Astro Bot Looking For More Alpha Testers

[bjcasey]

**UPDATE: Alpha is currently full. Thanks for all of the interest and keep an eye open for Beta.**​

Hello everyone!

I am looking for 5 more people who fulfill the following requirements:

A positive attitude, lots of patience, a donation of your time and a willingness to work with me to create an awesome bot. If you do not have those things or are only looking for early access, I ask that you do not apply and instead wait for it to be released publically. This is not going to 100% work right out of the box as it is an unfinished/early stage product. Post bug reports and provide feedback on things you want implemented.

I greatly appreciate you taking the time to help me test my new scripts for EVE. Please understand that while ISXBJEVE and it's scripts are in alpha, things are subject to change frequently and most things may not work right away.

My new bot for EVE is called Astro Bot and it is fully customizable through the in-game UI and supports a starter set of modules (basically anything I've encountered or used), combat and mining drone support, combat missions and flee conditions.

By the end of alpha I am hoping to have a bot that will fill the community's need for a new multi task bot (ie. mining, hauling, assisted pvp combat, salvaging, ratting, missions, etc.) While this is ambitious, I do feel that it is something that we can accomplish over time.

Thanks for your support during alpha and I look forward to working with you.

bjcasey

http://www.bjscripts.com/home/index.php/forum/alpha-testing-eve

 

[bjcasey]

Current Testing Tasks:
​

Roles:

• Role - Missions (Courier) (90% Complete)​
• Role - Ratting (85% Complete)​
• Role - Escort (PVP Fleet Assist) (50% Complete)​
• Role - Missions (Combat) (40% Complete)​
• Role - Mining (0% Complete)​
• Role - Hauling (0% Complete)​
• Role - Salvaging (0% Complete)​

Core Functions:​

• Fleeing (90% Complete)
• Combat (70% Complete)
• Navigation (80% Complete)
• Looting (60% Complete)
• Fleet Communication (0% Complete)

 

[salary]

Will this bot ever be designed to work with cosmic anomaly's?

 

[bjcasey]

Will this bot ever be designed to work with cosmic anomaly's?

Eventually I would like to do Cosmic Anomalies. From what I understand, you don't need a probe scanner to enter them anymore. Cosmic Signatures might be more challenging. I haven't looked into using the scanner yet.

My goal for this bot is to have something for all playstyles. I'm limited by what ISXEVE can give me support for, however, I am sure that Amadeus and Cybertech will assist me by adding feature requests when they are able to.

 

[bjcasey]

Eventually I would like to do Cosmic Anomalies. From what I understand, you don't need a probe scanner to enter them anymore. Cosmic Signatures might be more challenging. I haven't looked into using the scanner yet.

My goal for this bot is to have something for all playstyles. I'm limited by what ISXEVE can give me support for, however, I am sure that Amadeus and Cybertech will assist me by adding feature requests when they are able to.

Update on this: I was able to enter cosmic anomalies just fine. However, with how limited ISXEVE is with probe support, I doubt I'll be able to scan down anoms that are hidden.

Will that suit your needs at all?

 

[salary]

Yeah thats exactly what i need drone hordes etc not signatures,i'll gladly help test that feature if your bot supports carriers with fighters and ill pay when its released.
Edit:Also if the bot could check if there is any blues on the overview when warping in to an anomaly it would be useful

 

[bjcasey]

Yeah thats exactly what i need drone hordes etc not signatures,i'll gladly help test that feature if your bot supports carriers with fighters and ill pay when its released.
Edit:Also if the bot could check if there is any blues on the overview when warping in to an anomaly it would be useful

By blues I assume that you mean good standing to you? I have already coded excellent flee conditions and the pilot's standing to you, corp and alliance is one of the options.

 

[bjcasey]

The way that I plan to handle anom ratting is as follows:

You'd set up your normal ratting navigation path (usually asteroid belts). There will be a checkbox on the UI for you to select Anom ratting.

After warp in to a belt, it will scan for available Anoms. If any are detected, it would skip the belt and warp to the Anom. After the Anom is cleared, it will return to the belt that it skipped and continue moving through it's navigation route. Repeating as necessary.

 

[salary]

only problem with that is if your in a slow ship, say a carrier? also that would reduce the total isk p/h quite a bit.

Preferable way of doing it is

1. Start in POS (Activate modules etc)
2. Scan and warp to anomalies you have told it to do (Patrol/Horde),make note of current anomaly signature id
3. Enter fight/escort mode
4. once there are no rats switch back to anomaly scan mode

 

[joekm462]

BJ, basically us, we anom ratters want something similar to what Stealthbot provides.
A place where we can check what anoms we want to run. The bot will then undock or warp from pos to said anom.
After finish the bot would automatically go to the next anom that we have chosen

I have having a hard time setting up astrobot. I have a route selected to run belts. When my ship arrives at doesn't attack the npc's it just warps to next belt and so on and so forth.
If you can make AB run like SB you will have sub's

Also is there a way we can get a step by step setup example for dummies like me?

 

[bjcasey]

Installation and Set Up Guide: http://www.bjscripts.com/home/index.php/list-of-walkthroughs/187-isxbjeve-using-astro-bot It isn't fully complete, but should get you started. I have never used StealthBot, so you'll need to be as specific as possible when asking for things.

I have having a hard time setting up astrobot. I have a route selected to run belts. When my ship arrives at doesn't attack the npc's it just warps to next belt and so on and so forth.

Check the Settings Page to make sure that Attack Non-Aggro NPCs is enabled. This setting tells the bot that it's okay to be the attacker for NPC targets. The next thing to check if that doesn't fix your issue, is to see if that particular NPC group is in my entities export list. To do this, manually target the NPC and then look on the Indexes Page at the top. It will show you "Does the target exist in the index?" TRUE/FALSE. If it's FALSE, it means I haven't received from other testers or come across that NPC group yet.

In the Innerspace Console type: BJ Entity Export and then send me the /Config Files/Debug Information/Entity_Reference_List.xml file to bjcasey@bjscripts.com so that I can add it.

I'm going through and creating the ratting options right now.

So far I have:

1) Asteroid Belt Ratting - You make a navigation list of available asteroid belts you want to go. There's a checkbox to loop the list when it reaches the end.

2) A checkbox to enable the scanning for anomalies - When this is enabled, it will still follow your asteroid belt ratting list, but it will scan and warp to any anomalies that it detects before moving to the next belt in the list. It can only detect anomalies that are visible in space and do not require probes to warp to.

3) If Anom Scanning is enabled, you have the option to tell it what difficulty of anoms you want to warp to. All anoms have a level difficulty associated with them. In hisec, I've seen level 1 and level 2 so far.

What I want to do later:

Eventually, once I have added personal bookmark support, they will be added to the list of available navigation points. You could then manually probe down the hidden anoms, make a bookmark, add it to your list and then let Astro Bot handle the warping and clearing of the anoms you bookmarked.

 

[salary]

Installation and Set Up Guide: http://www.bjscripts.com/home/index.php/list-of-walkthroughs/187-isxbjeve-using-astro-bot It isn't fully complete, but should get you started. I have never used StealthBot, so you'll need to be as specific as possible when asking for things.



Check the Settings Page to make sure that Attack Non-Aggro NPCs is enabled. This setting tells the bot that it's okay to be the attacker for NPC targets. The next thing to check if that doesn't fix your issue, is to see if that particular NPC group is in my entities export list. To do this, manually target the NPC and then look on the Indexes Page at the top. It will show you "Does the target exist in the index?" TRUE/FALSE. If it's FALSE, it means I haven't received from other testers or come across that NPC group yet.

In the Innerspace Console type: BJ Entity Export and then send me the /Config Files/Debug Information/Entity_Reference_List.xml file to bjcasey@bjscripts.com so that I can add it.

I'm going through and creating the ratting options right now.

So far I have:

1) Asteroid Belt Ratting - You make a navigation list of available asteroid belts you want to go. There's a checkbox to loop the list when it reaches the end.

2) A checkbox to enable the scanning for anomalies - When this is enabled, it will still follow your asteroid belt ratting list, but it will scan and warp to any anomalies that it detects before moving to the next belt in the list. It can only detect anomalies that are visible in space and do not require probes to warp to.

3) If Anom Scanning is enabled, you have the option to tell it what difficulty of anoms you want to warp to. All anoms have a level difficulty associated with them. In hisec, I've seen level 1 and level 2 so far.

What I want to do later:

Eventually, once I have added personal bookmark support, they will be added to the list of available navigation points. You could then manually probe down the hidden anoms, make a bookmark, add it to your list and then let Astro Bot handle the warping and clearing of the anoms you bookmarked.

Just to clarify, with the anomaly bot. It will warp to an anom, complete it then warp to another one? or will it warp to a belt first before going to a anomaly

 

[bjcasey]

Just to clarify, with the anomaly bot. It will warp to an anom, complete it then warp to another one? or will it warp to a belt first before going to a anomaly

If there is another anom available it will warp to it. It only returns to the asteroid belts if there are no anoms available.

 

[salary]

If there is another anom available it will warp to it. It only returns to the asteroid belts if there are no anoms available.

nice, when will this feature be released?
this bot is looking promising

 

[bjcasey]

Public release is still to be determined. I don't want to release it without it being ready. I may ask for more testers again as more things become polished and ready for final testing. My focus right now has been on missions (courier and combat) and ratting.

 

[bjcasey]

Update: I have updated the 2nd post in this thread with an estimation of my progress. My alpha testers have been doing a wonderful job with providing guidance on how things need to work. I am continuing to add requested features when I am able to and fixing bugs as we come across them.

My development time will be reduced when EQ2 launches it's expansion on November 17th, but that does not mean that I won't continue to work on Astro Bot. EQ2 goes through a LOT of downtime after an expansion, and I wanted it to be known that most of my time will be spent over there coding for the new content. My plan for the near future is to move out of CLOSED ALPHA testing and into OPEN BETA during the time that I am primarily focusing on EQ2. This format should provide me with a steady stream of feature requests and bug reports for me to work through while EQ2 is down due to a patch.

I want combat to be more refined before I look at adding mining/hauling back (these were removed early on when an update to how Astro Bot acquires a target was changed).

Keep an eye on these forums over the next couple of weeks for instructions on how to gain access to OPEN BETA!

 

[sirbuthed]

I havn't used your bot yet (obviously because its in alpha) but with most other bots i've noticed a lack of fleet support with any kind of logistics . so consider this a request for for fleet support with logistics , and a complete wiki becasue you guys allways make things complicated for simple minds such as myself

 

[bjcasey]

I havn't used your bot yet (obviously because its in alpha) but with most other bots i've noticed a lack of fleet support with any kind of logistics . so consider this a request for for fleet support with logistics , and a complete wiki becasue you guys allways make things complicated for simple minds such as myself

A fleet assist mode (I call it Escort) will have 2 purposes/uses.

1) You'll set a person to listen to and that person will tell you what to do. For missions, that means that the master could tell specific people where to warp, who to engage, what to do in order to help complete the mission. This would work similarly in other Roles (ie. Mining, Hauling, Salvaging, etc.).

2) You'll configure and operate things just like you would OgreBot for EQ2 using a Control Panel to issue commands to your fleet and each fleet member would be configured to perform specific tasks (ie. Some might warp scram/target jam, while others are scanning the fleet for remote repairs, while others might be focus firing down targets.) You could let the lead DPS pick the targets or you could pick the targets and the bots would carry out the orders.

As for documenting things, have you not been happy with my walkthroughs for my EQ2 stuff? I even include pictures!

 

[sirbuthed]

Well that sounds wonderful acually i will definetly be trying your bot . as far as the wiki goes it was just a genralization towards a lot of wiki's ive seen and this is definetly going to be complicated . so far thou yours have been fine

 

[bjcasey]

Well that sounds wonderful acually i will definetly be trying your bot . as far as the wiki goes it was just a genralization towards a lot of wiki's ive seen and this is definetly going to be complicated . so far thou yours have been fine

Fleet Assist Mode will be one of the last things I do though. Having the other roles working correctly is required before the fleet can assist with it. I'm hoping to have that part added by mid January.

 

[bjcasey]

Will this bot ever be designed to work with cosmic anomaly's?

Just an update on anoms. It will scan for anoms that don't require probes and warp to them automatically. With Patch # 13, you will be able to probe down hidden anoms, set a bookmark and then have the bot travel to those bookmarks.

 

[bjcasey]

Open Beta is now available: https://www.isxgames.com/f/threads/isxbjeve-astro-bot-open-beta.7739/