POD-Bot FAQ

# F.A.Q.

(Frequently Asked Questions)

* Last update: 18.8.2001

Why does nobody read the readme.txt or this FAQ ?
I really don't know. Most questions I receive via e-mail are already answered either in the readme or in this FAQ :)

Why is it called "POD-Bot" ?
POD is an abbreviation for "Ping of Death". I called it that way because it was derived from the "High Ping Bastard Bot" Botman is doing. And if youlook at the Bots Ping they always have a Ping of 5 and the very first Generation of Bots did Headshots all the time, so you know why, huh ?
Who is this Botman Guy everbody seems to mention ?
Botman was the very first who implemented a Method to hook every existing Halflife MOD DLL. Since you don't usually
have the original Sources of e.a. Counterstrike, DLL Hooking is the only way to write extensions (Bots) for it. He also was so
kind to put his Sources on his Webpage, so that everybody could see how it is done and was able to do Bot Programming.
Please visit his Website at: http://www.planethalflife.com/botman/ and also try his HPB-Bot which supports several MODs.
Botman is in no way affiliated with POD-Bot or me so if you have any questions concerning POD mail me instead of him.

Who is the POD-Bot Team ?
There isn't any Team. I (Count Floyd) am responsible for all the Bot Coding & Design.
Two friendly people at nuclearbox.com (Auxois and Smok3) are doing all the Web Stuff for me there.
Then there are the pages at botepidemic.com which were done by runab0ut and hosted by ze0. If you've got questions or suggestions about the POD Internet pages please mail them instead of me. Furthermore there are a lot of nice supportive
people like Bluesman (moderator at the forum), TAZ (great waypointer, good moderator),
Bot_Guy (beta-testing & waypointing), Chris (beta-testing), Fairus (did invest some time doing a Community Site) and
Kangaroo (always supportive & helpful, 1st person ever who posted in my forum, will never forget that!) to name just a few.
I know there are a lot more I should mention here, just blame my short-term memory.

Why did you write this Bot ?
When I started coding, there only was Android Bot by DaTa. I really liked Android, but at that time you could only play
DE_DUST with it and I got bored with it. Then I found out that it was based on Botman's Ideas and code and thought I
could do that as well. So instead of waiting for updates, I took my trusty VC++ and did a Bot on my own.
Besides, I never did a lot of AI programming before nor pathfinding and we all have to learn the whole life, haven't we ?
Does this Bot support MODs other than CounterStrike ?
No, this Bot was coded especially for CounterStrike. If you want to play for example TFC with a Bot, you have
to install HPB-Bot by Botman which supports several MODs in one. I don't plan to extend my Bot to others since I'm
only interested in CS. Maybe I will do modificated Versions of it for other MODs, but only if I finished all modes for CS
and I find the time and interest to do it.
Why should I use this Bot and not <insert-your-favourite-bot> ?
Well, because at the moment of writing I think this one is the most playable and human acting Bot for Counterstrike.
Yes, it uses predefined waypoints but show me a Non-Human Opponent in any newer Game. which doesn't
(Unreal & Quake3 for example also use a mixture of waypoints and terrain analyzing) If you don't like it, feel free
to try the others. Even if you do, compare it with the others to have your own judgement.
Will I be able to play CounterStrike on the Internet or on a LAN with the POD-Bot installed?
YES! You can join a network game over the Internet or on a LAN without having to uninstall the Bot. You cannot
spawn bots when connected to an Internet server, but you can spawn bots on a LAN if you are running the server.
If you're hosting a Server you can even spawn Bots in the Internet.

Why do I get "Unknown Command" if I type "addbot" in the Console ?
You must have overwritten the "liblist.gam" File in the cstrike Folder. If this happens for example by installing a
Counterstrike Update the liblist.gam will point to the original Counterstrike DLL and the Bots DLL won't get called.
Search for the Line gamedll "dlls\mp.dll" in liblist.gam and replace it with gamedll "PODBot\podbot.dll" to
re-install it. Another reason could be that you unzipped the Archive into the wrong Folder.
NOTE: You have to unzip it into the Halflife Main Folder NOT the cstrike one !

I downloaded some custom waypoints and POD doesn't seem to find them. What's wrong ?
You unzipped them into the wrong directory or you're using a wpt file which is too old for your current POD version.
If you're using POD 1.2 or older the default folder to unpack the files is the main PODBot Directory.
If you're using V1.4-V1.4x the default folder for wpts is "PODBot/WPTCS10".
Now since POD V2.0 the default waypoint folder is called (Surprise,Surprise!)
"PODBot/WPTDefault".

How do I edit the Config Files you're talking of ?
Just open it with a simple texteditor, for example Windows Notepad will do.

Is it possible to remove the [POD] and the skill in the botnames ?
Yes, there are 2 different methods to get rid of them. The easiest one is to edit your podbot.cfg file located in the podbot
folder. Just change the line 'detailnames on' to 'detailnames off'. The second would be to specify a name when manually
typing addbot.

I can't get the POD-Bot Menu to work, can I bind it to another key ?
I was playing counter-strike, and I hit the minus key several times, shrinking my screen size. I can't get it bigger
again because the +/= key is bound to the POD-Bot Menu.
Certainly. Take a look into the podbot.cfg and edit the line
'bind "=" "podbotmenu"' to any key you like.

My bots fly and seems to have the legs spread in the air, is it a bug in POD-Bot ?
LOL! No, it's not. Make sure you always have the latest HL Update installed.
For example CS 1.0 needs at least the HL Update 1.1.0.4 and CS 1.1 won't work properly if you haven't got
the 1.1.0.6 Update. If you're sure you've installed the latest patch and you're still experiencing this
problem, also make sure that you didn't install custom player models.

Why do the Bots get stuck in each other or in the map ?
First and foremost the Bots do navigate the map by the use of waypoints. These waypoints are somehow like
dropped 'beacons' which help the Bots to orientate themselves. If the waypointer did a bad job when placing them,
it will result in a crappy movement. So make sure your waypoints files are new & of good quality to have a good
judgement about the Bots movement. If you're not satisfied with the current waypoints you can edit them yourself.
Just read the 'waypointshowtodo.html' in your main podbot folder.
Do Admin Mod and POD-Bot work together ?
Yes. I heard there might be problems with newer versions of Admin-MOD but I know for sure that running POD with older
versions did work without flaws. If you still can't get it to work please mail Alfred, the Author of Admin MOD
instead of me.

Can I use different Bots with CounterStrike ?
Not at the same time but you can easily switch between them by changing the gamedll in 'liblist.gam'. If you don't have a
clue what I'm talking about use a BotLauncher which does it for you e.g. Multi-Bot Launcher.
When will you be releasing the next version of the POD Bot?
If I believe there are enough Features added, so that a new Release is satisfying enough
(usually a month or two is enough to add some funky things, but development cycles are slowing down).
Please don't keep pushing me in e-mails, I will delete them... !

When are you going to provide <insert_your_favorite_feature_here> into the POD Bot?
I'm adding features to the Bot, which I am most interested in. Over the time I want to have all Game Goals and
useful stuff implemented. Just be patient and wait for the next release !

Does POD-Bot run on Linux ?
No, not yet. There needs to be a separate version especially compiled & modified for the Linux OS for which I sadly
didn't have time to do so yet.
Will there ever be a Linux Version of POD ?
Yes. However since I'm promising this for quite some time now, I won't tell dates anymore. Just wait and see...

How do I write my own Bot ? What do I need for this ?
First, you need a good understanding of C/C++. It would help a lot if you did a MOD before or read the Halflife SDK.
A good place to start writing a Halflife Bot is Botmans Webpage (see the URL in the 2nd Question).
Before you ask: No, there isn't any Webpage or Source I know of, which especially has Sources on CounterStrike Bots
or how to code one.
UPDATE:
Elite, Coder of the CS Teambot gives away his sources here:
http://www.planethalflife.com/teambot/
CS-Bot & its sources by Eric Bieschke can be found here:
http://gamershomepage.com/csbot/

Would you help me in developing my own Bot ?
It depends. If I see you really know programming by heart, then I will surely exchange ideas. If you just want to
change minor things in the original HPB Bot, then NO!
Are your Sources available for download ? Will you open your sources to the public in future times ?
I don't feel like releasing my sources now, because of it's poorly commented, weak style and I think a lot of people
would only try to rip off parts from it. I will surely release it when I feel it's in a finished state and I'm not interested in
adding things to it. Until then please be patient and use for example Botman's templates to do your own Bot.

When will my favourite map be supported ?
I currently only did waypoints for my favourite maps and all of them are official standard maps. Since V1.1 you're free
to use the built-in waypoint editor to support your favourite maps.
Where can I get this Waypoint Editor to make my own waypoints ? Please tell me the URL !
You already have it if you installed POD. Type 'waypoint on' to check it out if you don't believe me ;)
If you're serious about waypointing, then please read 'waypointshowto.html'
What are your favourite CounterStrike Bots besides your own ?
At the time of writing, there are already a few others I like to play with. I admire "Android" by DaTa for using
wayzones to achieve a great movement. I played a lot of time with NNBot by Daniel Ditlew which uses Neural
Networks to train the Bots (a thing which I fear I would have never managed to implement). And finally there is
Realbot by Stefan Hendriks which has a big community since it doesn't use waypoints of any sort and navigates
from one entity to another. Ah yes, and then there's Rambot by Paulo-La-Fritte which was released very early
and had some advanced features, but it has been a bit quiet in development these days. All of these have their own
"look and feel" and make good Bots for playing. Not to mention SwatBot, BobaBot, Knifebot (I certainly missed some)
there are numerous other CS Bots if you don't like these. If you ask me again, at the moment I play with NNBot most
of the time and can't wait for a new version of HPB-Bot to be released, which shocks me with great new
features everytime...
Would you like me to send some suggestions to you ?
Please...no...don't ! I would prefer if you would use the Forum for that (also for reporting Bugs!) since I get a ton
of e-mails every day and I can't keep up with answering all of them. I visit the Forum on a regular basis and there might
be some other guys who already posted that suggestion/bug.
Can I help you in some way (betatesting/hosting/gfx) ?
No, thank you. A Bot is best coded by a single person, I'm already hosted by some friendly people and the best
beta-tester is still me. If you want to help you could review waypoints for POD or you could do some additional Botchat
Files in your language. There's nothing else I could think of.
Why does your Bot use waypoints ? I want to play some unsupported maps without doing waypoint files.
I knew you would ask. Simply because I don't believe in a Bot who is doing great without any kind of navigational help.
Show me only one First Person Shooter where the Computer AI doesn't use either waypoints, wayzones or pre-defined
areas. I'm pretty sure you won't find any. The reason for this again is simple. It would just take too much CPU Power to
realtime calculate all Geometry inside a map. Imagine a Bot either shooting some dozens of TraceLines through the part
of the map he's seeing or sorting all entity coordinates he encounters. Doesn't matter what he actually does, it's just way
too slow for the current state of CPU technology. You would end up with a Bot which is either pretty good/humanlike at movement but stupid as hell, vice versa or both. Since my computer is a slow PII-300 I can't even be bothered to try...
I don't tell this to discourage Bot authors attempting this. Just prove me wrong and keep trying !

I've downloaded some custom waypoints. Where do I put them ? I always get a message like 'No Waypoints for this Map' !
If you didn't change the folder for waypoints with the 'wptfolder' command, the default directory to install waypoints is 'cstrike/podbot/wptdefault'.

I'm unable to do good waypoints for POD. Also I'm unsure about several explanations in your
waypointshowtodo.html. What can I do ? Should I e-mail you my questions or should I send you my buggy
waypoint file ?
No ! For heavens sake don't do that ! If you don't know how to waypoint or have some questions about it, please visit
the waypoint forum at nuclearbox. There are a lot of experienced people willing to help you and posting your questions
to the forum might help other newbies, too.
I did Waypoints for a map which isn't officially supported by POD-Bot yet. May I send it to you to include it
with later versions ?
I don't have an overview of already released waypoint files by other people than me. Best is to send them to TAZ or
Auxois, who try to collect and maintain all waypoints.
podbot@nuclearbox.com
auxois@nuclearbox.com
Where can I download additional waypoints for custom maps ?
On the POD Download Page you can download more than 300 additional Waypoint Files made by other Users
just for you. I don't know the quality of these waypoints though, so please direct all complains to the original authors.
URL: http://www.nuclearbox.com/podbot/downloads.shtml
Why aren't there any waypoint packs to download ?
Just because I don't know which custom waypoints are good enough to collect together in a pack and I'm too lazy
to review them all (like everybody else it seems)..
How do I play alone in my team against a team of Bots ?
It's easily done by using the in-build User Menu. Press the key for displaying the Menu (defaults to the "=" key). Then
select "Fill Server with Bots" and after that choose the team you want the Bots to be.

I did a translation of the botchat.txt into my own language. Do you want me to send it to you ?
If it's a 100% translation of the original text, it's not already included, it's a widely spread language (no local dialects
please!) and you made sure it's working with POD then yes, I'd be glad to receive it.
Will POD run on a dedicated Server ?
Yes, the most important commands are also supported when starting a dedicated Server. Most people think that
POD doesn't support it because they didn't get the big difference between the normal console commands and the
ones for DS. When running a DS you need to have the word "bot" before the actual command. For example to add a
Bot in non DS Mode you just type "addbot". When running a DS you need to type "bot addbot". Please take a look into
the readme.html for a summary of all DS commands.

I did write you a long e-mail and you didn't answer me back !
Please be patient ! I really try to answer everyone but I currently have problems keeping up with all the mails I got.
Also, if you're writing from gmx.net I'm unable to reply, because they seem to block most mails coming from yahoo.
If one week has passed without any answer then I must have missed your mail or it just got lost on its way. Also I
usually reply much faster in the forum...
If you have questions not answered in this FAQ you can visit the Forum:
http://www.nuclearbox.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=15
If you think you can't live without e-mailing me try this one -> podbot@yahoo.com

(please don't mail me suggestions or your personal wishlist, use the Forum instead !
AND DON'T ASK ME FOR RELEASE DATES OF FUTURE VERSIONS, SUCH E-MAILS WILL BE
DELETED AT ONCE!

There's even a POD-Bot IRC Channel now on irc.gamesnet.net, Port 6667.
Sometimes I can be found chatting in the #podbot channel too.