Disclaimer
BEFORE you sub to our $5+ Tiers for their benefit(s), PLEASE read this.
SWE/M has had such wonderful support that we have been actively overwhelmed for awhile now. We are working on trimming down everything excess and its still not enough, so we have to carve away a little more and a little more while actively searching for efficient processes, programs, and automations to help us give everything we so desperately want to give to yall. We have a smaller team and we never expected the absolute explosion of support or user count. Given this:
DISCLAIMERSthis is a TRAINING server
PURPOSE: This server is for multiple reasons, all for the benefit of us all. However, it does have purposes outside of general enjoyment. Please understand that a lot of things won't be refined or preferred, especially at first, for both staff and players.
We are using VIP extensively to improve upon ourselves in many ways, which leaves room for growing pains.
> Numbers: Overwhelming support seems to be a habit for our project. This means numbers of users beyond our expectations. We hope to, in time, learn effective ways to manage such high amounts of users with high user satisfaction and without staff overload. It will take time as we adapt and become more efficient, at first it will be slow and imperfect.
> Training: SWE is our ultimate goal, and we hope to open soon. Till then, we will be using VIP to train up our moderators and build our moderation processes for the best and safest experience we can manage. This means there will likely be mistakes, but we'll do our best to make them right and improve upon them.
> Togetherness: We hear so many players wanting to play together and we want to supply that place for them. Even if it means we take an income cut, we want to provide that for you. We'd make it free but we simply can't handle the user count we'd have.
> SSMs: SSMs will be our moderation tools and automation tools. We are developing them when we can and they definitely won't be bug free at the start. Please expect bugs, errors, and issues.
> Workload: We have a smaller team and hope to grow but for now we are learning what we can and cant handle, at what scale, and at what timelines. Some things may change as we learn we can't appropriately provide what we originally offered, or we may be able to offer more. Juggling so many staff, users, and mod projects is no easy task. Some things may take longer for us to get to to improve than others. We can not promise what we'll work to improve first.
Given the VIP server is for everyone's benefit, now and in future, playing together and also supporting the project going forward, as well as testing and developing processes/automation - we would really appreciate patience and understanding that we are learning as we go and doing our best to give the best experience possible while we do it. It might be a little rough for awhile, but we hope you enjoy what we have to offer.
Refunds and Pre-Pay: Are not functions we offer at this time. It takes an extensive amount of tracking for not only our Benefits documents but also our accounting. We hope to be able to afford the man-power for that pleasantry in the future, but for now, we simply cannot afford the staff to track it. We will not allow pre-pay or refunds.
Plot Saving: We do not have the assistance of a plot plugin at this time. We intend to create what we need in future, however right now we are managing our plot system manually. Given its manual, we cannot afford the time and delicacy to not only have a graveyard for unused plots, but to also schematic them, and move the animals too - especially for so many users that we have. If the donation is not met every month, the user's plot will be erased as well as their animals with it, after 30days. If the user returns, they will need to restart their building and horse ownership from scratch. Don't worry too much as Ko-Fi allows donations anytime so being late a few days won't result in the erasing of your plot, pets, and ponies.
Automation: We are working to hopefully add automation is future for less clerical error and faster response times. Sadly, we don't have that right now. Currently everything is manual. This means that errors can occur, tasks can take longer to complete, and sometimes staff might need a reminder of a task needing done. Please be patient with us. VIP is additional, on top of SWEM and SWE work.