Just a small heads up for those who play closer attention...
I just now got working a bit of Java code that will let Mythruna (the game) login to Mythruna (the web site) using the accounts that get setup when you donate.
This means a few things.
First, when fully integrated, if you choose to login with your Mythruna.com user then the client and server will negotiate with each other to know who you are and how much you've donated. Eventually, the server will not even require a separate login as it will just defer to your global Mythruna.com user ID. I'll have to work out account migration before then.
Second, it means I can nicely identify donators in some way like we do on the forum. Maybe you get a little indicator next to your name in the who, chat, floating text, etc.
Third, it means that I can start enabling features only for people who have paid. Now, a few of you may feel bad about this but there have been many features that I hesitate to put in because they are so rife for abuse. For example, things like vehicles, point-to-point teleporters, etc. would lead to pretty severe griefing that would actually affect the server performance. And I can't really just limit it to one per player because then a) anyone who logs in for just five minutes will plop down their teleports/vehicles at the first opportunity, b) more resourceful players will just log in more than once to get as many of these things as they want. Before long the world would be swiss cheesed with teleporters and the skies would be littered with half-conceived ugly flying blobs.
Initially, as I roll out character customization, it will definitely be a donator-only feature... and I'll probably take the hair away again. "No pay, no hair!!!"
Or something.
I think this strikes a nice balance between allowing non-payers to play and still provide the donators with something special. As a bonus, it means I can roll out features on the "free server" earlier than I would have been able to otherwise.
Fourth, and finally, having solved this problem expands the universe of things that I can more easily achieve. For example, I could keep a global builder stats instead of just the one for my server. The same mechanism will also be used to implement the server listing service and allow for server to server portals. The server list may happen sooner rather than later.
I'm hoping to be able to roll this login capability into the next release with a revamped user interface. It still remains to be seen whether I will drown in details or not but that's the plan. Still no clue on when it will be... but that will probably be its primary new feature with maybe one or two small surprises.
