EQEmu Bots question...

[Caden]

I am very curious about this too, I actually design AI myself but only in terms of conversation intelligence, you can find my pet project at www.jeeney.com.


Actually, if some of the Devs are willing to work with me I can probably create a link between Jeeney (my bot) and EqEmu. To start with it would be just the conversation end of things, as language in itself is difficult enough without adding a whole lot more.

If possible, I would set up a bot that sits in the plane of knowledge to handle some of the basic GM duties, answering questions, helping people etc. I could even make it open ended so that the Emu comunity can all pitch in and train it up. It would be like having a BotWiki in game. =P

Anybody interested can email me at caden3k18@yahoo.com

[trevius]

Am I wrong, or could that all just be done via quest scripts?

[Caden]

Sure, if you have thousands of people putting in the info, otherwise you either need to have an advanced software program or a lot of time on your hands. I'm talking about a General AI though for any topic, not EQ specificly, but 'specialized' for eq. =)

I've only worked on Jeeney off an on for about a year and a half. She's not perfect by any means, but shes coming along at a fairly quick rate, the concept of mixing her existing capabilities into an EQ based wiki would be interesting to see if it panned out.

It wouldn't be all that hard to set up, might take a couple days under optimal conditions, (experienced devs working together) a week or two tops.

[Nytewind]

Here I go bumping a post that hasn't been touched in two months, but anyways I found this post by a Google search, go figure.

Being able to create an AI script so bots could go about normal game play in EQ is completely 100% interesting. Like said in posts above getting them to level, group, loot, quest etc would be a huge task and fun to watch in my opinion.

There are a few things that someone would scoff at me or agree, but we played EQ going from zone to zone following the exp and grouping/raiding for loot. Each item in the game has an id number, so isn't there a way to be able to put some sort of a value on each item? The bots would know they would want to go adventure and of course better themselves, so the AI would need to figure out to how accomplish that. They would need to figure out the risk vs reward in terms of where they go. We wouldn't want them to make a bee line straight for Naggy at level one.

Also, going along with what I mentioned above someone said they would have to figure out pathing for the bots. Fair enough, that might get a bit extreme since there is so much open space. Again if the bots were able to see the value of an item, or know what to look for while doing a quest, or looking for exp another script/DB would need to be created. All of the zones are connect in some sort of way. Lets say a bot is in Qeynos Hills and for example purposes is zone 5, but he needs to get to East Commons which is labeled zone 8. The DB would calculate the bots current X/Y/Z location in it's current zone then figure the path going through zones 6 and 7 to get to zone 8. There could be some sort of random feature which would determine if the bot is looking to get there asap or time isn't an issue and it still continues on the path from point A to point B, but will fight mobs along the way.

I know, it's easy to say, but hard to near impossible to do right? Would be great to see though.

[Furinex]

I wasn't sure if I should have started my own topic for this or post in this one, but I'm going to stick with this topic since it seems to be very constructive. This is basically on the same lines as what people were thinking with bots roaming around and doing all the PC like things (Which is a really cool idea I think) but not so extreme. I'm sorry to reference another game/emulator, and in my defense... I don't even like WoW... but The auction system in wow is a pretty handy tool. Not only did the Emulator use the current in place auction system and mod it so random items showed up on the Auction house every so often to provide a way for people to purchase wares without the need for people to actually post the items... but it was also ever changing. I was curious. Is that something we might be able to do with bots and the bazaar? Like use Bots instead of traders and have them post random loot on their person based on either the current economy and or a preset curve. Just an idea... any thoughts?

[Kobaz]

I think that getting bot behaviour that is sufficiently PC-like to be surprising and not just annoying would be very hard. Many years ago I used to work simulating ecosystems using GACAs and I think that truly independent behaviour as described by Drauglir would be a massive undertaking. Think of Creatures crossed with EQ.

I do like the idea of limited behaviour for more dynamic quests or the Bazaar though - that seems feasible and fun.

[Magoth78]

Interesting idea.

[Davood]

a while ago I tossed an idea like this around myself... instead i took the easy way out and slapped down 100ish npcs in POK with about ~11,000 lines of random text each they spew to /shout

it makes it feel like live but only in pok haha....

[Davood]

eventually I plan to do some more insiduous things like the afortmentioned posters who wanted npcs fighting each other.. and..sending..tells..to..players.. just to mess with them perhaps..???

/evil grin

[Davood]

anyone remember "Alice" the chat program from the commodore 64 era.. well it's been re-written and ported so many times. i was thinking of putting it into eq for bots

[Kobaz]

I remember playing with Doctor Alice on a DecSystem 20 in 1979. I think it was old then. You youngsters and your new-fangled Commodores....

[Richardo]

I could see this working like the following.


Every zone could have several several grids that would have level ranges per grid. For example, there would be a grid that would patrol throughout Crushbone for levels 1 - 5 in the entrance. Then, another grid in Crushbone that the bot would switch to once they've leveled beyond 5 specifically set for his level. Once he's maxed out for that zone, he'd move on to another zone.

You're looking at a crap load of work.... :p You'd have to maybe add new fields in the grids table that specified level range - minlvl - maxlvl - for bots. This way, bots could reason which grid to jump on.

Basically, to my knowledge you want a way to make a bot community... Yeah, you're looking at a major project. But it is possible..

Originally Posted by Davood

anyone remember "Alice" the chat program from the commodore 64 era.. well it's been re-written and ported so many times. i was thinking of putting it into eq for bots

It's funny that you mentioned that. Back in Dark Horizons, we ported the Alice bot onto one of our NPCs. God, I wish I had a backu p of the quests we had for DH. I lost it all. :(

[Yeormom]

You can also implement roaming bots without writing new grids using advanced perl scripting, as it has been done on a server or two.