Movement and orders

How bots get around, what they may do to blocks, and the orders that position them.

How they walk#

Bots don't teleport in small steps: they press "keys" like a player and let vanilla physics do the rest. That's why they collide, take knockback and fall like a real player.

• A* pathfinding around obstacles, weighted to find long detours too (round a wide wall, out of a U-shaped trap).
• Straight line: when the way is clear it walks straight at the target, so it tracks someone moving tick by tick instead of following a stale route.
• Smoothed routes: it cuts across open ground and faces where it walks.
• It walks off planned drops instead of bridging over them, climbs ladders down as well as up, and plans round closed iron doors.
• Bunny hop (bhop) only on long straight stretches, with each bot on its own rhythm so a squad doesn't hop in step.
• Boats: boards a boat, places one if needed and steers it across water.
• Wandering (wander): walks around when there's nothing to do.
• speed sets the pace (1.0 = sprint).

Building#

With building on, a bot can:

• bridge a gap (building-bridge) with the blocks it carries, or a wind charge if it has none;
• pillar up toward a target above and out of reach (building-pillar, at most building-max-pillar blocks);
• dig through soft cover (building-clear-soft): dirt, sand, gravel, clay, leaves, undergrowth, cobwebs.

It never breaks stone, ore, builds or containers. Every change goes through the normal events, so WorldGuard, GriefPrevention, claim plugins and block loggers see it and can refuse it. The pace is limited by building-cooldown and building-budget (blocks per minute).

Following#

/pvpbot follow Marco Steve
/pvpbot follow latest Steve circle
/pvpbot follow stop all

Formations: behind, circle, open_circle (see Factions). It's an escort, not a leash: followers fight when attacked, then fall back in.

Guarding#

/pvpbot guard faction guards 15
/pvpbot guard Marco 10 100 64 -200
/pvpbot guard stop all

The bots hold a spot (your position, or the given coordinates) and attack anyone who enters the radius. Each patrols its own part of the perimeter. If a fight pulls them too far, they break off and walk back to their post, so they don't chase someone into a cave and get lost.

Patrols#

/pvpbot path create walls
/pvpbot path add walls
/pvpbot path add walls
/pvpbot path add walls
/pvpbot path assign faction guards walls

Each path add adds the spot you're standing on, so you build the route by walking it. At the last point the bots turn back instead of jumping to the first. path list walls shows the points, path remove walls 2 removes one, and path stop ends the patrol.

Retreat#

/pvpbot retreat faction bandits
/pvpbot retreat all to Steve
/pvpbot retreat stop all

Without to each bot runs its own way, so the squad scatters. With to they regroup on a player (following them as they move) or at coordinates.

A retreat outranks follow, guard and attack. The bot only hits back at whoever just hit it or is right on top of it. It lasts until you call it off, or until you give stop or a new attack.

The automatic low-health retreat is set with retreat and retreat-health.

Hiding#

/pvpbot hide latest
/pvpbot hide stop latest

• With an invisibility potion (drinkable or splash): it uses it and takes off its armour, which would otherwise show floating, then puts it back on at the end. It moves at full speed.
• Without a potion: it crouches and keeps its armour on.

A hidden bot doesn't start fights but still follows orders: it follows, retreats and holds its post. It comes out and fights as soon as an enemy is close and can see it.

Tether (leash)#

/pvpbot tether Prisoner Boss faction guards 15
/pvpbot tether info Prisoner
/pvpbot tether stop Prisoner

The escort follows the target and makes sure it stays within the radius (default 20) of the leader.

1. If the target strays outside, it gets one warning: a real but weak hit (half a heart) that shoves it back toward the leader.
2. If it comes back inside, the warning is cleared.
3. If it isn't back within 5 seconds, the whole escort attacks it for real, as with /pvpbot attack, until you run tether stop.

Pause#

/pvpbot pause all
/pvpbot resume faction bandits

A paused bot stays in the world, falls and takes damage, but does nothing. Useful to set up a scene without bots wandering off or starting a fight. /pvpbot pause with no argument lists who is paused.

Teleporting#

/pvpbot tp all Steve
/pvpbot tp portal ground faction bandits Steve 40
/pvpbot tp pearl latest 100 70 -300
/pvpbot tp rift big overfaction north Steve

Plain tp is instant. portal, pearl and rift bring the squad in with some style, scattered within a range (default 100) around the destination. Details on Commands.