Overview
The Parabot is an artificial player for Half-Life Deathmatch, Teamplay, Holy Wars and Deathmatch Classic (DMC).
It uses goal-based AI, i.e. after analyzing its current situation it choses appropriate goals that it tries to achive,
resulting in a more convincing behaviour than rule-based "if...then"-systems. The situational awareness is created
by reactions to different perceptions, be they visual, acoustic or tactile.
For getting from one place to another, the Parabot uses a dynamical navigation system that lets it chose its paths
according to the current needs, e.g. reach its target as fast as possible, avoiding enemy contact or just take the
most reliable route. The information used for the complete navigation is collected at real-time ingame, i.e. the
Parabot does not need any kind of pre-edited waypoint-files.
It learns new maps just by playing them against human opponents, enabling you to play any map that you want to
without having to care if the corresponding route-files are available or not. The ability to intentionally use moving
platforms and complicated button-door-combinations is unique amongst Half-Life bots and enables the bot to reach
every location it wants to.
There are a number of parameters that you can configure to customize the bots, including aiming-capabilities,
perception and fighting-style. Alltogether, these features should make the Parabot a challenging opponent
for all kinds of players.
New in version 0.7
New version and again a new Mod to support: This time it is DMC, a Quake conversion for Half-Life.
Of course the bots know what to do with a quad-damage and they won't see you that easily if you are
wearing the invisibility ring of shadows...
In order to play all DMC maps convincingly, the navigation
system has been improved to enable the bots to use even more platforms, hidden doors with buttons
that you have to shoot at and the all-present teleporters. The roaming mode has been improved as
well, bots will be collecting items even in the first minutes of a new map where no waypoints have been
learned yet and they shouldn't get stuck anymore now.
A novel feature for Half-Life bots is the chat-and-response system in the new version: Not only that bots
send messages in certain situations, they will also reply to things you say and start conversations amongst
each other. You are able to customize that system if you wish, adding as many new topics and replies as
you like.
Apart from adding new features I spent a lot of time on debugging and noticed that many things didn't work
as I originally planned them. These issues have now been resolved and you should be able to enjoy the bots
even more with this release...
And where's the bad news? Oh yeah, they are pressing the airstrike button in crossfire now - run for your lifes!
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