Contents:
Before we begin:
Get hold of the latest version of the Unreal Tournament Demo (this guide will be pretty useless without it).
The latest version is always preferable (being 348 on the PC), for whichever platform you prefer to use (Linux, Mac or PC).
Initial Settings and Your First Tournament:
For you first game you'll probably want to try is the generous slice of the full Unreal Tournament that Epic have included in the demo.
This is a good place to start as it doesn't require the player to do anything to set the game up, past clicking a couple of buttons to continue.
Although the main taskbar (and all of its sub-menus) can be accessed at anytime while you're running UT it is best to have all your personal/configuration
options set beforehand. These are up to you (that's right; I will not force you to use a particular name :)), and the only thing I would make sure you have
done before starting your first tournament is that you set a key to 'Voice Menu', which you'll need for the team stages in the tournament
(to order your team about with). It is found from the 'Options' button on the taskbar, then 'Preferences' from that menu and finally
the click the 'Controls' tab on the preferences screen to display your control settings. Now, let the Tournament begin.
To start the Tournament process select 'Game' from the taskbar (note the taskbar can be accessed any time from in-game by pressing the 'Escape' key)
and then select 'Start Unreal Tournament'. The first Tournament screen displayed is 'Character Creation' and is for player settings,
so you can configure your name, how you will look in game and the like. Ignore 'Gender' and 'Team' as they are irrelvant (in the demo anyway),
set your name and face as you see fit. By far the most important option on this screen is the 'Skill' setting, clicking on this
(as with the other options in the Tournament menus) will cycle through the relevant options, in this case the skills of the bots you will face;
ranging from Novice up to Godlike. Unless you really need the lower skill settings (much easier bots) starting at around 'Experienced' or
'Skilled' is probably preferable - a challenge for your first game but not to much of a challenge.
With your skill set click on the right red arrow at the bottom of the screen to progress to the next screen (hitting the left arrow will take you right
out of the tournament). The next screen is the screen that shows your progress through the Tournament. As you're starting from scratch it will be on
'Deathmatch'. All you have to do on this screen is to click on the game you want to play, in this case your options are limited to Deathmatch (as you
progress you open up more game modes such as Capture the Flag and Domination), and then click on the right arrow at the bottom of the screen to continue.
The next screen is the screen displayed for whichever game mode you have chosen, which in this case will be 'Deathmatch'. A list of maps is shown, of the ones you have completed
and the screen should be set on the one you need to play next ('Turbine'). You will note that 'DM-Tutorial' has already been completed. This is because although this is the first
level in the Tournament it is not included in the demo, so you can't play it. Once you've read the description of the map (if you want) just click that little right arrow to find out
who you will be playing...
'Enemy Roster' is next up and all this is for is to list, and to display background information on, the bots you will be facing in the next match.
Click the right arrow to proceed into the game.
The map should now load and you will be spawned in observer (or 'noclip if you prefer) mode, with the option to 'Press fire to start'. Take a moment to
familiarise yourself with the controls and then just hit fire and start fighting.
Once the game has ending (and assuming you won) you will then progress onto the next 'Deathmatch' challenge, and once you have completed those it's onto
the other game modes.
Game Modes:
Each of the standard game modes are listed and described below...just so you know which is which:
- Deathmatch - If you don't know what this is then there is no hope. Pure killing, every man/women/child for themselves.
- Team Deathmatch - More commonly referred to as Teamplay, this is like Deathmatch but you only kill the other team.
- Capture the Flag - Go to enemy base, retrieve flag, return to yours and run over your own flag (while carrying enemy flag) to capture this.
Of course the other team is trying to do the same
- Domination - Various control points are in the level, and you have to capture them (walk over them) for your team so your team can score points.
Of course the opposition can do the same and as all control points can be controlled by any team you have to decide whether you want to defend a captured
control point or go get more...
- InstaGib Deathmatch - Like deathmatch, but with only the Enhanced ASMD available as a weapon. One shot - One kill, hence the name.
The bots can be used in all of these games, and the best thing is they understand how to play them.
Custom Games:
Although the Tournament is a good starter, and excellent for introducing you to the game modes in UT it is rather restrictive, and so playing Custom games,
or 'Practice Sessions' as they are called in the game, are better for those who want to play the game (or setup the game anyway) on their own terms.
'Start Practice Session' is the option (selected from the 'Game' button on the Taskbar) that loads the 'Practice Session' screen. This is a screen with various tabs for
different settings for the impending match. The tabs are:
- 'Match' - General settings for the match (such as game mode, starting map and map cycle)
- 'Rules' - Rules for the particular game mode selected (eg Frag and Time limits for a Deathmatch game)
- 'Settings' - Environment (inside the game) settings
- 'Bots' - Settings for the bots you will play in the game
Almost all of these options are self-explanatory, although a few descriptions are given below of those that may not be instantly recongniseable:
- Translocator (Settings Tab) - Determines whether the Translocator device is enabled in the game, the translocator being a personal teleportation device
available to any bot or player.
- Auto Adjust Skill (Bots Tab) - When this is set on the bots will adjust their skills as they kill or are killed by the player, so if you repeatedly
kill a bot its skill will rise. The idea is that over time the skills of the bots will match that of a player (giving a more even contest).
Once you have selected your options just click start and the game will load.
[The 'Configure' button in the 'Bots' menu and what it leads to is covered in the Bot Settings section below]
Bot Settings:
So far this guide hasn't really had that much to do with the Unreal Tournament bots themselves, but from the 'Bots' tab in the 'Start Practice Session' menu
there is the option to select 'Configure'. By clicking this you load the screen that provides a large number individual configuration settings for
all the bots in the game.
To select whichever bot you want to configure (from 1 to 32), just click the little arrows next to the 'Bot' label or click the drop downlist to pick a certain
bot (by number). The first configurable option is the name of the bot. Pretty straight-forward here, just change it to whatever you see fit.
Next up is 'Color', which relates to which team the bot will join if it is selected for a team game. The choices are 'None', 'Red', 'Blue', 'Green' and 'Gold'.
If 'None' is set the bot will not be selected for a team in a team game unless it is needed (eg four teams are specified for a team game and no bots have been set to 'Gold' team so some bots are
automatically put onto the 'Gold' team even if their colour is set to 'None'). If you're used to Quake II you may be more used to teamplay by model (or 'Class as UT calls it), which is not used
in Unreal Tournament, so regardless of what model the bot has it is their colour setting which determines their team.
'Class' is next (although it actually refers to the model used I believe), which is rather pointless in the demo as only 'Male Soldier' can be selected.
Following that is 'Skin', which can be either 'Marine' or 'RawSteel'. Once you have selected the skin the change, if any, will be reflected in the representation of the bot to the right.
After the skin setting comes the 'Face' setting, and the two are related as 'Face' sets the head skin used by the bot. There a number of different faces for both 'Marine' and 'RawSteel', which
can help to distinguish bots (especially in teamplay).
The next setting is 'Skill Adjust', which sets the bots skill against the general skill already set by the player for the bots. Move it to the right to increase it, to the left to decrease it.
This means that while you may have all bots set generally to 'Inhuman' skill you can make fine adjustments to increase the spread of the bot skills. Following that is the redundant 'Voice' option, redundant
because in the demo the only voice that can be selected (used when the bot 'talks' in game) is Male Two.
'Favourite Weapon' is the next option, and this is fairly self-explanatory. Put it on '(no favourite)' for the bot to use the best acknowledged weapon it has (eg Rocket Launcher over Pulse Rifle) or select
a particular weapon that the bot should use over any other weapon as long as it has it.
The next two settings are scrollbars for 'Accuracy' and 'Alertness', allowing you to set whether these should be increased or decreased against the normal value for that skill. Like the 'Skill Adjust' setting this
can add an increased degree of randomness to the game. After that comes 'Camping', a scrollbar that sets how prone the bot is to 'Camp' (stand still in a secluded spot and fire at targets rather than moving to attack them).
By default this is set totally to the left (ie don't camp at all), although even with 'Camping' set at 0 the bot may still camp due to the setting of another option mentioned in a moment.
After 'Camping' comes 'Strafing', which sets the willingness of the bot to strafe (step sideways) while in the game. Like 'Skill Adjust' etc this is (as far as I know) related to the global skill setting,
as at higher skill levels bots will strafe a lot regardless of whether 'Strafing' is set low.
The penultimate setting is 'Combat Style', which gives a number of options of general behaviour traits to select from, to influence how the bot plays.
This is independent of the settings above it. The options are 'Normal', 'Aggressive', 'Beserk',
'Cautious' and 'Avoidant', which should set the general behaviour of the bot in the map (taking into account its skill level).
Finally 'Jumpy Behaviour' can be set on or off, a setting that when set on means the bot will use jumps rather than walking/running to move around the level as a number
of human players like to do. This may have give an increase in the bot's speed (I'm not sure if UT features 'Speed Jumping' or 'Multi-Jumping') and will almost certainly make the bot
harder to hit.
Those are all of the individual bot settings that can be adjusted, there is no save procedure required once you have edited these, they are automatically saved everytime you make a change.
The only downside to all of these options is that to setup a number of bots takes a fair amount of time using the menus. However there is another way to do it,
by editing the actual .ini file that holds information on the bots.
To do this you need to go into the directory where you installed the demo (using whatever file browsing software you want), open the 'System' folder
and find the .ini file named 'User.ini'. If you open this and go down to the section headed '[Botpack.ChallengeBotInfo]' all the information for the 32 bots
is listed, for each section of the bot configuration menu (although it is not all in the same order). By editing this you *should* be able to change the values,
although you will need to find out the various ranges of each of the options (particularly the options that are set by scrollbars, such as 'Alertness') as an unusual or invalid
setting will almost certainly make the bots or whole game unstable. Naturally if you mess something up while you are manually editing this file you are on your own so be careful.
Ordering Bots:
To get the most out of the bots on your team when playing a team game mode (particularly CTF or Domination) you need to give orders to your bots.
Without orders the bots will still play the game, but in a freelancing mode, which could leave your base undefended or your flag free to the opposition.
There are two ways to order bots, either by using the 'Voice Menu' command or by assigning keys to particular orders. Both have their merits, using the
'Voice Menu' is better for individual bots, whereas assigning keys is better for quick orders on the fly to the whole team.
Firstly though, lets look at what we can actually order the bots to do. To access the 'Voice Menu' the relevant 'Voice Menu' key needs to be held down (note held down, not just pressed once)
and then the mouse or similar device can be used to selected whichever menu you want.
The 'Orders' menu is where you order bots from, so click on that and a sub-menu should appear, giving five options, and once you click on any of
those five options a further menu comes up letting you pick who you want the order to go to (all of the bots, or an individual one of your choice).
It's worth remembering that the 'Voice Menu' key needs to be held down during all of this. The five options on the 'Orders' menu are listed and explained below:
- Defend - Orders bot(s) to defend the base [Used in CTF]
- Hold This Position - Orders bot(s) to hold the position you are in. Useful for precision defending of certain areas of a map
[Used in CTF, Domination and CTF]
- Take Their Flag - Orders bot(s) to try and get the enemy flag [Used in CTF]
- Cover Me - Very useful command to get bot(s) to cover you. Regardless of where you go bots will protect you until you tell them otherwise.
[Used in CTF, Domination and Teamplay]
- Freelance - Tells bot(s) to return to freelance play if they had specific orders.
In all of these cases bots should give a visible, and possibly audio (depending on your settings), response indicating they have received their orders.
Bots will also protect you if they are near you and no enemy is around, without an order being given. Some visual (plus audio) message will be displayed to indicate
this.
Map Notes
Below are notes I have made regarding specific bot behaviour on each of the maps, to help you if you want to get more of an idea of their strategy:
DM-Morpheus:
Bots will tend to stick to the upper levels and are adept at getting both the Shield Belt and the Damage Amplifier. Bots who have the lower powered
weapons will often stand on the edges of the lower levels and fire up, meaning easy kills can be racked up by sneaking up on bots.
Unlike on the other DM maps bots don't generally form squads on Morpheus while playing Teamplay, although if they do it is usually inside
one of the lower levels, from which they move out.
DM-Phobos:
The bots almost always stick to the inside of the level and so if you can get outside getting to the 'Big Keg 'O Health' is easy.
However they do like to get the Damage Amplifier and so can be quite dangerous if they do. Inside the level bots generally keep moving, there is hardly any
sniping from the bots unlike on Morpheous. The lift near the secret door (to Shield Belt and Anti-Grav Boots) is a problem for the bots, and can lead to some
interesting results, as bots seem to pause both at the top and bottom of the lift (or face the wrong way and freeze), a flaw to exploit for some easy kills.
Enemy bot teams will form squads on this map, either down at the bottom of the level (near the rocket launcher) or up near the big, button-activated, lift. As
Both of these places mean the team doesn't get confined together so it can be very hard to take them out.
DM-Tempest:
The largest of the deathmatch maps, bots tend to play this level very well, and due to all the weaponry available are very good at it.
Squads do form on this map as bots congregate, although there are always escape routes.
DM-Turbine:
Very tight map which highly-skilled bots excel on. One thing to note about this map is that bots at higher skill levels can easily 'jump' with the Imapct-Hammer
to get to the Damage Amplifier, which is right by the Rocket Launcher. Not a good thing. Bots tend to get caught up around the stairs in the central area (near the water)
which can give you the edge. Also bots tend to get into fights along the wide corridors which provides the opportunity to pick up some quick kills on bots low on health.
Bots do form squads on this map, but they aren't too effective as the map can get very choked in places. They will stick to certain areas of the map though and try and hold them.
CTF-CoretDEMO:
Enemy bots defend very well on this map (invariably better than bots on your own team) and getting the enemy flag can be very difficult. It is best to move in
with at least one bot supporting you (while keeping some behind at base to defend). The enemy never leaves their base unguarded so there will always be at least one bot near their
flag.
The enemy will make continual attacks most of the time, but they are generally by individual bots and offer little problem (even if they get the flag).
Problems arise if they attack en masse or your defence is stretched, and once an enemy bot is halfway back to its base it can be hard to stop.
DOM-SesmarDEMO:
Bots will always stick to the lower areas of this map (where the three control points are), and so the Big Keg 'O Health is always available to the player.
Most activity centres around the central control point and enemy bots have a much better time holding onto this (and most of the time they do). However the control points
on either side (Blue and Red Ankh) are far more easy to capture. Bots can then be posted to defend these and usually prove effective.
Mutators:
One feature of Unreal Tournament that will gain prominence is the inclusion of 'Mutators', mini modifications to the game that tweak/add/remove something small
to produce a slightly changed game (in some cases it can lead to a whole new game mode). InstaGib Deathmatch uses a mutator (the InstaGib mutator), to remove all powerups in levels,
make all weapon shot instant gib and only provide the Enhanced ASMD. Mutators are selected from the 'Mutators' option in the 'Game' tab of the 'Start Practice Session' menu and they can be
combined to produce low gravity InstaGib deathmatch or anything else.
The good thing about mutators from a bot point of view is that they will all work just as well with the bots as they do with humans, so whether you are using the mutators provided with the
demo or have downloaded new ones the bots should be able to play straight away, without any extra settings.
User made mutators are available at a variety of sites (and are relatively simple to write so a lot have appeared), and checking the news of a big Unreal/Unreal Tournament site
(links in the Related Links section below) should yield some results.
Related Links:
Official:
Unreal Technology Site - Info from Epic on Unreal engined games, including UT.
Unreal Tournament Demo Downloads - Download links for the various incarnations of the Unreal Tournament demo
(of course you'll probably already have this ;)).
Known Issues and Bugs - Details of known issues and bugs with UT if you get those sort of problems.
Un-Official:
Sites which cover Unreal/Unreal Tournament.
News on all sorts of UT related stuff, including mutators and mods etc.
PlanetUnreal
Unrealism
UnrealNation
Unreal Universe
UT.co.uk
If you have anymore queries/problems regarding the bots in the Unreal Tournament demo or want to comment on this guide etc just e-mail
cube@botepidemic.com
Cube
