Blog

Announcement and thoughts about the future of InstructBot.

Published: 2021-10-16 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how adding a host trigger works in InstructBot. It's the sixth in the series which will work through all trigger types.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Published: 2021-10-11 by Omsad

With everyone being forced to update to version 3.5 of the InstructBot client today, I thought I would outline what's on track for version 3.6.

Please note everything below is subject to change based upon testing and feedback.

Applications

Currently an application become active when a window with matching name is focused. This stops working when the window text changes as the game is play.

There has been added the ability to set a pattern so that if the application name changes in a predictable manor, it will still be detected.

E.g. if an application has a target window name of Game XX% where XX increments from 0 to 100 as you progress though the game, this could be handled as you could create a pattern to pick up Game 0%, Game 1%, Game 2% through to Game 100%.

Commands

There have been a number of changes including:

  • Adding alias, e.g. you could assign the identifier help, and then have alias of bot, bitbot etc...

  • Allow all key actions of an input command to use the generalised Alt, Ctrl and Shift keys, rather than specific Left Alt / Right Alt, Left Ctrl etc...

  • Allowing you to select a specific output device for individual play sound commands.

  • Being able to cancel a command which is running.

  • Keeping track of which keys have been pressed in an input command, and then releasing them automatically when the command completes if not done explicitly by the command.

  • Letting the repeat action of an input command to function over a given time period, as well as specify the delay between repetitions.

  • The ability to set the text output in the help command for a subscription trigger.

Third Party Integrations

A re-work of how InstructBot connects to third parties has been implemented so that they are all independent, and can be connected / disconnected without affecting the other connections.

This mean you'll no longer need to reconnect if, for example you enabled StreamElements whilst already connected. The connection to StreamElement will instead just be made.

It should also lead to an increase in visibility of when InstructBot is reconnecting, e.g. a new UI has been created to show when individual connection to Twitch Chat, Twitch PubSub, StreamElements etc... have been dropped and is reconnecting.

There have then been an update to some of the individual third parties.

StreamElements

Has had additional logic for Extra Life and Tiltify charity events. The ability to link StreamElements tips to a Twitch account (so discounts can be applied) when the person tipping is logged in on StreamElements has also been added.

Tipeeestream

Ability to take donations from TipeeeStream, e.g. as StreamElements / StreamLabs, has been added.

Twitch

Migration from V5 of the Twitch API to Helix (V6).

Website Update

For version 3.0 of InstructBot I separated the backend website API's into a "core" which handled authentication, error report, integration with StreamElement, StreamLabs, Twitch, e.g. everything required for the bot to connect and run, and then a "client" which handled sharing commands, storing data etc..., e.g. everything else.

The aim of which was to allow me to make changes to the client without needing to bring the entity of the backend offline to perform an update. This in practice hasn't worked as both the core and client services rely on a single database which to do any modification to requires both of them to be offline.

For version 3.6 I'm plan to split the single database into two. This will mean a minimum amount of downtime for the core website (a number of hours) and an extended period of downtime for the client (a number of days).

Once completed I'll be able to update functionality in the client, for example a better experience when sharing commands, and add new functionality without having to stop the core website.

Published: 2021-10-07 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how adding a free trigger works in InstructBot. It's the fifth in the series which will work through all trigger types.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Published: 2021-10-04 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how adding a donation trigger works in InstructBot. It's the fourth in the series which will work through all trigger types.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Published: 2021-10-03 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how adding a follow trigger works in InstructBot. It's the third in the series which will work through all trigger types.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Published: 2021-09-20 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how adding a bits trigger works in InstructBot. It's the second in a series which will work through all trigger types.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Published: 2021-09-18 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how adding a ban trigger works in InstructBot. It's the first in a series which will work through all trigger types.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Published: 2021-09-06 by Omsad

I've uploaded a new tutorial video explaining how command activation works in InstructBot.

If you have questions or suggestions for more videos, please join our discord . To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .

Upcoming Release Version 3.5

Conditional command execution and improved rewards.

Published: 2021-08-15 by Omsad

The upcoming release of version 3.5 of InstructBot manly focuses on conditional execution of commands and improving the reward system.

Conditional Execution of Commands

An new condition editor has been added to all command types which will delay the execution of a command until the conditions have been fulfilled.

The below shows an example of an improved Mag Dump command, which will run only run when the application is active (e.g. you are tabbed into the game) and the Left Shift key and W key are both not pressed.

Example of the new condition builder in InstructBot, configured so the Mag Dump command doesn't execute until the game is active and the Left Shift and W keys both aren't pressed.

Please note this doesn't stop the command from being queued, so this will still pause the execution of other commands in the same queue until this command has completed (even if those commands could be executed).

Improving Rewards

The entire rewards screen has been split into a new section, each with it's own button.

The existing accumulator and subscription rewards have been updated so that you can now create sets of rewards which can either give out a specific command or pick a command randomly from a set.

Both reward creators have been normalised into a common format, changing the accumulator so it will now payout the configured rewards at the payout amount rather than picking randomly for the costs of each of those rewards.

Below is an example of the new rewards system for Tier 1 subscriptions. It's been configured so that the subscribing user will always get 1 use of the shoot command and then one other random command.

Example of the new tier 1 subscription reward set in InstructBot.

The update allows you to assign different rewards set for tier 2 and 3 subscriptions, as well as reward different numbers of items. The same system has also been used to create a new follower reward.

In the future it's planned to extend the system so that other rewards are possible, for example given points where the point system you use allows it. If you have any suggestions on other types of rewards that could be given please join our discord and let us know.

Other Improvements

There have been a couple of other changes to InstructBot.

The ability to backup and restore InstructBot through the UI along with more control over when and where InstructBot backups your configuration.

Options screen in InstructBot showing the new backup and restore options.

A new follower trigger type.

An update to the UI so you can tell at a glance what rewards are enabled or disabled.

Highlighting the new reward indicators in InstructBot.

Additional discount options for moderators and VIPs. Please note the largest discount will be used when a user is both a subscriber and moderator or VIP.

Showing the new discount options for moderators and VIPs in InstructBot

If you have any feedback on the above or suggestions on what to include in future updates, please join our discord and let us know.

Published: 2021-08-01 by Omsad

The second batch of tutorial videos on YouTube have been released. These focus on creating commands, you can see an example of the videos below.

If you have suggestions for more videos, please join our discord and make a suggestion. To be notified when more videos are released please subscribe on YouTube .