Advanced bot maps for Base - The mod!
Description:
These are improved bots for Base, the default Tribes 2 game mode. These maps are incompatible with other mods.
The mod contains 64 maps in total mostly for CTF, Siege, and CnH. In addition to having many bug fixes over the default bots, they can now throw and detect mines, use missile launchers, drive vehicles, use the MPB teleporter, deploy pulse/motion sensors and cameras, use paths to attack generators, and many more. These (version 3) bots were released by Lagg-Alot back in 2005.
While this mod doesn't contain any new maps, it combines all the bot supported maps by Lagg-Alot, Roboto, and MetaDrax (as of 10 February 2023) into one giant pack. Additionally, these maps maps are now separated from any other mods' map lists, because they are now visible only when you launch this mod. Because these maps have custom scripts, separating them from other mods solves many problems that were caused if you tried the maps in a mod like Shifter, Meltdown 2, and so on, which are incompatible with these AI scripts.
This mod also lets you add up to 63 bots from the main menu, without having to type anything into the console to add more than 16 bots.
Install instructions:
1. Put everything from the "Tribes2InstallFolder" to your Tribes 2 install folder and OVERWRITE stuff when asked. For example, the 'GameData' folder from here should overwrite the 'GameData' folder that you have.
2. PLAY by using the 'BaseBots_Offline/Online' .bat file! That's it.
3. If you still have the old standalone maps, delete your older .vl2 maps from the "GameData\Base" folder: CNHBotMapPack, CTFBotMapPack, SiegeBotMapPack, lag-alot_map_pack, and my 8 maps ending with "Rob".
Enjoy!
-Roboto
Changelog:
1.2 (Nov. 13, 2023)
Fixed weights for MetaDrax's RV maps in the CTF game mode. Bots holding flags should now prioritize capping instead of going somewhere else.
1.1
Added the (previously forgotten) scripts that let you add up to 63 bots
Added ConnCtPatch.cs (fixed double bot count in the server list)
Modified the ServerPrefs file
1.0
First release
Download:
Link 1: https://pixeldrain.com/u/KUD7d9HJ
Link 2: https://mega.nz/file/6hs3BDKQ#PuPp1mBm73Vhi7YGbbiIrCU-oJ69qrI_LSiXrzgrz2c
Attachment:
Comments
This is really cool, thank you very much. But how can I host a dedicated server?
I have tried a fresh installation, used only your files, started the dedicated server, it loaded the normal Katabatic map but without any bots, looks like enabled bots in ServerPrefs.cs will be ignored, I can join this server, voted for map change, but still no bots.
After that I just switched to Katabatic AIV inside the ServerPrefs.cs and started the server again, but still it won't load any bots and I am also unable to join this server, the error message that the server is cycling maps will pop up.
I tried it two times over normal Windows and also an installation on Debian 11 over Wine, both is doing the same.
Can you help here please?
It is working now, not a fresh installation of Tribes 2 is needed, a fresh installation of Tribes2Config_1.8 will be needed. So I guess some files are missing in the normal version, now I can set up a dedicated server. The only thing what I have is, that BotCount will be ignored, server will always start with 16 bots, also when I set it to 25 or something. Maybe here has someone a hint for me.
Thanks
It doesn't require anything but a fresh install of Tribes 2, I just tested it myself, again. But, apparently since I just took this mod from my T2ContentPack collection, I forgot to include (in this .zip file) some things that were already included in T2ContentPack. That's why I didn't notice it was missing something here. Things I forgot to copy are the scripts that allow more than 16 bots, and specifying a bot map in the ServerPrefs.cs file, like this: $Host::Map = "Katabatic_AIV";
So, thanks for trying it and pointing out the problems. I now re-uploaded the mod as version 1.1, which includes these fixes. Please delete the old version and use this new version instead. Also, remember to use the file BaseBots_Dedicated_Server_Online.bat in order to make a dedicated server (it will also clean any .dso junk scripts).
Changelog:
1.1
Added the (previously forgotten) scripts that let you add up to 63 bots
Added ConnCtPatch.cs (fixed double bot count in the server list)
Modified the ServerPrefs file
1.0
First release
Also, if you ever have problems running any mod, use this DSO remover to clean .dso file leftovers from the last time you ran Tribes 2.
Thank you very much for the fix, now everything is running fine 😀
No problem! Let me know if you encounter any other issues.
Thanks for the server and great effort with the mod! I find myself popping in occasionally.
it's nice to have somewhere to go with balanced bots - a few servers have ultra skill bots that headshot within moments and others seem lobotomised.
I'm very glad you're having fun with the bots, so thanks for the message! I also want to thank Lagg-Alot & MetaDrax as well, and of course, many thanks to everyone who is hosting the bot servers. I'm a bit busy recently, so that's why there's no update right now, but I will eventually release a new version with new maps, hopefully sooner than later.
Thanks for this compilation of this great stuff (I swapped it for the old assortment)!
Fired up Tribes2 recently again since a long while.
Tried Katabatic RV and noticed that a flag carrier would not bother to go to actually score at the own flag.
Maybe you can reproduce that issue?
Also, do you think this could benefit from the following mod?
https://github.com/Ragora/T2-DXAI
EDIT:
I also like some actual singleplayer missions (like the Training ones) but of course those would be from various authors
and it would be hard to get their approval to redistribute those, I guess.
With the latter I currently have the problem that on my Tribes2 install briefing and mission audio bits do not get played in sequence with a proper delay between them. Instead following bits all start too soon so that most of it is getting played simultaneously and you cannot follow nor understand much.
I really hope to get this fixed!
Too bad that ChocoTaco decided to lock out anyone from the discord that does not have a phone verified account.
Happy you like it!
About the flag issue, the scripts for the bots in this pack are from like 2005, so they're old and there are many issues that are present here that got resolved in the ClassicBots mod. So, unfortunately, if it's a script-related issue, it's going to likely remain there, as I'm going to put any extra effort into ClassicBots, which is incompatible with this version. Also, since the maps and scripts in this pack are so old, I don't remember the specifics of the missions.
However, if you could provide me with some more information, maybe we could sort it out. Do you play on a vanilla install? Does the issue always happen, bots having the flag and not scoring, or just sometimes? When it happens, what objective is the bot on? You can temporarily replace your hud.cs file from Base\scripts.vl2 with the hud.cs that I attached in this post, so that you can see bot objectives when you're in observer mode. Keep a backup of the original one so that you can put it back later.
But, before answering that, let's try something. I suspect the ctf RV maps have wrong weights (aka priorities) for the 'Capture the flag!' and 'Grab the enemy flag' AI objectives, which makes capturing bots go for the enemy flag instead of going to their home stand with the flag.
Let's see if this is it the cause. I attached an edited version of CTFBotMapPack.vl2 with fixed capture weights. Overwrite the original one from 'GameData\advbasebots' with the one I attached. Test this out a while, and if you won't see this problem anymore, then it means the issue is probably fixed and I will update the mod to another version.
Now, regarding the other topics. The T2-DXAI system is something I also would have loved to have implemented, because it could make bots much easier to control. But such a thing would require a whole rewrite of the Tribes 2 AI (or simply a continuation of DXAI), and nobody's willing to do that in 2023, haha. So, I'm just going to stick with the gigantic mess of the spaghetti code that the Tribes 2 AI already is, add some stuff here and there, and fix the easy bugs, whenever I feel like it. It would be much less time consuming.
Regarding the fan training missions, the authors are long gone from the Tribes 2 community as far as I'm aware, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind anyone sharing their work as long as you credit them. And if they do, you can just take the stuff down in retrospect. The audio issues you talked about, do they happen in the normal/default training missions, or in fan/custom training missions? The fan missions are quite buggy on my PC, some of them I cannot even play because they crash. So I'm not surprised if any issues are present there, and I'm not quite sure how to fix them.
Thank you for the quick and detailed answer. Yes, I'm enjoying Tribes 2 with the bots!
My install is likely not quite vanilla. Grabbed it either from here or from playt2.com a good while ago (Mid February '21 it seems) and then likely added some scripts to base as well ...
It happened consistently, but your objectives weight-fix has done the trick it appears (Katabatic RV now sees the bots on Blood Eagle with the enemy flag go to capture at the BE flag spot), spot on!
Cool and functioning (well, maybe one of these brought me the audio bug) fan missions I have are:
Patrocinor, AdumlaFoothills, AdumulaIceplains, Kantar-TankRun, Training6-Abaddon(!makes the original Abaddon inaccessable while it is installed), battle-arena, rescue-buffy and Charybdis (the latter one actually has the opposite problem, all delays are way too long). Some of 'em are here: https://web.archive.org/web/20071221040545/http://t2.jimomighty.com/maps/
I recall having faced the described sound issue before. I think it either had to do with OpenGL vs D3D for some weird reason or was brought in with one of those custom SP missions (I play in Linux via wine). Hmm, yes upping my in-game resolution to the max has it alleviated a bit (VSync enabled/disabled makes no difference, though. Affinity, also not btw.). EDIT: Nah, just thought so, but loading the Charybdis fan mission first might, I'm not quite sure.
So it's working fine now? That's great. I updated the mod to version 1.2 containing the fix in the first post. Thank you for your report!
I can suggest trying those custom training missions on a cleaner install, to see if you're still experiencing those issues. Also, delete them all, then try them one by one (just 1 in your tribes folder) cause maybe some of them bring in new scripts that break other maps. All I remember is that they are very buggy and didn't work well on my end, so I didn't finish them. I'll try Charybdis these days again and tell you if I experience the delays. But I am not knowledgeable enough to tell you why this happens.