TDBots: The fast-performing bots v26 (3/4/2020)

[-TDRR-]

TDBots are another bot mod that puts a computer-controlled opponent/friend into ZDoom, GZDoom, LZDoom, Zandronum, Eternity and MBF-compatible ports (including PrBoom). (They are also compatible with the respective Delta-Touch versions of these sourceports!) Eternity and MBF versions are now available in the "Other Versions" spoiler.

 

What sets it apart from all other external bot mods (Loaded by a .pk3 instead of custom .exe), is that they are handled far more like real players. For example, in Deathmatch you can frag them and actually get it counted as a frag. You can spectate from their point of view, they can run out of ammo, they can use the vast majority of items (health, ammo, armor, weapons, Heretic/Hexen inventory items), they can chat, get damaged by damaging floors, activate walkover lines, can use skins and custom colors, learn the map from your exploration, play Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Chex Quest and Strife, and are far less stupid than the built-in bots! Did i mention there's far less eating wall and more action with these bots?

 

As it's licensed under the MIT license, you can use it in your own projects too!

 

If that sounds interesting, go check out the ZDoom forum topic for the project!

Edited April 4, 2020 by -TDRR-

[Amuscaria]

Do the bots use alt-fire? If so, it'd be a much better for DM testing than the ZCajun bots i've been using; which neither aims up/down nor uses the alt-fire.

[-TDRR-]

4 hours ago, Amuscaria said:

Do the bots use alt-fire? If so, it'd be a much better for DM testing than the ZCajun bots i've been using; which neither aims up/down nor uses the alt-fire.

I have considered adding such abilities, but there are certain weapons that with alt-fire would then require the player to do something fairly specific, like when the weapon needs you to hold the alt-fire button and then press the fire button, but unfortunately i can't make the bot know when it has to do something like this, because the bot is not aware of what it's weapon is doing (Except for the BotMeleeWeapon and BotExplosiveWeapon flags, but that's something else entirely)

 

For some reason though, in certain mods like D4T the bot will indeed use alt-fire despite me not having added this feature yet. Don't know how this works.

 

In the end i will probably add them, but anyone wanting to make the bot compatible with their mod should be aware of this:

Bots choose to use the alt-fire randomly, instead of using it because of what it does.

Bots have no idea when the weapon tells them to press a certain button, which may make them get stuck in, say, a Minigun rev-up alt-fire.

 

Althrough this is all to keep the code simple and easy to adapt to any mod, so if anyone ever makes a fork of these specific to their own mod, it should be possible to fix the above mentioned issues.

 

Even then, the bots are still better for Deathmatch testing because they can actually fight back, instead of just running into walls without paying attention to their surroundings like the ZCajun bots do.

[Gaia74]

im gonna check this!

[-TDRR-]

Updated! The mod actually never stopped development but i keep forgetting to update the Doomworld thread.

Read the changelog for a full list of changes from v2.

[-TDRR-]

Updated! This update has a bunch of new names to the bot config (There's 32 bots now!) so redownload that. It also adds tdbots_reactiontime, which sets the bot's reaction time in tics. And bots now have a walking animation!

 

I might add more names from the DecoBots in the next update, just so we don't see bots repeated too much.

 

Again, the mod still continued development at the ZDoom and Zandronum forums, but since Doomworld has it's own way of adding styles and such (bold letters, spoilers and other things) i don't like updating it here much, as it takes quite a bit of a conversion for it to look the same.

 

Download link in the OP!

Edited June 6, 2019 by -TDRR-

[-TDRR-]

Updated! This update is fairly big. Including custom actions and custom class speeds both editable directly from the mod-side itself, Node Studio, support for saving waypoints into .nod files, and updates to the bot movement system.

 

I have added more waypoints to the first post, so make sure you try them out. I also added information about loading, saving and making nodes on the usage guide, so give that a read too.

 

Just a friendly reminder: If you want to contribute anything to the mod, be it bug reports, feature suggestions, waypoint files, code submissions, bot chat lines, Youtube videos, or whatever, just go ahead and post them here and i'll gladly put them in the mod or the first post.

 

Download link in the first post, as always.

 

There have been more updates, but again, they are over at the ZDoom and Zandronum forums, so if you don't want to miss anything, please follow the TDBots there.

 

Oh and the TDBots might be coming to a new game that's not on the Doom engine. Let's just say that when they get there they will be the only one of their kind  B-)

[-TDRR-]

Sorry for the long delay, but i got plenty fixes, additions, tweaks and compatibility patches to make up for it! v19 has dropped and with it, Brutal Doom v21, LCA and Q compatibility!

 

To quote myself:

On 8/27/2019 at 12:31 AM, -TDRR- said:

There have been more updates, but again, they are over at the ZDoom and Zandronum forums, so if you don't want to miss anything, please follow the TDBots there.

 

I recommend reading the full changelog in the first post. Download link in the first post as always!

 

If anyone can upload a Youtube video showcasing the bots (2 minutes is plenty) and send me a link, that would be fantastic. I haven't been able to do this myself with my bad internet connection.

[-TDRR-]

Updated! This update improves the map learning feature significantly.

 

There's been a TON of changes, including waypoint support in Zandronum, the bots can now learn the map from your exploring of it (In true Quake style!) added Rocket Arena mode, and even more.

 

Before I go into the changelog details, I want to point out that deathmatches with the TDBots in ZDoom are unsupported. Thanks to the built-in ZCajun bot AI interfering with the TDBot AI, various unfixable bugs have arised in ZDoom only, which include extremely poor following of waypoints, inability to fire consistently well at an opponent, the inaccuracy flag having the exact opposite effect and even more. These aren't issues in Zandronum as the built-in AI can be easily disabled and thus there's no interference with the TDBot AI.

 

I'm not gonna take any bug reports for deathmatches in ZDoom for those reasons, as most bugs are outside of my reach to fix. If you can prove the bug also happens in Zandronum, I'll gladly listen to your bug report. And I'll also try to provide some support for cooperative gameplay in ZDoom, because at least that is worth fixing (i.e ZDoom provides a bit better experience in co-op than what Zandronum does).

 

With that out of the way, most of the changelog is as follows:

-Added a compatibility patch for Armageddon Invasion, this patch was made by
proerd888 at TSPG a while ago, but I did not find out until recently when I was
digging around in TSPG. Anyways, thanks to proerd888 for this.

 

-Bot learning is better now, they will begin to use an incomplete version of
the info 30 seconds into the match, and will update their knowledge when at 1
minute, update again at 1 minute 30 seconds, and one last time at 2 minutes.
This improves their ability to learn larger maps and also makes them learn
noticeably faster.

 

-"Use Waypoints" no longer needs to be enabled for "learn the map from player".

 

-Removed the option for accurate waypoint following. It's always activated
now as performance difference is negligible, and some people that didn't
change the option would get a very bad first impression otherwise.

 

I also greatly simplified the Doomworld version of the thread, since converting the ZDoom thread to use Doomworld's bold, italics, links and other things... isn't very fun. You can still comment here though, I'll make sure to read all posts so you don't need to create an account for the ZDoom forums if you wanna suggest something, report a bug or just give feedback.

Edited April 4, 2020 by -TDRR-

[HerrKaleun]

I just want to say thank you for creating this bot. I run a DM server but no one is really into vanilla DM anymore, and none of my real life friends are into Doom. You've breathed new life into this game for me, and the bots are fantastic.

[Arrowhead]

I know this thread has been dormant for over a year now, but I just wanted to express my thanks for making these bots! It has been great being able to test my deathmatch maps in FFA conditions. I like being able to load up 7 bots at once for an 8 player game.

 

Also, this works super well w/ LZDOOM's local splitscreen mode - its a lot of fun to team up w/ my brother and go after the bots!

 

Just wanted to say thanks, as I just recently stumbled across this - I didn't expect there to be such a great multiplayer mod for the GZDOOM/LZDOOM ports. Thanks for not making this just Zandronum only!

 

I know the author isn't active anymore, but I wanted to give this thread a bump anyway - I highly recommend other users try it out, the intelligence of these bots are waaaaay above ZCajun.

[Pixel Fiend]

Anyone knows how to load this in Prboom+ with ZDL?

Edited October 25, 2021 by game

[OpenRift]

43 minutes ago, game said:

Anyone knows how to load this in Prboom+ with ZDL?

I've been wondering this as well.