Update for 04/26/2020. Accounts 1, 2, 3 exist days = 86 and substitution counter error still not resolved.
At 0830 I logged into Acct # 1 and checked the substitution counter: exist days = 86, active sub days = 1
This is my primary acct which I normally use to play the subs from my other accts so I can have all 3 accts online simultaneously and easily switch between them.
But, today I decided to send a sub request from #1 to #2 and play it there. Then I logged into the #2 acct and checked the substitution counter: exist days = 86, and active sub days = 84 (first time in months that the acct exist days > active sub days). Then I activated the sub request from acct #1. But, because active sub days > 50% of the acct exist days, the error message, "You have violated a substitution rule" popped up, as I expected, and I could not log into the #1 acct from the #2 acct.
So, I went back to the #1 acct and accepted the always pending sub request from the #2 acct and tried to log into the #2 acct, but this time, for the first time in this acct, the substitution error message popped up and I could not log into acct #2. The substitution counter for acct #1 now read: exist days = 86, active sub days = 49. In less than half an hour, the active sub days count had increased from 1 to 49 !!!!!
Then I logged back into acct #2 and the substitution counter now read: exist days = 86, active sub days = 92. This is an increase of 8 active days in less than an hour without a single successful substitution! Your brilliant game programmers have managed to speed up the clock by orders of magnitude! You must fix this. Your substitution penalty is hopelessly broken.
The previous message from gamerdruid is appreciated, but is misleading. Active vs. Activated is not a useful comparison. Active does not mean Activated. If it did, then all 3 of my accounts would show "active" sub days = 86 = acct exist days, since I first "activated" substitutions on day 1 in each of the 3 accounts. According to Origin, active means the time from when a sub request has been accepted up to the time the sub request has been cancelled even if the sub acct is never actually logged into. But, it SHOULD mean only the time the sub account is actually logged into because that is the only time the sub acct is truly active. The rest of the time the sub acct is dormant, and dormant does not mean active.
So, today, it appears that the Origin/EA programmers tried to "fix" the substitution counter problem, but only managed to make it much worse. This is really pathetic. Don't you people ever do any regression testing? In my 50 years of managing massive software development programs (try 10 million lines of code for a new satellite system), my experience has been that the average programmer makes 1 new mistake for every 3 errors they actually correct. While I don't expect your programmers to test their SW to ensure the unexpected can never happen (like I have to do for SW for nuclear triggers, and, yes, you should be very, very glad that I do), I do expect them to test enough to make sure their SW at least does what it is supposed to do. Today would be a good day for them to start.
