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EQ2: Returning Players Grandfathered Characters
Nadia
Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
mentioned elsewhere but here it is in detail
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/08/everquest-ii-grandfathers-in-established-characters/
http://eq2wire.com/2011/12/08/returning-players-grandfathered-characters/
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=-1&topic_id=510914#5676241
Hi, folks,
We’ve been listening to you since we launched the Free-to-Play service across all servers. One of the most frequent issues is from folks that used to play EQII Live and are now coming back to the Silver membership level and becoming very confused because they’ve never played under those restrictions. “Why can’t I play my characters? Why are they locked?”
Of course, the reason is because those players are returning to a Silver membership (which is free of charge) and those older characters are often locked behind the Silver membership race/class restrictions. There are two easy ways to get around those restrictions: Upgrade to Gold, or buy the race/class packs.
But, we don’t really want to force those decisions on returning players. It’s not a fun experience to come back to something that seemed exciting (F2P) and then get hit with a bill as soon as you arrive, just for the privelege of using your current characters.
So here’s what we’re going to do.
*Every* character that was created before 12/06/2011 at 12:01 am will be grandfathered in without race or class restriction. This means that regardless of your membership level, you will be able to play any character created before 12/6 without paying for race- or class-pack unlocks.
For any player that previously subscribed to EQII Live servers, or as a Gold or Platinum member on EQ2X, we will also refund all the class/race pack purchases made after 12/06/2011 at 12:01 am and before the time of this posting (12/08/2011, 4:30pm) so that no one loses any SC due to this change.
Of course, this doesn’t affect new characters created from now onward. If you are playing at Silver or Free membership levels and want to create a *new* character, you’ll still be subject to the regular membership class and race restrictions.
We think this should make a lot of folks happy and we’ll get this done as soon as humanly possible, either today, or first thing tomorrow.
See you in-game! Enjoy!
Comments
I am shocked that SOE did the right thing! Really good move by them. This might be the first positive thing I've had to say about them in 3 years.
I'm off to take a cruise with my Arasai Necromancer
I'm still in disbelief. I made an arasai coercer back in May and had a lot of fun with it. I was almost ready to buy the race pack.
Humm ok, so I wanted to check my account and reinstalled EQ2. To my surprise all my characters show as locked, including the characters I made on the EQ2X server when that launched about a year ago.
Anyone has an idea?
There doing there hotfix later today. Just sit tight and they will be unlocked soon.
Oh crap, I really, truly never expected this...so I ended up deleting my characters from years ago in disgust.
Feel burned now, I would have kept them if I had known this.
Good move by SoE I just wish I had of known before ><
OK thank you. *Sitting tight*
I would try contacting SoE, there seems to be more people having done the same thing as you to free up slots. They just might undo this.
Wow, Smed actually did the right thing and realized he was upsetting many vets...
Great move, I wasn't sure how they were thinking before, they could have lost so many faithful players on a stupid decision like that.
Wow..
Me love SOE?
Long time?
What the..?
Fair wins? Well crap I'm buying 20 bucks of points just for the fun of it now.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
I actually think that that is a rather common opinion.
The vets might have been turned off otherwise, if you just get them to play a while they will buy stuff but when you change a model it is a typical place where people might just quit instead.
That's how the thinking should've been indeed. I mean I didn't play LotRO until it was F2P so I found some ways to pay and play the game that was a bargain for me. So I by passed any raw dealings there.
BUT.. COH launched and basically I unlocked a toon I felt was my second main, but having paid for COH then COV then Going Rogue I wasn't inclined to pay the cash needed to unlock my Mastermind that I feel had been "purchased" a few times over prior. So I've uninstalled it for the last time. No hard feelings, just was basically done with the game anyway and I'll merrily check out COH2 whenever it shows up.
So EQ2 does what I didn't expect, but I'll admit wanted them to do, and there's stuff in their shop I'd buy. Probably will do so now.
The hostage model never felt right. Glad they responded positively rather than mockingly to the feedback.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
I am *stunned* by this, I just cannot believe it . My absolute distain for SOE may have just eased a little.
.....naw.
goes into effect with todays hotfix
The US Servers will come down on December 9, 2011 , at 7:00 am PST for a hotfix. The expected downtime is one hour.
patch notes
http://eq2wire.com/2011/12/08/12243/
EQ2 fan sites
grandfathered charaters . so my toons are now unlocked but still can not use them i get a message saying i dont have the mystic pack or the necro pack.
Good move. Didn't expect all characters to be unlocked like that, though.
Now I have to figure out the issue as to why none of my old characters are showing up.
Correct me if Im wrong though, dont we still have to buy the equipment, spell upgrades, and bag slots? Right?
Just logged into the game. Four characters were unlocked, the rest needs to be bought per race and/or class. Bags will be locked, bankslots locked, fabled and legendary items, i believe the heroic AA tree is locked.
So yeah it's either paying monthly fee, or pay quite a hefty bill this one time. But.... I'm sure they will come up with more stuff to "enhance" your gameplay as we move along.
Goodbye EQ2.
I wish they would have added all the spells, equipement, and bags for the characters they have unlocked. I realize they need/want to make money but the way I see it I have already paid for all the equipment and spells my toons have. I have all the xpacs except the last 2. Maybe I'm just thinking about it wrong but this makes me have no desire to buy anything else from them. I feel like they are trying to bill me twice for what I already have. I hope the new batch of games lives up to the hype.
SOE pissed me off too with their greed, but i keep EQ2 installed because i am sure that not many veterans will be that stupid and just pay pay pay pay pay as Mister Smadley wishes in his dreams.
Smadley has to come up with better ideas than his current "I SUCK THE $CASH$ OF YOUR BAGS!" free to play system...
Sorry Smadley no rebirth for EQ2 the way your dreaming about.......
completely false
if you mouseover your locked characters, it tells the reasons over the character limit
Silver accts get 4 characters -- you need to buy more character slots or sub to access the rest
the races/classes of existing characters are NOT restricted
---------------------
bag space:
silver acct players have access to 4 out of 6 bags
EQ2 has 40 slot bags you can buy off broker/tradeskillers for 20gold
thats possible 160 slots of inventory space (despite 2 bags locked)
EQ2 fan sites
Excellent move, now I can play all my halflings again free of charge!
*goes on a rant about SoE*
*actually reads post*
Really surprised by this one
They wouldnt have lost any faithful customers, because those were subbed and would never have noticed a change.
The correct statement is they could have lost to chance to regain old customers and turn them into faithful customers.
SoE has continued to go above and beyond on every single step of the f2p conversion. They gave people character slots they werent entitled too and now races and now charcater unlocks they werent entitled too. SoE has been a lot more customer friendly post NGE than most realize/give credit for, but now they are going above and beyond to prove it to those who havent noticed. Finally some sense of smart business moves.
Now if only they could lower that AoD price (although I suspect the expansion mandate came from above Smedley and SoE due to the odd nature of the expansion)
Its usually at the expense of content. You dont need the gear for any content below 85, and the unlockers are actually fairly cheap as it is (30 cents per). But you have an insane amount of content thats completely free to you.
Found some old characters in Queen's Colony. Didnt know that this was still a starting area.
Heroic tree is tied to DoV, f2p only goes up to SF. DoV is going down to 15 bucks if it hasnt already, but if youve bought it already heroic tree will be there.
Silver has more than enough bag space. Silver gives you quite a bit more bag space then you find in some other games (WoW)
And they gotta make money somehow. People want a charity, and what theyve gotten is pretty damn close actually