Advanced Bot-fight

[18Wheeler]

As you know, I have own a Human vs Bots server. I use standart bots. When I was examining the source code, I found out that a bot can chase a player. As I see, now he chooses randomly who to chase. And then I got an idea! Just imagine: you type "=>Robot001: chase (playername)" and he does his work. But I really don't know how to make it real. Please help me if you can

[Strakowski]

And then I got an idea! Just imagine: you type "=>Robot001: chase (playername)" and he does his work. But I really don't know how to make it real. Please help me if you can

I'm sorry, I'm not really clear on what you want to do. Is your intention to make it so bots can be reprogrammed by users during a game? Basically, who is typing "=>Robot001: chase (playername)" and where are they typing it?

[18Wheeler]

Imagine:
You are a user playing on the server. You type into the chat box:"=>Robot001: chase (playername)". And then the bot hunts (playername).

[JeffM]

you'd have to modify the client to do that. It isn't really a plug-in thing.

[blast]

Also, if you plan to continue running 7 bots on a server, you need to modify the server to not report them to the list.

http://my.bzflag.org/w/List_Server_Usage_Policy

[18Wheeler]

I see. Now I understand about the rules. It seems to be hard for me to change the server source code. Please do not ban me. Can I run only 3 bots in current configuration?

[JeffM]

When running bots always talk to the real owner of the server, they will let you know how many you can run. Many owners do not want bots at all.

[18Wheeler]

I'm the owner of my server but as Blast said I'm breaking some rules while running bots. And my queston is: how many bots can I run on my own public server not to break list server rules?

[JeffM]

in 2.0.x bots get reported as players to the list server. so some people use bots to get themselves to the top of the list server. There is no hard and fast "number" of bots that is acceptable, just the use of bots to get to the top of the list is generally looked down upon. It is easy to mod the server to not report the bots. Then you can do whatever you want.

Edit: It actualy looks like I made that change back in 2007 to the 2.0.x line, so if you are using a recently built server (2.0.13) you should be fine.

[18Wheeler]

I'm using the latest stable release of Bzfs for Ubuntu Server Karmic Koala, but Blast reported that I'm breaking some rules. I'm a system administrator, not a programmer, so it's hard for me to make that changes to the code. Please, help me to make them, because I really want to run bots with no breaking of thr rules

[blast]

I'll check to see if that functionality works as intended. What specific version of the bzflag-server package do you have? Is it 2.0.13.20080902-1build1?

[blast]

Okay, it does seem like that version I listed above does have the code to not advertise the bots, so assuming that is the version you are running, I probably was just mistaken when I was looking at the server list player counts. You should be fine in that case.