This has been sent to the GM team to look over. I did post on OOC when I saw the StoryGuild proclaim the other day!

I have been told that this issue has been resolved. Thanks for your patience!

Just for everyone's awareness, Pranzor is stating that this isn't a bug and @retire has -never- qualified for previous VC level of the character slot and that only applies to @chop.

I absolutely know without a shred of doubt this is incorrect because I've retired several characters that don't have 20k RPs or a decade long character age throughout the years and they were VC9's when I retired. As recently as last August/September 2022 timeframe. From what I've seen on discord, multiple other players have also. 

If someone else could maybe chime in so I don't feel like I'm getting gaslighted that'd be great. 🙂

@herdias You're not crazy, and 100% correct. A VC 10 is equal to a 10 year old character upon creation when it comes to calculating future VC rewards. If the character is @retired, the calculation is 'base - 1'. With a maximum of a VC 10 reward for any character that is 10 years old or more, it means the maximum VC reward one can receive for an @retire is a VC 9. 

If a player wants, they can @recover a 10 year old throw away character they deleted, keep it on roster for the 6 month minimum, @retire it for a VC 9, roll a VC 9 and play it for a year, then @retire what is now effectively a 10 year old character for another VC9. There is nothing in the rules against this, and I recall when the @retire function was introduced players inquired extensively about this, and the GM's confirmed the way this worked was in fact intended. 

When conducting a forum search, this are only two pieces of 'official' information I can find posted about it:

Character Age                    Package Level

Six Months to One Year               1 (Free for Premium)
One to Two Years                       2 
Two to Three Years                     3 
Three to Four Years                    4 
Four to Five Years                      5 
Five to Six Years                        6 
Six to Seven Years                     7
Seven to Eight Years                  8
Eight to Nine Years                    9
Nine or more Years                   10 

This table shows a direct correlation between a VC package level and its value in age of character. This is where 'base' is calculated. It is nine or more years OR a VC 10. 

Then there's this specifying the exception for how @retire works.

'@retire will award a VC package of "base - 1", which means the max cap for an @retire VC package is a level 9.'

If they're attempting to change this retroactively, or there's some sort of misunderstanding on the GM's part about how this is suppose to work, the supposed correction is a terrible change. Although I suspect few players take advantage of it, being able to roll a VC 10 on a short lived character concept and having some decent tools to play with in executing a story over the course of a year, only to then utilize the @retire function and try something else on a VC 9 base was easily one of the best additions to the game of the last decade. Rolling it back would be a giant step in the wrong direction. 

Thanks for the feedback folks. I will let Pranzor know this conversation is happening here in the forums if they wish to clarify anything further they can do do so.

Any update on this? It's been a few weeks. 

I do not have a response to share with you Herdias. If you are looking for more clarity I would attempt using in-game mechanics to begin a dialog with the GM staff.