About the new Donations rule.

[Axle]

Changes have already been made...

 

A big thanks from AWOL, Sequisha, and me. We do honestly appreciate it

[mandy561]

We avoid taking donations specifically for this reason. Am I the only person that actually bothered to search commercial licencing? :P

Its perfectly fine to give people a custom loadout, perhaps even add in for example the spawn select/spawn with a car script for donor's only, or the char select by the axecop for donors

My understanding is the limit is drawn at epoch items.
So i can set someone to have a custom loadout of a DMR with 4 mags + a bunch of tools, coyote backpack

But to allow them to spawn with, for example a briefcase, combo lock, gold, silver, building supplies etc is bad.

For those who don't understand the basics of why there is a commercial licencing in place, i'll explain it as if you are 5 years old.

Basically epoch dev's spend lots of time making all this stuff, they release the server files FOR FREE publicly for thousands of people to use and some people think its ok to "charge" people to buy things from the server?

Thats lost business for the epoch dev's. 
If the epoch dev's didn't release those server files and instead only ran servers themselves, then 100% of business is theirs.

Id be pretty pissed off at people who "sold" epoch building supplies/currency in exchange for hard cash.
Thats my take on it, maybe Im wrong.

My brother was on a kind of small server earlier on with his clan earlier on, an admin had teleported to them and after a quick discussion, tried to direct them to a website where they could browse a topic on the forums which had things such as "Building supplies starter kit -- Wood -- $15"

Thats one example out of hundreds of servers doing this and Its stupid.

P.S english is bad, my apologies

[Defent]

This is very much a question of semantics and the way people form their sentences. Your choice of words can make a big difference. 
Mixing up the meaning of buying and donating and using terms such as "receving" and "in return" can cause uninteded problems. 
I find this specifically intresting since this is my line of work. 

There is a whole science dedicated to just this. If I frame my sentence and use the word "buy" the object [grammatical object] in this sentence may become illicit.
But if I use the word "donating", the sentence instantly becomes a lot different.

Framing of sentences and word usage can make a big difference from a legal point of view. Inferences should be considered.

I do understand that people want to keep their servers alive through jolly co-operation with other people. But keeping the language professional when writing things like these are vital.
 

[BetterDeadThanZed]

My website is on the Enjin.com network. One feature they have is forum points. You can set up a points store with this. If you post a message, you get X number of points. If you donate, you get X number of points, then you can use your points to buy things, be those points from posting messages or donating. Problem solved. Nothing is being sold.

 

However, I decided not to do that because it was too much of a hassle to set up everyone's custom items and kinda takes away from the spirit of the game to have them start with all that stuff.

[Randomness]

Bureaucracy! 

 

Back in da day, this was simply referred as trading :) (Bake me a bread in real life and ill gladly give you some cinder :P)

[Mercules]

When I ran an Epoch server I paid for it. I had 8 real life friends playing on my server who were all at my wedding, to demonstrate how close they are, and I didn't even HINT to them that it would be nice to have someone help with the bill much less people I barely know and random folks joining my server. If you can't afford a monthly fee to run a server, don't run a server. If your community isn't willing to toss you a couple dollars under their own volition without any reward then deal with it.

I rented a server because I wanted a server with a low ping for myself and my friends where I knew the admins wouldn't be screwing us over and that it was reasonable secure. I wanted a server running the couple scripts I like and none of the other crap. The best way for anyone to get that is to pay for it, so I did. 

Now that I don't run one anymore I have dropped the ones I play on regularly a bit of money here and there but the whole, "Please donate I'll give you stuff." gets rather sickening. I left a server the other day because I was running around doing my thing and an admin kept trying to give me things. I didn't want a fully repaired vehicle I was fine looting parts and finding a crappy jeep. I didn't need a better gun I found one I can use just fine. Oh, and I what do you know, 50 minutes in and he is mentioning how those who donate can pick from various stock bases and/or loadouts when they respawn. At that point I left. Don't try and "Help you get started." just to sales pitch me, and that was what it was. I was disgusted by it. 

Run a fair server, where you enforce fair play and respect for each other and people will continue to play there. When they do they might even throw you a few dollars here and there to make sure the doors stay open. 

[NateDaBeast]

Say we have a Enjin website host, and a feature they have is a point based donation store, Basically like what Zed said, Is this okay if we do what he is doing ?

[BetterDeadThanZed]

Say we have a Enjin website host, and a feature they have is a point based donation store, Basically like what Zed said, Is this okay if we do what he is doing ?

 

My post was in February. I no longer offer perks for donations.

[Petite]

I'm fine with donation to help the cost of the server and when you think about how hard some owner  works on the server to make it nicer well donation is nice but what I disagree its seeing one dude with what 50 servers mostly full and making a shit tone of money. That I can just say you do that for the money not because you enjoy having a server and honestly it should not be like that. 

[Richie]

The whole new set of rules was brought in because of that cancer they named 'Origins' :( Kingcunt basically had GSP's falling over themselves to host Origins, this license deal made him fortunes and BIS had to take action.

So now the not so new rules came about but bear in mind there is no way on earth BIS would take action against 1 guy who wanted to recover some costs in exchange for some in game items, just be sensible and carry on as normal :)

[BetterDeadThanZed]

I accept donations and don't give players anything in return (Other than a couple of awesome servers), yet people still donate. Imagine that.

[nickb523]

I've only been running a server for a couple of months which was originally setup just for myself and friends, though as our player base grows i've become amazed at the amount of people that come in for a game and then immediately start asking about donation perks. Our answer is always the same - We setup the server for fun and continue to run it purely for enjoyment, if you want to make a donation towards the server upkeep then be my guest, but dont expect anything in return!

 

I imagine it's primarily younger players who have grown up on "micro-transactions". I just dont get it at all, personally i'd rather just play the game and work at obtaining items, especially given that Epoch is a survival game! I mean what is there left to do once you've handed over £20 for a base, OP loadout and respawning helicopter? If all you want to do is play deathmatch why not buy Battlefield or something? - Makes no sense to me!

[Shak]

I've only been running a server for a couple of months which was originally setup just for myself and friends, though as our player base grows i've become amazed at the amount of people that come in for a game and then immediately start asking about donation perks. Our answer is always the same - We setup the server for fun and continue to run it purely for enjoyment, if you want to make a donation towards the server upkeep then be my guest, but dont expect anything in return!

 

I imagine it's primarily younger players who have grown up on "micro-transactions". I just dont get it at all, personally i'd rather just play the game and work at obtaining items, especially given that Epoch is a survival game! I mean what is there left to do once you've handed over £20 for a base, OP loadout and respawning helicopter? If all you want to do is play deathmatch why not buy Battlefield or something? - Makes no sense to me!

This.

 

Since starting our new server and finally getting to the stage where we're full most of the time, this has become a daily occurrence.

 

One guy asked me 15 mins ago if $100 US would get him a DMR loadout and an apache - I responded that we don't have loadouts - even admins start with the same G17 and not much else.

 

He couldn't comprehend that we weren't interested in his money.

 

In saying that, it seems to be very commonplace in Australia, spend $70 on a M107 or lapua kit or whatever (cough zr cough bonfire)