Add Ai Bots?

I barely scratched the bots.
I was gonna do something with default bots, but found out they wont spawn anymore as they did before, with mimic.
So I tried getting RC bots with the hope of making them spawn, but no luck.
I first had trouble getting RCbots up and running, even found ScardyBobs old post somewhere about how he also couldnt get it running. Then I figured I need specific version to the game engine empires is running on, because the addon is asking for specific one, or you just get an error.
The latest one working is I believe 0.96 https://sourceforge.net/projects/rcbot2/files/rcbot2/RCBot2 0.96/
Then it was updated for newer engines.

(the path I use for the dll: ...\steamapps\common\Empires\bin
Settings for rcbots are in: ...\steamapps\common\Empires\rcbot2
...meaning not into ...\steamapps\common\Empires\empires\bin as I was first trying)

Then later I found ScardyBobs another old post of how he also got it running, but couldnt make them use weapons.

Now I dont know if in the version he tried, he had weapons.ini where you could properly set weapons and their properties?
Iam pretty sure there are few more setting files compared to the older versions.

EDIT: looking at older versions and time of his posts, I think he didnt yet have that file.

Example of weapons.ini

Code:

"RCBotWeapons"
{
    "TF2"
    {
        "tf_weapon_bat"
        {
            "slot"    "2"
            "id"    "0"
            "minPrimDist"    "0.0"
            "maxPrimDist"    "180.0"
            "m_iAmmoIndex"    "0"
            "m_iPreference"    "1"
            "flags"
            {
                "primary_attack"    "1"
                "melee"    "1"
                "underwater"    "1"
            }
        }

I didnt got anywhere because I couldnt make them spawn, no matter what.
I tried loads of things, way too many commands and combination of commands and even managed to get eventscripts running and tried few things with them, but they just wont do it.
Even made lots of changes to the settings more specific to empires.
And I even went as far as trying to make them execute UI actions, not sure if that would have worked for bots, heh.
If you figure out how to make them spawn, let me know
Or I hope next versions fix that.

One thing about RCbots that I found really interesting and funny, is that they actually join your squad when you invite them. I dont know how they know, but they do it. (any of the supported games have similar squad mechanics?) ( EDIT: nvm, default bots do too...didnt know )

And one interesting thing about spawning bots is that they will actually spawn at the default location where you are placed before you spawn 1st time, but they spawn already dead, its only their ragdoll body dropping from that "spawn" location.

Issue is definitely not class selection, I can make default bots choose class. But probably spawn point selection is the issue, or the actual spawn command for them. I would also bet on the auto spawn point selection changes.

Have no idea what progress you have with bots btw, so I dont know if using rcbots might be useful to you (or maybe you already use something else than default bots).
I only wanted to first make them spawn somehow and then wanted to see how RCbots would behave...thats all

 

You've gone down a very similar path to my own and found... bots take a lot of work! lol

Starting out I found sourcebot and RCbot were beyond my skill level. Instead of diving in the deep end with those, I was able to find a middle ground using botrix and sourcemod(thanks Vicki/Creeper) plugins. Learning more and getting those working, I was able to start working with sourcebots and spawn them in too. I had just reached the point of working directly with sourcebot and empires code when 2.7 threw up some road blocks and I had to take a break anyway.

I'm still very distracted atm, but creeping back in. First goal this week is getting 2.8 built (did that last night) and retesting the work I have so far.

If you still have a copy of 2.6 client handy, I can put my server up and you're welcome to come see play with the "proto-bots" sometime if you didn't get to see them before.

And you can see them in this horrible screen grab video...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5svcwlxzxkc9aku/EmpiresBotBash.mp4?dl=0

 

lol, no tricks. Go get your 2.6 client folder and join up. You'll notice them kind of sticking to repetitive paths.
It was a popular place for the few weeks it was up. Even though their moves and attacks are basic, they do make for good target practice.

 

misfire you are doing a great job I hope you can fix what 2.7 broke

 

Bots pretending to be players being pretty dull seems to be the consensus here and I absolutely agree.

However, there could conceivably be a place in Empires for bots and that place would be under the control of the commanders.

I'm working on pipe dreams and hypotheticals here, I'm well aware empires only has 1 or 2 coders and -1 modellers.

Anyhow, the idea is this: The commander would be able to purchase squads of "grunts" from the barracks, who would behave like squads in dawn of war or company of heroes. Which is to say, their AI would be able to take cover, counterattack and generally not be total mincemeat for players (who would take the role of independent minded special forces from a lore perspective) but they'd have no "free will" - they would stick around wherever the commander last ordered them to, they'd single-mindedly attack whatever target the comm chose and generally act like the disposable units in any RTS you'd care to name.

What would they add to the game?

From a gameplay perspective, comm would be able to have a more measurable impact on the battlefield without resorting to powers like in CnC generals. Comm-controlled grunts wouldn't need to be particularly threatening to a player unless they're outnumbered 5 to 1, however they would be able harass undefended bases and refineries, build structures when players aren't about and provide a meatshield for players attacking bases. Players (maybe limited to squad leaders?) could maybe interact with them as well, using the squad menu to take control of unattended squads until the comm finds another use for them.

As far as the feel of the game goes, they'd certainly make the MASSIVE BATTLES that empires offers even more MASSIVE and BATTLES and AWESOME. Players would be elevated to the position of spec-ops badasses among a herd of dumb grunts. Just think of the number of roadkills you could get.

There are a couple of problems I can see with this though. First is that the game Titanfall did a similar thing (albeit without the comm controlled aspect which is pretty damn essential to this idea) and the bots just felt like so much filler, an annoyance more than anything.

Second is a matter of practicality - I'm not sure source really differentiates between bots and players in terms of player counts on servers, not to mention the additional processing load which would make an empires server even more difficult to run. Mapping could made more difficult than it is already with the need to manually create pathing for the AI, as source is pretty crap at working it out on its own. The biggest problem of all here would be the need for bots to be visually distinct from players for this to work at all, which effectively torpedoes this idea until the dev team can persuade a good modeller to stick around, something which hasn't happened in around five years.

Third is that it makes being a comm even harder as they've got even more to do. Then again it does make being a comm more similar to being a classic RTS player, with the addition of retarded killing machine units on your team who don't follow your orders and insult you over voice chat, otherwise known as players.

 

I just can't imagine bots being a good buy for a commander for any other purpose than building things.
Problem with AI is always the same, they're exploitable, sooner or later someone is gonna find flaws, and make that AI obsolete.

That being said, you're right, AIs would have to be managed by the commander.

 

Bots that can't do anything but go places and ebuild. Also, boost income by mindlessly patrolling between refineries and the cv/another drop off point.

Btw difference between bots and AI? AI dont exist.