Although v2.0 is based on the reaperbot and behaves very much like the reaperbot, there are some differences. When you play the reaperbot, you will notice that the strafing is somewhat smooth. It is important to notice that little fact considering that the reaperbot uses the walkmove command for its strafing. The eliminatorbot's strafing is very, very choppy. This is the result of "beefing" up the amount of strafing it does. That is, it strafes hard and fast much like the karnagbot. This is very unplayer-like since players can not strafe as hard nor as fast as v2.0. This is the primary reason I didn't like the karnagbot, too. Its strafing is too cheap. I would lose track of the eliminator often because of the strafing. This is not true with the reaperbot; I just couldn't aim fast enough to keep up with it. With the eliminatorbot, the bot could be infront of you but in a blink of an eye, it can be practically behind you. On the START map, the eliminatorbot went through the teleporter a few times without me noticing. I was shooting at an enemy that wasn't even there.

With the smooth strafing, I am very tempted to go head-to-head against a skill 3 reaperbot and see who aims better and faster. I won't run away, I won't jump into the water, nor would I try to get the Quad everytime. You can actually see the reaperbot circle strafe you. Even though the bot is actually better than me in these situations, there's always that possibility that I can beat the bot. I don't have that same feeling with the eliminatorbot. Its hard and fast strafing makes it very obvious from the start that you don't go head-to-head with the bot. It is a lot wiser to find better armor, 100 health, and the Quad. That is what I did and that is why I won by a large margin.

The original eliminatorbot made by Cameron Newham had better strafing than this new version. However, the fighting skills of the eliminatorbot was not very good so v2.0 is an improvement over the original. This should not surprise anyone since v2.0 is based on the reaperbot.

Several times, I was able to frag the bot because it was "stuck" in the pool. On the START map, when I am below the pool and look up, I can see the bot's legs all the way up to the middle of his torso. Occasionally, it won't go down. So I simply frag the bot with a rocket. It is like shooting ducks in a shooting gallery.

The eliminatorbot also goes up for air too early sometimes. In the red armor "room" inside the pool in the START map, I can see the eliminator dragging its head on the ceiling as it tries to escape for air. This is a problem that v2.04x of Zeusbot had. Now, you are lucky to get the Zeusbot v2.05 even in the pool long enough to get to the red armor. This assumes it actually jumps into the pool. And when it finally does jump in, it simply drops down to the super-nailgun. But at least, it is not a sitting duck. It has problems jumping out of the pool so it is an easy target for that simple reason but at least it can drop down easily. The eliminatorbot is the opposite: it can jump out quite easily but it has a harder time dropping down. It CAN drop down but sometimes it can't.

Common to most bots is its inability to walk on broken ground. This is no different with the eliminatorbot v2.0. I've used this little fact to my advantage a couple of times in my deathmatches. The bot is simply not able to chase me around on broken ground effectively. Yes, it can move by jumping but that is still not effective enough.

Like the reaperbot, the eliminatorbot has a problem jumping over gaps. I've never seen the eliminator get the regular nailgun on START map. When I tested the bot on E1M8 (low gravity), it avoided the lava as well as the reaperbot did. In fact, like the reaperbot, it is better than the Zeusbot in this regard. But like the reaperbot, like the Zeusbot, and like most bots the eliminatorbot is unable to jump out once it is in the lava. All you hear is some pain sounds and a bunch of thud sounds before a final scream. This is an easy fix. A test bot and demos are included in a file called btsk23.zip which can be downloaded ftp.cdrom.com/pub/quake/quakec/bots. The demos shows the test bot jumping out of lava easily. The source code is also included in the package.

Additionally, I have seen the bot jump up alot in this level and NOT ONCE did I hear it make the jumping sound. In short, like the reaper, it is a "silent jumper".

On E1M7 level, I would follow the bot while in observer mode and I've noticed two more glitches. When the bot makes a comment, it suddenly stops moving for a brief moment. Normally, a player can't move BEFORE the message pops up because the player is busy typing. Once the message is sent the player can move again. With the eliminatorbot, it can't do anything for about one second AFTER making a comment. The other glitch is the simple fact that the bot runs around looking for things at speeds faster than a player can move. It is like the reaperbot on an Adrenalin rush. Players can not run as fast as the reaperbot. He can outrun you making this bot a badass chaser. I wish real players can do this.

The bot ranking seems to work nicely. When changing maps, the bot will automatically spawn just like the reaperbot and the TAB scoring system still shows the correct scores. I still did not test out the eliminator on a LAN, however, so I could not determine whether or not the scoring system becomes jumbled when changing maps with more than one real client participating. Additionally, I do not know what would happen to the scores when another real client joins a game already in progress. But with one player, the ranking system works nicely.

Unlike the reaperbot, the monsters are active and you can NOT spawn any eliminatorbots in single-player games. You will get a message saying that the number of max clients have been exceeded. The error message looks very much like the error message you get when you spawn the test bot that I mentioned earlier in a single-player game. If you try to spawn too many eliminatorbots in a deathmatch (the default is only four max players for a total of three eliminatorbots), you will also get an error message saying that it was unable to spawn another bot because the max client will be exceeded. Again, this error message looks strangely familiar. Download btsk23.zip mentioned above and play with the test bot to see what I mean.

In coop mode, you can spawn eliminatorbots. However, the monsters do not notice the bots and the bots do not notice the monsters. It is just you against the world in coop mode. This is no different from Steven Polge's reaperbots and no different from Cameron Newham's version of the eliminator.

And one major glitch that needs to be mentioned is the disappearing weapons bug. The reaperbot as we all know uses a dynamic waypoint system. The waypoints are called "BotPath". These "BotPath" waypoints can have the same value for its .flags variable as the player's. This means that the waypoints that the players spawn for the reapers will have the FL_CLIENT flag. The weapon pickup function only checks to see if an entity has the FL_CLIENT flag. As a result, the waypoints can pickup weapons just like players. Since the eliminatorbot is based on the reaperbot, the eliminatorbot also has the disappearing weapons bug. Sometimes you might not notice this bug but if you are unlucky enough to have a waypoint that was created right next to a weapon then don't be surprised to see that weapon disappear the microsecond after it respawns.

In conclusion, I do not see any real improvements (besides the added momentum effects) over the eliminatorbot. It has the same limitations, in general, as the reaperbot and it includes some unrealistic features that have been either enhanced (jumping on water) or added ("super strafing", incredible running ability). As a reaperbot copy, there is some potential but it still needs some work. The new momentum effects is a start. An impulse to remove bot comments would be nice. One bot making comments isn't too bad but 15 bots making comments would be somewhat "distracting". And, of course, the comments shouldn't be in white lettering, either.

It is hoped that in future versions of this bot, it will also include support for a predefined waypoint system pioneered by Cameron Newham. This way the bot will already "know" the level and it doesn't have to learn the map as it goes along. This is, of course, in addition to its ability to learn the map. A bot that can do both will be a major improvement.

If I was going to use a rating system similar to the one used by QuakeC Archives (http://www.planetquake.com/qca), I would probably give this bot a 7/10, better than BGBot (5/10) and better than the Oak (6/10). As a comparison, the Zeusbot and the original Eliminatorbot both earned an 8, the Reaperbot earns a 9 and the Karnagbot earns a 6. Let me remind you that the lower rating for v2.0 is due to the quirks I mentioned above including but not limited to "super strafing", incredible running, and the very famous disappearing weapons bug. One should not add a known bug to an existing package like the eliminator! This will give you a poor rating everytime. What makes matters worse is that this bug is VERY EASY TO FIX!

On a related note, contrary to what Perge claims on his page, the eliminator is a server-side bot and not a client-side bot. Client-side bots are not programmed in QuakeC while all server-side bots are programmed in QuakeC. Additionally, the reaperbot like the original eliminatorbot uses a waypoint system. Unlike the original eliminatorbot, the reaperbot spawns the waypoints as it roams the map. Players and observers also spawn waypoints for the reaperbot to follow. This is how the bot learns the map; it needs the waypoints. In short, v2.0 of the eliminatorbot still uses waypoints contrary to what Perge claimed on his web page. This new version no longer needs modified maps but it still uses waypoints.

Please send any comments to legion@softhome.net. My original e-mail address is down for the time being. Any e-mails sent to my old address will most likely bounce back. I can also be reached via ICQ. My UIN is 2708492.

I can also be reached at:
  norsebot@hotmail.com
  norsebot@MailCity.Com
  norsebot@hempseed.com
  legion@SoftHome.Net
  legion@keg.zymurgy.org (my original e-mail address)