The idea came out in IRC main and I'm going to get this ball rolling. I have no idea how possible it is, but knowing what has already been done here, I can't fathom it being overly complicated. What I suggest is somehow incorporating SMS notifications into the shard so players can sign up their cell numbers and get notices of impenting events or other shard status messages (patch release, etc). Better still, in order to kill a few birds with one stone, provide such a service only to those who have a donation subscription to the shard. While any contribution is appreciated I'm sure, that consistent contribution could merit a bit of extra service, that does not in any way give one an advantage in game itself. Some could argue that awareness of an advantage but this would consist of nothing you don't already see on forums or in IRC/Game notifications. What are your thoughts? Would you subscribe for that? I'm going to soon anyway, but I'd be stoked to have that option.
For free, it would be difficult. Most SMS services like that, would either require the mailing URL to match the number (for instance, verizon users can use $cell_number@vtext.com to send via normal mail, since they just pipe those requests in). And if you don't know it, (the email to send the request to), then you are hosed(and there are a lot of providers). There are some free SMS services, but most of the APIs are limited to retrieving items, not sending, otherwise, someone could spam pretty good. I think something offered to donors is best, as a paid-for-use SMS service is optimal, with a strong API could be incorporated fairly easily into this system, especially with the type of message boards used on the site, and how info is relayed back and forth to client/browser/server/db...it should only be a simple call to an API for a send. I also think this is a good upgrade, since this community isn't as involved in the latest and greatest graphics, or running their clients on the best of the best gaming setups; more about the social aspect and keeping things involved. All assumptions by myself as to what Chris and staff have on the backend, and what is available now (I haven't done anything with SMS and piping in a long time), but I'm sure if they can, they will find a way
Well put shady and I get what you mean. Check this shit out: http://aws.amazon.com/sns/ I just googled for a moment and it looks like this could work if there's admin buy-in and obviously the work to get it going.
I would suscribe to get that SMS! I dont go to any event because I never notice them in time (gmt +1 sux)
Ya, that's a fairly cheap service Blaise ($0.75/USD per 100 SMS calls). But with AWS, they might also have to utilize EC2 (basically 'the web server'), to have SNS work with it. I didn't look into it too much, so I don't really know what type of existing architecture you need to utilize this server. I'm using EC2/S3/ELB tech for a web application currently, and just haven't had time to look at each service amazon provides with it's AWS/cloud offerings (there are about two dozen, some in their version of 'beta', others considered in full release). This is all backend, and what should be discussed is how much the community would like it. The logistics of the system (when it fires, if it shoots you a message about the invasions as well as community happenings reminders, etc) can just be left up to this great staff; I was just giving some feedback from more of a tech angle I guess. Either way, I still think it's a great idea.
A new sub-forum could be created for shard events that only staff can post their events. Then we can just subscribe to receive emails when there is a new post. Most people can receive email on their phones so that would essentially provide the same service for free.
don't forget that a big chunk of the player base is not in the US, so you'd need to find a provider that can do that for any country... I'd say email notifications would be MUCH MUCH simpler and 100% free. Who doesn't have a phone that receives emails these days!?? Now you could still do it only for contributors
An easier method that could still make your chosen tracking device with a phone app on it bleep at you would be email notifications.
Not to sound rash, but making an app, isn't as simple as making an app. There is still overhead, especially if you don't know obj-C, or whatever is used on android. A web-based solution, using email, is probably the simplest and easiest method, with something in your account settings to 'opt-out' or 'opt-in', especially because this could be run directly off of this web server, using a simple function with intervals (cron jobs seems the easiest to me), or using some type of manual notification in the event of an actual invasion event.
Unless UOR wants to get really fancy with this, just use phpbb. Create a new "event notification" thread that only admins can post in. Players then subscribe to that thread if they want to be emailed about upcoming events. When admins want to notify the playerbase of an impending event, they reply to the thread. Everyone subscribed gets an email. There are actually phpbb mods out there that let users choose SMS versus email, when they subscribe to topics. Best of both worlds, no custom coding, and easy to set up! EDIT: Fixing typos.
