Zoy TD Tick Bot — User Guide

What does this bot do?

The bot connects to Zoy’s Elite Dangerous Tick Detector (TD) and forwards relevant tick notifications to your Discord server. You configure which in-game faction your server tracks, and the bot will post messages whenever a tick event occurs in a system that faction is present in.

This is an invite-only bot — it is not listed in the Discord app directory.

Inviting the bot to your server

Use the invite link provided by the bot owner. You must have Manage Server permission on the Discord server you are inviting it to.

Pre-requisite: If your server has Require 2FA for moderation enabled (Server Settings → Safety Setup), the bot will not be able to create its channel when it joins. Disable this setting before inviting the bot, then re-enable it afterwards if desired.

When the bot joins, it will automatically:

  1. Create a channel called #zoy-td-tick-bot in your server
  2. Lock the channel so only the bot can post (members can read but not write)
  3. Register your server in the bot’s database

Once the channel appears, the bot is ready to configure.

Initial setup

After the bot joins, a server admin must tell it which faction to track:

/setfaction

Start typing the faction name — after 3 characters, the bot will offer autocomplete suggestions showing faction name, government type, and home system. Select your faction and confirm.

The bot will verify the faction exists and show how many systems it is present in. Notifications will begin immediately.

Slash commands

/setfaction <name> — Admin only

Set the faction your server tracks.

  • Type at least 3 characters to see autocomplete suggestions
  • Select from the list to ensure the name matches exactly
  • Can be changed at any time — takes effect immediately

/refreshfaction — Admin only

Forces an immediate refresh of the faction’s system list from the API. Normally the list is refreshed automatically on each daily Galaxy Tick. Use this if your faction has recently expanded or retreated and you want the bot to pick up the change without waiting.

/toggleheartbeat — Admin only

Toggles heartbeat messages on or off in your server’s channel. When enabled, the bot posts a short status message every 5 minutes, confirming it is connected and receiving data from the Tick Detector. Useful when first setting up, or if you want reassurance during a quiet period. Off by default.

/warnonly — Admin only

Toggles warn-only mode on or off. When enabled, only alert-level system tick notifications are sent — routine low-activity ticks are suppressed. Alert-level notifications include systems with arrivals or retreats, Medium or High BGS activity, locked influence above 30%, at-risk factions, or CMF influence approaching the expansion threshold. Off by default.

/tidyoldmessages — Admin only

Immediately deletes messages older than 3 days from the tick channel. The bot does this automatically once a day, but this command lets you trigger it on demand.

/status — All members

Shows:

  • The timestamp of the last heartbeat received from the Tick Detector
  • The faction currently configured for your server (or a prompt to set one)

/help — All members

Lists all available commands with brief descriptions.

Notification types

Once a faction is configured, the bot will post to #zoy-td-tick-bot when any of the following events affect a system your faction is present in:

Notification Meaning
SystemTick A system tick has been recorded for a system your faction occupies
GalaxyTick The daily Galaxy Tick — the first state-change tick of the day
FactionChanges A faction has arrived in or retreated from a system your faction is in
FactionExpandedFrom A faction has expanded from a system your faction is in

BGS Activity estimate

SystemTick and GalaxyTick notifications include a BGS Activity line that gives an at-a-glance indication of how much influence movement occurred in the system during the tick:

🟡 BGS Activity: ◆◆ · Population: 500,000 · Signal: 0.13
Element Meaning
Colour circle 🟡 Medium activity / 🔴 High activity / no icon = Low
◆ bars (1–5) Finer-grained activity level within the Low/Medium/High band
Population The system population — larger populations require more player effort to move the same percentage
Signal The raw population-normalised figure the estimate is based on

The three levels are:

Level Meaning
Low Routine tick movement — consistent with background noise or a single commander
Medium Notable activity — worth monitoring, likely a motivated individual or small group
High Significant coordinated effort — investigate

This is an advisory estimate. The calculation uses total influence movement across all factions in the system, normalised for population. It does not currently account for:

  • INF-altering system states (war, civil war, elections, etc.) which can cause large swings without player action
  • Passive influence drift from game mechanics
  • Other non-player sources of influence change

Treat it as a prompt to investigate, not a definitive conclusion.

Message housekeeping

The bot automatically deletes messages from #zoy-td-tick-bot that are more than 3 days old. This runs once per day.

This is intentional and not configurable. Tick notifications are time-sensitive — old ones have no value. The 3-day window uses Discord’s fast bulk-delete path and keeps the channel manageable without any manual effort.

The tick channel

The #zoy-td-tick-bot channel is managed entirely by the bot:

  • Members can read the channel but cannot post in it
  • The bot has permission to post and manage messages
  • Do not delete the channel — if it is deleted, the bot will lose its posting target and notifications will stop until the channel is recreated (currently requires re-inviting the bot or contacting the bot owner)

Removing the bot

Kick or ban the bot from your server in the normal Discord way. The bot will detect the removal and delete your server’s configuration from its database.

Troubleshooting

No notifications appearing

  • Check /status — is a faction configured?
  • Check that #zoy-td-tick-bot exists and the bot has not been denied permissions to it
  • Enable /toggleheartbeat temporarily — if heartbeat messages appear every 5 minutes, the bot is connected and running normally; the faction may simply have had no tick activity

Faction not found with /setfaction

  • Use the autocomplete — type at least 3 characters and pick from the suggestions
  • If the faction does not appear, it may not yet be in the Tick Detector’s database

Heartbeat messages are cluttering the channel

  • Run /toggleheartbeat to turn them off

Bot joined but no #zoy-td-tick-bot channel was created

  • Your server likely has Require 2FA for moderation enabled (Server Settings → Safety Setup) — this prevents bots from performing channel management actions
  • Kick the bot, disable that setting, re-invite the bot, then re-enable the setting if desired

Old messages are not being cleaned up / cleanup warning message in channel

  • Your server has Require 2FA for moderation enabled (Server Settings → Safety Setup), which prevents the bot from deleting messages
  • Disable this setting to restore automatic cleanup

Notifications stopped after moving the channel into a category

  • If you moved #zoy-td-tick-bot into a channel category and chose to sync permissions, Discord will have overwritten the bot’s send permissions with the category’s settings
  • Go to #zoy-td-tick-bot channel settings → Permissions, find the bot’s entry, and explicitly grant View Channel, Send Messages, Manage Messages, and Embed Links
  • Do not sync this channel’s permissions with its category — the bot requires specific overrides that categories typically do not have