Tips on Good AirCan Action Placement

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Here are some Tips on Good AirCan Action Placement in FritzBot ET.

Contents

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Preamble

Aircan (airstrike hint) actions should be used sparingly since field op bots will use air cans autonomously in a fight and because you don't want your bots killing their own teammates due to too many aircan actions. Aircan actions are useful for locations where the 2 teams are separated and can't see each other but where a human would throw an aircan anyway (on the off chance of getting a mass kill).

The trick to an effective airstrike hint is controlling the angle of bot approach and placing the action at the right height for good azimuth control of the throw. The radius of the action should be small enough that your fieldop bots on other paths do not touch the radius of the action and throw an aircan in the wrong direction. The closenode of the air can action is unimportant since the bot chooses the action only when it comes inside its radius. That is the bot may not actively navigate to the action. Consequently if you want your fieldop bots to regularly perform the airstrike you may need to draw the field ops to the spot with a roam action in the path.

Choosing a Suitable Path

Generally it is a bad idea to place the action near a node that interconnects many paths since bots will likely throw the air can in multiple directions dependent on the path direction they followed. It is a generally good idea to place any air can actions on a one way path node, one way connection or at a very sharp corner of a 2-way path since that limits the angle of approach.

Determining Suitable Action Center and Radius

You will normally have to place the action using /noclip or while flying as a spectator to get the action center above the ground so the bot can throw the air can over a barrier or wall. Now there are 2 ways to place the action. If the action is in a rather empty area of the map with just the one path, then the action may possibly be placed above the barrier or wall and the radius of the action enlarged until it extends down into the bots path (see example below). This would be the easiest way to get a good toss over the barrier. However in most waypoints there will be other paths in the area which will preclude this form. So it is more likely that the air can hint action will have a small radius and be placed directly on or beside a node or connection over which the field op may pass. One caveat to a small radius for aircan actions is the bot ballistics may carry the bot to the other side of the action resulting in a bad throw. Consequently testing the action placement is very important.


Use spectator mode to place the aircan hint center above the ground as needed (with a radius that extends through the bot's path)

Image:ammodepot_aircan1.jpg

To prevent bots throwing in the opposite direction use a one-way connection

Image:ammodepot_aircan_2.jpg Image:ammodepot_aircan3.jpg

And now you have a working aircan action to take out players and MG nests along the wall...

Image:ammodepot_aircan4.jpg Image:ammodepot_aircan5.jpg Image:ammodepot_aircan6.jpg

And to encourage the bot to take the path use a roam or alt-roam on the opposite end of the one way connection.

Image:ammodepot_aircan30.jpg

Testing

Once you have placed the action you will want to test it multiple times to see how successful the throw will be. Start by kicking all bots, then add to the team using the aircan action, a couple of fieldop bots. You may have to join in to complete some map objectives so the Fieldops will run through the area with the aircan actions being tested. You may also have to edit the waypoints (and save-restart) to restrict the connections or add roams to draw the field-ops to the actions of interest. When your testing is complete revert any temporary changes and then re-test the map with the normal bot teams.

And remember bot ballistics and displacements due to other bots etc. will occasionally make the bots throw wild so you need to witness it multiple times to determine the success rate;

A good throw;

Image:ammodepot_aircan10.jpg

A poor throw;

Image:ammodepot_aircan20.jpgImage:ammodepot_aircan21.jpg


Wrapup

And don't forget to disable the aircan action when it is no longer strategic to the map play. Forgetting to do so may result in team kills or just useless waste of your fieldop bots' chargebar.

What about Smoke Can actions?

Generally smoke can actions are low near ground level, but on occasion you may want to toss them forward into an area ahead or over a barrier. In such cases the placement may be similar to that of an aircan.

Example of a smoke can action targeting a ramp beyond a low barrier wall. (Note the alternate large radius style of placement).

Image:v1rocket_b2smoke.JPG

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