I last played on Sunday 13Oct and logged out at approx 12:15 GMT. When I logged to the game tonight 16Oct @ 18:30, I can see my character in the selection screen, he has his smart pea coat, a rifle on his back and an axe in his hand, exactly as he looked when I logged out on sunday. Then I go to log back in to the game with this character..... what.... oh dear... I seem to be playing with a new character on a beach from scratch, whats going on, all my inventory gone, oh and I look different. Where has my character from sunday gone?
Then quit back to the menu and, yes you guess it, character no longer exists, gone, vanished.