GroupBots
What will bots do?
A properly set up bot is capable of handling both invites and ejects for groups - either on rentals (for CasperLet) or product purchase (for CasperVend; both inworld and Marketplace) and if you choose to use a "personal bot" from SmartBots, the bot is also capable of handling bot-based delivery, ideal for products that are no-copy. (Inventory drops from scripted gadgets simply vanish, never to be seen again, if accidentally declined. If an item is sent from an avatar, it at least goes to the trashcan first when it's accidentally declined.)
Bots are also able to send IM notifications from CasperLet - this means less chance of your renters missing the scripted message in local chat.
A bot can also be configured to clear a parcel when a tenant is evicted from a rental box and ejected from your rental group. Use this feature with caution, however - if your bot clears your entire sim, that's on you!
Terminology
- Bot: A unattended avatar account, used for automatic programmed activities or responses
- Hosted Service: You pay a third party to host the bot for you. Generally, you pay every week, and they are responsible for making sure everything is running.
- Self-Hosted: You need to host the bot yourself, on your own computer. If you don't keep a computer on 24/7 already, then self-hosting is probably not for you.
Landlords, Bots and Permissions
Remember that your bot WILL NOT send an invitation if the customer is already in the group.
Bot Roles
If you are a landlord, whichever bot you decide to use needs to be have all three of the following types of roles:
- Everyone (the default role)
- Your rezzing role for renters
- Bot-specific role (this is just for the bot, not shared with others, and NOT an owner!)
Bot Permissions
Role permissions for the bot-specific role should have only these:
- Invite People To This Group
- Eject members belonging to the 'Everyone' role from this group
- Assign members to assigner's roles
- Remove members from roles
Hosted Service
ApexBots
ApexBots is a new (2017) third party bot hosting system with a built-in API.
ApexBots Information
- ApexBots has a weekly fee. This may be paid via their terminals.
- For information on pricing, see their price list.
- Currently there is only one type of bot.
ApexBot Instructions
- Set up your bot with ApexBots
- Log in to CasperLet and go to the Robot Army page
- Click "Add Bot"
- You will get a bot configuration popup
- Select "Apex Bots"
- click "Next"
- You'll be prompted to go to the Apex site to confirm the addition.
- Click the blue "Proceed to ApexBots" button
- Follow the instructions on the Apex site
SmartBots
SmartBots is a third party bot hosting service that also allows you the option to have your own bot account hosted by them (so you don't have to run your computer 24/7 for your bot).
SmartBots Information
- SmartBots has a weekly fee. This may be paid at the terminal at Casper's store.
- For information on pricing, see the SmartBots price list.
- The two types of SmartBot bots used with CasperTech products are the group inviter bot and the personal bot.
- Inviter bot will handle group invites and ejects ONLY
- Personal bot will handle sending IM notifications in addition to the group invites.
SmartBots Instructions
- For details on setting up your SmartBots bot, see the SmartBots page.
Sit, Rover, Sit!
To get your bot to sit on an object (pose stand, chair, etc.) follow the instructions on the SmartBots site. These instructions are originally set up for SmartBots, but might work for other bots as well.
You will need the UUID of the object you want your bot to sit on. In Firestorm, you will see the object's UUID if you right-click then select "Edit". If you're using any other viewer, you can simply copy this script into a script file in your object, and once the script saves, it will tell you the UUID of the object in local chat (just open up your chat buffer and look for yellow text):
default{ state_entry(){ llOwnerSay("This object's UUID is: " + (string)llGetKey()); } }
If you re-rez your object, it will get a new UUID, so you will need to use this script again to make sure your bot is up to date.
Self-Hosted
In order for self-hosted bots to be used, they must be running 24/7 on a machine that YOU control.
Corrade Bot - Advanced Users Only
Be sure to download the latest Progressive build of Corrade to ensure your Corrade instance works with CasperTech. |
- Corrade is for advanced users. You'll need some level of expertise with your operating system, with text editors, networking, etc. Or, be willing to RTFM and learn on the fly while you get your Corrade instance working.
- Corrade is free to download and use
- Full documentation is at Grimore.org
- If you need technical assistance with Corrade you can find it here on the SL grid.
Minimum System Requirements
- Unix: Linux or BSD + Mono 3.2.8
- Windows: .NET framework 4.5
- x86 or ARM dual-core CPU
- 250MB RAM
- Always-on internet connection
- An editor that loads and saves files encoded in UTF8
Corrade Instructions
See the Corrade Bot page for details. Windows set-up instructions are courtesy of Aphrodite Atlas and may not always be up to date; use them at your own risk.
ThoysBot
- Thoys Bot may be purchased at the Westland sim/region
- The cost is L$ 2,000 up front
- There are no monthly fees.
- Documentation may be found on the website (and there's also a text version)
Minimum System Requirements
- Windows XP SP2, Win2000, Vista or Windows 7
- .NET framework 3.5 or higher
- Always-on internet connection
Available for
- Windows: Default
- Linux: Must have Mono installed
- Mac: Only with a Windows or Linux emulator
Instructions
See the ThoysBot page for details. Setup instructions courtesy of Casper Warden.
Deprecated
These bots are no longer developed and/or maintained. As of June 2016, they currently still work, but any existing - or new - bugs will not be fixed. |
METAbolt
METAbolt is a free text-based viewer for Second Life. METAbolt is popular for self-hosted bots because it needs minimal setup, and takes minimal system resources on the computer it is running on (so multiple instances can be running simultaneously).
Minimum System Requirements
- Microsoft .Net 3.5 SP1 - Download
- Windows: XP/SP2, Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008
- Always-on internet connection
METAbolt Installation
- Download and install .Net if it's not already
- Get METAbolt - Download
- Open the .zip file and double-click on "setup.exe"
- Let the install complete
METAbolt Instructions
- See the METAbolt page for details on setting up your bots.
PikkuBot
PikkuBots is a bot system that allows you to download and self-host one or more bots, or they can host the bot for you. Pikku has 49 commands available for the "lite" version, and over 500 commands available for the "premium" version, whether or not you self-host or have them host a bot for you. Be aware that while PikkuBot is very powerful in features, it is potentially very complicated to get fully set up. If you get "lost" easily, consider METAbolt (if you want to self-host) or SmartBots (if you want to have someone else host the bot) instead.
Minimum System Requirements
- Microsoft .Net 3.5 SP1 - Download
- Windows: XP 32bit / 64bit, Vista 32bit, Home Server 32bit, 2003 Server 32bit / 64bit (others may work but are NOT tested)
- Apple: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
- Linux: Linux with Mono-Beta
- Always-on Internet connection, for self-hosting
PikkuBot Installation
- Download and install .Net if it's not already
- Get PikkuBot Installer - Download
- Double-click on the installer.exe
- Let the install complete
PikkuBot Info
- See how to prepare a bot account for PikkuBots
- For information on PikkuBot hosting rates, see the PikkuBot price list page.
- View the FAQ about PikkuBots
- View the PikkuBot documentation hub
- See the PikkuBot warning with Windows Vista
- Troubleshoot error messages
Adding PikkuBot to CasperLet
- See the config section on the Metabolt page for details on adding Pikkubot (they use the same configuration screen.)
PikkuBot bug
- Your PikkuBot can NOT be on the same sim as ANY of your vendors, OR any neighbouring regions right next door to a region with your vendors, or group invites will not work. If you move your bot to another region, you may need to wait up to 2 minutes before invites will start working.
This is due to Pikkubot not understanding messages delivered with llRegionSayTo.