Dear community, since this topic is quite heavy we decided to give it its own post to discuss our thoughts on donations and the shop.

This was probably the most controversial decision we had to make, beside the reset, but this was a decision we had already exposed back when Phoenix was going to be a separate world from the rest but with its own donation track.
This is a decision we had to make out of necessity for the survival of Sentinelcraft and although we understand people would be upset, we will lay out the facts to explain it:

• Sentinelcraft has less than 10 months of funds. This means once the funds run out we will shut down if we do nothing. The server does not run on our hopes and dreams, it requires 109$ per month to be hosted currently.
• Sentinelcraft has not received a single donation since October of 2023. Here is our graph of 2023:

• What this graph means: We have made about 390$ of a year that cost us over 1.2k$ to maintain. We operated at a loss just with server costs. The new set-up will save us 500$ more per year in server upkeep.
  For reference we have had an income of +1k in certain months back when the server had optimal operation and activity. Realistically we are now operating on the income we made from 2021 and some of 2022.
• Our existing playerbase of donators does not log in regularly. Our player base consists of a lot of donators, and we have not been able to cultivate a consistent culture of voting. This means that our playerbase stagnated and no influx of new players to fund the server. We cannot as staff keep telling you to vote, we think it’s an activity that should happen from the goodwill and love of the server and helping the server grow. For reference: We have consistently had the same 3 people at top voters for the past year. The 4th person only voted about 2 days a month.Community growth is a collective responsibility, we as staff have only so limited time to manage the server, advertise it and make it grow. We also do not have the funds to pay for expensive advertising slots. All that we can do is create avenues for you to help us grow.
• The new server is a fresh start and a reset. It carries nothing from the previous server besides the base rank structure & staffing ranks. We are treating it as a fresh new experience as if it were a new server launching and we are hoping the community will be open to this decision.

All the facts being said, here’s what to expect of the changes for donations, we did a benchmark of how other servers worked and adapted them to how we wanted Sentinelcraft to operate: Minimal pay to win, satisfying social rewards for players who contribute:

• Old donators will start out with senior-member rank. It’s not an automatic process, we have to manually do it as people join so be patient.
• Revamped donation perks with better perks and some nerfed perks i.e kits.
• Donation ranks have names now, the max rank is no longer 250$ but 150$.
• A new cosmetics plugin that will give you access to more desirable perks to purchase
• A subscription rank that will allow you to gain the benefits of the max rank for a month. Going through the normal donation track is more desirable but the rank is nicer for players who still want to help the server out. It gets its own Sentinel Cyan color.
• Flying is only for the overworld and won’t be permanent (you get about 3+ years of fly if you reach the final rank, they are still cumulative).
• The store will be included in our own website.
• Sneak peek:

To conclude, we think the new store allows for more opportunities for players to donate & help the server funding while being rewarding and cool enough. Donations were always just a means for us to collect funds to run the server. If you feel a certain way about this decision, we understand it. However, considering that the server donations go strictly to the server and nowhere else. We have to think about the best course of action to keep the server alive for the longest time. It was either this or a farewell party to a server & community we all cherished by December of 2024. We thank you for understanding and are hopeful that most of you will not be against this.

With love,
Senior Staff.