Sorry I quoted the wrong post. Was meant for What about access to Endertopia and the Frontier and Wastelands of Utopia? Will you guys have to allow all players to go to current supporter perks, or will that be a cosmetic/stay a supporter option?
Sure .... I get that ... but you are also identifying a "payment" or a "supporting" ,per player, as a specified amount of money. In my opinion ... that is a bit greedy. I get it ... it takes $ to provide a Server such as Empire, but it is the choice of the provider to partake in such an endeavor and to continue it's survival. There have been, and continue to be, MANY Johnny-come-lately's who think they can run a Server and find that the $ of such is prohibitive. To me, I would think that we should think a bit smaller, but on a larger scale - if that make any sense. If Empire could get more players to donate, but at smaller increments, then perhaps it could outweigh that monthly Donator income, therefore creating not only a larger Community, but one that players would feel comfortable committing to (again, at that smaller price point) because it truly is worth it. To me, the real key I finding that "price-point" where Mommy and Daddy are O.K. with giving their go-ahead. Also, I do believe the new Mojang policy is not an attempt to break up our Community, as the Server Spam would indicate, but rather an attempt to curb the "pay-to-play" Server approach. To buy Rupees is a bit of a lazy approach, and somewhat contrary to the Empire manner. I remember when signing in was my only source of Rupees. Thank God some "buy" shops soon arrived, otherwise I may have kicked Empire to the curb. Still, I continue to see new players struggle( at first) with the Rupees system in place, and beg for Jobs rather than choose to go out and work for their Rupees and have a source like a Server "buy" Shop area, that could motivate most to work for their Rupees and perhaps provide a subtle reminder that MC is all about the effort YOU give it. To me, it is the very root of why I continue to be drawn to such a simple concept and am continually rewarded with the effort I put forth. When I first joined the Empire (again as my FIRST MP Server ever!), the Utopia realm and being able to jump to another Server, was not even an option. The default Server you first were assigned to was it for you - and I was totally O.K. with that. The fact that I can now visit, explore and mine any of the Servers of the Empire(save the Utopia) is exactly an example of the nuances that those steering the evolution of the Empire have done in the positive to ensure its survival. Couple that with the custom Enraged Mobs and the concept the Wastelands and the Frontier .... clearly those in control are sharp and cognizant of what tomorrow holds and the future of the Empire. Of all the Servers in my some 900+ days of being a Minecrafter, THAT is what keeps Empire on the top of my MP lists ! That being said, if there was a one-time Donation I could make to "help" the Server in its endeavors, and perhaps receive a small bonus in return, I'd be all over that. The true concept is that if you do something right, then new players tell their friends, and they tell their friends, and they tell ....and soon there's a waiting list and Servers are chosen to be the default because there is actually and OPEN residence on it ! Imagine that ! All the while, you could "fish" for Donators because their experience is truly the best they have experienced.
Can you rephrase this? as I can not understand what you meant by this. I understand the idea sounds great in principle, but as I said in another post, the cheap 5$ package is barely used, and only 5% of supporters use it. That 5% is consistent over at least a 9 month span, so its a pretty reliable data set. That shows out of those who are ABLE to support, are more than happy to pay 10-20+. If price was the barrier, then the 5$ option would be used more, but it is not. So, this shows its not a price barrier, its a "who's able to convince their parents to spend money at all online" vs those who are, or those who pay for it themselves. The Empire focuses on the idea of letting players play their own way. To many, working a full time job then coming home to play some games, many players would rather purchase some rupees, and buy the materials they need instead of harvesting them. While some considers this "lazy", it is their right to play that way and make that choice. They may not find harvesting fun, but find building fun. So we encourage players to do what they need to play the way they find the most fun. Some do this without paying IRL money by playing the economy hardcore, others simply choose to use money. But it doesn't really change anything nor apply here because its not a competitive landscape. The (old) broadcast was meaning that (before we got these new ideas), the basic premise was that Utopia and Supporters had to be segregated away from the rest of the community. No-one is going to tell me that's NOT "breaking the community apart". It was Mojangs own words that said Paid members can't play with the Free players. There is technically an ability to donate a small amount already, on the upgrade page you can click "Buy Now", pay anything you like, and if you don't want anything in return, then simply never PM us about the transaction
Sorry to go completely off the grid (and at the chance of being deleted) ... Then why are you so hard on mob farm users? Edited to be more respectful. Sorry.
I don't go out of my way to target them, but I have to make changes to ensure the servers stay stable in terms of performance and not let people go unrestricted in how much resources they personally use. 2 people alone use to bring Utopia to its knees in lag with 5 people online due to golem farms.... No respectable server would 'allow' that just to let someone run a farm while AFK, harming every other player online whos actually there and trying to play.
Also many of the changes that have affected mob spawns are generic in general 1) Lowering view distance - sorry we just can't afford to run with a view distance of 7 2) Entity activation - EMC is one of the heaviest entity using servers there is. People constantly say "you have a lot of entities" to other server owners with 1500-2000 entities.... We run with 2500-4000+ entities. http://aikar.co/timings.php?url=7729333 EAR is the only reason we survive this amount. The only other option to have higher EAR settings is to reduce entity limits in Town to like 20. That would be extremely unfair to the majority of users to make them be heavily restricted just to let people run farms in the wild.
Its a lot more than a lag issue. You have systems in place to stop people from overpopulating spawners. You know there is more to it than lag. You have done more than try to stop lag from farms. There are threads going on about it now that have nothing to do with lag. Threads you have been very vocal in about not thinking that it is ok for people to play using these farms. You aren't ok with people getting tokens from farms because it isn't the way you think they should be getting tokens. Why because it is to easy? Because you don't want them to be lazy? Because it hurts the "token economy" to have to many coming in from an "easy" source? Buying Rupees does all of the same things. I'm not trying to be rude or argumentative, just trying to understand. What is the difference? Because the absolute only different I see is that one of them brings in hard currency and one of them does not.
The system in place came out wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy before Tokens were even brought up as an idea. As someone who played before the entity limits were in place, I can assure you that it really was about lag. At the point that all of the entity restrictions were put in place, Aikar wasn't even in charge or had much of a say in the direction that EMC was headed. Tokens have always been a reward to challenges, with those challenges being fighting mobs. It is the choice of EMC to determine the definition of cheating in a system they purely thought up and created. EMC is just trying to encourage variety and group playing. It may come off as discouraging being an industrialist, but it really isn't. Rupees and tokens are two totally different things. Rupees are the main currency and are a general use currency. Tokens are a smaller currency aimed at being used to get exclusive rewards. And because there is no way to convert between the two currencies, there is little to nothing similar about them other than they are by definition a general form of currency.
Like I said this has nothing to do with lag or the lag system. You can't say "it is their right to play that way and make that choice. They may not find harvesting fun, but find building fun. So we encourage players to do what they need to play the way they find the most fun." and then tell people you don't approve of how they want to play (assuming it is following the set standards of rules in place) There has never been rules against Farm systems, so people have used them and made them. So why now are they being limited?
They aren't... Nothing has changed for farms in like well over 8+ months, other than being excluded for new things. Please return to discussion of supporter options now
I think that's what he meant by 'limited'. People built the farms thinking "If I put in x amount of time & resources, I can make a machine to generate the resources and eventually be reimbursed my investment. Plus, I'll get new drops and features that are made". That statement has generally fulfilled it's meaning, except for the "Plus, I'll get new drops and features that are made". That segment is an open mouth waiting to be fed.
I'll keep supporting emc as I love the servers, but I'm really not liking ANY of these changes to supporters :/ Also, whats the status on TNT and will be still be able to claim more then 1 res as supporters?
So I know that supporters are going to be losing the ability to make custom residences messages, as that is going into the cosmetic thingy.. Will supporters whom have already made custom rez messages lose them should they not have the cosmetic thingy when those go into effect..?
Fellow EMC-ers, keep in mind that Aikar is doing his best to accommodate us players, and these changes are required to be in compliance with Mojang's policies. We may not all like these changes being forced on us by Mojang, but regardless of what we do or don't like, we need to live in reality meaning changes are required like it or not. Aikar did not just wake up one day and say, "rather than work on bug fixes, Dragon Tombs, etc... I will change around our supporter system" (correct me if I am wrong). Remember that he is asking US for feedback, as to what would work the best! Also, keep in mind that although many of us have spend countless hours playing EMC, Aikar has much skin in this game as well. It is just another bump in the road of life, so remember that the "best" course of action will be taken to try and ensure the future of us here in our community.
Sounds like pretty strict real money paying for gameplay advantages. Even if you had to logout and login again to access Utopia, if Utopia and the free servers interact through the vault and free members are restricted this is essentially gating the free members. As long as Utopia is completely separate in terms of gameplay then preventing free members access from Utopia differently compared to other parts of the server then there is no problem. But if you set a restriction on Utopia to 5 free members, and Utopia has farming perks, then its hardly any different than having everyone on one server with one world that only 5 free people can get into while supporters get free reign. Paying Money cannot = different gameplay on a single server. And as a free Member, if I could transfer stuff between two servers but one server had to be paid for to get in more than once a month and got 200% more mining drops, is that not gameplay affecting?
I don't see how this is any different than supporters receiving guaranteed slots on the free servers. Supporters get first access to server resources.
Utopia would not be a supporter only server. Free players will gain access to it, so everyone will get the boosts that utopia provides. Setting the player count lower is fully allowed by the EULA. Free players will have access to be able to play, and once connected, everyone will have the exact same experience. Essentially, there is no questioning that this plan is compliant with the EULA. It is a server owners right to limit its player count to levels it feel is appropriate, and mojang has explicitly defined this: "Once on a server, all players must have the same gameplay privileges. " key point being "once on a server". The connecting process is excluded. Connecting to the server is not part of gameplay, and that is why its allowed to sell access.
