FrogBot written by Frog. Frog's home is http://www.telefragged.com/metro
Review By: cube
Version Number: 0.11b
Rating: 89% (79% if you don't like DM4 or DM6)
High Points: Feel, Movement, Skill, Customiseable Names
Low Points: Supported Maps
The Frogbot, still relatively early in development, is one of the few (maybe even the only) Quake bot left still being worked on.
It is an attempt to create the perfect simulation of a LAN opponent
As soon as you load the Frogbot it becomes apparent that the movement is superb. The bot travels smoothly and with ease, almost gliding up and down stairs and negotiating obstacles.
The bot will move round both of the supported levels quickly and without trouble pick up necessary items or weapons it needs. Actually the bot will take any item on offer if there isn't a target close by.
In combat the bot will still take items (but will still stay focused on the combat) or move out of combat to pick up needed objects (ammo, health etc.). Out of combat the bot navigation seems tuned to improving the bot's situation by collecting objects. In combat
the bot will navigate to give itself the best possible position to kill an opponent. So that means lots of moving about around the target or creating a safe distance between the bot and its target to fire explosives (although this doesn't always happen). The bot has no trouble
following a target round a level and will keep following and firing until a more dangerous opponent gets in its way.
Frogbot uses full client-emulation to the effect that games can feel as though there are human players playing in the game.
It is certainly the most accurate simulation of human players I have seen in a bot. Spawning the bots is relatively easy, with the information on the bots colour, name etc. coming from individual files, whose names are then included in a config file that is exec'd on startup.
The spawning process isn't particularly quick and it can take up to 30 seconds to add 7 individual bots to the game, with Quake pausing each time a bot is spawned. Apart from this the spawning works fine and as long the information in the bots individual files are correct there shouldn't be any errors.
One thing that sets the Frogbot apart from other Quake bots is that each bot can have its own name and use all the Quake extended characters in this. To do a name in a text file, without any outside help, is time consuming but using the Frogbot Name Editor (qnm.telefragged.com) it is a lot easier.
Frogbot has a variety of skills to play with. Skills 0-100 are standard skills, with 100 being the hardest and a challenge to the average player. Above that there are skills 101-200 which are 'cheat' skills with the bot able to utilise various tactics that a human cannot (better aiming etc.).
Skill 200 is excellent for Quake players looking for a competent offline opponent. The bot will play both Deathmatch and Teamplay (each of these having 6 different modes). Both are simple to setup. It also supports a variety of other options. There is 'Match' mode which will apply a countdown before a match begins (good to start before a 1on1 game), QWPhysics and QWAim which
will apply QuakeWorld emulation to Regular Quake for use with the bot, options to use runes and custom CTF sounds and models from the the CTF pak's (although the bot does not support CTF), a grapple option for the human player, 'Lavacheat' which will help the bot to avoid falling into lava (but gives the bot an advantage over the player)
and an option to set the bot's preference between the RL and lightning gun.
Frogbot is not a particularly fast bot and such may not be suitable for slower machines when many bots are loaded. But for the quality in bot you get it seems a fair
trade off.
In version 0.11(b) Frog has also supplied a QuakeWorld port so if you so wish you can play Frogbots in QW either over the internet or, using the Priority (www.telefragged.com/metro) program by Strider, run both the QW server and client off one machine.
This means you can get QW practice against skilled opponents with only one PC! Changing the skill of the bots in QW isn't as simple as in Quake but will not take too much time to get used to.
There are a couple of extra features in Frogbot that don't make an improvement to the bot but are a nice touch. Firstly there is an option to let the Frogbot take over the player, so you will see through a Frogbot's eyes as it plays.
This gives a nice smooth ride and means if you have to leave the PC but don't want to leave the game you can turn on this mode. Also supported is the KasCam mod, which will let you view th game from a third person view. Again this is a nice feature and useful if
you need to get something away from the PC.
The main feature that brings the Frogbot down is the lack of supported maps. Only DM4 and DM6 are supported and if these aren't really your thing then
you could find it disappointing. There is hope though, as pretty soon there should be support for both the ZTNDM3 and Aerowalk maps. The only bug I could find with the bot
was that the bot would occasionally get stuck in the floor on DM4 by the Red Armour, RL and Shells. Apart from that and some possible glitches that could occur (or could not) there seems little wrong (bug wise)
with the bot.
Overall the Frogbot is certainly one of the best Quake bots and gives extremely good simulation of a human opponents.
The lack of maps supported will be a blow to many people but ignoring this there is little that can be said to be bad about the bot.
-cube
