Some players have trouble creating or joining matches because of high latency, getting banned from games, or other reasons. Because of this we now have a host bot available (provided by {Lance}) that will host matches for you on request.

This article covers the following:

About the Host Bot

The host bot consists of two accounts: EF_HostBot and EF_GameBot.

• EF_HostBot is the account you will send commands to when you want to create or start a match.
• EF_GameBot is the account that actually creates each match.

Currently the bot only hosts matches on the maps “Garden of War” and “Garden of War BNE” (the two most-played maps on our server).

Hosting a Match

To create games with the host bot you need to send a whisper/private message to the EF_HostBot account with one of the approved commands. The process is simple:

1. Type one of the approved commands for EF_HostBot that are listed below. (screenshot) The command will always begin with /w or /msg, meaning it’s a private message.
2. EF_HostBot will announce the game to the channel, and EF_GameBot will create the game. You can now join by clicking on the blue “Join” button on the left. (screenshot)
3. After you join the game EF_GameBot will give you regular status updates about how soon the match will begin. (screenshot)

Here are the most basic commands you can use which will host matches using default settings (melee, high res, no comps, 5 minute start time).

Defaults

Garden of War (Classic)

Gow Old EF that starts in 5 mins
/w EF_HostBot gow

Gow Old F that starts in 5 minutes
/w EF HostBot gow f

Garden of War BNE

Gow BNE F that starts in 5 mins
/w EF_HostBot gowbne

Gow BNE EF that starts in 5 mins
/msg EF_HostBot gowbne ef

 

Presets

The host bot currently has one preset for hosting games versus computers, which allows numeric argument:

Defaults to GowBNE EF with 4 CPUs and starts in 5 mins
/w EF_HostBot gowcomps

Same as above but with only 1 CPU
/w EF_HostBot gowcomps 1

Same as above but with only 2 CPUs
/w EF_HostBot gowcomps 2

Same as above but with only 3 CPUs
/w EF_HostBot gowcomps 3

Same as above but with only 4 CPUs
/w EF_HostBot gowcomps 4

Hosting with Custom Settings

The defaults of a game can by changed by sending the bot a list of commands in this order as seen below:

/w EF_HostBot [MapName] [Speed] [AutoStartTime] [GameType] [NumOfCPUs] [MapResources] [FixedOrder] [OnePeon] [GamePassword]

 

Setting	Valid values
[MapName]	gow, gowbne
[Speed]	ef, f
[AutoStartTime]	1 to 15
[GameType]	Melee, FFA, TvB
[NumOfCPUs]	0 to 4
[MapResources]	High, Low, Default
[FixedOrder]	Yes, No
[OnePeon]	Yes, No
[Password]	Anything you want.

You don’t have to enter a value for every setting to host a game, but to use a specific setting you DO have to include values for all the settings that come before it.

 

Example Commands

Gow Old EF that starts in 3 minutes
/w EF_HostBot gow ef 3

Gow BNE EF that starts in 3 mins
/w EF_HostBot gowbne ef 3

Old Gow on F with 0 CPUs in TVB on Low resources that will start in 5 Mins
(NOTE: If you try to add CPUs to a TvB game, it will tell you that you cannot do that.)
/w EF_HostBot gow f 5 TvB 0 Low

Old Gow EF that has 2 CPUs on Low res and the game will start in 10 mins
/w EF_HostBot gow f 10 Melee 2 Low

and so on.  There are lots of different combinations now that users have full control over pretty much all of the settings.

Other Commands

Kick player in slot 2
/w EF_HostBot kick 2

Ban player in slot 2
/w EF_HostBot ban 2

Start the game (must be used from within the game chat lobby)
/w EF_HostBot start

View command list
/w EF_HostBot help

Reboot the bot if it’s stuck in a game (NOTE: All reboot commands are logged)
/w EF_Hostbot reboot