miscellaneous

Will this game ever be developed to work well when using Safari on iphone? At the moment, everything is zoomed out and small so playing is difficult.

Also, what languages are used to create bots4? I imagine that PHP is prevalent, as is javascript, but what other languages?

CSS must be involved

True. HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript

I'm just intrigued as I'm doing a computer course and I would like to emulate something similar to this for a project (not for distribution).

cant imagine anyone would do the style in every page when you can just reference it to the CSS page.

I think that might be all the languages used

HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript

Pretty much, along with MySQL, you can definitely emulate Bots4 using those even if Enders using something odd back end. He's also using jQuery and Prototype (js frameworks)

PHP, Jquery, Ajax, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Mysql

I hate to be that guy (just kidding, I love it), but among all the things that have been mentioned, only PHP and Javascript are actual programming languages.

Back end indabutt queries and reacharound mysql functionality are mandatory to get anywhere

PHP, Jquery, Ajax, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Mysql

Nope, XHTML 1.0. Can't be bothered looking, but I also doubt there is any actual CSS3

I think the site would benefit from a bit of CSS3 and HTML5. Also, would it be a massive inconvenience to make a site that is more mobile friendly? I ask as I'm not entirely sure.

On a brief note, how much knowledge would you need of PHP, Ajax and so on to create a site like this? I imagine quite a bit due to the in depth library of weapons and armours and such, not to mention the clans and so on.

On a brief note, how much knowledge would you need of PHP, Ajax and so on to create a site like this? I imagine quite a bit due to the in depth library of weapons and armours and such, not to mention the clans and so on.

They are relatively trivial. The difficult things are the formulas, security, database designs, optimizations and stuff like that. Having 300 weapons instead of 5 just means more time, not harder difficulty

Yeah that's very true. I assume that, from a security point, the main thing would be keeping peoples passwords hidden from prying eyes. Or would there have to be some form of encryption to protect the data such as weapons library etc?

Passwords will be encrypted, but weapons won't. If an unauthorized person accesses the database, it's fine for him to pull weapon names, stats etc. But if he pulls unencrypted passwords we would all be in trouble

Of course. Not sure why I thought weapons etc would be.

Does the developer of bots4 have a team behind them, or just working solo, updating things as and when they can with the resources available?

It's just him, though the community have helped on stuff like images as can be seen on the documentation page:

Not all of bots4 was done by me! Members of the community have stepped in to fill various roles that I couldn't fill myself.

He works solo, but he's a google employee so has the knowledge/skills to do pretty much anything he needs

Happy days! I'd love to work for Google! Just walking around like 'yup, I'm a Google nerd'

Maybe that's just the nerd in me!

Languages:

• PHP (the majority of the logic in this game)
• JavaScript (some dynamic clientside stuff like the showroom and battles)
• Java (^Jane^, the game's IRC bot)
• Bash (tons of command-line fu for lots of one-off tasks)

Libraries:

• PrototypeJS (unmaintained and outdated at this point, but it was popular when I began this project)
• jQuery (JS stuff)
• Markdown (the stuff that lets you style stuff easily in forum/bmail)
• Smarty (PHP templating)
• A handful of others for random tasks like sending mail and purifying input

Technologies/other:

• HTML (markup)
• CSS (style)
• MySQL (database)
• Google apps (for sending mail)
• Apache (general serving, pretty URL rewrites)
• Ubuntu server OS
• Linode VPS
• Eclipse (my IDE)
• git/svn (my SCM)
• cron (for all the reoccurring events from showroom restocks to end-of-month trophies/rankings)

I'm probably leaving something out, but I think that's at least most of the major stuff. If I could start over again today, I'd probably have used Java instead of PHP and Closure instead of PrototypeJS and jQuery. Everything else I'm more or less happy with. I'm no technology zealot or anything and I don't claim these to be optimal choices - much of this is just what I was most comfortable with when I started this project.

Happy to answer any additional questions you may have. :)

Also, don't be discouraged by that list if you're just starting out. It was probably 10 years ago or so that I excitedly showed floR (creator of bots2) a sortable armor list for bots2 items. I had taken a couple programming classes in school and wanted to play around with PHP and MySQL. Many of you know that that demo eventually turned into Bots Unauthorized as I built more and more little utilities. Fast forward a few more years and bots2 shutdown, giving me the opportunity to build bots4 and spread awareness via BU.

tl;dr: Everyone starts somewhere.

WOW!! That's a nice list there. I can't believe you maintain this site as well as you do!

I'd love to able to create anything even close to this! It's definitely something to work on, even if I just produce a replica (obviously not for development).

I should probably get to work with learning a lot of the items on that list. I guess starting with HTML and CSS to at least get the basic visuals of the site sorted.

How do you manage to maintain this and have a job, at Google no less!

While we're doing anecdotes:

It was probably 7 years ago that I asked Ender if it would be possible to use javascript to capture the xp in the fights in bots2, so that you could calculate xp/h among other things. It was a cool thought, but I eventually gave up on the idea since I didn't know where to start.

Fast-forward a year or so, and I managed to create a statistics script for bots2, it was laggy, and it was weird (code-wise), but it worked.

Fast-forward another two years and Bots4 Statistics as you all know and love was created.

Today, I teach programming at one of the most respectable universities in my country.

Everyone do indeed start somewhere :)

Today, I teach programming at one of the most respectable universities in my country

Today, I eat pizza at one of the most respectable universities in my country

Fixed for you Manny :)

Absolutely love the stats add on

Today, I eat pizza at one of the most respectable universities in my country

Fixed for you Manny :)

I do eat a lot of pizza, but none at work, sorry to disappoint you ;)

I started from the bottom now I'm here

Which is still at the bottom? ^_^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RubBzkZzpUA

Congrats, Emanuel! I didn't know about the new job. :)

As for finding time for bots, it's often tricky. I definitely am not able to put the hours into this game that I once was. Any time I do have for it is usually on random weeknights after work where I have nothing going on. Like anything else, you find time for the things you enjoy.

Oh, we're talking about personal development over the past 10 years or so? Oh I have so much to talk about!

Like uh, I still listen to Iron Maiden lots.

And that's about it. Been a pretty boring 10 years. Bots really has done nothing for me. The only time it might is when I finally get some free time to make bots5 and get back the CS system etc. I pretty much hate every addition you ever made to this game Ender, so yeah, just letting you know. Except the captcha per ip thing. I like that.

Oh and congrats Emanuel.

PS: I also have a 100% belief that this post will be deleted.

Lol zal