This guide has been written for pwnagebot rev 214, if you dont have this build, then

some of the guide may not apply, or be slightly different. If rev 214 is not the latest version, then PM bob on the pwnagebot forums to get this guide updated. This guide has been created on a Windows 7 x64 installation and may have screen shots with a few differences to your own installation if you use Windows XP, Windows Vista, or any other version of Operating System (if you use a Mac, then I feel sorry for you).

Where to begin. .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Running pwnagebot for the first time ................................................................................................. 3 Logging in ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Your first bot ................................................................................................................................................. 5 Overview .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Grind ......................................................................................................................................................... 7 Setup some waypoints ...................................................................................................................... 8 Skills .......................................................................................................................................................... 11 The first grind .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Tips & Troubleshooting ............................................................................................................................. 18 Can I run LOTRO full screen ................................................................................................................ 18 Where are the downloadable grind spots ...................................................................................... 18 My skills are firing real slow .................................................................................................................. 18 I get an annoying Windows Security warning when running LotroBot ...................................... 18 Why doesnt my character loot kills .................................................................................................. 19 I changed the Blacklist.XML but my character is still attacking the mob ................................. 20 I keep getting LOS warnings ............................................................................................................... 20

WHERE TO BEGIN.
First download the current version of pwnagebot. You have probably already done this if you are reading this guide. Pwnagebot is currently delivered in a zip file, you will need to extract the files using Winzip, the built in Windows zip browser, or some other tool. You should copy all files to the folder you want to run pwnagebot from. Due to various reasons, pwnagebot works best if you locate in the My Documents folder, although not strictly necessary. The default folder structure as suggested should end up a bit like this. C:\users\<username>\documents\pwnagebot C:\users\<username>\documents\pwnagebot\Classes C:\users\<username>\documents\pwnagebot\grind C:\users\<username>\documents\pwnagebot\mapdata C:\users\<username>\documents\pwnagebot\profiles

Although you may locate yours elsewhere. The folder structure is important as several files need to be located in specific places.

In the main pwnagebot folder there are several important files. The main one is LotroBot.exe

This is the launcher for pwnagebot. You may want to create a shortcut for it.

RUNNING PWNAGEBOT FOR THE FIRST TIME

Pwnagebot requires that LOTRO is running and the character that will be played is logged in prior to launching pwnagebot. This is because certain necessary data structures are not loaded into LOTRO until a character has been selected and loaded. Because pwnagebot is performing cross process memory reads and writes, you need to run both LOTRO and pwnagebot as an administrator, otherwise the necessary permissions will not be available to the current user account (I havent tried this under a domain account). To run a program as an administrator, right click on the shortcut or exe file, and select Run as administrator.

If you get tired of doing this all the time, then you can set the program to always run as administrator in the Properties. So, if you launch LOTRO and select your character, and then finally launch pwnagebot (dont forget to run both as an administrator).

LOGGING IN
When you run pwnagebot, it will come up with a login screen.

Your username is the pwnagebot forum username, and the password that goes with it. While we do not record the login details used, please dont use you LOTRO username and password.

Please note, sometimes the login process can go wrong and something breaks for reasons that we havent encountered previously. We will try and help you with this if you post your issue in the Support forum. Please look at the end of this guide or search the forums first; there are many answers there already.

YOUR FIRST BOT

Ive written this guide, and setup a basic linear route using a level 5 man hunter. I have not yet finished the LOTRO introduction (i.e. Archet bu rns) so the creature mobs dont agro me at the moment. If you are really new to this, they you may get mileage out of following along, if not, then you can pretty much transpose any area you like, just beware that mobs may agro you character while you change settings in pwnagebot this has happened to me lots. Once pwnagebot has loaded, you will be presented with the Profile screen.

The profile screen is used to select which character profile you want. The majority of settings are per profile, and you will tend to use one profile per character due to differences in level, skills, area etc. Click on the New button to create a new profile. You need to select a profile in order to access the other tabs. Now select the Overview tab.

OVERVIEW

At the bottom, you will need to select a class. In this case, I have a hunter character, so Hunter is a good choice. Pwnagebot comes with a few basic class files to begin with. These are: Burglar Champion Guardian Hunter Minstrel Rune-Keeper

To begin with, select one of these. You can always change ths class later as you get familiar with pwnagebot and its operation. The pwnagebot forums are a great place to look. There are forums dedicated to each class and setting up class (skill) files. The rest of this screen is all about statistics and starting and stopping the bot. Well come back to it later. For now, move onto the Grind tab.

GRIND

The grind tab is used to create the map file that is used for bot navigation and to setup a series of waypoints that the bot will travel to. With the various options that can be used, the bot can kill mobs and harvest ore/wood/food/scholar nodes along the waypoints. The main setting is here. First, in LOTRO, move you character to a suitable starting location (actually I usually find that wherever the character is, is a suitable location). Once there tick Mapper Active. When you have Mapper Active ticked, all movement of the character in LOTRO is recorded and stored into a map file. This generates a mesh with a series of node points that are then used to generate a path between waypoints for botting. Now that the mapper is active, you need to move the character in LOTRO to the starting point for your grind path. When your character is there, you need to create a Location Set. To create a location set, make sure that the Loc Lvl is set to values suitable for you character and the area you are creating your location set in. E.g. If you are a level 5 man Hunter you will probably be in Archet. The Loc Lvl for Archet should probably be 1 10. This is important

when using pwnagebot to grind, as the Loc Lvl values are used to determine whether the location set should be used for the current character. Location sets are not profile specific. So give the location set a name, set the Loc Lvl, and click add. For names, I generally give them as [area] [mob/goal/location]. Something that will tell me whether I want to select it later for another character. For this example, we will be running the bot around in Archet, killing spiders (you get a deed for this once the intro has been completed), so Ill call it Archet Spiders.

By default as a new location it will be selected.

SETUP SOME WAYPOINTS

The waypoints in pwnagebot are named grind spots. When setting up grind spots, there are a couple of things that are saved, the map node at the location of the grind spot and the Grind Range of that spot. The Grind Range is the search distance from the grind spot that pwnagebot should look for mobs and harvest nodes (measured in LOTRO metres). Due to other settings and the way I let the bot normally run, Ive never found a need to have this higher than 40, but sometimes this does n eed to be set much lower for certain areas to avoid the bot from running off cliffs. For the purposes of this demo and the location Im doing it in, Im setting the Grind Range to 15. If the Grind Range is high, then the bot can select targets behind walls, which makes it run around a lot trying to get into a suitable location. Pwnagebot cannot detect obstacles. Seeing as the character was moved to a suitable location, the first grind spot is ready to be set. If you want, you can set a name for the Grin d Spot, but I normally dont. By default it will be given the name of the node number of the map mesh if the name box is empty. Make sure the location set you want to add to is selected and go ahead and click the Add button for your first grind spot. If you select a previously made location set, the first grind spot name is populated to the name box, so you can get an error when adding a grind spot. If so then clear out the name box, or enter a different name.

After clicking Add the Grind Spot list should look similar to this.

Now, you need to move the character a bit more in LOTRO. For this, Im currently going down the Old East path out of Archet. You should try not to make the grind spots too close to each other, but this does largely depend on the grind range setting and the path you are trying to traverse. In places like Moria, it is sometimes necessary to set a low grind range of 1 or 2 and then set frequent grind spots, especially when travelling up and down staircases.

Once Ive set a few more grind spots, Ive got a view like this.

Seeing as I have a Hunter, Ill set the pull range to 35. For a Rune-Keeper, I generally set this to 19, for melee classes, it depends on whether you have a ranged weapon or skill. This value can be value is overridden by others, which Ill point out later. Finally once the grind spots are all set, untick the Mapper Active, move the character off to a safe spot and hit the Save Map Data button (if you dont do this and you get a crash then your mapping efforts will be lost). Now, we need to set some Skills

SKILLS
The skills tab is where you set what skills the bot will use when fighting.

As you only have certain skills to begin with then you cannot select all of the ones presented (well not for my level 5 anyway). Deselect the skills you cannot use to remove them from the rotation. When Ive finished Im left with the below.

Now that you have some skills set, the remaining values will work on the defaults for a quick test. Select the Grind tab again.

THE FIRST GRIND

Back to the Grind page. Here we click on the Start button.

After clicking on start, pwnagebot will take over, and move your character to the selected grind spot. It will select a mob, get into range, and kill it. If you find that the bot doesnt start up when you hit the start button, then you should see some output in the log box, which hopefully points you in the right direction. The three main causes at this stage would be. 1. Your map mesh is not connected to the grind spots. To solve make a bigger map mesh that covers more ground, or walk the character closer to the grind area. 2. You have not run both LOTRO and pwnagebot as administrator. 3. You may have some other niggly issue. Have a look through the Tips and Troubleshooting or search the forms.

When you click start, the Stop button appears, and the Pause button is enabled.

If you press stop, pwnagebot will stop. If you press pause, pwnagebot will get to a convenient phase and pause the current state. Pause is useful if you have a number of buffs running that you dont want to recast on start up again (while tinkering with settings it is possible to go through a large number of buff items this way), but has the disadvantage that some settings are not reread (this may be corrected in a later version). Sometimes the bot will not get LOS, and will then move around in a variety of directions in order to try and get LOS. After a while it will give up on that target, and move to the next target or grind spot. If you are having LOS issues, then the Grind range for the particular grind spot is probably too large.

ADVANCED BOTTING
MODIFYING THE SKILLS FILE
The skills file is where you maintain the capabilities for your class. The default files do come with a starting point for the class skills, with a default configuration. Each person plays their character differently, and will no doubt want to set up their skill file to suit their play style, and preferred order of skill attack.

Order matters the order that the skills are listed in the class skill file matters. This is the order that skills are fired. They are fired from top to bottom for each appropriate phase. Skills that are specific to a particular phase will only be fired in that phase, regardless of where they are in the skill file, but they will still be fired from top to bottom. The phases for the skills are: Out of Combat Pre Combat Post Rest Combat

The Out of Combat and Pre Combat phases are normally used in combination with other attributes in order to get the bot to select buffs. The Post Rest phase has little usage, but can be used to make the bot run around on a horse a lot (good for harvesting). The Combat phase is where the majority of the action goes on. There is no specific attribute for Combat skills, it is assumed that if a skill is not decorated with another phase then is must be a combat skill.

LOOKING AT A SKILL
An example hunter class skill.
<action name="L01 - Quick Shot" cooldown="0" skillid="0x70003f32" melee="true" ranged="true" casted="true"> <condition type="Distance" min="0" max="35" /> </action>

The above skill is a Combat skill. Besides the name indicates it is so, it does not have any of the phase attributes. Each skill in the class file will be in a separate node called action. An action node will hav a number of attributes to control what the skill is and when the skill will be used. An action can also have a condition, which can specify other details, such as range of the skill.

SKILL ATTRIBUTES
Each skill has a number of attributes which control what the skill is and when it will be used. The possible attributes are explained below. name an arbitrary name for the skill, you can call it what you like, but it helps if you use something so you know what the skill is. cooldown the amount of time in milliseconds before this skill is available to be used again. At a minimum this will be set to the cooldown value for the skill in LOTRO. A 5 minute cooldown in LOTRO is 300000 milliseconds. A 2 second cooldown in LOTRO is 2000 milliseconds. A value of 0 means that pwnagebot should automatically detect when the skill is available (this only works if the skillid attribute is also present). skillid the hexadecimal key that uniquely identifies a skill or object on the Quick Slot Bars. Cannot be used with the quickslotbarindex attribute. melee a true/false value. When true, this skill will be used during melee combat. ranged a true/false value. When false, this skill will be used during ranged combat. casted a true/false value. This skill is a casted skill, which means that pwnagebot will wait to confirm whether the skill was executed before moving to the next skill. This tends to be useful for skills with induction, although the delay attribute will allow manual setting of a timer for effectively the same result. delay a timer in milliseconds which will wait before the next skill is executed.

SKILL I DS AND QUICKSLOTBARI NDEX

Skills and objects can only be used by the bot if they are present on the quick slot bars. Each skill or object will have a unique id value. To find out the id of a skill or object, put it on the quickslot bars, go to the Debug tab and select Dump Slots button. A file will be in the pwnagebot\profiles folder called <characterName>_skillsId.txt which skills the quickbar slot and associated and skill id.

No 00 - Skill 0x70003f34 No 01 - Skill 0x70003f33 No 02 - Skill 0x70003f32 No 03 - Skill 0x700292dc No 04 - Skill 0x70003f35 No 05 - Skill 0x70003f36 No 06 - Skill 0x700153e5 No 07 - Skill 0x7002958e No 08 - Skill 0x70021d0d No 09 - Skill 0x7000a2d3 No 10 - Skill 0x700010d3 No 11 - Skill 0x00000000

An example of the output in the skillid.txt file. In this example, which lists only the first Quickslotbar, the No 00 is the 1 st slot on the quick slot bar, No 01 is the 2nd slot and so on upto the 12th slot.

TIPS & TROUBLESHOOTING

CAN I RUN LOTRO FULL SCREEN
I tend to run LOTRO in a window rather than full screen. It makes working with pwnagebot much easier as there is a lot of switching involved. You can run full screen if you want, but this will require you to Alt Tab to switch to pwnagebot.

WHERE ARE THE DOWNLOADABLE GRIND SPOTS

Bad luck, there arent any. This is not a feature that is likely to be implemented. The main reason is that there are 29 servers (30 if you count Bullroarer), and 500 odd users of pwnagebot (this is based on the number of forum members rather than any useful kind of statistic) and if we all had characters running the same routes and grinding the same spots, it would end up looking a bit suspicious, and you may get banned (you may anyway, but lets not hasten the process). So what you say, thats not even 20 use rs per server. Yes, so what, it still aint going to be done. If there were 5000 users would that make you change your mind?, what about 10000?. We like making pwnagebot the best that it can be, but if LOTRO get antibotics then it will be no more. Part of the defence against that is to make you still actually play yourself some of the time. I mean whats the point of a computer game that only the computer plays?

MY SKILLS ARE FIRING REAL SLOW

If you are running Antimalware/Antivirus of any kind then you may need to exclude pwnagebot from being scanned/monitored. A lot of the cross process read/writes that occur in a similar way to how viruses and Trojans work. If you think this is a risk, then dont use pwnagebot, otherwise exclude it as a monitored process (the exact method of doing this will depend on your local applications).

I GET AN ANNOYING WINDOWS SECURITY WARNING WHEN RUNNING LOTROBOT

You may find that you get an annoying Security Warning from when running pwnagebot, you may need to unblock the exe file. To do this, go to the pwnagebot folder, right click on the LotroBot.exe file, select Properties,

Click the Unblock button, then OK. From then you only have to put up with the UAC.

WHY DOESNT MY CHARACTER LOOT KILLS

In the LOTRO UI options, set Always Loot All.

I CHANGED THE BLACKLIST.XML BUT MY CHARACTER IS STILL ATTACKING THE

MOB
Well at the moment the Blacklist is only read in once when pwnagebot is loaded, you if you change the blacklist, you need to close pwnagebot and reload it.

I KEEP GETTING LOS WARNINGS

The easy answer is; avoid these areas. If you cannot then, reduce the Grind Range for the grind spot. Some areas are difficult to work with as they have obstacles in the way, cliffs, rocks, walls, trees etc. If you really need to grind in or through them, then you need to set frequent grind spots, with small grind ranges.

PWNAGEBOT IS NOT FACING TARGET

Pwnagebot only works with an English language client. It does not currently support other languages. It is being considered for the future. If you dont run an English language LOTRO client, then you will tend to get this a lot.

MY CHARACTER DOESN T MOVE AFTER SWITCHING TO ANOTHER TOON

If you want to swap characters, then you need to exit pwnagebot, then swap the LOTRO characters, then re run pwnagebot.