A bot plays one package at a time. You choose which one and the bot remembers it; its script then runs each time you press Play, as long as the bot is connected to a game. Script authors will find what happens inside the script in Play, stop and reload.
Set, and running
What a bot is set to play and whether it plays it are two separate things.
- The bot's page shows the package it's set to play in its header:
name@version, Inline script or No package selected. That stays when the script stops. After Asterobot restarts, the package stays too, but an inline script is gone. - Play turns into Stop while the script runs. In Bot Manager, the Behavior column says Running, Stopped or Failed.
So a bot can be set to a package without running it. You can also change a bot's package while its script runs: the script carries on, and the change applies at its next start. Load a new package is the exception, since it stops the script first.
Choose a package
| Where | How | When it takes effect |
|---|---|---|
| Add a bot | On Behavior / Script, select Library package and pick it under Package. | It's saved with the new bot. When the bot signs in right away (Sign in now), Play behavior directly starts it as soon as the bot is connected. See Add a bot. |
| The bot's Settings tab | Under Bot configuration, pick it under Package, then click Save settings. | At the next Play. A running script isn't touched. |
| The menu next to Play | Load a new package, below. | Right away: the running script is stopped. |
Each picker lists every package in your library as name@version, and offers Download one to install a package from the marketplace on the spot. See Install from the marketplace.
Load a new package
- On the bot's page, open the menu next to Play and choose Load a new package. The Load a behavior selection dialog opens.
- Leave Library package selected and pick the package under Select an installed package.
- Click Load a new package at the bottom of the dialog.
Asteroboard first stops the script the bot is running, then sets the bot to the package you picked, as if you had chosen it on the Settings tab. The dialog's description says loading doesn't affect anything already running, but it does stop the current script. Nothing starts until you click Play.
Note
Loading from this dialog also sets the bot's Language to French, whatever it was before. If the bot uses another language, pick it again on its Settings tab.
Load a package and play it, in the same menu, opens the same dialog and presses Play for you once the package is loaded. If the bot isn't connected to a game, the package is loaded but Couldn't start the behavior appears.
In Bot Manager, each bot's row menu also has Load a new package, which opens the same dialog. When loading fails, Couldn't load the selection appears, without a reason.
Unload package
Unload package, in the same menu, stops the running script and clears the bot's package. The header then reads No package selected, and Play opens Load a behavior selection instead of starting anything. The package settings you saved for that package stay with the bot, ready if you load it again.
In the Bot Manager row menu, Unload package is greyed out while the bot has nothing loaded. If unloading fails, Couldn't unload the package appears.
Play and Stop
Play starts the package the bot is set to play. It stays greyed out until the bot is Connected to game server, with the tooltip "Connect the bot to a game before playing a behavior." A Full socket bot gets there after Connect, a MITM bot once your Dofus client has joined it. See Full socket mode and MITM mode.
When the bot has nothing to play yet, Play opens the Load a behavior selection dialog instead.
Each start reads the package's files as they are in your library at that moment. There's no Reload button: to restart a script, click Stop, then Play.
Stop ends the script. The bot stays connected to the game.
The same Play and Stop are in each bot's row menu in Bot Manager.
When it doesn't start
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Couldn't start the behavior | The script couldn't even start. The notification gives no reason. Common causes: the package was removed, it's incompatible with your Asterobot, one of its files has an error, a dependency is missing, or its files were changed after it was installed from the marketplace. |
| The behavior stopped with an error, at the top of the bot's page | The script started, then failed. The alert shows the complete error with a Copy button. See Bot page. |
| Couldn't stop the behavior | Stopping failed. |
Tip
When Couldn't start the behavior gives you nothing to go on, open the bot's Settings tab and click Package settings. When the package can't be read, the alert Couldn't read this package's settings there shows the actual reason.
Package errors lists the errors and their fixes.
Switch to another version
When your library holds several versions of the package a bot plays, the package name in the bot's header becomes a menu.
- Click the package name in the header. The menu lists every installed version of it, newest first. The current one has a check mark, and versions incompatible with your Asterobot are shown in orange.
- Click the version you want.
Now set to version followed by the version confirms it. If a script is running, the notification adds "The running behavior keeps going until you play or reload.": the script keeps running the version it started with until you click Stop and Play.
The same menu has View this package, which opens the package's page. With only one version installed, the package name is a link to that page instead of a menu. If switching fails, Couldn't switch version appears, without a reason.
The name in the header turns orange when the version the bot is set to is incompatible.
Run a quick inline script
For a quick test that doesn't deserve a package, a bot can run code you paste. This is mostly useful when you write scripts: see Your toolbox.
- Open the menu next to Play and choose Load a new package.
- Select Inline script and paste the code into the box.
- Click Load a new package, then Play.
An inline script is a single file that's never saved. It goes away when you load something else, when you click Unload package and when Asterobot restarts. It has no package settings.
Loading an inline script doesn't change the package the bot is set to. When the bot already had one, its header keeps showing that package, but Play runs the inline script until one of the events above clears it. The header shows Inline script only for a bot that has no package set.
After a restart
When Asterobot starts again, every bot comes back disconnected, with no script running. Nothing connects or plays by itself. Each bot is still set to its package and version, with its package settings, so connect it and click Play. An inline script isn't kept: load it again.
The same goes when a bot's connection drops: the script stops with it, and it doesn't start again when the bot reconnects. See Disconnect, delete and restart.
Where to go next
- Package settings and actions
- Console, to watch what the script does