Quick start¶

Your first game with CivBot in ten steps: from a button on the game panel to a recorded result. This page covers only the essentials. The pages the links lead to explain each step in detail.

What you need¶

The Discord account you used to join the server where CivBot runs.
Civilization V on Steam.
At least two more players for FFA, or one opponent for Duel.

Steps¶

Don't start the game until everyone is in

After the start, you can't leave the game or replace a player in Discord: you can only finish or scrap the game. Check the lineup on the gathering card. See Scrapping a game.

Find the game panel. It's a bot message with the buttons “FFA”, “Duel”, “Player Stats” and “Info”, and a list of recent games. A server moderator puts the panel in a channel with the /moderator panel command. If you can't find it, ask a moderator which channel it's in. The “Info” button privately shows the game gathering channel and the game history channel. Check: you see the “FFA” and “Duel” buttons on the panel. See Game panel.
Create a game. Press “FFA” for a free-for-all game of 3–6 players, or “Duel” for a game of two. The bot privately sends a “Choose game type” message with the buttons “Vanilla”, “Patch” and “KEK”. The type is a version of Civilization V or a mod of it: choose the one you agreed on. If the panel isn't in the game gathering channel, the bot privately sends a link to the gathering card. Check: a gathering card with the state “Gathering” appears in the game gathering channel, and you are the first player on it. See Creating a game and gathering players.
Call the players. Other players join the game with the “Join | Leave” button on the gathering card, and pressing it again removes them. An FFA gathering holds up to 6 players, a Duel gathering holds 2. If the server has gathering notifications set up, you can call new players with the “Notify gathering” button on the gathering card: the bot posts a card with a link to the gathering in the notification channel. Check: the players' names appear on the gathering card. See Gathering notification.
Ban nations if you want to. The “Bans” button opens a private menu of nations. In FFA each player bans up to two nations, in Duel up to three. You can also ban none: bans don't affect the start. Banned nations go to no one in this game. Check: a “Bans:” line with nation emoji appears under your name on the gathering card. See Bans.
Press “Ready”. Every player does this, and so does the game creator. Pressing it again removes the ready mark, and each new player joins without ✅. Check: ✅ appears next to every name, and the start buttons become active.
Start the game. Press “Start with Draft” or “Skip Draft & Start”: any participant of the game can start it. The draft gives each player three random nations to choose from, and without the draft, nations are assigned in the game thread. The start buttons turn on when at least 3 players have joined an FFA gathering (2 in Duel) and everyone has pressed “Ready”. Check: the gathering card disappears from the game gathering channel. See Starting a game.
Go to the game thread. In the game history channel, the bot creates a game thread with a name like “248 — FFA 6 Patch”, where 248 is the game number. The thread's first message mentions all players, followed by the game card. Above the card there is a hint that shows the commands for “Finish game” and “Refresh game”. This applies on the server the site works with: under the mentions, the first message also has the hint “Drop the save file (.Civ5Save) here after the game to keep its charts on the site.”, and under the game card there is an “On site” button that leads to the game page. Check: the thread mentions you and shows the game card with the state “In progress”. See Game thread.
Pick nations. In a game with a draft, the game card has the “Choose who plays which nation” menu under it. In it, mark one of the three nations for each player. The menu is shared by the whole game, and the picks already made are marked in it. In a game without a draft, the bot sends a “Nation Assignment” message to the thread: press a nation and choose a player. Any participant of the game can set nations. You can also pick a seat's nation on the game page on the site, with the same result; a nation the site read from a save as played counts too. Check: each player has their nation's emoji on the game card. See Picking nations and swapping slots and Game page.
Share the Steam link and play. One of you creates a lobby in Civilization V and sends a separate message to the game thread that contains only a steam://joinlobby/… link. The bot removes that message and shows the link on the game card. During the first 48 hours after the start, a player of the game can press “Join the game” on the game page on the site: the site finds the lobby in Steam by itself. Check: the link shows on the game card. See Game page.
Record the result. When the game is over, run the /game finish command in the game thread: any participant of the game can do it. Fill in three options:
- winner: the player of this game who won; the bot doesn't accept any other server member;
- win_type: “Touristic 🎨”, “Scientific 🧪”, “Diplomatic 🕊️”, “Militaristic 🗡️” or “Winner recognition 🤝”;
- turns: a number from 1 to 330.
```
/game finish winner:@Orion win_type:Scientific turns:212
```
In the game thread the bot works out the game number itself. Outside a thread, enter it in the game option. Check: the bot replies “Done!”, and the game card gets the state “Finished”, the win type, the number of turns and a 🏆 next to the winner. In FFA the rating changes appear next to the players. In Duel the rating doesn't change. See Finishing a game.

You can also finish the game on the site: a player of the game presses “Finish the game” on the game page and enters the winner, the victory and the turn. The result and ratings are the same. See Finishing a game on the site. This applies on the server the site works with: when a game is finished without an attached save, the bot sends a “Keep this game's story” card with an “On site” button to the thread.

What else you can do¶

Remove a player or cancel the gathering. Before the start, a game participant or a moderator can kick a player with the “Kick” button or cancel the gathering with the 🗑️ button. See Creating a game and gathering players.
Add a Steam link while still gathering. The “Steam Link” button on the gathering card opens a window in English titled “Set Steam Lobby Link”, where you paste a steam://joinlobby/… link. See Creating a game and gathering players.
Add the game's save. This applies on the server the site works with: you can drop the save file (.Civ5Save) in the game thread, and the bot passes it to the site. See Save in the game thread.
Swap slots. In FFA, players can swap slots by mutual request in the “Swap requests between players” menu. See Picking nations and swapping slots.
Scrap the game. If the game falls through, a game participant presses “Cancel game” under the game card and confirms in the “Cancel game confirmation” window, which is always in English. You can leave the reason in the “Cancel game” field empty. After the window is submitted, the game gets the state “Scrap” and the rating doesn't change. See Scrapping a game.

What can go wrong¶

The bot says game creation is already in progress. The bot replies “Game creation already in progress...” while it is still creating your previous game. Wait a few seconds and find its card in the game gathering channel.
The start buttons don't respond. The gathering has fewer than 3 players in FFA or 2 in Duel, or someone isn't ready: there is no ✅ next to their name. Ask the players without ✅ to press “Ready”. If players are missing and the server has notifications set up, call them with the “Notify gathering” button.
The bot says you aren't allowed to do this. When you press a button or choose from a menu, the bot replies “You are not allowed to perform this action.” Only the game's participants and moderators can use its buttons and menus, except “Join | Leave”. If the gathering is still going, first join it with the “Join | Leave” button. You can't join a game that has already started.
The gathering card is gone from the channel. If the game started, look for its thread in the game history channel. If the gathering was cancelled or nobody pressed its buttons for 3 hours, create a new game on the game panel.
The bot won't let you finish the game. In reply to /game finish, the bot says “All players must pick their nations before finishing!” Pick the missing nations in the game thread and run the command again. A nation the site read from a save counts as picked.
The bot says the winner must be a player of this game. The bot privately replies “The winner must be a player of this game.” when the winner option names a server member who isn't playing this game. Choose the winner among the players on the game card and run the command again.

This page was translated with AI and checked against the bot's terms.