Additional In-Game Donator Benefit

[TomIce]

Brief Summary
Additional in-game 'building cosmetic' benefit for donators that is visible to all.

Detailed Suggestion
I and many others here understand that playing within the community is free and purely assisted by donations. Wouldn't it be nice if these donations were reflected in-game? I know, this could sound rather trivial or borderline stupid for the effort that may be involved or required to implement. What my theory is that there is some wonderful gorgeous rolling banners on the large buildings in the city (the RPUK logo currently occupies them). My thoughts are adding the character names of those generous enough to use their hard earned money to sponsor the upkeep and ongoing costs of the server to this banner. I'm thinking either at the base of the RPUK logo or maybe a separate image entirely.

• If added to the base of the logo, this could be as simple as Sponsored by [insert character name of first donator] – [insert character name of second donator] etc.
  
• [SIZE=10pt]Should this be a separate image then the names of all those who donate would occupy one of the rolling banners, not all of them, just one.[/SIZE]
  

[SIZE=10pt]Additionally it may just be the names of those who are lifetime donators or above. Again this would be a further discussion but I hope everyone understands the core concept of this suggestion.

As a further point, if a single image is used, those that donate over a certain amount (one person or the first) can choose to have their own logo, maybe a gang logo or affiliation (Police / NHS). Again this is more so an additional or optional point but the main suggestion being a form of recognition for those that donate overall in-game.[/SIZE]

Again, the dominant focus here is having names of the community displayed in-game for those generous enough to donate. These names will be their specified character. 

The Pros
1 - A little more reward for those generous enough to donate out of their own pocket
2 - Emphasises more to the community that the server is backed purely through members. Its the people that make the game for some.
3 - I see a lot of points of X or X 'on top' so if the further point is materialised (image if affiliated with a gang etc.) it could give a gang / club / faction more presence in the city.

The Cons
1 - Development time and constant on going implementation time given this is a monthly item of work. 
2 - May need a hard limit of when to get donations in for the month if done on a month by month basis. As an idea maybe have a month delay if this suggestion progresses.
3 - Potential change to donation process on forum to cater for the character name the donator wishes to use.

Does this suggestion change balance on the server? No

Happy to elaborate on any of the points above.

 

[JimmyTheGinger]

I am one of the few people who seem to be thinking of ways to raise funds for RPUK, that isn't OOC donations. Personally, I think there could be minor ingame things for donors, but instead of something silly like "Donate and you can have this!" how about an in-game event raiser for the "government" and we can auction off items for "premium" meaning you'd participate at an in-game auction bidding real life £££ and what you win is something like.. An event. What about a helicopter tour with some of the admins RPing as govt employees? I mean, there are so many ways, and many people already donate. With the extra revenue, admins/devs could afford to say no to overtime, upgrade server bandwith, or even hire a couple of part-time employees.

Being who I am, I fucking hate finances and money etc but I know it's important and I understand that the more money in the cofferrs the better the city experience will be. Anything given for real money should be exclusive, rare, unobtainable through regular means and won't effect the arcs of characters in-game.

 

[Nikolai]

gonna admit when i saw this post i thought it was gonna be another "donating should give Prio" post
But having read through it i can see the nice thing about it, but maybe only for lifetime donator and up like you said as we have a decent amount of people donate 10 quid a month so the list would be so fucking long(mind my danish)

we've always had the mentality that the server isn't p2w, even on the arma server the only thing you get is a colored name above your name

What about a helicopter tour with some of the admins RPing as govt employees

i like the Idea of it, though you have to remember that admins play normally themselves so they(for what we know) could be a big time criminal killing people left right and center, so it wouldn't really make sense, besides i doubt people would give money for a ingame heli ride with staff(no offense to staff ofc.)

or even hire a couple of part-time employees

Don't really see a point in doing that? i don't have anything against the idea, but given the amount of devs we have for fivem, i don't think it's needed and all staff(both admins and devs) are volunteers and do it in their free time, because they want to improve the server in some sort of way

 

upgrade server bandwith

think we talked about this somewhere and that we upgraded(recently) so our server boxes are pretty decent all 2-3 of them that is
 

think that was all i wanted to say
feel free to correct me if you can, i'm not really a staff member nor dev, have a good day

 

[JimmyTheGinger]

@Nikolai What about a ridealong with Sheppard Kingston? Or a day with Lost MC? There could be lots of these cool prizes that aren't items, or even cosmetics, but are opportunites for your character to get involved with someone doing something for an hour or two. Create activities people will enjoy, and then auction that for real life ££. How about an exclusive paintball event? Imagine if Apostles were to outbid Ballas for a 15vs15 paintballing type event on the island?

 

[TomIce]

This is just my personal opinion and by no means am I aiming to be negative but I don't think there is a need for an auction to raise funds. It seems that people are more than happy to donate to ensure the community can keep running and moving forwards. 

Also, not to be too negative but I don't think it would be fair that some people are able to host private events or go on private trips because they have 'deeper pockets' as opposed to others. There are a multitude of people within this community from different backgrounds and the amount of spare money people have could fluctuate hugely. The last thing you want to do is in-avertedly prevent people taking part in activities as they aren't as well off as others.

Just my opinion is all.

 

[TikTak]

we've always had the mentality that the server isn't p2w, even on the arma server the only thing you get is a colored name above your name

There used to be a donator shop on Arma with donator only items. Until one day "Bohemia Monetization Rules" and since then no more donator only items.

 

[JimmyTheGinger]

There did used to be a donator shop on Arma with donator only items. Until one day "Bohemia Monetization Rules" and since then no more donator only items.

I don't like donation items, this crosses a line for me..

Also, not to be too negative but I don't think it would be fair that some people are able to host private events or go on private trips because they have 'deeper pockets' as opposed to others. There are a multitude of people within this community from different backgrounds and the amount of spare money people have could fluctuate hugely. The last thing you want to do is in-avertedly prevent people taking part in activities as they aren't as well off as others.

But, these things that are first given as prizes to donators as part of an auction could be made accessible to everyone after a period of time. I mean.. People aren't losing anything because someone else gains or has it first. You could even say the exclusive event would be a trial run for a server-wide event. But you've received money and offered exclusivity while you test it on smaller numbers.

I think the #1 reason new dono ideas haven't come to fruition is because RPUK aren't in desperate need. As you said, people just donate..

 

[Nazgul]

donators get put in a raffle for each month and a top prize could win a car or a house or maybe a cash prize (in game)

 

[FragstarGames]

I guess you need to be careful as depending on what you get when you donate it may come across as "microtransactions" which for an RP server imo isnt good when your supposed to earn everything. Ive seen other servers offer things for donating but it never comes across good for example in another server i saw a list of imported cars the public can buy but if  you donated you would get access to a seperate list of cars only donators can buy which imo i thinks thats crap as it seems like begging for money. This is just my opinion like i said i guess you just need to find that line and not cross it. Maybe if houses had more customisations then you could have house flags or certain in house items that dont impact as much i dont know its a good and bad idea at the same time i guess

 

[Jason]

The main issue that you face is FiveM's Service Agreement. The FiveM team are very sleazy and strict on how server owners make money involving their FiveM platform. More so now they have made it so you *MUST* take payment through a payment gateway they have an agreement with.

FiveM are very controlling; you cannot host a server and make money by providing that as a service, unless you are ZAP Hosting. You cannot take payment for any in game content unless you take that payment through Tebex Ltd. Tebex no doubt take a cut, so does FiveM and that is less money going to RPUK. That's also not bearing in mind how sketchy the system is. For those who have been in FiveM long enough will know some of the bizarre things FiveM's management team does.

You could argue a name on a texture isn't really that much of a deal, but I can assure you FiveM would and could see an immediate block from RPUK hosting FiveM servers in the future, or legal action. When you look at what it's worth, I can be sure it's not a risk RPUK will see worth taking.

I note TikTak's reply which is practically the same issue, but with Bohemia Interactive.

 

[TomIce]

You could argue a name on a texture isn't really that much of a deal, but I can assure you FiveM would and could see an immediate block from RPUK hosting FiveM servers in the future, or legal action. When you look at what it's worth, I can be sure it's not a risk RPUK will see worth taking.

What would be the problem with putting a name on a billboard?

Just to consolidate the other response, I feel we have gone off on a tangent. This suggestion is meant to offer a form of cosmetic appreciation to those generous enough to have donated towards the upkeep. It's not to have any influence on gameplay. I think Roleplay UK do a good job of not offering in-game advantages through donations, and personally I would like to keep it that way.

 

[Jason]

What would be the problem with putting a name on a billboard?

Just to consolidate the other response, I feel we have gone off on a tangent. This suggestion is meant to offer a form of cosmetic appreciation to those generous enough to have donated towards the upkeep. It's not to have any influence on gameplay. I think Roleplay UK do a good job of not offering in-game advantages through donations, and personally I would like to keep it that way.

If payment is received by server owner for something that then influences something on a FiveM server,  that could constitute a breach of the FiveM Service Agreement. 

I'm not disputing it's daft that it could be a problem for something that is quite minimal (it's not like you're buying cars/property/guns with real money). But it's the type of thing FiveM could well decide to take further. They have a reporting service and it only needs either 1) A busy server like RPUK coming to FiveM's attention or 2) Someone salty who was banned to raise it through the FiveM channels.

That has always been the case for a long time, but at the end of last year FiveM agreed with Tebex Ltd to allow payments for in-game content as long as payment is made through Tebex. Of course, FiveM will agree this because like their financial agreement to take profit for every FiveM server rented through ZAP Hosting,  FiveM receive 15% of every purchase made through Tebex. There is a financial incentive for them to enforce this part of the Service Agreement.

 

[Hugh]

Nice, it's a cool thought. Would be bloody great to see my own name up there!

Having it say sponsored isn't a bad idea. I've not got any better ideas on how to present it. It does however make me think about all the other places player names could appear.

Jason's point on the FiveM clause regarding paying for a service is a fair concern. Their agreement has some broad statements regarding what's in scope:

"No financial remuneration shall be obtained by the Users from any derivative of, or third-party service, User Generated Content, or Game Server for FiveM, the Game Services, or other entities stated in these Terms, except as expressly permitted by CitizenFX." 

Presumably this suggestion would be classed as 'user generated content' and / or 'Game Server'.

I'd hope this is on the side of okay, but good to be cautious. I'm sure the staff can decide what's sensible, and always have the option to contact them for clarification / permission per the statement above. I've actually contacted their team before for advice on something else and they were helpful.