Bots

What a bot is

A bot is a character of its own, with a name like Bot12, played by the game rather than by a person. It logs in, walks, jumps and fights as a player does, and the server holds it to the same rules. Its name turns blue, red and black as a player's does, and when it dies it revives after the realm's revive wait, at the map's revive point as a player does — which can be in a town on another map.

Every bot has a template — its build and how it plays. There are four:

• Melee Trojan: fights up close and specialises in securing objectives, the gates and the pole. It is a Trojan with a dagger in each hand unless staff change its build, and hits what its leader hits and otherwise what its side fights, with plain attacks.
• FB/SS Trojan: strikes from range with FastBlade or ScentSword and is better at securing kills. It is a Trojan with a club in its right hand and a blade or a sword in its left - each bot keeps the one it was made with - and casts only the skill its weapon is for: FastBlade with a blade, ScentSword with a sword. It goes after whatever a Melee Trojan would, but fires from a few cells off and swings only at an enemy right beside it, or at a gate or the pole. Its aim is a person's: an enemy standing still is rarely missed, one in the middle of a jump often is. Its stamina is what it fights with, so when it runs out it backs off and sits for a burst, and it sits whenever it has nothing to do.
• Water Taoist: revives the fallen, Stigmas the fighters, heals when nothing else needs it, and strikes the monsters its side is fighting - never a player or a town guard. Its one spell at a player is a Thunder that sets its guard on the enemy its side is fighting. It is a Water Taoist with a wand, and the monsters wait until nobody on its side needs it. It revives the fallen with Pray — its own guild's Water Taoists first, then its own side before strangers. A guild's Water Taoist revives its guildmates and allies whatever their names, and anybody without a blue or black name who is not in a guild its guild is at war or enmity with; a lawful one revives anybody without a blue or black name, and any guild member whose name is not black; a wild one revives only other wild bots. It casts Stigma on fighters who lack it, and heals with Advanced Cure only someone it has seen take more than half of what that heals, or seen healed in full, since they are likely still hurt. It always keeps enough mana back for a Pray, unless one drink would bring it back. Reviving comes before everything, its own safety included: it Prays for a fallen ally in reach wherever it lands, even with enemies about. It runs from anyone who comes for it — reacting as a person would, and weaving rather than always taking the same jump — but keeps its side in view and closes in on the fallen as it goes. It gets its mana back by Meditation, sitting, and mana potions, in that order; out of mana with none to drink, it sits briefly each time it lands between jumps to build up stamina for a Meditation. It puts as much into Spirit as the realm's mana potions call for and the rest into Vitality.
• Fire Taoist: keeps its distance and burns enemies with Tornado, and FireOfHell on a crowd. It is a Fire Taoist with a backsword, and fights whom a Melee Trojan of its alignment fights, players and bots before monsters, gates and the pole. It never swings: a build without Tornado casts Fire, or Thunder. It stands and casts while nobody comes for it; when someone closes in it hops a short way off and casts again as it lands, taking a longer jump only when no short one gets it clear. It drinks a mana potion in a fight only when it has no mana left for a Tornado, and otherwise gets its mana back by Meditation and sitting between fights. Like the Water Taoist, it buys mana potions at the Pharmacy before a Guild War and on its way back from the jail.

Every bot keeps a guard. With nothing to do and its stamina full, a bot casts SummonGuard. When its guard stands idle and the bot goes after an enemy player or bot in reach, it opens the fight with one Thunder at them, before its first blow, line or spell, and its guard takes them on. It never casts Thunder at a monster for its guard, and never puts off a revive, a heal or getting away for it.

Bots fight other people's guards, but never in place of a person. A guard shows its owner's guild name, so a bot knows whose it is. A bot attacks an enemy's guard when nobody better is near, when the guard is hurting it and its owner is out of reach, or when the guard is nearly dead. A player or bot coming near takes over from a guard at once, unless the guard is about to fall, and a bot that cannot bring a guard down soon goes for its owner instead. Under a /tactic order, a bot attacks a guard only when the guard is hurting it or nearly dead. A bot never attacks its own guard or a friend's.

Adding and removing bots

A realm's owner can add bots in their own realm, and so can staff. The owner can let another player do it too: Give a player commands (/grant), with Add bots and Remove a bot ticked.

• Add bots, on the Bots tab of the GM Commands panel, asks for a Kind of bot, How many (1 to 10) and Whose side, and the bots arrive where you stand within a few seconds. The template you pick has its description written under the box. On the chat bar it is /bot.
• Remove a bot lists the realm's bots, with each one's template and side. The bot logs out within a few seconds and never comes back. On the chat bar it is /removebot.
• A realm can have 50 bots at a time.
• A bot that logs out comes back where it last was, like anybody.

Commands has the exact syntax.

Sides

The Alignment decides who a bot is with, the way a monster's does.

Alignment	Who it is with	Who it fights
A guild's	That guild. It follows the nearest living member — a person, never another bot — across maps if it must	What its leader hits, and otherwise wild monsters, wild bots, blue and black names, and the guild's enemies
Lawful - allied with guards	The guards and the other lawful bots. It roams near where it arrived	Wild bots, blue and black names, and wild monsters — never a guard
Wild - allied with monsters	The wild monsters. It roams near where it arrived	Any player it sees, guards, and a guild's monsters. Never another wild bot, and a wild monster only if it hits the bot first

The table is a Melee Trojan's, a Fire Taoist's, which fights the same people and monsters from range, and an FB/SS Trojan's. A Water Taoist never attacks a player or a town guard, whatever its alignment: it keeps with its side, keeps it standing, and strikes only the monsters its side is fighting, and an enemy's summoned guard as every bot does. The one exception is the Thunder that sets its guard on an enemy its side is already fighting.

A guild's bot leaves guildless players and other guilds alone, unless its leader hits them or they hit it or its leader. On the guild war map it is different: there it goes for every guild that is not its own or an ally, war or no war. When its leader is killed, it finishes the fight first, then follows whoever is the nearest member now.

A wild bot is an outlaw. Capture mode is enough to hit one, and hitting or killing it costs no blue name and no PK points. In town the guards fight it.

A guild of bots

New guild... in the Alignment list — /bot newguild {name} — has the bot found a guild of that name and lead it. The name is up to 16 plain characters — letters, digits, spaces and punctuation other than square brackets, no accents — and no other guild in the realm may have it.

• Once the first bot has arrived, the guild is in the Alignment list, and more bots join it by picking it.
• A guild of bots has no person to follow. Outside a guild war its bots stay near where they arrived, its Melee Trojans fighting the guild's enemies who come near; in a war they play it on their own — see In a Guild War.
• Anyone can join it. Ask its leader, or any of its bots, to join, and you are in at once.
• The first person to join leads it. The bot that led it stays on as a member and goes on playing for the guild. Anyone who joins after you is an ordinary member.
• You can hand it back. As its leader, talk to the Guild Director, choose More Options, then Hand the guild to a bot, and name one of the guild's bots. You stay on as a member, and the guild stays with its bots when other people join.
• Remove the bot that leads it, and the guild passes to its oldest other bot, or with none left to its first person. With nobody left in it, the guild is disbanded.

Teams and guilds

• Every bot accepts a team invite, except on a football pitch, where nobody can be in a team. Being in your team changes nothing about who it follows or fights.
• A lawful bot accepts a guild invite, and from then on is that guild's. A wild bot ignores the invite.
• A bot kicked out of its guild becomes lawful, and so does every bot of a guild that is disbanded. It stops following the guild's members, and the guild's name goes from over its head.

In a Guild War

Every guild's bots in the realm take part in a Guild War, wherever they are when it begins.

• They play together. A guild's bots play as a team, each with a part to play: they break a gate together, push for the pole together, and hold it together. Their Water Taoists keep them standing, praying the fallen back up rather than leaving them for the jail. Their FB/SS Trojans go with the rest, but at a gate or the pole they fire at the enemies defending it first, and strike the gate or the pole only when none is in reach.

• They can play on their own. A guild with no people in it, or whose people have all fallen, plays the whole war itself.

• They stay with you. With people in the guild or its allies, the bots keep one of you in sight rather than going off on their own, and with nobody in sight they come to the nearest living person of their guild. Gather your guild somewhere, and its bots gather with you.

• You can give them orders. A guild's leader or deputy types /tactic and an order for the guild's bots; the realm's owner can give any guild's bots one, naming the guild after the order:

  • left gate or right gate — break that gate together.
  • pole — go in on the pole as soon as they are inside the walls, without waiting for the rest.
  • hold — for the guild holding the pole: stay inside the walls rather than going out to the attackers.
  • regroup — fall back and gather, and go at nothing until the order changes.
  • follow — go at whichever gate, or the pole, they see a person of the guild hitting.
  • auto — lift the order: they play the war on their own again.

  A Fire Taoist told to break a gate or take the pole goes for the players and bots defending it first, and casts at the gate or the pole once none of them is left.

  An order that doesn't fit where the guild is — hold while it is attacking — changes nothing until it does, and each bot still runs, heals and revives as it would. /tactic on its own says the order standing. An order stands until it is lifted or replaced, and it is also the guild tactic in the Tactics window, where a team or a single bot can be given an order of its own, told to defend someone, or to attack someone.

• Their tactics come from practice. How they play was worked out and refined over many simulated wars between guilds of bots.

See Events and guild war for how the war itself works.

In football

Bots can play a football match, whatever their alignment. Every bot on a side plays the same way, in the same build as everyone else — the Warrior with a blade and a shield. Bots always take the blade.

• Sides opens a list of everyone online, the realm's bots among them, marked as bots. Select them and press Red or Blue, as for anybody.
• Left as Random, the panel has an Allow bots to join box, shown while nobody is marked. Ticked, every bot online in the realm signs up, and they are drawn into the sides with the players who said yes.

Each bot keeps to its own band of the pitch and goes for the ball when it comes there. It would rather pass to a person on its side, a little ahead of them, than shoot, and it shoots when no person is near. It clears the ball wide from its own end, and Dashes at players of the other side who come for the ball. It plays with a person's faults — slow to read a kick, sometimes misjudging one, swinging late, and letting tackles go — so a side of bots can be beaten.

A bot on the pitch without a side plays as it would anywhere else. Nothing on the pitch takes damage.

Things to try

Each of these is done from the GM Commands panel in a realm you host.

Two teams of bots

1. Add as many bots as you want players, anywhere.
2. Start a football match, open Sides, put half the bots on Red and half on Blue, and leave yourself off.
3. Go to a player takes you to one of them, to watch from the pitch.

To play, put yourself on a side too. A side has at most 10 players.

Your guild against a guild of bots

1. Add a bot with New guild... and a name, anywhere but the guild war map: there a guild's bots attack every other guild at once, war or not.
2. Once it arrives, add more bots and pick that guild as their side. Make some of them Water Taoists (/bot water-taoist guild {name}), on each side: without one, every bot that falls waits for the jail rather than being prayed back up.
3. Start a guild war. Name your own guild as Defending guild to start inside holding the pole, or the bots' guild to make you take it from them.

When the war begins, the bots make their way to it. A defending guild's members are brought inside round the pole, bots included, wherever they are.

You and your friends against a full side of bots

• Football: in Sides, put yourselves on one side and bots on the other. Bots on your own side are worth trying too — they pass to people.
• Guild War: as above, with as many bots in the bots' guild as there are of you, or more.

Making up the numbers

• In football, put bots on the shorter side in Sides, or leave it as Random and tick Allow bots to join to fill both sides from the realm's bots.
• In a Guild War, add bots with your own guild as their Alignment. They join the guild straight away, play the war beside you, keeping you in sight, and carry on when you fall. Do the same for the other guild, and two players can fight a whole war.

Sparring

Add a Wild bot somewhere away from town and it comes for you. Killing it costs nothing, and it revives after the revive wait at the map's revive point — if that is a town, the guards there fight it. Get away from it and it goes for whoever else is near, so pick a quiet spot.

Guards

Add Lawful bots where players hunt. They roam near where they arrived, until they die and revive elsewhere, and attack anybody with a blue or black name, wild bots and wild monsters, as the guards do in town.

What bots do not do yet

• Fight with attack skills, other than the Fire Taoist's spells and the FB/SS Trojan's FastBlade and ScentSword: a Melee Trojan only swings, and a Water Taoist swings at monsters with its wand - it casts Fire or Thunder at them only if staff give it a backsword. The Thunder every bot casts to set its guard on an enemy is the one exception.
• Play an archer.

Bots play by fixed rules today. Fights between players are recorded so that later bots can learn from them — see Your character.