Can't create character with a name I've used before

[CrafterEric]

Ok, I screwed up. I opened the accounts.xml file yesterday when someone else posted asking how to change a character's name. Obviously a person could just make changes here, and resolve some issues. Then I realized that I had wanted to delete my primary character and re-create him anyway, as I've made some changes and the easiest and most fun way to implement them on my primary character is just to start over with him. So I just thought I could delete the account listing in the accounts.xml. Each account seems to be separated by <account> and </account> tags, so obviously I could just delete that account from beginning to end (getting rid of the 2 tags above, plus everything in between). I did that, started the server, opened the client, and logged in under that account. Got the new user legal rights page and happily started a new character with the same name as before.

Upon character creation, I get a warning that my name is invalid or already in use, so I have to change it. I was automatically renamed Generic Player. Had the owner account rename him via [props, which worked fine for the remainder of that session. When I logged out a few minutes later and logged back in, same problem - renamed to Generic Player and shown the error message.

I still want to use that character name. How do I fix what I did? Should I just delete the saves somehow, without also deleting my owner character, or does that even matter?

 

[Milva]

Just a thought, you checked [admin then accounts just to be sure it's gone?

 

[CrafterEric]

Yes, I had checked that yesterday, but checked again on your advice. Deleted account from there, saved, started new account with the old name, then new char, same issue. Invalid or in use, changed name to Generic Player.
[doublepost=1529941810][/doublepost]Yay! Got it fixed sortof. I remembered this morning that I make regular backups of the shard. Hadda go back a few days to get one that's working ok, add back in a script I added since the backup was made, and add it to the vendor stone, but I'm right back where I was with no issues.

Now I know, ya can't delete a user from accounts.xml if you ever want to be free to have that character name in the future. Thanks so much for trying Milva, I'll be more careful in the future.

 

[PyrO]

well thats easy to explain. You never deleted that character, the only thing you did was unlinking it from your account. So now you have that playermobile floating around in the server space without it being on your account

 

[CrafterEric]

Oh. That sucks. Is there a way to fix that? I found a little more work I've done since the backup, so deleting that playermobile would be easier still...

 

[PyrO]

hmm I guess you could try to find the char over [xmlfind or you could delete it with a global command but you need to be more careful with that. Also make sure that the name doesnt contain spaces then

 

[CrafterEric]

It does. I think I should do the smart thing here and not screw with it. I still have the latest non-working copy after I made updates to it, like to OWLTR's Master Storage now holds more stuff, and I also have a working copy from 10 days ago that I've started fixing back up. I'll just work on that then, I think all I have to do is copy and paste whatever I've changed in the last week without messing with anything important. No big.

Thanks, PyrO, just more signs that I need to simply not mess with things a little more often.

 

[Alexandalf]

I've always just grabbed the mobile with [xmlfind or [global interface where playermobile name = "name", then done a [set player false on it and deleted it. Is there a reason that wont work?

 

[CrafterEric]

The only reason I can think that wouldn't work is simply that I'm not intelligent enough to think of it. :/ I already rebuilt it, and it just took like an hour I think. Not a huge loss, I learned a lesson (don't delete mobiles), and I've added a lot to the new build already. Milva just helped me put hair on my stripper!
[doublepost=1530296314][/doublepost]Yup, obviously that works fine. I had saved the old shard just in case somebody posted a solution. Now I can get back to it, or continue updating the new one. Thanks for the help, whichever way I choose.