How to Install POD-Bot mm on a CS 1.6 Server

POD-Bot mm is a classic Counter-Strike 1.6 bot — a Metamod plugin (originally by Count Floyd, kept alive on GitHub) that adds AI players which navigate using waypoint files. It is not an AMX Mod X plugin; it loads directly through Metamod's plugins.ini, alongside AMXX rather than under it. This guide installs it on top of an existing Metamod server.

1. Confirm Metamod is loaded

POD-Bot mm is a Metamod plugin, so Metamod must already be working. If you have not installed it, follow the Metamod-r guide. Confirm from the server console that meta list prints your current Metamod plugins before you add the bot — if that command is unknown, Metamod itself is not loaded and the bot has nothing to hook into.

2. Install the POD-Bot files

POD-Bot lives in its own folder under addons. Copy the whole podbot directory — the binary plus its config and waypoint folders — into place:

cstrike/addons/podbot/podbot_mm_i386.so   (Linux)
cstrike/addons/podbot/podbot_mm.dll       (Windows)
cstrike/addons/podbot/botweapons.cfg
cstrike/addons/podbot/wptdefault/

The wptdefault/ folder is where per-map waypoint files (.pwf) live. Keep the shipped botweapons.cfg — it maps the current CS 1.6 weapons the bot is allowed to buy, and a mismatched one makes bots buy nothing.

3. Register it in Metamod's plugins.ini

Add one line to cstrike/addons/metamod/plugins.ini pointing at the correct binary for your OS. This is the file that tells Metamod which plugins to load, with separate lines for win32 and linux:

linux addons/podbot/podbot_mm_i386.so
win32 addons/podbot/podbot_mm.dll

Use the line for your platform, or list both — Metamod ignores the one that does not match. The path columns and the win32/linux split are covered in metamod/plugins.ini explained. Note that POD-Bot and AMXX are peers here: both are lines in the same plugins.ini, and the order between them rarely matters.

4. Waypoints are mandatory

POD-Bot navigates purely by waypoints — a graph of nodes for each map stored as a .pwf file in wptdefault/. On a map with no waypoint file, bots spawn and then stand still or spin uselessly, because they have no path to follow. Bundle a waypoint file for every map in your rotation, named after the map (de_dust2.pwf). If bots refuse to move, a missing or wrong-named waypoint is nearly always why — see bots stand still with no waypoints.

5. Add bots and control them

POD-Bot is controlled with the pb console command. Change the map after editing plugins.ini, then:

pb add
pb bot_quota 6
pb kickall

pb add drops in one bot; pb bot_quota keeps a fixed number filled automatically. To fill bots without typing each time, set the quota in the POD-Bot config so it applies on every map. Open the in-game control menu with pb menu (bind it to a key) to add, kick and set difficulty live.

6. Tune difficulty and behaviour

POD-Bot reads its settings from its config folder under addons/podbot/. There you set the default skill (roughly 0 to 100), the minimum and maximum bot count that bot_quota targets, whether bots chatter, and whether they respect the buy economy from botweapons.cfg. Set these once in the config rather than typing pb commands every map — console commands only last until the map changes, whereas the config is re-read on load. On a public server, keep skill mixed rather than maxed so bots feel human and do not wall-beam newer players.

Troubleshooting

• Bots do not appear at all — the plugins.ini line is wrong or points at the wrong architecture. Confirm the path and that you used the i386.so on Linux. Check the console at map load for a Metamod load error.
• Bots spawn but stand still or spin — no waypoint file for this map. Add the correct .pwf to wptdefault/; this is the single most common POD-Bot problem.
• Bots buy no weapons — a missing or outdated botweapons.cfg. Restore the shipped file.
• pb is an unknown command — the plugin did not load. Run meta list and confirm POD-Bot appears and is running, not failed.
• Bots stutter or lag the server — too many bots for the CPU, or a stale experience file (.pxp) from an older version. Delete old .pxp files and lower the quota.

Verification

Change to a waypointed map, run meta list and confirm POD-Bot shows as loaded, then pb add and watch a bot spawn and immediately start pathing toward an objective — movement is the proof the waypoints loaded. Set pb bot_quota 4 and confirm the count fills and refills as bots die. If you would rather use a bot that ships its own navigation graphs, compare YaPB, which installs the same way through plugins.ini.