My Anni saga

For those of you paying attention to any of my posts, you'll know that I've had some trouble getting hold of an anni. In part, this is down to being in Europe and on PSN, whereas the real party is clearly on PC and specifically in Asia.

Eventually, I did catch a Europe SCNL walk, hooray! But then I managed to lose the anni when shuffling gear around, curses!

Over the last few days I have watched in consternation at the volume of Asia SCNL walks. I knew there was a way to access other regions on PSN (by creating new accounts for each region), so today I decided enough was enough, I was going to endure the faff and get things sorted. I diligently followed a video by Duanebs and created a new PSN account linked to Asia so that I could get in on the sweet anni action that was occuring today.

Unfortunately, I'm clearly an imbecile, and I appear to have done something wrong which means that now my bnet account is linked to the new PSN account and not my regular account. If I try to disconnect this account, it says I will be unable to link bnet to my main account for 12 months. I suppose being locked to Asia rather than Europe could be beneficial for annis, but it's a bit of a pain and I'm slightly worried about lag when playing with European friends.

The real kicker? When setting up the account, I simply assumed Australia would connect to Asia, but in fact it connects to NA, so I'm actually locked to NA and still have no anni.

tl;dr, I am a daft old man filled with regret.

My poor friend... you'd better buy a PC licence

Unfortunately, Blizzard changed the region switching thing on PSN a couple weeks ago. It has nothing to do with you, it simply doesn't work any more (or, more accurately, works once every 12 months).

You can still access other regions by creating PSN accounts from that region, but you need to level up new characters for every region.

Once ladder reset hits, I can give you an Anni on PSN.

Ouch.

On the plus side, Americas still lets you get in on quite a few regular DClone walks at least (thanks to Heidi) and it tends to have far better pings from Europe than Asia does. So..better to be locked into that than into Asia.

Speaking of which...breaking news:
Heidi's hosting 3 walks tomorrow, one of which is non-ladder.

(Not all of his are Americas but most are)

post2939212.html#p2939212

Schlafsack wrote: 2 years ago

Unfortunately, Blizzard changed the region switching thing on PSN a couple weeks ago. It has nothing to do with you, it simply doesn't work any more (or, more accurately, works once every 12 months).

You can still access other regions by creating PSN accounts from that region, but you need to level up new characters for every region.

Once ladder reset hits, I can give you an Anni on PSN.

That's interesting, do you have a source? I take some comfort in knowing it wasn't entirely me being an idiot. Appreciate the offer!

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Ouch.

On the plus side, Americas still lets you get in on quite a few regular DClone walks at least (thanks to Heidi) and it tends to have far better pings from Europe than Asia does. So..better to be locked into that than into Asia.

That thought did occur to me. To be honest, if the lag is ok when playing with my usual group then it may turn out to be a good thing. Upcoming Heidi walks a case in point.

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

My poor friend... you'd better buy a PC licence

I'm genuinely considering it, the trading community is so much bigger and more active!

Janet the Java wrote: 2 years ago

That thought did occur to me. To be honest, if the lag is ok when playing with my usual group then it may turn out to be a good thing. Upcoming Heidi walks a case in point.

It should be. You'll notice a difference if you join random Americas games (i.e. lobby games) but if you host yourself and/or join folks in Europe cross-region, you get a direct connection to the game and basically skip the whole server/Americas part.

That's also why one can start a game on Asia from Europe and kill dclone just fine but then start lagging like crazy once you move on to random Asia pug games for bonus kills.

Janet the Java wrote: 2 years ago

Schlafsack wrote: 2 years ago

Unfortunately, Blizzard changed the region switching thing on PSN a couple weeks ago. It has nothing to do with you, it simply doesn't work any more (or, more accurately, works once every 12 months).

You can still access other regions by creating PSN accounts from that region, but you need to level up new characters for every region.

Once ladder reset hits, I can give you an Anni on PSN.

That's interesting, do you have a source? I take some comfort in knowing it wasn't entirely me being an idiot. Appreciate the offer!

No source, just me and my friends doing it for months and then it suddenly stopped working for all of us on the same day.
I was the only lucky one. I switched back to my main region and then couldn't switch away from it, the others are stuck in other regions.

Blizzard support was unwilling to help.

DuaneBS has mentioned this change on stream and told viewers not to follow the video's instructions anymore. He should probably either remove the video or change its title and description.

Clearly I need to be more on top of this streaming lark. Still, I feel less foolish now, thanks both.

"Blizzard support was unwilling to help" pretty much sums up Blizzard support.

So now, the only option on PS is to 1) set up a separate PSN account per region, 2) buy the game once per region tied to the respective PSN account, 3) level up a Dclone killer on each account separately...?

I wonder why they changed the region switching on PSN, do they really hate console players that much, or was it Sony pressuring them? I mean, they obviously don't have a problem with region switching on PC...

I wonder if it is a Sony thing, linked to the PS+ subscription perhaps. Either way you're basically right, the only way to access other regions on console is to have multiple bnet accounts (and presumably multiple copies of the game).

ShadowHeart wrote: 2 years ago

So now, the only option on PS is to 1) set up a separate PSN account per region, 2) buy the game once per region tied to the respective PSN account, 3) level up a Dclone killer on each account separately...?

I wonder why they changed the region switching on PSN, do they really hate console players that much, or was it Sony pressuring them? I mean, they obviously don't have a problem with region switching on PC...

Please don't give them any ideas...if they end up removing region switching on PC again as well I may have to finally go and torch the place.

Honestly though, I never understood why Blizz is so far behind the curve on global play in their games. Region tied accounts. Region tied progression. Region tied licenses so you can't even play with global friends if you wanted to bother with the separate progression. Or even in a finally "global" game..region tied DClones. Feels like being back in the 90s every time ya look at a Blizzard game.

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

Speaking of which...breaking news:
Heidi's hosting 3 walks tomorrow, one of which is non-ladder.

(Not all of his are Americas but most are)

post2939212.html#p2939212

Ouch and of course yesterday's SCNL was EU! Also hit me up PSN SoCalRaver, I created a Asia PSN a few weeks ago and grushed him to hell so I have been lucky enough to catch almost all these Asia walks meaning I have extra Annis and will give you(Janet) one. Shoot me a message or FR on PSN and we can link up.

You guys <3

ShadowHeart wrote: 2 years ago

I wonder why they changed the region switching on PSN, do they really hate console players that much, or was it Sony pressuring them? I mean, they obviously don't have a problem with region switching on PC...

No need to own multiple copies.
As long as one account on the playstation owns a copy and has PS+ you can use the copy and play online on all accounts.

Though I have also no idea why they changed it. Makes no sense.

I don’t even understand why is this an issue. I once switch zones/regions and all my chars remained. In D3 however I had to actually build everything a new.

But you are saying that you simply can’t switch.

Have you tried blizzard forums?

rikus wrote: 2 years ago

I don’t even understand why is this an issue. I once switch zones/regions and all my chars remained. In D3 however I had to actually build everything a new.

But you are saying that you simply can’t switch.

Have you tried blizzard forums?

It's just a console thing. You never could choose a region, but there was a workaround which now also doesn't work, although apparently that is an issue for PSN only, it still works on other consoles.

I don't understand why they don't just let us choose like you can on PC.

Janet the Java wrote: 2 years ago

I don't understand

I'm guessing its related to open ports undefended, that they haven't put resources there. probably have server *only* for that specific region AND console. i guess they could be opened to be hacked if they'd open it. but I would definitely check blizz forums, not technical support. since the support actually answers on the forums. they are to swamped of emails to actually answer. GL