Change of the 1 time restore policy

[Greever]

Hello everyone,

Last night I finished my 90 almace after a month of farming and about 2 mil worth of pop items and had the weapon for all of 9 seconds. After recieving the weapon, I sorted my items and the sword was droped. I proceeded to contact a GM who told me that I can not have it restored because I had previously used my restore about 4 or 5 years ago. I asked to speek to a SGM who also told me the same thing, but did submit a bug report because I did not drop the item. I now have to wait 1-6 months for the Dev's to make a decission about me getting the sword back which is not gaurenteed. I also tried in vain to ask the SGM if I could have my character restored. But this was also impossible because my account wasn't hacked.

I am posting here because I feel this policy should be changed. Its been a very very long time since I used my restore and I dont think it is a fair policy. What im suggesting is not to completly do away with the policy, but to change it. Instead of a 1 time restore, why not have it once a year, or even have a person qualify for another restore depending on the item lost.

I really hope one of the dev's reads this and takes it into consideration.

If anyone else feels like this policy should be changed, please post your opinions.

Thank you

[RAIST]

Definately needs to be revised....after all, what's the point of having a backup policy if you are never going to use it? I know it's a pain to retrieve one set of records from a catalogue...I've had to do it several times. But....that's part of the job description for the people they've hired. Also....what else is our $12.95+ every 30 days going for? Certainly not all of it is being used on FF11....need to reclaim some of that revenue from FF14 and reinvest it back into FF11.

[Concerned4FFxi]

Once a year sounds reasonable, shit does happen. I feel really bad for you bro. Someone ought to respond to this thread, the other players are watching, too.

[saevel]

That's messed up, I nearly had that happen to me. Traded in my horns to the chest, then traded the sword to the moogle. He gave me the warning then right as I hit yes and he started the animation *BAM* PC crashed. I thought I might of lost the sword, but thankfully when I logged in it was in my inventory.

[RAIST]

yeah.. if it's an actual glitch in the game or a stability issue with communications/system (things you may have no control over), there should be no question. You chucking an item by mistake is one thing.... but it's not YOUR fault the coding in the game is flaky and led to the loss of an item. In that scenario, I think they have an obligation to make things right.

[Greever]

im not depending on them restoring the item 6 months from now. im already going to start farming it again tomorrow. but this is something they should seriously consider especially for harder to obtain items

[Nynja]

How did you sort your inventory and the sword was dropped exactly?

keypad presses to sort inventory from main screen:
alt+i, keypad +, enter, arrow up, enter

keypad presses to drop a rare item, presuming last item on inventory list is said item
alt+i, enter, down arrow, enter, up arrow, enter, left arrow, enter


not even close.

[Arcon]

not even close.

I think he meant the sword was just gone, as in, a glitch? That's how I understood it.

[Nynja]

Then perhaps he called the GM asking the wrong questions...saying "it was dropped" is different from "the moogle bugged and I never got my sword".

[Greever]

no it was in my inventory and came up in my log saying i threw it away. but the almace was at the bottem/last slot in my inventory. when i hit sort i was at the top of my inventory on my prism powders.

[Afin]

Thing is they should restore that regardless, as if its their bug, you've just spent a long time upgrading that almace to 90 just to have it ripped away for a problem their end? sorry but i'd know where to tell them to stick it if mine wasnt restored

[Greever]

i already know how its going to go. their going to claim that it was my fault even if it was a bug. and they most likely wont restore it. the worst part about it is, this was my ls weapon, meaning my ls helped me build it using event times. making the second one ill have to do on my own time w/o forced help lol.

[Nynja]

making the second one ill have to do on my own time w/o forced help lol.


on my own time w/o forced help lol.


forced help

As usual, OP is a ....

[Kristal]

i already know how its going to go. their going to claim that it was my fault even if it was a bug. and they most likely wont restore it.

That's because it IS your fault and not a bug.
You cannot lose items through actual sorting, as it's done client side.
If the sword was dropped, it was because you dropped it manually. Since you just fought Apademak for the last horns, my guess is you wanted to drop Phurba (another drop from NM) since it's a DNC weapon you cannot equip, and accidentally dropped Almace instead.

This shoddy story and your attitude makes me believe you know that very well.
Ofcourse, it's a lot easier to blame SE for your mistakes, then to admit to your shell that you wasted their time by _another_ single moment of stupidity.

[JovialRat]

sorry the hear that man, they should revise the policy esp. when its not the fault of the player. hopefully you can get the item back... which is the logical thing that should happen

[Wystan]

That policy sucks and the fact that they would of looked at your log and seen that you did not choose to drop the item and still would not return it is even worse.

I used up my one time restore when i accidentally threw away the vine for the brown belt quest years ago. (thanks GM stokkwind)
Also if you have a mog tag wasn't buying that supposed to give you more restores weather your account got hacked or not?

[Krashport]

Hello everyone,

Last night I finished my 90 almace after a month of farming and about 2 mil worth of pop items and had the weapon for all of 9 seconds. After recieving the weapon, I sorted my items and the sword was droped. I proceeded to contact a GM who told me that I can not have it restored because I had previously used my restore about 4 or 5 years ago. I asked to speek to a SGM who also told me the same thing, but did submit a bug report because I did not drop the item. I now have to wait 1-6 months for the Dev's to make a decission about me getting the sword back which is not gaurenteed. I also tried in vain to ask the SGM if I could have my character restored. But this was also impossible because my account wasn't hacked.

I am posting here because I feel this policy should be changed. Its been a very very long time since I used my restore and I dont think it is a fair policy. What im suggesting is not to completly do away with the policy, but to change it. Instead of a 1 time restore, why not have it once a year, or even have a person qualify for another restore depending on the item lost.

I really hope one of the dev's reads this and takes it into consideration.

I agree that the policy should be revised, But it seems that ya made a mistake on dropping the wrong item.


no it was in my inventory and came up in my log saying i threw it away. but the almace was at the bottem/last slot in my inventory. when i hit sort i was at the top of my inventory on my prism powders.

[Brolic]

why is this even a policy, why is a there a limit? there's no reason other than laziness to not restore an item 99 times if I've dropped it 99 times.

guize, my insurance only covers one accident, im sol after the 1st.

[Sarick]

Sorry to hear this greever, I've been sitting mon my mnk emp for a year now, you're very lucky people are willing to even help you. Not having a single EMP/relic I can post with a heavy heart at your loss. My feeling is they should allow this at least once a year, but to keep people from over ABUSING it each attempt should have a service fee unless it really is a bug.

-Sarick

[Saiken253]

I completely agree on this. I haven't had this happen to me(yet, and hopefully never...) 1-time restore is unfair. It's like saying humans are allowed to only mess up once in their lifetime over anything, whether it's making a choice to eat either a doughnut for breakfast versus eating a well-balanced meal; or doing something stupid to get yourself hurt versus being sensible and not doing it; or going to a bar and going home with someone while drunk and regretting it the next day versus not going to the bar; or getting into a car accident.

Please SE, we are meager humans, give us at least 1/year item restore! make it on a specific day that the item restore will be reset if needed!

[Unleashhell]

I agree this should be a once a month or once every six month feature.

[idx1]

Or they can be smart and charge your ass for a restore service.
Win-win.

obutbalance.

[Minikom]

yeah they should change restore item policy, once every year, once every 6 months, i lost my Omphalos Bullet on 1 ws by mistake, called GM and did nothing, called SGM and did exactly same thing, i have been playing for 4-5 years now and just have 1 restore item is ridiculous!!!!

Please change this POLICY

[Alhanelem]

After recieving the weapon, I sorted my items and the sword was dropedIn all the years i've played this game, I've never heard of anything like this. Ever. Sorting and dropping are two very different processes. Now, I'm not going to say you're lying, but this is the first I've ever heard of something like this happening.

The policy is in place for a reason, so that the ability to restore lost items doesn't get abused (I could see dropping an augmented item you had to get a better one then deciding the one you had before was better and asking them to do a restore).

If you didn't manually drop the item yourself, it should not be counting agianst the limit; however I question the events described by the OP as really far-fetched. IIRC the policy allows for exceptions in extreme circumstances. If this really did happen, just be firm about it and contact them on a regular basis (like every few days, not 10 times a day) about it.

[Sarick]

In all the years i've played this game, I've never heard of anything like this. Ever. Sorting and dropping are two very different processes. Now, I'm not going to say you're lying, but this is the first I've ever heard of something like this happening.

The policy is in place for a reason, so that the ability to restore lost items doesn't get abused (I could see dropping an augmented item you had to get a better one then deciding the one you had before was better and asking them to do a restore).

If you didn't manually drop the item yourself, it should not be counting agianst the limit; however I question the events described by the OP as really far-fetched. IIRC the policy allows for exceptions in extreme circumstances. If this really did happen, just be firm about it and contact them on a regular basis (like every few days, not 10 times a day) about it.

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/ffxi-frequently-asked-questions/45033-items-disappearing-3-people-since-patch.html
This happened way way back, I also remember reading one of the updates last year has an issue with items getting lost while sorting. I don't remember where when I saw this but I do remember seeing somewhere.

[DrStrangelove]

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/ffxi-frequently-asked-questions/45033-items-disappearing-3-people-since-patch.html
This happened way way back, I also remember reading one of the updates last year has an issue with items getting lost while sorting. I don't remember where when I saw this but I do remember seeing somewhere.

Wow...you are using a "claimed" bug from 2004 as support...

Regardless, let's get real can we. I've played for 7 years and because I am a fanatic about my inventory, I sort my inventory many times each day. Ten times a day is very conservative. That's at least 24,500 sorts and I have not lost a single thing. I'm guessing that NONE of you have lost a single thing from sorting either.

Ok, but I have tossed several things by accident on 7 years...at least a few that were far from cheap. So have you.

Now, me, I don't care for people who make a mistake, not own it, then blame other people. This wasn't SE's fault.



Fine, next step...

Let's say I call SE and say....whoa nelly, I dropped 50 Montients, please restore them pronto!!

They should just do it right...not check, not question, they should just pop in the game and hand me 50 shiny gold 100's right?

Wrong....so now what. SE has to take a tech who SHOULD be helping people who are having in game issues, stop that and start pulling logs to see what really happened. Assuming there are about 2,000 people on the server at all times, they have to review probably hundreds of pages of code just to find the event.

They have to find exactly where the item left my possession...just in case...here it comes....I gave it to someone else and I didn't lose it. Or they have to go into the game and prove that I actually even HAD the item (r/ex or not) in the first place, so they don't give me something that I didn't have.

I like the thought that someone thinks that the $12.95 I pay, is so the tech can spend hours helping someone else recover the items they lost. It's not for that. If it is, I wan't a discount since I don't use the service.

Techs don't make $1.00 an hour. Two hours of a tech's times is likely the equivalent of 5 months of service. NO NO NO. They should not do this for free once a month, once every 6 months or once a year. You get ONE freebie.

What would work, is to charge the player something like $75 or $100 to do the investigation and retrieve the item. I like that. If I dropped a relic by accident, I for sure would pay $100 to get it back.

We have to get over this "wah wah wah I want it free" "please don't expect me to be responsible for my own actions" "it's your fault because you let me control my character" attitude. This is a business service and we are adults. Let's act like adults. If we left the water running all weekend by accident, we wouldn't expect the water company to not make us pay for the water. If we lost our cell phone every month, we wouldn't expect the cell phone company to give us a replacement for free.

[Seriha]

Regardless of the incident that inspired the original post, the policy needs work. From the exploitative perspective, I can understand the one-time only. They don't people trading all their stuff to their friends, claiming they got hacked, have everything restored, and then sell the duplicates. In an ideal situation where a restore is requested, the flow of all goods should be tracked to prevent such abuse.

Otherwise, I'm for a 6 month policy. Friend of mine got hacked back in August, was lucky enough to be online when it started. He kept see-sawing connectivity with POL before eventually getting his password changed on the SE site. He still lost 60+ mil in liquid gil and a number of other sellable items. Unfortunately, since he'd also been hacked in 2007, he was SOL in getting a restore. His motivation to play isn't too high anymore, I can't say I blame him. He worked hard for what he had, only for it too poof in a few minutes.

Lecturing him on internet security or urging him to get a token doesn't really help after the fact. For other instances where people accidentally do whatever to their items, an angry ex trashes your account, or whatever, some security in knowing you can get it all back in reasonable time frame would be nice.

[RAIST]

I like the thought that someone thinks that the $12.95 I pay, is so the tech can spend hours helping someone else recover the items they lost. It's not for that. If it is, I wan't a discount since I don't use the service.

It's not just that one $12.95 fee that you've paid. It's more like the 12.95 x all the months someone has played the game and not asked for restore services. Compound that with how many acccounts never even used the service. Yeah..... may be a bit out of whack. THAT is the point about the revenue they bring in vs. the level of support being offered.

And as for that tech that would be pulled off other duties....the techs (note it could be more than one involved, as different aspects of the issue will likely be departmentalized) could be hired specifically to handle the various tasks involved. Someone could be assigned specific tasks like looking into what really happened and what course of action could/should be taken, etc. Once the go-ahead is given, then it may be passed off to a DBA to conduct the restore. It could even be someone on the DBA team that would be conducting the investigation aswell, but it would first be fielded by someone in another department first and then passed off to an individual or team to investigate, evaluate, and if so assigned, to implement a course of action. This all would be part of each individual's regularly assigned duties.

As for the actual restore process, it would likely be handled by someone hired with database administration as one of their primary responsibilities (if not their only responsibility). In other words, this process could be part of their routine job duties. Such a person would have the knowledge, the tools, and the responsibility for conducting/verifying, securing, and ensuring viable backups of the database(s) take place (once established, most of this is automated for the most part), as well as for extracting data from a backup to a temp database (or in the event of catastrophic recovery, directly to the production environment--again, once established, most of this process is automated after an initial config is setup), reviewing it for integrity, scripting (or editing a template script...again, established protocol) for any needed import/update process, verifying a clean import/update took place, validating it as viable for the production environment and then reactivating the account/database. All of this would be calculated into the cost analysis for supporting the game and included in the budget that EVERYONE's 12.95+ a month helps to pay for.

Depending on the specific needs of a given organization it can get pricey (off-site data escrow services around 1k a month for a small group, annual software contract agreements for in-house backup systems, costs of media used, etc....prices can be all over the map depending on just what your needs are)--but again, all of that gets budgeted in advance and such and had been done in the scope of FFXI support to be provided for that $12.95/month based on the life expectancy of a typical user account against the likelyhood of that account needing to be restored at the time it was reviewed.

And therein lies the problem. This was a policy decision made roughly a DECADE AGO and is likely grossly outdated and in need of revision seeing how the parameters for that evaluation have likely changed. Perhaps the once-only option was viable back then for a 4 year account or something....but we are looking at much older accounts for a large sector of the playerbase now, which should call for a review of that policy. Maybe after so many years, your once-only could get a reset...otherwise you pay-as-you-go if you need it again.

Things have changed dramatically since all this was initially set up and it's about time to rethink some things.

[Sarick]

DrStrangelove what got you all bent out of shape. My response was to his "In all the years i've played this game, I've never heard of anything like this. Ever."

Don't be an extremist, my link wasn't proof of fault it was evidence that things like this have happened in the past. Now take a breather, calm down with a nice cup of milk and think about the post you just made from your "Main Job RDM lv. 1". It's almost like you take this personal as though you restore the players at SE. Even if that isn't the case it makes me feel like you're anonymous customer representative from SE all bent out of shape because people call up asking for assistance.

Using the anonymity of the web is a bad thing if you take things like this so personal that it blows your true identity. :rolleyes:

Glitchs and bugs happen, There are some players that crash and can't log back in or get stuck looping crashes. The point is this 1 time restore policy is broken and quite a few people seem to agree.

On a final note, I did state that restores shouldn't be free after one point unless it truly is a glitch or bug to prevent abuse.

[Saefinn]

I agree the policy is ridiculous. The customer service is awful and there really needs to be a rethink about it. When deciding whether or not to return one of the things I had considered was their customer service.

If say, you were charge £15 to retrieve an item, I am sure it would not cost SE £15 to do the job. As for abuse, wasting money is an incentive to not abuse it. But I'm sure if someone idiotically dropped their Emp, they'd prefer to pay £15 instead of waste hours and hours redoing it all.

[Sargent]

I've had the same thing happen to me, only it was never confirmed that I did throw my emp (it was however the most likely option). The SGM told me they could not restore it because it "interferes with quest progression" and that nothing from Trial of Magians can be restored. This part definatly needs to change, since it means that Relic and Mythic Weapons are now exempt from the one time restore as well.

I'll ask SE again, and I posted this last year when it happened: What's the point in a one time restore when the most difficult to obtain weapons (looking at Mythics), and other time-consuming weapons are exempt from it?

Luckily I did redo my Emp, so all is well now.

[Saefinn]

I like the thought that someone thinks that the $12.95 I pay, is so the tech can spend hours helping someone else recover the items they lost. It's not for that. If it is, I wan't a discount since I don't use the service.

Surely it wouldn't take hours. If the player is able to give more details of the when then can't they just check the logs see:
"Steve has dropped 1 Bar of Soap"

Then proceed to give him his bar of soap. If they don't know approximately when it was dropped they could just check through the logs and just look at his history of every item he's dropped in chronological order.

If you log your data sensibly then it shouldn't be too hard to find it, which is the whole point of databases, to save hours.

This is assuming SE logs their data sensibly, if they don't then they should fix it because I'm sure it'd help them improve their customer service. If they charged people for restoring items, there's room for profit too.

[wish12oz]

In the time you've spent complaining on these forums I bet you could be half done with Briarius solo.

[DrStrangelove]

DrStrangelove what got you all bent out of shape. My response was to his "In all the years i've played this game, I've never heard of anything like this. Ever."

Don't be an extremist, my link wasn't proof of fault it was evidence that things like this have happened in the past. Now take a breather, calm down with a nice cup of milk and think about the post you just made from your "Main Job RDM lv. 1". It's almost like you take this personal as though you restore the players at SE. Even if that isn't the case it makes me feel like you're anonymous customer representative from SE all bent out of shape because people call up asking for assistance.

Using the anonymity of the web is a bad thing if you take things like this so personal that it blows your true identity. :rolleyes:

Glitchs and bugs happen, There are some players that crash and can't log back in or get stuck looping crashes. The point is this 1 time restore policy is broken and quite a few people seem to agree.

On a final note, I did state that restores shouldn't be free after one point unless it truly is a glitch or bug to prevent abuse.

Impressive.

Rather than deal with my post, you comment on how I post, my job level and make personal attacks. Come back please when you can create a cogent argument on the merits of what I posted, rather than think personal attacks will make you right.

I'll be looking for you to post something that isn't personal or about my job level. Please do not disappoint.

[DrStrangelove]

....but we are looking at much older accounts for a large sector of the playerbase now, which should call for a review of that policy. Maybe after so many years, your once-only could get a reset...otherwise you pay-as-you-go if you need it again.

Things have changed dramatically since all this was initially set up and it's about time to rethink some things.

This is an agreeable compromise. Maybe if you have a 4+ year account, you get a second freebie. I like that idea!

[Sarick]

Impressive.

Rather than deal with my post, you comment on how I post, my job level and make personal attacks. Come back please when you can create a cogent argument on the merits of what I posted, rather than think personal attacks will make you right.

I'll be looking for you to post something that isn't personal or about my job level. Please do not disappoint.

What are you talking about? The first response you made missed the context of the original reply. I explained it when I replied to you. Apparently that response didn't sink in either. I guess the RDM LVL 1 needed to be explained better. It's not an insult to your level it's pointing out obvious troll like activity. I'm sure this isn't your main character or level you play on FFXI so it was based around someone who wants to remain shielded from what comments they post.

I know Greever from past experiences, I also know this game bugs out in strange ways. If he says something screwed up I have it in good MERIT that he honestly thinks the game screwed up. The response made by you was to discredit the reasons behind promoting this policy change and/or the player Greever. It's as simple as this, If a table has a scratch covering it with a table cloth won't make it go away it just attempts to hide it.

My reaction is as follows, I simply responded to another user post because he said he's never seen this happen ever. So, I look it up on Google where others have lost things mysteriously and copied a link. I even pointed out it was rare and this was OLD. Next thing we see is a troll post by a user hiding behind an alternate identity who appears extremely upset. I take things for what they are. The original point I made was missed, the response addressed issues on a level beyond minor interest and lastly the comment was behind a anonymous character that lacks credibility.

As for the topic, I stand behind my post that things break, a lot of times the support team just doesn't care and I support a policy change. Considering, most of what I said went woosh, the first round and second rounds, I doubt explaining anything beyond this will improve the level of communication between us. More importantly, when you feel like adding some credibility to your anonymous post get back to me. Until then don't waste my time with how experienced or qualified you are to comment on this topic.

[Behemothx]

http://www.gamemusic.ca/almace.jpg

Got that from a post you made on another site... It clearly says you dropped the item. It's not like it just vanished from your inventory. One suggestion though, why isn't your inventory auto-sort enabled? >< (In Config > Gameplay > Bottom of that section)

On a side note, SE really badly designed Trials of the magians, there should be server side records of the trials you have completed or at the very least a moogle slip of some sort that you could actually go to the moogle and have those items back again.

[SNK]

Truthfully you were stupid because you weren't paying attention. It tells you from the getgo if you're tossing a Rare/Ex tagged item that are you sure you want to do it?

Your own fault and I doubt SE will return it.

[Kristal]

You get one "get out of stupidity free" card. One.

Most people will never need it.


Otherwise, I'm for a 6 month policy. Friend of mine got hacked back in August, was lucky enough to be online when it started. He kept see-sawing connectivity with POL before eventually getting his password changed on the SE site. He still lost 60+ mil in liquid gil and a number of other sellable items. Unfortunately, since he'd also been hacked in 2007, he was SOL in getting a restore. His motivation to play isn't too high anymore, I can't say I blame him. He worked hard for what he had, only for it too poof in a few minutes.

Lecturing him on internet security or urging him to get a token doesn't really help after the fact. For other instances where people accidentally do whatever to their items, an angry ex trashes your account, or whatever, some security in knowing you can get it all back in reasonable time frame would be nice.

If your friend had gotten a token, SE would have restored his account. It's cheap, it has a definite security improvement, and it has a solid ingame bonus to tie you over.

It doesn't matter if you want it once per year or once per 6 months, there's always that one guy that needs more. And then you will be back to argue for a 3 month period.. 1 month.. 1 week..

And why stop at items actively dropped by players.. what about items lost due to inventory being 80/80 1 second before your prized item drops? Or you being dead and unable to lot on an item while everyone else has passed or has it with 10 seconds left before kickout? Or you got disconnected before the loot dropped?

[Alhanelem]

Having a security token includes a guarantee where if your account still manages to get compromised, they will restore your account and items and it won't count against the restore limit.

Anyway, you apparently have a screenshot of you actually dropping the almace, so this thread is pretty much over.

If anything, he probably had the item selected when he accidentally pressed on the dpad meaning to select a sort option but selected the yes/no for throw-away confirmation instead.

[Saefinn]

In the time you've spent complaining on these forums I bet you could be half done with Briarius solo.

He could be like I am now and was browsing the forum whilst waiting for one of the lottery spawn NM's to appear, most of it is standing around doing nothing anyway so you gotta keep yourself occupied. ;)

[Seriha]

It doesn't matter if you want it once per year or once per 6 months, there's always that one guy that needs more. And then you will be back to argue for a 3 month period.. 1 month.. 1 week..

*sigh* Sometimes I wonder if people know that Empathy is more than just a DRG merit. Let me guess, you're also against welfare because some people out there abuse it?

There was an important caveat to the adjustment, and that involved investigating account activity. The first logical step would be to check the connectivity logs. If someone's history shows them routinely logging in from, say, Washington, a sudden connection entry from China around the time they reported being hacked should be a red flag. Yet, I also stress tracking the flow of stolen goods to shut down accounts related to the thief.


And why stop at items actively dropped by players.. what about items lost due to inventory being 80/80 1 second before your prized item drops? Or you being dead and unable to lot on an item while everyone else has passed or has it with 10 seconds left before kickout? Or you got disconnected before the loot dropped?

If logs can confirm the above, why not? "Lot fast!" should never be considered a desired game feature. Most other games these days put items into a temporary inventory warning you it will be lost soon if you don't make space for it. Inventory concerns have also been one of FFXI's long-standing issues. This could also be employed to punish people who ninja gear from public loot pools. But, just like the, "Get a token!" line, I'm sure it'll be, "Only group with friends!"


Overall, 6 months is plenty of time. Not everyone's super clumsy and is dropping all their important items daily. Ideally, when one finds themselves compromised, they should also be going through their PC to find the possible cause. FFXI also has a history of fan sites being compromised by bad ads, so it's not like everyone out there was fishing for the latest and greatest mrargus and got hosed. The point isn't to punish the victims. Some smartass trades his gil supply to his best friend's account and cries wolf? Screw 'em. Such things can and should be logged and monitored.

For something that could take an intern with a specialized toolkit an hour or so to do depending on how thorough they get, the alternative is risk losing a sub and all the potential money they'd bring in the future. This is just another avenue of customer service SE needs help with.

[Sekundes]

I've never used my one-time restore out of fear that I'll use it but then need it for something even worse later. I'm glad they allow us one but I do think they should expand on it a bit. And if it's really true that you can't have a ToM item restored then the system is basically useless as most of the items really worth restoring are trial items or have their end in trials.

I'd be perfectly happy with them offering one freebie and then asking a fee for the service.

[DrStrangelove]

What are you talking about? The first response you made missed the context of the original reply. I explained it when I replied to you. Apparently that response didn't sink in either. I guess the RDM LVL 1 needed to be explained better. It's not an insult to your level it's pointing out obvious troll like activity. I'm sure this isn't your main character or level you play on FFXI so it was based around someone who wants to remain shielded from what comments they post.

I know Greever from past experiences, I also know this game bugs out in strange ways. If he says something screwed up I have it in good MERIT that he honestly thinks the game screwed up. The response made by you was to discredit the reasons behind promoting this policy change and/or the player Greever. It's as simple as this, If a table has a scratch covering it with a table cloth won't make it go away it just attempts to hide it.

My reaction is as follows, I simply responded to another user post because he said he's never seen this happen ever. So, I look it up on Google where others have lost things mysteriously and copied a link. I even pointed out it was rare and this was OLD. Next thing we see is a troll post by a user hiding behind an alternate identity who appears extremely upset. I take things for what they are. The original point I made was missed, the response addressed issues on a level beyond minor interest and lastly the comment was behind a anonymous character that lacks credibility.

As for the topic, I stand behind my post that things break, a lot of times the support team just doesn't care and I support a policy change. Considering, most of what I said went woosh, the first round and second rounds, I doubt explaining anything beyond this will improve the level of communication between us. More importantly, when you feel like adding some credibility to your anonymous post get back to me. Until then don't waste my time with how experienced or qualified you are to comment on this topic.

So this is STILL too complex for you to reply again without insults about job levels and anonymity. It's okay. I was giving you too much credit to deal with what I said.


I have to go talk with those tall, older people who use big words, so no more time to play.

Here is an easy one: Food good. Fire bad.

[Alhanelem]

sorry the hear that man, they should revise the policy esp. when its not the fault of the player. hopefully you can get the item back... which is the logical thing that should happen

Except it was the fault of the player...

The rules are strict so that people do not become cavalier about throwing items away or messing with their inventory, and use the appropriate care and caution when dealing with their valuable items.

You do not get a message "You throw away a <item>" unless you actually threw it away. If there is some kind of obscure bug that can cause items to disappear while sorting, I would be pretty sure it wouldn't produce a "you throw away a <item>" message.

[Arcon]

So this is STILL too complex for you to reply again without insults about job levels and anonymity. It's okay. I was giving you too much credit to deal with what I said.

Ad hominem attacks are a valid argumentative tool when you're trying to discredit someone. Which doesn't help when arguing facts, but it does help when you're comparing opinions. Pointing out flaws in your personality and behaviour makes us question your judgment, which makes us question your opinion. As such, there's nothing at all wrong with what he did. On the other hand, you pointing out ad hominem attacks and feeling superior about it instead of defending them when representing your opinion is just you avoiding the issue.

Having said that, you're an arrogant idiot and a hypocrite. In your post you demonstrate that you have no idea how logging and searching works. You also seem to think that people should be able to buy security. You'd pay $100 to get your relic back? What about people who can't afford that? Poor people have to pay more attention and are screwed when they fuck up? Why is one a magic number to you? Why is once ok, but twice isn't? Why not once a year? All the arguments you bring wouldn't even allow it to be done once, because we're adults and should live with the consequences, right? And then you bring ridiculous comparisons, because apparently it doesn't occur to you that restoring a virtual item doesn't cost SE a thing.

It's not hard to log item transfer (including disappearance, whether it was from throwing or using or trading/selling). It's not hard to read and trace it either. The only reason they don't allow more than one is because they don't want people to abuse it. Now let me ask, what is there to abuse? Do they believe some people will go on and toss items regularly to make more inventory space and later request them back? If so, they're paranoid. And even that would be avoided by restricting it to once a month. There's simply nothing there to abuse. Item restoration shouldn't be limited. All they're doing is preventing problems that don't exist.

[Kristal]

*sigh* Sometimes I wonder if people know that Empathy is more than just a DRG merit. Let me guess, you're also against welfare because some people out there abuse it?

You try putting yourself in the shoes of a dishonest fool, and still feel he has a point...
I'm only against giving welfare to people that can work, but don't feel like doing it.
And since we're exchanging wild accusations, I take it you're one of those PIPA/SOPA supporters then?

SE does have special toolkits to determine malicious activities, but don't underestimate the cost involved. It can cost hundreds of dollars to run a full analysis. So they only want to focus on those cases where the user has done as much as possible to prevent nasty things from happening in the first place.

In the OP's case, the damage isn't even permanent. He used his first restore, didn't learn his lesson, so he pays the price.
He can just request the sword. and hopefully take better care of it next time.


And if it's really true that you can't have a ToM item restored then the system is basically useless as most of the items really worth restoring are trial items or have their end in trials.

TOM items aren't restorable, because they are augmented. Those stats are stored with the item, so lose the item and you lose the augment. Restoring that would require a full rollback, but also leave it open to abuse. Drop your weapon, buy an alt's bone chip for 20 million on AH, then roll back to the day/week before. Even if no abuse is in play, it could mean losing hard earned items. Imagine getting that rare drop from VW, only to have it disappear on rollback...

[tyrantsyn]

To the OP

I had a some what similar thing happen to me on a pair of BLM AF pants. I finish the quest, eye ball them on the way out of Heaven's tower, Sorted inventory, and was summon off to do something else. When I return back to town to place them in my MH they were simple gone. I never raise a stink about it because I could just toss the set and do it again. But it was mildly annoying and bug me they simple vanish.

[Zumi]

Were you using that windower addon that sorts items?

[Metalgod]

SE,

How about to add a pay to restore option for Rare/EX items. This will allow you to make a small profit if players need to use the service after they use up their free one. Charge $5 dollars (US) for the service. Makes you happy in the purse and your player base happy when they lose items accidentally.

[Alhanelem]

pay to restore. LoLoLoLoL

Stop losing items accidentally. That's all there is to it. It takes enough effort to throw away an item that nobody should mess it up. The whole reason a restriction is in place is to ensure that it cannot be abused. The item restore shouldn't even be used unless you've lost stuff to unauthorized access (without a security token, since the security token allows you to be restored without counting against that limit if the account is breached) or lost something that absoliutely cannot be replaced through any in game effort (e.g. something you can only obtain once ever).

I would not pay $5 to replace a lost item. I'd suck it up and get the item again.


Were you using that windower addon that sorts items? That cannot cause that. The item was thrown away, and he had a screenshot which showed it.

[frozenbear]

I have never used my one time item restore in 9+ yrs on the game for any of my char's, and after reading your story i think i should be allowed to give you mine. so tell the GM's to give you your item back and put it on my tab :(. sorry for your loss.

[Vagrua]

A once a year item/character restoral wouldn't hurt. I would pay for the service if I had to. I'm sure others would too.

People make mistakes; we're only human.

[Unleashhell]

Not only should it be once a year but I think it should accrue from how many years you been playing if you never used the service or haven't used it in the past year. If you been playing for 8 years you should have a possible 8 times something can be restored. Personally I don't think that's asking much when pay month after month year after year. Mistakes will happen from time to time and player shouldn't feel like they lost something they worked hard for.

[FrankReynolds]

I think people are missing the point. He didn't say "I hit drop item on a prism powder, and the log said I dropped an almace."

He said "I hit sort, and the log said I dropped an almace."

Whether he actually hit "sort" or "drop" only he really knows. The fact remains that it is a R/E item that he had in his possession. It cannot be sold or traded. There is absolutely no way to abuse the system by restoring it. SE just doesn't do it because they don't want to have to do it for a bunch of other people. It all boils down to whether or not SE wants to staff the people to perform the restore, which they apparently don't. I personally think they should just schedule a restore once every 3 months, and tell people that they will review lost R/E items once every 3 months.

Anyone who has ever gonna to FFXIAH.com knows that they log all your gear. Restoring R/E items should be as simple as checking if you ever had it, and if you did, sending it to your delivery box. Its not like you can have 2 of the same R/E item. As far as the whole "Don't drop things" argument goes....Shut up.

[Tamoa]

I think people are missing the point. He didn't say "I hit drop item on a prism powder, and the log said I dropped an almace."

He said "I hit sort, and the log said I dropped an almace."

Whether he actually hit "sort" or "drop" only he really knows. The fact remains that it is a R/E item that he had in his possession.


It's all a bit odd - if the OP did indeed drop the Almace, he'd have to 1) have the Almace highlighted, and 2) confirm he wanted to drop it. If his auto sort is set to off, Almace would be at the bottom of his inventory as he received it. And he does say he was at the top of his inventory when he hit "sort".

I guess it's impossible to tell whether he's being 100% truthful or not. However, I don't see what exactly he has to gain by posting about this incident here, if it was just him screwing up and accidentally dropping the Almace.

I also think the restore policy needs changing. It should be possible to restore a lost empyrean weapon (mythic and relic too) as it's a hell of a lot of work down the drain if you mess up. And a once-per-year restore doesn't sound half bad either.

[Zerich]

you would've had to of had multiple confirmations for dropping the item that's ra/ex/whatever. they put those confirmations there for a reason.

[Seriha]

You try putting yourself in the shoes of a dishonest fool, and still feel he has a point...
I'm only against giving welfare to people that can work, but don't feel like doing it.In this particular case work had been done, but either in an accident or bug, poof, work invalidated. I'm not advocating the creating of Free Stuff(tm) to anyone that can throw a good sob story at a GM. I'm advocating SE protect and support their customers from accidents or even malicious attacks.


And since we're exchanging wild accusations, I take it you're one of those PIPA/SOPA supporters then?Because wanting to aid people stuck in a helpless situation somehow translates to supporting a 15 billion dollar industry and their crusade to censor the internet under the false assumption everyone who downloaded something illegally was gonna buy their crap. Riiiiight.


SE does have special toolkits to determine malicious activities, but don't underestimate the cost involved. It can cost hundreds of dollars to run a full analysis. So they only want to focus on those cases where the user has done as much as possible to prevent nasty things from happening in the first place."I'm sorry, judge. If you saw what she was wearing, you would've raped her too!"

Quit blaming the victim. SE has every ounce of ability to remedy these situations, nor does it cost hundreds of dollars. Token or not, anyone who's burned twice is SOL. Just because I had my car broken into a few years back and called the cops about it should not preclude me from future police assistance should I need it.


In the OP's case, the damage isn't even permanent. He used his first restore, didn't learn his lesson, so he pays the price.
He can just request the sword. and hopefully take better care of it next time.Point still missed, sorry.

[Sayomi]

I have no place to ask for this because of my own stupidity but I wasted my one time restore on something horrendously easy to acquire but when the time came when I accidentally tossed my own Black Belt I worked hard on getting I could do nothing about it and I would not remake another character for it because my character means alot to me, I even went through the trouble of making a relic weapon. You can't redo Beatin around the Bushin or id have done it by now I wish it was re-questable but its not so changing the one time restore policy would be fantastic I love MNK. So thats my story, sad and stupid, I'm well aware -_-.

[Kristal]

In this particular case work had been done, but either in an accident or bug, poof, work invalidated. I'm not advocating the creating of Free Stuff(tm) to anyone that can throw a good sob story at a GM. I'm advocating SE protect and support their customers from accidents or even malicious attacks.
The one-time restore policy protects against accidents, not stupidity. And SE has put forth measures to protect people against malicious attacks, the security token is a very powerful tool for that.


Because wanting to aid people stuck in a helpless situation somehow translates to supporting a 15 billion dollar industry and their crusade to censor the internet under the false assumption everyone who downloaded something illegally was gonna buy their crap. Riiiiight.
I thought we were exchanging wild accusations?


"I'm sorry, judge. If you saw what she was wearing, you would've raped her too!"
I thought we were discussing unlimited restores here, not justifying salvage duping?


Quit blaming the victim. SE has every ounce of ability to remedy these situations, nor does it cost hundreds of dollars. Token or not, anyone who's burned twice is SOL. Just because I had my car broken into a few years back and called the cops about it should not preclude me from future police assistance should I need it.
Oh, you can bet it costs that much. I do this kind of stuff for a living, you know...
And again going on a wild tangent...


Point still missed, sorry.
Oh, the point is spot on.. given that that is exactly what the OP has done.




I have no place to ask for this because of my own stupidity but I wasted my one time restore on something horrendously easy to acquire but when the time came when I accidentally tossed my own Black Belt I worked hard on getting I could do nothing about it and I would not remake another character for it because my character means alot to me, I even went through the trouble of making a relic weapon. You can't redo Beatin around the Bushin or id have done it by now I wish it was re-questable but its not so changing the one time restore policy would be fantastic I love MNK. So thats my story, sad and stupid, I'm well aware -_-.

That quest not being requestable should be fixed, the belt is pretty much a vital piece on MNK. You should make a seperate topic about it in the MNK forum.

[Arcon]

The one-time restore policy protects against accidents, not stupidity.

Bolded the mistake. It protects against one accident. No plural. "One" in this scenario is just a completely arbitrary number. Why is once an accident but twice is stupidity?


Oh, you can bet it costs that much. I do this kind of stuff for a living, you know...

It doesn't, either you're doing something else or you're just ripping people off. No two minute effort should cost hundreds of dollars. Searching a log for an item name to see where it went is not hard. It's not like they have to wade through terabytes of data manually and read every line or mine for deleted hard disk data. They ask you to specify a time and place for when you lost it so they can check a log in a specific place. Unless you can tell me why that should take more than two minutes to confirm, cost is not an argument.

[RAIST]

...we're also talking the DBA's actual pay per hour from the company, not the billable rate the company would charge a client for their services (ie: your pay is $20 an hour, but they bill the county $40 an hour plus your travel time/mileage to the site for recovering their data server). Your regular pay is static and already worked into the budget, not an additional cost to the company per incident, so it doesn't cost them anything extra per incident--it is costing the company the same amount for the same time slot whether you are researching for a restore or doing routine maintenance.

[Rezeak]

I think a there should be as many 1 time item restores as a GM deems necessary espically with bs like relic, emp and mythics.

[FrankReynolds]

They could easily set up the query to automatically run once a month based on time / dates that people have put into a request form. This is really lowtech stuff for any DBA. The DBAs at SE must be making multi million dollar salaries for this to cost hundreds of dollars.

[Economizer]

Bumping to bring attention to this with a personal bit (not that it was important before).

Currently having to decide about item restoration over selling a very expensive item to an NPC on accident. I have to think "What if I finally get a Kraken Club in the future and accidentally sell it?"

I know I won't be making this same mistake for a long time, but I just feel that once is too few times. I now have to make a one time decision about the future of my character... the only other time I've had to make such a decision is when I created my character.

This policy should be changed to have a cooldown. Obviously we don't want abuse but this feature is too important to "only use once" ever. Players need a safety net against stupid mistakes.

[Alhanelem]

You're lucky they'll restore items at all. If they allowed more frequent item restores, players would be bugging GMs every time they threw something away then changed their mind about it and regretted it. It's intended to allow you to recover from a major slip up while also encouraging you to be cautious and not to depend on GMs as a safety net, as well as keeping the sanity of the GM staff.

Many games don't do it at all, because they would get bogged down with requests for it.

All the game really needs is a buyback feature for NPC shops, like every other game has. That would eliminate a huge chunk of accidental losses.

[RAIST]

You're lucky they'll restore items at all. If they allowed more frequent item restores, players would be bugging GMs every time they threw something away then changed their mind about it and regretted it. It's intended to allow you to recover from a major slip up while also encouraging you to be cautious and not to depend on GMs as a safety net, as well as keeping the sanity of the GM staff.

Many games don't do it at all, because they would get bogged down with requests for it.

All the game really needs is a buyback feature for NPC shops, like every other game has. That would eliminate a huge chunk of accidental losses.

That is an interesting idea. But you know how SE is. They'd have to generate a log of all the R/E stuff we've managed to get our hands on (to determine what replacements would be available to us). Just don't know if they'd be interested in going through the hassle, even if it was something kept completely serverside in each of our profiles. Would be a great idea for them to consider though. Could set it up for one of the goblins who already serve limited purposes (like one we can get the ACP key items from and such).

[Anapingofness]

Man that sucks. They really should restore your lost item.

Seriously, shit happens. Was it an accident or a bug? Does it really matter? They should restore the item, end of discussion.

There is no reason for them not to restore your item. Especially since this is a pay to play game. In my opinion, you're basically entitled to better service because you're paying to play it.

[Alhanelem]

Seriously, shit happens. Was it an accident or a bug? Does it really matter? They should restore the item, end of discussion. No, they shouldn't, because it sets a precedent that you can just throw stuff away and get it back. If they do it for anyone who asks, people can and will abuse it intentionally. Give someone an inch and they'll take a mile, I think the expression was.

Most games do not restore items (or place strong limits on it as FFXI), and there are reasons why. Among them is if there are never ever any consequences for mistakes, people will not learn to not make them.

Finally, paying to play does not entitle you to get whatever you want when you want. You agreed to a set of terms and conditions when you started paying to play.

I pay SE $12.95 a month (well $7 for this and next month)! If I can't beat this boss, I should be able to tell SE to make it dead for me. After all, it's my $12.95! I can get what I want when I want!

[Arcon]

No, they shouldn't, because it sets a precedent that you can just throw stuff away and get it back. If they do it for anyone who asks, people can and will abuse it intentionally. Give someone an inch and they'll take a mile, I think the expression was.

Why? What would be the reasoning behind it? Would people just start throwing things away randomly to bother a GM to restore it again? What if it's limited to once a year, would people still do it and be like "oh it's np, I only tossed three items this year, so I'll be able to get it back before 2015"? I cannot imagine neither how anyone would abuse it nor why. Use the restore service as additional storage? It seems like a completely unlikely scenario thing to happen.


Most games do not restore items (or place strong limits on it as FFXI), and there are reasons why. Among them is if there are never ever any consequences for mistakes, people will not learn to not make them.

That is incorrect because these are not calculated mistakes. I don't think anyone ever said "oh I'll toss this black belt, because it doesn't seem that good and I need the inventory" (unless you're secretely Rosina), but they all happen on accident. So how is this one-time policy helping people now? When they're drunk do they suddenly remember the policy and are like "oh I should sober up before I handle my inventory"? Or when they're selling a shitload of Voidlogs to the NPC and keep spamming the sell option, do they suddenly remember to pay more attention because they can only restore an item once? No, that's not going to happen. These are mistakes that happen in distraction and confusion, and no policy will ever help prevent those. All the one-time policy currently does is cause grief for people who happen to make this mistake more than once.


Finally, paying to play does not entitle you to get whatever you want when you want. You agreed to a set of terms and conditions when you started paying to play.

Yes, players are also not entitled to any service at all, neither to quality content, nor game balance, nor entertainment. Players are not entitled to anything. That doesn't mean they shouldn't get any of these things. Restoring items would fall under quality service. It's what makes customers happy and it doesn't cost them anything nor does it hurt anyone else. I'm pretty sure they came up with the one-time policy to prevent abuse, which, as I stated before, seems pointless, as no one would have any motivation to abuse it. And if they just allowed it once a year, that would make abuse impossible as well and it would make many people very happy.

[Zumi]

Most games do not restore items (or place strong limits on it as FFXI), and there are reasons why. Among them is if there are never ever any consequences for mistakes, people will not learn to not make them.


Have you ever played Wow?

Blizzard gives you basically unlimited restores on items. If you accidentally tossed something, disenchanted, sold something to a npc and the buy back timer expired, they will restore the item even if it happened a couple months ago. All you have to do is send in a ticket with a GM. They will also give you back characters you delete too if you want them restored.

For example 3 months ago my friend sold a Souldrinker which drops from Deathwing to a NPC because he thought he would never use it on his DK because he liked 2 handed weapons better. Tunes out he got another 1 handed weapon from Morchok and well dualwielding 2 one hand weapons was better, he sent in a ticket to a GM to get his Souldrinker restored and they restored it even though he sold it 3 months ago.

So you can't say most games don't allow it. Just that I don't think SE wants to go above and beyond and provide that much customer service.

[Alhanelem]

Have you ever played Wow?

Blizzard gives you basically unlimited restores on items. If you accidentally tossed something, disenchanted, sold something to a npc and the buy back timer expired, they will restore the item even if it happened a couple months ago. All you have to do is send in a ticket with a GM. They will also give you back characters you delete too if you want them restored.

So you can't say most games don't allow it.
WoW is one game, not most games. Yes, practically every game out there copies WoW in lots of ways, but policies are not one of them.

[Mifaco]

Would it really be that gamebreaking to allow one item restore per year? The idea that once you use your freebie you're thrown to the wolves is pretty ridiculous

[Sarutomi]

I agree that the policy should be changed mostly for relic, empyrean, or mythic weapons since they are difficult to reattain. Other items like kraken club or very rare items in that category should be able to get back too.

[Fupafighter]

Best thing I have heard was charge us for the recovery of an item lol. $10 seems fair for w.e you want returned to you. This ONE time thing can be devastating, if it was a bug, or if you accidentally droped an item. I know that if say I had a mythic and it accidentally hit the floor, I would scream and basically quit knowing they won't give me the option to get a recovery on 6 months to a years worth of work.

[SpankWustler]

I'm really curious what business reasons there could be for making the item restore a one-time thing rather than an annual thing. If it truly takes a concentrated and prolonged effort for an SE employee to look through a log and confirm the item in question was somehow destroyed, somebody made a mistake roughly one decade ago that puts the mistake made by anyone accidentally tossing an item to shame.

Of course, that doesn't make the scenario impossible. Just really depressing.


secretely Rosina

This phrase gives me the most horrifying mental image ever.

Some poor guy wakes up in the morning to discover that, from every pore in his body, a thick and barely cognizant slime has been seeping all night. He tries to phone for help, but the numbers no longer make sense though the gelatinous haze of limited competence. Soon, even the idea of calling for help fades. Instead, a "sosage and pooparooni" pizza is ordered because that's who was contacted through randomly mashing buttons.

Sadly, the pizza place is two states over in North Dakota and, even if it were right next door, he somehow gave them the address of a plumbing supply store instead of his house. There will be no sosage. There will be no pooparooni.

[Jamesy]

i honestly laugh about the almace premise as being a reason for you to want more then 1 restore for your account but i do agree we need more then 1 use. my account was hacked 3 years ago and 3 mil worth of gear was taken and my characters server was switched. i did however get se to roll my account back and switch me back to my server but it did still cost me $25 for server switch which i believe is unjust and insane as well is used up my 1 time restore which i also believe is bull dooty.

[Sp1cyryan]

Would it really be that gamebreaking to allow one item restore per year? The idea that once you use your freebie you're thrown to the wolves is pretty ridiculous

Nothing to do with breaking the game. It has to do with "how can we get away with having less staff than we really should have". It is just another corner for a business to cut and save some money.

[Kaych]

Definately needs to be revised....after all, what's the point of having a backup policy if you are never going to use it? I know it's a pain to retrieve one set of records from a catalogue...I've had to do it several times. But....that's part of the job description for the people they've hired. Also....what else is our $12.95+ every 30 days going for? Certainly not all of it is being used on FF11....need to reclaim some of that revenue from FF14 and reinvest it back into FF11.

That is a very good question: "What does our 12.95$ go to?" It certanly isnt exiting, new content thats for sure -.-

[BurnNotice]

The 1-restore policy need to be change. It should be circumstantial. Things like relic/empy/mythic weapons are not easy items to get. It took the time of the person and the people who was willing to help. By not restoring the item, it's more than just a slap in the face for the player, but to everyone who have contributed to it.

Seriously FFXI Dev., GMs, SGM, Producer, whoever, PLEASE CHANGE THIS to a circumstantial policy to allow people to get their important, hard-earned items back.

[Hercule]

Every "ex" items, should be unlimited on restore, cant hurt
for non "ex" its problematic, duplicate shit etc...

To throw away or NPC sell importants items SE should made something like
"Throw away a Kraken club?"
->YES
"Are you sure"
-> YES
"Hold the button 3 seconds to validate your choice"

Hard to mistake this imo

[Sayomi]

Update! GM restored my Blackbelt 5 days ago, asked me to change my title as proof and created one in my inventory, praise be!

[Tamoa]

Update! GM restored my Blackbelt 5 days ago, asked me to change my title as proof and created one in my inventory, praise be!

That's great news, grats to you and a thank you to the GM. :)

[Alhanelem]

Every "ex" items, should be unlimited on restore, cant hurt
for non "ex" its problematic, duplicate shit etc...

To throw away or NPC sell importants items SE should made something like
"Throw away a Kraken club?"
->YES
"Are you sure"
-> YES
"Hold the button 3 seconds to validate your choice"

Hard to mistake this imo
You can have 100 confirmation steps and someone will still find a way to call it an accident.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I think it should be changed, as far as I know it it's once for your whole career right?

Personally I think it should be once every year, or six months, Mistakes will happen no matter how hard you pretend otherwise.

[bungiefanNA]

My issue is that if a cell phone rings within 6 feet of my PS2 controller (on PC or PS2), the controls wig out and it presses random buttons. I've had it drop items before, though at least it was something like distilled water. I've tried multiple different controllers, and it's happened with all of them with both of the Nokia phones I've had. As my computer and PS2 are in the living room, it's hard to make it a cell-phone-free zone.

[Jhanaka]

Hello Folks!

The Item Restore policy is one that was created many moons ago, I remember when it was first introduced 6 years ago. At that time, item restores were a very popular request and we did not want the system to be abused so limitations were placed.

I believe that everyone has made some valid points and the policy is worth reviewing. I will start the process but cannot make any guarantees that the policy can be changed; this would be a global policy revamp, so the process can take a bit a time.

We are always looking for ways to improve and you have a very strong voice. I will be happy to pass on your thoughts. Another avenue you can use to share any policy changes, please submit feedback through our Support Center (http://support.na.square-enix.com/contacttop.php?id=20&la=1); rest assured the emails are read on a daily basis and many things have changed from your suggestions (Chocobo Riding Levels, NM placement/spawning, drop rates, etc.).

-Senior Game Master Jhanaka

[wildsprite]

Techs don't make $1.00 an hour. Two hours of a tech's times is likely the equivalent of 5 months of service. NO NO NO. They should not do this for free once a month, once every 6 months or once a year. You get ONE freebie.

What would work, is to charge the player something like $75 or $100 to do the investigation and retrieve the item. I like that. If I dropped a relic by accident, I for sure would pay $100 to get it back.

you must be living in some sort of dream world if you believe it cost that much for a single tech for 2 hours of time, I assure you it does not.


The 1-restore policy need to be change. It should be circumstantial. Things like relic/empy/mythic weapons are not easy items to get. It took the time of the person and the people who was willing to help. By not restoring the item, it's more than just a slap in the face for the player, but to everyone who have contributed to it.

Seriously FFXI Dev., GMs, SGM, Producer, whoever, PLEASE CHANGE THIS to a circumstantial policy to allow people to get their important, hard-earned items back.

this I agree with, make it dependent on circumstances rather than an unbending policy

[Zirael]

[...]
I believe that everyone has made some valid points and the policy is worth reviewing. I will start the process but cannot make any guarantees that the policy can be changed; this would be a global policy revamp, so the process can take a bit a time.

We are always looking for ways to improve and you have a very strong voice. I will be happy to pass on your thoughts. Another avenue you can use to share any policy changes, please submit feedback through our Support Center (http://support.na.square-enix.com/contacttop.php?id=20&la=1); rest assured the emails are read on a daily basis and many things have changed from your suggestions (Chocobo Riding Levels, NM placement/spawning, drop rates, etc.).

-Senior Game Master Jhanaka
Hi SGM Jhanaka, sorry to bump an old thread, but would you be able to update us on the outcome of the one-time restore policy review? Is it in the works to improve it, or was the idea rejected by the senior brass?

[Mirage]

You get one "get out of stupidity free" card. One.

Most people will never need it.



If your friend had gotten a token, SE would have restored his account. It's cheap, it has a definite security improvement, and it has a solid ingame bonus to tie you over.

It doesn't matter if you want it once per year or once per 6 months, there's always that one guy that needs more. And then you will be back to argue for a 3 month period.. 1 month.. 1 week..

And why stop at items actively dropped by players.. what about items lost due to inventory being 80/80 1 second before your prized item drops? Or you being dead and unable to lot on an item while everyone else has passed or has it with 10 seconds left before kickout? Or you got disconnected before the loot dropped?

Yes, you are precisely right. Why stop there?

Why shouldn't we be able to pick up any item that we dropped? It would be like the recycle bin in your operating system. Are recycle bins a bad idea too? The item was dropped, not sold or traded to a NPC or a player. There's no duping of items or gil going on here, a dropped item is just removed with nothing gained back. What harm would there be in being able to pick up someteing like the last 10 dropped items as long as you didn't leave the zone?

I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to acquire items lost from the loot pool due to full inventory either. Why the heck shouldn't you be able to get loot that was lost because you got disconnected, as long as it didn't auto-drop to a different player? Why should a technical issue like that ruin things for players?

[Jhanaka]

Zirael >> The wheels of change move very slowly, my friend. The suggestion was submitted during a recent review of all of our policies and procedures. The idea of removing the restriction was mentioned but it is still open for debate.

To everyone:
Do not be afraid to ask for another item restore as the SGMS do have some flexibility on some exceptions. If someone were to have thrown a Bibiki Seashell. many years ago and then dropped their Mythic, an exception "may" be made, but it is not a guarantee. The GM staff is also limited on which items we can/cannot restore - for example an item you can only use once a day will not be restored due to the internal data stored.

I am sorry for the lack of a reply before now, but your request is still on the table, so thank you for checking back. =)

-SGM Jhanaka

[FrankReynolds]

Zirael >> The wheels of change move very slowly, my friend. The suggestion was submitted during a recent review of all of our policies and procedures. The idea of removing the restriction was mentioned but it is still open for debate.

To everyone:
Do not be afraid to ask for another item restore as the SGMS do have some flexibility on some exceptions. If someone were to have thrown a Bibiki Seashell. many years ago and then dropped their Mythic, an exception "may" be made, but it is not a guarantee. The GM staff is also limited on which items we can/cannot restore - for example an item you can only use once a day will not be restored due to the internal data stored.

I am sorry for the lack of a reply before now, but your request is still on the table, so thank you for checking back. =)

-SGM Jhanaka

If only all responses were this well written... Kudos to you sir. Thanks you for the great explanation.

[detlef]

If someone were to have thrown a Bibiki Seashell. many years ago and then dropped their Mythic, an exception "may" be made, but it is not a guarantee.Thank you for stating this. I used my restore on Marduk's Shalwar a couple of years ago and boy do I regret that now. I'm also a bit of an idiot so throwing away a very valuable item is not outside the realm of possibility. It's nice to know that if the worst does occur I can still pursue it.