Amazingly, EpicQuestz has gone almost a year without changing the rank system in any way. Luckily for you, that changes today.
The most immediate thing you’ll notice is that @LimeeFox has taken on the Manager rank, rather than Designer. I cannot do more to emphasize that this is not a demotion, it’s a re-allocation of roles.
Designer/Manager simply concentrate on different aspects of Project Leadership - one designs, one manages.
Well! I hear you say, “That doesn’t seem like much of a major rank change”. The thing is, we’ve basically gone back to basics, and asked “what does a project need” and “who fits the roles”, then we’ve gone on to assign rank names to these ideas.
Yes, we’ve called the ranks the same things as they were before… but I guess you can say there’s been a change in the “principle” of the rank.
I shall say no more here. Everything else is explained in the helpful and complex image graphic below. If your question isn’t answered here, it’s probably not important. But ask it anyway if you’re confused. I’ve included TL;DRs for the lazier members of the team.
Well, expect promotions to the new Manager and Designer ranks respectively in the coming weeks and months. This is effectively making project leadership more accessible to motivated team members, and gives you more options once you reach Artist.
Reaching Artist itself hasn’t changed - you still just need the simple requirement of one largeplot and a good level of helpfulness and activity.
The Novice rank has been removed, and all Novices have been given the Guest rank. This may seem unfair to some, but the promotion stages to builder will remain the same. One plot of the required quality will be enough to result in a Builder promotion, as has always been the case. The difference is now, we won’t award a rank for an okay-ish plot beforehand.
Builders can only use /gamemode survival in plot worlds (excluding Project Plots), to avoid too much distraction on projects. We aren’t against fun, we just want to keep it separate from the productive parts of the server.
Artist now gets 16 plots, rather than 8.
We have demoted a number of highly inactive Artists to builder, see the discord #news channel for who will be leaving the blue-namers.
Donors can now only add people to donor plots, rather than trust them. People who are already trusted to donor plots will not be affected. Furthermore, this does not end staff members’ ability to trust people to donor plots, should the owner ask nicely.
Discussions have begun about the future of the Artist rank, and a possible formal split between the Terrain & Structure facets of the rank. These updates will follow in a part III…
We’ve long felt there was an issue distinguishing between Builders who wanted to use the EQ server for plots and their own builds (which is completely fine), and those who wanted to become active team members and help out on projects. All the staff has spent some time thinking about how best to make this distinction, to be fairest to those who help out.
As such, the Builder rank has been split into a member and non-member rank (Builder and Traveller). They both get exactly the same perms.
Builders are active members of the team who can proceed onto ranks like Artist. The Builder rank is achieved by going through a short trial period, where a Traveller gets the “Trial Builder” rank for one month, making them a greylisted team member. During this trial it’s up to the player to screenshot and record all the project work they do, preferably also noting down where they did it. At the end of this trial period, they present their work and either get promoted (most likely) or denied (very unlikely).
I want it to be as easy as possible to get Builder from traveller. You’ve already proven your Building skill, and I really want active builders. I just want to distinguish between those who are at all willing to help out, and those who aren’t.
All but 5 Builders have been re-allocated to Traveller. I can’t emphasise how much this is not a demotion. Indeed, in the coming days I’ll explain how Travellers will be able to work a limited amount on projects, just not with the same wide-ranging project permissions Builders get. As such, honestly if you just like helping out occasionally perhaps Builder isn’t the rank for you.
