New PChest System FAQ

Post by **BrunoKnotslinger** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:09 am

Well, not really a FAQ since nobody's really asked questions about it yet since it just now went fully live today, even though it's been in place on one of the Town Hall chests for months. But I'm creating this thread as a place for you to ask questions and receive answers. I'm also going to try and anticipate a few questions and provide answers to them. Perhaps this should be called a SAQ (Seldom Asked Questions)... Anyway...

Q: What exactly are the little icons?

A: The process is simple. The icons are actually containers, just like a bag or box. Except the system allows these special containers (and only these containers) to contain items while inside the pchest. You put a stackable into the pchest, it creates one of these special containers and places the stackable into the special container. You take one of these special containers out of the pchest, and the stackable inside of it gets placed into your inventory and the special container gets destroyed.

Q: Why do they all look the same?

A: This is the biggest drawback of the system. All gems look like Greenstones. All scrolls look like blank scroll paper. And so on... Meaning you have to scroll over them with your mouse and read the name to know what each one is. The reason they all look the same is quite simply because it would have required the creation of dozens of new objects to create more varied appearances (instead of the 12 created). Not only that, but the code would have been much more clunky.

Q: Do stackables combine inside the pchest?

A: No. Remember, while in the pchest, they are not a stackable. They're containers. To combine stacks, you must put them into your inventory. They will combine there (or you'll need to combine them yourself), and then you can place them back into the chest.

Q: Why do I see a "greyed out" version of the stackable I just tried to put into my pchest?"

A: It's a side-effect that comes about when trying to destroy an item that's inside a placeable. The engine leaves an "after image". It's normal.

Q: What happens if the stackables aren't "converted" when I put them into, or take them out of, my pchest?

A: The most likely answer is that you've used your pchest a lot recently and/or it was used during a time of heavy lag. This is actually a good way to detect that your pchest has stopped working properly and things you're putting into it probably aren't getting written to the database. (Which is something that would have happened regardless of this system being in place or not.) STOP USING IT UNTIL THE NEXT REBOOT. This leads to the next question...

Q: What happens if I take one of these nifty new special containers out of the pchest, and the stackable doesn't automagically appear in my inventory and instead I have the nifty new special container in my inventory?

A: Simple. You open the container and remove the stackable yourself. Then you destroy the special container. It is an OOC object and you will be punished if you're caught carrying them around. Furthermore, be very careful in using your pchest until the next reboot. It might just be a fluke, but it's more likely it's an indication that your pchest has stopped working properly.

Q: This system sucks and is totally annoying. Can my pchest be put back the way it was?

A: No. The purpose of this system is to avoid the single biggest annoyance there is with pchests for the teams of every single world in CoPaP: Duping. It's as simple as that. As an added bonus, your two-square stackables will now only take up one square. Before, your pchest could hold a total of 3500 potions or 3750 healing kits (if that's all it contained). Now it has a capacity of 8758 potions and healing kits. It is not a perfect solution, but it is one that we feel is a livable solution with more benefits than drawbacks for all involved.

Please... ask any questions you have here. If you discover an exploit or a problem with the system, PM me.

~ B