I haven't read into benefits of donating or what the staff's stand is on donator privileges, But... I'm suggesting a new player command be put in (either donator or non donator). @whodrops [item ID] or, @whodrops [item name] will list what monsters drop that item. And I know bbb.hidden-street exists but this just seems more exact and cooler. Depending on how good you want to make the command will determine how much coding it will take. A simple way would just be allowing the item ID, no item names. That way if the database is queried with an item ID that doesn't exist, it doesn't list anything. If you want to allow the item's name to be queried then you would need to list all item names with that pattern in it and their corresponding item ID's. Either way though I don't think it is such a hard thing to code and I would pitch in if you are low on coders if I get the time. Also if this becomes a donation command that means donator status would need to be coded into each account which is more work. Anyway just though I'd get some thoughts. My personal opinion is to focus on other things to get the server more stable and less buggy before moving onto something like this unless you are just bored. But I still wanted to get the suggestion out there. Cheers, Mitch.
As far as i know, Matt didnt want to add benefits of being a donator for in game stuff, only forum things. though the @whodrops stuff would be kind of cool.
Yeah I understand and support that view completely, but, adding these commands doesn't add any real benefits to the game, only a cool little feature that reduces time spent on looking up a specific item. Also since it is a direct query on the database, if you're doing a quest and not sure if an item isn't dropping at all or has a really small drop rate, using the command will indefinitely tell you whether it drops or not. I think it's handy
It would take ages to match every item name with its item ID wouldn't it..? Although it might be slightly more convenient than visiting bbb, I can't see it getting implemented any time soon.
Every item ID in the database already has the corresponding item name, effects etc. So if you search for an item ID you just need to tell the database to return the name corresponding to that item ID.
In that case it seems like it would be much easier to implement than I thought. Although my knowledge of coding is minimal at best. It still would be quite a way off I think before it becomes high up on the to-do list...
Whoops! My mistake. Scratch whatever I just stated previously. That was totally off. I'd assume what he wants is something along the lines of this: http://forum.ragezone.com/f427/new-player-command-whodrops-559848/ Not sure how badly it'd affect the database speed due to mass searches. I'll look into another alternative in the mean time.
With the current amount of people it probably won't. Plus, you've stated the server spec somewhere before, a bit too much for a v62 server to begin with anyways. Could do something like that old @callgm command. Has the time restriction on it.
I've always thought it would be incredibly handy, since minimizing to go check bbb.hidden-street.net is sort of a hassle, and some of the drops here are different.
Donations for benefits run the risk of legal retribution by Nexon to Matt which could cause the server to be shut down, that's why as of right now there are no donation rewards.
Obviously to encourage more people to donate to keep the server alive? Also let's say you could get these for any donation amount, even 5 Pounds or whatever. And just like some people don't want to skip their Mcdonald's and donate 5 bucks, some people don't mind doing so if there's a bit of incentive. Wow it's really interesting you say that. I'm guessing it would be for all private servers? How come other servers are still offering donation rewards and still running? If there's any legal risk for Matt I will go against the idea completely.
The server has been live and well, even with the little donations people have spent on it. Matt said himself that he really does not want to give people advantages when they donate (i.e NX, VIP, equips, etc). We also have enough donators and players to keep the server running, so we shouldn't worry about the server "dying" due to no donations. Like I said, some people who love this server, like me, don't want to give MapleRoyals money simply because they are penny pinchers. Or they just don't like the server enough to donate. lol Because people like benefits. They like feeling more stronger in-game (which is one of the sole purposes of maplestory private servers) and having more things than others who don't donate. Also, just because a private server is alive and well does not make it good. Look at LunaMS; it has over 600+ players online, yet it wiped within the first week. Donating there gives you a good amount of NX, so that doesn't stop people from donating.
I asked the question because Jinchan said there would be legal troubles from Nexon if we offered any sort of donation rewards, so I was wondering why most other servers do it and are still running and haven't been shut down by Nexon. Thanks for your response btw. I asked a few people in-game and I got the idea that we weren't hitting our monthly donation targets. And I'm offering this idea because it doesn't really give an in-game edge, it just saves a bit of time by using a command instead of googling or going to hidden-street. I hate the idea of getting advantages by paying. But is this much of an advantage? I see it as a bit of incentive to push people to donate a little more.
Technically speaking..Nexon legally can ask any private servers to shut down, however if said private server decides to fight back and try and keep it's servers up the donations from which the server receives through donations rewards can become ammunition for Nexon to use against the private server(whether it's NX cash or Donations "rewards"). However when it's a private server that provides no benefits for it's donations it's a little more difficult for Nexon to build any other reasons to shut down the server other then the fact that it's their game.
I'd like to clarify a few things so that people do not get misinformed. Yes, I did and still do worry about the legal issues that could arise from accepting donations in exchange for in game rewards. However we are well over half a year in existence and are still not reaching the donation goal per month. This is the reason why we are currently developing a donation system for 'Royal Points'. It won't be 'pay2win', and all previous donors will be credited. Every time the donation bar doesn't get filled, somebody has to fill it, and that's been me every month. And I now feel like I have invested enough of my money in MapleRoyals. So almost everything you stated here is false. And this change will be required for the server not to die. On topic, this won't be getting added as already stated.