Playtester Protection |
Discworld Playtester Help |
Playtester Protection |
Name
Playtester Protection - or how to stay alive when those evil cres are out to get you
Description
In order to keep them alive and happy for future abuse, playtesters are given the ability to protect themselves from losing actual lives while they are testing dangerous areas, new features or new non-player characters.
While protection is on, a playtester does not earn any xp and can not gain levels from the task master (TMs) or from teaching. Playtesters are strongly encouraged to use protection only when they are truly in fear for their lives and not habitually while they explore areas in playtesting.
Setting The Protection Option
To turn protection on and off, playtesters can simply set their protection option as follows:
>options playtester protection = on
>options playtester protection = off
Ideally, playtesters should set up aliases for the above commands so they can reset their protection quickly.
(Protection is automatically turned on for playtesters entering the PT arena downstairs from Mavis in the PT palace.)
Dying While Using Protection
When a playtester dies while using PT protection, he or she will be visited briefly by Death and a corpse will fall, but they will see themselves continuing on with a new body already equipped with their complete inventory, their total hit points restored to the level they were prior to when they first turned on protection. Also, a playtester does not lose any remembered spells or rituals when they die while using protection. If they were fighting, combat continues without interruption.
The corpses that fall will have no inventory except a token bunch of flowers in commiseration.
Please note that other PTs in the same room will not see a corpse fall. If you are fighting each other, you need to communicate and watch the room to know if someone else has died with protection on.
Death Loops
It is important to keep in mind that if a playtester dies from an effect such as hypothermia or is drowning, the effect will continue even after a corpse has fallen.
Occasionally a playtester may find themselves caught in a death loop, dying over and over and leaving a very large pile of corpses. If this happens to you, try not to panic. Keep PT protection on and just nudge a liaison or creator for help. There's a good chance someone has already noticed all the death informs.
Resetting your Health with Protection
While testing damage from new weapons and spells in PT, a playtester may find it helpful to use protection to maintain full hit points and avoid the time spent healing.
When protection is turned on, the current hp is saved. This value is restored when you turn protection back off; therefore, by flicking protection off and then on again after being hurt, you can immediately be at full health again quickly and play the victim once more.
Restrictions
Protection is one of the most powerful PT abilities and as such playtesters are expected to use it with great discretion. It should only be used within playtesting unless a playtester has been explicitly told to turn it on outside of PT in order to test something in the game. Using protection outside of playtesting areas and for personal reasons may be considered as cause to revoke playtester status and may result in further penalties.
When a playtester leaves a PT area, he or she should see the message:
"You are now leaving a PT area. Your protection is still on. Your
protection will expire in five minutes."
If a playtester sees this message, but still believes they are within a PT area, they should check with a playtesting executive to confirm that they are still in an area where they can use protection. (In the past, it has been possible to wander out of some areas into the game, so if in doubt, a playtester should always ask.)
