How Hard?

[Zerobaum]

How hard is it to make a bot? Such as i want a simple trade bot for my guild, i hear its quite difficult, and help would be very appreciated

[ttlanhil]

depends on your skill at programming. the better it is, the easier making a bot is (but unless you know EL's code well, it's still not simple)

 

at various times, people have talked about paying for someone to provide the code. that's probably what you'd have to go with

[Zerobaum]

Well, What sort of program would i need to Create the Thread, cause i can have a friend do this i believe. It seems most Trade bots on Market, use the same threading.

[ttlanhil]

if you have a friend who can write the code, it's probably best to leave it up to them to decide on the way the bot is coded... however, SDL's threads, and SDL_net, are what's used in the game client as well as some bots, so they may be a good place to start (even if they're not used, reading the documentation to determine how they may differ from the options chosen (especially for networking) could be handy)

[Learner]

I also have a trade bot service where I run the code on my server and give you web access to control the trade bot settings and control if it is running. That is for the people that have the money but not the techincal skill or the server resources.

[master_jarb]

at various times, people have talked about paying for someone to provide the code...

 

so is there any place to buy the code and run it ourself?

[bkc56]

so is there any place to buy the code and run it ourself?

Depends on what you want. But the guardbot RedKnight2 code is freely available (pointer in this forum) so you could start with that.

[nathanstenzel]

depends on your skill at programming. the better it is, the easier making a bot is (but unless you know EL's code well, it's still not simple)

 

at various times, people have talked about paying for someone to provide the code. that's probably what you'd have to go with

 

Ahhhh....but that request to money would be limited to reproduction fees, setup fees and such if the code already exists as per rule #5 of Eternal Lands Game Rules which states that the bot's code has to be open sourced.

Rules ---> http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.p...p;hl=bot+source

 

Hey, Entropy! I want your bot code! Where do I download it?

[LabRat]

Open source code may be, but I guarantee anyone wanting the changes I have made to the bot code will pay what I deem reasonable for packaging (making a zip file) and data transmission.

 

A lot of work goes into programming, debugging etc, and I do not have a problem with setting a GBP amount to that.

 

For the tradebot source I use, I offer it for the sum of £100.00 GBP for use on one bot only.

 

Makes Learner's bot hosting service tempting eh? He only charges $100/year

[nathanstenzel]

Open source code may be, but I guarantee anyone wanting the changes I have made to the bot code will pay what I deem reasonable for packaging (making a zip file) and data transmission.

 

A lot of work goes into programming, debugging etc, and I do not have a problem with setting a GBP amount to that.

 

For the tradebot source I use, I offer it for the sum of £100.00 GBP for use on one bot only.

 

Makes Learner's bot hosting service tempting eh? He only charges $100/year

GBP?

heh....I don't know which currency is worth more....or if that is a franc or a pound or what.

Me thinks we read different open source licenses over the years. There sure are alot of them.

[ttlanhil]

where did you get the idea that open source means we can't charge for it? it's certainly not true of all liscenses. open source, as a bare minimum, means that we have to give you the source code if we give you a binary. and probably some freedoms about changing and recompiling (with a few restrictions as well. like you have to mark any changes, etc)

[bkc56]

...open source, as a bare minimum, means that we have to give you the source code if we give you a binary...

Let me emphasize that word "if". From my read of the license, open source does not force one to give away any of their work. It just states that if you do, the sources must be available too (for a reasonable fee).

[ttlanhil]

correct. as long as the source is available to those who properly obtain the binary (ie cracking a system to steal the binary doesn't give you rights to the source) and follow all other laws and license requirements, it can be open source.

there are, of course, other requirements from the numerous FOSS licenses out in Teh Tubes

[bkc56]

So my take on all this:

 

1. We are not required to give away a bot that we develop, even if developed from an existing code-base (like RedKnight2 which is open source).

 

2. We are free to charge whatever we want for any binary bot code we may distribute/sell/support.

 

3. IF we distribute a binary for whatever reason, we ARE then required to make the sources available (open source) and optionally charge some fee to cover duplication/distribution of the sources.

[ttlanhil]

if you base it on another persons work, you will have restrictions on what you can do. you may have to use the same license, etc

there may also be a problem in that all EL bots have to be open source... that may mean your license has to require work based on your code to be open source. which limits the available licenses a lot

 

there may be restrictions on charging for code, etc, based on the licenses involved (eg: you can charge for support and shipping but not the code itself)

 

charging for open source code is pretty rare. the point was more that open source doesn't prohibit it

[nathanstenzel]

I ended up choosing GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2.1 from February 1999 for my bot. Anyone who modifies the code is supposed to follow that license and keep the license with it.

I am not really sure if I chose the right license or not, but the choice is made. At any rate, I would prefer if people actually sent me copies of the changes they made. That way, the rest of EL can share the fun.

[bkc56]

if you base it on another persons work, you will have restrictions on what you can do. you may have to use the same license, etc

 

I believe that's true for the Open Source license. So any derived work would also be Open Source. But as discussed above, Open Sources does not force one to make it available, only how they do it.

 

there may also be a problem in that all EL bots have to be open source... that may mean your license has to require work based on your code to be open source.

 

Also true.

 

Personally, I wasn't suggesting changing the license on a give code base (like RK2), just pointing out that the license specifies HOW it is to be released to others, not that it MUST be (unless someone can point me to the section of the license that I missed in my (fast) read).

[ttlanhil]

the Open Source license

I believe this is a source of confusion. there is no such thing.

 

there are a number of software licenses which are classified as open source. each has different restrictions (or lack thereof) on users and developers

 

EL's source license is one. there are many others out there, and what I've seen gives little restriction on which ones can be used for bots

[bkc56]

the Open Source license

I believe this is a source of confusion. there is no such thing.

True. Sorry, I was speaking in general terms.

 

The RedKnight2 code-base is covered by the "GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; ... version 2 ...". My various comments above were based on the reading of this specific one.