The bot spells come from the database. They are currently using the lists used by the npc's but I am making new lists just for the bots.

The bot code has a simulated cleric heal rotation. I have used it successfully on the Vulak`Aerr encounter in North ToV and other raid targets. I have not released this code yet but it is available to be tested on the server The Realm along with the new bot spells I have completed.

There is a thread just for Bot Code Releases right next to this thread in the Custom Code forum.

Thanks for the info, like I said, I'm pretty new at this. I guess I'll hop on the Realm and play around a bit.
Do you want me to put the binaries in the code release thread? Yeah, i saw it, but as it said, that's for code releases, and these are just some binaries.

Question 1: is it just me, or do the bots seem to miss alot? It seems to take them a LONG time just to take down a mob several levels lower. I know their level is based off of the character that spawns them, but being npcs, I assume weapon skill doesn't really figure into the equation....

Question 2: is there anything I can do to help out? Any particular part of the code you'd like me to look at?

I'm excited about Congdar's spell database improvements (btw, with that tip you gave me, I managed to track down the bot's spell lists, gonna play with 'em tonight), and even more interested in gregg's added bot commands.

How about getting bard's to twist songs? I realize that'd maybe involve rewriting some mob/pet ai, but if you could give me a recommended starting point, that'd be a pretty useful improvement imo.
Or how about getting melee/hybrid bots to use disciplines?

Duh, didn't know if the Bot AI stuff was based on mobai or petai, then I found botai.cpp. Excuse a newb, I'm only barely familiar with the eqemu code, and this is my first look at this bot stuff.

Aramid: Though this compiles in VC++2008, the #bot command is not recognized by the server. I notice that the botai.cpp source file (and maybe others) aren't referenced in the solution explorer, that may be the problem.

You also don't have EQbots defined in any of your preprocessor definitions.

Until I replace them, if you have the 1118 source, you can use those. The Makefiles for Linux have been changed to include what is needed.

bots are people too
 

In looking over the bot code and considering its intent, I was wondering why the bots were not implemented as an extension to the client class rather than an internal modification of the npc class.

One of the big issues I have with them being npcs is that they are targeted by the f8 key which interferes with targeting 'real' npcs. They keep getting in the way. When I tried a test of sending the spawn packet declaring the bot's were clients they did not interfere with f8 and showed up in the /who command. This simple change is not sufficient by itself because, although the mobs were still functional, they were identified as <LD> <LFG> <Bad Guild> and had a tendency to go invisible. So further work would be required to make them actual clients on the server side.

If there will be a major rewrite to make them a real class, I would highly recommend making them an extension of client so they behave more like actual players and don't interfere so much with the actual player.

hey Congdar, I got on the the Realm and played around a bit. The cleric bot actually threw me heals intelligently, but of course, I was only able to test a lvl 6.

Any chance of you sharing your bot code changes soon? It'd surely help the stuff I'm working on to have those seperate spell lists.

I would really like to wait until I get all the spell lists completed before releasing. I'm working on Shaman now and still have more classes to do. If you really really want it as it is, pm me.

I recently got the craving to play EQ again, and this has always been one of my dreams - go through the raid content alone as a raid leader. As soon as I get MiniLogin working (which might be a while) I'm going to start playing around with these bots; and I can't wait.

I have a question in terms of quest context; the Bots can't do quests. The PC could of course, do the quests, assuming the have the faction, then hand the reward to the Bots, correct? I am trying to remember from EQ if some quests are impossible to do if you are the wrong class; like, could a Cleric do a Shaman Epic? It'd be useless on the normal servers, but here it would be very valuable.

Yes, you can equip bots with whatever loot you find including the class Epic item. Some quest scripts check the class of the person turning in items but that could be modified on a private server so anyone could do any quest. The custom server would also need to turn off NODROP.

What would be the procedure for telling if a quest has a class-check in it's script for someone mostly inept as I am? (I'm trying to install Bots now for The Realm, stand by for really dumb questions ;) )

Equally, how would one modify class spell lists, to say put things like Enchanter's Enchant Silver, Electrum, Gold, etc, onto other person's spell list? If you aren't playing an enchanter, you'd never be able to find enchanted jewelry.

Alright. I can create a character, but it kicks me every time I try to enter the world. What's up with that?

I just did a search and there aren't enough scripts that check for class for it to be an issue.
It's easier to add enchanting script to an existing Enchanter Guild Master than it is to change bot spell lists.
Not sure about your connection issues, I can log into The Realm without a problem.

I meant, host plays a cleric; make the spells Enchanter/Cleric usuable; but your solution makes more sense.

I played a little more on PEQ: Grand Creation without a problem, it's just The Realm; if I screwed up the bot install some how, would that do it, or would I just have problems when I get into the game and try to use the Bot Commands?

Congdar and all others working on this project,
I love the work done it is fantastic and keep going cant wait to see the new spells the bots will do.
Just a quick question do the bots get any AAs and if not will this be implemented at all
:P

John Black

I just tried this out (took me long enough!), and I gotta say, this is really great stuff. Magoth78, you truly made a 'home box' version of Everquest!
Before, it was pretty much impossible to achieve ubber levels alone (with out 'pimping' your character and the #commands). I played characters like Necros, that could solo up to a decent level.
But now, I can play whatever character with no problems, probably take on anything in the game, without having to cheat.
I added it to what I have, see if I can't come up with some new ideas too.

I've always been highly impressed at all the amazing talent that floats around these forums. I'm glad I learned MySql, Perl, and even some C, even if it was just to better appreciate what all of you have done with this project.

I have coded many AA's for the bots and will be implementing more as I can. I just finished up with Shaman and Druid spells and im testing the Paladin spells now. Getting closer to release. :)

To play on The Realm you don't need to install bot code, just Titanium. I wish I could help you with your connection issues. I can connect to both The Realm and Grand Creation.(Grand Creation doesn't have bots)

Yeah, it's very odd.

Right now: When I connect to grand creation, I can log in no problem 100% of the time.

When I try to connect to The Realm, about 75% of the time, I get booted to log in screen. Another...15%? of the time I can get to character creation, but can't log in. I got in once, levelled a character to 10, died (lost 2 levels) and then got booted at that point - I've been trying to get on a few times since, without luck.

Grrr on the 5 minute edit timer, I forgot to mention: Bots worked perfectly and smoothly during that time frame, up to level 10. The only thing I had trouble with was having an ogre in my party - they were big, and my bots stood together, so I had to kill it to give my other bots items. But that's pretty minor an issue; now I just make sure I have 10-12 items ready to transfer when I spawn them all, and spawn up the ogre last.

You can spread them out with the 'guard' command - if the Ogre is a fighter type, it's even easier ; use 'guard' then send him out to kill (attack) something, when he's done, he'll stand where he finished, away from the group (the casters stay put, when in guard mode).

Alright, I've been playing around on The Realm server, got a cleric to 43.

1) Exp wasn't properly coded, so I levelled incredibly fast. Would it make more sense to code the bots to absorb a proper amount of exp, rather than rely on the server?

2) In general, very few things were ever a challenge. Constant pulls of 3-5 blue cons in The Warrens, Crushbone, Unrest, Mistmoore, Lower Guk were all no problem, despite terrible gear.

3) In Unrest, The Hole, and Mistmoore, I got crazy trains. As if a mob had wandered away type of thing - 50 mob agro. Is that a problem with EQ Bots or PEQ's pathing?

4) I get a lot of crash to server (25% of zoning), and lots of times (75%?) char screen boots me to log in screen. Makes it quite unstable.

Looks good otherwise. Going to keep fooling around. It's a lot of fun, and really well done.

Figured out the trains thing: Once either I or my Enchanter hit 44, the entire zone aggros on us.

It's definitely the enchanter, so there is a spell bug at 44 with enchanters, or something.

Exp isn't split for bots. You would get the same exp solo or with bots, but The Realm does have 1.5X exp anyway.
Dang, I can't please everyone. I previously beefed up the bots from complaints they were too weak, but I gotta think that blue cons with a group of bots or a group of real people is gonna be fairly easy anyway.
Bots don't generate aggro by themselves since they don't have faction, but Mistmoore is a train station on it's own, not sure about the Hole.
I don't have these problems. I've seen in logs that some people keep sending unknown opcodes continuously in a stream and this causes connection issues for them. My friend and I play frequently and our connections do not send this opcode stream I'm seeing with some people.
[08.10. - 09:09:19] Unable to convert EQ opcode 0x6a5f to an Application opcode.
[08.10. - 09:09:19] [CLIENT__NET_ERR] Ikeren: Unhandled incoming opcode: [OpCode OP_Unknown (0x6a5f) Size=8]
[08.10. - 09:09:19] Unable to convert EQ opcode 0x6a5f to an Application opcode.
[08.10. - 09:09:19] [CLIENT__NET_ERR] Ikeren: Unhandled incoming opcode: [OpCode OP_Unknown (0x6a5f) Size=8]
[08.10. - 09:09:20] Unable to convert EQ opcode 0x6a5f to an Application opcode.
[08.10. - 09:09:20] [CLIENT__NET_ERR] Ikeren: Unhandled incoming opcode: [OpCode OP_Unknown (0x6a5f) Size=8]
[08.10. - 09:09:20] Unable to convert EQ opcode 0x6a5f to an Application opcode.
[08.10. - 09:09:20] [CLIENT__NET_ERR] Ikeren: Unhandled incoming opcode: [OpCode OP_Unknown (0x6a5f) Size=8]
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I find it quite fun as well, keep the bug reports coming in.

Heh, I do understand that, I was saying; would it be possible to split the exp for bots? Rather than you getting 100% of the exp, make it like a normal group of players, you get 120% exp/6 (if that was the standard group exp bonus, I think it was).

As for challenge...good point. The bots also are significantly weaker close to 50 when they are all still in cloth, so maybe it was just at low level.

As for bots generating aggro, make yourself a group with a level 43 enchanter on the realm and level to 44. As soon as you do the update on the enchanter, the entire zone will agro. I had it happen in Eastern Wastes, so it isn't dungeon only.

Any idea how to fix the OP code?

A few more bugs:

Blessing of Faith (Cleric Spell Haste buff) gives these errors:
Unknown Spell effect 127 in spell Blessing of Faith (id 3576)
Unknown Spell effect 134 in spell Blessing of Faith (id 3576)
Unknown Spell effect 139 in spell Blessing of Faith (id 3576)
Unknown Spell effect 143 in spell Blessing of Faith (id 3576)
Unknown Spell effect 137 in spell Blessing of Faith (id 3576)
Unknown Spell effect 311 in spell Blessing of Faith (id 3576)

In Lower Guk, Dead Side, A Ghoul Cavalier spawns both in his room, his normal spawn point, and as a wanderer outside the Executioner's Room.
Two copies of the reanimated hand spawn at the same time, in the same place.

I didn't realize this isnt already the case. Are you sure?

I'll have to take a look at this enchanter thing.

no, sorry.

This isn't bot related, the spell isn't supported yet in the emu but I hope it gets supported soon.

...also not bot related, probably database related

Reasonably. I went from 5-50 in about 8 hours, which I don't think is normal, even at 1.5 times exp.

Spell: Okay
Odd Spawns: I figured.

Next one: Upon zoning PoK to Neq forest, I end up in the ground and unable to move. I'm testing EC to Neq now.

Thats probably a zone file issue... Everquest revamped many zones after Titanium, and we're not using them in the emulator.

Yep, you're right, didn't work from EC, either. Any ideas of how to fix?

Alright, I tried to do Vox. I sat and built my entire raid for about an hour in the same place (took a while). As soon as I grouped with an enchanter, vox and the rest of the zone came slamming into me.

Nobody else having this happen?

The Nektulous Forest used is the old version. Please see: http://projecteq.net/phpBB2/viewtopi...14e3cb02b438b6 for more information

Yeah, strange it only happens with the Enchanter. I'm still debugging it, can't see anything out of the ordinary except the zone wide aggro.

Level 52 beastlord won't summon it's pet; presumably all pet spells got bumped from priority?

I haven't done the beastlord spell list yet.

1 Warrior - no spell list
2 Cleric - done
3 Paladin - done
4 Ranger - not done
5 Shadow Knight - in progress
6 Druid - done
7 Monk - no spell list
8 Bard - not done
9 Rogue - no spell list
10 Shaman - done
11 Necromancer - done
12 Wizard - done
13 Magician - done
14 Enchanter - done
15 Beastlord - not done
16 Berserker - no spell list

Hehehe, ooops.

Your necromancer spell list includes fear spells, I noticed...I had a necro fear cause a train in Nurga. Could I suggest removing the fear spells?

well, the darkness(snare) spell is also in there... should be helpful with the fear spell.

Alright, I'm not sure if it is intentional, but my level 54 druid is drawing a tonne of agro (not like the enchanter, but they're chain casting something that is causing them to die, constantly). Bug in the spell list, or working as intended?

I haven't uploaded my Druid spell lists to The Realm yet, even though I completed them, so you're still using the npc spell lists for the Druid and some of the other casting classes. I'll try and get them up real soon.

Actually, it seems to me that the problem is because the Warrior won't taunt undead mobs. Admittedly I've only tested that in Veksar, but the warrior spams taunting messages when we kill live mobs, but as soon as we start doing dead ones, no taunt messages.