New Character Restoral Policy

[Praefection]

I thought this was interesting. Another plot to lure old customers back?

Starting December 15, 2004, we are announcing a new restoral policy for characters that were permanently lost due to standard game mechanics, regardless of how they were lost (i.e..Retiring/Rerolling or Permanent Death). The policy regarding characters that were lost due to a system error still remain the same. This new policy is to allow customers to have their prized characters they may have lost in the normal play of the game restored at a cost.

For more information about this new policy, FAQ and a website form to fill out if you wish to restore your character, please go to https://www.play.net/gs4/cservice/permarestoral_policy.asp. Any questions that are not answered should be directed to restore@simutronics.com. To those who have passed through the Ebon Gate, we salute you.

[The Cat In The Hat]

$250.00!!

Holy shit, that's expensive...

Yet I'm still tempted...

[Tsa`ah]

Cha CHING

Getting desperate?

OMFG, LEMME KEEP MY PALADIN PLZ, I'VE BEEN SCRIPT HUNTING WITH HIM AND HE WAS THE FIRST PALADIN TO REACH LORDSHIP!!

SIMU, SIMU, SIMU, THANKS FOR THE EXTRA CHARACTER SLOT AS WAS OBVIOUS TO MAKE THESE PALADINS, I AM NOW OBLIGED TO FORK OVER LUMPSUM OF ELECTRONIC MONEY THANKS TO YOUR WONDERFUL ... fucking, evil, horrible, rancid, disgusting, hanous, devilish scheme.

Thanks :)

[Drew]

"
Earliest date of eligible restorations is 3/6/2000. No earlier restorations can be done due to a change in backup equipment/software as of 3/5/2000.
"


Worthless

[Jorddyn]

So, what happens if there is already a character sporting the name of the character we retired? I rerolled Jorddyn enough times that there should be 2 or three of her sitting in limbo somewhere.

Jorddyn

[Amaron]

ok I had a character go demonic in 2002 with a huge crap load of cool gear ( 6x padded leathers) I rerolled using the same name...


if i get the character back does her locker and all her gear and coins come back too??


Just curious

J

Holy fucking desperation.

- Arkans

Originally posted by Amaron
ok I had a character go demonic in 2002 with a huge crap load of cool gear ( 6x padded leathers) I rerolled using the same name...


if i get the character back does her locker and all her gear and coins come back too??


Just curious

J


yes

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

I seriously wonder why the did this... do they get a shitload of requests for it or something?

[Mistomeer]

They're hurting for money would be my guess.

[Toxicvixen]

Would anyone spend 250 dollars to get back thier character? I guess it would depend on whether or not I lost a lot of good stuff with the character. Do they restore the stuff too or just the character? I :heart: being cheap.

[Amaron]

Originally posted by lucene

Originally posted by Amaron
ok I had a character go demonic in 2002 with a huge crap load of cool gear ( 6x padded leathers) I rerolled using the same name...


if i get the character back does her locker and all her gear and coins come back too??


Just curious

J


yes


To be honest it is worth more to me to have her back with all her gear than to go on the wave dancer

6x padded double leathers
5x falchion

millions in her account
fully altered from head to toe

she was only train 15, my locker character at that time.

and I love the new her as a ranger

but to get the gear and coins back MIGHT be worth it.

I have never sold coins or items before but selling the coins to pay for the gear.



Do they delete the new character with that name????

shes now a ranger over 20 trains and I like her as such.

J





[Edited on 12-15-2004 by Amaron]

[Mini-Spir]

My guess would be that your new character would be gone if the old character has the same name

[Nakiro]

Desperation at its finest.

[AnticorRifling]

How padded are those 6x doubles?

[Parkbandit]

I would pay $500 to do the opposite to some specific characters.

:D

try this one on for size,

Does this mean that, should we close our accounts for over 90 days, it will cost us that much to restore our current characters?

[Soulpieced]

Well, I imagine anyone who was high level at the time would consider it. Though I really can't think of any grossly high-level characters who went demonic versus stupidly rerolling.

[Keller]

gs is already in the shitter.

Someone just tell them to flush.

[Amaron]

they were exceptional if I remember right....

one reason I was so sad

and I love my character now so no I am not buying the old one back....

I won't give simu more money

And yeah if we are gone for the 30 days will we have to buy the characters back>



that would be dumb considering how many folks have been coming back to check out gs4

j



Yikes

[Edited on 12-15-2004 by Amaron]

[Edited on 12-15-2004 by Amaron]

[Sean]

Originally posted by Soulpieced
Well, I imagine anyone who was high level at the time would consider it. Though I really can't think of any grossly high-level characters who went demonic versus stupidly rerolling.

but it says no matter how they were lost (retire/rerolled)

[Parkbandit]

Originally posted by Soulpieced
Well, I imagine anyone who was high level at the time would consider it. Though I really can't think of any grossly high-level characters who went demonic versus stupidly rerolling.

Rerolling and demonic characters could be restored... although it sucks that it is only post 2000.

[Soulpieced]

Heh, so I could get my warrior back to level 50... meh. I'm sure there are a couple of people out there who could take advantage of it.

[TheRoseLady]

I think that this is a service geared to a small amount of customers, but one that apparently is wanted/needed by a few. I can't see this as being a big money maker for them because the volume wouldn't be there. That's not to say that they won't make anything, but it is nice that they are going to offer this to those who are dying to get an old character back.

I immediately thought of Jesh and another very high level female warrior who retired on a whim.

If I had lost one of my oldest characters in this fashion, I might be inclined to fork out the bucks.

[Pulpit]

The last high level person I can remeber that went demonic was Driikin I think his name was somthing like that anyway he was a ranger ..I am sure there have been others

[Marl]

hell I have had quite a few 20+ train characters go demonic and one 50+ damn spirit death, but most of them were before 2000 so that sucks

[Snapp]

If it weren't so expensive, I'd get back my empath that went demonic (although I think it may have been in 99). $250 is a way too steep though.

[Fengus]

Yeah if it weren't for that 2000 I could get back my ranger I played in AOL times, I bet half the junk I had could be sold for millions. Something as simple as the few 4x heavy crit longswords which IIRC I paid like 50k or so for.

Although I didn't send him demonic until after I checked out GS for a month or so when they first went to the web, what year was that (98?)?


Also wtf is this a move of desperation? I think its just something they get a lot of requests for, I know a few people that requested this after they made the change that you couldn't go demonic anymore.

As for the price, it is either a time consuming process to restore and verify the character and/or they don't want every tom, dick and harry playing their old demonic characters.


[Edited on 12-16-2004 by Fengus]

[BrainSucky]

Like others, I'm curious as to the feasibility of recovering characters that have since been recreated (either through rerolling or starting anew ater going demonic) with the same name.

In the case of someone like Grhim, who went demonic due to an NPC's actions and was told that he would never get his original character back, he has since restarted does not have the levels or items that he had previously. Using him as an example, would Simu recreate the original Grhim? And if so - what would happen to the current one? Would the old one compeltely replace the new, or would it have a new name?

I can see why some might want this service, the steep price notwithstanding, but it is not one that I am interested in personally.

[theotherjohn]

Originally posted by Fengus
Also wtf is this a move of desperation? I think its just something they get a lot of requests for, I know a few people that requested this after they made the change that you couldn't go demonic anymore.
[Edited on 12-16-2004 by Fengus]

I agree.

This is not a move of desperation but outstanding customer service that everyone (myself included) seems to think Simu is lacking.

Now my only question is if Simu is able to tell me who I have available. I bought several famous ice age names just for the name and it would give me something to do to reintroduce them to the game.

[Pallon]

Ironic how, when I tried to get one of my demonic characters back a few years ago, they gave me some song and dance about not turning Gemstone into "the home shopping channel" (exact words)

[Marl]

If you send them an email they will give you a complete list of all characters(permadeath/rolled/rerolled/banned etc) as long as you have acct name and security question.

[MPSorc]

damn, only character i would want back was my very first Omnitrus who went demonic in like November of 99 ha ha ha, no money from me Simu.

[Galleazzo]

You just wait, guys. I bet they do a straight buy within a year. $100 to have a weapon go to 5x, $200 for 6x, 300 for 7x, all the way up to $500 for 10x.

[Shari]

Wow.

Just, wow.

I seriously hope that this doesn't go into effect. The desire to come back with Jesae being a level 28 wizard again would be pretty great.

But on a side note, it is a VERY desperate attempt to get back old players and a nice chunk of change.

[Soulpieced]

If you send them an email they will give you a complete list of all characters(permadeath/rolled/rerolled/banned etc) as long as you have acct name and security question.

.

Someone should ask for that and post the list. I'm mildly curious.

[IntegraC]

>>Someone should ask for that and post the list. I'm mildly curious.

I think what he meant is a complete list of all characters on the account who's ID and security Q you were giving.

[Pulpit]

Just had a crazy thought Didn't someone go demonic or somthing with that Diamond that casted bunch of spells ..See getting something back like this might be worth the 250.00 ..Wonder if that person would do it?

[Speaker]

Originally posted by Pulpit
Just had a crazy thought Didn't someone go demonic or somthing with that Diamond that casted bunch of spells ..See getting something back like this might be worth the 250.00 ..Wonder if that person would do it?

That person will be trying to get a character restoral.

-Speaker

[Drew]

Are we talking about Thingul's diamond?

[AnticorRifling]

Probably.

[Stunseed]

I wonder how long it'll take em to nerf that, too.

[DeV]

If they expanded the option for pre-2000 accounts I *might* have interest in getting my very first character as she's wearing tons of old fluff and ice age gear. I see it as partial desperation and partial attempts at customer service and customer demand. The price is high for those willing to pay so Simu wins again.

[Speaker]

Originally posted by Stunseed
I wonder how long it'll take em to nerf that, too.

I'm not sure why it would be nerfed, there are a lot of unlimmited use items out there. I really don't think it's an overpowering item, but it does do some very cool things.

-Speaker

[Parkbandit]

If I were paying $250 to restore a character of mine for the sole reason to retrieve an item.. I would certainly get some sort of reassurances from Simutronics that they won't nerf said item.

$250 is alot to pay for text.

[Skeeter]

perhaps this heralds the return of Metaboculous?

Originally posted by BrainSucky
In the case of someone like Grhim, who went demonic due to an NPC's actions and was told that he would never get his original character back,

An NPC killed him when he didn't have any deeds left. That does not mean he went demonic due to an NPC's actions. He went demonic because he was walking around with 0 deeds when got killed. He was careless, and unfortunately paid a high price for it.

I'm pretty sure NPC's don't check to see how many deeds a character has before interacting with them.

Either way.. SUCKS 2 BE HIM!11

- Arkans

[Pulpit]

Thought I would post this for anyone who hasn't read this or doesn't play anymore and is just curious..this is taken from the Offical boards

This process is not to be used as a "save game" feature for characters and the cost of it is to deter it from becoming just that. We do not want people to go around offing their characters because they don't like something about them and restoring them willy-nilly. One situation I could see occurring is Character A uses their fixskills and then finds out later they screwed something up and don't really want to wait until their next fixskills nor the standard migration time. All they would need to do is reroll their character and request it restored before they used their fixskills.

The charge also represents the amount of work that goes into the process of restoring a character. It is not a simple procedure and, in many cases, can take reviewing many records and/or character files before finding an appropriate character. That is one of the reasons why this process can take anywhere from two weeks up to a month (although this long will be a rare occasion).


What happens if the "I want to be restored" characters name has already been reassigned?

If the character's name has been reassigned, there are three different things that may occur under this circumstance:

1. If the character with that name is currently upon an account the account owner is responsible for, we can copy over that character file and transfer it onto their current account, if that account is not activated.
2. If they are currently playing the character with that name or do not wish to overwrite that character file, we will work with the account owner to issue the restored character a new name (some exceptions may come into play based upon the character's history).
3. If another customer was able to obtain the character's old name, we will provide the restored character with a new name.

In cases where the customer still owns the primary character name and the character was a known trouble-causing character, a name change request may not be granted. This restoral ability is not intended to be used as a way a trouble-causing character can hide their identity under a new alias.


Most of my idiotic behavior was before 1999. Restoring Celtar from hmm 1997 would be damn nice since all those various metal claidhmores, armors and other items would be back. Ah well, nice idea though and worth the price tag.


The reason we are unable to restore characters prior to March 6, 2000, is because it was that date that we began using new hardware for tape storage. We no longer have the hardware that is able to read the tape storage prior to that date.

Uh, being a packrat can lead to corruption of your character? How do we know if we have too much inventory? How do we prevent it?


* The "too much inventory" portion of that question primarily refers to DragonRealms where it is commonplace for characters to have an excessive number of items on their character. Any character logging out of the system with 500+ items on their character, in any of our games, chances their character may become corrupted. In GemStone IV, this particular problem isn't near as much of a factor as it is within DragonRealms. However, recently mechanics have been implemented in DragonRealms to restrict characters from obtaining over 500 items in most circumstances (but not all).

Hope this clarifies the matter for other people who may have been wondering.

[BrainSucky]

Originally posted by Tea & Strumpets

Originally posted by BrainSucky
In the case of someone like Grhim, who went demonic due to an NPC's actions and was told that he would never get his original character back,

An NPC killed him when he didn't have any deeds left. That does not mean he went demonic due to an NPC's actions. He went demonic because he was walking around with 0 deeds when got killed. He was careless, and unfortunately paid a high price for it.

Oh yeah, it definitely was his fault to not have more deeds. I was just stating that it was an NPC that caused his death wherein he went demonic.

Incidentally, he did have either 1 or 2 deeds at the time--I think it was 2? It was through that bug where if you decay with a very low amount, even if you should have enough to be revived through a decay, you still go demonic. That was what the big uproar by him was about; had he had 0 deeds, that would have been marginally different.

[BrainSucky]

Originally posted by Pulpit
1. If the character with that name is currently upon an account the account owner is responsible for, we can copy over that character file and transfer it onto their current account, if that account is not activated.
2. If they are currently playing the character with that name or do not wish to overwrite that character file, we will work with the account owner to issue the restored character a new name (some exceptions may come into play based upon the character's history).
3. If another customer was able to obtain the character's old name, we will provide the restored character with a new name.


Good to know. Thanks for the clarification.

[Marl]

I am having a same dispute about a rogue of mine...he had 3 deeds, died/then spirit death. should leave him alove with 0 deeds but, he permadied. Trying to get him back now

[Rokkyu]

just for clarification on what exactly happened, I had 6 deeds when I went to the opening of ta'illistim, the NPC killed me 4 times (reason no 1 I was so pissed, he didn't kill me, he deeded me) and then on my 4th decay I got screwed with 2 deeds left.

[Rokkyu]

oh, and to answer the original posters question about me, what happens is you are allowed to choose which character will keep the original name, I chose to have the original character keep the name, and due to a promise a GM made to me a long time ago, I was even able to transfer my feature alters to the old grhim since they would not apply to the new character once his name was changed.

All in all, now that I actually restored, it was definetely worth it, but for over a year I struggled with the fact that I was paying for a simutronics screwup

[Augie]

Holy 2 year bump, Batman!

[Skeeter]

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e321/Bigboy9/lich.jpg