I'd suggest binding a key to the botmenu command for easy access to bot controls. To do this, type the following into the halflife console:

CODE

bind DEL "rcbot bot_menu"

of course replacing 'DEL' with whichever key you want.
Start a multiplayer game, press the assigned botmenu key, add bots and enjoy.

Posted by: ICEDajay Sep 25 2003, 07:28 PM

PART 2 - Adding whichbot (and any other metamod plugin)

If you want to try an alternate bot for the alien side or want to add another feature to NS then read this.

To install whichbot
Firstly download it from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=76903 (choose the latest version without metamod, should look something like this: 'whichbot-nometamod-vXXX.zip' - where XXX is the version)
Unzip into the 'Half-Life\ns' folder - make sure that the 'Use Folder Names' (winzip) option is checked.
Now edit the plugins.ini file in 'Half-Life\ns\addons\metamod'
Add the following line:

CODE

win32 addons/whichbot/dlls/whichbot.dll

If you haven't changed it since part 1, it should look like this:

CODE

win32 ../rcbot/dlls/rcbot_mm.dll
win32 addons/whichbot/dlls/whichbot.dll

Now whichbot is ready for use, however there is no in-game interface so commands have to be issued from the console. Start a multiplayer game and go to the console, type the following command:

CODE

wb balance on

This makes whichbot automatically add bots to the alien team to match the marine team. Finish by adding marine RCBots using the command:

CODE

rcbot addbot 1

This process can become tedious as it has to be done every time you start a server, so I suggest making a .cfg file to execute to make it easier.
In the 'Half-Life\ns\' folder, create a file named addbots.cfg (or whatever) and edit it. Edit the CFG file (NB: This assumes you want a 5-a-side game with you as a player on the marine team) to read:

CODE

wb balance on
rcbot addbot 1
rcbot addbot 1
rcbot addbot 1
rcbot addbot 1

When you enter a game go to the console and type:

CODE

exec addbots.cfg

- and all the bots should enter the game with no problem.

Adding metamod plugins
This is an incredibly easy process.
Start by downloading any plugins that you like the look of http://metamod.org/plugins.html
Once downloaded, extract the DLL file into the 'Half-Life\ns\addons\metamod\dlls' directory and add them to the plugins.ini file.
EG: ArmouryHeal
-The DLL name is 'ArmouryHeal_MM.dll'
Add the following line to plugins.ini:

CODE

win32 addons/metamod/dlls/ArmouryHeal_MM.dll

and the plugin should be accessible through halflife.

I'd just like to take the time to thank Cheeseh for making such a great bot and hope he/she continues improving it

aj
Any comments/corrections/etc should be posted here or emailed to dustify@hotmail.com

Posted by: General SSC Sep 26 2003, 02:25 AM

whats armoryheal ???

Posted by: ICEDajay Sep 26 2003, 02:23 PM

ArmouryHeal is a little plugin that turns allows the armoury to heal players who use it (as well as restocking ammo.) I have seen it being used on a few servers, you can tell that they're using it as armouries will have a spinning medpack above them. I've seen another which gives marines a radar beeping sound (like in the aliens films) so when they get close to you it starts beeping faster and faster.

For a good list of NS plugins, look http://www.modns.org/forums/index.php?showforum=4
Remember bots dont know how to use plugins that require the player to do something special.
enjoy

aj

Posted by: Anubis Feb 7 2004, 06:53 AM

after finishing part one of this installation i tried to host a game but it crashed as i hosted it, im using 3.0 but i dont think that would make a difference.

Posted by: ICEDajay Feb 7 2004, 09:44 AM

i wrote this tutorial way before 3.0 was released, perhaps that does make a difference, im sure cheeseh will help out but you may have a more individual problem?

Posted by: Cheeseh Feb 7 2004, 11:56 AM

if it crashes before the game starts it cannot find the DLL file. It crashes because of steam (steam sucks) won didn't crash when this happened.

Posted by: Sgt. Hardcore Mar 22 2004, 01:18 PM

Hi all

I followed the instructions listed here to enable both RCBot v1.3 & Whichbot v0.86 using Metamod v1.17. All was fine but the game often crashed after playing about 20-30 mins. So I checked ModNS and downloaded Metamod v1.16.2 hoping that it would help me prevent the crashing.

But after overwriting the metamod.dll and launching a server, I can't add RCBot into the game. I don't know about Whichbot. It said that "rcbot is an unknown command". Also at the loading screen, I got a message that the Metamod is too old for this plugins. So is this bot compatible with Metamod v1.16.2?

I really want to play with both RCBot & Whichbot with minimal server crashed

PS I'm using NS v2.0

Posted by: Sandman[SA] Mar 23 2004, 04:26 AM

RCbot 1.3 requires metamod 1.17 and is NOT backward compatable with metamod 1.16.2.

Now back to your topic, server is crashing. Are you using any other plugins other than metamod, rcbot and whichbot? If so, please list them and if possable, version numbers would be helpfull.

Posted by: Sgt. Hardcore Mar 23 2004, 04:33 AM

I don't have any other Metamod plugins except for RCBot v1.3 & Whichbot v0.86.
Most of the crashes occured when I'm commanding giving medikit or ammo or building something. Once the server crashed when I tried to add 15 RCBot but it maybe CPU problem.

So mostly the server crashed when I'm commanding. But there are times the server crahed while I'm not commanding.

Posted by: Sandman[SA] Mar 23 2004, 07:07 AM

Ok, since you have confemed that you do have RCbot and Whichbot working together but are finding crash problems "after" the game has begun then you have another problem that is not setup related. Please start a new topic in the "Install problems" board of this forum.