Svencoop 4.8 & rcbots crashing, bad crash problem just after adding bots Options

[w00tguy123]

On ladders, what i do, is start first with the standard 3 wpt config at the bottom, they often need a jump wpt with the newer bots:

Either N--N--L or N--J--L

Adding a jump waypoint helped a lot. I'll be doing that for every ladder now.

I've just come across a problem with the grapple waypoints. If they fail to get to the grapple waypoint and fall down somewhere, they'll keep trying to grapple even if they're nowhere near the waypoint that they're supposed to start from. That behavior can potentially be helpful, but not if they don't have a direct line of sight to the grapple point anymore. I keep seeing them firing their grapples into walls endlessly until I crowbar them out of their spots. Having them give up after 10 seconds of no progress might work.

[madmax2]

I've just come across a problem with the grapple waypoints. If they fail to get to the grapple waypoint and fall down somewhere, they'll keep trying to grapple even if they're nowhere near the waypoint that they're supposed to start from. That behavior can potentially be helpful, but not if they don't have a direct line of sight to the grapple point anymore. I keep seeing them firing their grapples into walls endlessly until I crowbar them out of their spots. Having them give up after 10 seconds of no progress might work.

Yeah, i can confirm this can happen when there is no killzone. I tried it on another map, and in this case when they miss the landing zone above, and fall back down to a lower level, it can happen sometimes. With other weapons, i've seen bots sometimes try to shoot thru corners (see thru corners?), this may not be the same, but it reminded me of that.

It was funny, another bot got in the way, and he grappled to that bot, which dragged him around the room (piggy back), up to where the human tower wpts were, it jumped across, but got stuck/wedged on the wall, then the bot suicided, and the barnicle gun bot fell down again. It resumed fireing the grapple, but it looked like this time it was firing at the grapple wpt, not the grapple point? The other bot did drag it thru the wpt that is connected to the grapple wpt.

So it does seem there needs to be some kind of reset? Maybe timed, or a counter of x fire attempts, then the bot changes to navigation & looks for the closest wpt?

Another time, I got the bot to grapple to me in noclip mode, pulled him up to the target area, then he quit firing and worked normally...

[edit] I moved the grapple wpt slightly closer to the grapple point, from the platform there to just inside the opening. I haven't seen the bots miss the landing zone since . If they hit the wall there now, they keep grappling until they are sucked into the opening/hole there. So it's no problem now, in this case. Careful placement of the grapple wpt may eliminate the falling down, but maybe not in all situations ?

If a player gets in the way, they don't let go of a player. There are maps where that could be useful, such as jumpers. I'm not sure how that could be implemented though, it might be better to just let players grapple to bots?

[madmax2]

Hey Cheeseh,

I noticed a small issue with weapon pickups that you might want to check before the next release?

If weapons fall in a hazardous or pain/death area, bots tend to go for the weapons, instead of objectives such as buttons to turn off the hazard. It can be a domino effect, where bot1 sees a weapon in killing area, dies & drops his weapon, bot2 sees bot1's weapon , etc..

I think they might be to quick to pick up every weapon anyways, before players get a chance. Could you make it so bots only pickup weapons if their primary weapon ammo is below a certain level, say 30 or 50%? Or just have them pick up every forth weapon they see? Something to reduce their desire just a bit, should work with hazardous areas.

Of coarse , I noticed this updating the crystal 1 rcw, at that first button with the "firewall". bots were going for the dropped weapons in the flames, and not getting to the button at the panel. I don't think it's happening every game, it depends on where the weapons fall, i guess?

For grapple, i did see a bot trying to shoot though worldspawn again, at the place in royals2 I thought I had fixed. He got grappled to another bot too. i think they should let go of other players or bots, and reset to navigation.

Bots really hit the grapple point well now, if the waypoints are set up correctly. They always hit it with the second shot . So I think 4 or 5 shots at a grapple point should be plenty, before they reset to navigation, if they are not successful, then go to the correct location to fire from...

Thanks,
max

[edit] btw, i'm using the rcbot_mm_SC48_grapple_upd2.zip dll, not the rcbot_mm_SC48_release2.zip or Release 1 from the web site