There have been a lot of questions about the anniversary subscription plans, how to use them, and what that means for your existing payment plan. Hopefully this FAQ will help. I know it's a lot of text, but answers are in here.
Please note that after you apply an anniversary subscription to your account, do not alter your subscription further: leave your account on the anniversary subscription in order to get the reward. In situations where players switch back and forth between different subscriptions, they may not get the rewards they wanted if they switched off of that subscription.
What are the different Anniversary Subscription Rewards?
One Month Subscription: Add a one-month subscription plan to your account between April 20 and May 4, 2011, and receive a Hero's Treasure Chest on May 11, 2011.
New or returning accounts only. Accounts that are currently active cannot sign up for this plan.
60 Day Time Card: Apply a code from a 60-day time card to your Lineage II game account between April 20 and May 4, 2011, and receive a 7th Anniversary Cloak - Pitch Black and a Hero's Treasure Chest on May 11, 2011.
New, returning, or existing active accounts.
Three-Month +1 Subscription: Change your subscription to the special 3 month +1 subscription plan between April 20 and May 4, 2011, and receive one month of free game time, a 7th Anniversary Cloak - Pitch Black, and a Hero's Treasure Chest on May 11, 2011. Effectively, you get four months for the price of three!
New, returning, or existing active accounts.
How long are these special subscription plans available?
April 20 to May 4, 2011. This means that you must sign up for the subscription plan you want before May 4. After May 4, these anniversary subscription plans and their rewards will no longer be available.
Which of my characters will get the reward items?
The reward items will be delivered to the highest level character on each server on that game account, to their private warehouse. This means that if you, for example, sign up for a plan that will give you a cloak and a chest, your highest-level character on Chronos will get a chest and a cloak, and your highest-level character on Naia will get a chest and a cloak as well. Remember, you can share the cloak and the chest to your other characters on that same server and same game account by talking to a Dimensional Merchant. Learn more about this on the Hero's Treasure Chest page (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=214916) and the Dimensional Merchant page (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=214922).
When do I get the reward for signing up for one of these plans?
May 11, 2011, in all cases.
Is it possible to sign up for 2 subscription plans on the same account and get 2 rewards (such as 2 cloaks, among other things)?
No. Each Lineage II game account is limited to one anniversary plan reward.
When will I be charged for purchasing one of the anniversary subscription plans?
It depends on your current account payment status and on which anniversary plan you choose.
If you choose the 60-day gate time code, you will be charged immediately because that code becomes tied to your NCsoft master account and you can then apply it to your Lineage II game account.
If your account status is 'not playable', that means that you currently have no payment plan. If you choose the 1 month anniversary subscription plan or 3 month +1 anniversary subscription plan, you will be charged immediately and the game time will be applied immediately.
If your account is 'playable' that means there it is using game time that you purchased previously.
If your account is currently on a game time card/code, and you choose the 1 month anniversary subscription plan or 3 month +1 anniversary subscription plan, you will be charged once the existing game time runs out. The anniversary plan's game time starts being used after the existing game time runs out.
If your account is on any type of re-occurring billing plan and you switch to the 1 month anniversary subscription plan or 3 month +1 anniversary subscription plan, you will be charged once the current payment cycle completes. (For example, if you pay for 3 months at a time and you are charged once every 3 months, you will not be charged for the anniversary plan until that same billing date arrives.)
Signing up for the One Month Subscription reward:
To be eligible for this subscription reward, your game account must currently be listed as 'not playable' on your Game Account Details page of the NCsoft website.
On that same page, you see a banner advertising the Lineage II subscription promotion. Click on it.
On this next page, 'Choose New Payment Plan,' choose the '1 month' plan.
You are now signed up for the one month subscription plan and your account is now 'playable.'
You will receive your Hero's Treasure Chest on May 11, 2011.
After the one month of game time is used up, your account will go inactive and not be playable until you re-subscribe to any payment plan or add game time to the account.
Signing up for the 60 Day Time Card reward:
Game time codes can be applied to an account at any time, without interrupting the account's existing payment plan.
Purchase a 60-game time code (you are charged at the time of purchase) and apply the code to your Lineage II account anytime between April 20 and May 4.
You will receive your Hero's Treasure Chest and Anniversary Cloak - Pitch Black on May 11, 2011.
After the 60 days of game time are used up, your account will return to whatever payment plan it was on before. If your account doesn't have any other payment plans applied to it by the time the 60 days expire, the account will go inactive and not be playable until more time is added or until a payment plan is applied.
Signing up for the Three-Month +1 Subscription reward:
Log into your NCsoft master account.
Click on the Lineage II game account that you want to apply the subscription and reward to.
On the new page that opens, click on the banner advertising the Lineage II subscription promotion.
On the next page, 'Choose New Payment Plan,' choose the '3 months + 1 month free' plan.
You are now signed up for four months of game time.
You will receive your Hero's Treasure Chest and Anniversary Cloak - Pitch Black on May 11, 2011.
After the four months of game time are used up, your account will go back to using whatever game time or re-occurring billing plan (if it was not canceled) that was on the account before.
Two Ways to Change Your Subscription:
You can decide if you want to change to an anniversary subscription plan by 'switching' or by 'cancel and re-subbing.' Both methods effectively have the same result and allow you to apply one of the 3 anniversary subscription reward plans to your account.
If you're on re-occurring billing and you will want to continue with that after the anniversary plan's time is up, 'switching' is better for you.
If you prefer to subscribe to the game without re-occurring billing, you might like the 'cancel and re-sub' option better. Whichever you choose will not effect your anniversary subscription or reward.
Switching Without Canceling Your Re-Occurring Billing:
Log in to your NCsoft Master Account (https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/accountManagement.pl).
Click on the Lineage II game account that you want to apply an anniversary subscription to
Click on the banner that advertises Lineage II subscription promotions.
On this next page, you will see the options for 1 month (inactive users only) and 3+1 months. The 60-day game time card is not listed there because game time codes are applied differently.
Canceling and Re-Subscribing:
Follow these instructions (https://help.ncsoft.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7410/kw/change%20subscription%20plan/session/L3RpbWUvMTMwMTM0MTkwNS9zaWQvTFNoUkQ0cWs%3D).
Canceling does not stop your account from using that the time that you already applied to it; the account will continue to be playable until the applied game time runs out.
If you have any questions that are not answered here, please post them in the 7th Anniversary Celebrations thread (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=215235), or PM me. If there are common questions that were missed in this FAQ, they will be added as they become known.