November 19, 2003
I'm currently working on the page design, you will see some minor changes here in the future.
I'm also working on the next E[POD]bot release IIId. The outstanding new feature will be the language localization. But I'm also revising the movement system to fix some bugs and make bots' movement smarter.
There will also be an config program (either included in the release or to download seperately) which allows to easily change the settings of the bots.

September 19, 2003
Today I uploaded a new release of E(POD]bot Version III, because the old one had a few mistakes. This is not a real update, there are actually no changes to the bot, but to some to the files contained in the packages (e.g. the de_dust2 waypoints were missing) and there is a new installer.

September 01, 2003
Heyyo, this is LightNinja and I have now the new version of E[POD]bot... I wull got to holiday tomorrow to netherlands and so I'm for 12 days absent and you cannot write me. Have much fun with the bot.... ok, it is possible that you will not get the file, because my friend will upload it, when he goes up to the internet., www.epod-bot.net.tc

August 19, 2003
OK guys, you wanted me to post some news here.
Although I had to deal with this bad "Lovesan"-Worm, I have made great progress in the bot, but still it is not good enough to release ;-) At the beginning of September I will go on holiday to the Netherlands for 12 days. So *perhaps* Verison III will release at the end of August. At least I will upload some beta version next weekend and in the next few days some demo-files (.dem) where you can see the bot.
I improved the sniping very much. They now stand still when they shoot and they use the zoom mode properly in most cases.
And the unstuck thing is quite good, it's a completely new method of doing this. You will see it in one of the demos. Some people could call it cheating, but it has no effect on the gameplay, so I think it's ok: When the bot is stuck, it will calculate a new position which is reachable from the previous and the current waypoint and reset the bot's position to it. If this is not possible he will be reset to the nearest waypoint. It does not look very good, perhaps a little bit funny, but it's not exceptional in comparison with the effects a slight lag produces.
The new personality system is nearly completed. There are some presence of the old agression- and fear-thingies left, but I will wipe them out soon. After that I will try to make user customizable characters. But I won't make any promises, perhaps this will not work and Version III will come without it. By the way: Version III of E[POD]bot will come without a botskill.cfg, the values are now all hardcoded. This is how I justify it: The first thing is, that this file caused much trouble, because no-one knew how to fill that out correctly. Another thing is, that the new personality system involves different

June 12, 2003
In future versions I plan to add multiple personality traits through 5 values. They are

courage
intelligence
"phreaknes"
reaction
aim

COURAGE will affect combat behaviour, camping, pausing, etc. INTELLIGENCE will affect buying, tactics, etc. PHREAKNES affects bots doing "l33t" things, like running with knife, "typing" speed at botchat, radio messages, spraylogos etc. REACTION affects reaction and suprise times, hearing and other enemy sensing, turning speed, etc. AIM affects, how good they shoot at you and hit you, etc.
The values will be set at the creation of a bot. The higher the bot's skill is, the higher these values will get.

May 21, 2003
Version IIa has some ugly bugs, which are now fixed through the Version IIb patch.

May 19, 2003
Version IIa of E[POD]bot released. Get it thru the QuickLink or on the Download-Site. You will find additional Information in the version history.

May 7, 2003
I started negotiation with bot.meister, the creator of (mEAn) Bot.Admin manager, to get a possible way of improving bots' knifing. He agreed to give me some code examples and a description how it is made. I'm looking forward to have a better knifing in Version IIa.

April 25, 2003
50% of the waypointing is done, 50% more to go. MarD helps with the as_maps, which is very cool. Version IIa will provide revised and optimized waypoints for 48 maps!
The FAQ has been updated. Read it first if you have any questions.

April 05, 2003
epod-bot.net.tc goes online! I will be absent for a while but will start working on the bot in a weak or so.

April 04, 2003
AustinBotServer from Nukebox offers help fixing some of the crashes. I'm very grateful to get his help.

April 03, 2003
I begin working on the new EPB-Website and continue working on the waypoint-pack (for stand-alone-version of EPB).

April 02, 2003
With a delay of nearly 48 hours E[POD]bot (Version II) is released. Kain is fascinated by it, but it takes some time until the first comments arrive at Nukebox.

April 01, 2003
I finish and upload E[POD]bot (Version II). But just after I posted it to Nukebox Kain noticed that they do not fight. I test it and see that something seems so be messed up, because they just aim at their enemies and move towards them without shooting. So I remove the link. Later on I reflect upon this event and think it could have been a great April Fool... It's a pity that it didn't come to my mind earlier ;-)

March 30, 2003
Steve++ releases the first "real" version of his bot, now called POX-Bot ("Ping-of-X"). It has quite good improvements and some additional features in the podbotmenu, most of them for debugging purposes.
It's fascinating how I am able to figure out bugs of my own bot by just watching POX-Bot in Spectator Mode.

March 28, 2003
I shedule Version 2 for Monday the 31st of March.

March 27, 2003
I find a way to greatly improve combat movement and decide the next version won't be "Version 1 Build 2" but Version 2.

March 22, 2003
Steve++ releases his own bot ("POdBot, not PODbot"), which is also based on the PODBot 2.6 Source, for debugging purposes. Some small upgrade follow.

March 18, 2003
I publish EPB v1 to the web. From Nukebox there are several good responses, but also new bugs spot up.

March 13, 2003
I finish Version 1 of E[POD]bot and share it with friends.

March 12, 2003
I include several other fixes from podfix, e.g. the hostage fix and ad some small additional features. I begin to revise/optimize waypoints for my bot, but encounter problems about as_riverside...

March 06, 2003
I fix the bomb planting problem by working around a memory problem which caused the bot to forget about the bomb planting from one frame to the next.

March 02, 2003
At Nukebox I start a contest: "THE GUY (OR GIRL) WHO FIXES THE BOMB PLANTING PROBLEM IN PODBOT 2.6SRC AND SENDS ME THE SOURCE-CODE WILL BE MENTIONED IN A ON-SCREEN-MESSAGE EVERY TIME MY ENHANCED POD BOT PLANTS THE BOMB!!!" But nobody seems to manage the problem.

March 01, 2003
I try to transfer the idea of "capturing and bypassing" from PODFIX to my bot, but it does not work. The most funny thing I experience during my experiments is, when the bot that tried to plant the bomb just freezed after taking out the C4, as if a player's cable had been pulled out accidently at LAN.
I also invent the name "Enhanced Ping-Of-Death Bot", for short "E[POD]bot" or (even shorter) "EPB".

February 23, 2003
The Metamod-Plugins PODAIM and PODFIX become available again after the author had permitted access to them. A few days later I load ecKo's n00b Installer to get the source-code of them and hardcopy them. I study them to figure out how to fix the planting.
At the same time I begin sharing the alpha of my bot with friends of mine (judas, Kain), who will be the most important beta-testers of E[POD]bot.

February 22, 2003
I begin trying to fix the bomb planting / defusing issues again, this time with more knowledge. But I still do not suceed, even with help of different people from Nukebox.

February 19, 2003
I compile the PB 2.6 DLL and test it. Then I begin improving the code. I crash CS several times trying to fix the bomb planting until I give up on that task and focus on aiming. I get to know Steve++ from the Nukebox Forums because of his work on the PB 2.6 source and some fixes he provides about Podbot Aim.

February 16, 2003
I download PODBot 2.6 Source Code and printed Botman's manual about using his HPB Bot Template to create Bots for HL Mods. I read it over an over again and mark significant parts.

epod-bot.net.tc