Player Counts and Bots

This section is split into three parts, dealing with how player counts are determined and the use of bot rosters.

Part One - Player Counts

What Happens Without MapMixer

Map authors set a recommended min and max player count for their map.  UT2004 adds bots to a match to make it more fun for both Single Player (offline) or Multiplayer (network) games. To determine how many AI bots are added to a match, a minimum player count is determined for the match, based on the recommended player counts the author set for their map.

In Single Player (offline) games, the number of bots added equals the half way point between a map's recommended min and max player count,  minus 1 (human player).

In Multiplayer (network) games, the number of bots added equals the min recommended player count minus the number of human players connected to the server. If the number of human players connected to the server is greater than the min player count then no bots will obviously be added.

Additionally, a Multiplayer (network) game will have a maximum player count, which indicates what is the maximum number of human players that can join the match.  This does obviously not apply to single player (offline) games as there is only one human player.

Taking Player Counts a Step Further

With MapMixer there are two methods to determine player counts for a match, meaning the min and max players in a match. The method is selected in the Player Counts section in the Setup Config Page. For multiplayer games the option that becomes important is the Min Net Players setting, as this determines how many human players are required for a match to begin.  The options are as follows:

Specify Number
This is the "dumb" mode. Player Counts are statically set in the Config and do not change over the series of matches played. The min and max player counts are set by the "Lowest" and "Highest" numbers displayed underneath. If you are playing a single player game then this means that the number of bots for each map in the session remains a constant value.  This will be similar in multiplayer games and there will be no AI bots added if there are at least the minimum number of human players connected and there will be no more than the maximum player count number of human players allowed.

Auto Adjust
This option behaves similarly to the standard UT2004 method, in that match player counts are adjusted for each map using the recommended min and max player counts specified in each map. The difference here with the MapMixer version is that you can determine how the min player count is adjusted. Instead of it just being the half way point between the map's min and max, the min player count can be any of the following:

Lowest	Map's Min
Low	1/4 of Map's Min/Max
Medium	1/2 of Map's Min/Max
High	3/4 of Map's Min/Max
Highest	Map's Max
Random	Picks an number between Min and Max

Of course team games are taken into account when adjusting player counts - team balancing is determined by the player count and number of teams.  See Overriding Teams for more details on Teams with greater than two sides.

Overriding a Map's Recommended Player Counts

There may be special circumstances where you wish to override the recommended player counts an author specified for a map. There are two ways to do this:

Custom Map List
For each map in a Custom Map List you may "edit" this map and specify a whole range of options specifically for that map in the map list. One of these options is the Min and Max Player Counts.

Map Defaults
In the Map Defaults section of the mapmixer config you can assign specific player counts to a map for all game types or specific game types.

Part Two - Player Count Limits

If you are using MapMixer's Auto Adjust player count settings then you may wish to place further absolute limits on the player counts for the session.  For example, imagine you were setting up a multiplayer server using MapMixer at a LAN.  In this case you perhaps already know that there will be at least a certain number of human players.  If you just used MapMixer's Auto Adjust settings by themself then you might end up with a match that has a maximum player count of 4, even though there are 6 people playing.  In this case two people would not be able to join. MapMixer contains an option to set absolute limits on each map's minimum and maximum player counts, regardless of the recommended player counts for each map played.

Settings Absolute Lowest and Highest Player Counts

Using the Auto Adjust function, MapMixer calculates the min and max player counts for the current map, per the Auto Adjust settiongs, and it then checks that these numbers fall within a set of Player Count Limitations or boundaries. These boundaries are referred as "Lowest" and "Highest" settings. You can set these boundaries in 3 ways:

• Globally (via the Lowest and Highest settings in the Config Tab)
• In a Custom Game Type (via the Lo and Hi settings for each Custom Game Type)
• For each game type in a Rules List (via the Lo and Hi settings)

When using MapMixer it is important that you understand the difference between a map's Player Count Min/Max settings and the Lowest and Highest boundaries. Remember that the Lowest and Highest settings only act as final limits. This means that they only come into affect after the Player Counts have been adjusted (calculated) for a map.

The Lowest and Highest settings can be very useful for Multiplayer (network) games because it may help you adjust team distribution. For example, imagine that you had 4 human players on your network game and they all liked to play on the Blue Team. If the min player count for a Team Deathmatch was 4 players, then the Red Team would end up empty. If the min player count was 6, then the Red Team would end up with only 2 players. So in this case it would be useful to adjust the "Lowest" setting to 8 to make sure team games are balanced.

As mentioned above, there are three ways to specify the Lowest and Highest settings. The priority (or order) in which the optional Lowest and Highest settings are applied are as follows:

1. The Global Lowest and Highest settings are read.
2. If using a custom game type and new Lo and Hi settings are specified then if these further restrict the boundaries on player counts then these new values because the Lowest and Highest.
3. If the current game type in the Rules List specifies new Lo and Hi settings then they are used as in step 2 above.
    

An Example of Player Count Limits

Imagine that you do the following:

• Set the Global (ie Setup Tab) Lowest and Highest settings to 2 and 32, respectively.
• Create a Custom Game Type called "DeathMatch 1on1" and switch on the "Player Limits" option and enter the Lo and Hi as 2.
• In your Game Rules List select the standard "Capture the Flag" gametype and switch on the "Player Limits" option and adjust the Lo setting to 6.
• Create a Games List containing your custom game type "DeathMatch 1on1" and the standard game type "Capture the Flag", so you can cycle between these two game types.

The result is:
Because your 1on1 gametype has a Highest setting of 2, whenever this gametype comes into play, your player count will always be limited to 2, whereas when CTF is selected, it will always have a minimum player count of 6.  Any other game type that will be restricted by the Global Limits of 2 to 32.

This example shows you that you can set the Lowest and Highest boundaries at different points, depending on what you want to do.

Part Three - Custom Bot Selections/Rosters

UT2004 allows for custom Bot Rosters, where specific bots are designated for a match.  MapMixer allows you to specify a Bot Roster for specific maps if you wish.  You can do this in the following ways:

• If you are not starting the game from the MapMixer Config (ie via Play, Listen or Dedicated buttons) then you may use the standard Custom Bot Roster and MapMixer will use this in it's map list.
• If you have the optional add-on BotMixer installed then you can use it to manage your bot rosters using it's own Bot Teams.
• You can assign a bot roster to a specific map of a specific game type using the MapMixer Map Defaults feature.
• You can specify a bot roster individually for each map in a MapMixer Map List by editing the map (using the MapMixer Map List Editor).

As you can see from above, there are a few different ways to use custom bot rosters, and it is important to understand that each different way has its own priority over the other ways.  The order of the bulleted list above indicates this priority, so that the last item listed has the highest priority over the others.  For example, if you were using the BotMixer add-on to control your Bots and you specified a bot roster for a map in your Map List, then all maps would use the BotMixer bot roster except for the map in your map list where you assigned specific bots.

If the BotMixer add-on is active then the Bot Team names will be shown on the Client HUD at the bottom of the blue box.