Basic TransforMate Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn how to operate the basics of TransforMate, plus a few handy tricks to help you transform yourself and others in an approachable and fun manner!
Before starting, go to a Discord server where you can test the bot's
functionalities without disturbing other users. If you need to find such a place,
you can always use the public-bot-tests channel in the awesome
Official TransforMate Discord Server, where you
can also freely ask for help to our great team if you get stuck at any point of
this guide.
Note
Remember that Discord provides an autocomplete feature, and that, when inputting the command, you can select the field you want to fill out through this very autocomplete feature. When you're still learning, autocomplete will be your very best friend.
Learning to use the /transform command
This command will be your most versatile tool, since you will constantly be using
it, alongside its partner, the /goback command. In this section, you'll learn to
transform yourself, but remember you can always change other users by using the
user parameter.
Go to your testing channel, and type the /transform command. You will see a lot
of options, but the one that interests us at this moment is the into parameter.
For this test, set it to whatever you like, for example, "Test1"; and send the
command.
And that's it! You have transformed yourself! Try typing in the chat, and see how you're now transformed!
Note
You will easily be able to tell that your avatar when transformed is your normal
user avatar. That's because we haven't provided an image_url field, so the bot
has defaulted to your profile picture for your avatar.
Now that you're transformed, you have to know how to go back, don't you? Try
executing the /goback command, without filling out any of the arguments.
Ta-dah! Now you're back to normal! Wasn't that easy?
Once you're back to normal, if you want to return to your previous form, you just
need to send the /goback command once more, and the bot will turn you into
whatever you were last time you went back to normal!
Exercise 1
You have now transformed yourself for the first time. But, as we've seen, if
we don't provide an image_url parameter, we default to just having our
profile picture as our avatar. How can we change this by using the ìmage_url
parameter?
Answer 1
The image_url parameter takes as input any URL that serves an image. This
means we could use any image, in theory. To do so, paste it into a Discord
channel, right-click on it, and select "Copy Image URL". This URL can then be
given as the image_url parameter for your transformation. Voilà! We have an
avatar image that isn't your profile picture!
But, is there an easier method, that doesn't require us to fool around and paste images into Discord...?
The "simplified" command
The full /transform command is designed to be very versatile and compact, but it
can sometimes be very bothersome having to copy image URLs, or to remember what
each option does.
This is why the "simplified" mode exists! Simply execute /transform, without any
parameters (unless you want to transform another user, in which case you should
populate the user parameter), and wait for the bot to respond.
The bot will ask you what you want to transform into. Now, you can simply reply with the name of what you want to transform into, BUT, and this is where the magic happens; if you attach an image to the message, the bot will automatically set it as your avatar! No need for pesky URLs!
Playing with settings
There are a lot of settings you can configure for a transformation with TransforMate. If you want to know all of the settings you can configure, check out the set and clear commands index.
For the examples given here, we've decided to use the censor, muffle, hush, and stutter settings, which describe the types of settings the bot has available in a pretty good manner, without exceeding what's realistically possible to easily learn in this tutorial.
Let's start by the easiest kind of setting: On-off settings. Currently, these are
the big, small, hush, and backwards settings. Try and hush your messages by using
/set hush. When you type next time, it will be a spoiler, "hushing" you. Try it!
Exercise 2
Can you make your text small, and disable hushing now?
Answer 2
To make your text small, you just need to use the /set small command, and, to
stop being hushed, just use /clear hush!
That is the most basic type of setting you can modify, but we still have a long way
to go! Let's try with numeric settings now! At the moment, the only setting of this
kind that's available in TransforMate is he stutter setting. Let's try and make you
stutter with a 20% chance. For this, you'll need to use the /set stutter <chance>
command. Can you manage to do it?
Once you've figured it out, try typing a bit of text and see if you stutter a bit!
Note
Remember, any time you want to check your current settings you can use
/get settings, and the other /get commands to
see your settings in detail!
You're doing great! We're halfway there to learn all the kinds of modifiers you can use with TransforMate, and being able to transform yourself and others with ease!
Now, it's time to introduce chance-based modifiers. These can have a lot of different values for the same user. Let's say, for example, that we have a user, lets call him John. John has been muffled by his friends, with three different words. This means those three words will be substituting some of his words with a random chance.
For this example, let's say the words are "cheese", "squeak", and "great beyond", and that their chances to occur are, in order, 20%, 50%, and 3%. How would you se this up?
Well, to do so, we would need three commands:
/set muffle chese 20
/set muffle *squeak* 50
/set muffle "great beyond" 3
Warning
You should be aware that a multi-word parameter like "great beyond" works because Discord treats everything you write inside a parameter like a single thing, so, in practice, you don't need the surrounding quotes, used here to tell you that it goes al together in the same parameter. If you keep the quotes, they will become part of the final substitution!
Now, you might have noticed that we have messed up the word "cheese" and written
"chese" instead! We could always do /clear muffle, to clear all of the muffle
settings we have just set up, but, specially for more complex transformations,
that is a chore we shouldn't really have to go through!
Instead, try using /clear muffle chese! This will only delete the erroneous
muffle, and you'll write half as much! Try it!
Now, you have learnt the three "basic" types of modifiers, and you can use what is basically the entire set of modifiers the bot has to offer. The only two you have left to learn are the biography, and the censor modifiers!
Exercise 3
Can you set a biography for your current transformation? Try to be creative!
Answer 3
Using the /set bio command you can see a biography as long as you want
(Discord's message length restrictions apply).
And an exra trick: You can use the \n escape character to make a line jump!
Now, the censor command isn't all that different from the chance-based modifiers like muffle, but it differs in a very important aspect. Censors differ from these in that they don't trigger based on a random chance, but based on a keyword.
For example, let's say we censor the word "four" to say "five". This means that EVERY TIME the transformed user says the word "four", they will say "five" instead, for example, "two plus two is four" will become "two plus two is five".
To set a censor, we use a similar syntax as for chance-based modifiers. For the
above example, for example, we'd use /set censor four five. See? Easy right?
Try it out!
Now what?
You have learnt how to use the basics of modifiers! Now you should try other modifiers around, like the sprinkle or suffix. Try the alternative muffle, that muffles entire messages instead of words, if you want! You're free to experiment with the bot and learn from that! Have fun!
Exporting and importing transformations
Sometimes, you make a really great transformation, and you'd like to either share it with your friends; or just to save it for later whilst you experiment with some new transformation ideas.
To do this, you can export and import transformations to either text files; or easy to share (and edit) strings. This not only allows you to save and share transformation, but also to edit transformation data without needing to use a single command for every single thing you want to change about a transformation. To know more about how to edit these files, check out the full documentation for the transformation data string commands, where you'll find a full explanation oh how these strings (and the files) work, so you can edit them to your liking.
For now, in this tutorial, we will learn the basics on how to import and export your transformation data. For this, you'll need to be transformed. Choose a form that has a few modifiers applied, so that you can see how they're kept completely through exporting and re-importing it.
Now, execute he /export_tf command. You will get a file, with the same name as
your transformation. This file contains all the information about your
current transformation, that can be used to transform yourself once again, or to
transform others.
Note
Transformation files do not store any information about the user that created them, the time they were created at, where they were created at, or how they were created. If no external information is given, transformation files are effectively untraceable, so you don't have to worry about people doxxing you from a transformation file, don't worry!
Now, why don't you try transforming into something else? Make sure it's different from what you just transformed out of, but don't worry about making a complex transformation, just enough to see the difference.
Now, use the /import_tf command. The bot will ask you for a transformation to
use to transform you. You can use a file or a string here. Since we got a file,
just send a message with the file attached. And... That's it! Now, if you check
your settings, you'll see that you're on the form you were before, all the same!
Pretty awesome, right?
You can store these files in Discord itself, or on any other storage platform,
including your own computer! But not everyone has access to a computer, much
less at all times, so, to make storing transformation easier, you can always get
a string by setting the file parameter of /export_tf to false! This will
give you an easy-to-copy string that you can save in your notes app or in a
Discord channel, so it's easier to copy and use!
Claiming and eternally transforming other users
For this part of the tutorial, you will need a good friend to be your test subject. Be sure they're fine with being claimed and eternally transformed for a few minutes so you can learn the basics of these features.
Warning
Remember, kids: Consent is important
Now, transform your friend into something they enjoy being. Once you're done, use
the /claim command to claim them. If you do so successfully, the bot will let
you know. Now, you're the "owner" of your friend. This means you're the only one
allowed to transform them and modify their settings. They themselves can still
go back to their normal form, though.
Danger
If at any point you feel uncomfortable as the claimed user, there's a command
to free yourself: /safeword. If you feel like your partner has abused you
or didn't consent, try to resolve the issue with the server's moderation
team. If this doesn't work, use the /report command, or send the word
"report" to the bot's DMs.
To avoid them escaping their transformative cage, you'll have to close the door
with the /set eternal command. Now, they'll be eternally transformed into
whatever form you have chosen for them, until you decide to free them.
Note
Remember to use /clear eternal and/or /unclaim when you are done with
your partner, so they can be free once again.
Conclusion
Well, you have done great! Now you know how to use all the basic features of the bot! We've only really skipped two features in all of this tutorial. The first of these is the per-channel transformations, but you should be able to figure those out with the information in this tutorial.
Hint
Check out the channel parameter in the /transform command.
There's only really one thing you've missed, and that's the twinning and merging capabilities of the bot. These are very specific and kinda fiddly. Check out the Basic Twinning Tutorial to learn more about this feature!
We'd recommend you experiment a bit with the bot, to get your bearings, and, always remember to have fun and let others have their own fun!