Temporarily Silver

clockwise · September 2012

So, I wasn't sure how it works when your sub lapses and you are Silver, which is the situation in which I find myself. I am not likely to have much time to play for awhile, so I've let it expire, and now my account is Silver. I don't mind not having access to my many freeform heroes, and in fact, rather than converting any of them to an AT just to play for now, I'd prefer to leave their builds as-is for when I can spend more time playing, and can re-learn (or retcon yet again) how to use each of them.

One thing that I did before the sub lapsed was to open one more character slot, thinking that when I went Silver, I would be able to drop one of the free ATs into that slot and have a bit of CO fun if I had the time. This reasoning seemed to be borne out as I was given a working "Create" button with that slot selected. I was able to get all the way through making the costume, to the button to go to the tutorial or skip it. Once I clicked to skip it, though, I got a message saying there were no free slots.

Fortunately, I saved the costume, at least. But this is somewhat confusing. Why am I allowed to go through character creation with the empty slot if I'm not allowed to actually finish that process and then play? Is this an error? Or is it one of the... well... Cryptic things that happens when your sub lapses? Please tell me I have some other recourse besides converting one of my freeforms.

ktm1 · September 2012

this probably has something to do with the freeform slot bug that has been going around.. it seems that unlocked slots that were previously gold have been getting that same thing. i understand that it probably isnt a freeform slot (you now being silver and all) BUT it IS an unlocked slot. i think that the bug that hits the freeforms MIGHT be affecting this type of unlocked slot as well....

either that or somehow you are overstepping the number of character slots available for your account being silver (although really no clue how this works... been a lifer for to long)..... but that being said.... why does it let you have a create button, should not be accessible or whatev.

submit a ticket yet? dont think theres anything you can do on your end

clockwise · September 2012

I've only ever submitted a ticket in-game. I'll poke around on the site and see if I can't find a good place to ask customer support, since I don't want to convert any of my freeforms even to play them as an AT, let alone just to open a ticket, heh. Thanks for the quick response.

clockwise · September 2012

Well, I poked around in the Support area of the site, and every link that looked promising (ticket history, contact us) failed to open for me, and I think I am all out of CO time for today. If anyone knows what I can do about this and provide working links for me to follow, I would appreciate it. See you all later!

zahinder · September 2012

It's been bugged for a month or more. Many folks (maybe all folks?) who have gone Gold > Silver can't create new characters. Period.

All you can do is convert previous characters to silver.

Yeah, it sucks, hard, and there's no indication devs are even aware of the issue, despite many comments and bug reports.

(Then again, there's no indication devs are working on bugs at all)

somebob · September 2012

zahinder wrote: »

Yeah, it sucks, hard, and there's no indication devs are even aware of the issue, despite many comments and bug reports.

(Then again, there's no indication devs are working on bugs at all)

That's an understatement. To both parts. Sadly.

stmoth · September 2012

Thats why I made the AT slot before i lapsed into silver.

cheesehotpockets · September 2012

I'm having the same problem (inability to create a toon or log in at all), except as far as i'm aware my account has mysteriously become inactive after 9 days into my 3 month sub.

I check my account details and say an option to reactivate my account, click it and... *sadface* it asks me if i want to buy more gold..

Seriously is this how PW runs their business? Also i've submitted a tickety in support, still waiting for a reply, 6 hours later.

clockwise · September 2012

stmoth wrote: »

Thats why I made the AT slot before i lapsed into silver.

I would've done that if I'd had any idea I had to. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to play something else until I can sub to CO again. Thanks, everyone.

stmoth · September 2012

The sad thing is, I wasn't aware that this was a problem people were having. It's just that I know how Cryptic does things and I decided to be cautious. And whatdayaknow.......

Sorry you couldn't get a toon created, hopefully they'll have it fixed Soon(tm)

ktm1 · September 2012

not exactly an optimum solution, but if you create a new account, silver based one obviously, then you could play that one on times that your gold lapsed.

on a plus side, you get to play an AT without having to nerf one of your freeforms.

on a negative, you would have no costume unlocks that you have had and would have all new account restrictions.

at least you could play while its all getting sorted though

clockwise · September 2012

ktm1 wrote: »

not exactly an optimum solution, but if you create a new account, silver based one obviously, then you could play that one on times that your gold lapsed.

I considered this for a half second or so, but decided it ranked lower than re-training one of my FF's to an AT. I have way too many high-cost costume unlocks and individual Z-store travel powers to want to bother. Plus, if I did, then I'd just feel compelled to unlock ALL THE THINGS for that new account, and I can't even justify a sub for the main one, right now. Thanks for the idea, though.

secksegai · September 2012

ktm1 wrote: »

this probably has something to do with the freeform slot bug

If you don't have an AT character that you created as a gold, then anytime you attempt to create a character even though your account is showing an open slot, then it will fail everytime.

This actually isn't a bug, this is working as intended. Silver reduces your allotted slots and if you plan on going gold again, it's not worth deleting until you open a slot.

The bug however functions similarly. FF slots are supposedly self-contained, and when I was a gold unlocking slots, they were added as such. However, as my account has been silver for some time, new ff slots are doing checks against your total allotted slots, which is why so many players are running into the problem where a newly purchased FF slot won't actually allow a character to be made.

clockwise · September 2012

Even if this behaviour is by design, it's extremely poor. If the slot is not free, I should not be allowed to enter the character creator by clicking on it. Moreover, if any character, once made, can be converted to Silver and retrained to one of the free ATs without regard to which of the character slots it took up, then what's the difference with the empty slot being "over the limit?"

If the fix for this baffling UI and the decisions behind it is for me to have preemptively made a character just in case Cryptic had a bad UI surprise for me, then they need to re-evaluate how their character creation/selection screens operate.

chalupaoffury · September 2012

Technically, you keep the slots you unlocked by hitting 40. This has been the case the whole time I've been playing, and I always thought was a feature of subbing. You don't keep the bonus gold slots, but you should keep the ones you worked to earn.

secksegai · September 2012

clockwise wrote: »

Even if this behaviour is by design, it's extremely poor. If the slot is not free, I should not be allowed to enter the character creator by clicking on it. Moreover, if any character, once made, can be converted to Silver and retrained to one of the free ATs without regard to which of the character slots it took up, then what's the difference with the empty slot being "over the limit?"

If the fix for this baffling UI and the decisions behind it is for me to have preemptively made a character just in case Cryptic had a bad UI surprise for me, then they need to re-evaluate how their character creation/selection screens operate.

Ironically enough, I did have "reserve" toons in the case I needed another alt - ended up having to delete most of them in order to get access to my new ff slots and use that double xp while it was around.

Yeah it's pretty lame you get all the way to the final button and then it errs out on that.

epelesker · September 2012

So, to clarify... if I buy any new character slots as a Gold, I can't use them as Silver, even if they're empty. If I buy new character slots as a Silver, then I can use them as either player type? Or what if I buy any number of Silver slots, sub for a month, and then drop back down? Does that mean I only get two default slots again?

I need to know this because I'm probably going to spend a lot of my time as a Silver.

secksegai · September 2012

epelesker wrote: »

So, to clarify... if I buy any new character slots as a Gold, I can't use them as Silver, even if they're empty. If I buy new character slots as a Silver, then I can use them as either player type? Or what if I buy any number of Silver slots, sub for a month, and then drop back down? Does that mean I only get two default slots again?

I need to know this because I'm probably going to spend a lot of my time as a Silver.

A standard silver account has 2 slots, 3 if it was around for the AT rotation program.
A Gold gets 6 or 8 slots (it's been so long I don't remember).

If you're gold, and you buy slots, you get those slots. Technically speaking, you get them as a silver too.

Say you are a silver and buy 2 slots. Now, you have 4 allotted slots.
But say you are gold and buy 2 slots. You currently have 8-10 allotted slots.

The issue arises when you lose the bonus slots from gold. I actually recommend subbing for one month if you have pre-existing 40s as that sub will unlock a slot for each 40 (effectively each 40 covering its own slot).

Like this, let's say you're silver, you haven't bought slots, but have 2 40s. You're sub ends and you never bought slots and never leveled additional 40s. You'd now have a total allotment of 4 slots as a silver.

Or, using the previous example, lets say you did end up buying 2 slots. You'd have an allotment of 6 slots.

In either case, the key thing to keep in mind is that Gold allows you to exceed your natural silver allotment. Let's say you have 8 characters as a gold, none of them 40, and no extra slots purchased. If you only "owned" 2 slots on a standard silver account, you'd have 6 characters above your entitlement. In order to create a new character without deleting existing ones in this instance, you would need to buy a total of 7 slots - 6 to cover the pre-existing characters, and 1 more for a slot for the new char.

epelesker · September 2012

Helpful! I guess i don't have to worry about it just yet because I only have one character, so I should theoretically be able to pick up any extra slots I need if/when I hit silver.

chalupaoffury · September 2012

If you plan on spending a lot of time silver, I *strongly* suggest 2 mains. One as a gold character, and one you keep silver. Just mail yourself stuff before your sub ends, or put it in the hideout bank. Conversion can be risky, it's easier to just cut out the middle man.

Temporarily Silver

Comments