We have instituted an system where by FCs can be temped by players. Just a few of the possible reasons for utilizing this system include:
- Trying out a character you know you won't want to have a long term commitment to.
- Temping a FC to help out or drive a plot.
- Testing out a FC to see if you like the character before applying for them permanently.
But really, it's up to you. If you are already a player here (not a guest), and there is a FC you would like to RP for a while, and that FC is allowed to be temped, then feel free to take advantage of the automated FC temping system.
With temping comes responsibilities! It is expected that you will RP the character ICly to the best of your abilities. If you don't think you can portray the character in a way that is faithful to the source material, it's better that you don't temp them. While we aren't sticklers for copying the source material exactly, temping FCs is not an opportunity to introduce the game to your wild and unorthodox interpretation of some FC. Respect the history/personality of the character. If we find a player has trouble handling this responsibility, we will block individuals from being able to use the FC Temping system.
Also, be respectful to played characters that may have some history with the FC you are temping. Try not to be disruptive with any past RP that might have been established between currently played characters and available FCs. This is just generally common courtesy, but it's especially important to be careful in the case of picking up a FC for only a short term duration.
There are some additional guidelines and notes to take note of:
- Once the character has gone 4 weeks without RPing, they will be automatically dropped. No email or warning will be provided.
- Temped FCs are not allowed in OOC fights. So no slumming it on the FI with them.
- Temped FCs do not count toward your Alt Limits at all. But you can only have one FC temped at a time.
- Temped FCs can be applied out from under you. They won't show up on the Avail lists while temped, but if someone submits an app for them, the Temp will be dropped and then the character given to the applicant.
- If a character is eligible to be temped, but is currently filled, it cannot be temped, even if that character has idled to the point of being available for applications.
- There is a 48h cooldown between requesting temps. That means once you successfully request a temp, you can't request another for 48 hours.
- AP earned on temps will be distributed to your global AP pool, and may be spent on advancing any of your characters.
To see a list of the characters available for temp, enter:
templist
To request to temp a FC, simply enter:
requesttemp <fc name>
If the FC is available and their build is up to date and you are cleared for temping, the request will go through and you will be given the password.
If the FC's build is out of date, you will not be able to temp them. Let staff know you are interested in temping the character, ideally via @mail to GLadOS, Crow, and Wheatley, and when one of us has a chance, we will update the build and get back to you. Even if you don't contact us, we will get a note about someone being interested in a FC that is out of date, so we might update the build on our own anyway.
Right NOW, most of the builds are going to be out of date due to the recent change in trait counts. As such, for a while, you should expect to get told that the build is out of date. Please just send us a @mail and we'll fix them as soon as we can.
To drop a Temp FC, just type:
droptemp
while logged in on the character. It will drop the character, making it available to others for temping, and disconnect you.
As far as how FCs were determined to be temped or not, it was mostly a rough judgement of the following considerations: Ratio of the character, how many ties the character had, how extensively the character has been RP'd in the past. The higher the ratio, the more IC ties that existed, or the more the character was extensively RP'd at some point (past or current), the less likely that character was to be added to the list of possible temps.
This list is subject to change at any time, and staff reserves the right to drop a temp FC from someone for any reason. We are open to discussing adding/removing FCs from the list of available temps, but for now, I tried to be fairly flexible about it.
Characters that are actively being played as a Temp FC will have [Temp Character] show up in their Finger profile.