A: If you didn't keep a copy of the originals around, you can restore Evergreen to all its factory-default splendor by running the INSTALLER again. Not the PATCH, the INSTALLER. If you didn't keep a copy of the installer around, then YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT AGAIN.

Running the installer again will not hurt your existing heroes. (But a properly paranoid person will make a backup anyway.)

A: Could be due to:

• Actually no servers around (start your own)
• Web Site is down (if so, you're not reading this right now, since it's the same site)
• Trouble "Fetching Master Server Address From Web Server" (you might be behind firewall or proxy server)
• Trouble "Getting list of servers from MIX Master Server" (you might have UDP blocked by firewall or proxy server)

If "trying again later" doesn't fix it, then investigate your situation regarding Firewalls and Proxy Servers. You simply cannot play the game behind a proxy server or a firewall which blocks UDP traffic.

network troubleshooter

A: Could be due to:

• Your skin file is too big, or wrong format (see Custom Skins)
• You or the other guy have turned off the skin-sending options.
• Your connection (or the other guy's is lossy and it just takes forever to send skins)
• You are behind a UDP-blocking firewall or proxy server.

network troubleshooter

A firewall is a software (usually) product which protects your computer against unfriendly attacks from the Internet. Most firewalls think incoming UDP traffic is unfriendly and hence block several key game functions. If you cannot "open a hole" in your firewall, then you will not be able to play the game online.

A firewall exists because you, your parents, your company, or your ISP has decided they would rather be safe than sorry, even if it cuts into YOUR gameplay options. They might be right to be paranoid.

A Proxy server is a server which gets in between you and all your Internet fetches. Sometimes this is for a good reason (if everyone in the company needs the same pages, they can get cached locally and thereby speed up access for everyone). But usually they are there for evil reasons (monitoring your activity, restricting your activity, treating you like a little baby.) :-)

network troubleshooter

A: Hacking (making modifications to a game using special tools or trainers) a solo game is no big deal. Who cares. But hacking a multiplayer game upsets the other players and undermines the value of their efforts. Hence the game attempts to detect hacking and shuts down access to multiplayer play when it is seen.

From the game's perspective, you are a hacker if:

• You use a memory editing tool (a la gameHack)
• You use a 'trainer' made by someone else
• You accept character files made by other players (sometimes).
• You use any tool to modify memory or disk files used by the game.

Of course, the game can't easily tell the difference between an official hack and some problem with your computer. You might have occasional memory failures. Some other program might be writing outside its boundaries (gotta love Windows), Your disk drive might be overheating, you might get hit by cosmic rays, or your computer might even be infected with a virus.

But once the game detects tampering, from any source, it starts the hacker warning dialog. That dialog will give you some additional information which you might find interesting or boring, but which you should definitely include in any bug reports. The numbers look like this:

XXXXXXXX/YY/Z.Z

The Xs are a code telling me what tampering was detected. The Ys tell me how many tampering events were detected, and the Z.Z attempts to express how many days are left in the multiplayer lockout. If you wait out those days (and do not re-use the hacked characters), then all is forgiven. But as the number of tampering events goes up, the lockout period gets longer.

You can always set your computer clock forward by that many days to get back online right away. But.. well, I thought of that, so you'll be sorry in the long run.

Here are some tips to prevent setting off the hacker detector:

• Don't accept suspicious files from friends or strangers. ("Here's a cool level 99 Bard with max stats!" is a danger signal).
• Don't use trainers or memory editors. Some people have even claimed that they were hacking 'some other game' while WoS was running, but weren't hacking WoS itself. Well, memory editors don't respect such boundaries. In fact, careless use of most of these tools can mess up your operating system installation, leading to untold disasters in the future.
• Don't regress to earlier versions of the game. This is the most frequent source of hacker triggering. People hear that a bug in an old version lets them do this great cheat without getting caught. But when you take a character back to an older version, you contaminate it in untold ways which will likely trigger the hack detector eventually.
• Don't run two copies of the game at the same time on the same PC. I know it's tempting to play multiplayer with yourself, but you'll just shoot yourself in the foot eventually.
• Encourage your family members to also obey these rules. Countless little brothers and sisters have been blamed for setting off the hack detector. (most of these are probably of the phantom "not-ME" variety, but whatever gets you through the day...
• Scan your computer regularly for viruses. Viruses live by modifying memory and disk files.

Just play the game in the way it was intended and you should be OK. Until that cosmic ray hits you, of course. If you DO end up hacking your way into a lockout, be sure to delete the hacked character(s). Since simply 'touching' them in the RESTORE SOUL screen can recontaminate you, leading to additional (and longer) lockouts in the future.

A: Unfortunately, a lot of different conditions get reported with that same basic sentence. To really help, you need the full text of the Warning Message you got. (You are never marked as a modder without being warned first. You always have the option to not use the character in question until you have resolved the problem.) Most Warning Messages include enough information for you to solve the problem on your own. Reading them carefully is your first best step.

Also, many people confuse being a 'modder' (someone who has modified their world files, or played in a modified world) with the concept of a 'mod' (a world which is different from yours, but might still be completely legitimate. Each new release of a world is a mod of the one before it, and playing through a legal mod update will not mark your character as a modder. However, you WILL see the word (mod) next to the version number of other players, if they are running a different version of the world than you are.

The only reason play in modified worlds is even tracked is that in a multiplayer game it is hard to maintain an even playing field if one player has modified their copy of the world to give them some advantage (like infinite health points or higher stats and better items).

Here are the most common MODDER/CHEATER Warning Messages:

• This character was created under a different soul ID. This is usually seen if you have moved a character from one PC to another. You can do this without hassle only if you have a Golden Soul Number. Normally, each PC is assigned a unique soul ID the first time you play WoS on that machine. If your reformat your PC, your old soul ID will be lost and the next time you play with old characters you will see this warning. Modern versions of Windows include some sort of "take me back to this date" feature which will restore your PC to how it was sometime in the past. A nice idea, in general, but likely to mess up your soul ID.
• You have disabled "avoid modified quest files" from the FILE menu in the game. You have to do this to play with someone using a different version. But once you make that choice, you become a modder. You get tons of warnings about this (plus you have to enable the "let me cheat" option in the Book of Options), so it is basically impossible for you to do this 'accidentally'
• This World is a Mod. Versioned worlds, like Evergreen, can tell if they are an official version or not. If you modify any files in the world's folder (just messing around), you will no longer be an official version. To recover from this see the top of this FAQ.
• Something is wrong with your calendar. Some elements of the game are timed and if your computer's clock varies wildly, it will confuse the issue. Keep your clock set to more or less the correct date and you should be OK. (Usually this is triggered by people who have reset their clock so as to get around some game version control feature).
• You have used a "/cheat" command. This will also warn you before letting you do it, and you will have had to enable "let me cheat" in the Book of Options, so don't worry about this happening by accident.

But pay attention to the modder warnings. If you accept the modder label, it is PERMANENT. Anything less would be unfair to the other players.

When you get a new PC, or if you reformat the hard drive of your old PC, then the first time you run WoS on that PC it will be assigned a new soul ID.

If you then try to use a character which was created on a PC with a different soul ID, it will be marked a modder. This is not necessarily the end of the world, since WoS is an easy enough game that just making new characters is not that big of a deal. Still, we all enjoy clinging to the past, so here is how to do it:

Did you save the right stuff?

First off, your characters are saved in the "WoS\Save" folder. This folder has nothing but good stuff to save in it, so whenever you think about making a backup, be sure to save this entire folder (not just the "savedHeroes" folder for a particular world). Let me repeat that, save the ENTIRE "C:\WoS\Save" folder. OK? The whole thing. Otherwise, stop reading now since you are without hope. Also, please read this entire section before doing anything at all.

How to Restore it to new PC:

So, you have a saved copy of your old "c:\WoS\Save" folder. Good for you! A terrific first step! Now what?

1. Do NOT run WoS yet! (if you do, you will get a new soul ID and all this will be for nought)
2. (note: You can always Buy a Golden Soul, which will give you a new soul ID, but one which can 'import' your old characters without them being modders. So, the price of messing up the following is either to start new characters, or get a golden soul)
3. But if you plan to go the Golden Soul route, be sure to pay attention to those warning messages about "this will mark your character as a modder" since once you blow through one of those and get marked, there is no going back, even with a Golden Soul. Well, ok, you can always go back to that copy of "c:\WoS\Save" you kept!

So, you can't afford a Golden Soul, you kept a copy of your "WoS\Save" folder, what do you do now? Please follow these instructions CAREFULLY. Your goal is to not RUN WoS until AFTER you have restored the WoS\Save folder. This explanation assumes you know how to copy folders on your PC. If you're not comfortable working with folders, then I will not be able to help you here. I'm sorry :-( Folders are really easy to learn about though... Come back in 20 minutes when you feel comfortable, or have a friend over.

1. Download and Install WoS, BUT DO NOT RUN IT. I hope that makes sense. It's key to everything else. The installer might give you the option of running the game at the end of the installation.. Do NOT take it up on that opportunity. Get back out to windows.
2. Find the folder where you installed WoS just now. The default is "c:\WoS"
3. Copy your old "Save" folder into the new WoS folder. (so you will have a new c:\WoS\Save folder, NOT a c:\WoS\Save\Save folder.) I hope that makes sense as well.
4. Keep moving that folder around until you get it right. Do NOT run WoS until you are SURE you have the folder restored to its original relative location.
5. When you are done, you should have files like this: c:\WoS\Save\Evergreen\SavedHeroes\*.her (with all your hero files in it. But it has to really be your original WoS\Save folder contents, not just some folders you make with the proper names.
6. I know I am making a big deal about this, when really all you have to do is click on your SAVE folder and drag it to your WOS folder and you're done. But you only get one chance at this, so I am being pedantic.

OK, Take a deep breath, have you successfully dragged your old SAVE folder into your new WOS folder? Are you SURE? Check one more time. Ready?

1. Run WoS.
2. Your soul ID should be unchanged from before.
3. You should be able to incarnate old characters with no warnings.

It Didn't Work!

Oh No! Something went wrong! You got a new soul ID anyway! What now?

1. Consider reformatting your hard drive and doing it all over again. (if this appeals to you, then you are seriously addicted to your old characters and should seek professional help :-)
2. Go ahead and blow $25 on a Golden Soul and stop hassling over this. You will still need to recover your savedHeroes folder(s) to get the old characters to show up in the restore list.
3. If all you saved was a single world's "savedHeroes" folder, then just make a folder like this: WoS\Save\Evergreen\savedHeroes and have all your old evegreen hero files in it. Remember that each world has its own folder inside of "WoS\Save" and its own savedHeroes folder inside of that. Be sure to spell the world name exactly right.

Golden Souls are actually a reward for donating $25 to synthetic reality, and not a product per se. Your donation is optional (at least so far!) and the game is designed to work even without one. So you don't NEED one. So please don't feel deprived if you don't HAVE one.

Presently, we can only take orders on-line (no cash in envelopes hidden under the sink in the washroom at Times Square station).

But we are set up to take Credit Cards, Various Bank Cards, and PayPal payments, domestic and international, all via secure servers. And I think PayPal might have swallowed a couple other online payment companies as well.