Monster - Version 3.00.00 (June 30th, 2002)
Monster is a metamod (www.metamod.org) plugin that will allow you to add some of the monsters from the Half-Life single player game into other MODs.
To set up Monster you should first make sure you have metamod installed and configured properly for your server. If you have installed AdminMOD, you will already have metamod installed and configured. If you have not installed metamod, you can download it from the metamod web site at...
Metamod installation for Windows servers:
Copy the metamod.dll file to the MODs dlls folder (the default for Team Fortress 1.5 is C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\tfc\dlls, the default for Counter-Strike is C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\cstrike\dlls, and the default for Half-Life deathmatch is C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\valve\dlls). Then, using any text editor (like Notepad), modify the liblist.gam file in the MODs folder and change the "gamedll" entry so that it uses the "metamod.dll" file instead of the game DLL file. For example, to change the Half-Life deathmatch liblist.gam file in the "valve" folder, you would have this...
//gamedll "dlls\hl.dll" gamedll "dlls\metamod.dll"
...I have commented out the original gamedll line and added a new gamedll line that specifies "dlls\metamod.dll" as the file to load. You should now be able to start the server and you should see something like this...
Metamod version 1.12.20, Copyright (c) 2001 Will Day willday@metamod.org
Metamod comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type meta gpl'. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type meta gpl' for details.
Metamod installation for Linux servers:
Copy the metamod_i386.so file to the MODs dlls directory (for example /usr/hlds_l/tfc/dlls for Team Fortress 1.5, /usr/hlds_l/cstrike/dlls for Counter-Strike, or /usr/hlds_l/valve/dlls for Half-Life deathmatch). Then modify the liblist.gam file in the MODs directory and change the "gamedll_linux" entry so that it uses the "metamod_i386.so" file instead of the game DLL file. For example, to change the Half-Life deathmatch liblist.gam file in the "valve" directory, you would have this...
//gamedll_linux "dlls/hl_i386.so" gamedll_linux "dlls/metamod_i386.so"
...I have commented out the original gamedll line and added a new gamedll line that specifies "dlls/metamod_i386.so" as the file to load. You should now be able to start the server and you should see something like this...
Metamod version 1.12.20, Copyright (c) 2001 Will Day willday@metamod.org
Metamod comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type meta gpl'. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type meta gpl' for details.
Configuring Metamod to work with plugins:
First, copy the monster_mm.dll file into the same dlls folder where you put the metamod.dll file (for Linux, copy the monster_mm_i386.so to the same directory where you copied the metamod_i386.so file).
Then, you will need to create a file called "metamod.ini" in the MODs folder (the same place where the liblist.gam file is found). You can create this file with any text editor. You will want it to contain these two lines...
win32 dlls/monster_mm.dll linux dlls/monster_mm_i386.so
...IMPORTANT!!! Note that both win32 and linux use FORWARD SLASHES '/' when specifying the plugin filename. Don't use the backslash '' for Windows.
Now when you start the server, you should see the Metamod banner message and right after it, you should see the MONSTER banner message, like this...
[MONSTER] Monster v3.00.00, 06/30/2002 [MONSTER] by botman botman@planethalflife.com
Configuring Monster for specific maps:
Now you will want to create configuration files for Monster to use when loading a map. When a map loads, Monster will look for a configuration file that is specifically made for that map. The filename for these map specific configuration files will be in the following format "mapname_monster.cfg" (where "mapname" is the name of the BSP map file). These map specific configuration files MUST be in the maps folder found inside the MOD folder. For example, if you wanted to create a map specific configuration file for the map 2fort in Team Fortress 1.5, the file would be...
C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\tfc\maps\2fort_monster.cfg
The map specific Monster configuration files allow you to add monsters to the map by specifying a spawn point (the origin), a respawn delay (time to wait before spawning the monster after it dies), an angle (the direction to face when spawning) or an angle_min and angle_max (a minimum and maximum range of angles to randomly select from when spawning), and the types of monsters that you want to spawn at that location (chosen randomly from the ones provided). Here's a couple of example entries in a .cfg file...
{ origin/-420 -700 -300 delay/10 angle/45 monster/barney monster/hassassin monster/hgrunt monster/scientist monster/snark }
{ origin/475 560 -300 delay/30 angle_min/90 angle_max/270 monster/agrunt monster/bullsquid monster/headcrab monster/houndeye monster/islave monster/snark monster/zombie }
{ origin/-540 -800 240 delay/5 monster/hgrunt }
...This will create 3 monster spawn points. Notice the opening and closing braces '{' and '}'. These must be at the beginning and ending of a spawn point group and MUST be on lines by themselves.
The first group will create a monster spawn point at location (-420 -700 -300) in the map. This monster will respawn 10 seconds after it has been killed. It will spawn facing a direction of 45 degrees. When the monster spawns, the Monster plugin will randomly select from "barney", "hassassin" (the black "ninja" babes), "hgrunt" (the human military grunts), "scientist" or "snark". The monster will spawn, stand there (or run around depending on the type of monster), and will attack players that come within range (the scientists don't attack players, but any barney monsters that get spawned will attack players).
The second group will create a monster spawn point at location (475 560 -300) in the map. This monster will respawn 30 seconds after it has been killed. It will spawn facing an angle between 90 degrees and 270 degrees (which will be randomly chosen at spawn time). When the monster spawns, the Monster plugin will randomly select from "agrunt" (the big alien grunts that shoot the hornet gun), "bullsquid" (the big spotted chick-looking thing with tentacles over its mouth), "headcrab", "houndeye" (the small dog-like monster that runs around on 3 legs), "islave" (the alien slave monster that shoots lightning bolts), "snark", and "zombie" (the tall alien monster that slashes at you with its claws).
The third group will create a monster spawn point at location (-540 -800 240) in the map. This monster will respawn 5 seconds after it has been killed. Since the angle, angle_min and angle_max haven't been specified, the monster will face a random direction when spawning. The monster that will be spawned will always be an "hgrunt" (since it's the only choice).
The valid fields in each group are:
origin - The X, Y, and Z coordinates in the map for the spawn point location.
delay - The amount of time (in seconds) to delay before respawning a monster after it gets killed.
angle - The angle (0 to 360) in degrees of the direction you want the monster to face when spawning.
angle_min - The minimum angle (0 to 360) in degrees of the direction you want the monster to face when spawning. You must also specify the angle_max value. A direction will be chosen randomly between the angle_min and angle_max values.
angle_max - The maximum angle (0 to 360) in degrees of the direction you want the monster to face when spawning. You must also specify the angle_min value. A direction will be chosen randomly between the angle_min and angle_max values.
monster - The name(s) of the monster that you want to spawn at this spawn point. Each time a monster respawns, one of the monsters from this list will be chosen.
Note: if you want one type of monster to spawn more often than other
types of monsters you can include that name more than once. For
example...
{
origin/720 -60 -90
delay/10
monster/barney
monster/hgrunt
monster/hgrunt
monster/hgrunt
}
...would cause the hgrunt monster to spawn 3/4th of the time and
a barney monster to spawn 1/4th of the time.
You can only have 20 "monster" fields for each monster spawn group.
You can have a maximum of 100 monster groups in each Monster .cfg file.
There are some example Monster .cfg files included for TFC that you can look at for some examples.
Configuring the Monster skill (health and damage):
Copy the monster_skill.cfg file from the monster_plugin directory to the MOD directory (i.e. Half-Life\valve, Half-Life\tfc, or Half-Life\cstrike) and then open the monster_skill.cfg file with any text editor. You can change the health or damage amounts for each monster to cause monsters spawned in the game to have greater (or less) health and to cause more (or less) damage to players (and other monsters). If the monster_skill.cfg file does not exist in the MOD directory, default values will be used for the health and damage amounts of the monsters.
Configuring Monster to log monsters added to the map:
You can configure the Monster plugin so that it will log the monsters that were added to a map. To do this you will need to create a file called "metaexec.cfg" in the MODs folder (where the liblist.gam file and the metamod.ini file is located). In this metaexec.cfg file you will need to add the following line...
monster_log 1
...save this file. Then you will need to enable logging when you start up your server. This can be done by adding "+log on" on the command line when starting your server. The log files will be placed in a "logs" folder in the MOD folder (for example C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\cstrike\logs).
If you want to turn off the Monster plugin logging, you can change the "monster_log" setting from "1" to "0" in the metaexec.cfg file. To turn off logging completely, remove the "+log on" from the command line.
Creating monsters near players in the game:
In order to spawn monster near a player, the monster must be precached (loaded into memory) at the time the map is loaded by the server. You will need to copy the "monster_precache.cfg" file from the monster_plugin directory into the MOD subdirectory (i.e. Copy monster_plugin.cfg to the Half-Life\cstrike directory for Counter-Strike. Copy it into the Half-Life\tfc directory for Team Fortress 1.5. Copy it into the Half-Life\dod directory for Day of Defeat, etc.). Now edit the monster_precache.cfg that you copied into the MOD directory using any text editor and uncomment the names of the monsters that you want to precache when each map is loaded (uncomment the monster names by removing the two forward slash characters at the start of a line).
WARNING: Precaching too many monsters can cause problems in some MODs! Each monster has models and sounds that are required by the monster and these models and sounds take up memory on the server and memory on the client. If clients are crashing and seeing the error message "S_Findname: Out of sfx_t", then you are precaching too many monsters on the server. Remove some of these monsters from the monster_precache.cfg file and remove them from map specific monster .cfg file for the map where the problems occurred (i.e. if clients are crashing when running the map blastwar.bsp, the you may need to remove some of the monsters from the blastwar_monster.cfg file). Each type of monster is only precached once (but each monster may have several models or sounds associated with it). When you remove a monster from the map specific monster .cfg file, you need to remove ALL monsters with that name. For example, if you had a .cfg file with 10 hgrunt monsters and were getting the "Out of sfx_t", it would not be sufficient to remove just one or two of the hgrunt monsters from the .cfg file. You must remove them ALL to prevent the hgrunt monster models and sounds from getting precached on the server and clients. When adding monsters to a map, you should add monsters a few at a time and play that level with several clients for a while before adding more monsters to that map. The more monsters you add to the monster_precache.cfg or map specific monster .cfg file, then more likely you are to cause the clients to crash with the "Out of sfx_t" error message.
You can spawn monsters from the console using the "monster" command. The "monster" command should be followed by the name of the monster you wish to spawn and the name of the player you wish to spawn the monster next to (or you can use the player index # from the "status" command). You can enter "monster" (without the quotes) to get a list of the valid monster names that can be spawned. If the player's name contains a space, you will need to use double quotes around the player's name. Here's some examples of using the "monster" command...
monster agrunt Player(1) monster hassassin "The Dark Avenger" monster snark #4
You can only spawn monsters next to players that are alive and not in observer mode. If there is not enough room to spawn a monster next to a player, you will see a message telling you this. Wait until the player moves into a more open area and try spawning a monster again.
Enabling or disabling monster spawning:
You can use the server CVAR "monster_spawn" to enable or disable the spawning of monsters in a level. The CVAR "monster_spawn" is set to 1 (to enable monster spawning) by default. You can change the "monster_spawn" CVAR to 0 disable monster spawning and monsters will stop respawning. This will not remove any existing monsters that have already spawned into the level. You can display the current value of the CVAR by entering "monster_spawn" (without quotes) on the console.
Some general tips on adding monsters:
You might wonder, "How do I know what origin to use when adding a monster to a map file?". The easiest way to determine an origin in a map file is to load that map in Half-Life, then pull down the console (using the '~' key) and enter "status" and press ENTER. Make SURE you have started the server on your PC by creating a LAN server (i.e. Multiplayer, LAN game, Create game) or your won't get X, Y, and Z coordinates using the "status" command.
This will display a line similar to the following...
hostname: TheKillingGrounds version : 45/1.1.0.8 1786 tcp/ip : 245.20.53.173:27015 map : boot_camp at: -1540 x, 895 y, 145 z players : 1 active (8 max)
...the "map" line contains the current map name and the 3D map location where your player origin is currently at. The player origin is ALWAYS at the center of the body. For Half-Life deathmatch, the player is 72 units tall, 32 units wide and 32 units deep. This means that if you are standing right up against a wall, your origin is still 16 units away from the wall.
When you want to know the 3D coordinates of some point in the map, you can run around until you get near that location, then use the console to enter the "status" command (without the quotes), to print out what your current location is.
Another method to determine the origin in maps is to use my BSP tools and run the BSP viewer (bsp_view) to display a map...
http://planethalflife.com/botman/bsp_tool.shtml
The BSP viewer will constantly display the X, Y, and Z coordinates of your location as you fly around in the map. Also with the BSP viewer, you can display the player spawn points (using player models) to determine where existing spawn points are in maps. This will help you if you plan on adding new spawn points to a map.
When adding new monsters to a map, make SURE that these new monsters aren't touching anything else in the map INCLUDING ANY WALLS OR FLOORS. When you spawn a monster in a map, it's best to make its origin at least 20 units up in the air off the floor. It will drop down to the floor when it spawns. If you create one entity touching another entity, they will get "stuck" together and won't work properly (you won't be able to pick up weapons, or, in the case of player spawn points, players won't be able to move). So make SURE you leave plenty of room between monsters and other things in the map, like weapons, player spawn points and walls.
botman's Monster plugin (http://planethalflife.com/botman)
06/30/2002 - Release 3.00.00
- You can now manually spawn monsters with the "monster" command even if the monster_spawn cvar is set to 0.
- Added dynamic precaching. Precached sounds will only done for monsters that are specified in the map specific monster .cfg file or for monsters that are specified in the "monster_precache.cfg" file. This helps prevent the error "S_Findname: Out of sfx_t" that clients will sometimes get when too many sounds have been precached.
- Added monster "bigmomma" (the big spider thing with the sack hanging down).
06/17/2002 - Release 2.10.00
- Fix bug where players weren't getting damaged by monsters.
06/16/2002 - Release 2.00.00
- Fixed Linux .cfg file parsing for MS-DOS formatted files (invalid monster name: monster/xxxxxxxx^M).
- Created monster_spawn CVAR to turn on/off monster spawning on the fly ("monster_spawn 1" is on, the default. "monster_spawn 0" is off).
- Added support for monster_skill.cfg file (in the MOD directory).
- Created "monster" server command to allow server operators to spawn monsters next to players in the game.
- Added new monster "controller" (the flying head that shoots energy balls).
- Modified to support metamod "unload" plugin command. Loading the plugin again after unloading it still doesn't seem to work.
- Fixed bug where monster gets double damage. (Thanks hullu!)
06/02/2002 - Release 1.00.00
- Initial release.