Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Tell me again - how do I enter?

You need to do the following things:

  1. Advise your intention to enter by emailing the competition organisers ASAP, but before Wednesday 22nd August 2012.
  2. Obtain and install UT2004 and apply patch 3369.
  3. Download and install GameBots2004 from the Pogamut 3 site (we suggest you also download and install Pogamut 3). We will use the GameBots2004 version the version that is distributed with version 3.3.0 of Pogamut.
  4. After installing GameBots 2004 (either with Pogamut or separately), install the competition mod available here.
  5. Develop your bot that uses the GameBots2004 interface (we suggest you develop your bot using Pogamut 3). There are sample bots on Pogamut.
  6. Submission your bot before Wednesday 29th August 2012
  7. The competition will be decided on Monday 3rd September 2012.
  8. Results will be announced at the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games, in Granada, Spain, taking place between 11-14 September, 2012.

Q2. How is the winner determined?

The winner is determined by the "humanness rating" of the bot. This is the percentage of times the bot was judged to be human by the judges during the final series. To win the major prize, the bot must attain a humanness rating equal to or greater than the average humanness rating of the judges.

Q3. And how much do I win?

The major prize winners share a A$7,000 cash and a trip to 2K Marin's Canberra studios. If there is no major prize winner, then the minor prize winners share A$2,000 cash and a trip to 2K Marin's studios.

Q4. What will be changed in the mod used for the judging?

General

For those familiar with it, the judging system will be the same as that used in the 2011 BotPrize competition.

Some mods have been made to enable the new automated judging system. Others are to prevent bots from interfering with the game, or to remove things that would be obvious giveaways for bots.

Bots will communicate with the game server via the GameBots2004 interface as distributed with Pogamut 3.3.0.

The system is based on a modification to the Link Gun. The primary mode is intended for tagging BOTs, while the secondary mode is for tagging HUMAN-controlled opponents.

During the game, when a player believes he/she has identified an opponent as a BOT (respectively a HUMAN), he/she shoots the opponent using the primary (respectively secondary) mode of the Link Gun. The shot has no effect on the opponent, but the player will see a tag "BOT" (or "HUMAN") attached to the opponent to remind them of which opponents have been judged. If the player changes his/her mind, the opponent can be shot using the other mode to reverse the judgement, as often as he/she desires.

Here is a summary of all the changes:

  • The effects of the Link Gun will be changed as described above. The Link Gun has infinite ammo.
  • Some GameBots commands will not have any effect. The affected commands are: ADDINV, ADDBOT, CHANGEMAP, CHATTR, CLEAR, CONF, CONFGAME, CONSOLE, DIALOG, KICK, MESSAGE, PAUSE, REC, SETGAMESPEED, SETLOCK, SETPASS, SETSKIN, SPAWNACTOR, SPEECH, STOPREC, TEST
  • The CHANGEWEAPON command with the argument "Best" will return a randomly selected weapon.
  • None of the GameBots2004 debugging text or images will appear on screen.
  • When a new player (human or bot) enters the game, their name will be changed to a randomly chosen name.
  • When a player enters the game, they will be given a randomly chosen skin.
  • When a player enters or leaves, epic bots may be automatically added to or removed from the game to keep the numbers of humans and bots roughly balanced.
  • The Redeemer is removed from the game.
  • Damage levels are reduced to 40% of normal.
  • All pings will be set to 0.
  • In-game chat will be disabled.
  • Data on which bots/humans have been correctly and incorrectly identified, and by whom, will be logged.

Q5. Do the bots also use the Link Gun?

Yes they do, and it behaves just as for human players. There will be awards (not cash!) for the best human and bot judges.