It's been a while since the last Brainworks public beta test, but we have not been idle. We are proud to announce the (hopefully final) beta release of Brainworks, the Quake 3 AI mod. We eventually decided that nothing short of a complete rewrite of the Quake 3 AI code was sufficient to create enjoyable Q3 bots. And at long last, we've finished rewriting absolutely every bit of code to make the bots run, hide, shoot, dodge, and complain. It's been a lot of work, but the result is impressive. We hope you'll enjoy Brainworks as much as we have. Try it out and see how intelligent the bots are. Installation instructions are in the "readme.txt" file included in the zip.

Remember, this is a beta version. If you find any bugs, let us know so we can fix them. We want to make your experience playing with Brainworks Bots as enjoyable as possible. Since one of the primary complaints with vanilla Quake 3 bots was their insanely good aim, we're monitoring how human-like the bots aim-- if you have feedback for how Brainworks bots could aim more realistically, we would appreciate that as well.

Our plan is to release the official version of Brainworks in a few weeks along with full source code. The source code should allow people to port Brainworks bots to other mods, like OSP Quake3, and even other games, like Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Be sure to check the EULA included in the source code for legal details, however.

Thanks for your patience waiting for Brainworks. We hope it's worth the wait.

UPDATE: Some people have reported that Brainworks crashes when adding a bot. Please download the v0.91 version of Brainworks, not v0.90, which fixes this crash bug. Also, make sure you have upgraded to the latest version of Quake 3, v1.32. The v1.31 version of Quake 3 will crash any v1.32-compiled mod that uses Bots, including (especially) Brainworks. You can download the latest Quake 3 point release from FilePlanet or from FileShack. If you still see a crash after upgrading to v1.32 and running Brainworks v0.91, let us know the details. None of the private beta testers experienced crashes, but everyone's system is different. Keep in mind this is a public beta version, not an official release.

We're pleased to announce another public beta release of Brainworks, the mod designed to give Quake 3 Bots a working brain! There was a lot of positive feedback from the last Brainworks beta. Most requests fell into one of four catagories:

• Can you add this to [My favorite mod]?
• Can you improve weapon selection?
• Can you improve item pickups?
• Can you improve navigation?

Filling those four requests is a lot of work, but we aim to please! And if you find any bugs in the current version or want more features, please contact us. This mod is designed for your own enjoyment; we want you to be happy with it.

The past four months of programming have been spent on the first two requests-- support for other mods and weapon selection. While we can't guarantee Brainworks will make it into your favorite mod, we can make it easy for the authors by releasing source code. Brainworks source code won't be released until it leaves beta, but to prepare for this, I audited every single line of AI code and rewrote around 80% of it (hence the four month delay). We want Brainworks to make it easy to add bot support in other mods, and we appreciate your patience and continued interest.

I won't talk too much about the weapon selection except to say that the bots use a dynamic model based on their accuracies in-game with each weapon. If a bot shoots well with one particular weapon, they will use it more. If they miss a lot, they will use it less. The bots even use an estimate of the enemy's health to select weapons, so you'll often see railgun/lightning combos, or rockets followed with a shotgun charge, just like real players.

There are also a few other goodies in this release. The aiming code was completely rewritten (again), for an even more realistic feel. The teamplay logic got totally redesigned, and the chat code was rewritten for those of you who enjoy listening to bot spam. And of course, all the other features you know and love about brainworks bots are in there as well-- sound awareness, realtime missile dodging, item camping, and more.

This is still just a beta version though, but that's good news! It means there are even more good features to come in later versions. We still have plans to rewrite the item pickup code and movement code, plus a few other tricks here and there. And of course, there's always the source code release to look forward to. But don't wait for the final release to check out this mod; download Brainworks now find out what the excitement is about!

If you'd like to mirror the download (it's 137kb), please let us know and we'll update the download links.

There hasn't been much activity here because we've been hard at work for the past 6 months working on Artificial Intelligence code for Quake 3 Arena bots. Today the Art of War team is releasing the public beta version of Brainworks, the mod designed to give Quake 3 Bots a brain. Brainworks is a server side only rewrite of the original AI logic. The primary goal of Brainworks is to provide bots that act and respond like a normal human player, not like a bad player with amazing aim. As such, Brainworks contains the following improvements to Bot Artificial Intelligence:

• Sound and visual awareness system
• Randomized dodging in battles
• Avoidance of incoming missiles
• Strafejumping
• Improved enemy aiming (based on human compensation models)
• Timing of item respawns
• Redesigned internal goal selection
• Redesigned internal aim selection
• MANY MANY fixes for bugs in original Q3A bot code

That's quite a lot of brains-- many normal players don't even do everything on that list! To keep with our goal of realistic bots, some of these features are only used by higher skilled bots. We've been happy with how realistic these bots are and we hope you'll be happy too.

The other goal of Brainworks is to provide an easily extendable and maintainable Artificial Intelligence code base for other Q3A-based mods (eg. Rocket Arena 3, Quake 3 Fortress) and games (eg. Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, Soldier of Fortune). The source code will be released with the official non-beta version of Brainworks. Assuming no major bugs are found in this beta version, the source code will be released in a week or two. After that we will resume work on official bots for the Art of War mod.

This is still just a beta release. While there are no known remaining bugs, you may still find them. Please email us if you find any. Also email us if you've mirrored the release so we can provide a link to your site. But what are you waiting for? Go download Brainworks already!

It's been a while since this page was updated, so we thought it about time we let everyone know what's going on. First thing... we haven't died. The mod continues to be developed on a daily basis, the code is currently undergoing some major work to enable bot support, and more than that, get bots who understand the nature of the game, and are able to interact as fully as normal human players. Part of this development project involves making bots alot smarter than their vanilla Q3 counterparts, and once this part of the code is completed, you'll be able to check that out. So keep an eye on that downloads page.

Another new Art of War version is up for grabs. Art of War v1.9b includes a host of new teamplay strategy goodness for your enjoyment. Check out what's in this release:

• Customizable unlagging code from Unlagged Q3, courtesy of Haste
• New Divine Standard and Cursed Altar building models
• Chunky new ice gibs for frozen players
• New powers and abilities for Paladin and Crusader classes
• Reduced polycounts on many models for faster frame rates

What are you waiting for? Go grab the latest release, a few friends, and let the warring begin. Looking for a game? Just drop by our irc channel: irc.gamesnet.net #artofwar

If you'd like to mirror these files, just contact us with the download links and we'll update the downloads page.

It's time for part 2 of our release Double Header. Hot off the heels of 1.9 we're proud to bring you Art of War: The Movie. This 3 minute movie shows the aspect most people feel is missing from RTS games. Namely Action, Shooting and Blood. This feature shows some of the spells, weapons and abilities of the 4 factions in Art Of War, and will hopefully give people who want to play a basic idea of how to play.

There are two versions available for download. 640x480 and 320x240 (for those with slower connections), both require the Divx Codec and are available from the downloads page, and mirrors are as always very much appreciated.

After 3 months of development, we're happy to announce the latest Art of War release, version 1.9. This version features a fourth faction, the Keepers of Fate. The Manual is still under construction, but here's a brief faction description:

The Keepers of Fate are a group of religious zealots, bent on the total domination of the land in the name of justice and purity. The four Keeper classes-- Prophet, Avenger, Crusader, and Paladin-- each have the power to create mystic circles. Each circle either helps the Keeper's team or hurts the enemies. For example, the Prophet creates Portal circles which transport teammates across large sections of the map. The Keepers of Fate defenders specialize in broad base coverage, while the attackers specialize in coordinated waves of assault.

The in-game tutorial is also up to date, so feel free to download the new version and hear more about the faction. Make sure you have the Three Wave CTF maps in your baseq3 directory before trying to join our servers. So what are you waiting for? The Keepers of Fate await your direction! Go grab the new release and drop by a server, or just visit the irc channel to set up a game: irc.gamesnet.net #artofwar

UPDATE: Yes, we know Fileplanet is bandwidth starved right now. If you can't get the new release from fileplanet, visit the irc channel (irc.gamesnet.net #artofwar) and we'll hook you up. We're interested in additional file server space to supplement fileplanet. Please contact us if you have information about mirror sites.