Post-Eula Rank Changes

[CakeLancelot]

Alrighty, we've got one more announcement before the server goes live. This time it's regarding the server ranks and in general how we're going to be monetizing to keep the server running.

Before, we had the approach of you buy it and you get the benefits. With the EULA we cannot offer these types of benefits - ones that are exclusive to the player unless they are purely cosmetic. We will be heading towards a 'buying benefits everyone' route that will overall improve the server the more people participate.
To be fair, we've haven't followed the EULA until now - but recently mojang's legal team has been cracking down on servers that don't and blacklisting them. This means you cannot connect without a modded client. If that happens, we lose a lot of our playerbase and we're dead in the water.

So what's leaving?

• /ptime and /pweather removed for all donor ranks (source)
• Pets will be allowed on all servers - but only in certain areas. For instance, you will currently only be able to have pets in the faction's spawn, since riding them elsewhere would give an unfair advantage. (We're looking for a way to be more lenient on this)
• Silkspawners are disabled for now, eventually we'll either ditch this feature completely or find a way to give it to everybody at a time, therefore making it eula compliant.
• Crafting spawners is disabled - not only because it was against the eula but it was kind of overpowered and broken.
• Keeping XP  gets the same fate as silkspawners - temporarily disabled.
• Additional homes and plots will not be available to buy with real money - perhaps it will make a return buyable with in-game currency.
• Same goes for the command /feed - it is not eula-compliant to have bundled with a rank, so it goes for now.
• /workbench and /enderchest are not to be rank exclusive commands.
• No VIP room - sorry.

Now I know you may ask yourself: "Well then, what's the point? You pretty much got rid of all the features that made the ranks worth buying in the first place." and while this may be true it isn't our fault. Mojang implemented these changes for better and for worse: Better so that young children can't max out their parent's credit card buying stuff on server for a block building game. Worse for small-medium sized servers as it will be harder to pay the bills effectively.

We will completely rework ranks and give them new features - that much is for sure. However as said previously - it will be for the betterment of the server as a whole. For example, having a player with a paid rank in the server gives you extra mcmmo xp. Or the money can go towards features that everyone can experience - like new servers.

All this is in the pipeline and most likely will not be ready on the launch date in 2 days - but I wanted to let you guys know in advance so you wouldn't freak out once it does happen.
If you have any questions drop them in this topic and I will do my best to answer them. Thanks for supporting us through another phase of the server - the 2 year anniversary launch date is sooner than ever.

[Karkat]

Just to make sure, people who had ranks before the server closed will keep their ranks, right?

[CakeLancelot]

Just to make sure, people who had ranks before the server closed will keep their ranks, right?

Yes they will transfer over. If we change the rank's name people will get the equivalent rank, but like I said the perks you get will be different.

[Rob106]

U r aware people who had bought ranks prior to u changing the store r allowed to keep there perks.. U don't have to Rob us of wut we paid for.. U can just change it for anyone who donates in the future.. Also they were cracking down on the large networks u rly think they would waste there time on a server with like 2 people on at any given time?

[Rob106]

In addition they have already begun to cease blacklisting becuz of the negative feedback and ddosing they recieved.. I see no reason to ruin the donation store

[megs74p]

Rob, you will still have your rank and the new perks that come with it. We cannot give people the perks that they once had because it would give them an unfair advantage over other players. And thats the whole reason they put in the new EULA. It sucks, but it is what it is.

[CakeLancelot]

U r aware people who had bought ranks prior to u changing the store r allowed to keep there perks.. U don't have to Rob us of wut we paid for.. U can just change it for anyone who donates in the future.. Also they were cracking down on the large networks u rly think they would waste there time on a server with like 2 people on at any given time?

They're allowed to keep the rank sure, but it doesn't change the fact it cannot have the same stuff as before.

In addition they have already begun to cease blacklisting becuz of the negative feedback and ddosing they recieved.. I see no reason to ruin the donation store

This is false. While the list of blacklisted servers has shrunk, this is because they either complied with mojang's demands or shut down.

This is not debatable - we're making this change soon after the server starts.

[Rob106]

U guys r wrong on the rank side of things.. You are allowed to keep the rank and any perks u ALREADY had... I won't use names to avoid advertising but multiple large servers I was a donor on changed but those of us that we're already donors kept the perks we had bought...

[megs74p]

Im a donor on another large server too and my perks got changed. Was a little upset, but i knew i couldnt do anything about it.