ZMT-BOTS for Zombie Plague: ZMT-Bots and Zombie Plague: Apocalypse

Spanish version HERE

Before posting this post, I was always unsatisfied with the behavior of the bots that existed while playing zombie plague. In the case of the CSBOTS, they were never compatible with the mod, the PoDBots are very stupid (Literally the humans run towards with their knife against the zombies) and the SyPB bots were a good attempt, but they do not come close to what I wanted, which is the behavior of a real player in Zombie Plague, that is, reactions similar to those of a real person, highlighting that in Zombie Plague, AI (bot's artificial intelligence) changes completely and depends on the class that are (zombie, human, nemesis, among others). I always felt as if they were just there to "occupy" a place on the server and not to play.

For this project, I have took as a basis an old source code of the SyPB based on YaPB (discontinued Bots on which the PODBOTS were based), Available here, written in C++. Grab that with exitement, made multiple fixs, errors and other details, to finally start working on a new AI.

And that's how the ZMT-BOTS were born, and for me it's very gratifying to be able to share my work, and for people to dedicate their time to play with my creation.

Remember that ZMT-Bots are special and only created for zombie plague. They should not be used to play without the mod. So I can not help users who use these bots without a zombie plague mod or any of it's kind.

Here you will find the download button for Zombie Plague (Apocalypse Version). You can also download the necessary maps to play with ZMT-Bots (for now 22 maps and currently increasing).

There is no better way to explain the behavior of ZMT-BOTS than by showing them in a video. Here I've left the official trailer I made. although it is a bit long I advise you to see it thoroughout full.

General

New evasion system, written by me, where the bots avoid collisions with other players and also detect the obstructions (If an object were there), choosing other path.
Do you want more difficulty? To special classes ZMT-Bots (Nemesis, Survivors, Snipers and Assassins) you can add HP (Health Point) within the configuration files, giving advantage to an special class bot in front of a real players, you decide how much advantage you give them or if you prefer to play with them at the same level as you.
The bots can buy and use extra-items (with the help of a plugin available below)

Humans

They look for safe places and they stay there until the game ends.
They will not buy Scout; the weapon is useless against the zombies.
They are capable of throwing fire grenades, frost and flares. The flares in their majority, they trow it when arriving at the strategic places of refuge.
If the place of refuge is occupied, the bot can choose between going to another site or staying next to the other player that went there.
Depending on the darkness of the map, a bot will not be able to see long distances and will have a lower view angle.
They are sensitive to the light and glow of zombies.
They are able to see a zombie in the midst of darkness if it is hurt by a human, detecting it.
They'll shoot any zombie that is illuminated by a flare or a map's light, (regardless of the distance).
When approaching the zombies, the bots will flee and perform evasive maneuvers, with jumps to avoid being infected.
In these escape situations, bots can predict the walls behind them and make decisions to try not to get caught.
New special IA for Survivors. These will not act like humans, they will get closer to zombies and act violent (Behavior seen in the video).
New special IA for Snipers.
If in flee they got trapped in a precipice, depending on several factors, some will decide to fall in dispair to avoid being infected, while others will try to resist more time firing their weapon.
New aim targets system, more adjusted to how a real player would aim. It will depend on the bot's ability (Skill).
They can use flashlight (Optional), identical to the one players have (Only if you use Zombie plague: Apocalypse, download at the end of the blog).
They can decide whether or not to break a platform through which they have passed, thus preventing the zombies (Sometimes other humans, as usually happens online) to climb or reach the place.

Zombies

Able to throw infection bombs (If they have enough ammo packs).
They do not use the radio.
When they are strongly wounded, they try evasion and jumping maneuvers to avoid Headshots.
They can break sandbags, introduced in the game via the plugin "zp-sandbags".
If there is a human in a high place, the zombies will make a "ladder"; and that is crouch down and jump on top of others to help reach a specific human. How to implement this when creating new waypoints.
New special IA for Nemesis and Assassins, they can use Longjump and they will try to reach humans in higher places (Behavior seen in the video) (Only if you use Zombie plague: Apocalypse, download at the end of the blog).
They change easy to target if they shoot (Depending on which is more within range).
They play as a team and warn others where the humans are; attacking in hordes.
They can predict human movements when they are pursuing them, shortening distances and cutout escape routes.

I have created the simple ZMTBots menu to be easy to use, so I will only explain the main menu options

* Bots: From here you control and manage the amount of bots that exist on the server (add, remove bots, specific or randomly).

* Fill server: Fill the server with ZMTBots choosing before the difficulty and bots personalities.

* Fill server with random bots: Fill the server with completely random ZMTBots.

* Finish round: Kill all the bots to finish the round.

* Edit waypoints: Only for players who know how to edit or create new waypoints!, Otherwise, please do not use this option. How to create my own waypoints.

* View waypoints (On/Off): Turn on / off the display of waypoints currently present on the map.

* Waypoint report: Shows the number of current waypoints on the map classified by type.

(*These options are only for players who are interested in making their own waypoints)

What is Zombie Plague: Apocalypse?
It is a modified version of Zombie Plague Advanced (Here is the Main post and its download), that includes new gamemodes and in addition, new specific characteristics destined for ZMT-Bots, like for example the flashlights of the humans for ZMT-Bots, the Nemesis bot Longjump among others. It is completely configurable like all previous versions of zombie plague.

The ZMT-Bots will work with any zombie plague version, however you will not be able to enjoy these improvements for ZMT-Bots or the new game modes offered by Apocalypse version.

What does Zombie Plague offer again: Apocalypse?
Multiple bugs fixed (which currently has the zombie plague advanced newer versions) and new console variables (cvars) are just some of the improvements, but the most relevant are the new game modes (2 new) that it includes. The game modes currently included are:

Infection: Normal round where a player must infect others.
Multi-Infection: Several are selected to be the first infected.
Swarm Mode: 50% of the players infected, the rest human. There is no infection, meaning, all enemies must be killed.
Survivor: A Survivor against a whole horde of zombies (new effects added).
Nemesis: A Nemesis against an entire whole squad, fleet or army of humans (new effects added).
Sniper: A Sniper, tough soldiers, heavily armed with a sniper anti-virus that will wip out and slap any infected in their way with a single bullet, against all horde of zombies (new cvars added to the Sniper human, also now has configurable night vision).
Assassin: An infected that can rip the guts of any human, but not as resistant as a nemesis. However, an Assassin will be invisible in the dark (it does not shine or have an aura in this mode), and the whole map will turn dark!.
Plague Mode: 50% infected with one Nemesis (configurable) vs 50% humans with one Survivor (configurable).
Armaggedon Mode: 50% Survivors vs 50% Nemesis, an epic battle! (new cvars added for this mod).
Sinapsis Mode (Programmed by me): 50% Snipers vs 50% Assassins. By default in this mode the Assassins shine yellow/orange to be more visible to the Snipers, but it can be disabled.
Apocalypse Mode (Programmed by me): The final battle, 70% human, including 2 Survivors and 2 Snipers against 30% of infected, including 2 Nemesis and 2 Assassins (Glow yellow, configurable). The infection here is possible, so the zombies can increase their numbers very quickly and leave Survivors and Snipers alone.

Important note, bots cvars work with zombie plague Apocalypse which is based on zombie plague advance 1.6.1, if you use a custom version zombie plague some bots features could be missing.

The ZMT-Bots are installed like any other bot module.

Order your bots through the email "zmtbots@gmail.com" after donating the minimun amount or making any of the options available below (read section "Contributions"). You will receive a compressed file with the ZMT-Bots module.
Copy and paste the folder "zmtbots" in "Counter-Strike 1.6/cstrike/addons/".
Add in the file "Counter-Strike 1.6\cstrike\Addons\metamod\plugins.ini" the next line:
If you will not use zombie apocalypse, you'll have to create a new file with the name: plugins-zplague.ini in addons\amxmodx\configs\ and register your zombie plague there (obligatory) otherwise there will be errors.
That's it, you should be able to enter the main menu of the ZMT-Bots in the letter "p".

Zombie Plague Apocalypse Installation

Zombie Plague Apocalypse installs like any other Zombie Plague version. Also, the download includes all the necessary resources in addition to the mod files.

When you open the server, at the beginning of your console should appear the following, if errors appear that mean you have done wrong something:

Note: Make sure you do not have other incompatible bots installed like PodBot or SyPB, or the flashlights of the ZMT-Bots will not work, I recommend using Zbots or CSbots to play without zombie plague.

Recommended CPU requirements

ZMT-Bots use more RAM and CPU than standard cs 1.6, here's the recommended requirements:

OS: 64 Bit Windows/32 Bit Windows (Linux OS is not supported)

Processor: try to use more than Intel Core i2 2.60 GHz

Memory: 4 gb RAM or more

Minimun requirements:

64 Bit Windows OS/32 Bit Windows (Linux OS is not supported)

Processor: try to use more than Intel Pentium G620 2.60 GHz/AMD opteron 2.2 GHz lower than that it will cause inestability.

Memory: 2 gb RAM

The rest requirements like graphic memory are the same as counter-strike's by default

Names file

Currently the ZMT-Bots can choose between 100 names, 30 of them can be customized to suit each user, while the remaining 70 are reserved within bots engine (encrypted), and are intended to be occupied by the names of the first 70 people who decide to support my work with a donation (See contributions section)

You can customize 30 names based on what you like in the file:

"zmtbots\language\en_names.cfg"

(Maximum 30 names, quotes are not allowed in the names)

ZMT-Bots CVARS

ZMT-Bots commands are in file:

"zmtbots\ZMTBot.cfg"

File "general.cfg"

For now, this file contains only extra HP settings for ZMT-Bots special class like Nemesis or Snipers:

"zmtbots\general.cfg"

This configuration is designed to add more difficulty to the game and does not affect in any way your own Zombie Plague configuration, it will only apply to ZMT-Bots. The indicated number in this file is multiplied by alive enemies number on the server and will finally be added to bots HP, example:

HP established in Zombie Plague.cfg for Survivor = 2000

ExtraHPMult_SurvivorBots = 120 (extra hp aplied per bot/player)

Amount of zombies vs Survivor: 15 zombs

120x15 = 1800 + 2000 = total HP: 3800

Then a Survivor bot will have 3800 HP, while a Survivor player will have 2000 HP. The extra HP is automatically added as soon as the game mode starts.

ZMT-Bots in Zombie Plague

Obviously, the ZMT-Bots are directly influenced by some Zombie Plague configurations, then the Zombie Plague cvars that influence the AI of ZMT-Bots:

zp_delay: When they should start firing.
zp_lighting ('a' recommended): determines human bots field of vision, the chances of seeing zombies in the dark are diminished.
'a' see only what you could illuminate with your flashlight (approximately).
'b' It improves much more bots vision.
'c' or less, have total visibility.
(Remember that humans can also see a zombie if is illuminated by flares or if is hurt by other human, being exposed within darkness).
zp_flash_distance (650 recommended): Determine how far a human bot can see.
zp_flare_size (30 recommended): Determine how close to flares a zombie must be to consider it "enlighten".
zp_flare_size_assassin(15 recommended): Determine how close to flares a zombie must be to consider it "enlighten" in Assassin mode.
zp_leap_nemesis(1 recommended): Whether or not Nemesis ZMT-Bots performs Longjump.
zp_leap_nemesis_cooldown(5.0 recommended): How long should Nemesis ZMT-Bot wait to make another Longjump (they choose after that time to make a longjump whenever bot's AI want).
zp_leap_assassin(1 recommended): Whether or not the Assassins ZMT-Bots perform Longjump.
zp_leap_assassin_cooldown(5.0 recommended): How long should the Assassins ZMT-Bots wait to make another Longjump (if they decide).

Now let's talk about the cvars that are necessary for a good ZMT-Bot function. Zombie Plague is a highly configurable mod and you can practically change everything. However, ZMT-Bots need certain things to recognize themselves as a Survivor, for example, and thus be able to start playing as a Survivor, the same goes for Nemesis and other special classes.

Then here the obligatory cvars that should not be changed and the problems they would cause if they were changed:

zp_bots_items 0 (Only if use Zombie Apocalypse and plugin "zp_bot_force_buy_items"):

The bot system to buy extra items is simple and very basic, bots don't spend ammopacks and only would buy limited things. I have created a special plugin that allows ZMT-Bots to buy and use ANY EXTRA-ITEM, even those that you install, you only have to add the name of the extra-item in the file "zp_bot_force_buy_items.sma" following the instructions written there. Now ZMT-Bots can buy and use famous extra-items like anti-infection armor, antidote bombs, infection bombs, infected snarks and the list never ends. Both systems are incompatible, so if you use this plugin, you must turn off the zombie plague system with this cvar.

zp_human_gravity 1.0 (Never greater than 1.0):

The map jumps are ready to work up to this level of gravity, if you exceed this value bots will have trouble jumping from one place to another.

All configurations that control gravity of zombie classes (Never greater than 1.0):

The same as the previous case but with the zombies. If you set a zombie class with gravity to 1.2, and a bot chooses that class, the bot will not be able to jump and it will be stucked.

zp_nem_glow 1 (Red) - zp_nem_gravity 0.4 (Never greater than 0.4):

A ZMT-Bot would consider itself as Nemesis if it had the red glow and a gravity less or equal than 0.4, if you don't meet these values the nemesis AI will not activate and behave like a normal zombie.

zp_surv_glow 1 (Cian) - zp_surv_weapon "weapon_m249"

A ZMT-Bot would consider itself as Survivor if it had the cyan blue glow and an M249 (Machinegun) as weapon, if you do not meet these values the Survivor AI will not activate and behave much less aggressive.

zp_sniper_glow 1:

For Sniper new AI activated glow is necessary.

zp_sniper_aura_color_R 50 - zp_sniper_aura_color_G 215 - zp_sniper_aura_color_B 88 (Green/Aquamarine):

For Sniper new AI this glow color is necessary (these aura cvars also controls glow color), if you want to change it you can do it, but you must pay attention to 2 rules:
1) The Green (G) must always be greater than the red and blue color (R and B).
2) The Green (G) must always be greater than or equal to 200.

zp_assassin_gravity 0.4 (Never greater than 0.4):

For Assassin new AI it is necessary not to exceed this gravity value for the Assassins.

Important note, bots cvars work with zombie plague Apocalypse which is based on zombie plague advance 1.6.1, if you use a custom version zombie plague some bots features could be missing.

For me it is a great motivation to receive support for something that I like and would like to continue doing improvements. I must say that previously the ZMT-Bots were free. I liked being able to continue leaving my work free, but currently I live in Venezuela and my economic situation had become too difficult (I am not exaggerating). Anyway, for me it's an honor that you spend your time trying and playing with these bots that were developed by me.

COPY LIMITATIONS
Each ZMT-Bot package is uniquely identified for each user, is intended for personal use. Distribution and downloading of this work is prohibited on any website other than this one. If I or my work team discover your ZMT-Bot package publicly available on another website, although you donated or contributed in some way, you lose the right to updates and therefore the ZMT-Bots will stop working. It is each user responsibility not to share their ZMT-Bot package on the Internet.

How to obtain the ZMT-Bots?

You will get the ZMT-Bots in any of the following ways:

* Pay minimun amount (the equivalent in BTC or another cryptocurrency) and notify the provided email below.

* Share the link of this blog along with a brief description in at least six (6) different forums of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Zombie Plague. This way you will be helping ZMT-Bots to be properly known and to make this website grow. Then send me the post 6 links to provided email.

* Record a Gameplay playing with ZMT-Bots on YouTube to make the ZMT-Bots more known and get more support (only if you have a channel with more than 1000 subscribers). Then inform me through the email and your video will be published here too so other users can see it.

Additional note: If you develop your own waypoints for new maps (Waypoints tutorial for ZMT-Bots), You can send me your waypoints to post it here and other users could download them. They will be available with your name as author.

Additional note: Approximately every 6 months this package will force you to update, so you should only get a new version through email (if you already donated or contributed in some way your update will be completely free). This is with the intention of keeping users up to date with all the improvements I'm working with.

No matter which way you decide to support me, you will be contributing your little shard to improve this project. Remember to contact me if you have a video, have done post in forums, waypoints you want to post here or if you had made a donation.

Contact email: zmtbots@gmail.com

For people who wish to make a donation, I'd like to say special thanks and I want to reward this in some way. All this is optional and only if the person who made the donation agrees. Although I know that there is not much I can offer, here I explain the different things that I offer depending on the donation.

(Everything presented here is cumulative, the more you want to support, the more benefits you will have).

BENEFITS

15$ or more

Your name will be placed in the "Last Donations" table below (showing the 3 most recent donations), along with the amount you donated to ZMT-Bots. You can ask me to post your website or anything else that you are interested in publishing. If your donation is from the first ones, it will also appear in the "Greater Contributions" table until other users exceed your donation.

ZMT-Bots package.

25$ or more

A place in the "Last donations" table.

ZMT-Bots package.

You will have the exclusive right to request via email the develop 1 map (any) waypoint in which you would like to play with ZMT-Bots. The delivery will make it maximum at 3 busy days (1 day for small maps, 2 days for medium maps and 3 days for very large maps). You can also decide if you want these waypoints to be published here (with or without your name) or if you prefer to keep the original file and not share it with other people.

45$ or more

A place in the "Last donations" table.

ZMT-Bots package.

Request 1 map.

You have the right to request the plugins package that I use when recording the video-trailer. They are plugins that exist on the web but with errors, abandoned and were for very old versions of Zombie Plague. The plugins of this package are optimized for Zombie Apocalypse and ZMT-Bots, in addition to fixing all the bugs they had, some of the plugins included are:

zp_bot_force_buy_items:

It allows ZMT-Bots to buy any extra-item and use it, in addition to allow bots win ammopacks per game and control the frequency of purchase zombies and humans have (separately).

zp_extra_squeakgrenade:

Snarks infected for zombies (those little green things seen in the video trailer).

zp_extra_bat:

Bats that humans can buy, this will allow higher jumps and illuminate a large area when zombs approach. (It is also displayed in the video-trailer).

zp_frostnade:

New frost grenade, leaves ice effect on zombies feet and ankles and deals damage depending on how close it is (it is the one used in the video trailer), much more enhanced than zombie plague grenade.
(Remember to disable default grenade with "zp_frost_grenades 0" if you are going to use this plugin).

zp_extra_antidotebomb:

Anti-infection bomb that disinfects zombies, compatible with ZMT-Bots.

And ... 12 more plugins that will complete your amazing Zombie Plague mod.

60$ or more

A place in the "Last donations" table.

ZMT-Bots package.

Request 2 maps.

Mega-Pack of 17 plugins that I use now.

You can request any model you liked in the video trailer for your zombie plague.

75$ or more

A place in the "Last donations" table.

ZMT-Bots package.

Request 3 map.

Mega-Pack of 17 plugins that I use now.

Model request.

You earn a permanent place in the golden table "Greater contributions", along with the amount you donated to support ZMT-Bots, and your name will not be deleted even if other users donate larger amounts, since you are one of this project best support users.

90$ or more

A place in the "Last donations" table.

ZMT-Bots package.

Request 4 maps.

Mega-Pack of 17 plugins that I use now.

Model request.

You gain a permanent place in the golden table "Greater contributions".

For the generous users, a place is reserved in the source code, where are the encrypted names that ZMT-Bots use in the games. Currently there are 70 places and are intended to house the names of the users who have supported the most. Your name will appear as bots nickname occasionally and this can not be changed, you will be forever recorded in the ZMT-Bots engine and will be visible in other users games when a ZMT-Bot choose your name as nickname. You can ask to place only your name, or along with the amount you contributed, a website, what you want, that place will be yours!

100$ or more

A place in the "Last donations" table.

ZMT-Bots package.

Request 5 or more maps (15$ each map).

Mega-Pack of 17 plugins that I use now.

Model request.

You gain a permanent place in the golden table "Greater contributions".

You will have a place in the source code, a nickname of the ZMT-Bots will be yours.

Finally for the few who can and want to support me with such generous amounts as this, I offer again a place in the source code but this time in the rotary message every 15 minutes in the server chat. ZMT-Bots have a welcome message that is repeated approximately every 15 minutes (like most mods and other bots). In that message you will appear as an official donor, a special user that greatly helped the development of ZMT-Bots.

ZMT-Bots currently don't have the essential functions to use buttons and elevators. These functions were not performed due to work and time issues. If this project collects 200$ in support I'll keep to move forward and continue with the AI new part: Use of buttons and later elevators.

Support me with any amount, everything counts so that these bots keep improving.

Changelog

ver 1.0 (2019 02-02-19) - First release

- Now they will know when they are infected or if in ct team instantly to help have a quick round

- Added bots can choose zombie classes

- Added ammo packs and extra items usage and will pick an item between all extra items pages

- Upgraded bots lightning view on map and will recognize flashlight bombs light

- Added zombie plague granades usage for both teams

- Now you can save a waypoint file even without connecting every waypoint to waypoint 0 and bots will join and play.

ver 1.2 (04-23-19)

- Added support up to 30/32 bots

- now bots can choose all zombie classes

- Upgraded navigation movements specially when performing a jump (they ignored jumps and fell)

- Upgraded to jump when they fail the previous jump even if they aren't at exact jump point, not letting then get stuck in

narrow spaces

- Added Bilingual support for all text in menus and for chat and covering all their names.

ver 2.2 (11-10-20)

- Fixed bots getting stuck in one waypoint and never coming out (special clases like nemesis don't move fixed)

- Now in-duck waypoints radius 0 can change their AI.

- Added horde behavior, if a zombiebot sees a human the rest of zombiebots will want to come too, it works if whoever

saw the human is player too.

- Added humans bots posiblity to not shoot any breakable entity (wood, glass, etc) that are under their feet and serves

the purpose to allow entry scattered throughout the map, so they only break the ones that block their view field.

- Upgraded the way bots look at the map, now they will recognize walls in front of them to help them

reach their objectives in closed spaces where players could trick them using waypoints help.

- Added zombie no return waypoint to use a separate type of AI in narrow and crowded areas where players could stuck

them.

- Now humans will continue towards their objectives even when a zombie has been seen and the distance make them

decide whether to stay and fire or continue their way depending of their personality.

- Multiple upgrades with Previous zp waypoints frags.

Currently version 2.3 is in development but not a long time back we discovered a huge bug that results in a crash with no log trace, when this version comes out depends on my available time, until then ZMT-Bots will be in maintenance, hope this not takes for so long.

Other known bugs and incompatibilities:

Important: bots detects and work with zombie plague Apocalypse which is based on zombie plague advance 1.6.1, if you use a custom version zombie plague some bots features could be missing.

Bunnyhop plugin: Is well known for not being used on zombie plague mods, it ruins zombies, nemesis, survivor, assasin, humans, etc low gravity. When playing bunnyhop with bots you'll notice jumps are pretty ruined, different versions not tested.

If you are experiencing: SZ_GetSpace: overflow on Client Datagram WARNING: msg overflowed for nickname or

SZ_GetSpace: overflow without FSB_ALLOWOVERFLOW set on Server Reliable Datagram.

You should look at your plugins and turn off the problematic one.

In whatever bots module you're using you would see more cpu usage, with tests the crash was seen to occur due to a plugin called advanced_tracers 1.3.0 ConnorMcLeod ver, it results in lag spikes too,

instead Ivan's Advanced Tracer Plugin can be used which has less CPU usage porcentage.