UT UT Bot Handler V060

[DeathoX 8]

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B O T _ H A N D L E R
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Version 0.60 (EARLY BETA)
Last update 12/01/11

Filename: BotHandler
Author: DeathoX 8 (a.k.a. XYZ 8000)
Website: http://XYZ8000.Altervista.org


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Description
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This is a very early beta of an external "tool" for Unreal Tournament that I wrote in Java. It's purpose is to randomize and change the Bot properities quickly, doing basically the same job of the Bot Configuration in-game window but in a much more quick manner (hopefully).
Note that being written in Java, this program requires a Java Runtime Environment installed to run (you probably already have it). Also due to the Java language, this program works on any kind of OS that has a JRE installed (I personally tested Linux and Windows, will work fine also on Mac).

The program is still in incomplete state. I am not going to go into details since this post would become quite lenghty, but some important things missing are the Properties page (current one is a placeholder), some safety checks for the program itself, FavoriteWeapon and VoiceType generation, and an editor for Bot values' sources. The GUI is experimental as well.
Please read the ReadMe file included in the archive before using this program, and (I cannot stress this enough) BACK UP ANY FILE YOU WANT TO MODIFY WITH THIS PROGRAM. It is an early beta, so there's no guarantee that the program won't go bananas and screw up the file saving.

I am sharing this early build because I would really appreciate some feedback. I am mainly concerned about the User Interface, wheter it's easy enough to use and wheter its layout is sized well enough, but I'd love some feedback on anything else too, from features you'd like to see included to bugs in the current program. One thing that should be fairly stable is the bot generation process, it shouldn't give you unexpected results (please tell me about it if it does).

Originally I wrote this program for my personal use (since I got tired of playing always against the same bots), but then I decided to polish it up and share it. I do realize that it is a quite useless tool really, but I decided to share it anyway hoping that someone does find an use for it.

Enjoy


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ScreenShots
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[Screenshot]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h46/XYZ8000/BotHandler-1.jpg[/Screenshot]
[Screenshot]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h46/XYZ8000/BotHandler-2.jpg[/Screenshot]
[Screenshot]http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h46/XYZ8000/BotHandler-3.jpg[/Screenshot]


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Download
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http://xyz8000.altervista.org/WIP/BotHandler.html#Downloads

 

[James Poulson]

I'll give it a spin if I have the time. I'm into Java too so it'd be interesting to see how you programmed the application.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

Looks like a useful tool, but I don't understand the part about always playing against the same bots. Is the default generator not random enough? I did notice a few bots seem to be always picked in the first match of the day, but beyond that it seems to be random.

 

[DeathoX 8]

Thank you for the comments.

The program itself is nothing terribly complex, it's about 5000 lines of codes overall. I will probably release the source files of the program when it's done, although I doubt that anyone will find them of any use since as I said it's all pretty simple programming.

With always the same bots I meant the same bot list with the same names, skins and team colors. It's been years since I last changed up the bot list, because doing so with the in-game bot configuration window takes ages.
This program allows you to change the bots' properties quickly, setting new random names, skins, teams, and especially behavior settings like combat style, accuracy and strafing ability with random parameters. You can generate a new roster of bots in a matter of minutes.



I just found two bugs that I missed when testing before packing the program up:
- On Linux, the BotHandlerSettings.utbh file is searched in the Home folder instead of the location where the program is started. This means that this file must be located in your Home folder (not in a subfolder of it) for this program to work. Sorry for not noticing this major bug earlier, but I had a copy of the program in the Home folder and so the file was being found for me
- When importing or loading a file the line "Bot Sector not found, loading process aborted" is spammed in the log. This was a safety check that I added to prevent people from loading the wrong files in the application, but it looks like I misplaced the logging function. The file gets anyway loaded fine.

 

[James Poulson]

The program itself is nothing terribly complex, it's about 5000 lines of codes overall. I will probably release the source files of the program when it's done, although I doubt that anyone will find them of any use since as I said it's all pretty simple programming.

Please do release the code. If someone wants to add to the project it will make things easier. You can apply an open source or creative commons license to define how you wish to see your work used.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/450378/how-to-choose-an-open-source-license-for-an-app
http://creativecommons.org/