Reply To: Bot names

Hi,

There are two ways to name bots in the game, and both require editing the .bin file.

The first and most commonly used method is through the MED Editor. Just go to the AI Attributes section and enter a number in the empty box next to “Name.” This number can be anything you want. Now, if you have the Bin Editor, it’s even easier. Click Add under the Items list, then create a group called ‘PeopleNames’. Under Variable, select STRNAME. Next to that, you’ll see an empty field where you enter the same number you used in the MED editor. In the dialogue box, type the name you want the bot to have. You can use up to 20 characters, and you can even add color codes, which is pretty cool.

If you’re doing it manually, copy this into your .txt file and convert it back to .bin:

‘[PeopleNames]’
STRNAME000 = “Null”;
STRNAME001 = “Sample 1”;
STRNAME002 = “Sample 2”;
STRNAME003 = “Sample 3”;
STRNAME004 = “Sample 4”;
STRNAME005 = “Sample 5”;
STRNAME006 = “<cFC8932>Bot Colored Name<-co>”;

Each STRNAME corresponds to the number you gave the bot earlier. It starts from 0 and goes up as high as the numbers you assigned in MED. Just match them exactly and you’re good to go. Hope that makes sense!

The second option is using the ssnname script in the .wac file. Some people say it doesn’t work, but it actually does. I figured this out myself recently. In fact, a lot of the Delta Force: Xtreme 1 and 2 campaign missions use this exact script to name bots and it works just fine. That said, you still need to edit the .bin file again.

To name bots this way, use a script like this in your .wac file:

//***** Friendly AI Names *****
IF never() then
ssnname(10, BLANK_NAME)
ssnname(669, BLANK_NAME)
ssnname(670, BLANK_NAME)
ssnname(668, BLACKWIDOW)
ssnname(392, ALPHA_1)
ssnname(393, ALPHA_2)
ssnname(394, ALPHA_3)
ssnname(395, ALPHA_4)
endif

After that, open the .bin file in the Bin Editor. Click Add > Group > AINAMES, and you’ll see a list of variables. These variables correspond to the names you used in the WAC script.
So for example, if you assigned bot with ssn 395 the name ALPHA_4, then in the BIN editor, you select the variable ALPHA_4 and in the dialogue box type the name you want to appear in game. Just make sure everything matches as explained.

If you’re doing it manually with the text file you can use something like this and convert it back to .bin:

‘[AINAMES]’
BLANK_NAME = ” “;
ALPHA_1 = “Alpha 1”;
Charlie_1 = “Charlie 1”;
Charlie_2 = “Charlie 2”;
Charlie_3 = “Charlie 3”;

What’s cool about this method is that it lets you have nameless friendly bots using the BLANK_NAME variable, like in the example above. Though I’m not sure if that works correctly on the client side in co-op I haven’t tested it yet. Also, there’s a limited number of names you can use with this method, unlike the first one.
You can also check some of the .bin files from the DFX campaign missions to see how they did it. That’s how I figured a lot of this out and trough experimenting and scouting forums for information.

If you make maps with only in NILE, then I recommend using NLH 6.1.1. It has the option to name bots but there are some issues from my testing like the names just reset after saving the map for whatever reason.

Hope it’s all understandable and let me know if you have questions.