Summary Summary Important: this manual is written for Bot Runner, for Quake2; if you're using a front-end for another game, first read the Quick start section of the other .html file (****er.html).
Part 1: What are we talking about? Bot Runner V2.c (24 of december, 1999); news of the latest version:
Are you in a hurry to start? Please read at least this part!
Every version replaces the previous, so you can simply extract
it, answering no to the question if overwrite the files you want to mantain (it is
obvious that you must answer yes for .vbs files, or you won't
update anything!!!).
For users of version 2.1 and above: you need to extract only .vbs
files to update your version and maintain your options.
If you use a version older than 2.1, after completing the
installation, rename the file crbot\maplist.txt in runner\dmaps.lst
or you'll loose the .pak maps options.
N.B.: even if the manual is based on CRBot (my favourite)
everything I say in it is valid, mutatis mutandis, for the other bot managers.
The file crbot114.zip contains (exactly!) CRBOT, a bot manager for Quake 2 alternative to the Eraser; I do not have any responsability about it, because it's not result of my work (ah, envy!), besides in runner2Xe.zip you'll find a "suite" of little programs, these ones written by me, that I called BOT Runner and that act as front-end for all the supported bots and mods; they've been developed trying to give you an easy system to use the hundreds (thousands?) of models and additional levels available on the net. The zip is distributed separately to respect the licence of the various bot (in addiction to permit you to download the ones you prefer), although its size is very little.
What are bots? Uh, they're computer-guided opponents that behave as they're human(if someone that has the only aim of killing you can be defined human).
What are mod? They're complete or partial modifications of Q2 that allows you to introduce new weaons, new rules, ect (i.e. you can play everyone with the same gun, or challenge an ultraviolent basket game or play the role of a ninja).
What's the Eraser? It's the most famous bot manager (no, I don't like it).
CRBOT features are:
Crbot requirements are Quake 2 in version 3.14 or higher. Because the aim of that manual isn't to be a guide for the use of CRBOT, or any other bot manager, but to explain the use of my front-end, if you want to learn more about them please refer to the various readme.txt. Moreover that file presumes that you know how to do basic operations, as edit a text file (if you want to set your options) and that you know the multiplayer options of Q2 and how to install models and maps (for the inattentive ones: every model in /baseq2/players/name_of_the_model, every .bsp map in /baseq2/maps, every .pak map in the directory of the bot with which you want to use them).
Obviously everything is submitted to the same as ever limitations of responsabiliy: all the programs are completely freeware(even if you're morally obliged to email me, if you use them) and the author (I) is not responsible for any damage provoked by the use of them, and don't grant they are error-free. Instead, I grant that they don't have intentional errors. However, I use them daily on three different computers, and they work!
I hear someone asking who am I: look at the end of this file!
Part 2: Advertisement Did you install the Eraser and are not completely satisfied?
Do you think too that its bots prefer to ignore you and have fun firing among themselves (even when you put some rockets in their...ehm in their back)?
Are you so strong (it's not my case...) that you kill them all even 15 vs 1 at the maximum skill level using only the blaster?
Can you no longer answer to the third degree of the so-called Quick Start only to change the initial map?
Do you also have the Crakhor model with the adult skins installed and want to preserve the innocence of your unaware little brother?
Can't you suffer the continuous (although casual) comparison of the damned duel.bsp map when you're playing in 16 (or vice versa, base64.bsp when you're in 2), that forces you to exit and reexecute setup?
Did you install 2180 maps and 314 models for a total of 1576 skins and don't want to explain to the Eraser how to use everyone of them?
Do you have more than 10 .pak files and can't use them all?
Do you want to train yourself in one of the most famous mods, i.e. chaosDM, and you don't have any opponent?
Do you want to play cooperative with someone that doesn't blame you if you die in a stupid way?
If you answered yes at at least one of these question, probably you've found what you need (in all modesty...). In facts, because I found all the cited problems, I decided to adopt a procedure that simplyfies the use of bots.
BOT Runner supports, as CRBOT, DM, team DM and CTF. Moreover, from version 2.9 it supports cooperative too. Regarding to the other bots, and the mods, the support varies according to what the bot is able to do.
Finally, system requirements became reasonable: the program requires onlyWindows 95/98 and WSH. Anyone who has Windows 98 must (if not yet done) install WSH, whereas who has Windows 95 must download wsh.exe (575 kb). Otherwhise, you can install Internet Explorer 5.0, that includes it. That is not due to a sordid agreement made among me and Bill Gates, but simply to the fact the program is written in VBscript and needs the Windows Scripting Host to work; this is integrated in Win98, whereas is available for Win95 only as online update. Vice versa, if you own Visual Basic, you can compile the .vbs files and obtain executables (but don't ask me to teach you how to do so!). Why I didn't do that? Easy: if I did so, I should put online not 100 kB but 150MB of runtimes and various .dll (and that's not professional)!
Now, let's see my product's features:
Finally, according to your user profile, here are the explanation to use it at its best.
Part 3: The very busy manIf you're a beginner, please verify you've done ALL these steps:
If you're one of those people that dislike to waste time, here's the quick start:
You can answer to the first question with a number (and you'll
play deathmatch), or with more than one number separated by
commas(and you'll play team DM), or with a name of a previously
saved configuration (see
below); if you choose two teams, it will ask you if you want
to play CTF.
If you choose team DM, after the game starts remember to MANUALLY
enter a team, or everybody will fire at you...
If the bot supports the teamplay and you
choose only one team, you'll be asked to play in cooperative mode.
In that case, the game will load the first map (base1); if you
want to start from another map (i.e. to play a different episode,
downloaded from the net) you've to behave as in the deathmatch
case.
If the first question doesn't concern the number of opponent, it means that you've installed more than one supported bot. In this case, if you answer 0 you'll have a casual choice; otherwise see below to know more about this option.
At the second question, you can answer with something like 4..6; if you do so, the bot skill will be chosen randomly (for every bot) in the specified range.
When you try to launch a .vbs file and the
screen in which you select the application to open the file
appears, it means that you didn't install WSH. So go to the
control panel, application installation and in the Windows
installation tab choose accessories, then check the Windows
Scripting Host option and confirm (probably, you'll have to
insert the Windows 98 cd). Finally, when entered Q2, if you play
with teams, the CRBOT menu appears (you can call it by pressing
TAB) to let you select your team.
Other human players can connect as in a normal multiplayer game.
Every time you install new .bsp maps, reexecute set death.vbs and them will be added to the list.
It's obvious that to play CTF you must copy the pak0.pak file from the original to the crbot directory (this applies to every bot and mod that supports CTF, except for ChaosDM; to play it you'll have to rename the file pak9.pak).
If you want to mantain a well-done bot group, look into the /crbot directory for the file bot.cfg and rename it as you want; then reexecute the crbot.vbs file and answer to the first question with the name you chose (without .cfg): magically you'll see your old friends again. Regarding to other bot managers, the procedure can be slightly different (see below). If you want to create a brand new config file, you can find the instructions here.
If you don't like the randomly chosen map, go to the console, type map nameofthemostbeautifullevelinthewholeworld, then type exec bot.cfg and you'll restart as nothing happened.
If you get an error message, as input beyond end of file or something similar, run set death.vbs and answer yes to the two questions; if you still can't run the program, check every configuration file to be sure they don't contain blank rows. If one of these files is empty, delete it.
Please remember that the .vbs files work only if executed from the quake2 directory or from its /runner subdirectory. By default, you'll find every file into the quake2 directory, but if you prefer, you can move all them (except for death, set death and xdeath.vbs) in the /runner subdirectory.
So if you want to add Bot Runner to the Start menu create a link, don't move the file! If you want to download some models, visit my home page at the address http://quake.quipo.it/q2crew where you can find a good links and downloads section, in addiction to the latest version of Bot Runner; this address will be activated since may 1999.
When you downloaded many models, you start to desire to use the advanced features. If this is your case, let's continue reading.
Part 4: The HackerDo you want to customize the runner? Then let's it more deeply.
Every change cited in this section can be done with every text editor (even notepad, although the professionality suffers a lot a similar choice) and regards only bots (in the sense that eventual restrictions don't apply to human players).
The files used by the program to save its configuration are (in the /runner directory ):
Other important files are maps.lst into the /baseq2 dir and maplist.txt into the /crbot directory.
All these file have a similar structure: every row must contain only one item and there should be no blank rows (even if set death.vbs should correct the situation, why taking the risk?).
The first two files regard to the maps: if you have installed
some additional maps as a .pak file, copy or move it into the
crbot directory, add the maps' names at the file dmap.lst or cmap.lst
(according to the type of the map, DM or CTF) and they also will
be used.
Set death.vbs updates (and I stress updates, it maintains any
previously recognized map) the lists of the maps of every bot and
maps.lst (used by multiplayer setup), taking care not to insert
every map found in exclmap.lst (the predefined file contains the
list of every single player map known by the author). If there's
more than one bot installed, you can decide to update all them,
or only one of them.
The other files work in a different way.
Every row of exclmod.lst must be the complete name of the directory that represents a model: i.e. if a row contains cyborg, the cyborg model won't be used by any bot; not complete or bad names simply don't work, even if I suggest you not to put in any of them. In facts, to calculate how many models are available, the program counts how many are installed, then subtracts the number of the excluded ones (even if they don't exist); if you have only a few models, the program may not avoid the creation of bots with the same model (not to risk an infinite loop), and that's not a good thing. If you've just installed Bot Runner, you won't find exclmod.lst. When you feel the need of exclude some models, for any reason, simply create it (monsieur De Lapalice would be proud of me...).
On the contrary, every row of exclude.lst stands for a pattern, a string that doesn't have to be found in the skin name; for example, the default file contains the items ctf_ and kw_, eliminating in this way all the CTF skins (in other words, all the ones that contains the ctf_ or kw_ sequence). It's obvious that these exclusions apply only to the DM (whereas the CTF uses its own skins). As "skin name" is intended the "model/skin" string , i.e. "female/venus", so you can exclude a specific model skin (oh, you're pernickety, aren't you?). Even in this case, you've to be careful, because the program doesn't check if you excluded all the skins of a model; if this happens and the model is "extracted" (and sooner or later it is) the program simply enters into an indefinite loop, forcing you to manually terminate it.
The deathflg.cfg file contains all the deathmatch options of
quake2; tipically, you'll need to change the dmflags row with
your favourite value. If you don't know how to calculate it,
start a server with your preferred options using multiplayer
setup, go to console and typee dmflags; the value shown by quake2
is the one to use to replace the default one, 16916, (that means
"spawn farthest"+"weapons stay"). The set map_cycle
allows you to decide if the maps have to be changed in casual
order(the value is 2) or following the sequence (the value is 1).
For CTF and team DM is the same thing (see before, for the file name): the
only difference is that for CTF exists a separated map list and
that list must be updated manually.
Notice: if you installed the version 2.1 without erasing the 2.0, the deathflg.cfg, tmflg.cfg, ctfflg.cfg valid files remain the ones in the /crbot directory and not those in the /runner directory. If you want to delete the duplicates, simply move them from the first directory to the second..
Finally, after you started your game, into
the bot.cfg file in the /crbot directory (the name depends from
the bot) you'll find the correct settings to repeat it with the
same bots. If you want to reuse it, simply rename the file and,
when launching Bot Runner, answer with the name you chose. You'll
find the some bots, whereas the map will be casually selected. It's
obvious that the program can recognize if it was a DM or a CTF.
This procedure is valid for CRbot, Ace, Rambot and Gladiator.
For 3ZB, 3ZB2, Tangential, Famke, Dronebot, Oak II, Eraser,
Borrador, EraserUltra and Ice you'll have to copy and rename, in
addition to bot.cfg,also the bot configuration file (respectively
stupid.cfg, 3ZBConfig.cfg, bot.bdl, cpim.dat, botnames.cfg and
bots.cfg for the others), and assign to it the same name you gave
to bot.cfg, but with .bot extension.
For No Item Quake, in addition, you must copy and rename also
mybots.cfg (you have to exec it manually after launching the game).
Regarding to the other mods, Q2Basketball and ChaosDM needs the
same procedure as CRbot, the others the same as Eraser.
Here finish the most common customizations.
Part 5: The six millions bots manNotice: this section hasn't (and can't have) the aim of teach how to use every bot/mod with all their options. For example, some of them requires that you copy (or create) particular files, others needs paarticular options in the start file, others can't launch some particular play modes and so ona. Here I suppose that if you want to use a certain bot, you also are able to learn by yourself how it works. In any case, remember to copy your autoexec.cfg (did you create it, did you?) into the bot directory.
Moreover if you notice sudden crashes, system halts or strange behaviour maybe th bot is not correctly configured. First try with cfgpak2X.zip, then look in the readme file, and only if you aren't still able ask me help!
At the moment, these are the supported bot manager, with their limitations (only Famkebot and Stool Pigeon can play in coop mode):
Among these only 3ZB2, Crbot, Borrador, Eraser and Ice can manage a custom list of maps. All the others, except for the first map, use the maps.lst file into /baseq2 (you can copy it to their dir to customize it). Moreover, because of the particular file structure, for 3ZB2 too the dmap.lst file is used only for the first map, whereas for the others the [default] section of 3ZBMaps.lst is used (anyway, that section is recognized and updated by set death.vbs).
Moreover, here are the supported mods:
If you know any other bot that I should support, let me know it. For a personal evaluation of every bot features, refer to the downloads page.
For every installed bot, you can have particular options only copying the config files from /runner directory to the bot one. In facts Bot Runner uses first the options it finds in the bot directory, then the general. So you can customize everything: models, skins, flags and maps.
Here are the rules you must follow:
That is, practically, if you decide to customize DM options, you must config also CTF and team DM ones; in the same way, if you customize the CTF maps, you must do so also for the DM ones. You must copy the files even if the bot doesn't support that modes (it's obvious that in this case you need only copying, without editing). Naturally, set death.vbs recognizes the general and the particular files and update them all.
What I said applies also to the supported mods, with the difference that these extensions may have many more possibilities of configuration (so I suggest you to use cfgpak2X.zip); moreover often they use properly created maps; in this case, set death.vbs is unable to update those list and the work must be done manually. In conclusion, these extensions often completely change the original concept of the game; so the questions Bot Runner asks you may be different. Anyway, even if the mod works in his own way, the file used is the one of the DM, except for CTF-like games (as Weapons Factory) that uses the CTF one. To know more about this argument, press here.
Ok, now I have the multibot support. What am I supposed to do with it?
Simple: if you have more than 10 .pak files, normally you can't use them all because beyond pak9.pak Quake2 is unable to find them. Instead, with Bot Runner you can install more than a bot, everyone with its own 10 .pak (if allowed!) and really increase your authonomy. In this case remember to customize properly the dmap.lst and cmap.lst for every bot.
Moreover, it is possible that you decide that one of the bots plays better DM, one other CTF or maybe you want to organize your levels dividing the ones for only a few players from those like base64.
Or maybe, if you're really crazy (I am!) you can config one bot to use only the Manga models, one other only the girls, one other only the mechs and so on. If you have the intention of customizing models in that way, you have to show to every bot which models it already used. To do so, it is enough to copu the usedbots.lst file into the bot directory.
When you want to launch a certain bot/mod, you can bypass the death/xdeath.vbs file and run directly the .vbs with the name of the bot/mod (i.e.: crbot.vbs for CRBot). Remember that the program doesn't check if you answer correctly to the questions or not: if you choose to challenge 10 bot and the bot manager can handle only 9 of them, you'll remain disappointed! So don't try to cheat!
Finally, the .cfg files registered according to the "old" method are stored in the bot directory for which they've been created and CANNOT be used with any other bot. For this reason, a .cfg file in the /runner directory will be ignored; moreover, you can forget to copy them from a directory to another; if you want to create "general" config files usable with all the bots, you must use the new method.
If it was my choice, I stop here. But I see that you haven't got enough, then...
Part 6: The Very Demanding ManWhat about if you installed a bot manager that you don't want to use any more?
Edit death.vbs with a text editor (or xdeath.vbs, to exclude a mod), search for the row nobot="something" and add the bot name, preceded and followed by two - characters; i.e. "-crbot-" (it's necessary to assure a correct behaviour).
What if you want to change the default values, to start even more quickly?
You have to open (with an editor) the nameofthebot.vbs file, search for the rows like something=inputbox(...) and change the default values for everyone (it's the last, just before the right parenthesis) as you prefer. If these values are always the same, you can delete also the dialog box. Simply change something=inputbox(...) wiht something=default value. For example, you can change the third question with the row hp=4 and you'll have always a maximum of 4 human players.
What if you want to run a dedicated server, to spawn more bots? In this case, open the nameofthebot.vbs, search for the row like wsh.run(...) and just before "+set maclients" add "+set dedicated 1".
Finally, if you're not satisfied by the
casual bot model choice, you can create your own config files (i.e.
to play against DoomSoldier, Quakeguy and TheDuke and verify the
evolution theory or maybe to challenge Darth Vader, BobaFett and
the imperial AT-ST controlling Han Solo).
You can do so in two ways:
The first method, available from version 2.1, creates a file
valid only for a specific bot.
Launch the bot and exit just after strarting the game. Open the
bot directory (/crbot), rename the bot.cfg file and edit it. You'll
see first a part full of quake2 parameters, then some lines sv
addbot... (invio) wait (invio).
To use the models you prefer, you have only to substitute the
values in those rows (the wait rows are necessary). Those values
are: bot name, gender of model (male/female/cyborg, death.vbs
uses always the last), bot skill, skin name (like "modeldirectory/skinname")
and team number (only for team DM and CTF, for DM use 0). If
there are only two teams, 1 is the red and 2 the blue one.
To unterstand more, refer to the readme.txt. Similar procedures
apply to any other bot, apart from the syntax and the file name
that may be different.
The second method, available from version 2.9, allows you to
create a "universal" config file (in other words, it's
valid for every bot that can use it; it's obvious that a team DM
file can't be used by a bot that is able to play only coop...).
Create a text file in the /runner directory and give it a name
and the .bot extension; insert the name of the models you want in
the syntax model_directory_name/skin_file_name (i.e. female/voodoo)
separated by commas; after the last bot, add a semicolon. To
separate the teams, use a semicolon.
Example to create two teams with two bots for everyone: male/sniper,male/viper;female/voodoo,cyborg/ps9000;
For a single team of four players: male/sniper,male/viper,female/voodoo,cyborg/ps9000;
Then launch Bot Runner and answer with the file name (without the
extension).
Notice that Bot Runner doesn't check if the bot can use the file
correclty, so result may vary from what you expect (tipically
there will be only one team, if the other are not allowed).
Please keep also in mind that the new method has priority over
the old: if you create a name.bot file into the /runner dir and a
name.cfg file into the /crbot dir, starting crbot.vbs and typing
name Bot Runner will use name.bot, even if it's not correct.
This method works only with bots that are capable to use
additional models, in other words with: 3zb, 3zb2, Ace, Borrador,
Crbot, ChaosDM, Deraser, Dronebot, Eraser, Eraserx, EraserUltra,
Famkebot, Ice, Gladiator, Hyperquake, Ninja Eraser, No Item Quake,
OakII, RA2eraser, Tangential, Viking.
Remember that I warned you!
Ah, remember, Bot runner can't know how many players you are when launching a previous setted config file, so it starts quake2 always wiht max 64 players (to be sure). If you dislike so (too many? too less? what kinda computer do you have?), search for the maxclients word in the wsh.run rows and change the following number.
The program assigns to every bot the name of the directory of
the model, except for the three default models (male, female and
cyborg) and the Supermale model that use the skin name (for
example, duke model is named duke, whereas male model is named
razor, sniper, captain and so on). It is obvious that in CTF mode,
because the skins are always ctf_r and ctf_b, this possibility is
not allowed.
If you want the program to adopt the second behaviour for other
models too, search for the string "Supermalefemalecyborg"
in the nameofthebot.vbs file and add the names you want.
Any other modification is strongly not suggested. I am not responsible if you change a letter and the result his a low level format of your HD! I am not responsible even if you DON'T change that letter! If you know Vbscript, feel free to put your hands in the files, although it should be a good idea to cite the author (see below) and maybe to let him know your modifications. OK? Thanks.
Now, if you want to know even more there's only a reasonable explanation...
Part 7: Bill Gates in person!!! So, you don't get enough? See my customizing suggestions (divided by mod; the number stands for the suggested dmflags value):
As a general rule, into every mod directory you can find example configuration files and a .txt file that explains every flag; it is obvious that if you don't customize the config files and don't use cfgpak2X.zip, you can't play the mod correctly; remember also your autoexec.cfg file, it must be copied into every bot directory!
In any case, I suggest to use CFGpak2X.zip, that contains the suggested (by their authors, not by me) config options for every mod.
Do you want something more? Then, let's see the technical details!
As I said, the programs are written in Vbscript and use theWindows Scripting Host feature of Windows 98 (and Windows 95, see before). The text editor used to write every file is textpad32, that for me remains the best; its search and substitution capabilities are simply unreachable!
If you know VBscript (but you sure know it, you're Bill Gates, probably you use it to program the microwave owen too) you'll notice that I din't use the count method, preferring a slower manual counting. This because on my pc (pIII 450 - 128 MB ram - millennium g400) this method is totally unaffordable (!), in others words often it doesn't answer with a value! Even in that way, to config 32 bots, choosing them among almost 200 models, my computer needs half a second more to start q2; I think that you can suffer it.
And now, just to bore you as possible, read the history, version after version:
version 2.b
version 2.a
version 2.9
version 2.8
version 2.7
version 2.6
version 2.5
version 2.4
version 2.3
version 2.2
version 2.1
version 2.0
version 1.0
Finally I know that the program can be surely improved, maybe for example with these features:
Anyway, at the moment I am very busy, and I think this program is good enough even in this way; if you don't think so, let me know and I will work as hardly as I can to satisfy you.
Part 8: Who's WhoMy name is Paolo Bianco, I live in Susegana (a little town near Treviso, in the north east of Italy, not so far from Venice), my e-mail address is next@conegliano.nettuno.it , and you can find my site is at quake.quipo.it/q2crew (but if you're reading this document, you already found me).
If you have comments, suggestions, proposal (indecent and not), discussions, insults, requests, pleas, threats, love declarations (?), war declarations (????) to do feel free to write me, or rather I invite you to do so, if you remain close to topic (=Bot Runner, please don't ask me where to find models, how to use them, how to play a mod and don't send me any attachment except for, eventually, the source code of your changes (otherwise, my boss will kill me)).
Ah, if you remember to put BOT in the subject of the message (to be correclty filtered in my mailbox) you'll gain my eternal gratitude.
I also want to thank these guys for their precious support (and patience):
I pray you, if you find my program useful and think it's a good idea, send me an e-mail to let me know my existence is not completely unuseful! Don't let me alone outside there, or I'll become demoralized!!!
