WARNING: Corrupted Characters in Purchased Slots are Unrecoverable

Bunneh · July 2016

I have received this response to an escalated ticket this morning:

"You have exceeded the limit of more than 8 characters. The extra slot allows for you create another account but it does not allow you to restore a deleted character to the slot. I apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. At this time we can restore no characters, till a free slot becomes evelable." (sic)

This clearly goes for both deleted characters or characters created using the new slots that may corrupt. They can only recover characters using one of the base eight character slots. If they are full, you are out of luck.

Awesome software design and quality control, Zenimax.

NB: Trolls/Fanbois - I'm not interested in your responses, nor will I read/reply to them.

Mureel · July 2016

Oh my goodness

Lucius_Aelius · July 2016

That's seriously messed up, but if that's how it's coded then it sounds like you're pretty screwed. May have been an oversight when they added new characters, but if not they should at least have warned us it could happen before putting those extra slots on sale, anything less is outright disingenuous and money-grubbing.

Either way they need to make a public announcement about it now, shouldn't be leaving it to players to spread such important information, and they absolutely need to be working on a fix ASAP so that you and anyone else with corrupted characters (didn't even know that was a thing but still) can get their characters properly restored.

SleepyTroll · July 2016

Wow and no compensation? *** ZOS you *** up lately.

me_ming · July 2016

So if I want to delete my 9th character I won't be able to recreate it? The additional slots you buy from the Crown stores are one-time use? o.O

Tandor · July 2016

I can quite understand why a deleted character cannot be restored just because you've bought an extra slot, that's perfectly standard, but I'm not at all clear where the assumption is coming from about corrupted characters. The ticket response appears solely to relate to the restoration of deleted characters. I think the OP needs to provide a lot more information about the circumstances of his case (including what he means by "corrupted characters" which is a term I don't recall seeing mentioned before).

Neirymn · July 2016

A character has been corrupted and you deleted it yourself to ask for a recovery? I don't really understand what this is about, how can a character be corrupted exactly?

idk · July 2016

me_ming wrote: »

So if I want to delete my 9th character I won't be able to recreate it? The additional slots you buy from the Crown stores are one-time use? o.O

That's not what OP said. If the 9th character becomes corrupted (Extreemly rare) then Zos cannot restore that character. Same if you delete it but I would not expect Zos to restore a deleted character.

I have rolled a character using an extra slot, deleted and rolled again without issue.

I expext Zos will get this figured out even though it's something that is extremely rare

vyndral13preub18_ESO · July 2016

I think it depends on the question asked. The response does not say they can not restore a lost character. The reaponse says they will not restore a deleted character.

And seems like a valid response if the ticket was put in as, i deleted a character to make room when i only had 8 characters. Now i want to buy an extra slot and would like him restored.

Anyway, the response reads pretty simple to me. Buying an extra character slot lets you create a new character. It does not allow you to restore a deleted character. No where does it say anything about what they can or can not do with that slot for any other situation.

TheDarkoil · July 2016

Corrupted character?

me_ming · July 2016

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

me_ming wrote: »

So if I want to delete my 9th character I won't be able to recreate it? The additional slots you buy from the Crown stores are one-time use? o.O

That's not what OP said. If the 9th character becomes corrupted (Extreemly rare) then Zos cannot restore that character. Same if you delete it but I would not expect Zos to restore a deleted character.

I have rolled a character using an extra slot, deleted and rolled again without issue.

I expext Zos will get this figured out even though it's something that is extremely rare

Ok thanks for clearing that out. Good to know that's the case then.

Khenarthi · July 2016

Before feeling any kind of righteous indignation I want to know if Customer Services offered to reset the "corrupted" character (for instance, one stuck in a loading screen) or if the OP just went ahead and deleted it assuming it could be restored at a later date.

@Bunneh can you clarify exactly what happened?

If any of my characters get corrupted, I know that my first step will be opening a ticket asking for the character to be looked into - I'll only delete it if I have clear instructions to do so.

Preyfar · July 2016

If the op deleted the character on his own, unfortunately, he's out of luck (short of his account having been compromised somehow -- not sure if ZOS makes exceptions).

Rex-Umbra · July 2016

Strange they coded it that way.

Lord_Eomer · July 2016

This post is confusing me, I have bought four additional slots recently and created mule characters.

If I delete any character, will I able to create new character again?

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · July 2016

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

This post is confusing me, I have bought four additional slots recently and created mule characters.

If I delete any character, will I able to create new character again?

Yes. I have purchased an extra slot and deleted the character and I still have that slot.

Duiwel · July 2016

Define Corrupted character.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · July 2016

Duiwel wrote: »

Define Corrupted character.

EP or AD

NinjaApacHe · July 2016

Tandor wrote: »

I can quite understand why a deleted character cannot be restored just because you've bought an extra slot, that's perfectly standard, but I'm not at all clear where the assumption is coming from about corrupted characters. The ticket response appears solely to relate to the restoration of deleted characters. I think the OP needs to provide a lot more information about the circumstances of his case (including what he means by "corrupted characters" which is a term I don't recall seeing mentioned before).

On SWTOR I have 22 slots, 10 have been bought. I can delete and recreate any character I want.

UltimaJoe777 · July 2016

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Duiwel wrote: »

Define Corrupted character.

EP or AD

DC is just as innocent or guilty you know

Funny OP hasn't chimed in though to explain his situation and bothered to tell trolls to stay away... Veeeeery suspicious.

Clerics1985 · July 2016

the other night I got D/C'd from game at a battle for Bleaks, with the Error message "we have found corruption in your character file" or some such shiet, But when I closed it down and Restarted, I was able to log back in with him just fine.

how does a Character file become corrupted? I just assume it was a excuse to save DC's Bleak state

Pomaikai · July 2016

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Duiwel wrote: »

Define Corrupted character.

EP or AD

DC is just as innocent or guilty you know

Funny OP hasn't chimed in though to explain his situation and bothered to tell trolls to stay away... Veeeeery suspicious.

I think it just means he's done talking about it, and most certainly doesn't want to deal with people being Richard Cranium's about it.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · July 2016

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Duiwel wrote: »

Define Corrupted character.

EP or AD

Mr. Muffin you win the interwebs for the day. I laughed outloud and got the stink eye from my boss

Tandor · July 2016

NinjaApacHe wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

I can quite understand why a deleted character cannot be restored just because you've bought an extra slot, that's perfectly standard, but I'm not at all clear where the assumption is coming from about corrupted characters. The ticket response appears solely to relate to the restoration of deleted characters. I think the OP needs to provide a lot more information about the circumstances of his case (including what he means by "corrupted characters" which is a term I don't recall seeing mentioned before).

On SWTOR I have 22 slots, 10 have been bought. I can delete and recreate any character I want.

Of course you can. You can delete and recreate characters in any game including this one. We're talking about deleting and restoring characters, and that's altogether different.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · July 2016

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

FLuFFyxMuFFiN wrote: »

Duiwel wrote: »

Define Corrupted character.

EP or AD

Mr. Muffin you win the interwebs for the day. I laughed outloud and got the stink eye from my boss

Lol my bad

Van_0S · July 2016

TheDarkoil wrote: »

Corrupted character?

What OP is saying is that, the 9th character slot that he purchased was corrupted , that is he made the character and played it for few hours and after login back to character selection that character of the 9th slot got corrupted.

So, he deleted that corrupted charater and send a tick to ZOS. But unfortunatly, that character cannot be recovered, even if its corrupted or not, because its an additional slot purchased from crown store, only the 8 character slots are recoverable, if corrupted.

Divinius · July 2016

First, you can delete and recreate characters all you want (restricted only by the normal daily deletion limit) with the new slots. I've done it. The slots are NOT "one use only" or anything like that.

The OP is referring to "restored" characters, meaning ones that ZOS has to recover from backups -- i.e., either characters you previously deleted that you want to get back, or "corrupted" characters that need to be fixed from backups. Note that "corrupted" characters are exceedingly rare, and while I'm sure it's possible, I've never actually heard of a specific instance where it's even actually happened.

Second, the OP is making an ASSUMPTION that they won't restore a hypothetically "corrupted" character based on the response, which is not even mentioned in the response.

Third, my assessment of what actually happened (just a guess) is the following:

The OP didn't have a "corrupted" character at all. Some period of time ago (days, months?), he deleted one of his first 8 characters, before buying the extra slot, to make room for a new character. Recently, he bought a new slot, and requested to have the previously deleted character restored, now that he had an open space. ZOS said no, giving him the excuse he quoted in his post. OP gets all annoyed and posts on the forums, making the assumption about it also applying to corrupted characters, in an attempt to make the issue sound WAY worse than it is, in order to start a firestorm in the thread.

He then says, "Trolls/Fanbois - I'm not interested in your responses, nor will I read/reply to them" and abandons the topic.

Again, just a guess...

FLuFFyxMuFFiN · July 2016

Divinius wrote: »

First, you can delete and recreate characters all you want (restricted only by the normal daily deletion limit) with the new slots. I've done it. The slots are NOT "one use only" or anything like that.

The OP is referring to "restored" characters, meaning ones that ZOS has to recover from backups -- i.e., either characters you previously deleted that you want to get back, or "corrupted" characters that need to be fixed from backups. Note that "corrupted" characters are exceedingly rare, and while I'm sure it's possible, I've never actually heard of a specific instance where it's even actually happened.

Second, the OP is making an ASSUMPTION that they won't restore a hypothetically "corrupted" character based on the response, which is not even mentioned in the response.

Third, my assessment of what actually happened (just a guess) is the following:

The OP didn't have a "corrupted" character at all. Some period of time ago (days, months?), he deleted one of his first 8 characters, before buying the extra slot, to make room for a new character. Recently, he bought a new slot, and requested to have the previously deleted character restored, now that he had an open space. ZOS said no, gave him the excuse he quoted in his post, and he gets all annoyed and posts on the forums, making the assumption about it also applying to corrupted characters in an attempt to make the issue sound WAY worse than it is, to start a firestorm.

He then says, "Trolls/Fanbois - I'm not interested in your responses, nor will I read/reply to them." and abandons the topic.

Seems legit.

Recremen · July 2016

This can't be real. Is it? Why would they not integrate the normal character recovery for the other 4 slots you can buy?

Tandor · July 2016

Divinius wrote: »

First, you can delete and recreate characters all you want (restricted only by the normal daily deletion limit) with the new slots. I've done it. The slots are NOT "one use only" or anything like that.

The OP is referring to "restored" characters, meaning ones that ZOS has to recover from backups -- i.e., either characters you previously deleted that you want to get back, or "corrupted" characters that need to be fixed from backups. Note that "corrupted" characters are exceedingly rare, and while I'm sure it's possible, I've never actually heard of a specific instance where it's even actually happened.

Second, the OP is making an ASSUMPTION that they won't restore a hypothetically "corrupted" character based on the response, which is not even mentioned in the response.

Third, my assessment of what actually happened (just a guess) is the following:

The OP didn't have a "corrupted" character at all. Some period of time ago (days, months?), he deleted one of his first 8 characters, before buying the extra slot, to make room for a new character. Recently, he bought a new slot, and requested to have the previously deleted character restored, now that he had an open space. ZOS said no, giving him the excuse he quoted in his post. OP gets all annoyed and posts on the forums, making the assumption about it also applying to corrupted characters, in an attempt to make the issue sound WAY worse than it is, in order to start a firestorm in the thread.

He then says, "Trolls/Fanbois - I'm not interested in your responses, nor will I read/reply to them" and abandons the topic.

Again, just a guess...

I agree that is the likeliest explanation in the absence of any clarification of the actual circumstances from the OP. Certainly the ticket reply that he quotes doesn't begin to relate to the conclusion that he draws from it, let alone justify it, and posting the topic in the way that he has just comes across as flame-bait.

Divinius · July 2016

Assuming my guess of what actually happened is correct, that is a very reasonable (and expected) stance for ZOS to take.

It would not be at all surprising that deleted characters get overwritten when you have maxed out all available slots. I would not expect it to be possible to restore those characters. For example, if you delete a file on a hard drive, it can't be restored if the space the file previously existed in was overwritten. Buying additional hard drive space afterward doesn't magically make that deleted file recoverable again.

And even if that isn't how it works with ESO characters, and ZOS could restore the character, the last thing they would want to do is set a precedent for letting people use the new slots to freely restore any and all old characters that they previously deleted back when they only had 8 slots. That would be a mess.