Wednesday, August 19, 2009

RR Tutorial : Autolock plugin

Hello there, we are going to dwell into another one of the most complete and versatile plugins in the RR suite : the Autolock plugin. It is also part of the standard issue, so every restraint has one.

You have already heard about normal keys, RealKeys (I hope), release timers, long timers, RL timers etc etc... yes that's beginning to be a lot of concepts to learn. The Autolock uses all these concepts and more, so this is complex stuff. Very few people grasp all its subtleties, so don't be ashamed if you master only 25% of its capabilities. Bear with me, this tutorial is going to be very long.

The primary purpose of the Autolock plugin is very simple : your victim is free to roam around, unrestrained, and you want her restraints to suddenly lock her down and good, automatically, preferably at the worst moment, while you're not around. The Autolock plugin is a way to program your restraint in advance and to start a countdown, transforming your victim into some kind of "human bomb". It certainly feels that way from her point of view anyway !

The best way to see this is to compare it to the release timer : the release timer is the time spent after being locked, that unlocks the restraints after it expires, while the Autolock counts the time to spend before locking, and executes all kinds of things when it reaches zero. I will often say things like "when the autolock triggers", this just means "once the countdown is finished and the Autolock plugin must execute what it has been programmed to do".


That being said... well let's just look at the Autolock menu. I click on my cuffs and go to Plugins > Autolock :



If I press "More...." I get a second page :



(It's better to show both pages now because they are complimentary)

Whoa. Where to start ? These two pages show a lot of informations so please bear with me while I walk you through them all. Let's start with the text on the menus, before going to the buttons. Both menus show exactly the same text by the way.

These menus show the "next pose" (in other words which lock will be chosen if the autolock triggers in the cuffs) and who will get the key when it locks. For example, "2 Hnd back by Marine Kelley" would mean "these cuffs will chain themselves to the 2 Hnd back pose if the autolock triggers, and Marine Kelley would be given the key when it does". The key could also be made to stay on the cuffs, in which case it would show "keys avail.". This pose depends on the poses the cuffs know, it would be different on straps, ropes etc. Oh speaking of ropes, Autolock there is called "Autotie" because some terms change and there is no key on the ropes, but the principle and the buttons are the same. Just so you're not confused.

Then they show the time to wait before the autolock triggers, after "Lock in". It also mentions whether the time is counted only while the future captive is online ("(SL)"), or all the time even while offline ("(RL)"), and whether it is running or paused. Oh, and if the Long Time plugin has been set to hide the timers, then "Lock in" will not show the time either.

The next line shows the timer that will be set on the cuffs once the autolock triggers. Once again, if the Long Time plugin has been set to hide the timers, this line will be scrambled as well.

Finally, in the case of arms restraints, there are a "Block" and a "Mouselook" settings (they don't make sense for other kinds of restraints, and you may ignore them). These settings may be set to "Yes", "No" or "Default". I recommend leaving them to Default. This means that depending on the pose you chose, the captive will be blocked/mouselooked or not, and the Autolock will not mess with these settings. If you set them to "Yes" or "No", then they will override whatever block/mouselook toggle the restraint was set to for this particular pose (and it will stick, exactly like if you had clicked on "Block"/"Mouselook" yourself on the main page of the restraint menu). Ok that's complicated. Leave that to "Default" and don't worry about the rest.


Now that you know about the internals of the Autolock (which are all displayed on the text we've just reviewed), let's play with the buttons.

On the first page of the plugin, you can see the "More..." button that makes you go straight to page 2, "Main..." that brings you back to the main menu of the restraint, and "Run"/"Pause" to start/stop the countdown. Let's say I have not changed anything to the Autolock yet, it is still brand new. So it should show the first pose ("1 Hnd front"), timers at 0:0:0, SL time, the keys will be kept (because of the "by Marine Kelley" text) and I will be blocked/mouselooked according to whatever I set "1 Hnd front" to do in the first place ("Block : Default, Mouselook : Default"). So far so good. That "Run" button is just begging to be pressed, y'know... it's like... I can't help myself... I just can't... resist...

... I press "Run".

"Device autolocking in 1 minute. Last warning, get ready..."

Eek ! What happened ?! Hey where are all the buttons ? All I see now is "Ok", "Copy/Paste" and an empty button ? And I read "*** Autolock running, no access for the wearer."... the wearer is me, right ? Autolock is running... well duh, I just pressed "Run" ! How long is it going to take before it locks, I didn't even set a countdown, will it run indefini --

"Police Handcuffs 1.16 (RW) (r forearm) automatic lock triggered"
"Police Handcuffs 1.16 (RW) (r forearm) has been locked by Marine Kelley (type 1 Hnd front)"

And an IM from the cuffs to me, because I was the keyholder when they locked :
"Police Handcuffs 1.16 (RW) (r forearm) automatic lock triggered (Type: 1 Hnd front, Time: 0:0:0, Keys: Kept, Block: DEFAULT, ML: DEFAULT)"


Ok... that's not funny. Let me review what happened while I unlock my cuffs. I can because I have the key and no timer is set (phew !). So, I pressed "Run", which immediately started the countdown. As no initial countdown was set, it set it to 70 seconds automatically so I could get a warning 60 seconds before it triggered. It also hid all the informations from me, for self-bondage purposes, y'know. I mean, I could have unworn the cuffs (since they were not locked), but the countdown timer would have resumed itself as soon as I worn them again later anyway, and I had no option to stop it. Oh and about the warning... I would not have gotten any if the timers were hidden thanks to the Long Time plugin (that's a very useful thing to know when you want to surprise your captive). You may have noticed the "Copy/Paste" button too but I will not talk about it now, it is advanced stuff.

Back to the buttons. Yes I will leave that "Run" button alone this time. On the second row are perhaps the most important buttons to make the Autolock plugin work, after "Run" : the countdown ! You can reset it with "Clear", or add time to it by pressing "Delay +30mn" or "Delay +3h". "Delay" is a synonym for "countdown", but is shorter. Just remember that these buttons set the time to wait before the autolock triggers. Use them to set the countdown you want, then press "Run" and you are guaranteed the victim will get locked eventually.

The two top rows are the actual poses, which vary depending on the restraint you use. They are always equal to the poses you see on the main menu of the restraint. In our case "1 Hnd front" and "2 Hnd back".


Let's go to page 2, which bears even more options ! If you only use page 1, you can have your captive locked down eventually and you'd get the key. She would just be squirming somewhere, anxiously waiting for you to pick her up. But page 2 is where the fun is. Let's review its buttons too.

The bottom row allows you to go back to page 1, or to go directly to the main page of the cuffs, or to switch between "online time only" or "calendar time" for the countdown timer. For instance if the time is 6 pm and you want your captive to be ready for you before you come back from work tomorrow at around 6 pm, just set a 24 hours countdown (delay) and set it to "RL" with this button. Or maybe only 21 hours, so she has time to "bake" a little before you come back. Hehe.

The second row from the bottom lets you add a random delay between half an hour and two hours with the "Del +1/2h-2h" button, or a random additional time within the same interval to the release timer with the "+1/2h-2h" button, or to choose to leave the keys on or to keep them once the autolock triggers. You could, after all, decide to set a long release timer on your captive's cuffs and to leave the keys on, so that anyone can play with her ! Personally I always keep the keys.

The second row from the top lets you add time to the release timer. Notice the buttons are exactly the same as on the main page of the cuffs : "No timer", "+30 mn", "+3 h", and they act exactly the same, except that they don't add time to the release timer right now, they program the plugin to add time to the release timer after the autolock triggers (after the countdown is expired).

The top row lets you choose whether the captive will be Blocked, forced to stay in Mouselook (leave both to Default, that's safer), or to uh... "Copy/Paste".


Before I talk about "Copy/Paste", let me recap this all by giving you an example. This is a tutorial after all, not a user manual.

I take the keys to my cuffs (it's important that I am the keyholder now, because I want to show you a little something later). I go to page 1 and set a delay of one hour by pressing "Delay +30mn" twice (I can check that countdown on the "Lock in" entry). Right now I could wait for hours, the plugin would not fire the autolock because it is "(Paused)". I must press "Run" to start it. But before, let me choose the pose (I want my hands cuffed behind my back this time, so I press "2 Hnd back"). Then, I go to page 2 by pressing "More..." and add time to the release timer, so that once it triggers I will not be able to free myself anymore until that timer expires too. Therefore I press "+30 mn" once. I think I'm all set, that was short. Going back to page 1, I press... "Run".


Immediately you can notice my menu has changed again to that stupid "you can't do anything" page. At least it has the decency to tell me that one hour will pass before it locks me down. Nya nya nya. I'm so screwed !


I also hear my cuffs saying things to me...
"Device autolocking in 1 hour."

Then nothing. 30 minutes pass...
"Device autolocking in 30 minutes."

"Device autolocking in 15 minutes. Think about finishing what you're doing before getting restrained..."
"Device autolocking in 5 minutes. Time to pack your things up and go to a safe place..."
"Device autolocking in 2 minutes. Make sure you're somewhere safe."
Ok I'm getting anxious now...
"Device autolocking in 1 minute. Last warning, get ready..."
/me gulps.

And finally...

"Police Handcuffs 1.16 (RW) (r forearm) automatic lock triggered"
"Police Handcuffs 1.16 (RW) (r forearm) has been locked by Marine Kelley (type 2 Hnd back)"

And I get an IM from the cuffs on top of it, because I was the keyholder when they locked, a short report to tell me everything went according to the plan :
"Police Handcuffs 1.16 (RW) (r forearm) automatic lock triggered (Type: 2 Hnd back, Time: 0:30:0, Keys: Kept, Block: DEFAULT, ML: DEFAULT)"

Sooo... my hands are now cuffed behind my back, I am blocked (because the "2 Hnd back" pose is a blocking one and the Autolock was told to leave that setting alone), and a timer of 30 minutes is running. Everything went according to the plan indeed !

I'd like to point out that if my cuffs were already locked at that time, then the Autolock would still have worked, and would have added half an hour to whatever their timer was set to at that time. Remember the Autolock adds time to the release timer when it fires, it never reset it. This is handy to make your captive believe her cuffs are going to stay, then to eventually set a timer to them. You could even simulate the RL security plugin by setting an autolock that counts calendar time ("RL" button), leaves the keys on and does not set any timer. There are a lot of wicked things you can do with an Autolock, your imagination will help you here.


One last thing, I wish to explain how the "Copy/Paste" button works. This is very advanced stuff but can save you a lot of time if your captive wears a lot of restraints. It can also screw a game up royally so you have to be careful.

In short, what it does is export its settings to other RR products worn by the same avatar. With conditions and limitations. When you hit "Copy/Paste", every other restraint that the captive is wearing and that satisfies to the following conditions :

* Its key must be held by the same keyholder
* It must not be running

... will have the following settings replaced by what was exported :

* Whether the key will be kept or left available
* The countdown
* Whether the countdown is online time or RL time
* The release timer
* The state Running/Paused (so it can be set to Running but not be paused that way)

Please note that it will not replace the pose (which would not make sense anyway, since different restraints do not share the same poses), nor the Block/Mouselook settings (for the same reason). This is very important to remember : take the key and choose the pose on every single restraint first, then choose one of the restraints to copy/paste from. The restraints you don't hold the key of will be ruled out from the copy/paste action. Which may be a good thing.

For example, I wear my Police Legirons and I change the pose on their own Autolock to "Hogtie". I take their key and the ones of my handcuffs ! This is one step to not forget ! I need both keys or the Copy/Paste action will not work. Read this twice.

Then I go to the Autolock plugin of my handcuffs and set it to the same settings as before : one hour countdown, half an hour before release, keys kept, pose "2 Hnd back". Then I hit "Run". I now get that little page telling me I can't do anything, but at least I can still "Copy/Paste", so I press that button. What happens ? As I am the keyholder of both restraints, the legirons accept the export and change their settings, and therefore start their own Autolock as well. I even get a confirmation :

"Police Legirons 1.16 (RA) (r lower leg) : Autolock updated [Type: Hogtie, Time: 0:30:0, Keys: Kept, Block: DEFAULT, ML: DEFAULT]"

I could confirm this on the Autolock page of the legirons as well. Check it is running if you like. And yes the Block and Mouselook settings make no sense on legs restraints, ignore them.


You already guess the outcome... In exactly one hour I will be squirming hogtied on the floor where I stand. There is nothing I can do to avoid it now. Isn't that a wonderful feeling ? *g*


Have fun !
Marine