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| VP • The secret of a VP designer |
 It's been ages, since I made a pretty big promise to a couple of you all. I wanted to show you the truly not so secret secret of being a VP designer. So here we are with the final product and a new, insider view on how being a designer on VP works. Please keep in mind that I was badged on the German server, so many thing will be in German on the screens, but I'll put explanations and translations where needed. And maybe only read this when you're really up to a complete and in detail explanation of how it works. Like, more detail than you ever wanted to know. Also, feel free to ask questions in case something isn't all that clear. (Please ignore my crappy handwriting, I had cold fingers.)  As a designer, you get access to two new fancy functions: clothing and voucher. t h e c l o t h i n g f u n c t i o n The clothing function is like a catalogue of all items uploaded to the server you are on. You can only see the items that have been uploaded to that server. (If there is a new set by an english or a dutch designer one of the german teams wants to have, they can't use it until it has been pushed to our server. Same vice-versa.) This is how the clothing function looks like with all filters set to standard. Don't worry, I did pay attention as to not spoil anything people couldn't find out by themselves!  1 - upload a new item 2 - sort every item by property (the sorting function is terrible and very restrictive). Additional filters are DM, HoF, WoF, etc 3 - the item ID, the number at the back of the URL on the item page like this one 4 - preview of the uploaded picture in original size 5 - gender, price (code items are mostly set at 800pd, which is why they sell at 320 back to the game - 100 if the price was at 0) and if the set is available in game (tbh, I don't understand that one) 6 - dropdown to change the colour of an item (don't forget to hit save at the end!) 7 - last changed by (Virtual Popstar means another server, otherwise it says the designer's name) 8 - how often is it in game? (when in game once, it links to the item page) 9 - on what servers has the item been pushed? (red if not available on said server) 10 - shortcuts to edit or delete (we can't delete an item, that's admin sorcery) This overview helps us designers in finding certain items and seeing if they are in game yet or not. That is usually just necessary for coding, but we also use this power to see what will be DM in advance. But don't worry, we use that power for good and try to give you regular hints in the FT Speculation thread. When we upload a new item, we start with a blank slate. Here starts the fun. And well, fun is super objective here, because everyone who know DollzMania remembers the struggle to align the items pixel-perfect the way you wanted to. Yeah, that fuckery was used for uploading items too. But don't worry, you get used to it pretty fast. I've been badged for nearly three years now and the majority of items are now placed perfectly within 3-5 seconds.  1 - upload the item from your device - so better be organised! 2 - choose the right settings (wings and hat transparency are unknown in use) remember to choose a designer tag - even if it's non-d! The set ID has to be distinct from other IDs, or they end up in one big messy set. 3 - we can't use the coordinates, but they can help as an orientation tool when uploading the same item in different colours - either they're all placed rightly or you failed big time 4 -settings of transparency (100% , slightly less visible, barely visible, invisible) helps with placement and we love this "new" feature 5 - your playpen 6 - shows all the other items from the same set (as long as there's other items with the same set ID and they're not in a category where they start behind the doll - looking at you backgrounds, others and faces) 7 - same as number 4 just for the set this time 8 - basically what it says ... see point 6 9 - all done? hit that save button and you're all set! After you uploaded your design, it now really depends on how the server handles things. Here is how we make it work on the german server: • We have a calendar with all our designing duties listed. Every week, we tackle a different set (DM, HoF, WoF). Plus there is shop updates every wednesday and saturday - sometimes even more - and we usually tackle every second wednesday. So whenever the date for our sets is up, we update them and tell Voldemort to use that set for whatever purpose (most of the times we don't even need to tell her, she's up to speed with who's meant to make what set and what to use it for). • For shop updates we can just upload random sets and either tell her to use them as shop updates (especially if we have a special wish as to make it a credit sale or a LE - though I feel we rarely ask for this). Whenever we upload a huge mass of sets (e.g. me 4 months back when I uploaded all of my old stuff), she can use them at her own leisure to put as shop updates or even codes for events after asking quickly. • When we upload a set for a team (no matter for what server, we always upload our sets ourselves because whenever someone is meant to fuck up the placement, it better be the original designer, because it makes it so much more awkward afterwards), we mark it as a voucher item. If it is for the german server, we then can proceed to code the set. If it's meant for a different server (or someone asked to get an older set pushed) we get back at Voldemort and she handles it. Again, this is admin sorcery and it's wild! I once saw a screen of how she sees the function and let me tell you, the things I show you are a tiny nothingness compared to what the admins can set. t h e v o u c h e r f u n c t i o n When you have to code something for a team, you use the voucher function. Luckily this one is mainly in english and seems to have less weird translation issues. (You should have seen the upload function before the big update a year or so back, we had some really weird translations...) The thing about the voucher function is, that every designer can only see their own vouchers. Only admins have a complete list of every voucher in game - of course, because with some admin magic, they activate our codes.  1 - add new voucher 2 - ID, irrelevant for us 3 - choose a title to distinguish codes (so we know who it's for) 4 - the code that you enter to get whatever it is 5 - claims (with limit), linked to the list of users who claimed it and their IP (don't like that, but what are you gonna do, it's how Kaj did VP...) - this is the list mods get to check for side accounts claimed the code, so don't even try it 6 - from when until when the code is active (shown server time) 7 - active or not 8 - I only see my name, but admins see all codes, so they know who it's from 9 - disappears after the voucher is validated, but options to change something or delete the code. admins keep that function (they could potentially re-activate codes from 3 years back) This is really just the quick overview - really helpful if we get asked by a team to code a set and we send them a message after the code has been activated by the admin. On the german server, our admin checks for new vouchers every week - if we're in a hurry, a small message makes sure we get the code activated as soon as possible. When a team asks me to code them stuff, I usually send them a screen of their code so they have all the information too and then the code for a simple copy paste down below too if it's a more complicated one.  The upload function really is pretty self-explanatory. We designers don't handle codes with money or manager/DM. That's codes that the admins generate themselves. d i d y o u k n o w t h i s a l r e a d y ? • How to check if a set is available on your server? Have you ever found a set on another server and wondered, if it has already been pushed to or even used on your own? Take the set view from that server and go add/change the server-specific part. If you have a set from the dutch server, add en. before the virtualpopstar.com. For sets from the german server, switch the de. to en. Won't work on single items, as the item ID varies on every server. • The uses for sets are the same on every server This means, that DM will be the same on every server, WoF, HoF, for most parts even shop updates. If a set has been used as a code on one server, it will probably end up as a code on the other servers too (as far as a team is interested in it). But there is a small thing: Code sets that have already been used on other server can be released to the shop on just one server. If not pushed to another server, shop sets can vary. (They usually don't, what woulod be the point in most cases? Except of course releasing a bunch of codes no one used in two years into the game.) • Hacks back then Back in 2015/2016, there used to be a hack, where you could see single items that were uploaded but not in game yet. Now, you only get to an item page, after the item was released to the game (even if it is released but all those owning it have their wardrobes closed, you can't see the item page). Back then, people would regularly go through the newer numbers to see, if there was new stuff and like this know what would be DM for that week. This was back when Kaj coordinated all and DM was always only uploaded the day before. Nowadays, you couldn't go on by that (sometimes a DM set sits for weeks in the function before it will be pushed to the other servers and used). Do you remember more hacks and tricks regarding items on VP? Tell us in the comments! |
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