Tribes 2 // Mod Development Handbook GitHub

52 · botpilot & Werewolf

An AI-piloting addon and the heavier community fork built from it — two related pieces, not one mod, and neither one a ruleset in the sense the rest of this section covers.

Werewolf: the original release

Piloting AI, by Josef “Werewolf” Jahn (www.playspoon.com), version 2.0, 2001.

The readme is explicit about its own foundation [community]:

“based on code in ‘AiDebug.cs’ by Dynamix”

Credits: Josef Jahn (main programmer and idea), Nathan Vegdal (navigation code), with a vehicle-team fix from {USB}Spiderman and {USB}|Hypn0tik| — integrated into the “{USB} Mayhem Mod” community. Version history runs 1.3 through 2.0, adding vehicle auto-buying, passenger auto-boarding, and missile use against enemy vehicles. Its own behaviour notes are precise about scope [community]:

“The bots are programmed to use nearby unused vehicles in order to reach far-away objectives… They will ONLY mount Bombers/Transports/Tanks as PILOT if at least ONE passenger is already inside… In this version, they DO NOT use the on-board weapons.”

Two archived copies in this workspace are the same v2.0 release repackaged, one bundling an extra random-soundtrack addon.

botpilot: absorbed, rewritten, and re-credited

The botpilot/ folder is not another copy of Werewolf’s release — it is a separate, heavier aggregation that starts from Werewolf’s code and substantially rewrites it.

botpilot/scripts/aiPilot.cs opens with Werewolf’s original header intact, naming him and 2001 — but a line-level diff against Werewolf’s own aiPilot.cs shows only 27.7% similarity, despite nearly equal length (1007 vs 1013 lines). The credit survived; the body did not. station.cs and vehicle.cs are moderately closer, at 70.4% and 75.8%.

This folder sits on an autoload plugin framework (prefs/autoload.ini, prefs/autoload.log) and pulls in work from a different mod lineage entirely: scripts/addons/RevStringMatch.cs is headed [mod-script]:

“Modified for server-side by Lexor for RevMod2, RevMod2 Lexor 12-14-2003”

— the same Lexor credited in 43 · Revmod2. Separately, scripts/autoexec/aiPilotShrike.cs credits “Lagg-Alot” (JPerricone@nyc.rr.com), thanking ZOD, and scripts/defaultGame.cs itself carries a z0dd - ZOD, 5/19/03 comment — the identical attribution style found in 34 · Triumph’s defaultGame.cs. Three otherwise-unrelated mods in this handbook (Triumph, Revmod2, botpilot) turn out to share code or credit from the same handful of community contributors.

Beyond piloting, botpilot adds bot behaviours for CTF play, tank operation, and MPB deployment (scripts/autoexec/aiCTF.cs, aiDeployVehicle.cs, aiTank.cs, aiVehicle.cs, mpb.cs). Its autoload.ini references several plugins not actually present in this capture (an ECM menu, a “reverse sniper” addon, recording and bind-manager support scripts) — evidence of a larger installation this folder is only a partial snapshot of.