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Visual Basic Bot

General Shadow

By General Shadow
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Hakaku Newbie

Hakaku

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The language you choose to make your bot in is of no importance. To me, the most difficult part about designing an entirely new bot is using the proper protocol and establishing a connection.

 

If you want it to connect to Subgame zones, or want your bot to keep track of lots of player information, take a look at using the UDP Game Protocol. If you're good with connecting to ASSS zones only and don't require tracking that much information specifically on players, the TCP ChatNet protocol would be simpler to use.

 

In either case, the choice is yours. As CRe pointed out, there's an older VB bot that exists, you might want to take a look at that. Though, you could also try learning how to write a simple MervBot plugin (either C++ or C#), since it's the most widely supported bot core out there and has lots of pre-existing plugins and examples that help. And if you're using ASSS, you can already directly write modules (in either C or Python) that are run on the server itself.

Purge Newbie

»Purge

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Posted
I would suggest looking at some ASSS code and taking some online tutorials in C to learn to create ASSS modules. Don't waste your time on bots, it's been done to death already.
General Shadow Newbie

General Shadow

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...in C to learn to create ASSS modules. Don't waste your time on bots, it's been done to death already.

1st, whats the difference between an ASSS module and a bot?

 

2nd, why have bots been done to death?

Hakaku Newbie

Hakaku

Posted
Posted
1st, whats the difference between an ASSS module and a bot?

 

2nd, why have bots been done to death?

Bots haven't been made to death, it's just that they're currently going the way of the dinosaurs. Bots were originally designed to provide additional functionality that neither the user nor the Subgame server possessed. However, Subgame has gradually been on the decline over the years in favour of the more flexible and open sourced ASSS server, which was meant to supercede Subgame, and more importantly bots, by providing additional features that bots can't do by manipulating the UDP protocol. Basically, ASSS modules can be dynamically loaded and unloaded within the server itself, so there's no need for a bot. It also means you don't need to find a separate host for your bot (people who host bots nowadays are quasi nil).

 

Probably the biggest downfall with ASSS modules is that if they crash, your entire server will crash as well. It can be argued that a well-coded module shouldn't crash the server in the first place, which is true, but as we can't envisage every little detail, some people still prefer using bots in addition to the server.

 

In the end, if you're coding your own bot, just know that you may or may not be the only person using it, and the only person who will be able to provide support for it. It's difficult to get help for just about any bot core now, while if you code an ASSS module, there are many people who will be willing to help you learn.

Hakaku Newbie

Hakaku

Posted
Posted

Just to clarify then, I wont be able to code an ASSS Module in Visual Basic?

That is correct. ASSS modules can only be written in either C or Python.

Drake7707 Newbie

Drake7707

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Posted
Aren't their specific interfaces for ASSS modules ? I don't know about the module structure but if they are seperate plugins as dll's then writing one in vb is possible as long as you follow the exact same interface provided afaik.
General Shadow Newbie

General Shadow

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Aren't their specific interfaces for ASSS modules ? I don't know about the module structure but if they are seperate plugins as dll's then writing one in vb is possible as long as you follow the exact same interface provided afaik.

Meaning i could code it in VB? and what does afaik stand for?

Hakaku Newbie

Hakaku

Posted
Posted

Doing that would still require knowledge of C since you'd first have to write something akin to Pymod.c in ASSS, which allows users to use Python modules (it's a chaotic mess though). I think D1st0rt attempted doing something like this for C#, but didn't go far with it because he said he didn't know enough C. - As far as I know, you can't just load a random .dll file without knowing how to call and interpret it.

 

It's not impossible though, but it may not be that easy. (On a side note, with some dedication you should be able to implement VB.NET into Mervbot 48b, which was ported by SOS for .NET languages)

 

As for links,

 

General:

* Server Help Forum (help, examples, and more.)

* ASSS Wiki

* ASSS Download & Repository

 

Module:

* Description

* How to install your own module (for Python and C, and using different compilers for different platforms)

* How to write your own module (for Python or C)

* List of Custom Modules (premade & released modules by members of the community)

Samapico Newbie

Samapico

Posted
Posted

Post something relevant to the topic at hand, or don't post at all. You've now been warned.

He did ask what AFAIK stand for, would have been much less trouble to simply answer 'as far as I know' though.

 

If you know your way around VB well, learning a new language shouldn't be hard... Once you get to know the basic syntax (if, for, while, function declarations/definitions, structs...) you should be able to do as much as you could in VB.

Hakaku Newbie

Hakaku

Posted
Posted

He did ask what AFAIK stand for, would have been much less trouble to simply answer 'as far as I know' though.

Oh snaps, I totally missed that post, my bad. I withdraw my earlier comment >.<

  • 3 weeks later...
PsyOps Newbie

PsyOps

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have a botcore that hasnt officially been released, but ive done wonders with it. I believe the botcore is in c++ but its written using .NET. You are able to write bots using VB,C#,J#, or C++. Using Microsoft Visual Studio makes it super easy to make a bot. Ive been making bots with it for a couple years now and have been learning how t code using this bot. It is has very good documents with it. if you are interested i can give you a copy. Some examples of the bots i made are:

 

Sentinel Bot:(in C#)This bot uses 2 bots. Bots run off of a cfg file. I tried to make it for non-coders to use. Basically you can drop a gun turret(sentinel) in any location that you want simply by plotting x,y in a cfg. You can customize the weapon it fires, its fire rate, and how far out it initiates fire against a player(prox). I even managed to send thor packets with shrap wooo hax. The way this bot works is it has one bot in spec that gathers all the player packets by speccing all in game players (cycles) and it uses the other bot to place it in every spot that is needed to fire. This way you are able to place as many gun turrets as needed. i haven't pushed the limits with it so i dont know how many sentinels would bog down the bot.

 

xZonechat bot: Alpha has been shut down and i have lost my dev zone. The chaos staff has made me a smod and are considering making me sysops. But until then i need full access to all commands and privileges to dev. So i made this bot. What it does is logs into the chats i want inside of chaos and monitors the arena messages(i put it in battle), and it also logs into my zone and just relays all messages. This way i am tied into ssc without using the biller.

 

Now keep in mind i have not taken any proramming classes. i started out with twcore and i started to code in java. Ive also coded a game for the PSP using the scripting language LUA. Since then a friend of mine was making a core for alpha and i helped him debug it by jumping in and doing as he said basically. I started making bots with it using c# because it is very similar to java.

 

 

hm more came out then i expected. sorry for the longwinded post. )=

 

let me know if you are interested.

 

-Psyops

 

ps: UDP is the player who made the core.(AlphaCore)

He and Eris cowrote whinebot long ago. I think chaos still uses whinebot.

Edited by PsyOps
Lynx Newbie

»Lynx

Posted
Posted

I've used bots back in the day that were written in Visual Basic (LYNX Bot), however VB I find is more of an introductory language - although it does have its uses bots definitely is not one of them. If you want to write a bot from scratch, then I suggest you look at Explody Thingies bot, as it's very well documented (around 3 lines of comments per line of code) and has been coded to standards unlike MERVBot (where Catid pretty much wrote his own way of doing things, Explody hasn't - this is useful if you want to create other projects in the future). However, protocol and establishing a connection I find quite hard, and if you've not already got socket experience there will be a very sharp learning curve for you to get used to.

 

If you're interested in writing plugins, then MERVBot would be good to check out until Explody finalises ExplBot a little more, however the advantage with ExplBot is that it's in development right now which means that people are more likely to help you develop it, it is also going to probably be the first bot that incorporates Continuum encryption.

 

If however you're just interested in simple subspace related programming, check out ASSS. Python modules are extremely easy to code, and I think next to perhaps Ruby, Python is probably the easiest language I've ever worked with. You'll of course have to spend a while understanding ASSS however in any project that you take up understanding the system you're programming for will probably be the biggest drain of your time. I find that I spend 80% of my time researching and testing, and only 20% coding. I suppose that the coding percentage goes up with experience, but it sounds like you've not got much so just take your time and ultimately if you think you'll enjoy writing a bot in VB most then do that, but don't forget the other possibilities.

 

-L

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