Administrators Popular Post Alex Posted April 18, 2016 Administrators Popular Post Share Posted April 18, 2016 Hello all, I'm making this announcement to forewarn you of my intent to remove the VIP Lounge from the forums, and retire the VIP Forum pip. The reason for this change is that managing who is and is not a VIP is a very time-consuming task for me - every day I have to add and remove people as VIPs on the forum (often the same people, who seem to let their VIP subscription lapse for a few days ) as well as process forum account bonuses, respond to bug reports, and the multitude of other daily tasks involved in managing the game. Ideally, I would like to reduce my workload in terms of management so that I can focus on development - bringing in new features, more players, and creating a better game. The VIP Forum Benefits were a good idea, and worked well initially to reduce the amount of game support that came from pay-to-win benefits. I intend to continue this ideology, by bringing VIP subscribers more and better in-game benefits, which seem to be the bulk of the motivation behind a given player's decision to become a VIP member. In the VIP Lounge subforum I brought this up a while ago, and didn't receive too many complaints about it. After this month (starting May 1st) I will be archiving the VIP Lounge permanently, and will stop changing forum accounts to have the VIP pip. The current VIP pip will be adapted in some shape or form to have a "Legacy" indication, and anyone who is a VIP on May 1st when I deprecated the VIP Forum Benefits will be able to keep the VIP Legacy pip permanently. Yes, even if your VIP subscription later expires, you will be able to keep the pip indefinitely. Anyone who is not a VIP when the VIP Forum Benefits are deprecated will not be allowed to get the VIP Legacy pip, even if you purchase a VIP subscription after the VIP Forum Benefits are deprecated. There will be no exceptions. You have almost two weeks if you're interested in the permanent VIP Legacy pip, and because VIP Subscriptions last for 30 days, any VIP purchase from this point onward would guarantee that you will receive the VIP Legacy pip. If you are currently a VIP, but are interested in having the VIP Legacy pip permanently, I would recommend that you check the length of your subscription (which can be done so on the Donate page) and ensure that it will last you through May 1st. If you have any further questions, I'm happy to answer them, but I imagine I've addressed most FAQs above. 8 Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrezj Kolarov Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I think a good list for future VIP/Legacy bonuses would be: - Custom currency (with image upload). - Custom national religion (not the one in the factbook, something that's displayed on the main page). - Higher Factbook wordcount. - Being able to name our Intelligence Services (Spies) and Missile/Nuke forces like we can name Army/Navy/Air-force, plus their commanders. - The ability to change national flag at will (2 credits everytime you want a new one is harsh). - Same as above but for baseball team logo. - Small income bonus (again, controversial but an idea). Feel free for anyone else to add ideas to this. 3 People's Republic of Velika: National Information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odin Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 (edited) Remove approval for Alliance Anthems and Backgrounds, please. (Doesn't fit to VIP, but surely to 'reducing workload') Edited April 18, 2016 by Odin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aksel Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Good move - I always forget to update my VIP status. I'm all for allowing Sheepy to have more time for game development. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikhan Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Personally, I think that having to pay for a custom national flag is a bad idea, however, I think that if you want to change it later, it should be 3 credits at first and increase every two changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pfeiffer Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Because simply having a mod who did this once a week would be super tough. Shit, I'll do it. All the VIP thing does in game is send a message. Reroute that to me and give me usergroup buttons and I'll keep it up to date. 3 ☾☆ Chairman Emeritus of Mensa HQ ☾☆ "It's not about the actual fish, themselves. Fish are not important in this context. It's about fish-ing, the act of fishing itself." -Jack O'Neill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kastor Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I agree with Pfeiffer, please let a mod do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Alex Posted April 18, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted April 18, 2016 Remove approval for Alliance Anthems and Backgrounds, please. (Doesn't fit to VIP, but surely to 'reducing workload') Yes, that's on my to-do list as well. 1 Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Alex Posted April 18, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted April 18, 2016 Because simply having a mod who did this once a week would be super tough. Shit, I'll do it. All the VIP thing does in game is send a message. Reroute that to me and give me usergroup buttons and I'll keep it up to date. I imagine you'd get tired of dealing with people who don't know how to create a forum account, log into their forum account, and other general troubleshooting questions. Plus, when you inevitably got tired of the job, I'd have to find someone else, etc. It's much easier if it's all in-game and all automated. I'm giving anyone that wants a VIP forum pip plenty of time to make that possible, which I think is a very fair compromise. Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foltest Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I think a good list for future VIP/Legacy bonuses would be: - Custom currency (with image upload). - Custom national religion (not the one in the factbook, something that's displayed on the main page). - Higher Factbook wordcount. - Being able to name our Intelligence Services (Spies) and Missile/Nuke forces like we can name Army/Navy/Air-force, plus their commanders. - The ability to change national flag at will (2 credits everytime you want a new one is harsh). - Same as above but for baseball team logo. - Small income bonus (again, controversial but an idea). Feel free for anyone else to add ideas to this. iirc - sheepy recently released an update allowing everyone to name all the branches of military. Honestly I'd like it if VIP membership came automatically from donating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekaterina Kalmyk Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Sounds like a good plan to me. Manually processing all of that is way too much maintenance work. I'd rather have Sheepy focused on developing new stuff for the game like new National Projects, Perks. etc. 1 Original Art Credit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pfeiffer Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I imagine you'd get tired of dealing with people who don't know how to create a forum account, log into their forum account, and other general troubleshooting questions. Plus, when you inevitably got tired of the job, I'd have to find someone else, etc. It's much easier if it's all in-game and all automated. I'm giving anyone that wants a VIP forum pip plenty of time to make that possible, which I think is a very fair compromise. I mean, I'd offer a firm commitment of six months just to get the ball rolling, but I see no reason why it would be a lot of work. I'd just log in once a day, probably around 9-10PM server time, and update the permissions. If someone is too derp to know how to register a forum account then they'll simply have to figure it out if they want to be on the singular 'special' board. 1 ☾☆ Chairman Emeritus of Mensa HQ ☾☆ "It's not about the actual fish, themselves. Fish are not important in this context. It's about fish-ing, the act of fishing itself." -Jack O'Neill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yosodog Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 It does sound a bit tedious to do this manually. I feel like I should give you an idea of what to do though you've probably already thought about it. You can automatically add someone to a group. I do it with BK's 18+ forum, they hit a button and it adds the group to their secondary group. VIP is a primary group so it takes a step out. Given that everyone's forum name has to be the same on the forums and in-game (which again makes it a lot easier), you could just write a quick query to update the ipb_core_members table to change the member_group_id column to the ID of the VIP group. Then once it expires change it back to the default group. 1 [22:37:51] <&Yosodog> Problem is, everyone is too busy deciding which top gun character they are that no decision has been made BK in a nutshell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrezj Kolarov Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 iirc - sheepy recently released an update allowing everyone to name all the branches of military. Nah not spies and missiles. People's Republic of Velika: National Information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abu Haddad Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 anyone want vip pip i can give you a credit if you need Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiroshima Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Man, I'm tempted to give Sheepy money for a dumbass pip. Good job Sheepy! I hope you buy a hammock and get tangled up in it in an amusing fashion. 2 “I'm cheap and enjoy butchering” - Manthrax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Alex Posted April 18, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted April 18, 2016 It does sound a bit tedious to do this manually. I feel like I should give you an idea of what to do though you've probably already thought about it. You can automatically add someone to a group. I do it with BK's 18+ forum, they hit a button and it adds the group to their secondary group. VIP is a primary group so it takes a step out. Given that everyone's forum name has to be the same on the forums and in-game (which again makes it a lot easier), you could just write a quick query to update the ipb_core_members table to change the member_group_id column to the ID of the VIP group. Then once it expires change it back to the default group. Interesting, I wasn't aware that it would be that simple to automate changing permissions. However, we keep the forum and game databases completely isolated from each other, so if there's ever some sort of vulnerability on one or the other they're not both compromised. Man, I'm tempted to give Sheepy money for a dumbass pip. Good job Sheepy! I hope you buy a hammock and get tangled up in it in an amusing fashion. I do have one already, have yet to get tangled up in an amusing fashion 1 Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Winchell Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 What if you're VIP but don't want the legacy pip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Alex Posted April 18, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted April 18, 2016 What if you're VIP but don't want the legacy pip? Then just let me know, but there shall be no take-backsies after May 1st. 1 Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent W Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 So, just to get this straight, you're retiring the forum VIP benefits but not the in-game ones? If so, that's actually fine with me, the VIP Lounge didn't see enough use as it is. 3 Former Imperial Officer of Internal Affairs and Emperor of the New Pacific Order, Founder of the Syndicate, Current Chief Global Strategist of the Syndicate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Alex Posted April 18, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted April 18, 2016 So, just to get this straight, you're retiring the forum VIP benefits but not the in-game ones? If so, that's actually fine with me, the VIP Lounge didn't see enough use as it is. Correct, and yes, the VIP Lounge is very inactive/uneventful. Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblige Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I mean, I'd offer a firm commitment of six months just to get the ball rolling, but I see no reason why it would be a lot of work. I'd just log in once a day, probably around 9-10PM server time, and update the permissions. If someone is too derp to know how to register a forum account then they'll simply have to figure it out if they want to be on the singular 'special' board. Literally never let Pfeiffer have buttons for anything ever. He was fired as both an Admin and GMod at the eUSA Forums for repeated and continual access abuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurdanak Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Reasonable change. \o/ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abu Haddad Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 What about custom player titles. Does this mean that they will disappear or something Caliph of The Caliphate of Arabia. Caliph of the Islamic State of Arabia. Principle of The Principality of Chechnya. Grand Emir of The Emirate of The Caucus. Emperor of the Empire of Persia. Sultan of The Sultanates of Turkey and The Crimea. Czar of the Tsardom of The Balkans. Archon of The Archonate of Greece. Supreme Consul of The Consulate of Italy. Shah of The Shahdom Of Khorason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimitri Valko Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 I think a good list for future VIP/Legacy bonuses would be: - Custom currency (with image upload). - Custom national religion (not the one in the factbook, something that's displayed on the main page). - Higher Factbook wordcount. - Being able to name our Intelligence Services (Spies) and Missile/Nuke forces like we can name Army/Navy/Air-force, plus their commanders. - The ability to change national flag at will (2 credits everytime you want a new one is harsh). - Same as above but for baseball team logo. - Small income bonus (again, controversial but an idea). Feel free for anyone else to add ideas to this. Or maybe we could give everyone these things? Why is the communist trying to bring capitalism to P&W? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts