FFA/FFABot/Instructions

Preliminary Information
This is meant to be a complete guide to using the FFABot. This article should leave you with full understanding of how to use it. Step 1: (DONE FOR YOU!) Installation (Obtaining an executable of the program) Step 2: (DONE FOR YOU!) Running the program Step 3: (START HERE!)  Communicating with the bot <!--

Installation
Before you utilize this bot, you must first have the working program on your computer. There are two options when it comes to this regard: you can build the program yourself from source or you can download the executable file and simply click on it. Below you will find the executable files for Linux and Windows, as well as the source for both. There is no need to have an "installer" as it is a standalone application which has no external settings.

Executable
For Windows: Click here to download the executable file.

For Linux: Click here to download the executable file. *Note: it was built from Kubuntu, but I imagine it should still work on most distros.

In both cases, be sure to click save file rather than "open", or "run"

Build from Source
The source can be found at my GitHub page. However, I have provided you with a zip file for the linux part in these instructions. If you wish to download it straight from GitHub, simply click "Download .ZIP file" on the lower right hand side. For linux, my zip file may be more reliable than the GitHub code, and I strongly recommend using my version. This is because of the way Visual Studio handles .sln files as opposed to MonoDevelop's way of handling .sln files.

Windows
1. Obtain and extract the source code from GitHub.

2. Open the Solution file (.sln) and make sure it loads properly inside your IDE. Recommended IDE for this process is Visual Studio.

3. Click "Build."

4. Navigate to the output folder and you should have a built executable file.

Linux
1. Obtain and extract the source code from this .zip file.

2. Install the MonoDevelop IDE (which subsequently installs the required mono) using sudo apt-get install monodevelop

2. Open the Solution file (.sln) using MonoDevelop.

3. Click "Build."

4. Assuming no errors, you should be able to navigate to the output folder and see an executable file.

Running the program
By now, you should have a working copy of your program. Either you built it on your own, or you downloaded the executable file. Here are the instructions for loading the program.

Windows
This is pretty straightforward. Click the executable file and a console window should open.

The program then prompts you with the following: Superior Administrator (IRC Nick): At this point, you enter YOUR IRC nick. The nick that YOU have registered with IRC and that YOU will be using in the #armagetron.tourneys channel. The program will recognize you as the administrator, and will take commands from you and you only. (Unless, of course, you add someone else as an administrator via the command). After you enter your IRC nick, the program will boot and the bot will join the #armagetron.tourneys channel. The bot's IRC nick is FFABot.

Linux
This is also pretty straightforward. Instead of clicking the executable file, you should run the progam from the terminal. To do this, open your terminal and navigate to the folder that contains the executable. If you downloaded the executable, it may be stored in something like "/home/[user]/Downloads/LinuxFFABot.exe". So, you need to run the following in the terminal: cd /home/[user]/Downloads LinuxFFABot.exe or /home/[user]/Downloads/LinuxFFABot.exe Both of these should run the program in the terminal. You will be prompted with this as soon as you execute the program: Superior Administrator (IRC Nick): At this point, you enter YOUR IRC nick. The nick that YOU have registered with IRC and that YOU will be using in the #armagetron.tourneys channel. The program will recognize you as the administrator, and will take commands from you and you only. (Unless, of course, you add someone else as an administrator via the command). After you enter your IRC nick, the program will boot and the bot will join the #armagetron.tourneys channel. The bot's IRC nick is FFABot. -->

Communicating with the bot
The bot can be found running in #armagetron.tourneys, all you have to do is show up and communicate with it! However, to communicate with the bot you must be added as an administrator of the bot. To do this, you need to PM me (Ratchet) on the arma forums using this link. I will add you to the bot's administrator list, and then you can follow the rest of these instructions. :)

Setting up the Players & Captains
First, a list of players and a list of captains must be loaded into the bot. The list of 48 players should be gathered from the FFA page.

Using the list of 48 players, first you should add them into the bot's list. $addrange Player_1 Player_2 Player_3 Player_4 [...] Player_24 $addrange Player_25 Player_26 [....] Player_48 ''Notice that I added them 24 players at a time. It's to reduce the possibility of names being cut off due to the character limit of IRC. '''Do NOT add all 48 players at once. Split them into two groups of 24.' 

Once all 48 players have been added as players via the $addrange command, you should add the 8 captains, linking their already existing Player name to their IRC nick. $addcaptain IRCNick1 Player_1 $addcaptain IRCNick2 Player_2 $addcaptain IRCNick3 Player_3 $addcaptain IRCNick4 Player_4 $addcaptain IRCNick5 Player_5 $addcaptain IRCNick6 Player_6 $addcaptain IRCNick7 Player_7 $addcaptain IRCNick8 Player_8 ''Notice that each IRC nick is being linked to an already-added player. Also make sure that you do it in the correct order. IRCNick and then PlayerName.''

At this point, all captains and players should be loaded into the program. You can verify this using the $who command.

Next, ensure that all captains are present and ready to begin the picking process.

Picking Teams
When all captains are ready, use the command $start to begin the picking process.

At this point, each captain will be randomly assigned a number between 1 and 8. The bot is programmed to know which captain contains which picks and will automatically prompt them to choose their player when it is their turn.

The command $players can be used at any time to view a list of remaining players.

The command for captains to pick players is $pick 

Finalizing
Once all players have been chosen, the bot will automatically finish the process and output a list of the final teams. The teams should be copied from the IRC channel to the wiki page.

Wrap-Up
If at this point there is something that you didn't understand, there are two options.

First: Check out this sample page that demonstrates how to set the bot up. It shows you ALL commands that would have been used to pick teams for the FFA 1. This should clear up any confusion on what commands to use.

Second: If you're still in doubt, message me on the arma forums here.