Active/Inactive Character Slots

[Vhab]

You will not be able do deactivate characters.
This feature is designed to deal with character overflow after server merge, not to hot-swap available character slots.

[Liwa]

.......

Or, is it intended that once we Activate a toon after migration to the new server it is permanent?

Kinnik

You will not be able do deactivate characters.
This feature is designed to deal with character overflow after server merge, not to hot-swap available character slots.

I see ... so the answer is that activation is permanent ... once we have activated a toon on the new server.

Thank you for the clarification Vhab, even if it wasn't my first choice, it is nice to know in advance.

Kinnik

[Vhab]

For clarity i will add, after server merge all your chars will be inactive again.
Leaving characters inactive or activating them now will not affect you after server merge.

[Ekarona]

For clarity i will add, after server merge all your chars will be inactive again.
Leaving characters inactive or activating them now will not affect you after server merge.

So you are just testing the stuff out before rolling the merge out...

Pretty much what I expected from this stuff.


Suggestion: In cases like this you could communicate better.

[Vhab]

So you are just testing the stuff out before rolling the merge out...

Pretty much what I expected from this stuff.


Suggestion: In cases like this you could communicate better.

Actually, it's not just testing.
We're deploying prerequisites for the server merge.
We need these changes on live to make the merge work the way we want it to

[Byste]

..So what I'm (mis)understanding here us that after the merge, we get all our toons (up to 16) on one dimension, all made inactive. Then we have to pick no more of 8 of them to use, and we can't deactivate, so basically we get to just pick 8 characters we want to keep and the rest might as well be deleted, unless we delete an active character.

....? :C Disappointing.

[Lazy]

..So what I'm (mis)understanding here us that after the merge, we get all our toons (up to 16) on one dimension, all made inactive. Then we have to pick no more of 8 of them to use, and we can't deactivate, so basically we get to just pick 8 characters we want to keep and the rest might as well be deleted, unless we delete an active character.

....? :C Disappointing.

they're throwing in some free slots to existing customers. they haven't said how many but i'd like to assume it'll be closer to 4 than to 1.

[orochi3]

How many active characters can we get after server merge?
8 or 16?

[Ekarona]

How many active characters can we get after server merge?
8 or 16?

More than 8 less than 24... ;D

[Gorathon]

..So what I'm (mis)understanding here us that after the merge, we get all our toons (up to 16) on one dimension, all made inactive. Then we have to pick no more of 8 of them to use, and we can't deactivate, so basically we get to just pick 8 characters we want to keep and the rest might as well be deleted, unless we delete an active character.

....? :C Disappointing.

I think (and my record shows that I have been wrong more than 100% of the time) that once your initial set of slots are filled with recently-activated toons you'll need to start paying for a second account in order to access the remaining toons.

/greet

[Dagget]

My opinion is that paying subscribers will get at least 1 bonus slot either after the merge or (more likely) after new starter area arrives to allow vets with 8 full slots to have a chance to run thru the new starter material w/o deleting a char. They will also undoubtedly allow for some number of additional slots you can buy (ala AoC) thru funcom points and/or vet points.

[Ophiuchus]

Query on how this'll work:

After the merge I pick my 8 (or whatever it is subscribers get) actives, leaving some inactives. Then further down the line I delete one of those Active characters, is that 'slot' still considered Active by default? That is, if I want to move an Inactive into that now-vacant character 'slot', can that be done or once a slot is Active it'll always be Active no matter what character is rolled in it? (Yes, I have a lot of characters on both servers...)

[Vhab]

Query on how this'll work:

After the merge I pick my 8 (or whatever it is subscribers get) actives, leaving some inactives. Then further down the line I delete one of those Active characters, is that 'slot' still considered Active by default? That is, if I want to move an Inactive into that now-vacant character 'slot', can that be done or once a slot is Active it'll always be Active no matter what character is rolled in it? (Yes, I have a lot of characters on both servers...)

If you have consumed all active slots, deleting an active character will indeed free up a slot.
This will allow you to activate a previously inactive character.

[Ophiuchus]

If you have consumed all active slots, deleting an active character will indeed free up a slot.
This will allow you to activate a previously inactive character.

Cheers!

[Liwa]

..So what I'm (mis)understanding here us that after the merge, we get all our toons (up to 16) on one dimension, all made inactive. Then we have to pick no more of 8 of them to use, and we can't deactivate, so basically we get to just pick 8 characters we want to keep and the rest might as well be deleted, unless we delete an active character.

....? :C Disappointing.

they're throwing in some free slots to existing customers. they haven't said how many but i'd like to assume it'll be closer to 4 than to 1.

I think (and my record shows that I have been wrong more than 100% of the time) that once your initial set of slots are filled with recently-activated toons you'll need to start paying for a second account in order to access the remaining toons.

/greet

My opinion is that paying subscribers will get at least 1 bonus slot either after the merge or (more likely) after new starter area arrives to allow vets with 8 full slots to have a chance to run thru the new starter material w/o deleting a char. They will also undoubtedly allow for some number of additional slots you can buy (ala AoC) thru funcom points and/or vet points.

If you have consumed all active slots, deleting an active character will indeed free up a slot.
This will allow you to activate a previously inactive character.

I don't recall which thread I saw it in, but there were FC comments to the effect that subscribers (paid accounts) would get some additional toon slots beyond the 8 basic slots, that more would be available thru some vague reference to a future pkg/promotion, and after that more slots could be purchased thru FC paid points.

What has not been mentioned as far as I know, is what if the toon you want to keep/activate is on another of your linked/merged accounts? Will there be a period of time after the migration that we can transfer toons between linked/merged accounts for free? IE activate a toon across accounts? Are you considering allowing us to de-activate an active toon in the future for a fee, so that we can activate a different toon without deleting one?

Kinnik

[Ilaliya]

I don't recall which thread I saw it in, but there were FC comments to the effect that subscribers (paid accounts) would get some additional toon slots beyond the 8 basic slots, that more would be available thru some vague reference to a future pkg/promotion, and after that more slots could be purchased thru FC paid points.

Yep, the post you are referring to is here

So your memory is pretty correct

What has not been mentioned as far as I know, is what if the toon you want to keep/activate is on another of your linked/merged accounts? Will there be a period of time after the migration that we can transfer toons between linked/merged accounts for free? IE activate a toon across accounts?

There probably won't be a period of time where we let unlimited transfers happen for free. We will be looking into how we can allow a specific (limited) number of transfers to happen for free. But nothing has been decided here yet.

Are you considering allowing us to de-activate an active toon in the future for a fee, so that we can activate a different toon without deleting one?

You will not be able do deactivate characters.
This feature is designed to deal with character overflow after server merge, not to hot-swap available character slots.

This actually came up last week when we were talking about it.

Obviously, the easier solution is to obtain a new character slot (either through a promotion, or paid service)... as you point out, we could sell de-activating for a fraction of the price... for example, if you want to put a character on ice for awhile. But from a player's standpoint it seems like it would have to be really cheap when compared to the price of a character slot to be worthwhile. Because the character slot is an upgrade that you'll always have. Adding the functionality in the future to de-activate a character as a paid service is entirely possible in code, but it's just work on our end, and obviously there's no point in doing extra work if we don't see much interest in the functionality. When the server migration happens, all the characters will be set to inactive anyway, so you'll get to pick which ones you want to make active.

Do you have a specific scenario in mind?

[Dagget]

They probably are hoping to activate/deactivate chars in a given slot for free, rotating a large array of chars on a single paid account and thus saving paying for two active accounts.

[Lazy]

So your memory is pretty correct

no yours!

[Utopian]

Yep, the post you are referring to is here

So your memory is pretty correct



There probably won't be a period of time where we let unlimited transfers happen for free. We will be looking into how we can allow a specific (limited) number of transfers to happen for free. But nothing has been decided here yet.





This actually came up last week when we were talking about it.

Obviously, the easier solution is to obtain a new character slot (either through a promotion, or paid service)... as you point out, we could sell de-activating for a fraction of the price... for example, if you want to put a character on ice for awhile. But from a player's standpoint it seems like it would have to be really cheap when compared to the price of a character slot to be worthwhile. Because the character slot is an upgrade that you'll always have. Adding the functionality in the future to de-activate a character as a paid service is entirely possible in code, but it's just work on our end, and obviously there's no point in doing extra work if we don't see much interest in the functionality. When the server migration happens, all the characters will be set to inactive anyway, so you'll get to pick which ones you want to make active.

Do you have a specific scenario in mind?

I guess a tangent question -

Has there been any thought about allowing those of us with multiple linked accounts to be able to log toons from a "pool" of toons equal to the number of paid accounts.

Example - I have 4 accounts and want to log a set of 4 toons, but currently 2 are on the same account. Now I have to pay to move toons around on my linked accounts. What I would like would be to have my pool of 32 toons and be able to pick any 4 to log and play.

[orochi3]

thanks for clearing it up Funcom, Good to know none of our characters get permanently deleted.