MertaScript 2 - Counter-Strike Game Commentator

Introduction

This is a standalone application which reads and analyses Counter-Strike log files in real-time and plays predefined audio comments when something interesting happens. The application also has ChatGPT and ElevenLabs integrations for creating live audio comments on the fly, how cool is that!

The application is based on the original MertaScript from 2014, which was written in Python but has now been rewritten in C#.

Architecture

The application consists of two parts:

• A server software, which reads the log file and sends the playable comment file path to the connected clients
• A client software, which plays the comment files locally

Commentators

There are two types of commentators / audio players:

• Global game commentator, which comments global game events. This commentator always favors the team set in the config file.
• Player commentator. Every player listed in the players.json file also has an individual commentator. This commentator only comments the events of its specific player.
  • This feature is mainly designed to give bot players personal voice comments. Ever wanted to play Counter-Strike against Duke Nukem and hear his immortal oneliners during the game?

Supported games

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike: Source also partially works due to the similarity of the log files, but it is not officially upported.

Setup

• Rename config_template.txt to config.txt and edit it
• Rename players_template.json to players.json and edit it
• Build the application by running dotnet build (the default target location is bin\Debug\net7.0)
• Setup audio files:
  • In the application root directory, create a folder named sound/mertaranta
  • Move the create_commentator_sound_folder_structure.ps1 script there and run it to create the folder structure
  • In the application root directory, create a folder named sound/players/<player_name>
  • Move the create_player_sound_folder_structure.ps1 script there and run it to create the folder structure
  • Fill the folders with funny audio comments :D
• Run the application:
  • In server mode on the same machine where the game is running
  • In client mode on the machine where you want to hear the comments
    • In practice this means that every player needs to run the application in client mode on their own machine. However, it may be more practical to run the application in client mode on a single (virtual) machine and then use a virtual audio cable to route the audio to a voice chat application (e.g. Mumble / Discord).

Configuration

config.txt

Name	Description
start	host / join
host_client_team_player_names	List of player names who play in the team that the global commentator favors.
host_game_event_sounds_folder	Folder name
host_player_event_sounds_folder	Folder name
host_round_time	Same as mp_roundtime setting used in the game
host_max_rounds	Same as mp_maxrounds setting used in the game
host_c4_time	Same as mp_c4timer setting used in the game
host_hostage_taken_time_bonus	A time bonus given when a hostage has been taken
host_logs_path	Path to the game's log files
host_port	Port to be used when hosting the application server
join_ip	IP to be used when joining the application server
join_port	Port to be used when joining the application server

players.json

This file defines the bot player names who play in the game and whose actions should be commented individually. Alias names are also supported, so that a specific player can be recognized by multiple names.

The names listed in this file should match the bot player names listed in the game, i.e. you should configure your game to use custom bot names.

Renaming bots in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Bot player names can be modified easily on the server using a file named botprofile.db.

Renaming bots in Counter-Strike 2

In Counter-Strike 2, botprofile.db is located within the vpk files. These files cannot be edited directly, but their content can be overridden:

1. Download VPKEdit
2. Open VPKEdit, open file game/csgo/pak01_dir.vpk and look for botprofile.db
3. Extract botprofile.db to a new, empty folder (the folder name does not matter)
4. Use a text editor to make the desired changes in the botprofile.db file
5. With VPKEdit, create a new VPK from the folder where you extracted the botprofile.db in step 3
6. Rename the VPK file to botprofile.vpk
7. Copy the newly created VPK to game/csgo/overrides/botprofile.vpk (you need to manually create the overrides folder)
8. Modify the game/csgo/gameinfo.gi file: Add line Game csgo/overrides/botprofile.vpk between lowViolence and Game csgo, under FileSystem -> SearchPaths

The end result should look like this:

Game_LowViolence csgo_lv
Game csgo/overrides/botprofile.vpk
Game csgo

After this, your server should load the modified botprofile.db.