MULTI BOTS LAUNCHER F.A.Q. v.4.1 - 02/19/02

This FAQ was compiled both from e-mails I've received and common posts in the MBL forum.





Q. Help, the installer is in french language, and I have no idea of what I have to do.

A. Don't panic. Only the installer is in french, the whole prog is in english.
The only thing you have to set during the installation process is the destination directory.
MBL MUST be installed within your Half-Life folder.



 Q. I think it would be so cool if you make MBL versions in other languages (and I can help you).

A. No, thanks. English is the basic language within HL community, and that's fine that way. Plus, I don't want to depend on the good will of some translators to launch new releases.



 Q. When I launch MBL, I don't see any button, so I can't choose any mod to play.

A. That's because you don't have any supported mod installed.
MBL is not supplied with the mods, otherwise the install file would be about 500 Mb.
You must download and install manually each supported mods and bots you need.
You can find the links at the end of the MBL's readme.txt file, or on the Links page of MBL's website.



 Q. Since MBL 12, my bots and/or mods are not recognized by MBL.

A. Since release 12, MBL MUST be installed in ..\Half-Life\MBL\ or ..\Counter-strike\MBL\ (CS retail), all mods definition files (cstrike.ini, tfc.ini ...) must be in ..\MBL\Mods, and all bots definition files (cs_bots.ini, tf_bots.ini ...) must be placed in ..\MBL\Bots\



 Q. When I click on the "Apply Config" button, I get this error message : "Accès au fichier refusé"

A. One of more of the files in the mod folder and/or in the bot folder are read-only. Just select all the files in the folder, right-click and select "Properties". Then uncheck the "read-only" option. This may happens if you have copied some files from a CD-Rom.



 Q. Every time I launch a game with MBL, HL starts a connection to the Internet, how do I disable that ?

A. add "-nomaster" (without quotes) in the Additional Commands (Options menu).



 Q. How can I play HL DeathMatch or HL Teamplay with MBL ?

A. You must install a bot specially made for DM/TP, like HPB_bot, Jumbot, Phineas and such.



 Q. When I play HL DeathMatch on LAN, no human players can join the game, what's wrong ?

A. This is a maxplayers problem, and it's related with HL Deathmatch bots.

I had to force the maxplayers value to the number of bots, plus one (so you can join your own game) because if I leave this value to 32 (as with all other mods) the game is filled with bots until the maxplayer value is reached. This bug occurs with barely all recent HLDM bots, and I don't know why.

What you have to do, if you want to play with human people, is to set the number of bots to the total amount of players (human+bots), and then manually kick the bots you don't need in the game, so human players can join in the free slots.


Q. I have Counter-Strike / Firearms / FrontLine Force / TFC / ... installed, but there is no button in MBL.

A. Those mods are not supplied with bots.
Bots for those mods are separated files you must download and install within the mods directories.
As above, check the links to find some bots for these mods.



 Q. Why MBL window has this pretty blue color ?

A. Because I hate the green color.



 Q. I have bots for Counter-Strike / Firearms / FrontLine Force / TFC / .... Do I have to care about the liblist.gam file each time I want to play with a different bot ?

A. NO. MBL rewrites liblist.gam regarding the bot you have selected.
Mainly, once you've started to use MBL, you don't have anymore to change anything manually in the bot config files, because that's why MBL is made for !



 Q. I have some bots installed, but I can't see them in MBL.

A. On the first run, MBL reads the registry to find the locations of Half-Life and installed bots.
Maybe your HL installation is somehow wrong, or you're using Counter-Strike retail (or a warez copy, sucker).
Check the 'Directory setting' in the 'Options' menu.
There you must have a path to hl.exe, or to cstrike.exe for CS Retail.
Click 'Apply' and the bots must appear.
If you can't still see anything, delete and reinstall your mods, and be sure to check the bot readme files to know how to install them properly.



 Q. When I open the 'Maps' tab, no map is listed.

A. The bot you have selected requires waypoint files to work properly.
The waypoints are the common navigation system for bots, telling them where to go and what to do.
They must be placed in a specific directory (i.e \maps). Check the bot readme files for more info.
MBL only displays maps that currently have a waypoint file.
They have the same name as the map files, but with another extension (i.e. datacore.wpt).
Some waypoints are usually supplied with the bot archives, and you can get more on the bot's websites.



 Q. When the game starts, no bot spawns.

A. You play with an usupported map.
Check the bot readme files to have a list of supported maps, or be sure the maps have waypoints (if needed).
With bots that don't use waypoints, some maps don't work because they're not made for bots or DM.



 Q. When I launch a game, the bots don't use the name/team/model I've set within MBL

A. Some bots always use random settings, whatever you've defined in MBL. Play with another bot if that is really a problem for you.



 Q. Since I have MBL, I play Counter-Strike 24 hours a day and my girlfriend is gone. How can I get her back ?

A. You can't, just because you're a freak, and she was right when she left you.
Remember, real life is always far more important than what's happening on your screen.



 Q. When I launch a game, I only have 4 bots, no matter the number I've set in MBL.

A. It's a ressource problem.
Open 'Additional commands' from the 'Options' menu, and type '-heapsize XXX' (without quotes).
XXX is a number you must set regarding your system memory :
    MB   Heapsize
    32     20000
    64     32000
    128   64000
    192   96000



 Q. When Half-life changes the map, it crashes to desktop.

A. The bot you're using doesn't support mapcycling.
Set the Time Limit and Frag Limit to 0, so the game will never change the map.



 Q. I have [xxxBot] ver 1.0, but MBL already supports [xxxBot] ver 2.0. Will it still work ?

A. If the bot update only concerns the DLL file, then it "should" work.
But if the newer bot version implements new params, or some changes in the way the older params used to work, then you may have some problems.
Basically, you must upgrade your bot release to the one that is currently supported by your MBL release.



 Q. I have [xxxBot] ver 2.0, but MBL only supports [xxxBot] ver 1.0. Will it still work ?

A. Same as above. If only the DLL has been changed, it "should" work. Otherwise...
The best behaviour once you've started to use MBL is to NOT UPGRADE until MBL fully supports the new bots releases.
Usually, depending on my free time, MBL is updated within a week after a new release. So be patient.



 Q. Can you add more new features ?

A. Why not. Post your request on the MBL 'Ideas & Suggestions' forum, and I'll think about it.



 Q. Can you add support for [place your favorite mod/bot here] ?

A. Yes, but there is so much mods I have to include that I have made a Poll page on MBL website.
Submit your mod, and people will vote for it.



 Q. Can I use MBL to play with some friends on a LAN ?

A. YES. And you can both start a game as normal server (where you can play on it), or as dedicated server (see the Options menu).