Hello community,
Bossland contacted me earlier today about the level of revenue RB has generated over the last 6 or so months. In the past my salary was partially supported by the income generated by the other offerings we had available. With the closure of pretty much every other piece of software that means we must lean harder on the income generated by RB to pay not only my salary but the servers used to provide navigation but also authentication etc. When I approached Bossland, et al about RB way back in if its infancy I was adamant about having a reoccurring payment structure instead of a lifetime session option as I did not want such a situation as now to take place. While I am not happy with events that took place and were not privy to its consideration I am sympathetic to both parties. If we cannot generate enough income to cover costs of operation then action must be taken. If nothing was done then the value of these keys would become zero anyway as development and support would have to end. I have already taken a 50% cut in salary last year which I then further opted to split so that we could keep
MGramolini and then ZZI on the team in order to fund their continued development on what I considered essential additions to the rebornbuddy community.
If my understanding of the situation is accurate all lifetime keys issued in 2014 have been ended. I understand the frustration felt by those effected, thinking that they would have access to RB until the product was dead. I ask those effected to please consider the value you've gotten from RB over the years, the cost paid divided by every hour logged. Also that the original rebornbuddy has been dead for over a year now. While RB64 provides the same API as the original, it is an entirely new creation. When RB64 was going to be released I was urged that the products should be kept separate. I felt strongly that it was in the communities best interest to allow users to who had already purchased RB to have access to RB64 so that 3rd party developers would be compelled to make sure their creations worked on both.
To those who complain about the lack of support, I'm sorry. RB's code base has almost entirely been developed solely by me. I've had some help reversing a few difficult items from Main and ZZI. When I started out I knew that it would be impossible for me to single handily provide botbases and routines that would excel in every activity. Instead I focused on empowering 3rd party developers by providing the best API possible so that they would have the tools needed to create anything they wanted and that they would be able to help fill in the areas where the base program lacked. I hoped that a strong community would develop around RB as it did with HB when it was in its prime. As for the lack of recent additions, something that is not well known outside the closet 3rd party developers is that my health took a major turn for the worse shortly after heavensward release. Since then I deal with chronic debilitating pain every day that makes it hard to focus and work. I had strong ambitions for features that I wanted add to RB that have since been tapered. While my ability to add new features and functions has slowed I always strive to have the bot updated for the latest version of the game as quick as possible.
I will look into extending the keys effected to give time as was done with the other bots.
With all that being said I hope you can understand why these actions were taken and that you understand that I will endeavour to continue to provide the best possible support for RB for as long as it is possible.
