Getting Help With Lich

The Lich Discord is our primary means of connecting with Lich users for support: https://discord.gg/QD5HVYyQ

Lich has a team of developers that give freely of their time for support. No one gets paid to develop Lich. Those who help do so out of the kindness of their hearts. We ask you to keep that in mind and, before requesting support, we want you to have read the documentation, tried to figure it out yourself, and then, if you still need help, to ask for help in a certain way that allows the developers to diagnose your issue and give proper guidance.

NOTE: Do NOT start direct messaging the developers looking for help. Remember, our devs don't get paid to do this, and regularly get spammed with DMs requesting support. Further, asking for and receiving help in a public channel allows more eyes on the issue as well as helps other new users understand what problems can arise and how they can be solved.

Before Asking for Help

Using Lich is composed of three primary components: Installation, building your YAML(s), and running scripts. Before asking for help, make sure you've done the following:

Installation

• Have you read the First Time Setup Instructions (don't skip steps!)?
• If you're migrating from Lich4 to Lich5, have you read the migration instructions?

Building Your YAML(s)

• Have you read the complete series of YAML Guides?
• Are you using Visual Studio Code with the Red Hat YAML Plugin to edit your YAML?
• Are you starting small with your YAML? If you've been given a complex YAML by another user, they should support your use of it. It is highly recommended that you build your YAML yourself, and start small by getting a few scripts working.
• Have you looked at the guild YAML samples?
• Have you reviewed the pinned messages in the Discord #yaml-not-yml channel?
• Does your YAML ;validate? Run ;validate in game and review the output for errors.
• Have you run your YAML file through an online validator?

Running Scripts

• Have you read the DR-Scripts tutorials?
• Have you looked for help information for a specific script on Elanthipedia (be sure to click expand)?
• Have you run the script with the built-in help argument to try to understand how to use it? Example: ;alchemy help

Getting Help

If you've done all of the above and need help:

• Head over to the Lich Discord
• Choose the appropriate channel. #installation is good for installation support. #yaml-not-yml is good for YAML support. #general is good for general Lich support.
• If you are ready to ask a question, please be available for a reasonable period of time if a developer begins providing support. If you post a question and disappear, it's frustrating for those who are helping.

What We Need to Help You

• We need a clear and detailed description of what is going wrong. What, in your opinion, went wrong? What were you doing when it happened? What script or scripts were you running? In what way was the behavior different than what you expected should happen?
  • This is a poor description: "Lich isn't working, can anyone help?"
  • This is also a poor description: "Does anyone know why Lich keeps backfiring my spell casts?"
  • This is a good description: "I'm a new user and attempting to use the ;buff script. I've reviewed the YAML samples and believe I'm specifying cambrinth use correctly in my YAML. ;buff completes the casting but is not utilizing my cambrinth. I'm ready with a YAML snippet and a log of the issue."
• We need a log of the issue actually occurring in-game. A good log includes the issue itself, as well as some reasonable context before and after the issue. What is "reasonable context"? Well, it's not 2,000 lines of worthless game output, nor is it just the 5 lines where the issue occurs. Use your best judgement and give us the issue itself, and the events that lead up to it, and the events after it. You can grab this log from the game window or you can run a logging script. ;log is a curated script that you can run to log output. Just be sure to clean it up and pare it down before asking someone to review thousands of lines of logs.
• If an actual Lich error has occurred, we need the entirety of the error. Please don't truncate or snip it.
• We are very likely to need at least a snippet of your YAML file, and it's sometimes favorable to have your whole YAML file. You can share your YAML file in the following ways:
  • Drag and drop your YAML file into the Discord window
  • In-game, type ;help-me, then copy and paste the link into Discord for us to access. If you get a message about offensive or questionable content, use the above method to share your YAML.