This post has been copied from the private Exclusive Donor's Section to the public Announcements section. Donors saw this post on 3/30/2014. I will continue to copy these Devblogs to the Announcements section as they become old enough that the donor exclusivity was long enough.

Hello guys.

This week was mainly spent on preparing the test map more for the first beta build. We have some neat surprises in store for you and I can't wait for you guys to experience it soon I've written a lot of cool scripts for the map that I plan to release in the Downloads section once the map is released to the public.

As for mod progress,

• Clients can now invite their own friends to a match lobby. This means you don't have to rely on the host to have all of your players on his friendslist and send them invites
• Found Fixed a major bug with laststand. Working on a fix as I type this.
  
• Found a bug which caused powerups to stop dropping in Classic Mode. Working on a fix.
• Fixed a very old bug where you can hear the gamemode announcer voice coming from each player in the match.
• Changed the UGX powerups so that only the player who grabbed the powerup hears the announcement for it. This should eliminate any confusion as to who actually got the announced powerup.
• Lowered the reserve ammo amount of the USP45 from 160 shots to 120.
• Lowered the reserve ammo amount of the FAL from 300 shots to 150.
• Increased the default price of the FAL from 750 to 1000 points.

I've changed our approach for internally testing the mod. Previously I was just having MrSlagovich play whatever he felt like playing and report any bugs he found in the process. This was working for a while but it's become too annoying for me to be jumping between gamemodes on a weekly basis to fix whatever he's found.

Now we are going to focus on one gamemode at a time, starting with Classic mode. There is only one bug currently that needs to be fixed for it, which I mentioned above. After this we will move on to Arcademode, etc, until all of the gamemodes that will be available in the first beta build will be playable without encountering any game-breaking bugs.

This should not only speed up the testing process but make my life a lot more pleasant.

Awesome news. Hopefully the beta drops soon. These last 5 months have been dragging in. lol.

Oh that's good to know, I hate being left in the dark because of donor status, but I guess that's another reason why I should get around to donating.

Oh that's good to know, I hate being left in the dark because of donor status, but I guess that's another reason why I should get around to donating.

there are plenty more devlogs to see if you do donate

there are plenty more devlogs to see if you do donate

Actually I heard somewhere that chat mods get to see the donator section too.

Actually I heard somewhere that chat mods get to see the donator section too.

All staff and contest winners have free access.

All staff and contest winners have free access.

I don't think the chances of me becoming UGX staff or a contest winner are that great...

I don't think the chances of me becoming UGX staff or a contest winner are that great...

So donate...

So donate...

I'm still waiting for the european spreadshirt store to open:D

So donate...

I know i'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but it needs to be said:

 There is a difference between making a "donation" and paying for "VIP" access. Yeah, by definition you are still making a "donation" since the money is going towards the organization(UGX-Mods), but the fact that you get such high & exclusive benefits ultimately makes it a VIP subscription.

So why does this matter? Because people shouldn't have to pay for information about a product they already purchased(Call of Duty: World at War), or for early beta access. All tools, and everything associated with it are supposed to be free, not held hostage by the so called "donator" status.

And of course the argument will probably be made that without these donator(VIP) perks, no one will donate. Thats a load of horse crap. There are plenty of donators who already have the donator status that CONTINUE to donate on a regular basis. If the site continues to produce content that people enjoy then i have no doubt that there will still be plenty of donations without the donator(VIP) perks.

No, i'm not a lawyer. But do i really need to be? Anyone with a high school level reading skill can understand the legal documents that come with the game & mod tools. Its not even an interpretation, it says it right in the documents in plain English.

So why does this matter? Because people shouldn't have to pay for information about a product they already purchased(Call of Duty: World at War), or for early beta access. All tools, and everything associated with it are supposed to be free, not held hostage by the so called "donator" status.

This isn't some DLC from Activision. When you bought CoDWaW there was no agreement that UGX Mod news would come with it... so I have absolutely no idea why you would try to tell people that they are entitled to this NEWS just because they bought the game. Are you kidding me? And what about the YouTube channel we have full of videos of all these features? Those are free. And the donor topics we bring to the announcements section after a month? Those are free too.

We aren't employed by Activision, we don't get paid by Activision, we don't even get acknowledged by Activision. So what we do with donor status or our website is not up to them, or you for that matter. If you don't want to donate then continue avoiding it and let it be.

And of course the argument will probably be made that without these donator(VIP) perks, no one will donate. Thats a load of horse crap. There are plenty of donators who already have the donator status that CONTINUE to donate on a regular basis. If the site continues to produce content that people enjoy then i have no doubt that there will still be plenty of donations without the donator(VIP) perks.

People are going to donate to support the site regardless of the perks - you are right about that. Despite that, we thank them by giving them things we can give them in return. Sure we could give them absolutely nothing in return, but we care enough to make an effort to try to repay these people in our own way. I'm sure all these donators would agree they appreciate the content they get to view in the donator's section.

No, i'm not a lawyer. But do i really need to be? Anyone with a high school level reading skill can understand the legal documents that come with the game & mod tools. Its not even an interpretation, it says it right in the documents in plain English.

We've been over this before, stop playing lawyer please. My replies to you are also written in plain English yet this topic keeps getting brought back up and I have to keep repeating myself to you.

I know i'm going to get a lot of hate for this

I don't get you Daedra... Sometimes you come across as someone who is very intelligent, then you go and post something like this!?

How can you actually justify telling people they should not have to donate to a site you frequent daily and have done for a long time? You do understand that the site is run at a cost yes? And are you aware that donations help pay the server costs and site maintenance? Do you expect Trem, Delta, Sage & Co to just pay it out of their own pockets!?!

The donations also help pay for the time they are putting it to making a mod, that as Trem stated is NOT an automatic entitlement to you or anyone else. They work everyday to produce a mod that will give thousands of people entertainment for months to come,  and the donations should also be seen as the communities appreciation for this. Getting extra perks for being a donor is just an incentive to actually doing so, and sure in some cases it could be seen as an attempt to entice, but there is not a single forum out there that is not an"official" one that does not offer site donors these additional features, so it pretty much common practice.

Regarding your "held hostage" comment... Any betas and news to come out regarding the mods will always see public (non donor) release... it is just that the donors get "early access". Again, this may seem like an enticement to get donations, but as explained above, the donations are actually used towards site running costs, staff's time etc and are all pretty justified.

^This

Never should of brought this up... But I really would like 'inside' info on the mod development. Which is given early to donators to show them what the team has been doing with the donations.

But when it comes to reality I don't really give a shit about this info when (if?) I'm going to eventually donate. It's not a factor of whether I donate or not, like said it's merely a perk of being a donator, not a reason to become one.

[/discussion]

Daedra can be quite silly sometimes, no?

Don't worry, we all still love you