[EULA] Mojang Supporter Changes Discussion

So many posts... and too little time to read them all. Sorry if these questions have been answered already, but just for some clarity:

Whatever happens with Utopia, the SMP Town servers will still remain available for non-supporters and they will be able to keep existing residences and claim new residences, right?

Also, when it comes to Utopia, I heard mention of vouchers and such to give people access who have built things there. To make it simple, would it be easier to just rename the existing Utopia and turn it into a free server, then create a new Utopia server with access only for supporters?

So wait, you can't buy these perks with real money, but you can buy them with in-game currency so long as you don't HAVE to buy the currency to buy it.
That's just plain stupid.

What do you mean? These are purchasable with real money, not rupees

Nah, I mean after the Eula goes into effect.

What will happen to normal players who used to be gold/diamond and have a utopia res even though they're normal players?

Please read the first post in this thread for more info about the plan: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/upcoming-supporter-changes-ideas-price-poll.40699/

Ok, thanks.

One thing that I haven't heard explained. Let's a free player is waiting in the queue, and there is a cap on the number of players that can be logged on to that server, but other supporters are joining ahead of them because they have priority access. Because of this the number of players is just not dropping below the max. Does this mean that if a particular server is very popular on a certain day, they just will be stuck in the queue indefinately, without any chance of loggin on to that server, being forced to find another open server to play on?

The cap is not new. Currently, I think the cap is at 60 players and Aikar adjusts it for events. There have been drop parties and other events in the past where non-supporters could not get on or were disconnected and could not reconnect because the server was full. When EMC was first growing a lot the Supporter's reserved slot was a valuable thing to have.

The login queue is a way to allow us to connect as soon as a slot opens instead of receiving a server full message and trying again later. It won't really change our ability to connect as much as automate it. It may be useful later on to allow groups to enter an event or area of a server together.

I understand that the cap is not new, and I understand how the queue is supposed to work. But based on this:

... it could "really change our ability to connect." I guess, to clarify my question: How low will the cap be set on SMP servers compared to what it is now? And is there the possibility that, if a particular SMP server that non-supporting players like to play on is kept full with supporters (who get to skip the queue), the non-supporters just won't be able to get into that SMP unless they go during non-peak hours.

This could have a profound effect on non-supporters if they have an established presence on a particular SMP, like their residence or a Frontier Outpost, especially if they only have a certain window of time during the day that they can play.

If this were the case, then they would be forced to either move to an SMP that was less popular with supporters, become a supporter (not a bad thing, if possible for them), or find somewhere else besides EMC to play.

If non-supporting players were to start migrating to SMPs less popular with supporters, then there is just going to be a larger divide that grows between supporting and non-supporting players. New non-supporting players will naturally also choose the servers that they can get into with ease to establish themselves.

Is it possible that the server cap could be applied only to non-supporters, so that supporters who join still have priority access but do not cause a decrease of the available slots for non-supporters?

I would also not be opposed to enforcing kicking non-supporting players back to the queue who are afk for more than a certain period of time, say 5 minutes.

Would it also make sense to put a time limit on non-supporters, so that if others were waiting in the queue, they wouldn't have to wait for more than say an hour to get in?

Again, I apologize if some of these questions have been asked and answered before. It's just hard to keep up with all the posts. Please just reply with links to the relevant posts if this is the case.

I believe the low player cap will only apply to Utopia.

I don't think even Aikar knows for sure what he is going to do. Most likely whatever we start with will be tuned as he gets feedback from us.

This has always been a server where a free player could operate just as well as a Supporter in my opinion and I expect he will try to be fair. At the same time, the new rules don't leave much to work with as far as giving a server owner a way to sell entertainment.

I have projects and interests on nearly all the servers. If I couldn't get onto one, I would go find something else to do on a different server most of the time. There are times when I want to work on a project or have some obligation to fulfill on a specific server and as a current Supporter, being able to log in regardless of a server's population is a convenience I pay for.

If it were me, I would set it so that normally everyone can get on and let the extra population during periodic events create the incentive for people to Support. There is a lot of room for adjustment. We will just have to wait and see.

Well, if I want to move my res off of utopia, I'd better do it now.

Yes, I did get the idea from Aikar's remarks that the cap on Utopia would be the most stringent. That still leaves the question of.... What kind of reduction does this indicate:

Will it be 50, 40, 20?

this is such a long thread and I haven't payed much attention to it. Has anything Big changed since the first week of the announce of the change? (I dont want to read through 31 pages of posts )

I hope 10 is just you picking an easy number to work with, and not actually being discussed.

I had an idea related to Free player Utopia access. Here it is.

Free players can come to Utopia to get all the benefits of Utopia, and to get a "free trial" of what Utopia has to offer. But they are only allowed to go to Wastelands, instead of Wild. They would still get the same experience, just not being allowed to use any farms. This would (should) make all supporters and Utopia users happy. Not having to worry about more griefings, and finding someone you don't know randomly at your farm, probably with /map hide set to show. Because It's set to show by default, most users there would be first time users of Utopia. They would be shown by default.

This idea would personally make me happy, and I bet it would make everyone else happy too.

It wouldn't be allowed under the EULA, because it'd be restricting access to gameplay features (i.e. the wilderness).