Dear readers, welcome to the latest issue of the monthly Supernews. We’ve put together a round-up of events that have taken place both on the website and within the admin team. Once again, we’ve compiled figures illustrating the admin team’s activity and, last but not least, an interview with another administrator and SN’s second editor, Basebal.

Even before the release of RZE 10, a few bugs were fixed on the server, such as teamkill, exits from the casino in connection with Virtualworld, house pickups and the saving of nickname colours.

There were also bugs in the gang races and the derby. A few necessary fixes were carried out there too. 

And finally, here we are at the magical date of 9 December 2018 – the day when the new and long-awaited Reálná Země 10 was finally released! This went hand in hand with the release of the new SAMP client, SA-MP 0.3.DL. This date has gone down in Superpařba’s history, and the server has once again taken a big step forward. 

So what does the new RZE 10 have to offer? Well, amongst other things, islands have once again been added to the server – this time better, more sophisticated and more user-friendly for the server’s operation. Along with this, a whole range of new missions for most professions has been created on the islands. 

Another new feature is the new house interiors, which owners can build and furnish according to their own taste and choice. However, only houses ID 1–191 are fitted with these interiors. 

Furthermore, daily tasks – also known as quests – have been added; by completing these, you’ll earn various rewards and benefits. A new task is generated every day at 16:00. 

Another new feature is the redesigned speedometer, which replaces the outdated version. It’s worth noting that the old one hasn’t disappeared; it remains an option in the player’s settings, allowing them to choose between the old and new versions. 

New events have also been added to the stadiums; by completing these, players can also earn various rewards and items. 

New missions haven’t just been added to the islands; firefighters, wardens and fishermen have also got their fair share. Guards have been given new patrol missions, whilst firefighters clear fallen trees from roads and power lines, or water the parched earth with their… fire hoses. 

Naturally, with the islands on the server, several new houses have also been added, some of which are truly luxurious and, given their high purchase price and running costs, are intended only for wealthy players. 

The islands aren’t just home to houses, but also new properties! From an airport, through a petrol station, right down to food stalls. 

As is often the case, the addition of new features brings with it minor bugs and shortcomings that only become apparent once the system is live. It’s therefore impossible to anticipate and iron out everything during testing. However, everything has now been fixed and is currently being fine-tuned to ensure the best possible gaming experience!

Not even Supernews can do justice to the incredible wealth of new features that have arrived with Real Earth 10. Come to the server today and see these amazing additions for yourself! 

Right at the start of the month, two players were given the opportunity to assist the administrators in a role known as ‘Helper’. Rich and Evil thus began primarily answering your queries. However, Evil didn’t prove himself up to the task and so left this position a few days later.

_[U]nder[T]ake[R]_ also left the admin team due to a lack of time. 

Administrator [W]arning has also taken a break for a few days. 

New event organisers were taken on for a trial period. Entertainment on the server is now being handled by apolo14, smetyx, Woxri and Yoistick. 

And what about the admin team’s overall activities?

December was full of news, including the new RZE 10, so it was to be expected that there would be plenty of questions asked. Well, you asked and we answered. A total of 16,892 queries were answered! There was no shortage of fun either, so we organised a total of 315 events for you throughout the month! Are you curious to know how much was collected in fines in total? The figure is incredible! A total of 79,930,793 dollars was collected! May God bless all the naughty ones. 

This month, we’re welcoming Basebal, the website’s chief administrator, events manager and second editor at Supernews, for an interview.

SN Editor: Hi Base, thanks for agreeing to this interview for SuperNews. I’ll start off by asking you… You’ve been here for quite a while now and are one of those people – or rather, legends – who remember the early days of SuperPařba. When did you first log in to the server?

Baseball: Hi Johnny, thanks for the chance to contribute to SuperNews in a role other than as a moderator. Well, I’ve been around SuperPařba for many years now – you’re right about that. But I wouldn’t exactly call it the early days of SP. My first login was sometime around the turn of September and October 2013.

SN Editor: Really? Well, we’re in a similar boat then. How did you find out about the site? Why Superpařba?

Baseball: Well, it’s a rather funny story. Basically, I’ve been playing GTA San Andreas almost since it first came out. One day in 2013, I happened to overhear my mates talking about something called SuperPařba; that’s how I found out that GTA SA even had multiplayer, and that mate really helped me get onto the server and start to get the hang of it. So, to all of you who don’t like me, give him a big thank you – otherwise I certainly wouldn’t be here.

SN Editor: So, at school?

Baseball: Exactly, school’s the foundation of life.

SN Editor: I assume you’re not at school anymore, are you?

Baseball: Well, I’m still studying, but it’s not secondary education anymore. I’m studying IT, specifically web development, which is one of the reasons I’m glad I can be SP’s webmaster.

SN Editor: So you logged onto the server back then. What were your first impressions?

Baseball: First impressions? Well, I don’t really remember much about that, but as I was chatting to a friend on Skype, it wasn’t too much of a problem to find my feet at the start. But clearly, I got hooked.

SN Editor: So it was a big plus that you had someone to help you right from the start.

Baseball: Definitely – that’s basically why I was such a champion of the REF system.

SN Editor: Does that person, or any of the friends who brought you here, still play? Or are you the only one left?

Baseball: I’m the only one left; they never played that actively. But we did play together occasionally for a couple of years. Mind you, that was about a year before I joined AT.

SN Editor: So you spent just one year as a regular player before joining AT?

Baseball: Definitely not – I joined AT in 2015, which was two years after I started playing, but those mates stopped playing actively sometime in 2014

SN Editor: I see. Do you still remember your early days on SP? Your first car? Your job or company?

Baseball: There are loads and loads of funny stories. My first car was a Clover, which I still have in my garage today. My first job was as a Russian, as it was closest to the spawn point when I first logged in. Probably the funniest story is about the house I bought as a Christmas present in 2013, and then I clicked the wrong button and accidentally sold it to the city. Back then, I was still taking the game seriously and I actually cried over it. And my first business was Los Santos Pizza, as it was the cheapest one. 

SN Editor: We’ve already mentioned the admin team (AT) and how you joined it. What made you decide to give it a go?

Baseball: Well, I don’t really know; it just sort of appealed to me the whole time. Back when I first started playing, Elda was a big role model for me; I still remember him to this day. But to be honest, I never really thought about any rational reason for it. The only thing, perhaps, was that I wasn’t really enjoying the game itself that much anymore.

SN Editor: Was there a selection process back then?

Baseball: Back then, the only way in was through the standard recruitment process. I didn’t get through the recruitment process in 2015, though, because, like an idiot, I wrote that I was two months short of the age limit for admission to AT. Two months later, I was recruited to AT outside the recruitment process, for the role of Administrator – Moderator.

SN Editor: I’m sure there are a few players who’d be interested to know whether you’d been penalised in any way before joining the AT. Bans, offences?

Baseball: Yes, of course I was. I received a 50-hour ban for imitating a system message from LuKi, and sometime in 2014 a permanent ban from the website – I can’t even remember what for; I didn’t make a fuss about it at the time.

SN Editor: Have you been with AT since 2015, or did you take a break?

Baseball: I’ve had breaks; I’d better check my profile to be precise. Right, I’ve got it now – the first break was between 1 July 2017 and 4 October 2017, and the second was from 24 April 2018 to 26 September 2018. The first break was purely down to my reluctance to play; I don’t know if you remember, but back then I was already getting quite fed up with SP. After that break, things calmed down for a while, but then last year, knowing I’d be completely inactive for five months, I decided to leave AT, because I have absolutely no respect for some of my former colleagues who held positions in AT for over a year and did absolutely nothing.

SN Editor: And what are your thoughts on the current AT line-up?

Baseball: Well, mixed. I don’t want to offend anyone, but it seems to me that some colleagues feel entitled only to do things they enjoy. Yes, this might surprise some people, but I really don’t enjoy handing out certain penalties to players, though I know it’s my duty. That’s also why I don’t think I have any real friends on the server at the moment – with one exception, but that’s a colleague. Because everyone I’ve met on SP so far has been penalised, and their argument against the penalty was ‘but we’re friends’, so that’s where it ends for me. I simply have certain duties and so I fulfil them; the fact that my admin rights also bring me joy is certainly a plus. But there are downsides to it too.

SN Editor: If I’m understanding you correctly, do you see some of your colleagues as having rights solely to bully SP players?

Baseball: Definitely not – I actually see it the other way round. And I’m sorry, I’ve somehow strayed from the topic and haven’t answered the main question. It’s more that some are afraid to penalise borderline cases; I see that as a major drawback of the current admin team. Or some simply stick to their own ‘little patch’ and aren’t interested in what’s going on around them. Otherwise, as a team, we probably function better than any other team I can remember, as we don’t argue at all, unlike in previous years.

SN Editor: AT has never been, isn’t, and won’t be perfect; there’s always room for improvement – that’s abundantly clear. If there’s nothing to improve, something’s gone wrong. What’s your impression of the current Head Admin? 

Baseball: Well, from a server admin’s perspective, I can’t complain about the main admins; they take turns quite well in their duties – when one isn’t available, the other steps in. However, from the perspective of the Chief Website Administrator, the communication isn’t always quite what I’d like it to be.

SN Editor: The website has always been a weak point. After all, you’re the Chief Website Administrator. Could you explain to the players – especially the newcomers – what this role entails?

Baseball: There isn’t really that much to go into here. But I’ll give it a go. The main focus of my work on the website at the moment is probably pUB requests and forum moderator statistics. I compile the forum moderators’ statistics based on suspensions (bans), permanent bans, account spammers, nickname changes, and I also take their mistakes into account. In the case of pUB applications, my job is to put the application to a vote and then evaluate it. Unfortunately, what isn’t accounted for is that there’s an even number of pUB website administrators, so I sometimes find myself in a situation where I have to make a decision on my own. I don’t particularly enjoy this part of my job, as it’s often very difficult to set aside any preconceptions I might have about a player. But I’d say I’m managing it quite well. The second part of my job is improving the website. At the moment, however, we’re at a standstill, as the previous main website administrator made such a mess of the site – or rather, its code – that it’s almost impossible to do anything here. I’ll let you in on a very unofficial rumour – which is more of a thought at this stage – that in the coming years I might build a completely new website that would support a sufficient level of integration with the server. But I don’t know anything about this myself yet; I haven’t written a single line of code regarding it.

SN Editor: Hmm, a new version of the website – that would probably mean a new design as well, if it were to happen, wouldn’t it?

Baseball: Definitely. Whilst this design is very well done, it has a few fundamental problems. In particular, there’s an issue with clarity, which is caused by one thing alone: the navigation. According to best practice, the navigation should always be on the right-hand side or at the top. This website has it on the left-hand side, which makes it confusing for new users, as we read from left to right and are very reluctant to go looking for things.

SN Editor: That sounds very clever; I can draw on what I’ve learnt so far from studying web design, and it strikes me that it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all if someone like you were to create a new Superpařba website.

Baseball: Thank you. Actually, building a website is quite straightforward; the only problem is the psychology behind it, which probably plays the biggest role in creating that first impression.

SN Editor: Let’s leave the website and return to the server. One of the major milestones in Superpařba’s history has just taken place there: the transition to Real Earth 10 (RZE 10) and the return to the islands. This update has brought with it a range of new features and innovations that have, to a certain extent, enriched the gaming experience. How do you view this change?

Baseball: Well, I really can’t help but view this change positively. Together with my colleague – and, I dare say, a very good friend – Warning, I was already working on RZE10 back when only a handful of people in AT knew about it. I’d go so far as to say that we’re something like the ‘fathers’ of RZE10, and I think that without the two of us, RZE10 certainly wouldn’t be at the level it is today. We’re responsible for the entire Daily Quests system, as the original idea for this came from Warning, and together with him I devised all the series and rewards. Then there were the detective stories, which we wrote and devised from scratch. ATomas and I spent many hours on the phone discussing the design of the islands, suggesting ways things could look. I’m truly proud of what we’ve achieved. Of course, I’m not saying that Warning and I are the only ones; there are plenty of other people who lent a hand, or those who tested RZE10. I’d also go so far as to say that RZE10 was almost bug-free, even though it might not seem that way. Personally, I saw it more as players not understanding the system in most cases, and then there was one bug where vehicles from missions on the islands weren’t being deleted, which meant they were hiding in garages. Furthermore, this has unlocked a whole range of possibilities for the years to come, such as the XMas Party, which I was also responsible for organising this year.

SN Editor: RZE 10 was certainly a success, and a big thank you goes to everyone who lent a hand. Do you also think it attracted more new players – or brought old ones back – to the SP server?

Baseball: I’m absolutely certain of it. Some claimed that players stopped playing because of RZE10; if that’s the case, it’s only good for SP, because there was no step backwards, nor anything that could have put players off. Players don’t even have to set foot on the islands if they don’t want to, so I’d go so far as to describe players who quit because of RZE10 as slightly narrow-minded, and the same goes for those who spread this hoax. A large number of old players are now returning to SP, and the XMas party certainly deserves some credit for that. I was absolutely amazed by the visitor numbers we achieved. Many thanks to everyone for that, because I spent many days working on it, and the fact that so many players took part in the events gives me immense pleasure.

SN Editor: The figures were truly incredible, even higher than last year. I think we’ve still got plenty to look forward to – do you agree with me?

Baseball: We certainly do. As I’ve already mentioned in previous SuperNews, another major server update is in the pipeline, which I’m really looking forward to. But ATomas will tell you more once everything’s ready.

SN Editor: Do you have any advice or a message for the players and your colleagues on the admin team to round things off?

Baseball: I certainly do, though I’ll leave out my colleagues – they can take their cue from the paragraph mentioned above. I certainly do have some for the players. Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who’s read this interview right to the end, and if you’ve only read the first and last sentences, I’d advise you to at least read from the middle downwards, as it’s packed with interesting information in places. I’d also like to mention ATomas, who is often viewed negatively from the players’ perspective. Let me put it this way: imagine maintaining one and the same project for 10 years, without making any significant profit. To be honest, I can’t even begin to imagine what ATomas does, especially for the Pawn syntax. So before you start slagging off ATomas next time, please bear in mind that this bloke has been working on Pawn since 2008 and is still sticking with us, even though there are always people who claim he isn’t interested in the server and has absolutely no idea what’s going on. As for the gang system, this is probably the most hotly debated topic on SP. Because everyone imagines the gang system a little differently, and we’ll never – I repeat, NEVER – find a system that suits everyone. So please, don’t make suggestions along the lines of “I want the old gang system” – it doesn’t make sense. Thank you again, Johnny, for giving me the chance to have my say, and I look forward to the next issue of SuperNews.

SN Editor: Thank you for today’s interview. All the best in your future work for Superpařba!

Written for SN by: Johnny

Headings: Johnny