
Challenge ProMode Arena: Enhanced Bots
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Date: 28 Apr 03

Well, go figure...
Thanks to Qrealka and Diamant, I've put some effort into the bots.
None of this would have happened if they hadn't been willing to help
out, because it would have taken more time than I have to spare.
Pretty much all the DM AI has been improved over CPMA1.1 with new
decision-making code. The bots are quite a bit smarter than before,
and at times you can even "see" what they're thinking if you watch
them. They're still completely ignorant of many things though, and
unfortunately are still dependent on AAS files, which are invariably
flat out wrong about level connectivity. Swelt or I may write a guide
to how mappers can fix some of the worst problems if we ever get time.
I've ONLY focused on DM, so I expect they're still absolutely awful
at TDM/CTF/etc.

Fixes are generally for the new bots only, but some have been applied
to the standard bots as well if the bug is too pathetic to tolerate.
Those are marked with an 'I' (e.g. the 1.1 RL aim bug was a "fixI")
and are implicitly id bugs, obviously.

The skill thresholds are:
79- has pretty sucky aim
81+ enables evil RL
86+ tries to avoid "bad" RG shots **
bot_challenge 1
  enables evil hitscan at skill 91+ after you're open for 0.5-0.25s
  doesn't degrade accuracy at close ranges
  aims faster after using a tele
  does NOT otherwise affect aim skill
  uses the "alternate" weapon choices (more hitscan)

** At 86+, you'll see a noticeable jump in hitscan accuracies.
This DOESN'T mean that they've suddenly become all-aim bots. They
actually still only hit as many shots as they do at 85, but since
they FIRE far less often when they know the shot is a "bad" one,
the percentages become much higher.

Skill level also affects movement speed to some extent.

There are some new bots as well, with slightly better strategic
play and some "personal" properties. They can only be used at
skill 5 (nightmare) and above (CPMA AI).

Apheleon
  faster than all other bots
  has improved RL
  uses the "alternate" weapon choices

arQon
  only slightly faster than normal bots
  has godlike RL
  uses RL a LOT

rat (the HPB version)
  faster than normal bots
  has godlike RL
  uses RL a LOT


add: strafejumping, yay!
	Qrealka and Diamant get all the credit for this one

add: tanked bots will hunt you down and spawnrape you  >:)

add: evil RL prediction (quite ratlike at times :P)

add: a bit of dodging and ducking for cover

chg: skill 6-100 uses the new AI (1-5 are the id bots)

chg: rewrote item choice management (esp wrt health and armour)

chg: weapon selection now biased towards killshots

chg: removed bot_boost

fixI: bots completely ignoring enemies 3ft away from them

fixI: bots unable to hit enemies at very narrow angles


Date: 20 Mar 03


CPMA's bots have undergone several dozen bugfixes and tweaks over the past
few years, especially wrt melee, but have continued to use the id code for
the bulk of their "decision" making, which is essentially "wander around
at random collecting items until we blunder into someone."

I've generally been reluctant to work on the AI as I don't consider it a
particularly challenging or interesting area, since the vast majority of
its problems are buried deep within the engine itself and the BSPC/AAS
process, improvements generally have to be made by fighting against Q3
every step of the way.

However, the continually decreasing "quality" of my ISP, the staggeringly
inept Charter Communications, has forced my hand. You can thank their sheer
incompetence and near-total inability to run a network that functions at
all, let alone at an acceptable level, for these improvements.  :/

With 1.1, the "strategic" gameplay behaviour of the AI has undergone some
fairly drastic changes, which is to say it actually exists now.  :P

Bots are aware of armour and health, and will time them to a reasonable
degree. They also have a basic understanding of the relative value of
items, i.e. given the choice between an RL and a box of MG ammo they'll
usually go for the RL; and they will no longer walk within inches of a YA
and ignore it completely to collect a shard 20ft away instead.
How well this approach works is however strongly dependent on the map.
Since bots still use the id code for their movement, they will still play
fairly poorly on the vast majority of maps, including id's own. In many
cases, the combination of defective AAS files and limitations of the
movement code will result in them performing WORSE than before as they
continually try and fail to reach certain items.
The CPM maps have always been designed for the most highly-skilled human
players, and as such are usually something of a "worst case" environment
for the Q3 bots. CPM3a however (Swelt's remix of jude's classic CPM3) has
undergone extensive tweaking to make it as bot-friendly as possible,
while retaining the exact same human-gameplay as the original.

The other key bot-related change in 1.1 is a fix to some defective math in
their use of projectile weapons. While it's historically been true that
there is nothing LESS dangerous than a bot with an RL, this is no longer
the case. While still very much inferior to a good human player, they can
now be quite a threat.

Bot skill as used by g_spSkill and the addbot command now ranges from 1-15.

1-5 is "vaguely-id" AI, which is to say that it uses the id melee code but
otherwise doesn't really have much in common with baseq3. I'm not going to
back out 3 years of bugfixes.

6-10 is "standard" CPMA AI, i.e. what 1-5 was in 1.0

11-15 is "enhanced" CPMA AI, as outlined in this file. Since I've barely
spent a day on this, it's really only DM-aware so far. When I get time
I'll teach them about TDM and CTF: splitting the map into zones of
responsibility; sharing weapons with teammates; etc etc.

Regardless, skill 15 bots will absolutely thrash normal "Nightmare" bots,
and when combined with friendly maps and bot_boost 1.5 can actually be
decent opponents rather than mindless cannon fodder. They're fun.  :)
