MBF - Bots question.

[BloodAngel]

I've downloaded the MBF Marines best friend mod and source code for it but am having problems getting it to work for Doom 2. If anyone could walk me through on how to get it to work that would be great.

Also, is it possible to make a friendly bot that doesnt "strafe"?
Otherwords it behaves more like a monster...
How do you map the paths the bot takes through a level?

Currently I'm very hard at work on a DOOM TC, this is the first problem I've run into. Though my TC is coming along good so far, without friendly bots it won't be complete.

[Quasar]

MBF doesn't have "bots." It has a friendly AI variant of monster that looks for enemies instead of players, and follows the player when not fighting an enemy. They also do other things such as help each other when their HP gets low.

This is nothing like the type of bots you'll find in zdoom or skulltag. They cannot follow paths more than any other thing, they don't pick up items meant for the player, and they're not awarded frags when in deathmatch mode.

Also MBF isn't a "mod" that you can "use" with DOOM 2. It's a separate source port. You use mbf.exe instead of doom2.exe. If you want it to run DOOM II, you use the "-iwad doom2.wad" parameter on the command line.

[BloodAngel]

Thank you for clearing that up.
Ive tried running the MBF.exe even in dos, and I still cannot get it to work. Soon as I run the program, it exits and closes the window.

Using either Edge or Zdoom, how could I reprogram a Monsters AI to not attack the player?

[TheDarkArchon]

EDGE: Add this line to the actor in THINGS.DDF

SIDE=1;

ZDoom: Add the +FRIENDLY flag to the actor. (REQUIRES ZDOOM 2.0.90+)

Tada!!

[BloodAngel]

This is what I got.
[ZOMBIEMAN:3004]
SPAWNHEALTH=20;
REACTION_TIME=0.23;
SIDE=1;
RADIUS=20;
HEIGHT=56;
SPEED=8;
MASS=100;
PAINCHANCE=78%;
SPECIAL=COUNT_AS_KILL,SOLID,CLIMBABLE,SHOOTABLE,DISLOYAL,ATTACK_HURTS;
MINATTACK_CHANCE=22%;
CASTORDER=2;
CAST_TITLE=ZombiemanName;
BLOOD=BLOOD;
RESPAWN_EFFECT=RESPAWN_FLASH;
ACTIVE_SOUND=POSACT;
DEATH_SOUND="PODTH?";
PAIN_SOUND=POPAIN;
SIGHTING_SOUND="POSIT?";
OVERKILL_SOUND="SLOP";
DROPITEM=CLIP;
RANGE_ATTACK=FORMER_HUMAN_PISTOL;

It looks right to me, but for some reason they Zombieman is still attacking the player, and not attacking enemies?

[TheDarkArchon]

Oh yeah, I forgot that you need to replace LOOKOUT with SUPPORT_LOOKOUT in the IDLE states.

[BloodAngel]

Okay, now at least there only attacking me now if I shoot them.
Let me try to explain what Im trying to acomplish.

I want to have marines which follow you, and will shoot at any nearby enemies which they see. I want them to not take damage from any weapon you accidently hit them with, and stay close to you throughout the level at a reasonible distance.

Can this be done? If so, how? Thanx.

-Bob

[TheDarkArchon]

The "no damage" thing nor the continous following can't be done in EGDE yet. However, using the ULTRA_LOYAL flag, they won't hate you for shooting them.

[BloodAngel]

Thanks again for answering my questions. :-)
I was really hoping to do my TC in edge, but it looks like I'll have to use Zdoom now.

Could you give me an example of how to, or what a Things.Dff script for a frienly marine which follows you would look like in Zdoom? Ive only used Zdoom once before, how much similar is it to Edge?

[TheDarkArchon]

A sample marine

ACTOR PlasmaRifleMarine 30006 
{
	Health 100
	Radius 16
	Height 56
	Speed 8
	PainChance 255
	SeeSound "marine/sight"
	ActiveSound "marine/active"
	DeathSound "marine/death"
	PainSound "marine/pain"
	TRANSLATION 0
	MONSTER
	+FLOORCLIP
        +FRIENDLY
	Obituary "%o felt the energy of a plasma rifle marine"
	DropItem PlasmaRifle
	DropItem Cell 196 20
	DropItem Cell 64 20
	States
	{
	Spawn:
	  GPOS AB 10 A_Look
	  Loop
	See:
	  GPOS AAAABBBBCCCCDDDD 1 A_Chase
	  Loop
	Missile:
        GPOS E 8 A_FaceTarget
	  GPOP A 2 A_CustomMissile ("PlasmaBall", 32, 0, 0)
	  GPOS E 1 A_FaceTarget
	  GPOS E 0 A_Jump(80, 2)
	  GPOS E 0 A_CPosRefire
	  Goto Missile+1
	  GPOS E 0
	  Goto See
	Pain:
        GPOS G 4
	  GPOS G 4 A_Pain
	  Goto See
	Death:
        GPOS H 10
	  GPOS I 10 A_Scream
	  GPOS J 10 A_Fall
	  GPOS KLM 10
	  GPOS M -1
	  Stop
	XDeath:
        GPOS O 5
	  GPOS P 5 A_XScream
	  GPOS Q 5 A_Fall
	  GPOS RSTUV 5
	  GPOS W -1
	  Stop
	}
}

[BloodAngel]

I downloaded Zdoom, now how do I edit the Things.dff?
When I load up the Zdoom wad in XWE, no dehacked things table shows up. Ive also tried loading up the .CFG files it came with in Whacked, which for some reason now is giving me a strange error...

Also gave the Enternity engine a shot, because it says it supports MBF. When I try to load up the wad it says it cannot load the wad. Still having problems, any suggestions?

[BloodAngel]

I found the reason why Ive been having so many problems.
Ive been saving my maps in Zdoom Doom = Doom format instead of Doom = Hexen format. I now have the friendly soldiers that I wanted, they still dont however attack enemies on site. Is there a way to reprogram that?

[TheDarkArchon]

Zdoom uses a system called DECORATE. Go here to learn more about it.

For mapping, it is generally better to use the Hexen map format since it allows for arguments on line types, allows things to execute action speicals and allows the use of ACS.

However, ZDoom's frinedly AI has a major bug if they hit you: They will start pasting the nearest wall. Likewise, harming yourself will make them attack you before pasting the nearest wall.