Hello Everyone!
First off, I would like to thank all of you for your subscriptions, praises and feedback over the past 16 months. It has been amazing for me to hear how many of you like my scripts and I am looking forward to working with all of you to make the services I offer the best that they can be. ISXBJ could not be as great as it is without all of the awesome feedback that you provide. Thank you! After the successful release of BJ Inventory in January of 2013 I have been very busy adding new free scripts to accompany it. Many of you have already found out how useful these free scripts like BJ Movement or BJ Quest Share can be and have been offering many feature requests to make them better. Looking to the future, at the end of May (*fingers crossed*) I intend to release my second set of Prestige Scripts, Quest Bot and Quest Creator, for a free beta period. Also, I will be changing the way that New Users will acquire their subscriptions. Existing user's subscriptions will remain unchanged as long as they do not cancel their subscription. I'll explain both of these in more detail below.
On May 31, 2014 (*Date is subject to change) Quest Bot and Quest Creator will be unlocked for everyone with an active EQ2 - Inventory subscription to beta test. During the past year, I have been working on these scripts and they have undergone numerous complete re-writes. I finally feel that the basic functionality that exists is close to what I want it to be. During this free beta time everyone will be able to access both Quest Bot and Quest Creator and I am hoping to receive lots of feedback and Quest Bot files from you. For a more detailed explanation of what Quest Bot and Quest Creator are, click on their links. Basically, Quest Creator is a tool that allows people with no/little coding experience to create steps for Quest Bot to follow. Quest Bot will be coming with fully functioning examples of solo quests and heroic instances. My original design was to have Quest Creator closed to the general public and a small group of "Testers" creating the step content for everyone to use. After my alpha stage (January 2014 - April 2014) I have decided that with the time involved in creating step content, it is better for the ISXBJ community to have as many talented people working on creating content (Yes, some of you are very creative and talented!). Working together we will be able to create a lot of content "quickly" and have everyone benefit from it. With my new payment system, which I will discuss in more detail later on, I have the flexibility to host many contests and prize draws. These contests would consist of people using Quest Creator to create quest steps for a specific zone or quest and then those submissions being pitted against each other with the community/panel of judges deciding on a winner to be awarded subscription time.
 |
 |
Also coming early this summer will be a revamped BJ Scripts Store and subscription changes. I will be moving away from my old PayPal recurring subscription button links in favor of a shopping cart system where new users will be able to pay for different services and blocks of time all at once. These purchased blocks of time are better for everyone involved. Currently, PayPal does not allow much flexibility with changing active recurring subscriptions. This means that if I wanted to give you a credit for anything you would have to cancel your subscription with PayPal, wait for your subscribed time to expire and then resubscribe after your bonus credited time had run out. It is a big hassle. My new system will allow me to still use PayPal, while having the flexibility to give users BJ Store Credits, extend their subscriptions instantly, have sales on services and host Quest Creator submission contests for prizes. To be clear, these new changes to EQ2 - Inventory Prestige Script will only affect new subscribers. If you are currently an active EQ2 - Inventory subscriber nothing will change for you. However, if you ever cancel your recurring subscription, PayPal cancels your recurring subscription, or I am forced to cancel your recurring subscription for any reason, you will no longer be able to use the legacy recurring subscription packages.
It has been an amazing 16 months for ISXBJ and with Quest Bot and Quest Creator launching later this month, I am looking forward to an even more amazing year to come. As always, all feedback is welcome and my contact information can be found by following the Contact Us link at the top of this page.
Thanks for everything!
bjcasey
PS. I have included some common frequently asked questions about Quest Bot and Quest Creator below. More questions can be found in my Frequently Asked Questions section.
Why should I use Quest Creator to make content for the community? Can't I just use what other people spend a lot of time on?
You can use what other people submit and completely ignore Quest Creator if you choose. BUT, that is a decision you are making and I am hoping that not everyone is going to feel that way. People using Quest Creator are spending their precious time for the benefit of the community and people who choose not to use Quest Creator will be required to spend something else instead. A system like this is like a double edged sword. If everyone occasionally submits a quest step file, then we end up with a steadily increasing flow of content to use. If nobody or very few people submit quest step content then there is almost nothing available for anyone to use. To help encourage people to submit quality quest step content there is going to be a rewards program.
- Submit your quest step content by using the online form. I will then place a link to it on my website for the community to download and try it.
- The community will vote on your submission. When enough positive votes are received (*amount of votes required is to be determined) it will be added to the internal selection of Quest Bot and credit will be added to your BJ Scripts account (*The amount rewarded will depend on the type of quest step content submitted).
- You will then be able to spend these credits at the BJ Scripts Store up to a maximum of 50% (*Maximum percent is subject to change.) of your order.
Can I submit a quest or instance that has already been submitted and still receive credit?
Yes you can, but there will be a limit for how many duplicates of a particular quest or instance will receive credit (*To Be Determined). I am hoping to have many different versions of specific quests and instances. The more varied the navigation paths or quest steps are, the less likely it will be that you will run into another botter running the exact same path as you. This will make things more difficult for other players to keep track of you.
Won't it look suspicious to see five characters following another through overland zones?
I agree that this would look suspicious and have implemented specific safeguards to protect against abuse. Public zones will have a group limit of two players and two mercenaries and heroic instances will be allowed up to six players in a group. Raid content will be restricted at launch.