Thoughts from a current donator.

What you are suggesting is a convenience, I'm not denying that. I'm saying it isn't a real incentive to donate.

Let me put it this way. If for Platinum Donor status I was able to summon a basic regeant/goods merchant that sells at normal price (Silver Level), and buys my goods at full price (Gold Level), plus be able to have a banker anywhere I go (Platinum Level), I would instantly upgrade to Platinum.

That is called incentive, and it generates real actual money for the server right now, while giving me something that doesn't break the game, does not make me any more powerful than the next guy, rather, it just allows me to not have to ever go to Sadri Malath and instead I can stay in the zones in Ikisith (where my character should be 100% of the time anyway.)

So that we are on a mutual understanding about 1 thing, I think your 3-tiered system of summoning merchants/bankers is a good idea, and I support it. I do not support a gimped version of that merchant at any level of donation, and that's all.

Anything else you try to come back with as a rebuttal is irrelevant and I won't reply to it.
 
Silosobi said:
If the summoned vendor doesn't pay full value, 95% of players won't use it.
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I definitely think that is a stretch, depending on how much it is "reduced" I am sure lots of people would use a summoned vendor for convenience. I think a 5-10% reduction to normal vendor price would be more than fair. Keep in mind when you (not directed only at Solo) post in these threads that the majority of the server does not have access to every single port location (via clicky or quested ports).

There are several scenarios in which I would have used this convenience -- yes, me, a tier 13 player -- and be better off for it (even taking into account 5-10% reduction).
 
Silosobi said:
This is semantics and you are basically calling someone an idiot for disagreeing with you, which in turn just makes you look like an idiot since Zorlon obviously has a much better idea of what motivates players in SoD. Selling at a real vendor is very little inconvenience. I almost never see items rot, and I almost never see anyone leave a zone just to sell. If the summoned vendor doesn't pay full value, 95% of players won't use it.
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Actually I said his actions were idiotic not that he himself is an idiot. That is a distinction you should probably be familiar with given recent history. While it's cool and very effective to say he knows more about what motivates players it's entirely worthless to put forth, you're his buddy rushing to his aid and you're both from the same sample pool of players, a sample pool with much larger access to resources at that. Also I know more about what motivates players times infinity. What now.

zorlon2 said:
Anything else you try to come back with as a rebuttal is irrelevant and I won't reply to it.
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Well then I guess you'll never actually get around to explaining how you can recognize it as a convenience and give listed examples of how it would benefit you but due to making less platinum or paying 2pp more for a peridot it has dropped below a figmentary threshold from great to completely worthless.
 
Posting here for two reasons:

(1) Ease back on the personal attacks. The word "idiotic" probably shouldn't appear in this thread, and the other thinly-veiled "you are less intelligent than me" posts could stand a little more politeness.

(2) People keep asking me my opinion on this matter. I don't like these ideas except the MoP invis potion so you could run through without sneaking around (would need a duration limit and to be usable only before entering the MoP so that you wouldn't just hang out in the MoP, though). That said, this is Admin-Woldo's area not mine, so this isn't my decision. Your opinions and ideas, expressed plainly and convincingly, are worth as much as mine.
 
The vendor idea kinda scares me, and gives me visions of plat farming without having to leave and lose your cycle or possibly your area when LORE items drop. Overall it probably wouldn't make much difference at all. Depending on how the vendor acts with items sold to it (do they poof or do they stay?) it could also be used for some extra-space shenanigans.

Ultimately I see donating on this server as two issues: 1) The people who donate donate because they enjoy the server and would, in many cases, donate without a kick-back. These are the kinds of people that the server has traditionally desired the most as a playerbase just because of their general attitude anyway. 2) If you're going to entice donations via bribery, it will have to be something that gives an advantage, and that's something the server has traditionally been against anyway (see #1)
 
Lets be clear, a bribe is something given for doing the wrong thing. A reward is something given for doing the right thing.

If you want more people to donate, IE doing the right thing, reward them.
 
i donate and do not use current rewards because i like the game? i'm not against more donator stuff but let's be plain i don't use the stuff i have pretty much!
 
I have been a gold donator for a while now and I didn't do it for the benefits. For as much as I have used SoD, $10 a month is a fart in the wind. I donate money to freelance programmers, open-source projects, wikipedia, etc etc, all the time in small increments. SoD is no different to me because it is something I use and somebody is paying the bills for it somewhere.

Gold donators should be the bread-and-butter target group. Regardless of what you offer for Platinum Status, you won't get very many more subs simply because $20-$25/month is too steep for a lot of folks' budget, and that is OK.

Gender Change and Race Change should be 1-time $10 donation choices.

And just to create a shitstorm, I'll say that the item "Swift Treads" should be removed from the game and added as a Gold Donator summon item instead of the current Scale of Wolfs boots.
 
zorlon2 said:
Gender Change and Race Change should be 1-time $10 donation choices.
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This seems reasonable to me too, the only reason I suggested race change as being a platinum tier thing with a caveat is because I know how adamant woldaff is about race changing remaining a fame only deal so I figured I'd present it in a way that might MIGHT have a chance of being implemented at all.
 
Limit race changes for real life money to only normal class/race combos and leave fame with the possibility of non-standard class/race combos.

IE: Fame race change Iksar Bard, Gnome Bard, Ogre Wizard. Money race change High Elf to Gnome Cleric, High Elf to Gnome Mage, etc etc.
 
You tough guys realize that once you can bank from the vendor you can just listend a bunch of stuff to an alt, and then retrieve it later to sell back in town. I am not sure if there is a limit on the amount of items you can have in listsent limbo but there doesn't seem to be one. Therefore you can easily send multiple inventories worth of items in this manner.

Is that an exploit tho?

Also EZ server has a buyable banker that can be used by anyone once summoned. It cost 1 million plat if I remember correctly (keep in mind you could farm around 100k an hour in some zones. As you could sell no drop items on the server for large amounts of plat it was very convenient if you were farming a private instance. And it was a good plat sink.
 
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Yeah, you can tell how much I hang out on SoD boards by how long it took me to actually reply to this thread.

Personal insight notes incoming, and yes, I've been donating on & off (mostly on) for what, over 4 years now? I'm sure Tao knows, if not, I can go back to 2007 via my Paypal for it.

No, Gold should not get pocket plane. It's one of the key reasons as a tradeskiller I keep platinum instead of gold. Keep your STD's in Athica!

Things I read that I *do* agree with and/or ideas

- Fame. Easy enough, just make it 1 fame point per $1 of donation (man, if you make that retro, would rock!). On the char of your choice, of course.

- Completely agree to get rid of that hut with the decorative armor. Instead, maybe do something along the lines of bounty rewards. Expable items for sale for plat donators only. Or exp potions, etc. I know it can be timed so you can't get 1000 potions in a day or whatever. Yeah, you may get an influx of one time donators to just grab those items, but hey, it would be a new shiny.

- Gold donators = have additional house space now. If possible, rather than giving them pocket plane, maybe an NPC or two in that locked building(s) with reduced items of what I just mentioned. More on that in a sec.

- GET RID OF THE DAMN CAST TIME ON GOLD DONATOR BOOTS! Sorry to yell, but honestly, I'll mem SoW or use my Tboots on my rogue before I bother to even click them. It is in all honesty not a very good "perk". Redo this one, make 'em no drop Tboots with a faster run speed, anything but what it is now.

- Instead of permanent race change for donators, something along the lines of dyes (no idea how feasible it is). Gold can change their race OR Gender via summoned item once a month. Probably a bitch & a half to code, or would have to be petitionable. Plat can change every two weeks (or until fame & living forever as it). Granted, more work to keep track of who did what when, all that jazz, but gets away from the HAHAHAH, I donated once, and now have an ogre wizard!

- Love the idea of translocators. Again, Gold can possibly use an NPC in house to get to cities, and then just make the plat one any port available (outside of the planes/raid zones) to druids or wizards.

- Hate the idea of summoned vendors or bank. Maybe instead let gold donators have their house key able to summon them to their house so they can quickly bank, and not limited to where they can cast it. Yeah, so you have to bind in zone X so you can bank quick, gate back, deal with loot later. Oh, you're in a dungeon? Sucks to be you, suicide, use your key, get rezzed back (don't tell me no one does this now).

I'm sure I'll think of more/get repped while posting with insomnia, but server should be back up.
 
zorlon2 said:
And just to create a shitstorm, I'll say that the item "Swift Treads" should be removed from the game and added as a Gold Donator summon item instead of the current Scale of Wolfs boots.
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this!

but yeah, I sometimes use the boots, but not very often, and if I had the threads I wouldnt. I really only started using them quite recently though. I don't use the silver item, I do use dyes, I dont really use pocketplane much cuz cant meet with most people there and theres really nothing special there except nighttime tradeskill vendors. Currently considering going down to gold again cuz well, yeah the plat cash is a bit much, but haven't decided yet. I wouldn't stop donating while Im playing and can afford it though, even though the rewards and appreciation shown towards donators kinda suck.

I believe that most donators today have jobs, and many of them don't play as much as some people without jobs who couldn't afford to donate does. They still enjoy playing when time admits it though and shows their appreciation by donating. Currently being a plat donator is only an advantage if you're into tradeskills, and many people with limited time to play put their tradeskillhat on the shelf (blacksmith, tailorer, jewelcrafter, brewer, alchemist but yeah I kinda did). The ratio of donators among the players who play the most on the server right now is probably quite low, because they can't afford to and the only way to get them to donate would likely be to give gamechanging advantages which I think would be a very bad idea. The people most likely to donate are the family people, with jobs, who play casually but enjoy themselves while doing so. Donator gifts shouldn't give advantages that you cannot get by just playing actively, but if it gave a few perks that would make playtime more fun, I think a lot more of these people would consider donating. I dont like the whole onetime donating for a perk kinda thing cuz that's more of a buying something than donating and getting a thankyoucard. tboots with 0 casttime, not having to bother with mansion of portals or loading up a botwizard, or a free exp pot like the ones you can get for bountytokens are things like that. It saves those people with less playtime some time for the things they like to do in game, but it doesnt really give them any advantage that you can't get by simply not donating, not working and just playing a lot.
 
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lynnettell said:
- GET RID OF THE DAMN CAST TIME ON GOLD DONATOR BOOTS! Sorry to yell, but honestly, I'll mem SoW or use my Tboots on my rogue before I bother to even click them. It is in all honesty not a very good "perk". Redo this one, make 'em no drop Tboots with a faster run speed, anything but what it is now.

- Love the idea of translocators. Again, Gold can possibly use an NPC in house to get to cities, and then just make the plat one any port available (outside of the planes/raid zones) to druids or wizards.

- Hate the idea of summoned vendors or bank. Maybe instead let gold donators have their house key able to summon them to their house so they can quickly bank, and not limited to where they can cast it. Yeah, so you have to bind in zone X so you can bank quick, gate back, deal with loot later. Oh, you're in a dungeon? Sucks to be you, suicide, use your key, get rezzed back (don't tell me no one does this now).
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this.
 
I also dislike the idea of being able to summon a vendor/banker directly to you, but I love the idea of adding a vendor to the house. Also Kero's idea about being able to click to your house from anywhere is much preferred in my mind over being able to summon NPCs. Even if you didn't add a vendor, being able to click to my house and listsending the items off to a mule would be perfect.


Edit: The ability to key to your house from anywhere should in my opinion be a gold+ perk. It would definitely get me to go back up to gold from silver.
 
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Otcho said:
I think you missed the irc conversation a year ago or something where cyzaine mentioned giving donators access to ammo usable racechange idols or something. Everyone went fucking nuts and offered to give money the moment he made it happen.

Race change is a serious incentive and having it be a temporary thing where you hail an npc/use a command and get changed for a month and then revert back after the time period expires like dyes would be amazing.

This is easily the most discussed topic of any guild I have ever been in or any conversation about donation rewards etc.
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I would pay for that.
 
Cmon, we all want to play that dark elf ranger or wood elf shaman. Game breaking? I dont think so, but fun as heck!
 
After considering it for a while I think it's unnecessary to add code for giving donators 1x of exp pots each month. The vendors in pocketplane needs a bit of an update on what they sell, and I don't really see why they shouldn't be able to sell some "luxury" items from "far away places".
I'd like to suggest adding the following items to the vendor "Merchant Risko" in pocketplane (his inventory of "cool stuff" is sadly outdated).

Elixir of Minor Experience at 50 pp (change it to lore to avoid people stocking up)
Elixir of Moderate Experience at 100 pp (change it to lore to avoid people stocking up)
Elixir of Major Experience at 500 pp (change it to lore to avoid people stocking up)

This vendor could also use some new stat-food/drink available.

could add some of the food/drink from vendor "Officer Nord Malden" or simply just add
the food/drink available from frogs in ikisith (which would be a nice convenience).
could also perhaps upgrade some of the current items like SoD Coffee Mug to give something more/else than +3 cha.

Another suggestion of something that might or might not generate something would be to add flattr donations (if it's not too much work) and make it possible to make micropayments to support/show your like for updates and newly dev'ed things that you like.
 
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I hate to nitpick spelling or grammar on polite posts, but I don't understand the term "flattr donations".
 
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