@Approved!
Very good thread. Leftwing is completely correct. Me for an example have been working on Quest OTs since 2009, (And my map's name is iMini) <--- Not a coincidence.
Even if you have a good and quick mapper by your side, it will quickly turn into a pithole. Because in order to make the map interesting you also need to make it interactive, make every section of a map a great experience for the player. It needs more than design and monsters to achieve this, unique systems, quests, story lines, adaption between nature environments. All of this has to be taken into consideration, and god, it takes time.
If I am quick and work alot on this project, I can see a small possibility to make the server presentable as a beta during 2013. (This is 4 years development!). And if I am ever going to reach that milestole, I have to cut 70% of my awesome ideas, and focus on the core 30%.
And when creating an advertisement thread, consider it a "teaser", give them a portion of information, perhaps an introduction to the games storyline, then perhaps refer to them a link to additional information. Don't throw the whole bucket on them. They want to play, not read a novel.
beginner-tutorial <--- Instead of writing about your epic systems, introduce the player to your unique features step by step before they are thrown into the whole pool. Not only will it give the player an amazing first time experience, but it will let them adapt to the server. And giving them an amazing first impression surely cant hurt! Most players login to an otserv, cant find anything fun to do, and logs out. If you present them a tutorial, they get known to the uniqueness of the server, and they get thrown into a storyline, chain quests which will guide them further into the server if they wish to, so they will always have something "useful" to do.
Alternative ways to approach the game. Not every player loves slaying monsters all the time, someone perhaps likes exploring the map, someone likes interacting with NPC and jump into the salesmarket, some likes to do do rpgish quests, some people team up and want to do something big together. Have these options available as quick as possible. Variation is the best way to make a player really enjoy himself.
The community: As leftwing says, he prefer low players and good community rather than high players just slaying each other doing nothing fun. To start a server where you choose between 10 towns is a horrible idea. Having all players spread out through a big map makes it a single player game rather than a multicultural experience.
If you just started hosting a project, start by enabling only 1 town, that way, the community sticks more together. Its easier to find each other and do stuff together. As popularity growns and spawns are being taken, find a way to encourage people to spread out a bit more. I think 30 players online/town should be sufficient. So if you have 90 players online, 3 towns wouldn't be a bad thing.
- Encourage people to trade between themselves instead of selling to NPCs.
- Make daily events to encourage players on the server to gather up in one location and do something fun.
Also in terms of PvP, I think its very important that everybody has a chance to grow up in a server, especially in the start. It might be very hard if you are level 25, having a level 100 player dropping you down all the time. Perhaps make pvp restrictions, like make some hunting grounds only accessible throught level 20 - 30 and so on. That way, there are ways where lowbies can hunt and still get a chance to defend themselves against their opponents. Ofcourse, hunting grounds that are more safe to hunt in should also have a bit slower exp gain than going the risky way.
