Werewolf authors the Spoonbot for Tribes.
celtic88: How did you start out working with AI?
Werewolf: I honestly had absolutely no idea about that stuff back when Dynamix released their "Bot mod" code for Tribes. Based on this information I first began releasing single maps with the standard bots thrown in, which wasn't that satisfactory. I figured that this was my chance for learning without doing something obsolete.
celtic88: What made you decide to write a bot for Tribes, and not another game?
Werewolf: The scripting engine. In April 1999 I still had no VisualC++ or any other C compiler, and coding for Tribes only requires a text editor. Also, I caught myself spending large amounts of time trying to find servers with a <200 ping with my 56k Modem. It was hopeless. I guess i was just too desperate, and the two or three matches that I did play on my modem connection got me hooked immediately.
celtic88: Will there be any more updates to the Spoon Bot, such as bots piloting APC's?
Werewolf: I don't know. It depends on the feedback, and if I personally feel like it. If enough people bug me about stuff like vehicles, deployables etc, I'll probably do it.
celtic88: Looking back at all the time and effort you have put into the Spoon Bot, is there anything you wish you would have done differently?
Werewolf: I wish I had spent more time reading through the other contributors' code. I found out about it when I worked on v0.6a a few weeks ago. It dawned me that I had been working on the wrong spots, and that most of the contributed code worked perfectly while I wasn't understanding most of it. Now I can't understand my motivations back then, I must've thought "Ooohh, that looks complicated! Well, it's probably gonna work if I just paste it in here" ... Also, I didn't spend enough time "synchronizing" the code of the different contributors. One guy was working in one direction, the other one took a different path... and I ended up with 2 clever pieces of code that didn't fit together.
celtic88: What do you think was the most difficult job in the time you spent writing the Spoon Bot?
Werewolf: Not playing Tribes the whole time. I caught myself several times falling
back to actually playing the game with the bots instead of debugging them.
celtic88: Any plans to write a bot for another game?
Werewolf: Most probably. I wrote a bot for Starsiege shortly after I finally bought the game. The AI I'm currently working on is for my game DerangedRaid. And of course I'm just waiting for the next killer game that begs for bots to be added. However, most games do come with bots nowadays, and I think that's a good thing.
celtic88: Now that we are in the 21st century, with the majority of people using cable modems, isdn,etc., do you think bots will still play an important role in the future of multiplayer games?
Werewolf: Yes, for the simple reason that countries like Germany and Austria are
still in the internet-stoneage. At least the major cities in Austria have
cable, but most people in Germany depend on a single provider. ISDN isn't
available everywhere. And the line charges in europe are outrageous.
And be honest: would YOU like to be the total newbie on every server? Bots
are excellent for training. And even though I am not a pro player in
Tribes, it would've cost me a lot of line charges to practice that often
without bots.
And even though I do have cable now, I often add 2 or 3 of them in small
LAN games. Bot's won't die - instead, they will silently take over the
earth. ;-)
celtic88: Do you have any recommendations for people looking who are interested in
bot/AI programming?
Werewolf: Well, just do it. Don't let other people scare you with the phrase "that's
impossible". Be nice to the people who wrote the game you're making the bot
for.
Don't read scientific stuff that you're probably not going to implement anyway.
And visit http://www.botepidemic.com often ;-)
celtic88: Anything else you'd like to add?
Werewolf: Yes, a big THANKS to all the contributors of Spoonbot, especially Wicked69 (Wicked69@playspoon.com), Sam Wilson (Sam@screamingmouse.com), EMO1313 (emo1313@dopplegangers.dynip.com), Savage (savage@technopop.com), Dewy,
[CoD]h0micide (http://www.codx.com), and of course the countless loyal
people on the Spoonbot Forum who help by answering Spoonbot questions!
Finally, thanks to Dynamix for making a truly awesome game. Please let me
betatest Tribes2 ;-))))
