[Misc] We need to talk (Patreon)

I hope that by this point, most of you who support me know that I care about my mods being reliable, and keeping your saves, well, safe from problematic bugs as much as possible. Because of that, I submit my work to testing, alone and with others when possible.

I am sure most of you understand this and don't need to be told, but since several sources revealed that the TESTING files for the work-in-progress RPO collection update have been shoved on pirate sites, it seems best to state the obvious anyways:

• Testing files are TESTING files. They are NOT release-ready. They have bugs and incomplete features. People who join testing KNOW and ACCEPT that. They don’t put their usual save at risk, or use such files without knowledge of the risks. And most importantly: they are in DIRECT CONTACT with me about the files, and REPORT how they’re working out in game what’s broken, etc etc, so I can get things to the release-ready stage.

• By using testing files while not being part of the testing group, you are putting your game at risk for no good at all since you’re not participating in reporting. Especially since you would have to download these files from sources that aren’t official and that can’t be guaranteed to be safe from tampering.  

And while we're on it, let's address something else:

• the pirate sites that claim to "hit only permapaywallers" are participating.
  
  I have NEVER permapaywalled a mod, and have always spoken against permapaywalling, considering it is against EA's terms and thus basically copyright law. Heck, I am even against free-walling of public content (locking public posts behind newsletter subscriptions, forcing to join as free member, etc).
  
  So them sharing my stuff is them revealing that they don't actually care about creators or "making things fair".
  To those sites: if you're what you say you are, or if you care about your players not playing with buggy testing versions, stand by your principles, YEET those test files from your site. You are not welcome to my early access stuff either (I don't usually comment or mention when this type of piracy happens, but it does). I've been dedicating myself to modding for 5 years, you can't pretend "oh we don't know Lumpinou is not a permapaywaller", you've had 5 years of release behavior to prove it.
  
  I'm trying to get testers for a mod so it can be released as bug-free as possible to the public. Please do your part and don't share beta files with people who have no clue what they're getting into and aren't in contact with me about it and won't report issues.

Alright, palate cleanser.

To the patrons who support me and my work, and to the testers and beta tier who get into testing properly, willingly in all awareness in order to help with mod development: my thanks as always. YOU make this possible and everyone else who uses my mods has you to thank.