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Help with Help
Common Problems, & The BotBot Online Help Functions
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Common Trouble Spots
I admit it, it's true
every now and then a user has trouble setting up their botbot cyborg.
Fortunately, 90% of the problems fall into a handful of simple
solutions....
- Yo Bot's Too Big
Too many features!
This one seems to bite people no matter how many warnings are
added to the BotBot... the sad truth is, the Palace client has
an internal limit to the size of a cyborg. This limit is a
combination of the number of variables, globals, strings, and so
forth defined in your cyborg, and the variables, globals,
strings, and so forth defined in the palace where you happen to be
visiting. The solution: make a smaller bot. Check fewer options.
For the biggest win, turn off built-in help,
which tends to use a lot of memory.
Then, if the smaller bot works all right, add more features as
needed.
- No Bots Allowed
Many users are confused by the existance of Cyborg-Free
Zones in palaces great and small. Theses are rooms where
cyborg scripts simply don't work, except for the local wizards and
gods. Several rooms at the Communities.com Palaces have been built this way;
the classic example is Mansion's Harry's Bar, which used to have a daily
"happy hour" when scripting was permitted in the bar.
A few palaces (not many!) don't permit any user cyborg use
anywhere on the whole site. Be sure, if your cyborg seems dead,
that you're not in one of these zones.
- No Grafitti
Similarly, there are some rooms where painting is not permitted.
Not just painting via the client paint palette, but painting via
iptscrae, such as that used by many of the "laggy" botbot outchat
scripts. If you're having a lot of trouble with "scan" or programs
like that, check to see if you can paint in the room. If not, move
to a paintable space.
- Blame Bill Gates
Sometimes, Win95/98 people have told their computers Windows Registry
that files of type .ipt have a particular purpose. Sometimes
as palace files, but often as either "internet phone tool"
files or as files attached to a text editor like WordPad or
Emacs. When this happens, the prefs in the Registry override
the type specified by the BotBot (that is,
text/plain). When that happens, your cyborg.ipt file
may be improperly handled by IE (haven't seen it happen under
Netscape -- yet) or it may be stored on disk
improperly. A typical error is that the file appears
(in the Window display) to be named cyborg.ipt --
but actually, Windows thinks it's a file of type txt (text)
and it's actual name is cyborg.ipt.txt -- the
extra .txt will mess everything up. In such cases,
you can quickly find and correct the problem in DOS.
- Old File Didn't Overwrite
When you install a botbot cyborg, you have to move or delete
the previous cyborg. Sometimes, your browser will do this for
you -- in some cases, it will ask if you want to overwrite,
or in others it will write the new cyborg with a bogus name
like cyborg.ipt(1). Rename the file to
cyborg.ipt using either Windows "properties..." or
in the Mac Finder or in MS-DOS.
- Wrong Directory
The cyborg file should be in the same folder as your Palace
program (a.k.a. "the client"). Not in the IE folder, not in
"My Documents," not in the folder that contains the folder
named "The Palace" or "Palace..." it should be in the very
same folder as your program.
- Not the Props You Expected
Scripts that identify props by name can be spoofed.
It's better to specify unique names for each prop, names that
aren't likely to be guessed by nasty spoofers. See here and here for more details.
- Save the File, Don't Cut and Paste
Some people just can't resist the urge to copy from a web browser
window and paste into a text editor (like WordPad). Bad idea.
Just save the file by using your browser's "Save As..." menu
item (under "File").
- Bad 'tude
The computer's not psychic.
Don't think it knows what you want without you telling it in
exact detail. And especially don't think that I, poor
Dr.X, will know how to help if all you have to say in your
emailed complaint is "Pug
diz shib mon! de botbo don' do me for it" because, frankly, I
don' do dat shib.
Built-In Help for Every Bot
Unless you specify otherwise....
Besides the script features you personally select (and the
automatic "finger" script),
every cyborg made by BotBot also has two
tailor-made on-line documentation functions,
to help you handle your bot. Just type these one-word commands
while in the Palace to get help:
stats
- Prints information about your cyborg's current state.
??
- Prints online help about all your
personal bot's commands (optional).
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