Selling both separately.

Will consider any offers.

I was looking through the donation page, and I was rather disappointed to see that there was no option for players to get a nickname. (Displayed instead of your username -- Most servers include a "~" in front of nick names so they're distinguishable.)

I was wondering if there was any plan to add this, or any chance of it getting added?

I plan on donating when I have some money to spare, which will hopefully be when I get paid for one of the websites I'm currently building. (I don't spend any of my website money on bills. Lately I've started saving for a Z28 that my brother has had for a number of years, but I'm sure I could spare some to donate.)
I would love for that to be an option when that time comes though. (I don't enjoy "Myskillzownu" being displayed. I much prefer "Dave".)

And if it does get implemented it might be a good idea to only allow users to change their nick once per donation (stopping people from changing over and over), and to prevent someone from getting a nick that another user has.
(I know that's probably common sense, but still.)

And while I'm posting this, I'd also like to bring the voting pop-up window:
I think it would be nice to stop displaying when users click "Don't show me this anymore."
I personally vote, and getting hounded by that 24/7 is kind of annoying.
It would be an easy fix with a PHP or JavaScript (though some users don't enable it) cookie, and you could just tell the cookie to expire after 24/48 hours. That way users still get reminded, but they aren't completely hounded by it.

-Dave

Note:
The real part of this thread starts at Question 1.
You don't have to read the introduction; it's just there for those who are interested.

Introduction:
As I breifly introduced in my introduction thread "http://www.opticraft.net/index.php/topic,9578.0.html", I, along with a few others, are working on creating an MMORPG.

The idea first started by an old friend of mine who was visiting from Australia and I, about 6 years ago.
From there I constantly evolved the idea in my head, and eventually started to write and type stuff down.
From there I just added and revised, and didn't do much.
My plan was to find a company that would make the game for me, as I believed it had incentive.

2/3 years after the game was first thought up, I decided it would be awesome to try to create the game myself, and I began talking to my brother. (He has around 25+ years of experience with computers, and he's a very smart guy.)
Talking to him I realized the possibility was real, and we decided we were going to make the game.

I asked my friend (Tigerwolf117 on here) if he would like to join us, and he said yeah.
So we researched, and began to start.

At first we were all just creating 3D models for the game, and after a while we branched off. (Namely because I hated it, and it wasn't what I wanted to do.)
My brother enjoyed it and was pretty good at it, so he stuck with that role.
Tigerwolf then took on the role of doing GFX in Gimp, drawing basic concepts, obtaining textures, creating basic models to work with, etc. Basically the odd artistic jobs.
I took on the role of the programmer, and I began to look into the possible options. (I eventually settled on the Panda 3D Game Engine, in which I can write with Python.)

Knowing Python was an easy scripting language, I began to grow my knowledge in it. (At the current time I had a lot of down time at work as I was temporarily in charge of helping people with their computer issues, so I camped in my office, and whilst having nothing to do, I practiced Python.)

At times schedules began to conflict, and that made things very difficult. My brother depended on Tiger in a lot of ways, and I 100% depended on my brother. (Without models I had nothing to work with.)
Things came up, such as my brother getting married, my brother having a kid, me being busy with this, Tiger being busy with that, and eventually the idea got put off.

We would occasionally get the fire to start working on it again, but nothing really happened until recently.

Now we have four of us, we're as serious about working on it as we have ever been, and my highly artistic friend Riley joined the team.
Currently:
My brother is in charge of the 3D models (all aspects of them at the current time), and as he is truly a knowledgeable guy, he can help with most of the questions we dish out. (Though I can answer most of Tiger's and Riley's questions, and up to this point I haven't had many questions myself.)
Tiger is between jobs so to speak. He isn't quite sure what he wants to do in life itself, and until he figures that out/we find something we're in need of, he isn't responsible for too much. (That will change as the ball gets rolling.)
Currently I'm thinking of having him also do concept work, gather/create textures, find good references to make sure we correctly animate people/animals, etc.
Riley is in charge of drawing concepts of whatever we may need, and he is in charge of creating reference drawings for my brother to model off of.
My brother, myself, and Tiger all own expensive graphics tablets (Tiger's being the best), and the next time Riley is visiting I plan on getting him used to them, as it would help immensely.
I am still in charge of the programming/game engine side of things. I will also be creating the website when the time comes for it, and I will probably create most of the graphics for it. I might ask for Tiger's help though, depending on how much he has on his plate.

Our current goal is to create a very basic "game" (basically you can customize basic features of your player, choose between two weapons, and kill chickens that are in a pen), and get some nice concept art done to show people.

At that point we are going to work on creating a very professional video about the game, our plans for the game, and who we are. (Having a love for creating videos is finally going to pay off )

At that point we are going to post our project on kickstarter.com, including the video, concept art, and some information, in the attempt to raise some money to get the ball rolling big time.
At the current time the plan for the money is to hire some professionals for a few things here and there to make sure the game is as good as it can be, build a good server that we can dedicate to it, and possibly purchase some motion-tracking items for character animation.

Question 1:
Now that that's all out of the way (if you even read it -.^), I would like to know:
If you were to create your own MMORPG, what are some key things you would absolutely want/not want in your game.

Keep in mind that this game is going to have a style/feel similar to that of Runescape/WoW, though it will be completely unique and its own.

We want to do what other games have done wrong, right.
We also want to make this a game that we are sure players will enjoy and want to play, which is why I'm asking you guys. (Who better to ask than gamers, right?)

Question 2:
Questions 2 & 3 aren't as big of a deal as number one, but I would like to hear the ideas of those who are willing to share them.

In many games, the buying and selling of gold is all over, and it can greatly hurt the game and the economy of the game.
What are some things you guys would do to combat this?
Note: We don't want to implement something, such as a trading-cap, that would punish the players that don't purchase gold.
It's almost a question without an answer, but maybe with your help we can come up with a good solution.

Question 3:
This question is about players modifying their game client to cheat.
Example: hacking their client to tell the server "I picked up an iron sword" or "I attacked player x and did 1000 damage."

To prevent this, a lot of that stuff is run on the server (how much damage was dealt, what the drop was, etc.), though not everything can be done server-side.
Checking to make sure clients haven't been modified is a whole new ball game, and at the current time that's a no go.

Do you have any ideas? (Anything that could prevent them from cheating, make it so their cheats are less effective, etc.)


Thanks a bunch guys.
You may not think so, but questions as simple as this can greatly help to improve the game!

-Dave

I think adding a new reference page to the task bar up top would be a great idea.

In my head I'm just thinking a simple static HTML page (could make it more user-involved/nice with some JS though), that has all of the information new/veteran players would need.

Examples:
How to buy and sell supplies, how to add/delete users to/from protection stones, how to add/delete people to/from chests/doors, how to make objects public, how to teleport to other user's homes, etc.

You could also post general information about the server, what sort of plugins you run, what users should do if they're just getting started and looking for something to do/somewhere to build, what trusted can do that normal users can't, etc.

I would personally love something like this, and it would have saved me from asking moderators a number of questions. (And I'm sure it would save me from asking them in the future.)

I know the majority (if not all) of the information is scattered around the forums, but I feel as if this would be much simpler and easy to use and find.

If you decide to use this idea, I would love it if you let me create a base design to show you that you could build off. (I've got a nice clean/simple idea that only uses a small amount of basic JavaScript; I'd be happy to write it myself if I wasn't so busy, but that day won't come for a while.)

-Dave

Edit (More):
A .pdf cheat sheet that includes all of the commands users can use for the server would be nice too. (Can have different .pdfs for users of different ranks too; one for members, trusted, donaters, moderators, etc.)
It would be extremely quick and easy, and hard-copy cheat sheets are very nice to have.