Premium Membership
From Astro Wars
Contents |
Overview
How to Apply
Premium Membership is by monthly subscription, paid three months in advance. Payment is made by a card through PayPal or existing PayPal account, set up as a recurring charge so future payments are taken automatically until cancelled. You must already have a PayPal account, or a credit or debit card to open one with, no other payment method is possible.
On the screen shown above, select whether you are a EU or non-EU player. This will take you to the PayPal page shown below to subscribe, which is in German. If you are not German, you can easily change to your own country as follows:
- Without scrolling, look for the section about half way down the screen, which is titled "Jetzt bei PayPal anmelden!".
- Select your country from the drop list under "Wählen Sie Ihr Land aus", it is in German so use a translator if needed.
- Wait for the screen to reload, and it will change to the page in your preferred language, which you may use instead.
Note: when you submit your details, the next page shows the Euro exchange rate PayPal is using for this transaction, plus the cost in your local currency, before you confirm your order. You can still cancel your order at this time if you wish.
Failed Payments
If a subscription payment request fails due to lack of funds, PayPal will email you at the address you registered with them, advising the transaction has failed and giving you the next date they will attempt to collect payment. They will also notify Martin Bauer of the failed payment, which could result in your Premium status within the game being cancelled once the current period of subscription ends. Note: Requests for any failed payments will continue to be made until the payment is successful or you cancel the subscription, even if your Premium Membership is cancelled within the game itself.
If you are having problems with the card or account which makes the payment, you can select a different funding source on the subscription's details page at PayPal, then click on the "Change Subscription" button at the bottom. Instructions on how to locate the subscription details page are given in How to Cancel.
How to Cancel
The transaction can only be cancelled by deleting it in your Paypal account history as it is an automatic payment. The current Premium membership is not affected and will run until the end of its validity period, after which you will revert to non-Premium status when it is not renewed. Here is the method in detail:
Log into your PayPal account and go to: https://history.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_history and search under "Subscriptions" (you may need to change the 'search' form at the top so you can see the day you subscribed). Then from the results page, look under type=="Subscription Creation" and name=="Martin Bauer" and status=="active". From there click on the "details" of the transaction, go to the bottom of the page and click on the "Cancel Subscription" button.
Note: If you cannot locate your original subscription creation using search, you can get there from any related payment. Click the "details" of any Payment for this subscription, then click the "details" of Original Transaction:type==Payment to Martin Bauer, then click the subscription number at the top, in the line In reference to:S-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Account Transfer
Memberships are managed by Paypal and charged against the registered player account, so transfer from one account to another is not possible. You will need to cancel your Premium membership then open a new player account and pay again.
Benefits
Member Profile
A Premium Member's idle time is hidden in his profile if it is less than 24 hours so other players will only see 'N/A' displayed. Once 24 hours idle time is exceeded, it will be displayed as completed days only. This gives some protection to a Premium Member by making it more difficult for an enemy to study his login patterns to plan an attack for a period when he may be offline. Note: the idle time is visible in the Alliance Screen of a Premium Member's alliance even if it is less than 24 hours.
Additionally, Premium members' accounts will not be locked if they abuse the game by playing with multiple accounts, or if they account sit for another player or allow their own account to be sat by another player. It is still unconfirmed at this time, whether the account would be resigned from the game by the Admins, as an official announcement is still awaited regarding the enforcement of this rule against Premium members.
Member Settings
Premium Members have two additional entries under Settings on the News Screen. They can enter a Combat Value and an email address. They will then receive a notification at that address whenever a fleet with that total CV or greater attacks them. This may also be reached via the top link on the Premium Tools page. Note: An attacking fleet notification will not be received if the fleet belongs to a member of the Premium member's own alliance.
| automailer@astrowars.com Incoming Fleet Warning Sep 19 - 19:29:40 CV:3024 Attention !!! We have evidence of an incoming Fleet at Sep 19 - 19:29:40. 16 Transports 952 Destroyer 2 Cruiser 2 Battleship going to attack Alpha Minkar 5! We suppose its the fleet of wowbagger |
Premium Tools
Premium Members will see this option in place of the Premium Upgrade link on the News Screen. The tools were first introduced in Beta 10, and there are currently two of these available exclusively to Premium Members.
The first tool is a fast link to the Settings page, where the Premium Member may enter an email address to which attack alerts will be sent, plus the minimum CV of the attacking fleet which will trigger the alert.
The second tool is a Bio Scan, which displays a list of players with their home planets in the visible starmap, who have a Biology level at least six levels below that of the Premium Member. Clicking on a name reveals that player's profile with full Intelligence Report, giving details of their science levels and race. This is useful in planning attacks, and saves the member from having to scan all players in their starmap searching for those with viewable reports.
Premium PP
This feature appears on the planet detail page of the Planets Screen. It allows you to spend production points on several buildings or ships in a single transaction. Against each building or ship are three values: the cost needed to reach its next level, the current level, and the amount of points used on that item in the current transaction. To raise a building to the next level (or to buy a ship), click on its +1 button once in the Dec/Inc column. Ships may also be bought in quantities of +10, +100 or +1000 if enough PP are available. You may increase a building by more than one level, by pressing its button repeatedly; each time you do this its PP value will increase to show the total points spent on it. Note: Ships are always added as complete units, to add any points needed to complete a part built ship, use the normal Spend Points screen.
At the bottom of the screen you will see the total PP available, which will reduce as you spend points, while on the right the total used will increase. If you make a mistake you may either undo the last action using the -1 button next to that item, or cancel the whole transaction and start again by pressing the Reset button.
Premium Alliance
This adds an "all incomings" button to the alliance overview for Premium members. This opens a one page list of all fleets incoming to any alliance planets, whether by enemy attacks or allied ships. The entries are grouped by player and sorted chronologically in ascending order. Note: this button does not appear in the page view for non-Premium members.
Notes
The payment for Premium Membership is set up by PayPal as a recurring charge, so the player does not need to renew it as the next payment is taken automatically until Premium Membership is cancelled. The transaction can only be cancelled by deleting it in your Paypal account history as it is an automatic payment. The current Premium Membership will then run until the end of its validity period, after which you will revert to non-Premium status.
