HOORAY!

vBot v3.0 is up, all new code, much more efficient.
the delay is all but gone, which means lots of possibilities for player side vBot scripts, i'm working on an advanced mode to take full advantage of the "near real time" response :D

new in v3.0: if vBot is docked it will repair itself before undocking, i've figured out how to give vBot a better ship consistently but since that costs about 1m credits on a good day, i don't have the funds to implement it right now, feel free to donate funds to vBot in the game, also when the fire command is issued vBot locks on to the player in front of it, this was a big advantage that day vBot had an adv gat, but doesn't do much for the bus gun :D

cheers
-Cam-

Yes a new bot in Vendetta.

I really wanted to make a bot that navigated by itself, hence my last thread about the displayshippos command. :D
well due to the complex mathematics involved in using ship position to navigate on 3 axis' that idea has been put on hold until I think of an easier way to do it.

So what does vBot do?
vBot is the remote control car of Vendetta.
a player can issue commands by /msg'ing the bot

hire -> hires vBot (you can only fly it if you have hired it, because if more than one person was issuing flight commands it would be all over the place)
fire -> releases vBot
left -> turn left (all turn commands make the bot turn for 1 second and then stop)
right -> turn right
up -> turn up
down -> turn down
speed+ -> accelerates (type once and the bot will fly at about half speed, twice for full speed)
speed- -> decelerate (if at full speed back to half, if half stop)
speed0 -> decelerates fully
stop -> brakes (and holds brakes, so if "speed+" isn't doing anything most likely the brakes are on)
go -> release brakes

that's it for now, just a simple test to make sure there are no bugs

I'm planning on adding an activate command, and a jettison command, so it could be used to haul extra cargo, but obviously the function would be pretty limited :D .

commands i would love to implement would include:

leaving a station, right now if vBot dies and i'm not watching my computer it wont be able to leave the station.

and

"follow target" if this is possible please let me know, because it would be awesome!

Well, that's it, enjoy.
Please post any and all suggestions or comments.

-Cam-

eeey, nice work.

c00l!!

Woohoo, we can finally clear out those nasty minefields without risking our own lives.

Yes, Arolte, but it's much more fun to watch a psychotic pilot weaving through minefields. :P

yes, is the vBot going to be in a bus? or a different ship?

COOL, some nice work there!

PS: how about a time limit, say after 10mins the bot /explodes so if a user logs off or times out other people can hire it.

at the moment vBot is a bus and i forgot to mention it's in sector 1 where it's safe.
but i have added the following commands

jump -> activate wormhole or dock (good luck getting it into a dock ;) )
jet -> jettison cargo
shoot -> fire weapon (will keep firing until command is reissued)
turbo -> activates turbo (will keep turboing until command is reissued)

I still have no clue how i could tell it to leave a station if it dies, or manages to dock.
if anyone knows some secret commands or anything i could use to do that, or other cool things, post here, or if too secret for posting email -> cam<dot>v(at)rogers[dot]com

-Cam-

use the Escape key, it un-docks.

Zam: bots can't just press esc :P

undocking: you should be able to close the console, hit escape and reopen it with the program that's driving your bot... if you can't do that it'd be difficult.

also if you want more help I'd talk to Romirez, or Firemage. They both have bots that undock and travel.

Out of curiosity what platform are you running the bot under?

that was great fun. I was able to get the bot out of 1 into 4 and then to 7 and back to 4. In 4 i was able to make it dock :D

next step get it to 18 or 16 to kill the frigate :D

Zam might be on to something. Can you send Vendetta the escape key signal? What language are you using?

-rc

ahh.....geting 400 18 wigets in 3....and selling them :)

that will be fun.

My question would be, how do you even manage to control Vendetta from outside of it? My attempt (ie. AppleScript) didn't work and I couldn't think of anything else at the time. Anyone willing to give me a sample script to work from?

another topic:
people are getting worse...
some player just kiled the bot for no reason. Such player will also kill noobs for no reason, i think...
Happy, when they are able to kill clawless vessels. And happy, when they can destroy a funny Toy. Sad.

a / Camande' lets you script stuff in Vendetta.

I just had a thought. Instead of just ONE vBot, you can distribute the source to different people, and let them run it on their computers! Say, you could have up to ten vBots up for hire instead of just the one. Although, you'll have to put a limit on how many bots one person can hire. Because otherwise s/he could become a commodore of sorts...

-rc

Yeah id love to get my hands on this code, And make some interface aliases, So each player can move it to a diffrent station for instance.