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First Time Setup Guide

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João Amaro Lagedo edited this page Jun 21, 2026 · 29 revisions
ACT Discord Triggers mascot

This guide walks you through creating a Discord bot, inviting it to your server, installing the plugin, and connecting the two.

Prerequisites

  • Windows with Advanced Combat Tracker installed. (ACT itself requires the .NET Framework 4.8 runtime, so if ACT runs, you're covered.)
  • A Discord account, and Manage Server permission on the server you want the bot to join (or an admin who can invite it for you).

ℹ️ You do not need to install Node.js. A node.exe file is bundled inside the download — it's what lets the bot connect to Discord voice. There's nothing extra to install; just keep the whole plugin folder together (see Step 3).

Step 1: Create a Discord Bot

  1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal → Applications and click New Application.
  2. Give it a name (this becomes the bot's display name) and click Create.
  3. (Optional) Under General Information, add a description and an icon — for example, the mascot above. 🐱
  4. In the left sidebar, open the Bot tab.
  5. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, the defaults are fine — this plugin only needs to join voice and play audio, so no privileged intents are required.

Step 2: Invite the Bot to Your Server

  1. In the left sidebar, open OAuth2.

  2. Under OAuth2 URL Generator, tick the bot scope.

  3. In the Bot Permissions list that appears, tick at minimum:

    • View Channels
    • Connect
    • Speak

    (Granting Administrator also works, but the three above are all the bot actually needs.)

  4. Copy the generated URL at the bottom of the page and open it in your browser.

  5. Pick the server you want the bot to join from the dropdown and click Authorize. You must have Manage Server on that server, or it won't appear in the list — if so, send the link to a server admin instead.

🔊 The bot must be able to see and connect to the voice channels you want it to join. If your admin restricts its permissions, make sure those channels are still accessible to it.

Step 3: Install the Plugin

  1. Download the latest ACT_DiscordTriggers-*.zip from the Releases page.
  2. Right-click the downloaded zip → Properties → tick Unblock → OK, before extracting. Windows flags node.exe/DLLs downloaded from the internet, and skipping this can trip SmartScreen or antivirus.
  3. Extract the zip into your ACT plugins folder: %AppData%\Advanced Combat Tracker\Plugins. You should end up with a Plugins\ACT_DiscordTriggers\ folder containing ACT_DiscordTriggers.dll, node.exe, bundle.js, and a node_modules\ folder. Keep all of these files together in that folder — the plugin runs the bundled node.exe from right beside it.
  4. Run Advanced Combat Tracker as Administrator.
  5. Open the Plugins tab → Browse…, select ACT_DiscordTriggers.dll inside the ACT_DiscordTriggers folder, and click Add/Enable Plugin.
  6. Restart ACT, then click the new Discord Triggers tab.

⚠️ Always restart ACT after adding or updating the plugin. Just enabling/disabling it is not enough.

Step 4: Get Your Bot Token & Connect

  1. Back in the Developer Portal, open your application → Bot tab.
  2. Click Reset Token (the first time, this reveals the token), confirm, and Copy it.
    • Treat this token like a password — never share it or post it anywhere. Anyone with it controls your bot. If it leaks, return here and reset it.
  3. Paste the token into the Discord Bot Token field (under Discord Connection) on the plugin's Discord Triggers tab. Your token is saved when you close ACT, so you only paste it once.
  4. Click Connect. The bot should come online within a few seconds. Tick Auto Connect if you'd like it to log in automatically every time ACT starts.

Using the Bot

On the Discord Triggers tab, click Connect (or enable Auto Connect so it logs in whenever ACT starts). Once the bot is online, pick a Server and Channel from the dropdowns and press Join Channel to make it enter that voice channel. The server and channel aren't remembered between sessions, so you'll pick them each time.

From then on, any trigger that plays text-to-speech or a sound — whether from ACT Custom Triggers, Triggernometry, or Triggevent — is routed through the bot so everyone in the channel hears it. The Trigger Software page walks through setting up each of those (and how to keep some callouts personal).

Want to tweak the voice, volume, audio quality, or other options? Every setting on the plugin tab is explained in Settings & Configuration. In particular, the Text-to-Speech page lets you switch from the built-in Windows voices to far more natural-sounding neural voices — see Text-to-Speech.

Help & Known Issues

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