A downloaded game version is a folder of game files that bots, scripts and the Game page can't read as they are. Extracting turns them into game data: the game's tables and texts in a form Asterobot can search and query, plus the pictures the Game page draws. A version must be extracted before you can add a bot with it.
If Extract data after downloading was checked when you downloaded the version, extraction has already started or finished. Otherwise, start it yourself, as Extract a version shows.
What extraction builds
Extraction only reads files already downloaded: it doesn't download anything. It runs these steps in order, and the progress counter starts again from zero at each step, several times during the game data:
- Pictures: the server illustrations shown when you pick a server, the item icons and the icons drawn on the world map.
- The world map artwork: 1,216 images covering the 40 world maps at each zoom level.
- The game data: the game's own tables (items, monsters, spells, maps, quests and the rest), the tables Asterobot derives from them, such as the index of every name in every language, the world travel graph, and the texts of every language whose text file was downloaded.
- The music, only when the version's sound banks were downloaded from the Music tab. If the music can't be extracted, the extraction still succeeds.
The result is stored apart from the game files, in Asterobot's cache folder (Files and folders). Game data shows how to browse it, and scripts read it with asterobot:gamedata.
Extract a version
- Open Game Manager.
- Open the menu at the end of the version's row, or right-click the row.
- Click Extract data.
The Extracted column switches to Extracting, with a progress bar and a counter. Extraction runs inside Asterobot, so you can close Asteroboard in the meantime.
Extract data is only available once the version's Status is Installed, and not while that version is already extracting. You'll find the same button on the version's Game page, in the Extracted data card of the Information tab. In the Add a bot dialog, you can also click the Not extracted or Extraction failed badge of the selected version.
Each version extracts on its own. Extraction doesn't wait in the download queue, so it runs while another version downloads, and two versions can extract at the same time.
The Extracted column
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not extracted | No complete extraction of this version is on disk. |
| Extracting | An extraction is running. The counter follows the current step. |
| Extracted | Every step left its output on disk: the pictures, the world map artwork and the game data. |
| Extraction failed | The last extraction stopped with an error. |
Asteroboard doesn't show why an extraction failed. The reason is in Asterobot's log, on a line starting with Failed to extract game data, which you can read in Asterobot's terminal or on Server > Console (Status and console). Extraction failed stays until you extract again or restart Asterobot. After a restart, Asterobot looks at what's on disk and shows Extracted or Not extracted.
The usual cause is a missing file. A version downloaded with a narrower File filter (regex) than the default doesn't have everything extraction reads. Open the version's Game page: if its Required files card says Missing, click Download needed files, wait for the download to finish, then extract again.
Ready for bot
The Ready column says Ready for bot when a version has both halves a bot needs, and Not ready otherwise:
- the files a bot needs are downloaded: the game texts, the data tables, the map data and the world travel graph;
- the game data is extracted, along with the server illustrations.
Neither half implies the other. A freshly downloaded version is Not ready until it's extracted, and a version whose files you uninstalled keeps its extracted game data but is Not ready too. The world map artwork and the item icons aren't part of the check: only the Game page uses them.
Add a bot only accepts a version that is Ready for bot. A bot that signs in on its own also refuses to connect while its version isn't ready: Asteroboard then shows Bot's game version isn't ready yet, with "Its game files or extracted data aren't fully ready".
The badge updates when a download or an extraction of the version finishes. To check right now, click Check if ready for bot in the version's menu or on its Game page. Asterobot looks at the disk and Asteroboard answers Ready for bot, Not ready for bot, or Couldn't check readiness when Asterobot couldn't be asked.
Extract again
Once a version is Extracted, the menu entry reads Re-extract data. It runs the whole extraction from scratch and overwrites what was there. Use it when the game data looks incomplete, or after you downloaded more files for the version.
Scripts already running on that version pick up the new game data at their next lookup, as Game data overview explains.
Remove extracted data
Remove extracted data, in the version's menu or in the Extracted data card of its Game page, deletes the version's game data, its extracted pictures and its extracted music. The downloaded game files stay. The version turns Not extracted and Not ready, so a bot that signs in on its own can't connect with it until you extract it again.
The action isn't available while the version is extracting, or when nothing is extracted. If an extraction starts before your click reaches Asterobot, Asteroboard shows Couldn't remove extracted data.
Delete also removes the extracted game data, together with the files and the version's row: see Manage game versions.
If extraction doesn't start
Couldn't start extraction means the request didn't reach Asterobot. Check that Asteroboard is connected: the Preferences entry of the sidebar has no red dot. Then try again.