The Q2Crew - Half Life page

 

Bot Leader

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.

Manual Addendum

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).

My product's features:

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:

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):

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.

Here's the history line:

What's new in version 1.0

version 0.8

version 0.7

Next Versions of Bot Leader will include:

Quick Start

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.

Downloads

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).

Bot Leader

leader10e.zip Bot Leader version 1.0 40 kb
WSH.exe Windows Scripting Host for W95 575 kb

Supported Bot Managers

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

 

 

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