Bots are computer-controlled players that can be used for filling in vacant slots in servers or in offline play to kill some time, mess around with the game, or just practice some tactics.

Overview

Bots in OpenArena are manipulated from four files for each bot: [botname]_c.c, [botname]_i.c, [botname]_t.c and [botname]_w.c.

• [botname]_c.c is the personality file. It defines how the bot behaves in the game on its own and while holding certain weapons.
• [botname]_i.c and [botname]_w.c are weight files for items and weapons respectively, primarily for weapon choice.
• [botname]_t.c is the file that stores the chatlines for the bots.

Trivia

• Up to OpenArena 0.8.5, bot files desigend for Q3A were not compatible with OA (you may find many errors in console and strange behaviors like them use only the machinegun). If you want to use such bots with OA 0.8.5, you can apply a patch that restores almost complete compatibility (only few "chat" lines still have problems): please see FAQ#How can I use maps, models, mods made for Quake 3 Arena?, in particular FAQ#Models and bots designed for Quake 3. OpenArena 0.8.8 already includes that patch, so you don't have to manually install it.
• There aren't separate bot entries for the Missionpack items, not even in the game OA is derived from. This is to prevent both demo and network compatibility issues. Item weights for the Prox Launcher, Nailgun and Chaingun are based on the values for the Grenade Launcher, the Shotgun and the Plasma Gun.
• There are fixed item weight values for Double Domination's neutral (1000) and team-taken control points (700) as well as the item_botroam entity (1).
• Due to an error in the code, calculations for the holdables are based on whether or not the bot has the Personal Teleporter.

External links and references

• Q3A Bot commands on Quake3World.com
• Q3A Bot commands on Bagpipes.net (internet archive) - (from the official Q3A help)
• The Quake III Arena Bot (thesis by Jean Paul van Waveren, aka Mr Elusive): detailed guide about how the Q3A bots work. Can be useful for bot and map development.
  • The Quake III Arena Bot alternate location (internet archive)
  • Alternate location.
• Q3abotedit.zip (internet archive) - Informations about editing the Q3 bots files, official from iD Software.
• botstudio-v0-98b, a gui tool to help creating quake3arena bot files.

See also

• Bot play - Instructions for optimizing bots for creators' maps.
• Characters
• Manual/Multiplayer/Advanced#Commands - Mentions some bot-related commands, such as addbot, bot_minplayers, g_spksill.