Choose when each bot is in the game, week by week, and let Asterobot connect it, play its package and disconnect it on time.
A schedule tells Asterobot when a bot should be in the game, as a set of weekly time slots such as Monday from 08:00 to 12:30. When a time slot starts, Asterobot connects the bot and plays its package. When it ends, Asterobot asks the script to finish what it's doing, then stops it and disconnects the bot. Each bot has its own schedule.
Set up a schedule
- In Bot Manager, open the bot's menu and click Schedule….
- Make sure On is switched on. A new schedule starts switched on, unless the bot can't follow one (see What a schedule needs).
- Pick the Time zone your time slots are written in. A new schedule starts with your browser's time zone.
- For each day, click Add a time slot and type its start and end times. A schedule holds up to 200 time slots, and does nothing until it has one. A time slot that ends at or before its start time ends the next day, and is marked next day: Monday 22:00 to 06:00 ends on Tuesday at 06:00. 00:00 to 00:00 covers the whole day.
- Check the Week preview: one bar per day, filled in where the bot will be in the game.
- Set the Time to finish (minutes), from 0 to 30. It's 5 for a new schedule. When a time slot ends explains it.
- Click Save. Asteroboard shows Schedule saved, and the Schedule column of Bot Manager shows what the bot will do next.
A saved schedule applies immediately. During a time slot, the bot connects and starts playing within a second. Outside a time slot, a bot that signed in by itself is stopped, just as at the end of a time slot. Switching On off leaves the bot as it is, whether or not it's connected and its script is running.
If saving fails, Asteroboard shows Couldn't save the schedule with the reason.
Time slots that overlap or touch count as one: Monday 22:00 to 06:00 and Tuesday 06:00 to 10:00 keep the bot in the game from Monday 22:00 to Tuesday 10:00, without disconnecting at 06:00. A time slot from 00:00 to 00:00 on every day keeps the bot connected all the time.
Times follow the clock of the schedule's time zone, to the minute. When the clocks change for daylight saving time, the time slots follow the clock: a time slot that fits entirely inside the hour skipped in spring doesn't happen that night, and one inside the hour repeated in autumn happens twice.
When a time slot starts
Asterobot does what Connect followed by Play would do:
- It signs the bot in with its Ankama account and selects a server, according to the bot's server selection.
- It opens the connection to the game server.
- It plays the bot's package, or whichever package or inline script was loaded last.
If the bot is already connected, Asterobot only plays its package, and if its script is already running, the bot is left alone.
Nobody may be at the computer when a time slot starts, so a scheduled connection never asks you anything. If the bot's server selection can't pick a server on its own, for example because the forced server is down for maintenance, the attempt fails instead of showing Pick a server, and Asterobot tries again later, as described below.
During a time slot
Asterobot checks the bot every second for as long as the time slot lasts:
- If the bot gets disconnected, because the game server kicked it, closed for maintenance or the network dropped, or because connecting failed, Asterobot connects it again.
- If the script stops, after an error for example, Asterobot starts it again.
It waits before each new try: 1 minute, then 2, then 5, then 10, and every 10 minutes after that. The wait goes back to 1 minute once the bot has stayed in the game with its script running for 10 minutes, and whenever a time slot starts or ends.
Each try and each failure is written to the bot's Console, on lines starting with Schedule:. A failed connection also shows up in the Couldn't connect this bot alert on the bot's page, just as when you click Connect.
Some failures keep happening until you step in, such as an Ankama account that has to be signed in again in Account Manager. Asterobot keeps trying every 10 minutes, and the bot comes back on its own at the first try after you fix the problem.
Outside time slots, Asterobot does nothing between the end of one time slot and the start of the next. A bot you connect yourself stays connected until the next time slot ends.
When a time slot ends
When a time slot ends, Asterobot asks the bot's script to finish what it's doing and waits until it has, or until the Time to finish runs out. It then stops the script and disconnects the bot, as Disconnect does.
The script has to be written to handle this. A package that doesn't is stopped immediately, as with a Time to finish of 0, even in the middle of a fight. Play, stop and reload shows script writers how to handle it.
Warning
Stopping immediately can leave the character in the middle of a fight, a trade or a trip. Give the package time to finish if it can use it.
If the next time slot starts while the script is still finishing, the stop still goes ahead, and the bot connects again right after.
Taking over by hand
You can still use the bot's controls. Connect, Start waiting, Disconnect, Play and Stop put the schedule on hold until its next time slot starts or ends: until then, Asterobot doesn't connect, play or disconnect that bot. The Schedule column shows On hold until and the time. A click that Asterobot refuses changes nothing.
When the next time slot starts or ends, the schedule takes over again. To end the hold sooner, open Schedule… and click Save. A bot that is always connected has no next change, so a hold on it lasts until you save its schedule again or restart Asterobot.
Clicking while the script is finishing at the end of a time slot also takes over: Stop leaves the bot connected, and Disconnect disconnects it immediately.
Loading or unloading a package, changing settings and sending game messages don't put the schedule on hold.
What a schedule needs
On can only be switched on for a bot that has:
| Needs | Why | Message under On |
|---|---|---|
| An Ankama account | A bot without one can only relay a game you sign in to yourself. | A schedule needs an Ankama account: a bot without one can only relay a game you sign in to yourself. |
| A package | An inline script doesn't count, since it doesn't survive a restart. | A schedule needs a package: load one first. An inline script doesn't count, since it doesn't survive a restart. |
| A server selection other than Ask me each time | Nobody may be around to answer. | A schedule needs a server selection other than "Ask me each time", since nobody may be around to answer. |
If one of these goes away while the schedule is on, for example when you unload the package, the schedule is paused: it no longer connects or plays the bot, but still disconnects it when a time slot ends. The Schedule column says why, and the schedule resumes on its own once you fix the problem.
The Schedule column
The Schedule column of Bot Manager shows what each bot's schedule will do next. Times are in the schedule's time zone, with the day when it isn't today.
| Shows | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A dash | The bot has no schedule. |
| Off | The schedule is switched off. |
| Paused · no account, Paused · no script or Paused · server asked each time | The schedule is on, but the bot can't follow it. See What a schedule needs. |
| Stopping by a time | The script has been asked to finish, and will be stopped at that time at the latest. |
| On hold until a time, or On hold | You took over by hand. See Taking over by hand. |
| Retrying at a time | Connecting or playing failed, and Asterobot will try again at that time. Hover over it to see why. |
| Disconnects at a time | The bot is in a time slot, which ends at that time. |
| Connects at a time | The bot is outside its time slots, and the next one starts at that time. |
| Always connected | The time slots cover the whole week. |
| No time slots | The schedule is on, but has no time slots, so it does nothing. |
Copy a schedule to other bots
- Open Schedule… on the bot whose schedule you want to copy.
- Under Copy to…, pick the other bots.
- Click Copy.
Each bot gets the time slots, the time zone and the time to finish shown in the dialog, whether or not you saved them. Each bot keeps its own On setting, and a bot that had no schedule gets this one switched off. Asteroboard shows Schedule copied with the bots it was copied to, and Couldn't copy the schedule to with the bot's name and the reason for each one that failed.
What a schedule never does
- It never touches a bot that is waiting for your game client or relaying it. That game is yours, at the start of a time slot as at its end.
- It doesn't sign in while another bot relays a game on the same Ankama account, because that would disconnect the person playing. Asterobot recognizes the account once the scheduled bot has been in the game during one of its time slots since Asterobot started. It tries again later, as after a failure.
- It doesn't connect while Asterobot can't confirm your asterobot.net account. It waits without counting this as a failure, and still disconnects bots when their time slots end.
Limits
- A schedule only runs while Asterobot is running. If Asterobot starts during a time slot, the bot connects immediately.
- Asterobot can't see a Dofus client that doesn't go through it. If you play a scheduled bot's account that way, the bot's connection at the next time slot is either refused and tried again, or ends your game. Which of the two happens hasn't been checked.
- A bot can stay in the game for up to its time to finish after its time slot ends, if its script uses all of it.
Where to go next
- States and controls
- Disconnect, delete and restart
- Play, stop and reload, for script writers.