Msn Messenger Trivia Bot

DjTaz

Hey All,
Im not too sure if this is the correct place to post on this or not, but im sure one of the mods can move it if its incorrect.

With the help of software i aquired recently, i have put together a trivia bot that can be run in MSN / Windows messenger.

To play ... just ass trivia@natterbug.com to your list and type HELP

This bot is automated and not an actual MSN login so dont bother trying to chat cause theres no MSN interface at the other side - its just an ActivePerl script.

You can get others to join in and play against them - at the moment , i only have about 80 questions - but please feel free to ADD (type that command in the bot) more questions and answers whenever you can

Let me know what you guys think - any suggestions or improvments

Thanks

Taz

p.s. you can Mail the address and ill get it - i just wont get the msn messages.

seamus

Very good.

Couple of suggestions - In the help screen, what's the point of the smilies? When you don't have similies turned on it looks weird

Also, maybe it should only allow you one answer, if doing a one-on-one with the bot. For example, in Yes or No, and X or Y questions, the person is going to get the point regardless because the bot doesn't recognise wrong answers, it just waits for the right one to appear.

Also the answer parser is obviously based on pattern-matching. Maybe you should tighten up the patterns a little. You could have the wrong answer, but still get it right. For example, if the answer was 9, but someone said 19, they'd get it right because they had a 9 in the answer.

Great idea. Good work.

DjTaz

Appreciate the input Seamus.

Im going to leave the answers parser as is because i found if people dont type things exactly, then it doesnt seem to work - and thats annoying with some of the answers.
I might just try to avoid questions with numbers so avoid that situation.

The smilies were to cheer up the look of the bot , and to be perfectly honest ... i hadnt even thought of people with smilies off...ooops - i might move the smilies to after the commands or something

The bot cant determine how many users are in using it , so a 1 on 1 would be hard to figure out because of the limitations on msn itself. Then if 15 people are playing at once - which has happened , and 1 person answers , it can lead to mayham if only 1 answer is accepted, weather it be right or wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to look and for giving the feedback - much appreciated

oneweb

Originally posted by DjTaz
Im going to leave the answers parser as is because i found if people dont type things exactly, then it doesnt seem to work - and thats annoying with some of the answers.
I might just try to avoid questions with numbers so avoid that situation.

How about a condition whereby if the answer is a number, it must match exactly?

DjTaz

hmmmm that might be possible,

Ill take a look at that and see if i can do it ... if after 6 hours im bald, im blaming you oneweb - lol

good input

seamus

Originally posted by DjTaz
The bot cant determine how many users are in using it , so a 1 on 1 would be hard to figure out because of the limitations on msn itself.

Ah right, I'm not familiar wiht how msn works. I assumed if there was multi-way chat it could be distingished.

Then if 15 people are playing at once - which has happened , and 1 person answers , it can lead to mayham if only 1 answer is accepted, weather it be right or wrong.

Ah, you should take part in IRC quizzes. Quite a lot of the time, the person awarded the point is the one who has the fastest connection/best ping. It's part of the game, and great craic.

DjTaz

where are those quizes held seamus ?

I might 'harvest' a few questions from it at some stage.

I have an A3 (T3 is the US version) connection in work ( IBM Ireland ) so the ping SHOULD be pretty fast and DSL at home . so again .. not a poor quality.

Might take a pop in and see how badly my a$$ gets whipped by people that actually know stuff

Thanks again Seamus

oneweb

They're on irc://ign.ie.quakenet.org#boards.ie

Great craic, some fantastic questions, regular GOOGLOR branding, and a so forth

seamus

Originally posted by DjTaz
where are those quizes held seamus ?

I might 'harvest' a few questions from it at some stage.

I have an A3 (T3 is the US version) connection in work ( IBM Ireland ) so the ping SHOULD be pretty fast and DSL at home . so again .. not a poor quality.

Might take a pop in and see how badly my a$$ gets whipped by people that actually know stuff

Thanks again Seamus

You won't beat me on my 190Mbit line

They're held on Quakenet. If you join the #boards.ie channel, it'll be announced when it's on. Usually on in the evenings a couple of times a week. There's Bardquiz and Markquiz, run by Bard and Mark, unsurprisingly.

DjTaz

Would ya beat 2.6 MEGA Bits a second download rates ?



not many can

thats not KILO by the way

seamus

Originally posted by DjTaz
Would ya beat 2.6 MEGA Bits a second download rates ?

You won't beat me on my 190Mbit line

I've gotten 3 Megbytes/second downloading an iso from HEAnet. Pity the LAN cards are limited to 100 Megabit.....

OfflerCrocGod

seamus 100Mbits is 12MB, your LAN cards are just fine.

seamus

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
seamus 100Mbits is 12MB, your LAN cards are just fine.

I know. It's a pity that I can't utilise the full 190Mbits.....