Bot: Frogbot Clan Arena
Author(s):: Asdf
Version: 0.84
Reviewer: Cube
Date: 03/08/99
Clan Arena is a great Quake mod. The Frogbot is a great Quake bot. So what we have here should be an excellent Quake mod, that merges the two successfully, right?
Installation of FBCA is pretty simple (although the sounds can be annoying) and once the game has loaded with the standard configuration file all the user has to do is pick a team
to join and add some bots.
Adding bots is done by using console commands, either using one command that will add in bots to teams depending on the number on each team or using commands that specifically
add bots to a particular team. Unfortunately it doesn't always seem to work correctly, and I often ended up having five bots on one team in a six player game. It is better if the specific team commands are used
but still not totally foolproof, as occasionally (for no apparent reason) bots I specified for the Red team decided to join Blue instead (!).
So adding bots isn't necessarily as easy as it might seem but once the bots are in the game there is no doubt that the quality of the Frogbots is ever-present.
They, as usual, provide an excellent challenge and are very vicious in combat, especially if you're facing more than one at once and when combined with their rocket-jumping skills the bots are a serious force.
Yes I said rocket-jumping, for Asdf has added in rocket-jumping into the Frogbot, so the bot will now (by way of a setting) use rocket-jumping as an alternative means of getting around levels.
It is not yet perfect but is an excellent feature and makes getting away from the bots even harder than before!
Clan Arena integration appears sound and I have played series after series without any bugs or errors (except for the bot team problem as explained above). There are all sorts of options (separate from the plethora of standard Frogbot options)
to tweak the CA game with weapon banning etc available should you want it.
The games tend to last a couple of minutes, and rarely does one team get wiped out within seconds of a round starting. Rounds are always played at a fast tempo, with the bots using their rocket-jumping skills to good
effect to get towards a target. Best of all though the rounds never seem to be overly one-sided, with most being very close indeed and series' sometimes going right down to the wire which is excellent.
There are some more features available, such as an excellent chasecam, and a good set of waypoints for DM3 are included by Asdf which play very well. There are more maps supported (including the aforementioned DM3) than
in the standard Frogbot but it is still a small number.
Apart from the buggy bot adding system FBCA is an excellent mod, and as an FBMOD it is one of the best around. If you can persevere with the quirks of the adding system then you will be greatly
rewarded.
Score: 83%
