Player Associations Archive
Thread: The Character Purge and PAs FAQ
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Rothin
Sun Oct 03, 2004 9:19 am
#1
As was announced a few weeks ago, starting in the month of October 2004, SOE will begin doing a monthly Character purge of the SWG Databases across the server. The purpose of this purge is to remove any characters or objects (items in their inventory, houses, harvesters, character names, etc...) that are on accounts that have been cancelled for 6 or more consecutive months. The purge is intended to cleanse out the database on the servers to allow new players to join the servers and hopefully increase the performance overall of the current servers.
The first purge is targeted for October, due to the imminent release of Jump to Lightspeed and the expected influx of new players stepping into the world of Star Wars for the first time or those returning who were awaiting space combat with bated breath. We've seen the beginning of many changes to the database to increase their performance as of late (The vendor storage changes) and we can probably expect to see more changes in the future in their on going efforts to improve the game.
Now... I've strayed a bit off course, but time to get back on track! What everyone reading this forum is concerned about, how will the purge affect my PA?!?! While information is still limited to exactly what will happen, this FAQ will attempt to answer commonly asked questions with the information we currently have and I will try to keep this guide updated as the Developers release more information regarding it. So let's get to it!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What will happen if our guild leader is purged?
A: The PA will remain unaffected by this change. The leadership position of your guild will simply become "vacant" and allow a new person (Who the guild will vote in) to move into the position just like if the person had decided to leave the guild with /guildremove. For more information on changing the guild leader, please see my Allegiance FAQ.
Q: If our guild leader or the owner of the PA Hall is purged, will we lose our PA too?
A: No! The PA Hall is simply a structure with a guild terminal inside of it. The PA exists separately from the actual Hall on the server and once the Hall is used to initially create the guild, it's simply a means to access the guild terminal to administer the guild. A new PA Hall can be placed at any time by any member of the guild and will tie into and acts like the original guild terminal, even if you change planets.
Q: What do we do to prepare for the purge?
A: This answer is multiple folds, but I'll try to cover what steps I would take to prepare.
If the guild leader is the one who owns the PA Hall and is inactive:
- First, check to find out if your guild leader has been inactive for 6 months and if they have, or you think he/she may have been, then begin to prepare as if you know they have been.
- Second, once you have determined inactivity, a new leader should be chosen by the guild and elected into the position. See Setting a New Guild Leader FAQ for more information.
- Third, once you have set the guild leader, the new leader or someone in the guild should purchase a new PA Hall to place. It will be needed to continue to add new members and administer the guild in the future after the old one is purged.
- Fourth, if anyone has access to the old PA Hall, begin moving any important objects, such as guild items, decorations, and even the credits on the maintenance pool from the old hall to the newly placed one to protect those items from being deleted. If no one has access to the PA Hall Admin list, then unfortunately you won't be able to save those items, but you will still have your new PA Hall and a new leader to begin anew once the purge has taken place and the knowledge that your PA is safe and under your control once more.
The guild leader is active, but the PA Hall is owned by an inactive account or a 'cross server lot swap account:'
- If this is the case, you should prepare and follow the fourth step from the guide above. Since your guild leader is active you have no need to worry about selecting a new leader and just need to worry about the guild hall. Simply place a new PA Hall and begin moving items if you can.
- A special note: If your PA Hall is owned by an account from a lot swap from another server, I would suggest that you prepare as if that PA hall is owned by an inactive account. Since they do not normally play your server, they may have been inactive on their account for 6 months and you'd have no way of knowing. Please take the precautions now, trusting the cross server swaps after this purge is not recommended.
New FAQ may be added once people ask them in this thread and I will update it as needed over time. With those questions above in mind, it seems like a lot of work to prepare for it. However, being prepared now will save you a lot of headaches and pain for the guild in the future. Not everything about this purge is bad either; there are both pros and cons to this. In the next section of this FAQ, I'm going to cover what I feel will be the benefits.
PROS AND CONS
The Downside:
- Obviously, since this will cause a lot of work on the part of some guilds and players to prepare for this, it is a pain and a headache for them to try to remedy. That is the main con for this situation.
- Guild item loss for those guilds that will lose their PA hall and are unable to retrieve the items within.
The Upside:
- More Database space! (Should eventually feel this impact game wide on performance and hopefully player storage in the future!)
- Frees more room for growth by guilds with new players coming into the game.
- Access to new names that were previously unavailable in the database.
- It will help remove inactives from guilds! This will help clean up the list for those guilds out there who don't normally remove inactive people or who are too large to manually do it. A small impact PA Leaders have been requesting for some time.
- It will allow some guilds who were unable to elect a new guild leader due to so many inactives a chance to finally retake their guild.
If you have more pros or cons or FAQs to add to the list! Or you just want to discuss them? Reply to the thread and we'll go over each one and add to the list and make this something everyone needs to read in regards to the purge.
Want more PA information: Read Jascentia's Guild/PA Encyclopedia.
DathoImilli
Wed Oct 06, 2004 11:50 am
#3
Rothin wrote:
- A special note: If your PA Hall is owned by an account from a lot swap from another server, I would suggest that you prepare as if that PA hall is owned by an inactive account. Since they do not normally play your server, they may have been inactive on their account for 6 months and you'd have no way of knowing. Please take the precautions now, trusting the cross server swaps after this purge is not recommended.
Our guildhall is on what I beleive to be a lot swap. We have no way of contacting the individual because noone knows who they are or what server they are from. Since we don't know if the account has been inactive or not for 6 months we are taking steps to make sure we don't lose everything inside the hall.
I have placed a temporary PA hall near the original. Over the next couple days, everything will be moved from the original hall to the temp hall. Once that is done, we will be removing all maintenance from the hall/treasury. This not only protects us against losing everything ifthe hall is purged with the character, but if the character is still considered active it will cause the PA hall to be destroyeddue tolack of maintenance.
Either way we will be able to place a new PA hall with a known owner in the same spot as our original hall, rather than lose the prime real estate.
Just an idea for any of you that are in the same prediciment.
WiskeDarkmoon
Sun Feb 20, 2005 9:53 pm
#4
"The guild leader is active, but the PA Hall is owned by an inactive account or a 'cross server lot swap account:'
- If this is the case, you should prepare and follow the fourth step from the guide above. Since your guild leader is active you have no need to worry about selecting a new leader and just need to worry about the guild hall. Simply place a new PA Hall and begin moving items if you can.
- A special note: If your PA Hall is owned by an account from a lot swap from another server, I would suggest that you prepare as if that PA hall is owned by an inactive account. Since they do not normally play your server, they may have been inactive on their account for 6 months and you'd have no way of knowing. Please take the precautions now, trusting the cross server swaps after this purge is not recommended."
This is the situation we are in, and I really really dont want to move all the stuff out of our guild hall. My question, has anyone ever gotten a CSR/is it possiable to , to swap the ownership of the guild hall?
Im not hopeful and should really be packing, but I thought I'd just ask first, thanks for any input.
- If this is the case, you should prepare and follow the fourth step from the guide above. Since your guild leader is active you have no need to worry about selecting a new leader and just need to worry about the guild hall. Simply place a new PA Hall and begin moving items if you can.
- A special note: If your PA Hall is owned by an account from a lot swap from another server, I would suggest that you prepare as if that PA hall is owned by an inactive account. Since they do not normally play your server, they may have been inactive on their account for 6 months and you'd have no way of knowing. Please take the precautions now, trusting the cross server swaps after this purge is not recommended."
This is the situation we are in, and I really really dont want to move all the stuff out of our guild hall. My question, has anyone ever gotten a CSR/is it possiable to , to swap the ownership of the guild hall?
Im not hopeful and should really be packing, but I thought I'd just ask first, thanks for any input.
Message Edited by WiskeDarkmoon on 02-20-2005 08:54 PM
Rothin
Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:51 am
#5
WiskeDarkmoon wrote:
"The guild leader is active, but the PA Hall is owned by an inactive account or a 'cross server lot swap account:'
- If this is the case, you should prepare and follow the fourth step from the guide above. Since your guild leader is active you have no need to worry about selecting a new leader and just need to worry about the guild hall. Simply place a new PA Hall and begin moving items if you can.
- A special note: If your PA Hall is owned by an account from a lot swap from another server, I would suggest that you prepare as if that PA hall is owned by an inactive account. Since they do not normally play your server, they may have been inactive on their account for 6 months and you'd have no way of knowing. Please take the precautions now, trusting the cross server swaps after this purge is not recommended."
This is the situation we are in, and I really really dont want to move all the stuff out of our guild hall. My question, has anyone ever gotten a CSR/is it possiable to , to swap the ownership of the guild hall?
Im not hopeful and should really be packing, but I thought I'd just ask first, thanks for any input.
Message Edited by WiskeDarkmoon on 02-20-2005 08:54 PM
CSRs won't be able to swap ownership of a structure to another person without that persons permission to do so (In which case they'd be able to transfer it themselves.) The main reason being if that person came back to the game and then said "Where is my house?" and the CSR gave it to someone else.. becomes a CS nightmare.
I'd start packing up unfortunately.
benskywalker1
Mon Feb 21, 2005 8:40 am
#6
Rothin
I have a question about this. Our true guild leader has been gone for a long time and the account that the PA Hall exists on is no longer active so I know we would get slapped with this. Is there a person in particular or an address in which they person could send an 'authorization' to transfer the house to someone else so that it does not disappear?
Edit ** As well as an authorization to change the guild leader. We have far too many people that only play every few weeks and can't get enough people to pledge their allegiance to him to become the guild leader.
Thanks
Ysary
Message Edited by benskywalker1 on 02-21-2005 10:43 AM
Rothin
Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:05 am
#7
CSRs do not have the ability to transfer leadership of a guild from one person to another, the ONLY way for that to happen is to use the allegiance method. So they won't be able to help you there. If someone in the guild has the ability to remove members, remove all the inactives and then keep trying. That's really the only option.
CSRs are also not allowed to transfer ownership of a structure, so there isn't anywhere you can send a request. It just opens too many possibilities for complaints and a ton of players would try to abuse it to take someone elses structure so I would think that's a firm "Sorry, we can't do that." I mean, you can ask but I don't think they're allowed to do it.
The only thing you can do is try to pack up the structure and have someone in the guild place a new Guild hall and move everything in it. Once that person uses the terminal once, the entire guild can use it just like the original so that in of itself shouldn't be too difficult, assuming someone has admin on the original.
On another note.. right now the Character Purge is still a ways off. There isn't any set date for it to happen and we'll be told in advance when it is scheduled so you're safe for now, but better to go ahead and make preperations.
WiskeDarkmoon
Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:12 am
#8
As id feared 
Thanks so much for the help Rothin. Your doing a great job as correspondent. 
Thanks so much for the help Rothin. Your doing a great job as correspondent.
benskywalker1
Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:38 am
#9
Yep thanks for the information. I guess we will keep trying on the set allegiance thing....even if it is near impossible.
Rothin
Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:38 pm
#10
benskywalker1 wrote:
Yep thanks for the information. I guess we will keep trying on the set allegiance thing....even if it is near impossible.
It's on my top list of things to get squashed. I've been constantly asking for the same voting rules cities use for PAs so people can register to run against the guild leader and then only active votes count after. It'd completely solve our issue. Whenever someone registers it would send a guild wide email so people were aware of it and could vote.
StarNick
Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:30 pm
#11
October 2004? And then being targeted October...
Do you mean the first one will beOctober 2005?
Fodder650
Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:31 pm
#12
Actually they announed this oct 2004. At the same time saying that there would be a mail purge of any emails older then 6 months. Neither has happened. My belief is that we havent seen anything happen because when this was announced the cries of "What about the soldiers overseas who have there accounts on hold". And because of that this was put on hold.
There has been talk of this recently by the devs in the last month or two that its time is coming.
And yes i have been following it closely
Rothin
Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:54 pm
#13
It's going to happen, that I can pretty much assure you. It's just a question of "when." That's what none of us know at the moment but it's still best to go ahead and make all our preperations now so that when it does happen we won't all be hit dumbfounded and unprepared since we'll have at least 6 months warning at this point.
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