AO-Universe

I recently payed for the $5/month SL subscription (upgrade from a froob account). Shortly after; I attempted to create a Shade. Character creation worked fine to the point where you select to start on Rubi-Ka or SL. Being that it's a Shade I needed to start in SL. Shortly after clicking SL; the game minimized and I got an error message which said: "Unable to find playfield data! [40016:237781]" and also that I have an AO install without the expansion data, and that a solution may be to reinstall AO. I installed the full client, and got a message saying that I have an AO installed with expansions that I haven't payed for. Then I reinstalled the small client, and got the first error message again. I've emailed "account@anarchy-online.com", however they won't be able to respond until Monday, and I'd rather have this sorted before then if at all possible.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong, and how I might be able to fix it?

*I would have posted this in the Tech Support in the official AO forums, however I can't log in to the official forums, because it won't let me make a forum account.

You really need the full client to play in SL. There shouldn't be a problem just having SL with that. I've had no issues playing a "fr00b" account on the full client.
What is the exact message you get when using a full client? When do you get it? And does it prevent you from logging in and playing?

I only saved a copy of the message that I receive from attempting to log in on the small client. I am yet to attempt starting a character on Rubi-Ka instead of SL in the full client. With both small and full client the error message comes up after the loading screen which you see when you log in to a character. Minimizes the game, clicking "OK" on the error message window closes the game. It doesn't prevent me from logging in to my account, however it does prevent me from logging in to & playing characters starting in SL instead of Rubi-Ka. I'm not sure if this answers your question.

I'll try re-installing the full client now.

Here's the small client error message, if it's of any help:

Anarchy Error Handling

Unable to find playfield data! [40016:237781]

Possible cause:
Most likely, you have an AO install without the expansion data, but you have payed for playing in Shadowlands.

Solution: Reinstall Anarchy using the Shadowlands install/cd's

If this is not the case please contact support.
Note: Reinstalling the game might still be a solution to the problem.

The only difference with the full client error message was instead of saying that I have an AO install without payed for expansion data, is that it said something to the effect of that I have expansion data which I haven't payed for. The exact error message would probably be helpful so I'll try to find it as soon as possible.

My first questions are: When have you upgraded your account? How have you paid?

Of course you need the huge client to play in SL since the small client does not have the according files for the SL playfields.
Depending on when you upgraded and how you paid, your account might not be upgraded by now and you have to wait... but don't ask me how long.
Fastest way to upgrade and play is by upgrading with an upgrade key (those usually include 30 days playtime). Creditcard often takes up to 24 h and other payment even longer.

It was about ~24 hours ago, some time yesterday morning, I don't know the exact time. I payed by credit card.

Update:

It seems I misread the error message on the full client, as this time when I installed the full client and tried starting in SL. It says the exact same thing as with the small client:

Unable to find the playfield data! [40016:237781]

Possible cause:
Most likely, you have an AO install without the expansion data, but you have paid for playing in Shadowlands.

Solution: Reinstall Anarchy using the Shadowlands install/cd's.

If this is not the case please contact support.
Mote: Reinstalling the game might still be a solution to the problem.

I'm assuming that if it wouldn't allow me to do anything SL-related if the issue was that I didn't have the expansion data, or that it hasn't fully registered yet. However that can't be the case, because I can use some of the other SL-based things, like for example I was able to access the perk menu, something I wasn't able to do prior to upgrading.

Jabdow wrote:I'm assuming that if it wouldn't allow me to do anything SL-related if the issue was that I didn't have the expansion data, or that it hasn't fully registered yet. However that can't be the case, because I can use some of the other SL-based things, like for example I was able to access the perk menu, something I wasn't able to do prior to upgrading.

Only - exclusive! - the playfields are content of the huge client. All other items and options of the SL/AI/LE/Booster Packs expansion are already in the small client included... basicly the whole ingame item database.
If those items wouldn't be included in the small client you couldn't see eg. Perennium weapons or LE Mechs. And since all perks have actions which are basicly items, the perk window is included in the small client as well.

Like said earlier, you definitely need to install the huge client - no way around. Install the big one and get rid of the small one before
And since you paid by creditcard and have passed the 24h border, you might be able to use the content by now. I would guess that your account wasn't upgraded on the servers earlier and by that the server simply denied to let you in.

See 1:14PM Post.

I uninstalled the small client, then installed the full client, then tried to play, and was again faced with the error message claiming that I have a version without the expansion data. Even though it is in fact the full client, which supposedly has all the expansion data. I just tried again about 5 minutes ago, I definitely know it's been more than 24 hours now. Do you think the problem could be that it's the weekend, and they wouldn't activate it until a weekday?

Well .. since I have never upgraded by creditcard I just can state what others told me using those... they said 24 h but no one upgraded on a Sunday yet... might be FC still wants to confirm valid creditcard data

Alright, I'll wait 2 or 3 days and then see if it works.

Delete that character, then make a new one, then send it to the RK starter area...

You don't lose anything this way, you can enter & leave the SL starter area anytime you want up to lvl50 (and you miss stuff from the RK starter area if you don't go there)

This may have been a problem with that character...



Just a thought.

Well, that won't work if he wants to play a shade or keeper, since those have to start in SL.

Jabdow, you should double-check (and even triple-check) that you do in fact have the large client installed, since that error message only comes if the playfield data is missing. And that can only happen if you've only installed the small client, or possibly have a corrupt install, in which case you'll still need to reinstall.

No, I don't belive they HAVE to start in SL, I may be wrong tho.

However, it may still be a problem with that particular char, so deleting it is still a viable option.

Snakebite wrote:No, I don't belive they HAVE to start in SL, I may be wrong tho.

You HAVE to start in the Shadowlands IF you are a Keeper or Shade.

Jabdow, any progress with getting things to work?

The initial problem still looks like the large client isn't installed. A quick check is by looking at the dialog box title bar when you get to the login screen. It should read:

"Anarchy Online - Local version: 18.0.1 - Remote version: 18.0.1 - Expansion: SL/AI/NW (Large Client)"

If it doesn't read EXACTLY that, then it isn't the large client you have installed.