Donations & Developer Funds

[Zero]

I have been thinking about this before events led to my absence in the community, now that I've returned I've been thinking about it again. I understand that we have developers for content creation. The things they've given us have been great. The re textures and map changes look good from what I played with in the past. Some of these things can only take us so far though. I think that a certain percentage of the donations from the item shop and premium ranks should go towards a cash pool that can be used to buy models and pay new (as well as current) developers to create more advanced things that are unique to DayZRP. There could be a unique rank and title that can be purchased that contributes to this fund.  The rank or title could be something like, oh I don't know.. Pillar of the Community.

In all seriousness though, the rank could be that, or something else. I think that the community shouldn't be reliant on steam workshop mods. If the community could recreate things that other mods provide and also make it's own in-house content, it will attract more players and will set itself apart from copy cat communities. We could even have polls on what the community would like to see be added by these developers. The suggestion thread could be held on a monthly or maybe bi-monthly basis. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Zero

[Trijim]

I highly agree with this. I would love to see new stuff be added to the server that isn't a 3rd party (that stuff is cool and all). Even having the community involved is a good idea, as there is so many people to bring potential good ideas for the server.

[Player 1]

I'm all for it but why don't have more Devs to take some pressure off Watchman and Ducky? This isn't thier job. They have other responsibilities in life. And I though Roland already paid them for thier time they do on Mods. 

[Zero]

14 minutes ago, America said:

I'm all for it but why don't have more Devs to take some pressure off Watchman and Ducky? This isn't thier job. They have other responsibilities in life. And I though Roland already paid them for thier time they do on Mods. 

He might, I'm not sure. But that was the entire point. Hire additional devs to supplement current ones and ensure that they are all paid for the work they do. 

[dan]

No. The developers work here under their own terms. Payment is between them and Roland and the community should not be involved. If they want to get paid, there's tons of other opportunities. 

[Zero]

7 minutes ago, Dan said:

No. The developers work here under their own terms. Payment is between them and Roland and the community should not be involved. If they want to get paid, there's tons of other opportunities. 

So we should rely on other mods that can be removed from the workshop or potentially be forcefully removed from the server because the author decides they don't like the owner?

Edited April 20, 2020 by Zero

[DarthDink]

I agree we need to have mods that are part of the community, not 3rd person that could get pulled.

[dan]

6 minutes ago, Zero said:

So we should rely on other mods that can be removed from the workshop or potentially be forcefully removed from the server because the author decides they don't like the owner?

Which creates incentives for having these mods created for DayZRP.

[Zero]

9 minutes ago, Dan said:

Which creates incentives for having these mods created for DayZRP.

Maybe i'm having a brain fart, but i don't understand the logic behind your reasoning? How does this create an incentive? Money can be a motivation to contribute to DayZRP. By paying a developer Roland could write up some contract that would prevent someone from pulling their content. The developer gets paid and the community receives content unique to the server. Both parties are happy. Or we can continue to rely on third party mod authors which subjugates new players to having to download a bunch of mods. Furthermore having a list of 3rd party mods causes conflict issues and aren't entirely optimized for the server. With a dedicated dev team that is paid, the community could have an optimized server a lot of content that isn't reliant on mod authors that might stop updating their content.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Zero

[dan]

1 minute ago, Zero said:

By paying a developer Roland could write up some contract that would prevent someone from pulling their content

Staff TOS already prevents them from pulling their work.

[Zero]

2 minutes ago, Dan said:

Staff TOS already prevents them from pulling their work.

Okay but

1. Money would still be a motivation to create unique content and dedicate more time to the project.

2. Being reliant on 3rd party mods could result in mod authors abandoning their content.

Are you happy with having to rely on the workshop? There's no incentive to become a developer as far as I am aware besides you liking the community and wanting to contribute, but even then the devs have other things they have to do, school, work, etc. Why not put people on the team that can dedicate a lot more time to delivering content?

[dan]

1 minute ago, Zero said:

Are you happy with having to rely on the workshop? There's no incentive to become a developer as far as I am aware besides you liking the community and wanting to contribute, but even then the devs have other things they have to do, school, work, etc. Why not put people on the team that can dedicate a lot more time to delivering content?

I think they should be paid,  I just don't think this is something that community should be concerned with since its a business move.

[Zero]

3 minutes ago, Dan said:

I think they should be paid,  I just don't think this is something that community should be concerned with since its a business move.

Ah, I understand. The idea was to introduce a system in which the devs be paid to the community. If enough people supported it hopefully Roland would go with it as it makes the community happy. The entire unique rank idea was a way for Roland to make money through the gift shop but also having a way to pay the devs as I understand it can be expensive. I'm not an idiot to understand this has become a business. I wasn't sure if the item shop and ranks would be profitable enough to make money + pay devs.

[Unknown Entity]

DayZRP is a business, modders (and mods/gms etc) are technically employees. Modders should be paid by those running the business, not off of charity by community members.

If they are not being paid that's their business. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Unknown Entity

[Ryan Shepherd]

5 hours ago, Zero said:

By paying a developer Roland

Developers are already paid. Our current developers speciality from my view seems to be reskinning, opposed to actual new content creation, don't takt that the wrong way guys. Roland should be thinking about persuading older devs who have been asked to do further work even after leaving staff and return to 'full time' deving for the community again such as Kekkoh and Misho. I've probably spelt their names completely wrong but hey.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Ryan Shepherd

[neom]

Should we have a fund for the GM’s that have to deal with the countless reports and policing the community and forums. 

 

[Ryan Shepherd]

4 minutes ago, neom said:

Should we have a fund for the GM’s that have to deal with the countless reports and policing the community and forums. 

 

Now that's a ship I will sail on.

GM's are more important than Devs. We can have all the content in the world but full of rulebreakers without GM's.

[Brayces]

Okay, so if we hire Developers it's going to be one off because there's no way to keep someone on a pay roster for a game that updates when it feels like it once in a blue moon, that's a money sink.

We cannot afford to employ and full time developer(s) to make a mod set for DayZRP AND keep it updated/maintained. We're not a company in which consistent updates for the base application are released by us and solely by us therefor giving us the ability to control what we make.

So let's say Roland has some dosh and hires a Developer(s) to make a set of mods for DayZRP (something that can easily be solved with 3rd party mods for free but I digress). Then the mod set is built, added and we move on. A update comes out for DayZ from Bohemia 3 months later and now they're all broken. Roland has to reach out to THAT Developer to have them maintain the work. What if the developer no longer wants to work on it? Has gone silent? Fucked off to the moon? If that developer doesn't want to work for us Roland has to hire a NEW developer who can A; understand the prior developers code/mod and then also update it. You know how much work that is? Reading someone else's code and quirks is like learning a new language and that's not even promising it'll work once it's "updated" by this other developer. 

It's MUCH easier and cost effective to add/remove 3rd party mods that are added to the workshop for free that service the needs that the server wants. Someone makes a fishing mod, we add it. It breaks and no longer works, we remove it and add it's alternative which is made by some other dude who REALLY wanted to have fishing in the game. Or say fuck it and don't add a fishing mod. It's one mod out of many we can mix and match with, Etc etc.

While saying that it's nice to be able to hire out for a Developer to make stuff for us, the only things that we can feasibly ask Developers to make for us are 3D Models as those do not need much maintenance to keep operational IG. Coding, UI, functions, features, etc are things that will need updating as the game changes/updates it's self. Which is harder. But there's more to a 3D model other than slapping it in the game. You have to rig it and animate it. It's why Guns are so hard to get in the game. But his depends on the model.

In saying all of that, our Devs work really hard. Watchman and Ducky work to import, create and place new models into the game. Did you even look at Sneak Peak? Watchman is adding a camera with a special UI and controls? Like, that's not just a reskin ... He spent the time and effort to learn, practice and place this new item into the game for us to use. Who knows what else he may work on next as he continues to refine his skills.They aren't only doing just "retexture" all the time, but retexturing is a fairly simple thing for them now that they have mastered it so yes you will see those sorts of additions a lot more. 

TLDR; Cannot hire a developer long term because shit gets in the way and may leave us stranded with mods we cannot use but paid for and cannot get updated. Pay for assets yes, but remember it's not simple as "import model, play game". Our Developers are learning new skills to help make mods.

[Ducky]

I wouldn't be opposed to a small fund from donations going towards purchasing 3D assets, that would allow us to have some high quality stuff for sure.

Hell, even if it was just 1 dollar from each IS purchase or Monthly Donation it would be a big enough pool to get some really cool assets.

[Roland]

There is no need for a community fund or pool, all expenses like that should be covered by me using surplus from item shop.

That being said I honestly prefer using 3rd party mods for generic items and features like weapons, cars or new game mechanics because it doesn't consume our limited development resources on things that can be acquired elsewhere. I prefer to reserve our devs to things that can't be found anywhere else or that are specific for RP needs on our servers - group clothing, RP items, RP related game features and fixes. I don't see the need for spending money to add a new custom weapon that doesn't really add anything new to RP - those things we can get for free through workshop mods. Clothing maybe, but it really has to be unique and different from what we already have and it can be seen as an investment since it can be sold on item shop (Windstriders mod for which we purchased rights being a perfect example).

You'll be happy to hear that Misho is currently working on some new custom items for DayZRP. Also our own devs have made progress in being able to add custom 3D objects into the game, which could be used for multitude of RP related items.

 

2 hours ago, Ducky said:

I wouldn't be opposed to a small fund from donations going towards purchasing 3D assets, that would allow us to have some high quality stuff for sure.

Hell, even if it was just 1 dollar from each IS purchase or Monthly Donation it would be a big enough pool to get some really cool assets.

You never said you wanted to buy 3D models  

[Ducky]

1 minute ago, Roland said:

You never said you wanted to buy 3D models  

Well no, I haven't said I would, I wasn't intending to purchase any as there are plenty of free assets as well, but some of the priced assets are of higher quality and tend to be a little better, so I was entertaining the idea I suppose

[Jukki]

Bit out of loop but is there currently in need for some specific devs (coders, artists etc)?

One way to increase the own mod would also be to think about open sourcing it, allowing community to maintain and suggest features.

[TheMcgregor]

If it resulted in a better experience for me then hell I’d happily pay a monthly subscription for dayzrp with the money being distributed across the board whether that be devs, GM’s... whoever.