* NOTE: Some Parts of this FAQ were taken straight out of
	the HPB-Bot FAQ (Lazyness took me!)

* Last update: 23.12.2000        

Q: Why does nobody read the readme.txt or this FAQ ?
A: I really don't know. Most questions I receive via
   e-mail are already answered either in the readme or
   in this FAQ :)

Q: Why is it called "POD-Bot" ?
A: POD is an abbreviation for "Ping of Death". I called
   it that way because it was derived from the
   "High Ping Bastard Bot" Botman is doing. And if you
   look at the Bots Ping they always have a Ping of
   5 and the very first Generation of Bots did Headshots
   all the time, so you know why, huh ?
   
Q: Who is this Botman Guy everbody seems to mention ?
A: Botman was the very first who implemented a Method to hook
   every existing Halflife MOD DLL. Since you don't usually
   have the original Sources of e.a. Counterstrike, DLL Hooking is
   the only way to write extensions (Bots) for it. He also was so
   nice to put his Sources on his Webpage, so that everybody
   could see how it is done and was able to do Bot Programming.
   Please visit his Website at:
   http://www.planethalflife.com/botman/
   and also try his HPB-Bot which supports several MODs.

Q: Why did you write this Bot ?
A: When I started coding, there only was Android Bot by DaTa.
   I really liked Android, but at that time you could only play
   DE_DUST with it and I got bored with it. Then I found out that it
   was based on Botmans Ideas and thought I could do that aswell.
   So instead of waiting for updates, I took my trusty VC++ and
   did a Bot on my own.
   Besides, I never did AI programming or pathfinding and we all
   have to learn the whole life, don't we ?
   
Q: Does this Bot support MODs other than CounterStrike ?
A: No, this Bot was coded especially for CounterStrike.
   If you want to play for example TFC with a Bot, you have
   to install HPB-Bot by Botman which supports several MODs
   in one. I heard there's also a Bot for FireArms called
   "FireBot" by DStroth. I don't plan to extend my Bot to others
   since I'm only interested in Cs. Maybe I will do modificated
   Versions of it for other MODs, but only if I finished all modes
   for Cs and I find the time and interest for it (do I hear you
   say "HL-Gunman" ?).
      
Q: Why should I use this Bot and not <insert-your-favourite-bot> ?
A: Well, because at the moment of writing I think this one is the most
   playable and human acting Bot for Counterstrike. Yes, it uses
   predefined waypoints but show me a Non-Human Opponent in any newer
   Game. which doesn't (Unreal & Quake3 for example also use a mixture
   of waypoints and terrain analyzing) If you don't like it, feel free
   to try the others. Even if you do, compare it with the others to have
   your own judgement.
   
Q: Will I be able to play CounterStrike on the Internet or
   on a LAN with the POD-Bot installed?
A: YES!  You can join a network game over the Internet or on a LAN without
   having to uninstall the Bot.  You cannot spawn bots when connected to
   an Internet server, but you can spawn bots on a LAN if you are running the
   server. If you're hosting a Server you can even spawn Bots in the Internet.

Q: Why do I get "Unknown Command" if I type "addbot" in the Console ?
A: You must have overwritten the "liblist.gam" File in the cstrike
   Folder. If this happens for example by installing a Counterstrike
   Update the liblist.gam will point to the original Counterstrike
   DLL and the Bots DLL won't get called. Search for the Line
   gamedll "dlls\mp.dll" in liblist.gam and replace it with
   gamedll "PODBot\podbot.dll" to re-install it. Another reason could
   be that you unzipped the Archive into the wrong Folder.
   NOTE: You have to unzip it into the Halflife Main Folder NOT the
   cstrike one !

Q: I downloaded some custom waypoints and POD doesn't seem to find them.
   What's wrong ?
A: You unzipped them into the wrong directory or you're using a wpt file
   which is too old for your current POD version. If you're using POD 1.2
   or older the default folder to unpack the files is the main PODBot Directory.
   If you're using V1.4 or newer the default folder for wpts is "PODBot/WPTCs10".
  
Q: When will you be releasing the next version of the POD Bot?
A: If I believe there are enough Features added, so that a new Release
   is satisfying enough (usually one week or two is enough to add some
   funky things, but development cycles are slowing down).
   Please don't keep pushing me in e-mails, I will delete them... !

Q: When are you going to provide <insert_your_favorite_feature_here> into
   the POD Bot?
A: I'm adding features to the Bot, which I am most interested in.
   Over the time I want to have all Game Goals and useful stuff implemented.
   Just be patient and wait for the next release !

Q: Will there be a Linux Version of POD ?
A: Definitely yes. I would have done a Linux version already, if the
   Compiler in my Linux Distribution would be able to accept newer
   C++ Standards. Actually all the Linux code is already in the source,
   I just need to be able to compile it. Btw. my Linux Distribution
   (SuSe 7.0) also has problems with my GFX Card (GeForce2) which makes
   it much harder for me to port it over to Linux...
    
Q: How do I write my own Bot ? What do I need for this ?
A: First, you need a good understanding of C/C++. It would help a
   lot if you did a MOD before or read the Halflife SDK.
   A good place to start writing a Halflife Bot is Botmans Webpage
   (see the URL in the 2nd Question). Before you ask: No, there
   isn't any Webpage or Source I know of, which especially has
   Sources on CounterStrike Bots or how to code one.

Q: Would you help me in developing my own Bot ?
A: It depends. If I see you really know programming by heart, then
   I will surely exchange ideas. If you just want to change minor
   things in the original HPB Bot, then NO!
   
Q: Are your Sources available for download ? Will you open your sources
   to the public in future times ?
A: I don't feel like releasing my sources now, because of it's poorly
   commented, weak style and I think a lot of people would only try to
   rip off parts from it. I will surely release it when I feel it's in a
   finished state and I'm not interested in adding things to it. Until
   then please be patient and use for example Botman's templates to do
   your own Bot. 

Q: When will my favourite map be supported ?
A: I currently only did waypoints for my favourite maps and all
   of them are official standard maps. Since V1.1 you're free
   to use the built-in waypoint editor to support your
   favourite maps.
   
Q: What are your favourite CounterStrike Bots besides your own ?
A: At the time of writing, there are already a few others I like to play with.
   I admire "Android" by DaTa for using wayzones to achieve a great movement.
   I played a lot of time with NNBot by Daniel Ditlew which uses Neural
   Networks to train the Bots (a thing which I fear I would have never managed
   to implement). And finally there is Realbot by Stefan Hendriks which has a
   big community since it doesn't use waypoints of any sort and navigates from
   one entity to another. Ah yes, and then there's Rambot by Paulo-La-Fritte
   which was released very early and had some advanced features, but it has been
   a bit quite in development these days. All of these have their own
   "look and feel" and make good Bots for playing. Not to mention
   SwatBot, BobaBot, Knifebot (I certainly missed some) there are numerous
   other Cs Bots if you don't like these. If you ask me again, at
   the moment I play with NNBot most of the time and can't wait for a new
   version of HPB-Bot to be released, which shocks me with great new
   features everytime...
   
Q: Would you like me to send some suggestions to you ?
A: Please...no...don't ! I would prefer if you would use the Forum
   for that (also for reporting Bugs!) since I get a ton of e-mails
   every day and I can't keep up with answering all of them. I visit
   the Forum on a regular basis and there might be some other guys
   who already posted that suggestion/bug.
   
Q: Why does your Bot use waypoints ? I want to play some unsupported
   maps without doing waypoint files.
A: I knew you would ask. Simply because I don't believe in a Bot
   who is doing great without any kind of navigational help. Show
   me only one First Person Shooter where the Monster AI doesn't
   use either waypoints, wayzones or pre-defined areas. I'm pretty
   sure you won't find any. The reason for this again is simple.
   It would just take too much CPU Power to realtime calculate
   all Geometry inside a map. Imagine a Bot either shooting
   some dozens of TraceLines through the part of the map he's
   seeing or sorting all entity coordinates he encounters.
   Doesn't matter what he actually does, it's just way too slow
   for the current state of CPU technology. You would end up with
   a Bot which is either pretty good/humanlike at movement but
   stupid as hell, vice versa or both. Since my computer is a slow
   PII-300 I can't even be bothered to try...
   I don't tell this to discourage Bot authors attempting this.
   Just prove me wrong and keep trying !

Q: I'm unable to do good waypoints for POD. Also I'm unsure about
   several explanations in your waypointshowtodo.txt. What can I
   do ? Should I e-mail you my questions or should I send you my
   buggy waypoint file ?
A: No ! For heavens sake don't do that ! If you don't know how to
   waypoint or have some questions about it, please visit the
   waypoint forum at nuclearbox. There are a lot of experienced
   people willing to help you and posting your questions to the
   forum might help other newbies, too.
    
Q: I did Waypoints for a map which isn't officially supported by
   POD-Bot yet. May I send it to you to include it with later
   versions ?
A: I don't have an overview of already released waypoint files by
   other people than me. Best is to send them to Auxois, webmaster
   of my pages at nuclearbox.com who's collecting all waypoint files
   for POD and who puts them to the download page.
   His e-mail: auxois@nuclearbox.com

Q: I did a translation of the botchat.txt into my own language. Do
   you want me to send it to you ?
A: If it's a 100% translation of the original text, it's not already
   included and you made sure it's working with POD then yes, I'd be
   glad to receive it.
   
Q: Will POD run on a dedicated Server ?
A: Yes, the most important commands are also supported when starting
   a dedicated Server. Most people think that POD doesn't support
   it because they didn't get the big difference between the normal
   console commands and the ones for DS. When running a DS you need to
   have the word "bot" before the actual command. For example to add a
   Bot in non DS Mode you just type "addbot". When running a DS you need
   to type "bot addbot". Please take a look into the readme.txt for a
   summary of all DS commands.  

Q: I did write you a long e-mail and you didn't answer me back !
A: Please be patient ! I really try to answer everyone but I
   currently have problems keeping up with all the mails I got.
   Also, if you're writing from gmx.net I'm unable to reply, because
   they seem to block all mails coming from yahoo. 
   If one week has passed without any answer then I must have
   missed your mail or it just got lost on its way. Also I usually reply
   much faster in the forum...
    
   
If you have questions not answered in this FAQ you can visit the Forum:
http://www.nuclearbox.com/ubb/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi
or e-mail me at: podbot@yahoo.com

(please don't mail me suggestions or your personal wishlist,
use the Forum instead ! AND DON'T ASK ME FOR RELEASE DATES
OF FUTURE VERSIONS, SUCH E-MAILS WILL BE DELETED AT ONCE!