Idea: Onslaught? (bot authors?)

(DG) #1

Been having a look for some SP maps for HL2 and came accross combineonslaught and antlion_troopers, two of the most popular ones, where you just defend for as long as possible against a constant stream of AI. Its fun, but just having some AI teammates dulls it a bit, quickly became obvious it would be much more fun with real people… (there is some popular alien onslaught thing for UT2003/4 which is MP, and doubtless others).

So anyway, a fun new way to play ET?

Short version: humans defend co-op style against increasing waves of AI bot attackers.

Long version:
I had a thought about it and imagined the second half of Fueldump, humans defending against waves of AI. Initially AI spawns in the tunnels but can maybe build the CP and spawn there, humans can blow it to lighten the load a bit - and give some tasks for covertops. Humans spawn in the dump as usual, I guess the main gate and wall are already breached. AI objective is to blow the dump.

‘story’ could go axis unleashed Heinrich (from rtcw) or something, who has rebelled with his undead-ish minions, and the dump contains some prototype vaccine or whatever. I figured it would be good fun because all the humans get to “own” and experience teamwork, might be a good intro for new players (who dont learn too much just getting owned constantly in MP) aswell as a fun break for seasoned ET players. Key is having humans be almost constantly against it and having to work hard together to acheive victory. Might help “encourage” good games if the AI can get slightly better or weaker depending on how well or badly humans are coping, only to a small extent though, just to make sure they have a chance or dont have it all way too easy, yet also ensure humans are punished/rewarded for their level of play.

Lots of possibilities regarding lives - timelimit with infinite reinforment, timelimit with limited human lives, both teams limited life [maybe humans lose x XP upon death, and get kicked or puts to spectator if they get below 0?], not sure what would be best. Probably be a good idea to have some some bots on the human side as fillers when there arent enough humans playing, but make them a bit more skilled and with better teamplay than the enemy AI. Maybe also tie the flood of enemy AI to the number of humans?

Yes yes, so OK i was bored. But, this WOULD be fun, and I figured it probably wouldnt be too hard to make since there’s bots that basically work: most stuff seems done already. No issues with bots not being lifelike or being stupid with low levels of teamplay, because theyre supposed to be zombies or whatever.

Also would be great if it can work with etpro or etpub.

(carnage) #2

most of what is needed to make that mod is already in the stock ET

just use bots for axis team and spelock the team, the bots would be the main work of the mod although prob easier to make than other bots as they only realy need to be concerned with slaughtering humans and no fancy objectives

depending on what kind of AI ur after if just axis soldiers ther already there, if you want zombies just change the skins… but if you want new stuff like dark knights with shilds your looking at more modeling work

and finaly the map, there are two posibilites

  1. have a small area where allies spawn that you cant get out of but axis can get into, a small fort or something, the axis spawn just outside round a corner or something so you cant see and then charge into the fort… set the respawn time to 1 or something so when one dies the next on is on its way… and give tha allies a number of maxlives. set the allies to win when the time runs out so if any survive then allies win

  2. similar to above but more complex… the level would be more like a mission… allies still start ina small area where they cant get out of and the axis pile on, after a set time the axis spawnpoint changes and using a triger that detects axis in the 1st area opens a door gate etc when it detects no more axis for 10 secs… then the allies move to the next area adn the proces repeats

abviously by altering the level style of the areas you get different styles of play so every area is not the same… have one area wher they come out of building on the same level as you and in teh next the come onto roofs and balconies and shoot down onto you

yes i was bored 2…

if there is someone willing to code the mod i will hapily make some levels for it and we can get it off the ground… if interested e-mail me sexy_beasts_domain5@hotmail.com

EDIT/ just another though fot the second idea… instead of the areas switching when a time limit runs out give them objectives to do like dyno something thats way out in the open so teamates need to cover the engie’s

btw… all the level stuff is posible by scripting the maps so no more code to write there

(DG) #3

yeah, most stuff is about doable by, I hope,

  • relatively minor fiddling about with existing bots,
  • hopefully a fairly simply mapscript for fueldump (can these be used easily without etpro?)
  • existing ET settings (and etpro/etpub if possible, for their general ET improvements)
  • and some coding to bring the above together and enhance it

In my utter ignorance of all things modding, I was thinking it should be possible to come up with a new play to enjoy ET, with relatively little work above what people have already done.

Specifically designed maps could add a lot of innovations, though I figured initially better to go with a map players are already comfortable with, and hacking it should be less work than making a new one.

(carnage) #4

i dotn no about the hacking of an existing map… they dont backwords compile too well especialy complex ones like stock ET’s and if your going to use the second half of fueldump then ther is half the map just wasting main memory

as well as the fact that the AI has to run all the way to the fueldump where on an ET server you may only be playing with 10 bots they run u kill them then u have to wait for them to run back

if you go with the idea of having one area to defend the hole time the map is so small it could be finished in a day and even up the the quality of stock ET in say a week. and the second idea wouldnt take mutch longer… so why not make new maps

still had no offers to help me make this thing. i no no code only mapping so i realy do need help

(carnage) #5

idea for a map if this style

i had the idea of a dust dirt theme with a big dust storm for the fog but could work well with a snow theme as well

(Jaquboss) #6

I want to coop as axis , maybe something more flexible , like real war scenarios , but players must have option to choose their team
like defending omaha beach , but it will be possible to choose allies , but it will not be as cool…

(TFate) #7

I and another person was just playing RtCW Wolfbot on Assault, defending the comm tower from Axis. It was 2v6 and we were holding them off (without a sweat, since Wolfbots aren’t really that… smart on Assault). I think this idea is sweet, it could appeal to both the hardcore fragger and the objective/teamplay lover. A few things seem necessary for it to work, though, and the most important of those things (imo) is an option to have different difficulty levels. This wouldn’t just be for newbies, but for people who just wanted to relax and have a nice fun game while still easily racking up kills and exp and whatever.

(carnage) #8

cool idea jacubos as far as mapping and stuf went making a coop where the players are axis wouldnt be hard at all ude just need the bots on the other team

hard part would be that when the map starts all the bots are on the wrong team and axia would be locked so no1 could get in

if the coder (if someone ever volanteers) makes it so all player go to spectator at match start and all bots drop then the maper can write into the arena file that goes with maps whitch team the bots should be on then the code auto locks that team and puts bots on it…

i realy like that idea its not that mutch more work and it leaves the way fore more posible masp/senarios

the dificulty level of the bots can be changed on wolfbot when the bots join so it could be customed for each server andso you can change the way they get better… setting the bots to hard reduces r speeds quite a lot but just cranking up the bots acuracy makes it a bit unfair but saves valuabel r speed

i think that would be good as it would give noob some easy servers to frag on and get the hang of the game b4 they join pubs and tk everyone… adn for the hardcore frager they can join a hard server with other hardcore fragers and have a massive brawl prob get a few good frag vids from it

(Jaquboss) #9

I think this idea fits best for beach map :stuck_out_tongue:
But if some bot developers will do this , and other modders will add for example parashute bot spawns and etc…
it will be nice…

(carnage) #10

i belive some MrMagic worte a bot used in ETF that was something like 90% .dll files so you just need to a tachit to your game (yeah a bot that works on multiple games :banana: )

if someone would help me find him hed probe be able to give us a cut down version of the bot that only used rifels and smg’s

then the rest of the code is just realy easy stuff that most codders can prob do

i have pm’d a few people asking for help but i think that pm’s arnt running on this site too well… a while ago it stops e-mailing me when i get a reply to posts even though the box is checked. i pm’d 2 ppl about maps and models but there are a few others who i would realy like to help as they seem no quite a lot about mapping

list:
Ifurita
EB
cptn tissue
Detoeni

i have only asked ppl with coding experience to join but plz anyone who thinks they can contribute in any way email me

web site
2d artist
modeler of any kind
skiner
codder
mapper
making vids of the game
even if you just have lots of good ideas

sexy_beasts_domain5@hotmail.com

(DG) #11

yer but its a thign for all round-goodness initially, a map thats suitable, that players are already comfortable/knowledgeable about, and that they dont need to download.

if it would need player downloads anyway, i thought fueldump was the one map that is available?

(carnage) #12

sadly not, the map that comes with it is goldrush and if your not going to change teh map then isnt it just a bot mod?

even to change the map a little bit would require the map to be recompiled as a differnt map and an extra download

i dont think anyone wanting to play a mod will be bothered about downloading it

(DG) #13

If that’d just be a bot mod, then with maps it’s just a bot mod and some maps :wink:

All that’s important is the play, imo.

(nUllSkillZ) #14

Not sure if the link has been posted above.
Here is the link to the page of the omni-bot:
http://www.omni-bot.com/modules/news/

(carnage) #15

that is the bot i was talking about…

having studied the site it does loads more than is needed for this mod, so it would brob be super easy to code in and work into the levels

the thing that realy sounds good is that waypoint radus system so the bots wouldnt folow strict grid lines, one of my least fave things about bots. if someone wants to help i need it coding to use mp40 and KS39’s but no rifel nades, all the stuff about getting heatha nd ammo is not needed as they are supost to spawn and get fraged very quickly no play taticaly and try to survive for long periods of time