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Hello everyone! First post here, been following OA for a couple years now I think.

I'm trying to build a CTF map, but when I run it from OA, I can play but I can't seem to add bots to see how they play the map. I have entities of classes team_CTF_bluespawn and team_CTF_bluespawn (both for red as well), info_player_deathmatch, and info_player_start just in case.

I can't seem to find good information on AAS files, which I think might be necessary if they encode waypoints (but shouldn't the bots at least move around randomly without this?).

So any suggestions to get bots to work?

Also, is there a way to make the map start in CTF mode automatically? If this is with the .arena file, can I place it in baseoa/scripts during development (i.e., without creating a .pk3)? Similar question about placement of AAS files.

Thank you very much!

I can answer only to a small part of your question:
- Without an AAS file, you cannot add bots to a map at all. You have to create it.
- I don't know how to create AAS files, but I've heard that the .bsp file is enough (in some way, you can create the .aas file even without the .map file).
- During development, you can test your work-in-progess stuff (maps, models, etc.) without the need to package them into pk3 files (for example, placing a .bsp inside baseoa\maps), but you need to set sv_pure 0 to allow the program to load such files not inside pk3s. When you distribute the map, you have to package it in a pk3, since the standard (recommended) setting is to have sv_pure 1.

About mapping and bots, there are these pages on the wiki.... maybe they contain (or link) something useful for you.
- (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/DeveloperFAQ
- (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Mapping_resources_and_tutorials
- (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Bot_play
- (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Entities-only_editing
- (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Mapping

i add bots with bspc.exe and these settings -optimize -forcesidesvisible -bsp2aas "path\file.map"

team_CTF_bluespawn -> "Blue team respawning position for CTF games. This is where Blue team players respawn after they get fragged."
team_CTF_blueplayer -> "Initial Blue team spawning position for CTF games. This is where players spawn when they join the Blue team (at the start of a game or upon entering a game in progress)."

set gametype in the .arena-file - open up a ctf already in openarena and take a look at how it's setup.

Thanks to both of you, I'll try bspc and packaging to solve this problem.

How do you add waypoints in OA? Is it usually necessary?

AAS stands for Area Awareness System, idTech3 bots use this instead of waypoints, and BSPC creates that for you.

HU: ha meg ráérsz, bővítheted a magyar GTKRadiant wikit (http://gtkradiant.wikispaces.com/).

quake 3 does not have waypoints like for example unreal - but there are lots of things to avoid and some that can help the bots navigate the areas. there are tutorials about this that are quite helpful.

That's pretty convenient. No sense doing something manually when it can be automated. I've seen item_botroam in pul1ctf, will look into it more.


See new signature. :)


Still, thanks for the pointer and the intention behind it.

Well, somebody else have learnt something about that Hungarian line... that there is a Hungarian version of the GTKRadiant wiki! ;D

Ah well, I don't have my comp, but when I get it back, I'll retry being a mapper.

This is good to know! :)
Hope we'll got news soon!

Don't rely on me, actually. Once I finished Onykage's first tutorial about a single room, but nothing more.

I can't even unite two rooms.

I used the tutorials from http://www.leveldk.co.uk/tutindex.htm (they are at the end of the page). They are for an older version of GtkRadiant but they have a good approach without presuming any knowledge you don't have (a common mistake in tutorials). For instance the second tutorial is about joining two rooms the right way.

My first map was also a room with a block in it, and later a curved gate in the middle of nothing... just to try it.

Unfortunately the area awareness system is a lot harder than waypoints because you cannot tell a bot that it can and cannot do. You have to use different areas to try to trick them into not doing what they are supposed to do. Some of the harder jumps can be impossible to tell a bot to do.