ItemAttributes error and conflicting/merged HUD icons issues?

[[FH]L0RDR0B]

Hi there! I decided to hop on the bandwagon of making my own submission for the Canteen Crasher event a few weeks ago, and over the past couple of days have turned my focus towards the missions to go with the map I have planned.

I just finished the advanced mission with the help of Hydrogen's very useful guide on making pop files, and having imported the missions over to mvm_example for testing I've managed to prune out most of the errors I could find. However, there were two key issues that I still have been unable to solve, which I was hoping someone here could guide me in the right direction.

The first problem is the console reports the following for nearly every robot I have in the pop file:

TFBotSpawner: attribute error: 'Context 'ItemAttributes': Attribute "item" in "attributes" did not match any attribute definitions'
TFBotSpawner: need to specify ItemName in ItemAttributes.

The mission works and runs as expected despite this error, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Any custom robots I included were modified from Valve's official code from robot_standard.pop and robot_giant.pop, and loading one of the official Valve MvM missions into mvm_example does not yield this error either, so presumably I have done something wrong here.

Here's an example of a custom robot I'm using - a Extended Buff Banner Soldier who uses the Black Box instead of the stock Rocket Launcher, combining the two codes into one:

			T_TFBot_Soldier_Buff_Blackbox
			{
				Class Soldier
				ClassIcon soldier_buff
				Item "The Black Box"
				Item "The Buff Banner"
				Name "Extended Buff Soldier"
				Skill Expert
				Attributes HoldFireUntilFullReload
				Attributes SpawnWithFullCharge
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					ItemName "The Black Box"
					"damage bonus" 0.33
					"fire rate bonus" 0.001
					"clip size upgrade atomic" 0
					"faster reload rate" 0.9
					"blast radius increased" 1.25
					"Projectile speed increased" 0.4
					"projectile spread angle penalty" 2
					"heal on hit for rapidfire" 60
				}
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					Item "The Buff Banner"
					"increase buff duration" 8
				}	
			}

The code works as expected - the Soldiers use their Buff Banner, then fire off all their rockets in one burst and slowly reload them all. The killcam even shows their stats as expected. And yet the error message still shows.

Does the error message mean anything important? Is there a way to get rid of it easily? Would I be penalised by the CC judges for leaving it in, even though it seems to be completely harmless to the gameplay?

The second problem I have is that sometimes the icons used for the robots end up getting shared, or conflict with one another. One example would be 5 squads of a Giant Shotgun Heavy with 4 regular Shotgun Heavies being displayed as 25 Giants, rather than 5 Giants and 20 regulars. Another example would be having a wavespawn of 15 crit Shortstop Scouts, followed by a Support wavespawn of infinite crit Shortstop Scouts taking over when all 15 are dead, with the original 15 being counted under as Support instead of along the main waves.

I'm aware that Hydrogen's guide touches upon this problem briefly (at the very bottom of page 31) with the example of 35 small Pyros and 3 giant Pyros displaying as '38 Giant Pyros', but unless I'm missing something obvious here I don't think the guide explains how to solve that issue. I couldn't find any existing solutions on Google or these forums either, so I'm rather at a loss here. I'm not using any custom HUD icons either, just the official ones already in the game.

Thank you for taking the time to read my queries and help get a newcomer like myself on the right track. I might post any other questions or problems that come up in the future, but for now I eagerly await any answers you have to offer.

[Jakapoa]

For your first issue, look at how you did the code for the black box attributes and the buff banner attributes.

			T_TFBot_Soldier_Buff_Blackbox
			{
				Class Soldier
				ClassIcon soldier_buff
				Item "The Black Box"
				Item "The Buff Banner"
				Name "Extended Buff Soldier"
				Skill Expert
				Attributes HoldFireUntilFullReload
				Attributes SpawnWithFullCharge
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					ItemName "The Black Box"
					"damage bonus" 0.33
					"fire rate bonus" 0.001
					"clip size upgrade atomic" 0
					"faster reload rate" 0.9
					"blast radius increased" 1.25
					"Projectile speed increased" 0.4
					"projectile spread angle penalty" 2
					"heal on hit for rapidfire" 60
				}
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					Item "The Buff Banner"
					"increase buff duration" 8
				}	
			}

You used ItemName for the black box, and only used item for the buff banner. You need to use ItemName for it to work properly.

As for issue two, you need to use different icon names to prevent icon stacking (pyro, pyro_crit, pyro_giant). I don't know what you mean with the support issue.

[[FH]L0RDR0B]

Originally posted by ATG Jakapoa:

For your first issue, look at how you did the code for the black box attributes and the buff banner attributes.

			T_TFBot_Soldier_Buff_Blackbox
			{
				Class Soldier
				ClassIcon soldier_buff
				Item "The Black Box"
				Item "The Buff Banner"
				Name "Extended Buff Soldier"
				Skill Expert
				Attributes HoldFireUntilFullReload
				Attributes SpawnWithFullCharge
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					ItemName "The Black Box"
					"damage bonus" 0.33
					"fire rate bonus" 0.001
					"clip size upgrade atomic" 0
					"faster reload rate" 0.9
					"blast radius increased" 1.25
					"Projectile speed increased" 0.4
					"projectile spread angle penalty" 2
					"heal on hit for rapidfire" 60
				}
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					Item "The Buff Banner"
					"increase buff duration" 8
				}	
			}

You used ItemName for the black box, and only used item for the buff banner. You need to use ItemName for it to work properly.

As for issue two, you need to use different icon names to prevent icon stacking (pyro, pyro_crit, pyro_giant). I don't know what you mean with the support issue.

Thanks for the first issue. I've got it to work properly now, it seems to be only the Banner units that were having this problem, everything else worked as intended.

As for the second, the problem I had was that if I tried spawning the same type of robot in two different WaveSpawns - one as a regular wave, one as a support wave - the HUD would ignore any instances of those robots in the regular wave and say that the robots were only spawning as Support. So rather than saying "all of these robots are support", I want it to say "you can expect to defeat X amount of robots, and then any more that spawn are support".

I've tried naming the ClassIcons differently (e.g. scout_shortstop and scout_shortstop_crit), but curiously for a few cases (notably, for demoknight_crit and scout_shortstop_crit) I'm now getting the purple/black chequered box for no existing icon. Which is weird because they were working fine otherwise.

This is the Template that I'm using for the regular wave Shortstop Scouts:

T_TFBot_Scout_Shortstop
			{
				Class Scout
				Skill Normal
				ClassIcon scout_shortstop
				Item "The Shortstop"
				Item "The Milkman"
				Name "Shortstop Scout"
				Health 650
				Scale 1.4

				CharacterAttributes
				{
					"head scale" 0.7
					"move speed bonus" 1.25
				}
			}

And then this is where I try to call the Support Shortstop Scouts, which only starts after all of the Shortstop Scouts in the main wave are dead:

WaveSpawn
		{
			WaitForAllSpawned "wave06d"
			Where spawnbot
			TotalCount 5
			MaxActive 5
			SpawnCount 5
			WaitBeforeStarting 5
			WaitBetweenSpawns 30
			TotalCurrency 50
			Support 1
			
			TFBot
			{
				Template T_TFBot_Scout_Shortstop
				ClassIcon scout_shortstop_crit
				Attributes AlwaysCrit
			}
		}

The Demoknight problem is very similar - I've got a Giant Demoman with a squad of 3 Demoknights following him, which then leads to an endless Support wave of 4 Demoknights. The 3 initial Demoknights do not display on the HUD, so presumably they get stacked with the Demoknights that are listed as being part of the Support. Any idea how to fix this?

One last thing that's now cropped up, in addition to the above - I've been trying to get some Vaccinator Medics to spawn, but I get this weird visual glitch where their tubes extend to a point in the sky. Here's some screenshots of it happening:

https://steamcommunity.com/id/L0RDR0B/screenshot/927060754654367616

https://steamcommunity.com/id/L0RDR0B/screenshot/927060754654369225

T_TFBot_Medic_Vaccinator_Bullet
			{
				Class Medic
				Name "Bullet Vaccinator Medic"
				Skill Expert
				Item "The Vaccinator"
				Item "Platinum Pickelhaube"
				Item "Mecha-Medes"
				Attributes SpawnWithFullCharge
				Attributes VaccinatorBullets
				
				CharacterAttributes
				{
					"ubercharge rate bonus" 25
					"heal rate bonus" 1
					"uber duration bonus" 100
					"medigun bullet resist passive" 1
					"medigun bullet resist deployed" 1
				}
				
				ItemAttributes
				{
					ItemName "TF_WEAPON_SYRINGEGUN_MEDIC"
					"damage penalty" 0.1
				}
			}

I've seen other custom missions use them with their item set to "The Vaccinator MVM", yet when I change their Medigun to that they spawn with no weapon visible. How do I fix this?

Thanks again for your help!

[Jakapoa]

Originally posted by FHLord R.O.B.:

Thanks for the first issue. I've got it to work properly now, it seems to be only the Banner units that were having this problem, everything else worked as intended.

As for the second, the problem I had was that if I tried spawning the same type of robot in two different WaveSpawns - one as a regular wave, one as a support wave - the HUD would ignore any instances of those robots in the regular wave and say that the robots were only spawning as Support. So rather than saying "all of these robots are support", I want it to say "you can expect to defeat X amount of robots, and then any more that spawn are support".

-snip-

The Demoknight problem is very similar - I've got a Giant Demoman with a squad of 3 Demoknights following him, which then leads to an endless Support wave of 4 Demoknights. The 3 initial Demoknights do not display on the HUD, so presumably they get stacked with the Demoknights that are listed as being part of the Support. Any idea how to fix this?

That's strange, because that's not normally supposed to happen (regardless of similar icons). What does the previous wavespawn look like (the non-support one)?

Originally posted by FHLord R.O.B.:

I've tried naming the ClassIcons differently (e.g. scout_shortstop and scout_shortstop_crit), but curiously for a few cases (notably, for demoknight_crit and scout_shortstop_crit) I'm now getting the purple/black chequered box for no existing icon. Which is weird because they were working fine otherwise.

Only certain icons exist in tf2 (by default).

scout
scout_bat
scout_bonk
scout_bonk_giant
scout_d
scout_fan
scout_fan_giant
scout_giant
scout_giant_fast
scout_jumping
scout_jumping_g
scout_shortstop
scout_stun
scout_stun_armored
scout_stun_giant
scout_stun_giant_armored

soldier
soldier_backup
soldier_backup_giant
soldier_barrage
soldier_blackbox
soldier_blackbox_giant
soldier_buff
soldier_buff_giant
soldier_burstfire
soldier_conch
soldier_conch_giant
soldier_crit
soldier_d
soldier_giant
soldier_libertylauncher
soldier_libertylauncher_giant
soldier_major_crits
soldier_sergeant_crits
soldier_spammer
soldier_spammer_crit

pyro
pyro_d
pyro_flare
pyro_flare_giant
pyro_giant

demo
demo_bomber
demo_burst
demo_burst_crit
demo_burst_giant
demo_d
demo_giant
demoknight
demoknight_giant
demoknight_samurai

heavy
heavy_champ
heavy_champ_giant
heavy_chief
heavy_crit
heavy_d
heavy_deflector
heavy_deflector_healonkill
heavy_deflector_healonkill_crit
heavy_deflector_push
heavy_giant
heavy_gru
heavy_gru_giant
heavy_heater
heavy_heater_giant
heavy_mittens
heavy_shotgun
heavy_shotgun_giant
heavy_steelfist
heavy_urgent

engineer
engineer_d

medic
medic_d
medic_giant
medic_uber

sniper
sniper_bow
sniper_bow_multi
sniper_d
sniper_jarate
sniper_sydneysleeper

spy
spy_d

tank
special_blimp
teleporter
sentry_buster

Anything not on that list will generate the missing textures (purple & black mess). I'd have included that earlier, but I didn't have the list on-hand. Anything else will require custom icons.

Originally posted by FHLord R.O.B.:

One last thing that's now cropped up, in addition to the above - I've been trying to get some Vaccinator Medics to spawn, but I get this weird visual glitch where their tubes extend to a point in the sky. Here's some screenshots of it happening:
https://steamcommunity.com/id/L0RDR0B/screenshot/927060754654367616
https://steamcommunity.com/id/L0RDR0B/screenshot/927060754654369225

It's a visual glitch due to the fact that medic robot model don't have the same bones as the regular human model. In particular, the bone that the vaccinator backpack would attatch to does not exist on the robot model. This causes the vaccinator's backpack to stay at wherever the map's origin is.

Originally posted by FHLord R.O.B.:

I've seen other custom missions use them with their item set to "The Vaccinator MVM", yet when I change their Medigun to that they spawn with no weapon visible. How do I fix this?

"The Vaccinator MVM" used to exist in the game's code, but was removed a couple updates/years ago. Just use "The Vaccinator" for now.

[[FH]L0RDR0B]

Apologies for the late delay, I wanted to make sure that the map itself was near completion. I've managed to get to the point where I can run the mission on the intended map correctly, rather than having to use mvm_example all the time, as well as being able to install necessary .vtf and .vmf files for the robots to have the correct icons. With any luck, I should be able to make a submission and get it judged within the next few days, so I can spend the rest of the time hopefully getting it near the release candidate stages.

I thought it would be polite to let you know this, and respond to what you had to say previously.

Originally posted by ATG Jakapoa:

That's strange, because that's not normally supposed to happen (regardless of similar icons). What does the previous wavespawn look like (the non-support one)?

Here's the original wavespawn. I've worked around it by making a duplicate .vmf called scout_shortstop_crit that points to the same .vtf as scout_shortstop.vmf does (same with demoknight.vmf and demoknight_crit.vmf), but perhaps you could find a way that the workaround isn't required.

		WaveSpawn
		{
			Name "wave06d"
			WaitForAllDead "wave06b"
			Where spawnbot
			TotalCount 15
			MaxActive 10
			SpawnCount 5
			WaitBeforeStarting 5
			WaitBetweenSpawns 10
			TotalCurrency 150
			
			TFBot
			{
				Template T_TFBot_Scout_Shortstop
				Attributes AlwaysCrit
			}
		}

		WaveSpawn
		{
			Name "wave01c"
			WaitForAllSpawned "wave01b"
			Where spawnbot
			TotalCount 8
			MaxActive 4
			SpawnCount 4
			WaitBeforeStarting 5
			WaitBetweenSpawns 10
			TotalCurrency 100
			
			Squad
			{
				TFBot
				{
					Template T_TFBot_Giant_Demoman
					Tag giant
				}
				
				TFBot
				{
					Template T_TFBot_Demoman_Knight
					Attributes AlwaysCrit
				}
				
				TFBot
				{
					Template T_TFBot_Demoman_Knight
					Attributes AlwaysCrit
				}
								
				TFBot
				{
					Template T_TFBot_Demoman_Knight
					Attributes AlwaysCrit
				}
			}
			
		}

Originally posted by ATG Jakapoa:

It's a visual glitch due to the fact that medic robot model don't have the same bones as the regular human model. In particular, the bone that the vaccinator backpack would attatch to does not exist on the robot model. This causes the vaccinator's backpack to stay at wherever the map's origin is.

"The Vaccinator MVM" used to exist in the game's code, but was removed a couple updates/years ago. Just use "The Vaccinator" for now.

I've set the Vaccinator as such (and even gave them their custom icons that Hydrogen and the Iron Gauntlet team posted on tf2maps.net), but I do have one followup question. I don't remember any of the Titanium Tank tours that featured Vaccinator Medics having this problem - is the visual glitch fixed when the official community servers run them, or did I not pay attention to them properly?

Either way, thanks again for your help. Hopefully that should be all the issues I've encountered wrapped up, and I'll make another post in the submission forum in the next few days with my map. Take care!