TWSBL Bot Update

Tobechecked: Duplication of ticket:19 ?

TWSDX is the New Spiderduel/TWSD and has nothing to do with Strikeball???

If you could see if the database works right in adding players, or such, and get back to me on that, to make sure I can test things out. Is it also supposed to add players after I /!startgame it or is it supposed to add them as I put the /!add player:team in?

Which bot are you suggesting using for this? Still unsure as to what the difference is betweeen sbbot and strikeballbot — again, not sure why the second one was created rather than adapting the first. Nobody seems to remember? Who were the past SBL league ops? (RANT: They were the ones that requisitioned that the first bot be created, and then a few months later asked that a second and entirely one be created … for who knows what reason. Another case of people who know nothing about programming directing how something should be implemented, and things going wrong. This says a lot in my personal opinion about the attitude some on staff have: that coders are beneath them; are not as involved or as capable as normal members of staff; and that they are there to serve staff's interests and implement something exactly to some high-ranking individual's often poorly thought-out specifications, rather than be part of the creative process. Present company is of course excluded, but clearly that is exactly what occurred in this instance.)

K, as we discussed earlier, we'll just go with SBBot and fix that up, here are the mistakes that I've noticed:

1.) When using /!notplaying, the bot doesn't respond back so people don't know if they are in the notplaying mode, but it does when you turn it off. I'm trying to think of a way to separate those from regular players, but that might be a settings change. Just like the way wbduel/javduel/base bot works when !notplaying.

2.) When adding people, and one is removed, the bot continues to go on as if nothing is wrong and adds people to the wrong freq. I think this may be solved up by just /*setship # them twice so it will shift them over to the right team instead of just once.

3.) Is there a way to make the game do a 6v6 instead of just 5v5? or maybe allow a command that makes the game however the host wants it? Example is like /!maxplayers 7 or so? Would that be workable?

4.) Can there be a slight delay when the players are warped, or the ability to have them warped onto the safety and be stuck there? If they try to move, bot keeps warping them back. I've seen that happen with racing bots so everyone has a fair chance.

5.) Any way to get the bot to spawn the ball on the blue circle in the center of the map? Even if it means "using" the host to warp, spec and then say GO GO GO!

6.) Oh! Another problem that I've encountered is that sometimes the bot doesn't /*spec individuals twice, so they are locked in spec a lot of times without knowing it. I don't know when it does it, but it's done it to me also along with a few others when I've hosted games with it.

Seems like alot of major bugs. Maybe these are already fixed in strikeballbot ?

Can you specify the differences between strikeballbot and SBBot?

A guy named Arceo designed SBBot, from the comments and liberal use of static references to his name in various private messages…

It has 31 classes, including both an "sbbot" class and a "strikeballbot" class… both of which extend the ridiculous "SSEventForwarder" class, a bizarre abstraction created only to request and forward events onward to the bot. The SSEventForwarder uses SSEventMessageType, which, I kid you not, consists of:

public class SSEventMessageType extends MessageType {
    public SSEventMessageType() {}
}

This kid's programming teacher needs to have a beating! He was encouraged to create useless abstractions that essentially muddle the code, with exciting names like "Objector" and "Responder" and "Communicator" that are each about 3-10 lines of code. A lot of the code looks like stuff that should be in the core, but for some reason he thought that only SBBot needed it. More like only he'd ever use it.

It also has 3 configuration files. THREE!

It might work all right, but this is a coder's private hell, and one in which only one warped mind was meant to inhabit. I'm sorry, Lefty, but I'm not stepping near this piece of garbage with a 10 foot poll — mine or anyone else's. If you want work done on SBBot, you'll need to find Arceo.

(Manual hosting, when you think about it, is really not all that bad. :P)

(By the way, if this wasn't funny enough already, the empty SSEventMessageType class actually inherits ANOTHER of his classes, MessageType, which is essentially a useless skeleton class he's created to show off the differentiation of various implementations of — yet again — his own empty event classes. Because he clearly needs to differentiate between his SSEventOperator and his Operator class.)

Did I mention this shit is mostly uncommented? I really recommend that any coders who want a laugh take a look.

So it's better to just remove the entire SBBot and continue with strikeballbot ?

Talked with K_O a little about this … I think for their purposes they may want sbbot, as it's built for automation already, whereas strikeballbot was a host-assistant tool. They're eventually thinking a league like TWD, which is a lot of work.

Hm ok. Changing this ticket a bit then.

Okay, I'd like to resume this again. I haven't had time to change it really, been busy with some few things. Let's fix up SBBot first if possible (Tooty Bot). It needs to be fixed in a few areas. If it could work like a ?go wbduel bot maybe? Like maybe *arena %tickname is in for (team name). Also, when speccing people, it only does one *spec on them, so they get locked into spec. It doesn't add people to the right teams if they are slow in adding, or lag outs when adding. Warps people fine, etc. Just the adding part is tough to start the game.

Essential Vitamins has been removed from the TW Bot Development team

To Do List for Tooty Bot (SBBot):

1.) Add a /!help list for all commands. (like wbduel bot) 2.) When adding, make sure it *arena's the name, and team. 3.) When removing, make sure it *spec's twice (usually only does it once, so it locks them in spec.) 4.) Make all people spawn on the biggest part of the safety, and have them keep warping there until the ball appears on screen after *restart.

• Add a !help menu
• Make sure it arena's name and team when a player is added
• When removing make sure it uses specWithoutLock
• Keep players in the safety until the ball appears

I've spoken with Left_Eye personally about this. This sbbot and strikeballbot have been scrapped and replaced by Ticket #255

I hate to dwell on this, but this is just further insult to the developers who have wasted a great deal of time on this project, which has from the very start suffered from ineffably poor planning so characteristic of Trench Wars bot projects ordered by those that have no knowledge of development …

Am I going about this the wrong way? I don't mean to take credit away from anyone's hard work. Please be open to correct me.

Are you sure it's better to start anew instead of salvaging SBBot?
Would it be an idea to have this bot be part of the new matchbot (or make the new matchbot be able to also do this) ?

Sorry if that came off personal. Automated strikeball was just a massive failing in terms of planning for such a long time, and it's a shame that even after so many people commissioned to either create a new bot or work on an old one, yet another bot is having to be built.

But, all that said, I think the approach in the new ticket is a good one, to merge all of these very similar-styled features such as SB and hockey. (Unless, of course, they can be included in some way in MatchBot, so as to have the automated match functionality automatically included and also standardized/not forked.) I would ask that if there is anything at all that can be salvaged from these bots, that it be salvaged, though I understand if especially in the case of SBBot you're unable. It would just make the whole miserable affair a ray or two brighter for the poor suckers that were roped in to build these things, myself included.

I'm all for conglomerating this with the "new" matchbot; I was unaware that there was such a thing. If someone is currently working on a "new" matchbot please create a ticket about your goals and ideas. Right now the only reason this and the dodgeball module are on hold is due to the fact that I can't seem to make a bot pick up a ball. If someone can provide any assistance on that matter I would appreciate it greatly.

Haha, as soon as I posted this I went back to the timeline and saw the ticket for the "new" matchbot. ← slow