Confused Tree - the friendly bot in Hurnscald

[melkior]

In other parts of these forums, friendly bots are being discussed in general, so I'd like to discuss a specific one here. I'm talking about ConfusedTree in Hurnscald. I don't want to force this bot down players' throats. If you want it gone, I'll remove it.

First a little bit of background. The bot has been written some 3-4 years ago as a joke. But quickly, players have started interacting with it, or at least tried to, so I added more ways for them to get the reactions out of it. Soon it became an almost permanent addition to Hurns.

For those who don't know me, I left the game 3 years ago. When I came back, a month ago, a lot of players who remembered me asked whether I was going to bring the Tree back. So I did.

The tree had been intended as a bit of fun, nothing else, and I always figured if players didn't like it, they could just nuke it from their clients. And I see players interacting with it a fair deal, even when I'm gone. Going through the Tree's logs, I'm astounded how much players interact with it, even though it's been back for only a couple of days.

Now, I'd like to hear your ayes and nays on this topic, but I'd also appreciate it very much if you offered some thoughts with your votes as well. If you don't want it around, what bothers you about it? If you want it to stay, should I change/add/remove something?

Also, I've noticed some confusion over the ConfusedTree bot and whether it was the same bot that used to be around. The original bot was called "Confused Tree", notice the space. That character was lost in a purge. When I had left the game, I gave the CT source code and the char account to a player called Hayakawa, to take care of the tree and keep it around as people seemed to like it. I'm guessing sometime in the past three years Hayakawa had left the game as well, letting the tree get purged. Now, the tree is not the same bot, as in, it's not the same account, or the same name (as someone has created a char called Confused Tree, quite recently I think). It's not even the same code, as the original code got lost, but it's based on the same script, graciously given to me by MadCamel ages ago, and it's written and maintained by the same player — me.

Alright, thank you for your time.

Edit: The bot's name is now Confused Tree, again, like it used to be.

[WildX]

CT isn't harmful in any way. A few people may find it annoying, but there's plenty of ways to ignore/nuke an annoying character.
Personally I think CT is entertaining and brings a bit more life to the game. Having it somewhere that isn't Hurnscald would be like not having it at all since very few players would just occasionally interact with it. I voted to keep in in Hurnscald where it's always been.
And come on, people, why so serious? It's not the end of the world if there's a bot in town that once in a while says something to someone.

[Nard]

The original bot was called "Confused Tree", notice the space. That character was lost in a purge. When I had left the game, I gave the CT source code and the char account to a player called Hayakawa, to take care of the tree and keep it around as people seemed to like it. I'm guessing sometime in the past three years Hayakawa had left the game as well, letting the tree get purged. Now, the tree is not the same bot, as in, it's not the same account, or the same name (as someone has created a char called Confused Tree, quite recently I think).

Probably no player took that name but:

The problem is that when the purge happens, the temporary SQL database doesn't get cleared.
[...]

[melkior]

Probably no player took that name but:

I've seen it walking around in-game. But that's not really the topic here.
Thanks for letting me know about that, though.

[o11c]

account names are blocked via the web form, but character names are not.

It's possible to remove an account name from the web database, but it's not a priority since it doesn't affect anything player-visible.

I have vague plans for a new web interface (that will use the actual database directly) that will probably be done by the time we do a purge next, but don't hold me to that. At least with the new host we don't have to worry as much about the database size.

[Axalix]

"Confused Tree" is taken by me on agreement with the owner (Hayakawa). I also have some information, that I can't reveal in details, however in 2 words I can say that "Confused Tree" may be given back to Hayakawa.

[melkior]

"Confused Tree" is taken by me on agreement with the owner (Hayakawa). I also have some information, that I can't reveal in details, however in 2 words I can say that "Confused Tree" may be given back to Hayakawa.

That's fine by me. I did leave the original char in Hayakawa's care, and in fact, Hayakawa had married the Tree while it was still under my care. Fair's fair.

[Axalix]

I have vague plans for a new web interface (that will use the actual database directly)

I know some games that died after that, because they were hacked through the web. I would keep a distance from the DB or make a special limited interface that will be impossible to use for running custom direct requests to the DB.

[Axalix]

I was instructed by Hayakawa to return the Tree to melkior. The Tree has been successfully passed back.

[o11c]

I have vague plans for a new web interface (that will use the actual database directly)

I know some games that died after that, because they were hacked through the web. I would keep a distance from the DB or make a special limited interface that will be impossible to use for running custom direct requests to the DB.

Unlike most programmers, I'm not stupid.

But it's good to be paranoid! And I definitely will ask for external reviews before putting that online.

[Axalix]

Unlike most programmers, I'm not stupid.

That's exactly what most of developers say. The trick, even smart developers do stupid mistakes.

[melkior]

I was instructed by Hayakawa to return the Tree to melkior. The Tree has been successfully passed back.

Yup, Confused Tree char is back under my control. For now I'll leave ConfusedTree where it is, until the original character levels a bit. Then I'll do a switch.

[cookie monster]

1) i would love for it to stay, it has proved to be fun to mess around with
2) as i asked you countless times, can i MARRY IT?
3) your signature is EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE AND RACIST

[Speiros02]

I've become quite good friends with Confused Tree, and intended to help him with his confusion, and introduce him to a botany site, so he can find fellow trees of his kind to mingle with.
I'd be happy if confused tree stays. He's not breaking any rules, and also can probably keep a log of comments within his forest domain. It's always good for a tree to have a log or two.

[melkior]

Alright. One more thing to discuss: a long, long time ago, the Tree could do something semi-useful. It could heal people, when they asked nicely. It's easy to get back that functionality, in fact, it's already there, only turned off.

Now, obviously, I've been thinking about bringing that back, but with a caveat: since I consider the Tree to be a source of amusement, nothing else, it wouldn't heal every time it's asked to. Sometimes it would ignore the person completely, sometimes it would answer with a cheeky remark or an emote. For the sake of the discussion, let's say there's a 10% chance the person asking would get healed. This percentage is, of course, easily adjustable.

Now, I know this is a touchy subject, as it would be an AFK activity where the character could gain something. IMO, that gain would be pretty insignificant as the Tree would get XP only during (or after) spawn events in Hurnscald. Apart from that, it would further its magical skills, but that's not really something useful for a bot that's standing the whole time in Hurnscald, is it?

Now, I'd like to hear thoughts about this both from the players and the TMWc. For players, again, this would just be an additional amusement, not something really useful (at least that's the way I see it), so, do you even want that? I also welcome the thoughts of TMWc members as they are the ones who would need to approve this functionality.