To All Staff & Players.. =)

[Orbit Storm]

Excelsior,

To start off, I'd like to thank you all, for welcoming my Fiancé (Jaydacia) and I, into this shard. Thus far, it has been a truly amazing experience. I consider myself quite the veteran of UO, having played it for over 10 years, both OSI servers, and free shards alike.

Frankly, Excelsior was nothing like I expected. Only a week ago, was the first I had logged into a UO server since October of '07. I had lost interest, and grown to be disgusted with the drama that centered around most free shards. Upon logging into Excelsior, I was instantly greeted by dozens of players, new and veteran, and given numerous offers for some form of help and advice.

It was almost like walking into a bar full of friends and family, knowing that when you walk through the door, it is going to be just as comfortable as walking into your own abode. (Okay, I admit, that was probably a poor example... )

In the last few days I've been on this server, Excelsior has made a lasting impression on me, and has grown to be a particularly large interest in my.. well, rather dull days these last few weeks.

Which brings me to my next topic:

Being inactive.

Now, those were probably poorly chosen words; so let me clarify them.

Jaydacia and I are currently in the process of moving, have been for the last few weeks actually, and have taken a good amount of time the past few days to relax and dabble in the likes of Excelsior.

Unfortunately, we have scheduled our ISP to shut off our internet access as of today (October 14th) to prevent another monthly bill before we move. Optimistically, it won't be turned off for another few days (according to the customer support rep I spoke with), due to the system not automatically checking our requested suspension date.

However, regardless of whether or not our internet will be shut off today or later this week, we fully intend to make a return as soon as we are settled. Excelsior and its infinitely talented radio DJs would be a nice break from the ruckus of moving.

So in short, we request (Jaydacia and I), that staff respectively keep our accounts (and home) active until we return. At the latest, it could be a few weeks until we manage to set up a new internet connection in our new home. But either way, we would greatly appreciate it if Excelsior's finest would notate our accounts in some way, so that it prevents them from being removed, and especially house dropped.

We both plan to be long time players here at Excelsior, providing the server continues to run.

I'd greatly appreciate some form of acknowledgement from staff that you've read this post, and (hopefully) intend to maintain our accounts in an active fashion.

Thank you, Colibri, Hina, Veritas, the rest of the staff and all of you at Excelsior!

Sincerely,

~Orbit Storm
~Jaydacia

[slyshyone]

I wish the best for you 2 while moving. I have been down this road 3 or 4 times and moving is never fun. Well I hope to see you 2 back real soon

[Orbit Storm]

Well that is greatly appreciated... =)

[Orbit Storm]

Just checking in to see if any staff has read over the post? Or at least the request? =)

[+Rayne]

Your accounts will be perfectly safe. We hope to have you back with us as soon as possible.

+Rayne

[Orbit Storm]

Thank you, Rayne. =)

Your reply was very much appreciated by the both of us. So far, we maintain an active internet connection, but who knows when they will finally disconnect it.

As I said, we will be sure to be back as soon as possible.

Thanks again!

-Orbit

[+Colibri]

Sorry to leave you hanging,

Well we don't provide any service where we'd keep an account active, though i might manually refresh a player's account, but it would be an exception... for example if that person had some special credit with the shard, or a really old veteran. It's not something that you can request, it's something that may just happen. Can also prevent houses from falling, but that again only applies for special houses (not those who get requested, but those we see fit, but it's a really rare occurrence still).

Accounts are wiped about every few months, and only those which meet the criteria get wiped. The criteria is based on the number of hours played (the sum of all time played on all characters of the account), and how much time it's been since the last login.

0-1 hours gametime: after 1 month since last login.
1-10 hours gametime: after 2 months since last login.
10-100 hours gametime: after 3 months since last login.
over 100 hours gametime: after 6 months since last login.

So for most players that have accumulated a notable wealth, that's usually 10-100 hours, or 100+ hours, that means you either got 3 or 6 months to refresh your account.

We had a house wipe just this weekend, so there won't be another one till at least December, or January-February.
To check out your gametime, type [account, or say "i must consider my sins".







I hope you don't mind giving a more general reply, but i thought i'd get some info out there, because I'm sure you're not the only person who wonders about these things

So, once you reach the 100 hours, I guess even if you're away for 5 months and 4 weeks, that should work out. The account might still be there after 8 months, but that would be a lottery. Actually i think it's 180 days.

Now, if you really can't get in the game for a long time, such as if you're a submariner, and have a 6 month job... I suggest you entrust your login details to a family member or a good friend, so that he/she may login to your account every few months (or well once in between). I must remind here that the person shouldn't actually be playing the account, if he/she already has their own account here. Each person needs to have their own account. But it's ok if it's just a login for a minute.

If you don't have anyone to whom you could trust to refresh your account, then I suppose you can also remind me by email. I wouldn't refresh it for example if you would ask "please renew the account in 3 months" because there's simply too much going on here and I'd surely forget. You can however send an email after let's say 4-5 months, asking that i renew it. I'm sure they have email everywhere you go these days (even on submarines from what i heard on discovery channel). I would only renew it once. I would also reply in confirmation.





Well, that's quite a lot of info there But well you'll probably be back online in under a month so there's no need to worry.