Maybe this has already been discussed... but I think it would be cool if a botlink script could be run after bigbang, and that script would be saved as part of the game and exported with the twa. That way, a sysop wouldn't have to use external scripts or manual edits to complete the setup on a highly customized game.

I think that this is a brilliant idea. To take it further, there might be one or more one-time scripts that you want to run after bang, and others that you want to launch and stay running. Maybe name the botlink scripts the same as the twa that you want them tied to, plus a number to designate the order in which to run them.

That's something that still needs to be worked out. Unlike the Gold alien manager, which is just data driven, Botlink depends on 3rd-party supplied controllers to interface with Botlink and drive it. So it really would need to be more of a system for allowing 3rd party developers to package and distribute Botlink controllers. One controller might be a script pack for twx or something similar, while another might be a stand-alone client, while another might just be an IP address of a server that provides Botlink control for initializing games, or whatever. I think the best I could do would be to provide some means for a 3rd party package to interface with TWGS to make it easier for gameop's to use them.

Perhaps I misunderstand something about botlink. Is it a binary-only API? I thought there was a botlink console that accepts text commands.

It is an application that runs on TWGS that you can open a connection to, then interface with text-only commands. The program that interfaces with Botlink is the "controller". What that controller is depends on the developer. It could be a script like many of the scripts that run server-side tasks on sites like Ice9, a stand-alone app like a helper that would run on the server's machine and open the connection, providing a control interface to the gameop, or a remote server like Micro's server list bot that connects to a registered TWGS and opens a connection to Botlink on a particular game to initiate some series of commands, configuring a game or whatever. I hope that makes more sense.

Okay, that's actually how I thought it worked. I guess I was a little vague in my suggestion of a bigbang script.

I realize that continued custom behavior after bigbang would require running a controller. What I'm suggesting is to embed a script containing botlink commands in the TWA, and feed it to botlink after the stock bigbang is complete. That way, a custom game would be fully set up with each bang, and custom games without the need for a botlink controller would require no further action beyond what is encapsulated in the TWA.

Let's look at this a somewhat different way. I've talked to Vid Kid about this kind of use, using Botlink to bang and configure games, and we discussed the idea of providing a web-based service where a gameop could come in, select a game type, then provide his/her game site connection info and then allow the service to create the game entirely through Botlink, without any need, really, for a TWA. It could start with a completely default game, configure Bigbang, run it, create all of the Gold edits, configure the game, "cook" the map, establish initial game assets for alien races, Bosses, etc, leaving the game ready for activation. The flexibility here would go far beyond what can be done through the TWA archive system, and it would be very easy for any gameop to use.

What you're proposing is that I provide a way to control Botlink directly from TWGS so that it can process a set of post-bang Botlink commands included in a TWA archive. That is something that could be done, but in theory, I think Botlink can allow us to do better than the TWA system as a way to deliver game edits. And even if the TWA system is still used as a simple way to deliver the core settings for a game, I think it would make more sense to allow a Botlink game configuration service to push the TWA files to the game site through Botlink rather than incorporate the Botlink commands directly into the TWA. It just puts all of the flexibility in the hands of the 3rd party developer and is less restrictive.

Okay, that's an even better idea.

Would such a service be centralized or distributed? I can see pros and cons to both.

I would expect a 3rd party developer to provide such a service, but Botlink would need to provide enough tools to make it fairly easy to deliver Gold edits. It'll be pretty easy to populate a Gold alien, ship or planet stats record through Botlink.

Someone might be willing to even set up a controlled repository of TWAs where a gameop could select a standard game edit and have it pushed to his/her game site, rather than just downloading the TWA off the net and not knowing if it's the original, unmodified version. All it would need to do is read a standard TWA and use that data to populate the Gold and standard configuration records through Botlink.