Author Topic: Quake 2 training mod (Read 9938 times)

phil · « **on:** May 02, 2008, 04:00:43 AM »

Yesterday I finally got around to implementing an idea of mine I've been having for a long long time.

Imagine there's a map you aren't very familiar with; you want to improve but the only way is to play against better players. In the heat of the game you have to listen to sounds, keep track of which items you and your opponent have, time weapons, adjust your tactics etc etc. Basically you don't have much "brain power" left to memorize rocket and grenade timings. You have to rely on your experience and "feeling" so that you shoot that rocket exactly 1.5 seconds after you hear the mega pick-up sound.... then you hope.

The best way to practice is to just have the same thing happen over and over again until your reactions are perfect. Then, in a real game, you subconsciously would do the right thing. It's the same with jumps - rarely is there a player who has mastered a jump by solely playing against other people. Managing to perform a perfect jump in-game is the result of long hours of "offline" training, where you did the same jump over and over again until you were confident that you are good enough.

Why not apply the same thing for in-game "situations", things that happen often (statistically speaking), but not often enough in a real game so that you can practice effectively? You'd just record your opponent's route and then let a bot replay it until your stairs-to-mega air rocket is perfect.

I was anxious too see it in action myself, so I made a quick dirty alpha after a few hours of digging in the q2 source. It is merely a proof of concept, because the fake player doesn't make any sounds and the angles are not updated, but it is possible to shoot him in the face and make him die

, although I miss in the video...

Watch it here.

It is really addictive. After coding all night I finally got around to playing with it a little and couldn't let it go for an hour although I was dead tired.

Tell me what you think... LINK-> http://tastyspleen.net/quake/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=8524.0;id=9271

haunted · « **Reply #1 on:** May 02, 2008, 04:53:33 AM »

exactly 1.5 seconds lol..

hm..not sure how good of one that you can make, but the idea is good for sure :>

Theo · « **Reply #2 on:** May 02, 2008, 05:05:09 AM »

It's a brilliant idea, I'll be the first one to download the mod if it is ever done. Please, do it!

phil · « **Reply #3 on:** May 02, 2008, 05:12:12 AM »

It is already done

(watch the video), I just want to fix the more obvious "missing features" before I release it to the public.

Theo · « **Reply #4 on:** May 02, 2008, 05:50:56 AM »

Ah, sorry.

haunted · « **Reply #5 on:** May 02, 2008, 06:08:29 AM »

i had just woken up and saw the 'joined 1 year ago' and thought it said added 1 year ago, thought it was an old movie you were comparing what you're trying to do to.

DWxchzrles · « **Reply #6 on:** May 02, 2008, 08:22:31 AM »

good idea

UUD-40 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 02, 2008, 09:05:26 PM »

Looks cool.

peewee_RotA · « **Reply #8 on:** May 03, 2008, 04:34:27 PM »

Very very good idea. Also from the looks of things, very good job programming it for just a few hours of work.

phil · « **Reply #9 on:** May 03, 2008, 06:36:54 PM »

Thanks for your support

I don't know when exactly I will be able to work on this again (it will be soon though), so I'd like to release the alpha version so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

The bot doesn't make sounds
The direction the bot faces is not updated
The bot is not animated
The bot can only replay your movements, things like firing a weapon do not get recorded
The bot doesn't interact with entities, if you use an elevator while recording it will not react during playback so the bot will apear to fly up
This one is funny, if you kill the bot it will die, but keep replaying your movements, it will literally become a walking/flying corpse

Here are the new commands:

trecord <name> - record a route
tstop - stop recording
tplay <name> - replay a route

I'm using the following convenience script:

alias rec "trecord test; bind alt st" alias st "tstop; bind alt rec" bind alt rec bind ctrl "tplay test"

So you just need to press ALT to start recording, press it again to stop, and press CTRL to replay.

That said I hope you have fun with the mod, I certainly do

Get it here. Unpack the rar in your Quake 2 folder and start the game with +set game tmod.

UPDATE: Please use the R1Q2 client. Nocheat seams to crash, don't know about other clients.

Theo · « **Reply #10 on:** May 04, 2008, 04:22:57 AM »

Can you make the bot non-solid so we can move through him when, for example, racing with him and trying to get better times?

phil · « **Reply #11 on:** May 04, 2008, 04:44:53 AM »

Post all suggestions for the next release in this thread.

[BTF] Reflex · « **Reply #12 on:** May 04, 2008, 06:57:25 PM »

very nice, this has alot of uses

[BTF]Jehar · « **Reply #13 on:** May 04, 2008, 07:44:13 PM »

Wow, major kudos for a creative and well-implemented idea. We'll be sure to allocate some serious TastyCast time (via DJ Peewee

) talking about it.

Slayer :D · « **Reply #14 on:** June 16, 2010, 05:23:50 AM »

Sorry for SERIOUS

-age, but does anybody have it--the link appears broken

.

Author Topic: Quake 2 training mod (Read 9938 times)

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