Why limit character deletes?

thelogicalghost · March 2021

This change baffles me. Anyone have an answer?

Lumsdenml · March 2021

I've always wondered that, though I've never been on a character murdering spree to find out what happens when you hit the cap...

Seraphayel · March 2021

I think it’s because of the rewards you get for leveling. You could basically level one char over and over and abuse those rewards.

But yes, the cap is really annoying. You’ll get every 24 hours another delete option though, maximum is 3 (?).

VaranisArano · March 2021

Because when the game was young, botters and gold sellers would create a new character, go to Riften where there was a simple "go here - talk to an NPC - go there - deliver quest to get gold" style quest, pass the gold off to a different account, then delete, rinse, repeat.

The limit on character deletion, three then one every 24 hours, put a quick stop to that.

Pallio · March 2021

Also because when terrible patches like this one come out people debate deleting every character and uninstalling the game forever.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · March 2021

It was implemented to stop bots and gold sellers.

thelogicalghost · March 2021

Thanks all. That makes sense.

Thevampirenight · March 2021

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

It was implemented to stop bots and gold sellers.

Even if there is bots, they no longer gold sell at all in any zone chats on Pc Na. The Delete limit killed the gold seller spam all together. So it was the most effective solution they put in and I don't ever want to see the delete limit removed because it brought peace and got rid of the spam.

Athan1 · March 2021

Also to protect players. Imagine you go to the toilet and your little brother sneaks in and deletes all your lvl 50 characters. I am not joking btw, this does happen. Or someone hacking into your account to mess with it.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · March 2021

Thevampirenight wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

It was implemented to stop bots and gold sellers.

Even if there is bots, they no longer gold sell at all in any zone chats on Pc Na. The Delete limit killed the gold seller spam all together. So it was the most effective solution they put in and I don't ever want to see the delete limit removed because it brought peace and got rid of the spam.

Yup. I remember before it and there was always gold sellers in the starting cities. Can it be a bit frustrating sometimes when I make a character with the limited deletes? Yes, but I rather have that than the gold sellers back.

Vorpan · March 2021

Athan1 wrote: »

Also to protect players. Imagine you go to the toilet and your little brother sneaks in and deletes all your lvl 50 characters. I am not joking btw, this does happen. Or someone hacking into your account to mess with it.

I had a guildie in another game whose wife got ticked at him and deleted all his characters.

Sangwyne · March 2021

As others have mentioned, there are several quests in game that bots were likely abusing to generate gold on a large amount of characters before moving the items/money to their main, deleting, and starting it all over again on another character. Orzorga's questline in Wrothgar and the Brass Fortress Slag town chef quests in particular come to mind, as they can be farmed to generate some decent money by selling the recipes before rinsing and repeating on your other characters. I honestly kind of wish that it was more difficult to delete characters, I don't see why someone would ever need to delete three in one day unless they were doing something like above, quitting and uninstalling, or trying to get back at a family member or something.

Athan1 · March 2021

Vorpan wrote: »

Athan1 wrote: »

Also to protect players. Imagine you go to the toilet and your little brother sneaks in and deletes all your lvl 50 characters. I am not joking btw, this does happen. Or someone hacking into your account to mess with it.

I had a guildie in another game whose wife got ticked at him and deleted all his characters.

Inb4 divorce.

Ratzkifal · March 2021

For two reasons:

So you can't do infinite dailies during an event by creating a new character, doing the quest, deleting the character and starting over
in the case of your account actually getting hacked or someone IRL messing with your still logged-in account, whoever is messing with it can't delete all of your characters at once

That being said, you can delete more than 3 characters. You just need to let some time pass since the last deletion (a day or so) and if you accidentally delete one of your important characters, make sure to contact the support immediately and don't create a new character because the data for the new character might overwrite the data of your deleted character making it impossible to recover.

Gythral · March 2021

Once upon a time it was possible to run the original tutorial, loot everything, make a forture, move assets, delete, rinse,& repeat!

And while the loot got nerfed & nerfed, the delete limit intoduced to stop this has never been looked at (as no wrok costs lest per server hour)

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · March 2021

Ratzkifal wrote: »

...
make sure to contact the support immediately and don't create a new character because the data for the new character might overwrite the data of your deleted character making it impossible to recover.

No. It's a database. What happens (unless they implement this in a totally different way than what any other database application would do) is that your character is flagged as "deleted" and removed from your view, but all its data is kept. That data is most likely purged after some time, but merely creating a new character does not overwrite anything. If an accidentally deleted character is resurrected and its name was taken by someone else during the time it was deleted, you are offered a name change. (I have had this happen to friends in ESO.)

Barbara73 · March 2021

Just be patient you can murder all your toons and take the time to really savor it instead of doing it all in a one minuet code red fueled rage.

VaranisArano · March 2021

Sangwyne wrote: »

As others have mentioned, there are several quests in game that bots were likely abusing to generate gold on a large amount of characters before moving the items/money to their main, deleting, and starting it all over again on another character. Orzorga's questline in Wrothgar and the Brass Fortress Slag town chef quests in particular come to mind, as they can be farmed to generate some decent money by selling the recipes before rinsing and repeating on your other characters. I honestly kind of wish that it was more difficult to delete characters, I don't see why someone would ever need to delete three in one day unless they were doing something like above, quitting and uninstalling, or trying to get back at a family member or something.

The most common legit reason I see posted is folks struggling with getting their character's appearance just right.

Grianasteri · March 2021

I am more concerned by the unacceptable limit on character slots.

18 was reached long long ago. One of the main areas of game satisfaction I have, is character theory crafting and creation. I cant do that anymore unless I... delete a character... totally unacceptable and not an option (though I have been forced to do so a couple of times, regrettably).

Danikat · March 2021

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

...
make sure to contact the support immediately and don't create a new character because the data for the new character might overwrite the data of your deleted character making it impossible to recover.

No. It's a database. What happens (unless they implement this in a totally different way than what any other database application would do) is that your character is flagged as "deleted" and removed from your view, but all its data is kept. That data is most likely purged after some time, but merely creating a new character does not overwrite anything. If an accidentally deleted character is resurrected and its name was taken by someone else during the time it was deleted, you are offered a name change. (I have had this happen to friends in ESO.)

I know someone who was unable to get their character back because they'd made and deleted multiple characters with the same name and apparently there was no way for ZOS to tell which one was the one they wanted back. But I don't know the specifics of that - how many times they'd done that, if one had lasted longer than the others etc. just that they claimed you must never re-use a name unless you're certain you never want the old character back.

WiseSky · March 2021

VaranisArano wrote: »

Because when the game was young, botters and gold sellers would create a new character, go to Riften where there was a simple "go here - talk to an NPC - go there - deliver quest to get gold" style quest, pass the gold off to a different account, then delete, rinse, repeat.

The limit on character deletion, three then one every 24 hours, put a quick stop to that.

WTB BARBAIN MOTIF
WTB DAEDRIC MOTIF

If you are still in contact with those plaeyers let me know, I got them

AlnilamE · March 2021

WiseSky wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Because when the game was young, botters and gold sellers would create a new character, go to Riften where there was a simple "go here - talk to an NPC - go there - deliver quest to get gold" style quest, pass the gold off to a different account, then delete, rinse, repeat.

The limit on character deletion, three then one every 24 hours, put a quick stop to that.

WTB BARBAIN MOTIF
WTB DAEDRIC MOTIF

If you are still in contact with those plaeyers let me know, I got them

WTS Dark Elf Motif, 2000g

EmEm_Oh · March 2021

thelogicalghost wrote: »

This change baffles me. Anyone have an answer?

Spamming other players. Spamming content. Scamming other players then deleting character, etc.

thelogicalghost · March 2021

Thank you everyone I believe the question has been answered.

Araneae6537 · March 2021

VaranisArano wrote: »

Sangwyne wrote: »

As others have mentioned, there are several quests in game that bots were likely abusing to generate gold on a large amount of characters before moving the items/money to their main, deleting, and starting it all over again on another character. Orzorga's questline in Wrothgar and the Brass Fortress Slag town chef quests in particular come to mind, as they can be farmed to generate some decent money by selling the recipes before rinsing and repeating on your other characters. I honestly kind of wish that it was more difficult to delete characters, I don't see why someone would ever need to delete three in one day unless they were doing something like above, quitting and uninstalling, or trying to get back at a family member or something.

The most common legit reason I see posted is folks struggling with getting their character's appearance just right.

LOL, so true!