Zeus Bot written by Jonathan E. Wright aka Nelno the Amoeba
Review By: Ze0
Version Number: 2.05 (final)
Rating: 81%
High Points: Dynamic Level Learning, Combat Tactics
Low Points: The bot camps.
This is yet another Classic Quake bot project which has been abandoned, infact the only Classic Quake bot left in development is the Frogbot, but even though this bot is no longer in development it definitely doesn't mean that it is a horrible bot.
Being a bot author/AI Programmer myself I know how tough writing a bot can be, but Nelno seems to have avoided all the stressful parts of writing a bot to bring the Quake Community a pretty damn good bot..! I tested the bot on a Pentium II, 266MMX, Software Rendering, 64MB RAM with 1 bot on (DM6) and it peformed reasonably well.
The bots map out the level which they are playing on as they go, they have the ability to use the paths which they have already created or create new ones. That is pretty normal as most bots use (nodes/dynamic level learning) to navigate around the level.
There were rockets coming left right and center, I was jumping all over the place avoiding them, waiting till the bot ran out of juice or ammo for that matter, once he did run out of ammo I started bolting for the nailgun, running at full pace I turn around to see no-one there, this is what really amazed me, I round a corner and then another, only to come face to face with him and 5 more rockets in his rocket launcher..! This bot is definitely smart.
This is a part of the bot I found quite irritating, the bot kept camping behind that teleporter thing, it would hide in there and I would go check it out to see if anyone was hiding and BLAM! I'm dead, this was really annoying. The bot rarely misses when your in a rocket fest out in some wide area'd space, but this was ridiculous, I began scared to go through the teleporter! That was the only major downside of the bot.
Another great thing about the bot is that he avoided falling off ledges, that is of course unless he was about to jump on my head and blow me to smitherines and that the skill level actually makes a huge difference, Skill 0 would have the bot falling off ledges and getting hit by rockets while Skill 3 would have the bot basically killing me. It avoids stationary grenades too!
This is a pretty big issue for all those hardcore (nobody can kill me) type players, the bot is an excellent bot and all, but I think it may just be a little too easy for determine quakers, its great for beginners and all but just a little bit too easy for the "Thresh" type players in all of us.
Overall the bot peformed extremely well. I was very pleased with its outstanding peformance..
-Ze0
