Hey everyone,
New Testers: We're introducing another batch of testers from the latest recruitment drive. Congratulations to everybody listed, and we look forward to having you in the team. This will be the last batch for now, as our tester team is at capacity. Thank you for the applications!
Official Factions: We are finalising deliberations on new official factions. Expect to see some new official factions very soon.
Property Opportunities: We now allow players to request simple mapping and a "back" entrance to their businesses through property section. Check here for more information. You may also request mapped text on your business, like with some of the custom mapping in the server. We're also exploring the ideas of adding houses to the inside of businesses themselves, so people could role-play owning a business with an apartment above as an example. I'll post more information about that when it's ready, likely in the form of a forum announcement.
Mappers: We're interesting in pursuing more mapping opportunities, especially with 0.3.DL. Be sure to make any suggestions that you have for mapping ideas in the Suggestions Board, and if you're a competent mapper then feel free to apply for a position as a server mapper here.
Auctions: We're still pumping out auctions to put inactive properties on offer for players. We're placing a focus on putting the properties in prominent faction/gang areas on auction in the upcoming batch(s), like Willowfield, Ganton, El Corona and so on. Keep an eye out.
Complexes: As you may have read in my other notice, the property limit was increased and we've introduced a lot more properties to the server in the form of apartment complexes. These will be dotted around the map to increase the amount of opportunities players have to own property in certain areas — especially the middle of the city where houses are not available. There's also a large focus on making these available for factions, and enabling more factions to have a complex in their territory for role-play purposes. Check this thread for more information.
Lead Promotions: We're introducing two additional Level 4 Administrators, Gallardo and Mecca, to help with the lead workload and extend our support to players. This makes our lead team the largest it has been in a long while. Jakey is also being introduced to the Lead Administration team for his efforts over the years as a Game Administrator and as Head of Testers. Congratulations to all of the above, especially Jakey!
Forum Issues: We're going to look at fixing the downtime problems with the forums as soon as possible. Since the errors started popping up on these boards, they've been very unstable and that's tremendously annoying for everyone here — even me and other staff members. Access to the forum's server and files is being extended to other server developers, like Noble, and we're going to look at what we can do in more depth to fix the problem. First and foremost would be investigating what's causing the forums to fully go down and be unresponsive. That could mean tweaking the forum's files, rolling back or changing to another version of phpBB, and so on. Whatever works to resolve the problems.
Contact: My inbox is always open for queries and comments. If you want to strike up a conversation with me about something that concerns you, or want to flag my attention to a discussion that could use input or management's opinion, feel free to reach out to me and let me know. I try to respond to every message that I receive despite the amount that I get on a day-to-day basis. Forum PM is always the best way to get in touch with me and guarantee that I see your message. Please don't rely on IRC or Discord as a means of getting in touch with me.
Congratulations to the following people who will be welcomed into our staff team for the very first time:
Farrell
Hikari.
Kemp
King G
Klu
ogsherm
Remorse.
schizophrenic
Vichea
And welcome back to the following testers who will be reinstating into the tester team:
Davey
Sebz
Ultra!
Congratulations again, and I look forward to seeing you around the server and the forums! Please contact Jakey to take the next step and be welcomed into the team. He is the point of contact for the Tester Team as your Head of Testers.
Admin Level 4 -> Lead
Jakey
Admin Level 3 -> 4
Gallardo
Mecca
Admin Level 2 -> 3
BillyM
Admin Level 1 -> 2
Davis
Ibarra
Paddy
Superb
Congratulations to the above on their promotions. Well deserved.
I'd like to welcome back the following administrators to the team:
Jeff — Level 1
Congratulations and I look forward to seeing you around again.
Thanks for reading,
Surreal