The problem with that is that the whole system was changed so that a user could come back to their account with pets in tact. They have a free rename waiting for them. They used to just delete the whole account. So I don't foresee this happening.

*** The other thing to look at is what about any overlays or layouts on those pets? The code just gets deleted and what if the user didn't save the code or can't remember where the images are? This just would be a nightmare.

MMM nah. I like the use-less-data-idea but it's not very fair to the inactive users who highly likely will come back. Especially not sending pets to the AC. People work hard for pet colours and species, even profiles, and still go inactive for over a year. Pet names I understand, but when people come back (which happens really often) after their account goes inactive, the point is they still have their pets, and a free name change if it's been taken. I would be devastated if I had to stop playing for whatever reason, and people just 'picked' all my angelic/expensive pets, and when I came back I have 30 out of the 45 pets I've spent a lot of real money on, :s

What if they had trained their pet to like t13 and came back and it was gone? If that happened to me I'd just not come back after that

There's already a ton of bellyache whenever an inactive user comes back. They almost always complain about how their pets were "stolen", when they've only been renamed for being inactive. Actually taking pets from these accounts is a whole can of worms I don't want to see opened.

I like the way we have it now, although I do understand your reasoning. I'd be VERY upset if I went on hiatus and came back to my pet just gone. Name changes I can handle, losing a pet I personally saved up to potion or zap I can not. I'd probably stay gone if it happened to me.

I could see this being a nightmare for the reasons already illustrated. If the names are available it's only the name that's taken by someone else, but if the pet itself is transferred over than everything that pet had gets transferred over too. The thing is, even if you clear it so certain things aren't transferred over, their treasure slots for instance, all the pet stats and anything that's within the actual coding of the profile is transferred over and if that's lost when a person comes back...

I just can't see this working out in general for that reason because a lot of people wouldn't want to come back and just see their pets gone from their accounts. Subeta, by allowing them to change the name allows them to keep the pet itself which is better for those who still want their pets on site if they ever come back since a name change only changes their names on site.

I don't think inactive users are what causes server problems when we experience them though. Those seem to be caused by database bottlenecks and inefficient processes. An inactive user doesn't request much data, but an active user with 5,000 pets does.

This Suggestion is just fucking greedy. NO.

Want a nice petname? Wait like a civilized user. Want a strong or coded pet? Do it yourself.

If inactive users taking up server space was an issue, the site would still delete inactive users like it used to. Absolutely no way would I want to see users be able to take pets away from users who are inactive, and I definitely wouldn't want to see staff differentiate between self-frozen and frozen-for-rulebreaking accounts either, which it would almost have to in order for this to work (i.e. is this user frozen for breaking rules or is there a bug that's causing the account to not clear on time?)

There are way too many implications should this happen, and they aren't good due to the reasons others mentioned.

The name change is already generous enough for others should a user ends up inactive. Virtual pets are just as is, virtual.

Also, server space isn't a huge issue as it was way back then.

What said about the trained pets. I don't care if a tier 13 pet is sitting on an empty account, it doesn't mean someone else deserves it. Training isn't hard, only time-consuming. That user spent loads of time on that pet and just because they went inactive isn't a reason to take their hard work (more like hard patience, really) and give it to someone else.

The problem with this I have is if someone goes inactive for reasons they have no control over. When names are taken a free name change is given, so it's just a matter of picking out a new name. Personally, if I came back from a break that was out of my control and all my pets had been taken from my account, I certainly wouldn't feel inspired to have to start all over again with things such as stats, food/books, spotlight winners or the more expensive colours.

There was talks of changing a pet's birthday 2 years ago. Maybe just bring back the change a pet's birthday suggestion instead of taking a pet off an account. The birthday should be an easy change.

1. Again, the "taking up space" bit is irrelevant since that is a non-issue.
2. I don't think there are that many people looking for specific birthdates, and most that are seem to be okay with any year, not just the specific, relevant year. So it becomes a matter of waiting, and/or improving your chances to get a pet on a certain birthdate. I don't think taking pets away from users who may or may not come back (which is no one else's concern but their own, as it should be) is the solution for the handful of users looking for that.

I honestly don't see any reason to take the pet from the account. If you've found the pet because you want the name, then you can just wait for it to clear. Same goes for birth dates, while you might not be able to get the exact year, you can always just wait for that day to roll around and create the pet or, if you're patient, keep an eye out on the adoption boards. If having these pets sat around was a problem for the servers, I'm sure staff would just delete them, and since you wouldn't know anything about the pet anyway, you'd have the chance to get the name.

This just seems like a much messier version of the inactive user/petname system we have now. The current system gives you the opportunity to get the pet/username you want without screwing the inactive user over.

No support.

I'd imagine a lot of previously-inactive-but-returning users would be way more pissed about completely losing their pets than just losing their petnames but getting a free pet rename, as the system is now.

I don't see why them never coming back would matter. All that work was done by the owner of the pet. I don't think anyone deserves to poach the pet and either take all that hard work from the prior owner for themselves or if the stats don't carry over, for that pet to be deleted and that hard work really did go out the window. A pet sitting there inactive is harming no one, but if a user comes back and they have no pets that at one time meant something to them and they did put work into them, it would really discourage people rediscovering Subeta. If a user wants to get rid of their pet before going inactive, they have the option to adopt their pets out.

Frozen users are a completely different issue. What would happen with pets that gained their color/stats/whatever made them unique via whatever got the user frozen (scamming/glitch exploitation)? What if the user successfully files an appeal and becomes unfrozen at some point? I think there's too many situations that would have gray areas, and there's not enough to be gained from implementing the idea.

I know it wasn't always a non-issue, that's...kind of my point? If it were still a problem, there wouldn't be ~45 buyable pet slots and inactive accounts would still be deleted to save space.

February 29th is really the only hard date to find which sucks for pet birthday people but should the paid pet birthday changes ever make it onsite that would solve that problem too.