Alts

The alts package adds +alts, which lists the characters on your account: your alts.

• +alts lists every character on your account, and whether each is online.
• +alts <name> lists someone else’s, when they have chosen to let others see them.
• +alts/public on lets others see yours. Until you do, only you and staff can.
• +alts/hide <name> keeps one of your characters off the list others see.

You are	You want to	Read
A player	see your own alts	Your alts
A player	let others see them	Making your list public
A player	keep one alt to yourself	Hiding an alt
A player	see someone else’s	Someone else’s alts
Staff	see any account’s characters	For staff
Staff	install it	Running the package

In the game, +help alts has the same commands in short form, and +help alts staff the staff part.

Your alts

+alts lists every character on your account, whether each is online, and whether it is on your public list:

> +alts
═════════════════════════════════╡ Your alts ╞════════════════════════════════
Name                                                       Online  Public list
Ariel                                                      online  -
Brand                                                      online  -
Cass                                                       -       -
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Your list is private: +alts/public on makes it public · +alts/hide <name>
keeps one off it
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

You see all of them, from any of your characters, whatever you have chosen to show others. +alts <name> with the name of one of your own characters shows this same list.

A character shows as online only when you could already see it connected in WHO, so a character that is connected but hidden from WHO shows -.

A character that is on no account has no alts, and +alts says so.

Making your list public

Your list is private until you make it public. Asked about a character whose list is private, +alts says only that:

+alts/public on lets anyone list your alts with +alts <name>:

> +alts/public on
[ALTS] Done: Your alts are public: anyone can list them with +alts <name>. +alts/hide <name> keeps one off the list.

+alts/public off makes the list private again, so only you and staff see it. +alts/public on its own says which it is now.

The choice is for your whole account, not one character. You can make it from any of your characters, and a character added to your account later is listed too. A new account’s list is private.

Hiding an alt

+alts/hide <name> keeps one of your characters off your public list. The rest stay on it:

> +alts/hide Cass
[ALTS] Done: Cass is off your public list. Only you and staff see it.

+alts/unhide <name> puts it back. You can hide only a character on your own account.

A hidden character is never linked to your others: anyone who asks about it is told its alts are private, exactly as if your whole list were.

When a character leaves your account, the account forgets whether it was hidden. If it ever comes back, it is on your public list again until you hide it.

Someone else’s alts

+alts <name> lists another player’s alts when their list is public and the character you named is on it. The character you asked about is not listed again, and a hidden one is left out:

> +alts Ariel
═══════════════════════════════╡ Alts of Ariel ╞══════════════════════════════
Name                                                                    Online
Brand                                                                   online
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+alts lists your own
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
> +alts Cass
[ALTS] Cass's alts are private.

You are given the same sentence, <name>'s alts are private., when:

• that player’s list is private;
• that character is hidden;
• that character is on no account.

So +alts never tells you how many alts someone has, whether they have any, or which of these is the reason.

A player whose list is public but who hid every other character is said to list no other characters.

For staff

Staff with the players.view permission see every character on an account with +alts <name>, whatever the account chose. Hidden characters are marked, and the footer names the account and says whether its list is public:

> +alts Ariel
═══════════════════════════════╡ Alts of Ariel ╞══════════════════════════════
Name                                                       Online  Public list
Ariel                                                      online  listed
Brand                                                      online  listed
Cass                                                       -       hidden
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Account ariel-plays · its list is public · staff see every character
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Asked about a character on no account, staff are told so.

Note

players.view is the permission the account() and accountchars() functions check. Wizards hold it. See @permission for giving it to another role.

Running the package

Installing

The alts package ships with the server but is not installed on a new game. An administrator installs it from the portal:

1. Open Packages in the admin area and choose Browse.
2. Install alts. It needs plus-help, which a new game already has, and an event handler, which is chosen in first-run setup.

It adds the command +alts for everyone. It is a game command, which is matched before softcode $-commands, so a +alts your game already has in softcode stops running once the package is in. Nothing a player types after +alts is evaluated.

It makes one object in the master room, Alts, which runs the command. Inside it are the Alts Store, which keeps each account’s choices, and the object holding its +help topics. It also adds an attribute to the event handler, so that a character leaving an account is forgotten as hidden.

See Softcode Packages for how installing, upgrading and rolling back work.

Where the choices are kept

Each account’s choices are kept on the Alts Store, by account, never on a character, so a choice made from one character holds for all of them:

Attribute	What it is
ACCOUNT`<key>`PUBLIC	1 when the account’s list is public. Unset is private.
ACCOUNT`<key>`HIDDEN`<character>	One for each character the account hid.

<key> is the account’s id, as account() gives it, with / and : written as _.