Patreon, Rush Maps & Build Wars OH MY! - February Week One Update

OK lots to talk about this week so let's just jump into it!

So far, for us, 2019 is shaping up to be better than AT LEAST the last quarter of 2018. So that's a good thing. Not a terribly high bar to break I know, but it's something. There's a lot lined up for February and as per usual, not much of it is going to plan just yet but we're trying to wrangle it in, so my personal apologies for delays on information. There's just a whole bunch of stuff to go over so here we go.

RUSH MAP! RUSH MAP! RUSH MAP!

You're supposed to say the above just like the Rock Facts intro from Sifl & Olly. If you don't know who Sifl & Olly is, please educate yourself now. The image up there is from February 2014. Five flippin' years ago we did the Rush Map, and I'm not sure if we've done one since then. I am old, and therefore can't remember good. But the Rush Map is back, and you can get to our current snapshot by updating your launcher to use the snapshot we're using (19w06 at the moment) and use rush.smaws.me as the server address.

First you must enable snapshots (1) on the launcher options, then add a new profile (2) with the snapshot. Then save it, go back to the News tab and select the profile (3) and once it is selected, hit PLAY (4). It takes a while to download the snapshot so you should go eat a sandwich or something. The Rush Map parameters are simple. This is a completely Vanilla server (and due to that you will get lots of lag until we can get a stable Spigot snapshot build). Gather what you can from here, and once we update AquaNu to 1.14, you will be able to transfer all of your inventory over from the Rush Map. Difficulty is on hard, Keep Inventory is not on, and there are lots of glitches. Unfortunately, I can't do much to help you with those. Once we have a stable legit non-snapshot 1.14 Spigot build ready, we will put the Rush Map on hardcore, with Keep Inventory on. Once you die, you can let me know and I will transfer the stuff in your inventory over to AquaNu. Pretty simple right? I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's something we haven't done for a while so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Valentine's Day

It's coming soon, and we will have a very special day for it! Expect a player-featured area this year, with fun prizes to boot as always! There will be some server magic happening as well, so if you're ready to get ultra-cheesy (like we do) then be assured that we've got the cheese in...very big wheels, or something. That analogy got away from me. Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Patreon. It Sucks.

I spent a lot of last week wrestling with Patreon's latest idiotic fail. They couldn't process payments properly and that is literally their whole shtick. I've been seeing big names everywhere drop the platform entirely, and I think it's time for us to do the same. There's a lot of good reasons to move it away from it now, including but certainly not limited to:

Constant processing / payout problems
Support is practically non-existent
Exorbitant fees (12% is pretty high for a company that only does this one thing)
Plug-n-play functionality is less flexible than if we just ran it through our site
Just one more thing for people to have to remember

We're not planning on dropping it right away obviously. I'm aiming at April being the last month, and then we'll onboard you guys to the new thing, whatever that is, but I can assure you it will be more intuitive and less janky than Patreon. People on certain tiers will be able to keep those tiers, so no worries about that, but everyone will have to re-enter their payment info again, which I know is annoying, so I'm working on some sort of bonus thingamabob for that.

1.13.2 Update Sunday, February 10th

Tomorrow we will be updating the server and all its plugins to the 1.13.2 stable version of Spigot. From what I understand, this is a safe upgrade for world issues, but I'll be making a backup just in case. With this update, I am hoping to rectify some plugin issues that have been hindering the Secret Beta program, so if you're waiting for your loot box and beta info (for Awesome Tier patrons), we're hoping to get those out to you once this update is complete.

Facebook Group is going to "Secret" privacy status

I've thought about this one a lot, and one of the reasons behind my thinking here is that I am quite happy with the caliber and disposition of the player base we currently have. Opening this group up to the public, by way of allowing it to be publicly visible via search on Facebook, has rarely resulted in a member who stands up the quality of our existing crew. And yet, I have to get SomeAwesome.com on the radar, by making it as publicly accessible as possible, so this solution is a "best of both worlds" scenario for us. Starting on 2/13, the group will go to Secret privacy level, however if you are currently in the group, you will still be able to invite people to it. This ensures, when the publicity firestorm (I hope) eventually hits for the main site, that our little neck of the woods doesn't get overrun with trolls and griefers. We will see I suppose. In other words, the growth of the group is controlled by you fine folks! And honestly I am happy knowing that.

One Nunu-on-a-Stick Left!

We'll be ordering more flash drives soon, but in case you want to get in before the next batch, here's your last chance to grab it!

Build Wars 5 Registration

Here's a form for signup, please pick a day to participate. This will have its own article soon but best to get your signups done early so we know how many plots to make.

More Info to Come!

We have more to talk about this month, including more on the Valentine's Day area, Build Wars article, and upcoming Command Zone additions, but for now, I think that's the important stuff so I'll leave you with all this! As always, you got questions, we've got answers. Or at least more questions. Who can know really?!? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯