Adding & Editing Bot Classes to Roster

[Glomertam]

Hey all, I'm new here. So please forgive me if I just missed the thread that answers all of my questions.

Anyway, what I am looking for is twofold:

1. I want to increase the number of bot classes available to choose from.
2. I want to increase the number of bots available in the roster.

Without mods, the number of available bot classes is pretty low, and the number of bots you can edit is either 16 or 32. I'm something of a bot hoarder, so these limits are unacceptably low for my desires. What I'm hoping to find is some combination of editing *.ini files (such as User.ini and UnrealTournament.ini), and mods to increase these values.

I know there are some mods out there that do these things, but the two big ones I've seen don't fully do what I need alone, and don't work together.

Marginally Enhanced UT
This mod allows for an absurdly large number of bot classes (as well as skins and voices). The default number of bot classes / models is set at 1000 (which is probably more than enough for my needs). However, you can only make use of 32 bots in the roster at a time. I could live with this if I could manually edit the User.ini to increase the number of bots available, but that doesn't seem to work.

xBots
The current version (xBots 9b -- Loathsomes Bot Pack) allows you to edit up to 9 lists (of 32 bots each) and using as many or as few (minimum of 32) bots as you want. Each list can be enabled or disabled as desired, and each bot within a list can also be individually enabled or disabled. That would be great, except for the hard limit of bot classes. This version of the mod seems to cap out at 68 (which isn't enough).

The previous version (xBots 056) only allowed for 6 lists (which would work for me), and had a higher bot class limit (128). However, even that limit is a bit too low for my needs.

What I am looking for is something that would let me edit/add more than 32 bots to the roster (in the fashion of xBots), but also vastly increases the number of useable bot classes (like Marginally Enhanced UT). I would be willing to forgo the editing of extended bot lists in a mod, as long as I could manually do it in an *.ini file. Does anyone know of a mod, combination of mods, or hacks that would get me where I would like to be? Unfortunately, xBots and Marginal don't work together. And simply adding more than 32 bots to the [Botpack.ChallengeBotInfo] section in User.ini doesn't let UT play with more than the default 32 bots.

Are there any other mods and/or hacks that do similar things or could work with either xBots or Marginal, or make xBots and Marginal work together?

[sektor2111]

Hi, and Welcome aboard...

I'm curious how do you deal with this:

Code: Select all

class GameReplicationInfo extends ReplicationInfo
	native nativereplication;
....
	var PlayerReplicationInfo PRIArray[32];

Because PRIArray it's hard-coded - number of "players" any players. Are you planing an Engine modification or it's based on "Uh, why some scores are not updated" and various reactions coming from here more or less expected ?
Are you using another GameReplicationInfo in your game stage ? Then you can stick to another BotCofigType class... having an expanded array too.
If you are talking about BotPack.DeathMatchPlus, then... Good Luck with PRIArray and 200 Bots spawned in game...

[OjitroC]

Are there any other mods and/or hacks that do similar things or could work with either xBots or Marginal, or make xBots and Marginal work together?

I think that the short answer to that is no (AFAIK) - for the reason sektor refers to.

Ive had a quick look at my Xbot9 XBotslists.ini (plus the User.ini list) and I certainly have more than 68 bot classes. Because of this seeming limit, I stopped using the configuration windows in XBots9 and just manually edited the relevant list/sections of the .ini to include new or different bots. I don't recall any problems in using any of those bots in games. Having done manual editing the important thing is not to open the configuration windows as this will mess up what one has edited.

[EvilGrins]

The previous version (xBots 056) only allowed for 6 lists (which would work for me), and had a higher bot class limit (128).

I prefer that version, the more recent version rewrites the bots' skills from what i set them at. Don't like that.

It's more than 128 bots, though. 6 x 32 =192.

[OjitroC]

The previous version (xBots 056) only allowed for 6 lists (which would work for me), and had a higher bot class limit (128).

It's more than 128 bots, though. 6 x 32 =192.

That's the total number of individual bots - the limit on the number of bot classes (examples BotPack.TMale2Bot; BotPack.TMale2Bot2:; BotPack Female2Bot; Vixen.Vixenbot; Alice.AliceBot; etc, etc) is 64. So that's the number of bot classes that will appear in the configuration window for the bot lists.

The limit in both the original version (according to the readme) and in XBots9 appears to be 64 (nothing in the readme to suggest the limit differs from the original version). The code, as far as I understand it, also indicates that the limit is 64.

As a matter of interest, is there an XBots056? I have xBots055 and I can't find anything with a higher version number.

[Glomertam]

sektor2111, thanks for responding. I'm actually not doing any coding. Messing with the *.ini files is about as much as I dare tackle. I haven't done programming/coding in a long time (and never was very good at it even when I did). So most of what you talked about went way over my head.

OjitroC, according to the readme for xBots056, the limit of bot classes is actually 128. You're correct about xBots9b's limit being 64, though. I did find another thread somewhere (I can't remember where now, though) that mentioned something similar to what you suggested about manually editing the *.ini files. One of the suggestions in that post said to use Marginal's configuration window to set up the bots (since it has a much higher bot class capability). Then, copy the bot line from User.ini to the relevant sections of XBotsLists.ini. After that, you can't go back to the xBots configuration window for the reasons you already pointed out.

I tried using that suggestion, but unfortunately, it didn't work. What I got during gameplay was a bot named "Bot31" when it tried to access the extended bot list. That bot was also one of the default UT models. Everything from the main bot list (the one in User.ini) was fine, though.

[OjitroC]

OjitroC, according to the readme for xBots056, the limit of bot classes is actually 128. You're correct about xBots9b's limit being 64, though. I did find another thread somewhere (I can't remember where now, though) that mentioned something similar to what you suggested about manually editing the *.ini files. One of the suggestions in that post said to use Marginal's configuration window to set up the bots (since it has a much higher bot class capability). Then, copy the bot line from User.ini to the relevant sections of XBotsLists.ini. After that, you can't go back to the xBots configuration window for the reasons you already pointed out.

I tried using that suggestion, but unfortunately, it didn't work. What I got during gameplay was a bot named "Bot31" when it tried to access the extended bot list. That bot was also one of the default UT models. Everything from the main bot list (the one in User.ini) was fine, though.

Can you post xBots056 as I can't find it in all the main file sites?

When you say "copy the bot line from User.ini to the relevant sections of XBotsLists.in", did you copy all the relevant lines (Class, Face, Skin, Name, Voice etc)?

I've now got my 320 bots all set up but what I used to do was use the bot class I wanted to add myself (so I configured my player from the configuration window - I use Marginal so all the bot classes appear in that window, where I have ints for them of course) and then copied the relevant info from [DefaultPlayer] in User.ini to the bot list I wanted to add the bot to; then added the Name, Voice and other info. It's obviously a time consuming and possibly tedious process but I did it over a period of time. I did the same for new skins for models I already had the appropriate botclass info on in the bot lists. It has the advantage of not messing with the already set up bots in User.ini.

The result you got doing something similar suggests that there was an error in the information that was input into XBotsLists.ini.

[Glomertam]

OjitroC, I should have said "lines" not "line". But yes, it included the class, face, skin (etc.) lines.

I used to play back in the early 2000's when it was still a new game, and downloaded a ton of modifications, from models and skins, to mods and mutators. Unfortunately, during a move a few years ago, I lost my original install disks, and some CD's where I'd stored some of the stuff I downloaded for the game. However, most of the modifications were on an old hard drive I still have. That being said, as I was trying to fill in some of "gaps" of things I was missing, I discovered that I have some versions of modifications that seemingly aren't available for download. XBots is one of them. All of the recent discussions talk about XBots 055 or XBots 9b. I didn't have 9b (and was happy to have found it), but I still have 056 (and can't find it out on the web anywhere). I'd be happy to post it somewhere for you. Where is a good place to do so?

[OjitroC]

I tried using that suggestion, but unfortunately, it didn't work. What I got during gameplay was a bot named "Bot31" when it tried to access the extended bot list. That bot was also one of the default UT models. Everything from the main bot list (the one in User.ini) was fine, though.

Did you check the log to see if there was any indication of what the problem might be? There's no intrinsic reason why it shouldn't work (by manual editing you should be able to get a total of 320 individual bot classes with xBots9b - I've got somewhere around 90). You could have more than one xBotsList.ini with each set up with unique bot classes and swap them in and out of the System folder - you just wouldn't be able to pick bots from more than one list (I do that with StuffSwapper so I have over 30 different configurations of weapons, etc).

I'd be happy to post it somewhere for you. Where is a good place to do so?

Thanks - perhaps post it here as it is relevant in a way to the topic of the thread.

[Glomertam]

Did you check the log to see if there was any indication of what the problem might be? There's no intrinsic reason why it shouldn't work (by manual editing you should be able to get a total of 320 individual bot classes with xBots9b - I've got somewhere around 90). You could have more than one xBotsList.ini with each set up with unique bot classes and swap them in and out of the System folder - you just wouldn't be able to pick bots from more than one list (I do that with StuffSwapper so I have over 30 different configurations of weapons, etc).

No, unfortunately I didn't. I was a little bleary-eyed when I was fussing with it last, so it's possible that I goofed something up while I was copying lines between the *.ini files. Back in the day, I had done exactly what you suggested by having multiple *.ini files to swap out between customized lists. I had one set up with every model and skin from UT and Unreal (using UsAaR33's Oldskool mod), and another one set up using various custom models and skins.

Thanks - perhaps post it here as it is relevant in a way to the topic of the thread.

OK. I didn't realize earlier that we could attach files. Here you go.

XBots.u

(78.02 KiB) Downloaded 33 times

XBots.int

(207 Bytes) Downloaded 34 times

Manifest.int

(489 Bytes) Downloaded 27 times

xbots.txt

(2.67 KiB) Downloaded 42 times

[OjitroC]

OK. I didn't realize earlier that we could attach files. Here you go.

That's great - thanks

If you want to add more than 32 bots to a DM game, you can edit the [Botpack.DeathMatchPlus] section in the UnrealTournament.ini. Go to InitialBots=16 and set the figure for whatever you want. I set it to 50 in EpicTown and it worked though it was rather laggy. Of course only the first 32 are the bots from User.ini/xbotslists.ini - the rest are default bots without names and they don't appear in the scoreboard. So yes you can have more than 32 bots in a game but only 32 will be the bots you have configured. The other issue is PlayerStarts and here one requires a mutator that adds or uses other NavigationPoints as starts to avoid mass telefragging.

[OjitroC]

One of the suggestions in that post said to use Marginal's configuration window to set up the bots (since it has a much higher bot class capability). Then, copy the bot line from User.ini to the relevant sections of XBotsLists.ini.

Having read that thread, I see that that suggestion came from me - I must have used that method to set up most of the bots and then used the other method I suggest to fill in the remainder and changes skins where I wanted.

I would think that it would not be too difficult to alter the xBots code to increase the limit on bot classes - the 128 limit appears in XBotsConfigUTBotsClient

Code: Select all

function LoadBotClasses()
{
	local String NextBotClass, NextBotDesc;

	NumClasses = 0;
	GetPlayerOwner().GetNextIntDesc("Bot", 0, NextBotClass, NextBotDesc); 
	while ( (NextBotClass != "") && (NumClasses < 128) )
	{
		AvailableClasses[NumClasses] = NextBotClass;
		AvailableDescriptions[NumClasses] = NextBotDesc;
		NumClasses++;
		GetPlayerOwner().GetNextIntDesc("Bot", NumClasses, NextBotClass, NextBotDesc); 
	}
}