Automated Donation System - taking suggestions for items

Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:40 am

I have been doing the brainstorming/planing for the new donation system which I am hoping to complete sometimes this month.

The way the system will work is there will be a web page where you enter your UO account username, the money you want to donate, and hit submit. This will bring you to a Paypal page to donate. Once the transaction has been completed it will add donation points to your account. In game, there will be a special vendor which you can buy donation items and it will use the points on your account.

The nice thing with this system is that it will be automated. You will get your points within minutes of donating, most likely.

In this thread I will be taking suggestions for items that could be added to the store, along with the existing. I already have some in mind that I want to add, but more suggestions are welcome. I want to avoid things like artifacts though, but all suggestions are welcome and we can decide from there what we want to add.

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The Dr Thunder · Post by **The Dr Thunder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:37 am

1) PvP anywhere deeds.
2) perhaps there would he a way for a player to have their name on something, like a sign or stone in Luna, for a temporary amount of time. I.E. for $5 you can have your playername displayed on the sign at Luna bank for a week, or until someone changes it. With some of the strong egos on this server, I could see some competition.
3) cheap and temporary, or limited use pvm items. I.E. 100 dark father slayer arrows. Non repairable Halloween(or other holiday event) slayer items. 5 use Shadow Knight locator.

Think of it this way, people might buy a $30 donation item once to show off. But they will be more tempted to buy a $1-5 item every week or every few weeks.

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Blackadder · Post by **Blackadder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:21 pm

Stat scrolls...
Single players like myself are unlikley to get to a position to actualy get them in game...
I have 2 options
Buy them with gold when other players get them
Or donate and keep the servers running and get them......

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The Dr Thunder · Post by **The Dr Thunder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:03 pm

stat scrolls were not too hard to get before, i am surprised there isnt an abundance of the lesser +15 ones around still. I have, or had, a metric shit ton of them. Not sure if I kept them on some character or if they dropped with my house. Anyways, stat scrolls are nice but not necessary. Especially with all the high + stat items on this server. Put on Totem + God's Wrath + Jackalls + tiger teeth, it gets insane the stat bonuses you can have. Hector and I proved that with our archers, we had suits with stat bonuses up the wazoo. 200+ hp with enough dex for 2 second bandie heals. You can get enough stats on this server with gear.

My arguement goes either way I guess. It would be unfair to be able to donate for an obvious advantage in pvp. It would probably turn people off to the server. On the other hand, stat scrolls would make the good pvpers better but not make bad pvpers much more of a threat.

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geezushhchrist · Post by **geezushhchrist** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:20 pm

Maybe something like a one-time use thing where you double click it and you are in Luna that you can only use in Fel, anywhere in fel. I hate getting stuck in Fel because I cannot Recall out.

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Blackadder · Post by **Blackadder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:29 pm

Hi Dr, i dont follow with your "pvp advantage" on stat scrolls....
You yourself mention that they are relatively easy to get anyways, i just dont have the gear or experience on this server yet to achieve them....
You mention the arties to get your stats up....
All well and good but when you are just starting out on this server as i am its not easy standing toe to toe with a monster who will give you said arties once defeated with only 100 str 100 dex and 25 int.......

Getting them from champ spawns or donating to keep the servers going to get one...
6 of one and half a dozen of the other....

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keltrick · Post by **keltrick** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:25 pm

a pet of some kind like a shadow wyrm or pets you cant get in game!

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The Dr Thunder · Post by **The Dr Thunder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:50 pm

geezushhchrist wrote:Maybe something like a one-time use thing where you double click it and you are in Luna that you can only use in Fel, anywhere in fel. I hate getting stuck in Fel because I cannot Recall out.

You can recall out of fel, just not out of dungeons, in T2A, or if you are flagged criminal or in battle. There is the Brac of Travel that does pretty much what you are talking about, but it still follows the basic rules of fel. Donation brac of travel wouldn't make things out of balance.

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The Dr Thunder · Post by **The Dr Thunder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:56 pm

Blackadder wrote:Hi Dr, i dont follow with your "pvp advantage" on stat scrolls....
You yourself mention that they are relatively easy to get anyways, i just dont have the gear or experience on this server yet to achieve them....
You mention the arties to get your stats up....
All well and good but when you are just starting out on this server as i am its not easy standing toe to toe with a monster who will give you said arties once defeated with only 100 str 100 dex and 25 int.......

Getting them from champ spawns or donating to keep the servers going to get one...
6 of one and half a dozen of the other....

Extra stats are an advantage in pvp, especially when you are talking 25-35 extra points to distribute.

As for pvm, try a different strategy than standing toe to toe with the gauntlet and demital bosses. It's pretty hard to solo melee those monsters regardless of whether your character ate a stat scroll.

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geezushhchrist · Post by **geezushhchrist** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:59 pm

I meant out of 2TA

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Blackadder · Post by **Blackadder** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:11 pm

Extra stats are an advantage in pvp, especially when you are talking 25-35 extra points to distribute.

Yes i fully understand this....
Let me put it another way.
Are the stat scrolls available to get in game?
If the answer is yes, then there is no advantage in pvp if i got one through donations....
Because if i or anyone else for that matter wanted to pvp and needed a scroll then they would get one in game....
As i said i could buy one with gold, i imagine one of you has a spare one you would sell.....
But i would rather give red the money to keep the server running and updated......

My point is that if something is avaliable in game already then it is of no advantage to anyone to have one in the donation system........

When i said "toe to toe" i didnt realy mean in like that........It was a figure of speech....

Ive only been here a month and as yet have not fought peerless or done a champ spawn......i did try a spawn but chose the wrong one to cut my teeth on, and my chars gear needs a lot of tweaking.....
Its tough to match suits up without expensive arties o have lrc, lmc, resists and stat increases...
These big bosses will throw 2 spells at me and i'm running.......

Dont worry about the stat scrolls, if it will cause an unbalance then i would rather just bide my time and get one a bit further down the line...

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:46 pm

For stat scrolls, what I could do is add them but leave out the highest one. I forget off the top of my head now how high they go, I think it's 35, so if it's that, then I could have 30 being the highest available, or even 25.

As for pets, I'd be willing to add a deed that lets you insta tame a tamable or perhaps spawn one, but it would only be pets that are in-game. Personally I'd rather give a deed that still requires you to go find the pet, but it would have the advantage of easily taming and bonding it in one go.

I've been playing around with the paypal sandbox and stuff, I am hoping to have something production worthy within the next few days. I may need a few volunteers to test.

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Post by **Death** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:49 pm

Heritage tokens immediately come to mind. There are a lot of OSI items and decor you can get from those which I am sure players would enjoy getting. There are also basic artifact items which are ideal for less seasoned players to give them a boost.

Second idea: sphinx statue. Comes in gold, bronze and silver. When locked down in a house, it gives you a daily fortune bonus, similar to the normal sphinx but with possibly more options

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Blackadder · Post by **Blackadder** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:39 am

For stat scrolls, what I could do is add them but leave out the highest one. I forget off the top of my head now how high they go, I think it's 35, so if it's that, then I could have 30 being the highest available, or even 25.

According to the database the max stat is 260, so the max PS is 35.....

Heres my last bit on the stat scroll, because it does look like i'm whining and moaning about it.....

"If" i were to buy one ingame with Gold, or "If" i were to purchase one through a donation system with real $'s, then i would only buy the max stat scroll of 35.
No point in half measures in my eyes.
Thanks all......

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Blackadder · Post by **Blackadder** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:40 am

I like the idea of the Sphynx statue....

Does he actualy exist on this server, i enjoyed training pets up on him.....

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:43 pm

Good news, I got the paypal portion to work.

Now I will start on the in-game portion, do all the testing that can possibly be done in dev, then launch a beta.

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Post by **Death** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:47 pm

Blackadder wrote:I like the idea of the Sphynx statue....

Does he actualy exist on this server, i enjoyed training pets up on him.....

Yea he does exist on the server although its accuracy is unknown. Last I recall it was not revised on AOV so it's likely a standard mobile shell. Not sure if the fortunes work properly either.

EDIT: Yup, just a shell as suspected. Should probably add that in someday soon.

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d. · Post by d. » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:51 pm

I think adding stat scrolls to donations is silly. Regardless of the value of the stat scroll, they should have to be worked for in game. Doing all the spawns + harrower should be the only way to get them.

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ggkthx · Post by **ggkthx** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:34 am

d. wrote:I think adding stat scrolls to donations is silly. Regardless of the value of the stat scroll, they should have to be worked for in game. Doing all the spawns + harrower should be the only way to get them.

Agreed. Or just have everything you can only get in Fel available as a donation item and I can finally quit this game.

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d. · Post by d. » Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:58 am

ggkthx wrote:Or just have everything you can only get in Fel available as a donation item and I can finally quit this game.

This.

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 11:16 am

Ok, so rule of thumb, no fel only items in donations. I think we can all or mostly agree with that?

If someone wants to get it without going to fel then they can buy gold (which will be expensive, don't want to over inflate economy) and buy off a vendor or something. Everyone wins.

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d. · Post by d. » Mon Nov 14, 2011 11:34 am

Red Squirrel wrote:Ok, so rule of thumb, no fel only items in donations. I think we can all or mostly agree with that?

If someone wants to get it without going to fel then they can buy gold (which will be expensive, don't want to over inflate economy) and buy off a vendor or something. Everyone wins.

sounds reasonable.

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azzo29 · Post by **azzo29** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 7:40 pm

hows this coming along red was thinking of donating today or should i wait till this is up and running

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Post by **Red Squirrel** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:46 pm

Working on the gump as I speak. Once I have that down path I just need to put the items in, and the system will be ready. I am hoping to launch a beta tomorrow.

So if you can hold off that would be great as I will need someone to be the first tester to see how it goes.

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azzo29 · Post by **azzo29** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:41 am

yea no problem red just pm me when you want me to test it out cheers

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