Console Commands

Topics

1. About FlexBot Console Commands
2. Commands To The FlexBot System
3. Commands To Individual Bots
4. Commands To All Bots
5. Commands To Groups of Bots
6. Commands To Bots On Specific Team
7. Using .cfg Files To Automate Bot Control Tasks

About FlexBot Console Commands

Although there is a menu system for managing the bots, every feature available on the menu is also available from the console. In fact, when a user chooses a menu option, the menu simply dispatches the appropriate console command. Therefore, the method of control is entirely the user’s preference.

Commands To The FlexBot System

• bot add - adds one new bot to the game
• bot add n - adds n new bots to the game
• bot remove [player-number] - removes the bot with the given player number
• bot menu - launches the menu interface for everything that can be done from the console
• bot pause - toggles pause for all bots
• bot pause [on/off] - sets the pause status for all bots
• bot debug - toggles debugging for all bots
• bot debug [on/off] - sets the debugging status for all bots
• bot freecam [on/off] - set Free-Camera mode to move freely as an observer
• bot chasecam [player-number] [on/off] - set Chase-Camera mode to follow any player
• bot help - shows a list of available console commands
• bot about - prints basic information about the FlexBot to the console

Commands To Individual Bots

(where n is the bot's player number and square brackets indicate mutually exclusive arguments)

• bot n pause - toggles the pause status of the individual bot
• bot n pause [on/off] - sets the pause status of the individual bot
• bot n debug - turn on/of debugging for the individual bot
• bot n debug [on/off] - sets the debug status for the individual bot
• bot n dll filename - loads a behavior DLL for the bot with the specified filename
• bot n waypoint add - add a waypoint for the specified bot at your current location
• bot n waypoint remove - remove the waypoint nearest to your current location
• bot n waypoint load [filename] - load the waypoints defined in the file
• bot n waypoint export [filename] - export the bot's current waypoints to a file
• bot n infopoint add [type] [lifetime] - add an infopoint for the bot at your current location that will exist for [lifetime] number of seconds 
• bot n infopoint remove - remove the infopoint nearest to your current location
• bot n skill [skill-level] - change the bot's accuracy: values are 0(poor)-100(excellent)

Commands To All Bots

• bot all [any bot command] - sends the specified command to all bots in the game
• bot tournament [behavior 1] [behavior 2] - starts a bot tournament

Commands To Groups of Bots

• bot [bot 1] [bot 2] [bot …] [bot n] [any bot command] - sends the command to all specified bots

Commands To Bots On Specific Team

• bot team [teamname] [any bot command] - sends the command to a team (e.g. team "robo" or team "hgrunt")

Using .cfg Files To Automate Bot Control Tasks

Because all control features are implemented as console commands, standard Half-Life configuration files (.cfg files) can be used to automate any bot control tasks.

Using configuration files to automate bot management tasks can be a simple and convenient way to ease debugging. Key binds are the most basic form of automation. If you would like to make the bot menu pop up with a single key press, you could put a line in your .cfg file to bind it to the "m" key:

bind "m" "bot menu"

A more complex task might be to pause all of the bots in the game, add a new bot, and then make the bot menu pop up. This could be achieved by defining an alias:

alias "task1" "bot pause;addbot;bot menu"

This task would now be available by typing "task1" into the console. It could also be bound to a key:

bind "t" "task1"

See http://www.ukterrorist.com/guides/scripting/intro/ for more information on scripting Half-Life tasks.