Restoring a deleted character; how does it work?

[Maulclaw.4365]

About two weeks ago I sent a ticket to CS in regards to the restoration of a character I deled last year. I had screenshots and dates that provided solid information in regards to this character, but no reply has been given whatsoever. Google hasn't been all that kind with results as well, so that's why I'm here.

 

How does this whole process work? Some people say they do a rollback to a time where the character was still around; that would mean I'd lose one year of game time... which I don't want to whatsoever. Some say Support doesn't do it anymore just like they don't change the display names and so on. Other say it's easy as long as CS has all of the vital information in regards to the character.

[Ayrilana.1396]

You followed the correct process. They’re backlogged so it’ll take time. Meanwhile, check your spam or junk mail folder to make sure their email didn’t go there in case they did respond already.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

There's no guarantee a deleted character will be restored, but it may be possible. Here's a quote from a CS Team Lead:

 

_I had a quick check into the ticket._

 

_You got a very quick first reply, because we always have one single agent checking the very bottom of the queue (newly arriving tickets) to make sure we catch trends. Stuff like watching for Tradepost outages, Login issues suddenly poling up, a lot of SMS issues at once -things like that._

 

_Since then, your ticket entered the regular queue and will be replied to when it actually reaches the top. Your duplicate ticket as closed, because duplicates should not be made. Likewise, please don't make ticket replies with just 'hello' or similar - not only do they not give us any more information, it causes your ticket to slide further down. The only bump such a reply gives - is a pump down the list._

 

_Finally, please understand that you have had over 180 deleted characters on your game account. If the weapon was on a deleted character.... chances are we will never find it. We have no means to search deleted character's data (as deleted for us means: User did not want to have the character and that data is removed from direct access); and we cannot undelete characters again and again to let you search them. Also, after a character is deleted, there is never any guarantee that we CAN restore it, as, again, deleted should mean 'did not want to have it' :(_

 

https://www.reddit.com/user/dornsinger/comments/?sort=new&before=t1_dvnmom2&count=76

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

They can do it but they do have some requirements. The name has be available and there needs to be an empty character slot. However what exactly you get back will depend on their logs so it’s possible you’ll get the char back but without armor and weapons.

 

[source](

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[Danikat.8537]

I didn't realise this was possible. Last I heard the only option was to have your whole account rolled back to a previous state, which resets everything. So it's good for things like a hacker getting into your account and deleting characters or a mistake which is picked up immediately, but not for situations like the OP where they deleted a character and a year later decided they wanted them back.

 

But based on what was said in that topic it depends on a lot of factors. Here's a couple of bits which stood out to me:

 

"Much like all refunds and restorations, these are on case-by-case basis, we need to check a lot of stuff (Is there a free character slot? Was the character name taken? What's the account history?) and in some cases it may not actually work. New toys, might break and all that. In some cases it might actually be better to try and ping us with an explanation of what precisely happened. The other day I had a user delete a character with an infinite mining tool, I simply replaced the tool for them, as that was much quicker a solution."

 

"Each of these restorations is case-by-case. I cannot make any promises that any character can be restored. That said, if you feel you need to investigate a restoration, submit a ticket to us, but always keep in mind that the answer may end up being: Sorry, in your specific case, we cannot assist."

 

"With the bags, I could not have restored them, either. It very much depends on what my logs can or cannot give me. Bags, equipped weapons, armor, stuff like that - unlikely. Stuff bought on the store - more likely."

 

Based on that it's not surprising they're not quick to answer tickets about deleted characters, it sounds like there's a lot of stuff they need to check before they can even work out if it's possible or if they need any more information to do it. Here's a summary of what I've picked up so far:

 

**If you want an item back which was in a character's inventory when they were deleted** - Tell Support it's the item you want, it's probably easier for them than getting the whole character back. But it depends on what the item is and where it came from (they need to make sure you actually had it first) and how long ago it was deleted.

 

**If you want a character back** - You need an empty character slot and the name needs to be available still (so you can't be using it on another character on your account and no one else can have it either). It also depends on how old the character is and may not always be possible, if the data is completely gone. There is no guarantee that any item/s they had will be restored with them.

[Perses.9683]

I deleted a newer character (forget level - below 10) because I decided I didn’t like the look. I remade the character with same name/race and realized I forgot to remove my unbound gathering tools from the now deleted character.

 

I didn’t delete the new character and immediately created a ticket about it with support. Support was able to remove my lvl 1 char and restore the older character for me with the gathering tools. Took 3-4 days but this was also before they got swamped.

[Maulclaw.4365]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> I didn't realise this was possible. Last I heard the only option was to have your whole account rolled back to a previous state, which resets everything. So it's good for things like a hacker getting into your account and deleting characters or a mistake which is picked up immediately, but not for situations like the OP where they deleted a character and a year later decided they wanted them back.

>

> But based on what was said in that topic it depends on a lot of factors. Here's a couple of bits which stood out to me:

>

> "Much like all refunds and restorations, these are on case-by-case basis, we need to check a lot of stuff (Is there a free character slot? Was the character name taken? What's the account history?) and in some cases it may not actually work. New toys, might break and all that. In some cases it might actually be better to try and ping us with an explanation of what precisely happened. The other day I had a user delete a character with an infinite mining tool, I simply replaced the tool for them, as that was much quicker a solution."

>

> "Each of these restorations is case-by-case. I cannot make any promises that any character can be restored. That said, if you feel you need to investigate a restoration, submit a ticket to us, but always keep in mind that the answer may end up being: Sorry, in your specific case, we cannot assist."

>

> "With the bags, I could not have restored them, either. It very much depends on what my logs can or cannot give me. Bags, equipped weapons, armor, stuff like that - unlikely. Stuff bought on the store - more likely."

>

> Based on that it's not surprising they're not quick to answer tickets about deleted characters, it sounds like there's a lot of stuff they need to check before they can even work out if it's possible or if they need any more information to do it. Here's a summary of what I've picked up so far:

>

> **If you want an item back which was in a character's inventory when they were deleted** - Tell Support it's the item you want, it's probably easier for them than getting the whole character back. But it depends on what the item is and where it came from (they need to make sure you actually had it first) and how long ago it was deleted.

>

> **If you want a character back** - You need an empty character slot and the name needs to be available still (so you can't be using it on another character on your account and no one else can have it either). It also depends on how old the character is and may not always be possible, if the data is completely gone. There is no guarantee that any item/s they had will be restored with them.

 

Thanks for going into more detail. I expanded a few things on my ticket. I only want the character. All of the items he had are worthless at this point due to his level. His name is available and I have a free slot. Only wish they would've answered sooner. It's been so long since I posted it.