Thanks to its fantastic gameplay features, Half
Life is probably the most serious candidate to the multiplayer
throne of Quake2.
Even if it can't reach the same terrific numbers of id's
shooters, there are many bots, and they fight enough hardly too!
So, here there's the Bot Runner version dedicated to Half Life,
that I decided to call Bot Leader.
Regarding player models, there are on the net even more than for
Quake2! You can start your research from Wonswap
and Cold Fusion.
Even if you can't wait, please read at least the Quick Start section.
Being Bot Leader fully
based on the code of Bot Runner, I don't think another manual is
necessary.
So below you can find what's new respect the Bot Runner manual (that's included into leaderXXe.zip).
Moreover, Bot Leader is the only (I think, maybe there are others I don't know) front-end that automatically replaces (if possible; otherwise, it moves models and maps) standard dll with bot's one (and restore it when finished); in this way, you don't have to copy/move maps and models or extract them from .pak files.
Mainly different are, of course, supported bots , that are:
Botman: DM only (also known as Pretty Good Bot, Cinco Bot), only some models are available
Bot Match: DM, this bot is only a Phineas with a .pak file that contains every standard map and model (unuseful, if you use Bot Leader...)
Jumbot: DM, Team DM and Coop (see the bot manual to unterstand how launch it), with or without waypoints
Phineas bot: DM and Team DM
Obviously, if you know any other, please email me!
At the moment, there's no
bot capable to play CTF.
About starting Bot Leader, the instructions are the same; the
program will ask you to update dlls' file (/valve/liblist.gam)
and the maps' one (mapcycle.txt).
Although Bot Leader has been fully tested, precedent experiences
with Bot Runner force me to recommend you: make a copy of this
files!
Moreover, every model takes as its name the directory one;
because of the lack of the skin concept in Half Life, model and
skin can be considered as synonims.
For the same reason, the exclude.lst file (although present) is
no longer used.
Obviously, every directory changed; here's the list:
In Chapter... |
the phrase... |
becomes... |
1-7 | crbot | phineas (jumbot) |
1-7 | /quake2/ | /halflife/ |
2-7 | baseq2/players | valve/models/player |
2-7 | baseq2/maps | valve/maps |
4-7 | /runner | /leader |
6 | "Supermalefemalecyborg" | "??????" |
Obviously chapter 7 is completely unuseful; there's no dmflags setting, so I suggest (you can change them in the /leader/deathflg.cfg and /leader/tmflg.cfg files):
deathmatch: weapons stay, flashlight, footsteps set to 1
teamplay: friendly_fire set to 1
Jumbot: this bot can use or not the so called waypoints (files that contain path, to improve bots' behaviour); so set death.vbs creates a file dmap.lst into /jumbot folder containing only maps that owns these files (they are into /jumbot/wpfiles); being jumbot behaviour very instable without waypoints, if you want to use also the other maps (using the dynamic generation system) you must copy the dmap.lst file from /leader to /jumbot folder manually. This choice is not recommended, because this system is very buggy. If you choose to use waypoints, Bot leader will preserve your bot configuration file, creating and using one named leader.cfg.
If you want to start a dedicated server, open the proper .vbs file, search the lines with wsh.run and change hl.exe into hlds.exe (obvious, I think); moreover, you'll have to put a exec bot.cfg line into the autoexec.cfg file.
What's new in version 1.0
support for Botman (previously known as pretty good bot), Botmatch and Jumbot with waypoints
capable to autobind a key to exec bot.cfg
better support for team dm
version 0.8
support for Pretty Good Bot and partial support for Jumbot (DM, Team DM and Coop)
version 0.7
same features as Bot Runner
supports Phineas, in DM and team DM modes
Next Versions of Bot Leader will include:
support for other bots
support for Jumbot Coop mode
better support for team dm (currently, I'm not able to change the models for the teams)
I prefer to leave this section here, so you don't need to read the whole manual to simply play.
The main difference is the impossibility to start
Half Life directly with a script file setting everything. So, Bot
Leader creates the configuration file, but can't execute it; if
you chose not to bind a key to exec bot.cfg, you'll have to type
it manually into the console every time the level changes to have
the proper settings.
So, I strongly suggest you let Bot Leader set this!
Follow these steps:
You can answer to the first question with a number (and you'll
play deathmatch), or with two number separated by commas(and
you'll play team DM), or with a name of a previously saved
configuration.
In case of team game, Bot Leader will set up as many bots as the
sum of the two teams; once in the game, Half Life will autoassign
bots to the two teams.
The program checks if the previous game was not of the same type
(dm/team) and in this case put you into the multiplayer menu
(follow dialog box instructions).
Otherwise, it starts the game directly.
Remember that there are two methods for building up them (see the manual); if you use the new method
(recommended), the file format is different: instead of
model/skin,model2/skin2; you must write name/model,name/model;
where name is what you'll see in the score tab and model is the
folder name.
Please also remember that the old method is currently unavailable
for Jumbot (sorry, too many files).
Notice: you need to run set death again only when you install new
maps.
Due to the fact that Half Life bots are very buggy, it is
possible that the game freezes the computer. If this appens,
reexecute set death. This should recover any damage.
If not, go into the bot folder and move /maps and /models folders
into halflife/valve directory.
Et voilą. Here's everything you need to start a good
massacre.
To use my front-end, you need only the file leaderXXe.zip (into
it you'll find also the manual in HTML format).
Obviously (there's no mod capable to use bots) there is no cfgpak
file for Bot Leader.
I remind you that you need at least Half Life 10.13 (strongly
recommended) and Windows 98. If you have only Windows 95, you
must download also the WSH, either from the link in this page, or
directly from Microsoft's site.
Moreover, you can download the bot manager you prefer, if it's
supported. You can find the latest version on Bot Epidemic.
Obviously, for every bot/mod, more the symbols, higher the score
(in author's opinions).
![]() |
leader10e.zip | Bot Leader version 1.0 | 40 kb |
![]() |
WSH.exe | Windows Scripting Host for W95 | 575 kb |
The blue link leads you to a local copy of the file, the red is linked to the home page.
![]() |
bm0.80.exe* | Botmatch v 0.80 | 6,84 Mb |
![]() ![]() |
bot8.zip | Botman v 8 | 578 kb |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
jumbt098.zip | Jumbot v 0.98 | 486 kb |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
phineasbot_021.zip | Phineas bot v 0.21 | 266 kb |
* Due to their excessive size, these files aren't available locally, but only as link to the original site (you can find the other links in the dedicated section).
** These extensions requires also the complete original mod
*** At the moment these bot manager can't use additional models