DLC Purchases not account wide

fvanvliet

Weird thing is happening and i can so far not get a clear answer from any of the Zos agents

I sometimes play on the european server because im a european native and od this to upkeep my native vocabulary (believe it or not you will loose it after a while)

When i started playing there everything was transfered from my account and available including my crowns and my emperial edition with all the maps and addons .
now after i purchased the orsinium and emperial city dlc's they are not available on the eu server .
after asking from an explanation i get the run arround
It does not seem fair to me to be forced to pay twice for the same content while according to their claims the dlc's once purchased are available accountwide .

I post this here with 2 goals

1: make every one aware that your dlc and purchases will not carry over and are NOT account wide.

2: Get a concrete answer from ZOS on this issue instead of being given several vague answers and given the run arround.

ps
i have a car for sale but if you wanna drive it across state line you have to pay me the purchase price again
awesome way of making money should have thought of that earlier

Jitterbug

Interesting to see what the official answer to this might be.
/follow

Ashanne

I faced the same issue a month ago when i started playing only on EU , after I played since beta and bought all dlc on the NA server.

They let you play on both servers for the same money (the main base game) but anything else you have to buy on each server. Doesn't really make sense and yea, a notice from them would have been nice.

Jitterbug

Just put "to access the DLC on both megaservers you need to either be sudscribed or purchase them on both".
Or better yet, fix it so i applies to both.

Turelus

From what I understand any base account upgrades such as Imperial Edition, loyalty pets etc will be available on both servers as these are account benefits.

However all items purchased in the Crown Store (including DLC) are bound to the server you play on.

Enodoc

Turelus wrote: »

From what I understand any base account upgrades such as Imperial Edition, loyalty pets etc will be available on both servers as these are account benefits.

However all items purchased in the Crown Store (including DLC) are bound to the server you play on.

Yep, this is pretty much the way it currently works. Things purchased from within the Crown Store are applied to the server they are purchased on (because you are logged into that server when you make the purchase), and the only things that are truly account-wide are the things that come from the Account system. "Account" upgrades like the Imperial Edition also depend on their source - if you purchased the Digital Imperial Edition, that's account-wide; if you purchased the old Imperial Edition Upgrade from the Online Store, that's account wide; if you purchased the current Imperial Edition Upgrade from the Crown Store, that's server-bound.

The Support Pages say this:
Crown Store purchases are server specific. As such, upgrades like the Imperial upgrade or the DLC game packs are server specific as well. In order to play the content on both servers, you must purchase the content on both servers.

Volkodav

Turelus wrote: »

From what I understand any base account upgrades such as Imperial Edition, loyalty pets etc will be available on both servers as these are account benefits.

However all items purchased in the Crown Store (including DLC) are bound to the server you play on.

Nope.I have all my stuff on the NA server,but when I go into the EU server,I have nothing,including mounts,pets,all of it.The things do NOT transfer over to another server,sadly. Makes me feel all weird,playing without my black horse,or my mods.I paid for my black horse with ingame gold,not crowns,but he isnt there in the EU server,Just the imperial white horse.

Danikat

The current system is extremely inconsistent and confusing. If you buy the Imperial Edition outside the game it's account wide, if you buy it in-game it's server specific. If you sub then DLC is account-wide, if you buy it then it's server specific.

I'm not sure about the Any Race in Any Alliance upgrade but I assume that's the same.

Personally I don't mind which way it works but I do think it should be consistent and made clear at the point of purchase, because if this forum is anything to go by a lot of people are confused by it.

Jennifur_Vultee

I play on both servers, I purchased the Imperial City on the NA server and its not available on the EU server. If Zenimax thinks I'm paying for the same content twice they can just keep on hoping I will...because I'm not. Especially since they do communicate my crown balance between servers so I know they can communicate large purchases of non consumable items like DLC or mounts as well. Its nothing but a cash grab in my opinion.

If they use the same crown balance on both servers large purchases of non consumable items should be available on both servers. Some people in previous threads on this have said people like me who want their purchases on both servers want to "double dip" and get the content twice but pay once...they seem to forget that Zenimax wants to "double dip" into our pockets and get paid for the exact same content twice. As someone who has run their own business I can tell you that a happy customer is more likely to spend more, be a repeat customer and recommend your services to others...an unhappy customer will tell people how bad your service is and recommend they look elsewhere. Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool that can work for or against you, people seem to forget that these days.

fvanvliet

I think Jenn is right and its a rip off sorry to say so.
I have supported the game since the early beta and now they try and rip us off for every penny they can get.
Thats just the way i feel.
In the mean time i get this nice aniversary badge how about giving me what i payed for instead of the badge that would be great.
As far as an official answer goes, keep on hoping they dont want to burn their fingers on this one.
I asked gina for an answer in a pm and have yet to hear back.

Aletheion

I have friends on both servers and enjoy playing on both, but it seems excessive that the $50 DLC purchase (IC and Orcinum 2 purchases of 2500 crowns) on NA is not applicable on EU and needs to be purchased a second time to play the content on both servers. If we pay around $25 for each DLC *per server* that's $200 a year if they are released quarterly.

I was wondering if anyone has succumbed to this and bought for both servers or if anyone has heard any word on changing the ridiculous policy.

@ZOS_GinaBruno is this really what Zenimax feels is fair for their player base who plays on both servers? Why are crown store purchases bound to a certain server while crown purchased are available on either server?

This makes no sense to me at all.

-Aletheion

Acrolas

If data were synced globally across eight characters and you just chose a location to play at, then yes, shared crown purchases would make sense.

But you're getting eight unique characters on one server and eight on another. So I think it's fair that a crown purchase only counts toward eight of those characters. If you're going to popularize the idea of 16 characters, then you'll go down a path of people wanting all 16 on one server because they don't want to hop around.

Which, I think, is the more interesting dilemma.

Aletheion

Acrolas wrote: »

If data were synced globally across eight characters and you just chose a location to play at, then yes, shared crown purchases would make sense.

But you're getting eight unique characters on one server and eight on another. So I think it's fair that a crown purchase only counts toward eight of those characters. If you're going to popularize the idea of 16 characters, then you'll go down a path of people wanting all 16 on one server because they don't want to hop around.

Which, I think, is the more interesting dilemma.

You're right and I agree with you that global synchronization of characters is not what we should be after (and I'm personally not asking for that). But, if they are going to allow the game to be purchased once for both servers then it only makes sense for the DLC to be purchased once for both servers.

The bottom line is that Crown store purchases should not be bound to a server, whether it's a pet, a mount, or a DLC. That makes no sense and is completely inconsistent with the direction they've gone for the last 2 years. My monkey isn't bound. My loyalty pets and mounts aren't bound. My Imperial horse isn't bound. My imperial Edition isn't bound. My any race/any faction upgrade isn't bound, My maps from the Adventurer's Pack aren't bound. So, why are Crown store purchases bound causing us to pay double $$ for anything we buy from now on? If they open a third mega-server for Aussies or something then we have to pay triple? I can't believe someone making this decision at ZOS is sitting there thinking this is fair or makes any sense at all. I would imagine they'd want to be making decisions that keep players, not drive them away.

-Aletheion

MerryGinal

Ffs stupid store full of useless things and we still can't either rename or change alliance or race or switch server (you know the usefull stuff people are asking for since always)...and now they telling us we HAVE to buy twice anything we buy in store...I mean its just stupid...knowing that and the fact that a lot of people are playing on both server I dont think people will buy DLC...or they will like the others, not knowing about the fact they are getting fist ***.

Cool.

dodgehopper_ESO

I agree this is silly. I first noticed the issue when CP didn't carry across, and later a horse purchase didn't copy over. Its just how it works. I'm not really sure why they've arranged it that way for the pc servers though, considering ZoS is the one who maintains them.

DaveMoeDee

It makes complete sense that nothing transfers across servers. They are separate servers.

If people are confused, the solution is not letting them choose a server. Syncing servers doen't make sense. It would just add another potential point of failure.

It is confusing that the account page says your crown total for PC/Mac but then purchases are server based and not the ESO account, but syncing game content (like CP) is not an option.

Aletheion wrote: »

You're right and I agree with you that global synchronization of characters is not what we should be after (and I'm personally not asking for that). But, if they are going to allow the game to be purchased once for both servers then it only makes sense for the DLC to be purchased once for both servers.

The bottom line is that Crown store purchases should not be bound to a server, whether it's a pet, a mount, or a DLC...

-Aletheion

So you prefer that they don't allow you to use both servers? You prefer they make you buy for one or the other over the current setup? I can't stand all-or-nothing opinions like this that say it is better to take away flexibility from people instead of allowing flexibility that confuses people who don't think things through.

Everything in-game SHOULD be bound to a server. But it is great that they allow you to have accounts on both servers if you like. Don't be confused by the freebie of allowing you to use the other server with no extra charge. This doesn't resolve the DLC debate, but it addresses the argument "don't let us access both if we can't have DLC on both".

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

I agree this is silly. I first noticed the issue when CP didn't carry across, and later a horse purchase didn't copy over. Its just how it works. I'm not really sure why they've arranged it that way for the pc servers though, considering ZoS is the one who maintains them.

CP? How would one server know about the CP accumulation on another? They are completely separate servers. Nothing copies over. Name a change on a NA server that is transferred to EU servers? Can you see your NA characters on an EU server? Can you send mail to your NA friends from an EU server?

Why would it matter who maintains them? Do you not see the complexity involved in syncing separate servers of the size of NA and EU? What happens if the accounts on both servers are used simultaneously? The 2 servers have separate maintenance windows. Imagine syncing around that. Imagine syncing enlightenment across servers (since you can't allow separate enlightenment if you are using the same CP pool). Add to this the fact that they have separate servers because ZOS wants there to be geographic proximity for better performance.

You don't even get to set the server in game. You set it on the launcher and then install the game separatedly. That means when the game asks for you login, there are probably completely separate login servers for EU and NA.

Because I was curious, I changed the setting in my launcher to EU and it wanted to reinstall the game. That seems a pretty big red flag against thinking that the servers are connected. Still, when you buy crowns, do they appear in only one server or both? The account page doesn't seem to differentiate. Despite all I said earlier, if the single crowns purchase appears in both NA and EU accounts and stay synced, so should the DLC purchased with those crowns unless there are clear disclaimers. If they only appear in one server account, than it would be obvious that the DLC will only be for one account.

DaveMoeDee

fvanvliet wrote: »

Weird thing is happening and i can so far not get a clear answer from any of the Zos agents

I sometimes play on the european server because im a european native and od this to upkeep my native vocabulary (believe it or not you will loose it after a while)

When i started playing there everything was transfered from my account and available including my crowns and my emperial edition with all the maps and addons .
now after i purchased the orsinium and emperial city dlc's they are not available on the eu server .
after asking from an explanation i get the run arround
It does not seem fair to me to be forced to pay twice for the same content while according to their claims the dlc's once purchased are available accountwide .

I post this here with 2 goals

1: make every one aware that your dlc and purchases will not carry over and are NOT account wide.

2: Get a concrete answer from ZOS on this issue instead of being given several vague answers and given the run arround.

ps
i have a car for sale but if you wanna drive it across state line you have to pay me the purchase price again
awesome way of making money should have thought of that earlier

Which crowns were there? The initial crows you got at ESO:TU launch as a reward for your earlier purchase of ESO, or additional crowns you bought post ESO:TU launch? Your EU account is based off of the same game purchase, which I assume was the original Imperial Edition. When they introduced ESO:TU, all those accounts got free crowns. Your account should have those.

When you buy additional crowns, do they appear on both servers or only one? If they appear on both servers (and both decrease when you purchase DLC), then it would make sense to assume the DLC would be on both servers. If the crowns only appear on one server, than it would not make sense to assume DLC would be on both.

Does a single ESO+ sub apply to both EU and NA accounts? If so, that too would further validate your complaint. If not, than it would just be a poor assumption on your part.

DaveMoeDee

Aletheion wrote: »

Acrolas wrote: »

If data were synced globally across eight characters and you just chose a location to play at, then yes, shared crown purchases would make sense.

But you're getting eight unique characters on one server and eight on another. So I think it's fair that a crown purchase only counts toward eight of those characters. If you're going to popularize the idea of 16 characters, then you'll go down a path of people wanting all 16 on one server because they don't want to hop around.

Which, I think, is the more interesting dilemma.

You're right and I agree with you that global synchronization of characters is not what we should be after (and I'm personally not asking for that). But, if they are going to allow the game to be purchased once for both servers then it only makes sense for the DLC to be purchased once for both servers.

The bottom line is that Crown store purchases should not be bound to a server, whether it's a pet, a mount, or a DLC. That makes no sense and is completely inconsistent with the direction they've gone for the last 2 years. My monkey isn't bound. My loyalty pets and mounts aren't bound. My Imperial horse isn't bound. My imperial Edition isn't bound. My any race/any faction upgrade isn't bound, My maps from the Adventurer's Pack aren't bound. So, why are Crown store purchases bound causing us to pay double $$ for anything we buy from now on? If they open a third mega-server for Aussies or something then we have to pay triple? I can't believe someone making this decision at ZOS is sitting there thinking this is fair or makes any sense at all. I would imagine they'd want to be making decisions that keep players, not drive them away.

-Aletheion

Is ESO+ bound to a server? If not, I agree with you.

Which version of the game did you purchase initially? Did you have an at launch Imperial Edition or did you buy the Adventurer's Pack through the Crown Store?

If they open a 3rd server for Aussies, accounts would be transferred with all the content they already own. Pretty straightforward. Post transfer, there would be no syncing. Just like with consoles.

MerryGinal

The simple fact that you have to buy twice for a dlc should be enough, if this is not a problem then you are the problem.

RIP logic.

Acrolas

MerryGinal wrote: »

The simple fact that you have to buy twice for a dlc should be enough, if this is not a problem then you are the problem.

RIP logic.

Except you don't have to. I play on NA and buy new content on NA. I'll never have to buy it on EU. I don't even have to buy it on NA. I would have to buy again if I bought another account to use on NA and wanted to duplicate experiences. But I wouldn't expect my two NA-focused accounts to share data because I'm not using anything on EU and only installed the NA game client.

Just because the game doesn't region-lock anyone based on performance or location doesn't mean you're entitled to benefits for server-hopping. But the huge flaw in "logic" is that you're not actually buying anything. You're leasing the content from ZOS. And as the lessor, whatever they want goes. If you don't like the lease terms, you don't have to accept them ever. So again, you don't have to do anything.

MerryGinal

And that is stupid, I have friends oversea and I will not play with them because I will have to pay what i already payed for if I want to follow them.
Every other MMO did it so wtf ? (first time a game tell me to buy multiple time the dlc in order to switch server)
Willing to pay for data transfer in something else (and that would be awesome btw) but still...paying multiple time things like DLC (atleast this)...please.

Your case is a good case where you play on one side only I mean...you are not even concern by this really...and server hoping ? Would that be something in this game ?

DaveMoeDee

MerryGinal wrote: »

And that is stupid, I have friends oversea and I will not play with them because I will have to pay what i already payed for if I want to follow them.
Every other MMO did it so wtf ? (first time a game tell me to buy multiple time the dlc in order to switch server)
Willing to pay for data transfer in something else (and that would be awesome btw) but still...paying multiple time things like DLC (atleast this)...please.

Your case is a good case where you play on one side only I mean...you are not even concern by this really...and server hoping ? Would that be something in this game ?

The fact that every other MMO does it means it is actually a reasonable thing to do, even if you don't like it.

Data transfer is complicated and can easily lead to data corruption issues. Also, data transfer would be moving a character and its inventory, not copying. Otherwise, people will use transfers to duplicate inventory. They allowed one time, one direction transfer for consoles due to console release delay, but that is a special case.

It really is a "tough luck, you can't get everything you want" situation. If you chose the convenience of having accounts on both servers, there is also a cost. You have to live with your decision.

You don't have to buy anything twice. You don't even have to buy it once. It is all optional.

The one argument that I would find compelling is if buying crowns adds crowns to the balances that appears on both NA and EU servers. If when you buy something, the crown count goes down on both servers, but the content ends up on only one server, that is counter-intuitive and there should be an explicit message. On the other hand, I would have never assumed I could buy across both servers because they are separate servers. I would have asked before purchasing and then bought on the server that matters the most to me. Due diligence.

Does ESO+ work across servers? If so, that is what you should have done.

Enodoc

DaveMoeDee wrote: »

It makes complete sense that nothing transfers across servers. They are separate servers.
[...]
It is confusing that the account page says your crown total for PC/Mac but then purchases are server based and not the ESO account, but syncing game content (like CP) is not an option.
[...]
Because I was curious, I changed the setting in my launcher to EU and it wanted to reinstall the game. That seems a pretty big red flag against thinking that the servers are connected. Still, when you buy crowns, do they appear in only one server or both? The account page doesn't seem to differentiate. Despite all I said earlier, if the single crowns purchase appears in both NA and EU accounts and stay synced, so should the DLC purchased with those crowns unless there are clear disclaimers. If they only appear in one server account, than it would be obvious that the DLC will only be for one account.

You just need to apply the same logic you've used for how the servers are separate to how the account system works. We know from how they do maintenance that there is a separate Account server which the NA and EU Login and Game servers read data from. Crowns and ESO Plus are account-wide because they are tied to the Account server. Purchases in the Crown Store are server-bound because they are tied to the Game servers. The only way Crown Store purchases could be made account-wide would be if they were held on the Account server. We know that there is a link back to the Account server from the Crown Store, as the Game server tells the Account server how many Crowns have been spent after a purchase, so it's not inconceivable that such a thing could happen in the future.

MerryGinal

"The fact that every other MMO does it means it is actually a reasonable thing to do, even if you don't like it"
You dont even understand what I'm saying dude...you literally dont understand.

Anyway'

The simple fact that you have to buy twice for a dlc should be enough, if this is not a problem then you are the problem.

RIP logic.

Arkhaniir

I just downloaded EU client to play with some friends over there and noticed this issue. I was expecting mounts/pets/costumes to be server bounds but I thought DLCs were account-wide, like Imperial Edition, or Explorer's Pack. It made more sense that way.

Not that its too big of an issue in my case since I still will be playing in NA mainly and login to EU to play with some friends. I can already enjoy the DLCs in NA YET it would still be good if I had access to them in EU as well. Came here to see what others think and what ZoS says about it but apparently there hasn't been a comment from them in any thread opened.

Overall, Mounts/Pets/Costumes being server-bound makes sense but I belive DLCs should be account-wide. If not, oh well, not a gamebreaking issue for me. Its not like I have time to go through all the content in both servers.

gazzooksb16_ESO

I came to this thread to see what and if Zenimax had replied to this concern.

They are still afraid to respond to people's concern on having to pay Twice for DLC if you play on both Mega Servers.

When purchasing, I did not see where they said or even mentioned that my purchase would be server bound. If it is there it should be made more apparent that this is the case.

I definitely concur with purchases of mount, pets and vanity items, but definitely not the DLC Content .

I would like to hear Zenimax's response to this concern.

Horus6

Ashanne wrote: »

I faced the same issue a month ago when i started playing only on EU , after I played since beta and bought all dlc on the NA server.

They let you play on both servers for the same money (the main base game) but anything else you have to buy on each server. Doesn't really make sense and yea, a notice from them would have been nice.

They should be required to inform people of this, that being said the servers used are totally different and the information isn't stored on the EU servers if you purchase the dlc on the NA servers.

They could easily change this but they figure that most people would play on a " local " server ( local as in country of origin). Although I understand why people from EU mega sever played on the NA at the start...

Duiwel

Sorry for your loss OP. I was fortunate enough to know this is how it worked simply because I have a Nightmare Coarser on the NA servers and I do not have any of the basic mounts on EU. So I figuired the items are not linked.

Lithium Flower

This is really terrible rip off. Any item you pay actual, real money for should be transferable or you should get the same allotment of crowns on both servers. I've bought over 24k crowns since B2P, if the crown store stuff I buy is bound to the server then my crown expenditure should be server bound too. If I spend 12k of my 24k crowns on the EU server, those 12k crowns should be untouched on my account on the NA server. If that's not going to happen, then my purchases should transfer which would be preferable any way.

I don't want extra items or access to something I haven't paid for, but my account entitles me to play on any server, therefore my purchases should move with me no matter where I log in.

Collections Items that are linked to in-game achievements don't have to follow this rule.

HappyHaunt

I play on both servers and find it upsetting my mounts/costumes/pets do not transfer. However I recently subscribed and both DLCs are now active on each server. So that's at least one way you can get them without paying twice... of course, it does mean subscribing.

I would really like everything to be completely account wide though, its pretty unfair asking people to pay twice for content just because they either have friends on both servers, or want more than eight characters.

I originally wasn't planning on playing on both, until I was hit by that rare glitch where I picked EU and thought I was playing on EU (it even said EU...), but was actually playing on NA. And as character transfers aren't available and I didn't want to give up my characters I decided to play on both servers.

I am all for character name change as well.

Coatmagic

I am so aggravated by this discovery right now that I don't even want to play. WT actual F, Zeni? NO other game in existence forces you to purchase expansions PER SERVER o.O

And don't even talk to me about how much &*^%%$ work it is to sync ~ that's a BS answer seeing how Zeni has no problems whatsoever making sure the crowns we purchase are subtracted from ACROSS both servers.

I've wasted so much money trying to support this stupid game... You make me sick.

Thanks a lot.

That is all.