Bot Colony is unique because you type or speak to robots who understand what you say - PROVIDED it's about what they know. Ask "What do you know?" and use the answer you get to drill further down. You'll need to command robots to overcome game challenges. You'll also need to ask questions to explore their past observations or facts they learned - to piece together what happened. Browsing the information below WILL improve your game experience - ignore at your own risk!

• THE SHORTER, CLEARER you say something - the better you'll be understood! Use correct English ('pick up the vase' works better than 'pick up vase'). Be direct and DON'T attempt to explain - that is LONGER and only adds to the confusion :).
  
• Play initially by typing - this eliminates Speech-to-text errors and gives our Natural Language Understanding a better chance to work correctly. Once you know what you can expect from NLU (the tech we make!), please feel free to experiment with Speech-To-Text (the tech we integrate!).
  
• Don't skip the tutorial at the beginning of Intruder. Our new update starts there!
  
• For Speech-To-Text training we used material similar to the one here, to improve your chances to be understood when speaking to robots.

• Click F1 to talk to your assistant Miki-05. Ask "What should I do now?" when you're not sure how to proceed.
  
• Use F10 to see the dialog history, use the thumbwheel to scroll through it. Very useful when playing the Investigation mission!
  
• Click on tablet/console to enter 'camera mode' in Intruder or in Arrival.
  
• Use the camera mode minimap to select a ceiling camera, or the robot's eyes camera. Minimaps show other useful things like objects in place, ! for objects out of place, Mike's commands in Arrival.
  
• Ask Jimmy "What do you know?" and then "What commands do you know?" to find out the types of commands a robot understands (movement, manipulation, etc.). Then drill down to a specific command, eg "What are your manipulation commands?". Jimmy's commands are listed below. Pay special attention to 'align' - it can make a huge difference :).
  
• Click F3 to exit camera mode.
  
• Click Up Arrow to scroll through a previous questions, commands, etc. You can edit the one you want and hit Enter to re-issue it (saves you lots of typing!).
  
• You can teach a new command that uses commands a robot already knows.
  
• Click ESC to access Help from the game menu.
  
  ARRIVAL ONLY
  
  
• Click CTRL to brings up your PDA in Arrival.
  
• Click on a robot to talk to it (Arrival only, in Intruder you're in 'camera mode').
  
• Click ESC to disengage from conversation with a robot (closes dialog box).
  

Just say or type the place or object you want instead of place, object, like in 'drop the blue guitar':

• Go to place EXAMPLE: "Go to the living room", "Go to the vase." The robot will go there. If you say an object, it will go to it and face it.
  
• Pick up object "Pick up the vase." EFFECT: chains the face, reach and grab commands. Try asking "What do you hold?" after "Pick up object".
  
• Drop object
  
• Face object (command is not exposed, it's part of pick up X)
  
• Reach for object (part of pick up X)
  
• Grab object (part of pick up X)
  
• Push in object (push in the cushion). Close the drawer (or the cushion :) also works.
  
• Put object1 on object2 "Put the red box on the blue box." "Put object1 to the left/right of object2."
  
• Put object1 between the objects (put the vase between the candles, put the bottle between the sinks). Put object1 in the center of object2[/].
  
• Rotate object by Z degrees clockwise/counterclockwise However, when you can, use 'align X with Y' - it's faster and more precise!
  
• Swap object1 with object2. "Put object1[/] where object2 was" - also works.
  
• Align object1 with object2 (for pot, television, chair - imagine you're on a plane or ship looking FORWARD; you'll have a red light on your left and a green one on your right. The object you align with is the plane, look for red/green color hints in the interface :)
  
• Open the door (open cupboard door - in the kitchen)
  
• Close the door (or guitar case)
  
• Point to <object> (or point to room)
  
• Move forward/back (by Y meters)
  
• Turn clockwise/counterclockwise ( by Y degrees)
  
• Stop (to reset a robot).
  
• wave, jump, nod
  
• Cindy can 'follow me' or 'stop following me'
  
• Mike moves up/down or goes to a shelf.
  
• TEACHING COMMANDS: You can combine the commands above to form new ones - this can be great fun! Try teaching 'mess up the room' and post a screenshot of the result. Steam keys await up-voted screenshots !!

This is useful right after you give a command when the robot needs to clarify on what object your command should be carried out:

• ORDER: When Jimmy asks "Which vase? The..., or the ....?", you can reply "the first one" , "the second one", "the last one"
  
• COLOR When Jimmy asks "Which game box?" you can answer 'the blue one', 'the purple one'
  
• LOCATION Use the object's location to pick it 'the pot in kitchen', 'the one on the stovetop',
  
• STATE Use an object's open or close state. For the drawer, cushion, you can answer 'the open one' to select the one you want.

Use the investigative questions below to discover Jimmy's 14 videos! When Jimmy answers, he sets time/date. Keep that in mind when asking your next questions. This saves having to specify the time and date, and the answer will make more sense.

- Who is X?
- What do you know about X?
- How do you know that?
- When did you first/last see X?
- What did X do at HH:MM on Day/Date? (example: What did Ayame do at 20:15 on Thursday?) What did Ayame do then? What did Masaya do next? What did X do before that?
- What happened then? What happened before/after that? What happened at HH:MM on (day of week)? (What happened at 11:30 on 26/08/2021?) – this will work even if after/before don’t return more facts because Jimmy doesn’t look back/forward far enough.
- What happened to X? What happened to X at (time) on (date)/(day of week)?
- When did X arrive/enter/leave the house? When did you arrive? Where did X go after that?
- What did X say at (time) on (day)? What did X say before/after that?
- Where was X at (time) on (day of the week)/date?

Other questions that will help you find out more about the characters, like :
- What does X like? When did X play? When did Y speak on the phone?


Try adapting these questions and experiment!

• What is this? (click, then ENTER - useful when you don't know the English word for an object!)
  
• What is English word - useful when you don't understand a word Jimmy says
  
• What is the color of... (whatever you clicked)
  
• What is the size of ....?
  
• Where is....?
  
• Where are you?
  
• How tall is the fridge?
  
• How many chairs are in the room?
  
• What do yo see? - use this to look though Jimmy's camera to see what's inside the chest in Hideki's room!
  
• Where is the beer? (teach "bring me a beer"!)
  
• Who is Masaya?
  
• How do you clean?
  
• What date is today?
  
• What day is today?
  
• Is Ayame in the house? (Y/N question)

In you're interested in the story background, browse Backstory and World Design on http://botcolony.com/media.php. If you'd like to dive deeper, you can buy the Bot Colony eBook here https://www.amazon.ca/Bot-Colony-Novel-Present-Future-ebook/dp/B00K7O6BSE