---
title: 'Sample Script Examples'
---

# Sample Script Examples

Updated: 11/23/13

Okay then, you’ve installed Perl, set up the Lacuna Game Client, and now you’re ready to start
scripting.

But what exactly does that mean? There are [sample script commands](/wiki/sample-script-commands/)
in the Wiki, but how exactly can they be used to script? You could type each command in a DOS
window, but that would be tedious and time consuming. It’d be much easier to create a batch file to
do that. That way, you could string together multiple commands or instructions and do several things
at once.

The example [scripts](/wiki/scripts/) presented here are geared toward the casual user whose
scripting needs are simple. They should give you some idea of what’s possible and what you may be
able to accomplish.

I make no claims as to whether these examples are the best or easiest way to script. They should
work on a Windows 7 PC. I use MS DOS because I’m familiar with it and it’s relatively easy. Other
programming languages are going to be more powerful. If you’re interesting in learning more about MS
DOS commands, a good starting point is:
[http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm](http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm)

Let’s start off with some examples.

Using a text editor, like notepad, we create a simple batch file: docked.bat. It’s just like writing
a text file, except we use the extension .bat instead of .txt. These are the contents of docked.bat:

@echo off

cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

perl docked\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl

pause

Our first line: @echo off, is used to prevent each subsequent line from echoing or printing to the
screen. If you really want to see each line on screen as the script runs, you can omit this
instruction.

On line two, we’re pointing to the direction where Perl can find the file
docked\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl. .pl means it’s a perl file. cd stands for “change directory”. The
file docked.pl can be found on the C drive in directory le->glc->examples. If your perl files where
located on drive D in directory lacuna->data->perl, then your line two would read: cd
d:\\lacuna\\data\\perl

Line three is the actual perl command which uses the perl file docked.pl to list all docked
[ships](/wiki/ships/) on every colony you have. Note: you don’t necessarily have to preface commands
with ‘perl’. Docked.pl should run ok by itself if you’ve set up Perl correctly on your system. If
for some reason you’re having difficulty, then include perl before the command.

The last line, pause , prevents the batch file from ending until you press a key. This way, we can
view the list. Otherwise, the batch file would terminate and the list would disappear.

When I want to run docked.bat, I use my file manager to locate that file on my hard drive and double
click it. That’s the simplest way to use it. You don’t need to be logged in to the game to run it.
If you wanted to automate your scripting, say, so you could run certain [scripts](/wiki/scripts/)
everyday at a certain time, then you could use Windows Task Scheduler to run your batch files. But
that’s beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Ok, let’s look at another example. This file will be called upgrade.bat:

@echo off

cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

upgrade\_all.pl --planet "My Planet 1" --planet "My Planet 2" --match [Shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)

The first two lines are the same as in the previous example. The third line uses the file
upgrade\_all.pl to upgrade [buildings](/wiki/buildings/) on two of our planets. If we use the
[Sample Script Commands](/wiki/sample-script-commands/) page in the Wiki to look up the options for
this file, this is what we find:

Options:

--help - This info. --verbose - Print out more information --config FILE - Specify a GLC config
file, normally lacuna.yml --planet NAME - Specify planet --dumpfile FILE - data dump for all the
info we don't print --maxlevel INT - do not upgrade if this level has been achieved --maxnum INT -
Use this if lower than dev ministry level --maxadd INT - Add at most INT
[buildings](/wiki/buildings/) to the queue per pass --wait INT - Max number of seconds to wait to
repeat loop --sleep INT - Pause between RPC calls. Default 1 --junk - Upgrade Junk
[Buildings](/wiki/buildings/) --[glyph](/wiki/glyph/) - Upgrade [Glyph](/wiki/glyph/)
[Buildings](/wiki/buildings/) --space - Upgrade spaceports --city - Upgrade LCOT --lab - Upgrade
labs --match STRING - Only upgrade matching building names --skip STRING - Skip building names
(multiple allowed) --extra STRING - Add matching names to usual list to upgrade --dry - Do not
actually upgrade

In our example, we used the --planet NAME option twice. Some perl files may only allow you to use it
once. Note that spacing is important. Also, spelling has to be exact and is case sensitive. The
option --match allows us to specify a specific building and could also be used multiple times to
specify multiple [buildings](/wiki/buildings/). So line three is only upgrading
[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s. If we wanted to upgrade different [buildings](/wiki/buildings/) on
other planets, we could add a fourth line, for example:

upgrade\_all.pl --planet "My Planet 3" --skip [Space Port](/wiki/space-port/)

This last line would upgrade all [buildings](/wiki/buildings/) on that planet except the
[space port](/wiki/space-port/)s. You can string together multiple lines of commands to perform many
tasks in the game which is much easier than clicking on [buildings](/wiki/buildings/) on different
planets.

Now let’s take a look at a script that builds [ships](/wiki/ships/). We’ll call this file
[fighter](/wiki/fighter/)s.bat:

@echo off

cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type
[fighter](/wiki/fighter/) --number 50 --planet "My Planet 1"

On our colony My Planet 1, we have two level 30 [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s. We want to build 50
[fighter](/wiki/fighter/)s, though we could build a maximum of 60 [ships](/wiki/ships/) at a time (1
per level of each [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)). [Shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js is the file that
stores info on the state of the [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s on all your planets. It’s important to
keep this file up to date if you’ve upgraded your [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s. To do that, we can
use the following command found on the [Sample Script Commands](/wiki/sample-script-commands/) page
in the Wiki:

get\_[buildings](/wiki/buildings/).pl –config../ lacuna.yml --[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/) --shipfile
[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s--[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js

You could type this line at the DOS (command) prompt, but it’s much easier to use it in a batch
file:

@echo off

cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

get\_[buildings](/wiki/buildings/).pl --[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/) --shipfile
[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js

Notice I’ve altered the command. I’ve trimmed it down to just what’s required for it to run. Your
[stats](/wiki/stats/) and [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/) levels will determine how long it will take to
build those [fighter](/wiki/fighter/)s.

Now let’s say you want to build lots of [ships](/wiki/ships/). Assuming you have two level 30
[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s on your planet, and that 60 [sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/)s would take 40
minutes to finish building. You could just keep rerunning the script every 40 minutes or so. Surely
there must be some better ways available. Let’s take a look at some options:

@echo off cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type
[sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet "My Planet 1" echo sleeping for 40
mins... perl -e "sleep 2400" build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js
--type [sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet "My Planet 1" echo sleeping for 40
mins... perl -e "sleep 2400"

In the above example, we’re using the perl sleep command to pause the batch file for 40 minutes. 40
minutes x 60sec’s=2400 sec’s. We also used the echo command to echo a message to the screen to
remind us of what’s going on. Then we repeated the same instruction.

We also added --noreserve to our build [ships](/wiki/ships/) instruction. This causes the
instruction to ignore the reserve number in the datafile and ensures we build the maximum number of
[ships](/wiki/ships/) on each [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/). We could repeat the building instructions
in this way several times and build lots of [ships](/wiki/ships/). But there are better ways that
require less typing:

@echo off cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

set /a count=0

:LOOP set /a count+=1 build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type
[sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet " My Planet 1"

REM the number in the next line equals the number of building cycles

IF %count%==10 goto END echo Building [sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/)s. Cycle %count% of 10. Sleeping for
40 mins... perl -e "sleep 2400" goto :LOOP

:END

This batch file is using a loop to count the number of ship building cycles that we want. Let’s take
a closer look at it.

In line 3, we’re setting a variable which we’re going to call ‘count’ to zero. You could call it
whatever you wanted: counter, number1, N, etc.

Line 4 is where our loop begins. :LOOP is the name of the target label which represents a particular
point in our program where we want come back to later on. As with the variable ‘count’, you can name
your labels whatever you want, as long as it begins with a colon.

Line 5 is where we use the SET command to increase the value of ‘count’ by 1.

Line 6 is the instruction we’ve already seen for building our [sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/)s.

Line 7 has a REM statement, which is a way to record remarks inside the body of a batch file. The
comments which come after REM remind us of something and are not displayed on the screen.

On line 8, we’re using the conditional command IF to determine if the variable ‘count’ is equal
to 10. If it is, then the GOTO command instructs our program to skip to the target label called END.
If ‘count’ is not =10, then the sequence continues onto the next line.

Line 9 echo’s a reminder as to which build cycle we’re currently on by displaying the current value
of ‘count’. Every time the program goes thru the loop we’ve set up, the value of ‘count’ will
increment by one, and that increase is what will be indicated here.

Line 10, as we’ve already seen, pauses the program for enough time to allow building to finish.

Line 11 sends the program back to up to :LOOP to repeat the process.

The last line is the target label :END. As there are no instructions after this point, the program
will end.

So in this example, ship building will cycle ten times, and on the tenth cycle it will end. On the
last cycle, I saw no need to pause or sleep, so the program ends before the last batch of
[ships](/wiki/ships/) are finished building. If I wanted the program to end when the last batch of
[ships](/wiki/ships/) were done, I could rearrange the commands like so:

@echo off cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

set /a count=0

:LOOP IF %count%==10 goto END set /a count+=1 build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards
[shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type [sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet "
My Planet 1" IF %count%==10 goto END echo Building [sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/)s. Cycle %count% of 10.
Sleeping for 40 mins... perl -e "sleep 2400" goto :LOOP

:END

Notice I moved “set /a count+=1”. Now the program will have to loop back around one last time in
order to check if ‘count’ has reached 10.

I could have also counted down instead of up.

I would have had to set the counter initially to 10: set/a count=10

Subtract instead of add 1: set /a count-=1

And ended the program at zero instead of ten: if %count%==0 goto end

It’s just a matter of preference.

Here’s an example of a more complex batch file that offers a choice of several [ships](/wiki/ships/)
we can build:

@echo off cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

echo. echo SELECT OPTION FOR My Planet 1 echo ----------------------------- echo.

:menu echo 1- Build [Fighter](/wiki/fighter/)s echo 2- Build [Snark](/wiki/snark/)'s echo 3- Build
[Sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/)s echo 4- Exit echo. set /p option=enter option 1 2 3 or 4: if
"%option%"=="1" goto createftr if "%option%"=="2" goto createsnrk if "%option%"=="3" goto
createsweep if "%option%"=="4" goto exit

:createftr build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type
[fighter](/wiki/fighter/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet " My Planet 1" goto exit

:createsnrk build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type
[snark](/wiki/snark/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet " My Planet 1" goto exit

:createsweep build\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --yards [shipyard](/wiki/shipyard/)s.js --type
[sweeper](/wiki/sweeper/) --number 60 --noreserve --planet " My Planet 1" goto exit

:exit

As you can see, I can select which ship I want to build. I could add the same kind of loops we saw
in the last example and build lots of [ships](/wiki/ships/). I could add many more options too.

Now let’s tie several perl commands together and look at a script that you might run once a day.
We’ll call this batch file daily.bat:

@echo off cd c:\\le\\glc\\examples

spy\_run.pl --from "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --target "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --number 1
--task [Security Sweep](/wiki/security-sweep/) spy\_run.pl --from " My Planet 2" --target "My Planet
2" --number 1 --task [Security Sweep](/wiki/security-sweep/) spy\_run.pl --from " My Planet 3"
--target "My Planet 3" --number 1 --task [Security Sweep](/wiki/security-sweep/)

push\_[glyph](/wiki/glyph/)s.pl --from "My Planet 2" --to "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --ship
"[Galleon](/wiki/galleon/)" push\_[glyph](/wiki/glyph/)s.pl --from "My Planet 3" --to "My
[Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --ship "[Galleon](/wiki/galleon/)" push\_[plans](/wiki/plans/).pl --from
"My Planet 2" --to "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --ship "[Hulk](/wiki/hulk/)"
push\_[plans](/wiki/plans/).pl --from "My Planet 3" --to "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --ship
"[Hulk](/wiki/hulk/)"

echo Pausing for 3 minutes... perl -e "sleep 180"

assemble\_halls.pl --planet "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --use-last

send\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --type [scow](/wiki/scow/)\_mega --from "My
[Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)" --own-star send\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --type
[scow](/wiki/scow/)\_mega --from "My Planet 2" --own-star send\_[ships](/wiki/ships/).pl --type
[scow](/wiki/scow/)\_large --from "My Planet 3" --own-star

call buildexcavators.bat

[waste](/wiki/waste/)\_chain.pl --planet "My [Capitol](/wiki/capitol/)” --equalize
[waste](/wiki/waste/)\_chain.pl --planet "My Planet 1" --equalize [waste](/wiki/waste/)\_chain.pl
--planet "My Planet 2" --equalize

Lines 3-5: We’re doing a [security sweep](/wiki/security-sweep/) on every planet in our empire. I
want only one spy on each planet to perform this task.

Lines 6-7: pushing all [glyph](/wiki/glyph/)s from our planets to our [capitol](/wiki/capitol/)
planet. If I don’t select a particular ship type, then one will be selected automatically. I’ve
selected a ship which is large enough to move the [glyph](/wiki/glyph/)s we get on a daily basis.
Smaller [ships](/wiki/ships/) tend to be faster than larger ones.

Lines 8-9: pushing all [plans](/wiki/plans/) from our planets to our [capitol](/wiki/capitol/)
planet. As above, I’ve selected a particular ship type.

Lines 10-11: pausing to allow the shipped goods to arrive at our [capitol](/wiki/capitol/) planet
(based on the speeds of the selected [ships](/wiki/ships/) and the distance from sending planets to
the receiving one).

Line 12: turn our [glyph](/wiki/glyph/)s into Halls in the [Excavator](/wiki/excavator/) Ministry,
using the last of any [glyph](/wiki/glyph/) if necessary to build a hall plan.

Lines 13-15: dispose of [waste](/wiki/waste/) on all our planets. Note that ship type:
[scow](/wiki/scow/), [scow](/wiki/scow/)\_large, [scow](/wiki/scow/)\_fast or
[scow](/wiki/scow/)\_mega must be specified. In this example, the amount of [waste](/wiki/waste/)
actually removed will depend on the amount on hand and the capacity and number of
[scow](/wiki/scow/)s available.

Line 16: Uses the Call statement to call another batch file within a batch file. In this example,
we’re transferring to another batch file (buildexcavators.bat) without aborting the execution of the
calling batch file (daily.bat). Once buildexcavators.bat finishes, daily.bat will pick up where it
left off and continue to the next line of instruction. Using this technique can be useful in so far
as several small batch files can be easier to troubleshoot or modify than one large one.

Lines 17-19: Equalizes the [waste](/wiki/waste/) production on all our planets so that
[waste](/wiki/waste/) production will be zero. This is a function found in the
[trade ministry](/wiki/trade-ministry/). Note that if you don’t have enough [scow](/wiki/scow/)s
assigned to a [waste chain](/wiki/waste-chain/), or are producing more [waste](/wiki/waste/) than
the assigned [ships](/wiki/ships/) can carry, then some [waste](/wiki/waste/) will be continue to be
produced.

I hope these examples have given you some ideas as to what you can do to make tasks easier and
automated in the game. Happy scripting!

\-Frobozz