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Q3Offline Bots Page

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Bots: Q3Offline maintains three separate lists of bots:

Use the Bots combo box to select which lists of bots you want to edit.

Bots list box: The list box contains all the bots you can play against, with their name and skill. Only the bots that are checked will be used to configure the match.

The other columns in the list box are:

If no bots are shown in the bot list this is probably because the game you are calling from Q3Offline does not support bots. Currently (January 2002) this is true of both "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and "Medal of Honor Allied Assault". Without bot support in the game itself (or in a add on mod) there is no way for Q3Offline to "magically" add bots to the game.

The rows in the bots list box can be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the appropriate column header.

The width of the columns in the list box can be changed by dragging the column dividers.

The order of the columns in the list box can be changed by dragging the column header.

You can remove or add a column by right clicking on the column header and selecting the column name.

Each time you run Q3Offline, the previous sort order and column widths are restored.

Above the Bots list box is a toolbar of commands(you can see the same command by right clicking on the list box):

Add(Ctrl+A). Use the Add button to import bots from one or more *.pk3, *.bot, or bots.txt files. You can select multiple file names in the file dialog which pops up.

Please note that some third party models have not been configured so that you can play against them as a bot. In order to play against the bot in a game, the bot pk3 files must contain the necessary bot ai (artificial intelligence) files. You can check this as follows:

  1. Start a game in Quake III Arena.
  2. Press Esc.
  3. On the menu that pops up, click ADD BOTS.
  4. Scroll through the list of bots; if the new bot is in the list, you can use Q3Offline to set up a game using the bot.

Many of the Quake web sites have more information about using bots in Quake III Arena, e.g., PlanetQuake. You can also download the editing documents from id's FTP server.

Edit (Ctrl+E). Use the Edit button to edit the currently selected bot in the list.

Delete (Ctrl+D): Use the Delete button to delete the currently selected bot in the list box.

Move up (Ctrl+Up): Use the Move up button to move the currently selected bot one line up in the list box.

Move down (Ctrl+Down): Use the Move down button to move the currently selected bot one line down in the list box.

Select all: Use the Select all button to check all the bots.

Deselect all: Use the Deselect all button to uncheck all the bots.

Default: Use the Default button to reset the list of bots back to the default list preset in Q3Offline. 

Import all: Imports all bots from the game folder. Only bots which are defined in bot files will be imported.

A bot file can either be in a pak file, or can be in the scripts directory (e.g., baseq3\scripts). The bot file name may be either bots.txt (which contains definitions for more than one bot) or bot.arena, where bot is the name of the bot.

Exclude: This brings up the Exclude dialog, where you can specify bots that you never want Q3Offline to import.

Random bot skill (minimum and maximum): If the skill setting for a bot is Random, then Q3Offline will randomly assign a skill to the bot, between the minimum and maximum random skill values.

See Bot Skill Rules for a full explanation of how Q3Offline calculates bot skills.

Randomly set bot skill: If ticked, then Q3Offline will randomly assign a skill to all bots, using the Random bot skill minimum and maximum. Checking Randomly set bot skill overrides the skill setting for individual bots.

Map specific bots: If ticked, then a new set of bots is generated for each map, when the map changes. Note that this option applies across all bot teams, e.g., if you set it when the red bots are displayed, it will also affect the blue bots. 

See Bot Number Rules for an explanation of how Q3Offline calculates how many bots you will play against.

Arena bot models: If ticked, then the bots specified in the arena file for each map are used. These will be the same bots as when you play a single player game within Quake III Arena. The bots you select within Q3Offline will be ignored, unless there is no arena file for a map, or there is one but it does not specify any bots. In both cases your bot selections in Q3Offline will be used.

Generally arena files include bots for Free for all, Team deathmatch, and Tournament, but not CTF. Also the arena file for Quake III Team Arena does not specify bots for any of the Team Arena maps. The arena file for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Forces does specify bots (but not for CTF), and these will be used by Q3Offline, assuming Arena bots is ticked.

When you tick Arena bot models, then Arena bot numbers will be automatically ticked for you. This means that the number of bots (as well as the bot model) that is used will also be set from the arena file. If you want to set the number of bots yourself, then untick Arena bot numbers, and use the Number of bots (minimum and maximum).

The skill setting for arena bots is set as per normal, on the Bots page.

The Arena bots setting was introduced in Q3Offline version 01.04.10.00, and the setting will have no effect for documents created with an earlier version, unless you re-import the relevant maps using the Maps page.

See Bot Number Rules for a full explanation of how Q3Offline calculates how many bots you will play against.

Arena bot numbers: If ticked, then the number of bots you will play against is determined by the arena file for each map. By ticking Arena bot numbers and unticking Arena bot models, Q3Offline will use the bot models you select in the Bots list box, not the bot models in the arena file. This allows you to play against your own bot selection, but use the arena file to determine how many of your selected bots there will be on a particular map.

See Bot Number Rules for a full explanation of how Q3Offline calculates how many bots you will play against.

Number of bots (minimum and maximum): Set the total number of bots (for Free for all and Tournament games) or the number of bots on the selected team (for Team Deathmatch and Capture the flag games). 

See Bot Number Rules for a full explanation of how Q3Offline calculates how many bots you will play against.

No chat: If ticked, bots do not chat.

Rocket jump: If ticked, bots will rocket jump.

Jump: If ticked, bots will jump.

Bot previews: The preview file for a bot can either reside in the pak file for the bot, or in the appropriate directory below the main game directory (e.g., baseq3).

Taunt: Hit the Taunt button to hear the bot being rude to you!

Bot Editor

Add: Create a new bot, using the Edit Bot dialog.

Borganizer: Invokes the Borganizer dialog, from where you can run Bob Frederick's Borganizer utility to generate bots from all your existing models and skins.