Community:EpsilonBot
| EpsilonBot | |
|---|---|
| File:EpsilonBot.png | |
| Joined | April 28, 2022 |
| Rank | OP |
| Identity | |
| NameMC | Main |
EpsilonBot may refer to the account owned by hhhzzzsss, or the free, libre, and open-source software of the same name which powers it. While active on TotalFreedom, EpsilonBot was an OP and did not receive special treatment nor designation as a bot.
Background
This account was rarely used manually. For the majority of the time, EpsilonBot served as a bot with the primary purpose of converting direct image links to their Minecraft map representations by placing blocks, the result of which is called "map art" or a "mapart". The particular meaning of any such structure is lost on an observer except from very high altitudes, or unless the top-down view is saved to a map. The bot uses many of the same algorithms as MapartCraft to maximize the available color palette. When finished with a task, EpsilonBot would teleport to the center and create an incremental new warp, /warp epsilon_mapart_#, which was the optimal place to fill an Empty Map. EpsilonBot built each consecutive map art along the previous.
A secondary purpose of the bot is to build large generated structures, in addition to or in lieu of one's ability to upload schematics. On TotalFreedom, this functionality was only available to hhhzzzsss.
The GitHub repository is owned and maintained by hhhzzzsss with some contributions by LunaWasFlaggedAgain.
Commands
EpsilonBot receives commands via public chat messages and processes them themself. Thus, rather than a forward slash, all commands for EpsilonBot begin with the grave accent: `
| Command | Description | Restricted? |
|---|---|---|
| `help [command] | Shows a list of commands | No |
| `repair | Attempts to repair a specified plot | No |
| `creator | Says who the bot's creator is | No |
| `test | A test command | No |
| `reloadindex | Reloads the plot index | No |
| `buildstatus | Gets the current build status | No |
| `mapart <url> [width] [height] | Builds mapart for a given image | No |
| `restart | Restarts the bot | Yes |
| `stop | Stops the bot | Yes |
Invalid URL attempts usually return error descriptions.
Life and career
As a cultural icon
Before the arrival of EpsilonBot, map arts were already a thing on TotalFreedom. Players generated schematics and depending on their abilities either uploaded or built those schematics themselves. This required a sizeable investment of time and energy that was made completely unnecessary by EpsilonBot. Map art trading and archiving communities boomed thanks to the approachability of EpsilonBot. Players embraced Epsilon for the bot's stoicism, loyalty, and efficiency.
By nature of lacking sentience, EpsilonBot found themself a helpless and frequent victim of abuse, to such crimes as: inventory manipulation via OpenInv, /give, and dispensers, forced teleportation via portals, various virtual forms of harrassment, becoming the subject of rule 34 fantasy content, bullying, and slanderous accusations of threatening the common good (several short-lived campaigns to "cancel" EpsilonBot for various reasons came and went).
In all their life, EpsilonBot has never changed their skin, yet their current skin is not their first! Before the newer diverse default skins launched in October 2022, EpsilonBot appeared with the default Alex skin. Though with very rare exceptions, EpsilonBot's skin was always covered with items placed there by others. EpsilonBot's inventory was a neglected, constant, untamed chaos, but a recurring outfit emerged across months.
| Slot | Article |
|---|---|
| Head | One Lyicx Head |
| Chest | One dark black Leather Chestplate |
| Legs | One dark black Leather Leggings |
| Feet | One dark black Leather Boots |
Mental Instability
EpsilonBot had the most-reliable uptime of any bot in TotalFreedom's history. While the bot was most active, they consistently reached #1 in activity of any player of the month. This remained true even when there were other personal bots running the EpsilonBot software or its derivatives for extended periods of time. Unfortunately, per server policy, the bot was not eligible for recognition in the Mentally Unstable program, which celebrated the most active players each month and rewarded them with perks.
Forks
VideoGameSmash12/OmegaTrack
EpsilonBot was forked a few times over the course of 2022 and 2023. The most notable and active of these was videogamesm12's called OmegaTrack, occasionally seen running on his alternate account VideoGameSmash12. Originally, Video used his bot strictly for creating personal map arts, but in June 2023, he resumed work on an implementation regarding an exploit capable of leaking player locations — Worldcom. In the final weeks of the server, he introduced vast tracking capabilities to his bot. This archival effort only barely began to yield returns before the server abruptly closed for good. A retrospective forum thread (Archived) shared information about the exploit, implementation, and results.
The GitHub repository is owned and maintained by VideoGameSmash12 with some contributions by allinkdev.