| Creator | Drew 'BZ' Davidson |
| Homepage | http://www.interpath.com/~davidson/ctfbot.htm |
| CTF Homepage | http://threewave.planetquake.com |
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The Basics - I'm sure that you've all heard of Capture The Flag (CTF hereafter), a mod designed with Teamplay in mind. Basic, there are two bases, two teams, and two flags. You're mission is to grab the other teams' flag, and "capture" it in you're own base, by running over your own flag. It also has a lot of other features included, like Runes (Gives you different powers) the grabbing hook (a tool which you can use to get to places you wouldn't even dream of) and a while lot more. But what if the only server you get a reasonable ping is empty? What if you don't even HAVE a local server? That's where the CTFBot comes is! (Please note: This is kinda a review of CTF3\4 too, since the levels, models, sounds and such comes from that pack. the CTFbot is created for use with Threewave CTF) First thoughs.. - Just a few days ago, when i was cleaning my Quake dir (which was about 1100 megs, btw) i found this directory called ctfbot. After the clean up, it was still in my Quake dir, and i felt this "need" to check it out. When this bot first came out, i used to play it for hours in a row. After that, i've just kinda forgot about it. Well, now it was time to try it again.. I set fraglimit to 800, skill 2, and fired up ctf8 (my fav. map, i think) I was once again high.. on CTF. AI - One of the CTFBot's very strong points, is the AI. While not beeing just as good as the Reaper over-all, i'd say it's far better than the ZeusBot. Take the bots using the lightning gun. Now, how many times have you managed to kill a Reaperbot with a lightning gun, using a nailgun? How much did you say? .. 2? 3? Not many, that's for sure anyway. Now, let me ask you - Is that realistic? No? I have to agree with you there. Playing the CTFbot, i atleast managed to do that quite a few more times that i did with the reaper. Of course this was just an example, but what i'm trying to say here, is that the CTFbot is more realistic that most bots. It also has very smooth movement, not jerky like some bots move. Waypoints - Using the CTFbot on any of the CTF maps is a dream. They find their way anywhere, and they can even get the quad and stuff like that on CTF8, using the grabbing hook (more later about that) Waypoints helps the bots to know where things are, which way to get them, etc. If it wasn't for waypoints, the bots would probably not be able to capture the flag, even if it was alone on the level. There are also waypoints for many of the original Id levels included, which might be fun for those who have always wanted to see how CTF'ing on DM4 would be like ;) Grabbing Hook - .. must be one of the most famous patches ever created, and it is included in CTF. This means that it's also included in the CTFbot, which again means that the bots use it! You have no idea how cool it is to watch a bot fly by holding onto it's grappler. Atleast for someone like me, who has never played a ctf game with more than 4 real players (= boring!) Features - While playing with the bots, you are the "master", which means that you can tell them to attact, defend, camp, stay, follow, and such. You can also do this with the "other team" bots, so if you are in a clan, defending, you can practise that easily ;) The coolest thing about playing with the bots, is that you really have to work like a team, (just like in regular CTF - Luckily the bots have the AI for this, and yelling at them wouldn't help much anyway) and even though it might seem a little strange, i think i do love them all ;) I dunno if CTF Clan players love each other, though. A'well.. If you ever become tired of playing (or maybe you just like to eat infront of your computer) there is also a kewl Observer mode for you to look at. When activate, you can follow the bots around, and checking out what they are doing. Cool way to make demos. There are simply too many neat features in there, for me to mention, but before i quit this review, i have to say a few words about the runes. these where originally in CTF, but hey, i've never had a real CTF game, so i wouldn't know how they felt before right now. Anyway, there are 4 runes included. They are.. Earth Rune (resistance, half damage) Black magic rune (strength, double damage) Hell rune (haste, double fire rate) Elder rune(regeneration). I simply love the Elder rune.. once played a 7-on-7 skill 1 game, and i can't beleve how many frags i got using that rune and a Rocket Launcher. I simply never ran out of health. God, what a greate feeling ;) The Final words - Greate way to play CTF.. The best? I dunno.. I love it anyway ;) |
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