Todays ot's Good / Bad? Share your thoughts.

[Codex NG]

We all have our favorite servers that we have played over the years, but i ask you the community what makes them good / bad & how can we make it better and what should we avoid to not make them any worse?

Balancing : almost every server I've played has balancing issues with vocations, equipment & spells, no matter how often you hear a server say 'balanced server' a vocation, item or spell seems to have an advantage over another.

Learning Curve : most times you are just thrown into the game world with zero knowledge of how the game functions and then when asked a question you are either ignored or laughed at because you are the 'noob'.

Staff & Favoritism : when the staff becomes annoyed by their position or takes advantage of it while either singling out people who disagree with them and or only accommodating those who follow them around like lost puppies.

Power Abusing : this is a given on any server, you will always encounter an individual or group which will dominate the server by either take control over certain hunting areas, set prices or just kill players for the hell of it.

Reputation : We all know the advantages of killing someone on a server, we get a frag or a nice red or black skull that says.. "hey don't mess with me bud!" but we are almost never rewarded for helping someone on the server besides a thank you or nothing at all.

Feedback from the Players : there are many people who join an ot and love the server they play but when suggesting new ideas or improvements on existing are ignored or trolled.

Disadvantages : Items or spells that make 'donators' god like, It's nice to support your favorite server but sometimes a server will create items or spells which are not available to non-donators, understandably hosting a secure server isn't cheap & not everyone is interested in sharing their work with a free service such as @HalfAway hosting, although I wouldn't mind . Do you think a donator should have the upper hand?

Content : most servers not all but most are basically you train your skills / ml, kill things, people, engage in the hourly events or possibly decorate your house, but that can get old real quick what other activities could be added that would prevent you from saying to yourself or others "i am bored".

Progression : for the most part content on most servers is pretty static, as you level up you gain new spells, are able to access new areas, or use new equipment but at a certain level you no longer gain anything new but hp / mana, more damage, skills / ml.
What improvements could be made so that players see an incentive to keep on leveling?

Economy & Community : servers with high loot drop rates, unlimited runes / pots / ammo or limited runes / pots / ammo shops seem to have a 0 economy, which seems to limit community interaction other than pvping. What improvements can be made to bring back the economy and community interaction.

Currency : whether a server has a high or low loot drop rate if the server has a donation currency the donation currency becomes the new dominate currency which can sometimes make gp irrelevant. What actions do you think could be taken to prevent this from happening?

This is all I can think of offhand atm... Would love to get some feedback from you the community on your ideas to the above mentioned and anything else you would like to add

 

[axas]

That's some heavy stereotyping there, bruh.

 

[Xinax]

Current ot's are not nize at all ;( Wish for the old days to come back

 

[whitevo]

I will talk about my perspective and changes I do for my server to address these issues

Balancing : I think the 2 most common reason why servers are unbalanced are because:
1. The object(item,spell) what makes a certain player overpowered has too little manipulators. The trickier the formula or usage is the easier its to balance it.
2. servers are not enough online and being actively worked on. If balance fixes come weekly but 10 reports come daily then it takes months before this 1 thing gets "ok".

On Whi World main power comes from items (and skilltree in future).
my spells are pretty basic for all the classes but items and skills can manipulate how the spells work. All items and even spells themselves have negative effects so when it comes down the question what is the overpowered part? I have lot of little modifiers where I can change it.

I think balance in general is dived into 2 categories: PVP and PVE
what matters in PVE:
1. how much damage you can do total
2. how much is average damage per second (before you ran out your resources)
3. How much damage you can sustain in long run.
4. how much of a burst you can take before dieing.

If some certain item or build what is only available for 1 class tops off all the others, you simply decrease what is too much or increase the negative effects or improve monsters to counter or sustain that new build much better.

What matters in PVP:
1. How much damage you can do at once
2. How easily (if at all) this can be countered (by moving or stopped or reflected or whatever)
3. What defensive mechanics you can use to prevent main damage.
4. How long can you last if you keep playing "perfectly".

In my server I will have different items specially made for PVP and what can only be obtained when doing PVP. (main stats: pvp resistance and pvp damage)
I haven't tried yet but I guess the initial damage and effects are reduced by 90% without using PVP gear.

NB! Incase you did not know, Whi world has different gameplay. The average hp currently is 1300hp and players do around 500damage per second.
Consumes are limited to only a few and total hp you get back is around ~2000 before you need to back. (considering that you eat food what gives more hp than mana)

Learning Curve : I think big factor is client. If you use tibia client then required hands to play is 3.. Other than that I try to solve my server learning curve with tutorial and my start of game is pretty linear making them discover new features few at the time.

Next patch will have a new tutorial which will be up to date with server difficulty and mechanics.

Staff & Favoritism : Idk.. If they like players more than a game then they are not cut to be a staff.

Power Abusing : Well, I kinda do like this from tibia. As long as the power abusers are not the only one having fun then its okey.
I will actually even support this system somewhat. (more of that in future when pvp is out)

Reputation : True, but it will be part of the system what I talk about after pvp is out.
Also you already said the answer what should be done. Reward helpers.

Feedback from the Players : well owners who cant take feedback are just "bad". I like take all the feedback and write it down or if i don't like it I give argument against it, but which could be also overthrown.

Disadvantages : Well donators items should follow the same balance pattern. In my server there is not going to be any donor items, so I haven't given any thought to it.

Content : pvp, tournaments, challenges, farming, building are fodder activities which will let players test and have fun with the current content until new patch is released.
I got no clue what more could be done, its just a fact, new things gotta be added to game if you want it to keep old players. And all these thing will have leaderboards.
pvp: out in the world, in arenas, in battlegrounds.
tournaments: pvp knockout tournaments, challenge tournaments to death, etc
farming: gaining absolute best gear could be tedious because upgrade items do not drop too often and a single death can be quite an annoying set back. (death makes your entire equipped gear unupgradeable)
building: making your own house with ingame materials requires lot of in-game money or tedious tasks like sawing down a lot of trees.

Progression : In my server progression is seen as how many mission has been completed, how many tasks has been completed and what items certain player has obtained. Thats pretty much all. If player doesnt care about learning all recipes or maxing out all reputation or whatever else feature I have.
I think keeping the goals simple is way to go.

Economy & Community : Don't know yet. My solution would be meaningful sinkholes for things what pile up, but my server in very early stage to even see any economy.

Currency : why even take any actions? If 1 token is worth too much ingame gold then economy has already collapsed and easier to start over the pricing of all items.

 

[Codex NG]

3 responses out of 93 views, surely there are more people out there which would care to share their views

 

[Call Me Taffy]

Balancing : almost every server I've played has balancing issues with vocations, equipment & spells, no matter how often you hear a server say 'balanced server' a vocation, item or spell seems to have an advantage over another.
I believe "balance" is impossible. Never will be a EVERYONES HAPPY server that everyone can play literally on their favorite vocation and not feel unworthy. I can tell you now, I nearly NEVER play mages, almost always a knight first, then a pally. And this is because I feel mages are OP in most servers. So I hop on my knight then see this tanking fucking pally doing mage damage with my HP and I'm like "Uhm, they're OP!" Everyone's so used to this basic knowledge that when something isn't "normal" to them they challenge it and complain about one or the other, again why I think it's impossible.

TLDR: Everyone goes into a server planning to be their favorite voc, when it's not like how they're used to, they will almost surely complain and/or quit unless demands are met.

Learning Curve : most times you are just thrown into the game world with zero knowledge of how the game functions and then when asked a question you are either ignored or laughed at because you are the 'noob'.
This is because everyone who knows about Open-Tibia knows basic game mechanics. As you've said, most of it is running, killing, leveling. Nothing fancy or difficult about that. And the servers that are generally custom, tend to have enough help to get you through the basics. The only people who have an advantage is those whom enter the server late or have no friends playing. This is solely the owners responsibility to make everything as user-friendly. We as humans don't like change though.

TLDR: We're all here because we know the basics of Tibia, custom server owners are usually proud of their hard work and try and make everything user-friendly with tutorials, videos or text.

Staff & Favoritism : when the staff becomes annoyed by their position or takes advantage of it while either singling out people who disagree with them and or only accommodating those who follow them around like lost puppies.
Only the owner should be able to make or break his OT in this case. If it's a team, then the whole team needs to eliminate the threat. Hard to get rid of someone everyone hates but you probably know in RL or as a long time friend. Again, up to the owner.

TLDR: If it's a whole server you're risking over a possible friendship, you decide. If it's a whole batch of apples going bad over that one spoiled one, #whatchagonnado

Power Abusing : this is a given on any server, you will always encounter an individual or group which will dominate the server by either take control over certain hunting areas, set prices or just kill players for the hell of it.
This can/will happen. Inevitable. Any interference is just crap, because you can input some level restrictions on killing. Owner problem to decide. But getting in the way of players is again make/break.

Reputation : We all know the advantages of killing someone on a server, we get a frag or a nice red or black skull that says.. "hey don't mess with me bud!" but we are almost never rewarded for helping someone on the server besides a thank you or nothing at all.
Rep? Tutor's and all the other orange-text chatters is a good enough title. I never got anything for tossing out 10kk worth of stuff in RL Tibia. I didn't want any. No one in the world, let alone Tibia, should be given something because they believe they deserve it. It's those that don't try that deserve it. Again this goes with having an active staff watching over the gameworld. Hell, make an area that's accessible only if you haven't had any frags in the last 3 days or w/e, imagine.

TLDR: Karma.

Feedback from the Players : there are many people who join an ot and love the server they play but when suggesting new ideas or improvements on existing are ignored or trolled.
Owner problem. If you love your server you'll be open to suggestions. If you want to better the server you'll be open to them also. Reward the player with a special token, NOT WORTH ANYTHING IN GAME, but just for bragging rights. Like a CM Token. Or hell give them a statue near their favorite hunting spot. I'd like to see Taffy on a big ass monument that everyone sees! Go ahead and throw the 'talking' text on it too

TLDR: Owner responsibility

Disadvantages : Items or spells that make 'donators' god like, It's nice to support your favorite server but sometimes a server will create items or spells which are not available to non-donators, understandably hosting a secure server isn't cheap & not everyone is interested in sharing their work with a free service such as@HalfAway hosting, although I wouldn't mind . Do you think a donator should have the upper hand?
There's a thin line between donating for the betterment of your favorite server and donating to receive something to receive said upper-hand. Long story short, money rules the world, time is money. The problem lies (morally) when donations ARE NOT obtainable ingame. I'm all for donating and supporting, but with my server, anything that would be in the shop would be obtainable ingame, albeit not easy, but obtainable nevertheless. It will just speed up progress for someone else, but then guess who you're gonna be asking to block that beast ass quest for the item...Sir Donor.

TLDR: Where do your morals lie, no ones judging you

Content : most servers not all but most are basically you train your skills / ml, kill things, people, engage in the hourly events or possibly decorate your house, but that can get old real quick what other activities could be added that would prevent you from saying to yourself or others "i am bored".
Owner problem. When creating you need to actually play through on 2X your rates, on 3 out of 4 vocs, and see, just how long it would take you with UNLIMITED $, to reach a certain level. If it's too quick for your liking, or you reach the end of the quests/monsters/bosses, then you obviously need more content. Basically the 2x is accounting for the bots (whether you allow or not, there WILL be some, again up to the owner to punish how s/he sees fit). You can also put a limit on ALL of those. Limit the training monks to a set time so people can't afk there for 2 days and come back to 100 melee, 110 dist and 10-80 mlvl. Because guess what, now they gonna run thru the server wrecking shit! And be bored, in a couple days.

TLDR: Owner needs to test thoroughly. If s/he has actually put work into their server and care, they will do so themselves, or have an alpha/beta.

Progression : for the most part content on most servers is pretty static, as you level up you gain new spells, are able to access new areas, or use new equipment but at a certain level you no longer gain anything new but hp / mana, more damage, skills / ml.
What improvements could be made so that players see an incentive to keep on leveling?
I have some notes for this one, PM me Codex if interested, just don't want everyone knowing my secratz!

TLDR: IDGAF! lol

Economy & Community : servers with high loot drop rates, unlimited runes / pots / ammo or limited runes / pots / ammo shops seem to have a 0 economy, which seems to limit community interaction other than pvping. What improvements can be made to bring back the economy and community interaction.
Well you have a few scenarios:
HIGH LOOT/UNLIMITED TOOLS: These are usually high rate period. In that case the idiots usually leave the pots level requirements/prices alone. They really need a level gap between pots/runes should use SOUL. The runes should be expensive as hell, conjuring them should be out the gate.
HIGH LOOT/LIMITED TOOLS: Pots just need an increase on price, slightly.
LOW LOOT/UNLIMITED TOOLS: Lower level gap than mentioned before, but again should be costly going up to the next, or a beast ass quest that you can get the next tier pot for yourself.
LOW LOOT/LIMITED TOOLS: These are borderline perfect, check RL Tibia lol. Now some damage control and level adjustment may be necessary on runes, and pots could be SLIGHTLY adjusted to fit the ACTUAL rates to "BALANCE" the server, but meh, no one takes time for shit like that anymore ;(

TLDR: Then fk yo lazy arse!

Currency : whether a server has a high or low loot drop rate if the server has a donation currency the donation currency becomes the new dominate currency which can sometimes make gp irrelevant. What actions do you think could be taken to prevent this from happening?
Owner problem*. Now if you're going for $$$ in your PayPal you don't give a f**k. Whereas if you're going for balance and such, you could easily make it so that you can exchange donation currency (Coins/Scroll or w/e it is) for $ ingame at a NPC/Altar w/e. But we know that's not happening.
* - This can easily be a player problem also, this is why you shouldn't release any currency in your shop until a few weeks into the server to see how the market is. Non donors will shell out the ass ingame currency to get some donor content. So by not adding actual currency in the shop you'll help to balance out the surplus of GP.

TLR So much of this post can be intertwined and fed off of another suggestion, but I'm kinda high right now so I'm not sure if everything in my head is coming out on this screen as the proper 0's and 1's lmao.

 

[Codex NG]

I lol'd at some of your TLDR's @Call Me Taffy

 

[Eiffel]

Balancing - This is a problem in many servers because most developers don't actually play their servers, just design them. So often times what will happen is they create a monster and envision it in their head and forget how their server actually works. Example would be adding a creature that summons monsters that deal a ton of damage but have small amount of health. In reality, they forget that the Tibia summoning system (in the creature method) can summon at random, and sometimes way too fast or not fast enough. On top of that, the numbers are way off but the developer will refuse to nerf it because "muh concept".

Not only that, but the majority of Tibia players are as smart as my dog. (They kind of know what you're saying, but not really) You can make a monster hit ridiculously hard but have a huge weakness and they will cry for a nerf before trying every method of killing it. You could design a monster that has a script that deals damage whenever you heal, but doesn't deal any (non-healing script) lethal damage, it will just deal damage until you hit 1HP. I can guarantee you that even if you told the BRs or the PLs (a large portion of the population of Tibia) to not heal, they would still do it.

Learning Curve - I think most of Tibia's fanbase know what they want and seek it now. I want a Custom Server, but often times get disappointed when I still see the same Dragon, same Experience tables, same map, etc. But I will try and learn anything new a server has to offer. RL Tibia players will not want to learn and instead move on to a server they are familiar with.

Staff & Favoritism - This should never be an issue. If you have a group that is working on the server, get rid of anyone who has favoritism and find someone else. By the time your server is launched and working and you see favoritism happening, you're more likely able to find someone else to fill their role when that said person can actually see the server is up and not just a concept.

Power Abusing - Never seen it be an issue like it was in Cipsoft Tibia. That was brutal. Rooking people, hunting them off the server, losing tons of resources, etc. Nowadays, most people can't lose any items unless they're dumb and don't buy bless with commands. Most servers have free bless up until a point, and I haven't played a server which actually fights over a spawn (because the Spawn gives something else than exp) other than the first server I ever played (PurePvP). And guess what? It worked. People fought tirelessly for that spawn because it dropped very very rare items that could give you an edge. It created a community around this resource.

Reputation - Never seen it as an issue, but I do think it could definitely be used more. It would be cool for statues to be named after memorable players, some Titles added to a character name to distinguish their accomplishments, etc. But it's definitely not make or break.

Feedback from the Players - If you can't handle criticism in its varied forms, then why are you even making anything for anyone else.

Disadvantages

Content - This is like the biggest issue I've seen in the community. The people don't put out enough content after initial launch. It's like they work so diligently to make a server, and then stop. And I find this very odd because to me, the most difficult part about making a server is making the CORE systems that the server will be based around. Once you have the foundation made, you can easily make things around it because you have something as a baseline. I don't mean updates with new systems added, just more of what makes the server good (cool items if it's about items, more quests if it's about exploring, etc).

Progression - I have a huge problem with how progression is still used in MOST Tibia servers, regardless if it's custom or RL tibia based. So much so, it's not worth writing because it's so long of an argument.

Economy & Community - Most people don't understand how to create an economy, not even some Triple AAA titles. It's difficult to do and sometimes doesn't work the way you expect it. But I do think some servers should stop making everything drop from a creature's loot table. There is 0 reason I should see a full leather set drop from a Troll every single time.

Currency - Making money on your hard work is fine, but don't give the finger to those who can't afford to give you money. They are part of your playerbase and without them, your server's community would dwindle. From my experience, donators like being better than others (others being non-donators). This is fine, but if it's drastic enough that the "others" stop playing, your donators stop feeling better than others and leave as well. Best way to make money is on convenience and not power. Examples being teleport temple scroll, bonus EXP scrolls, some decorations, some mounts/addons, etc. And if you have to sell gear, the gear in-game should be better in a reliable way. Don't gate it behind 9 years of grinding.

 

[Codex NG]

Thank your for your feedback @whitevo , @Call Me Taffy & @Eiffel
If anyone else would like to contribute their thoughts, please do!
This could be an important resource for existing or up and coming ot's to get it right or improve on an existing system as the opinions are come from you the players & other developers

 

[Call Me Taffy]

@Eiffel "to not heal, they would still do it" I was lmfao!
@Codex NG When saying this is coming from our our opinions as the developers/players, we also have to note that their are different types of each. There's really two MAIN types of players, those that prefer the same, and those that prefer different. Whereas with developers, you have three. Those who download and run for profits, those who work their ass and make great servers, but again are mainly for profit. and then those who work their ass off and understand, they will be great w/o separating donors and non by a great margin.

TL : DR I bet a $1,000 you read that acronym in your head all the way through! But seriously it's like

2:1
1.5:1.5
1:2
Find the perfect balance! Which if my eyes are correct is the middle ground 1.5 to 1.5

High again, I apologize lol

 

[whitevo]

Progression - I have a huge problem with how progression is still used in MOST Tibia servers, regardless if it's custom or RL tibia based. So much so, it's not worth writing because it's so long of an argument.

sad face

 

[Zasranets]

Balancing- Balancing will always be a problem and if its not then you're living in a fake world. What's balanced for one person might not be balanced for the other guy. This not just with Tibia. All games manage to have problems with balancing. I mean take a loot at 2 popular games; League of Legends and CS-GO have undergone A LOT of balance changes through the years and I'm sure there will always be more to come. The point being that you will never make something 100% balanced since it's honestly opinion based. You can get really close but it will never be exact. Most servers struggle with balancing, very few manage to balance decently.

Learning Curve- this is a pretty huge one for servers with lots of custom features. I'm not sure why but the majority of tibia players are not very smart at all and they can't seem to figure out the simplest things. Most servers either have features that are too hard for the general tibian player to understand, or just they don't put the feature in which results in a lackluster server. The best play is to make the features really cool but as simple as possible.

Staff & Favoritism- this is something that bothers me A LOT when playing OT's. Having biased staff is rated one of the top worst things in my book. I can't think of how many OT's I've played where there has been favoritism which created a huge disadvantage. I'm not sure how much this happens in larger player base games, but it effects me more for an OT because there is a lower amount of players to compete with. I don't care how good a server is, if there are biased staff members then they just ruin the server. It's also very hard to find good and professional staff these days. A lot of times people will end up making their "friends" staff which often results in favoritism.

Power Abusing- sometimes this is a problem and other times it isn't. There will always be those people who just want to enjoy the RPG aspects of a server avoiding PvP and then there will also be the opposite players who enjoy PvP and being able to monopolize their time on the server. I personally don't enjoy PvP anymore due to all of the software usage so I'm someone who would rather spend their time enjoying the server itself. I don't like it if someone is able to power abuse because you can literally drive players to quit the server which isn't always a good thing. People who camp spawns/bosses and kill anyone who tries to access them is horrible. If you are playing solo and manage to piss of a team of like 10 then you will no longer be able to play the server so..

Reputation- I kind of agree that you aren't exactly rewarded when you help players, but sometimes you do manage to make friends or connections which is very nice. Though it could be nice to see some sort of system that would reward helpers. It would also be nice if skulls had more punishments. Most servers these days have shitty donations items that prevent you from losing items no matter your skull which is lame. White skulls also aren't much of a deal either. You kill someone and then you run away, hide, and wait for it to go away.

Feedback from the Players- I agree and disagree with this. There are many times where the staff completely ignore good idea for no reason. I've recently played a server where the Admin of the server was extremely open to ideas and suggestions. He often implemented ideas within a week of someone suggesting them. When I asked him why he is so open to suggestions he told me "because players themselves have a better understand of what should be added" or something along those lines. The point here is that the staff of a server more than often do what THEY want rather than the PLAYERS themselves, you know those people who are actually playing the server? There is a downside though because many times people suggest troll/outrageous ideas that make no sense.

Disadvantages- Donations are a huge discussion between servers. I think most people have forgotten what a donation is and or what the point of it is. Its to HELP the server and in some cases provide the owners with a source of income depending how much time they put into it. Being able to donate for equipment should never be a thing. I personally think Tibia's donations are fine. Being able to donate for premium and cosmetics is the best thing I can think of. A big problem I have with donating is that you never know how long a server will be up, SO you never know when your money can go to waste.

Content- Content is one of the major problems servers face. It takes a long time to make GOOD content which is why most servers lack it. There will always be those players who play non-stop and rush through the content which is annoying. I feel like servers should have barriers on many things so that 1 single person can't roll through the entire server themselves. A good way to handle content is to make sure you have enough content to last for at least a month minimum, the more the better and while players are progressing you constantly work on new content so that players never run out. You need to make sure that players progress slower than you make content otherwise they'll eventually run out of content, yell at the staff for having no more content, put the staff under a lot of stress/pressure, and eventually comes the downfall of the server.

Progression- I feel this is single-handely one of the most important things in an OT's or any game for that matter. The more things you are able to achieve on a server the better it is. This is why it's extremely nice to have tons of items, spells, quests, content, monsters, etc.. there are also features that can really help with progression. Some examples are mining, crafting, fishing, upgrading, etc... the more things a player has to do the better it is. There also needs to be a good enough incentive for people to do other activities instead of constantly leveling. Bottom line is that the more useful features there are, the longer the server can last because there are multiple things to do.

Economy & Community- This is one of my favorite things in a game, yet most OT's lack it. I see an economy as a HUGE part of the game. Being able to sell, trade, or buy items from other plays can be very satisfying but hard to achieve. Most servers fail at making an economy because it's a difficult thing to balance and or keep stable. I envy servers with an economy because it's a lot more exciting being able to sell/trade/buy items from other players rather than always using an NPC.

Currency- This is not the biggest problem since most servers seem to have some type of currency that holds value, but it can still be improved. It is true that when there are donation points they can very easily become a currency since people will want donation points. A way to counter this is to add many forms of VALUABLE currency that can only be achieve in-game. I've recently played a server that had a very nice economy/currency system. Yes you were able to donate for points and even donations item, but it was somewhat simple to get points from other players. The reason for this is because there were items in-game that you could not donate for which still held a lot of value. A prime example would be crafting materials. Even though the server had donations items, the items you made by crafting were much better. Since donors could not donate for crafting materials they would often buy crafting materials from players in-game with points. This was a win-win because one person was able to get their crafting materials and the other person was able to get donor points. There were also things such as hp/mp/spell stones that made your player stronger as well as mystic forge stones which were used to upgrade your equipment. I always find it more fun to play a server when you see that the Trade Channel is being spammed with offers because you know that currency/items actually matter. I also feel that you SHOULDN'T be able to donate for money otherwise money will be very useful. Money should always be useful and hard to get.

 

[Volrath]

I am really interested in what people have to say about the progression part of Tibia. Right now it is pretty stale in 7.x servers and I guess the same in newer version of Tibia. Does anyone have any creative ideas in how you would implement a progression system? One that does deviate too much from the original Tibia. Would be nice to get a discussion going! I am all out of ideas.

 

[whitevo]

One that does deviate too much from the original Tibia

how much is too much?

 

[Volrath]

how much is too much?

Well I guess it is really hard to not deviate since, as previously stated, the Tibia progression is very stale. Even with all the new updates in the real Tibia the core progression is the same. But I guess this is a problem with almost all MMO games?

 

[whitevo]

Well I guess it is really hard to not deviate since, as previously stated, the Tibia progression is very stale. Even with all the new updates in the real Tibia the core progression is the same. But I guess this is a problem with almost all MMO games?

if the type of progression tibia offers doesn't suit you, it doesn't mean its stale or faulty.

I haven't played tibia but as I understand the progression there is stretched out between the amount of grinding you do. Measured by the amount of hours you spend on server grinding most effective monsters.
However its still and RPG so in details they still have item progression and quest progression (and maybe something more, no clue)

From my experience, seems like you can make "progression" better by simply adding new long term things to do for players.
For example. In Whi World. I haven't added new content to game for like 6 months. Back then players could play around 3 days and complete almost everything I had to offer in game.
Now I have added few features like: reputation, boss highscores and brewing system, etc.
Nothing changed in game. Just some things got displayed better and more depth added to things what players could already do or get.
But just with these few things I have added. Now it takes about 7 days to to complete almost everything.

 

[Volrath]

if the type of progression tibia offers doesn't suit you, it doesn't mean its stale or faulty.

I haven't played tibia but as I understand the progression there is stretched out between the amount of grinding you do. Measured by the amount of hours you spend on server grinding most effective monsters.
However its still and RPG so in details they still have item progression and quest progression (and maybe something more, no clue)

From my experience, seems like you can make "progression" better by simply adding new long term things to do for players.
For example. In Whi World. I haven't added new content to game for like 6 months. Back then players could play around 3 days and complete almost everything I had to offer in game.
Now I have added few features like: reputation, boss highscores and brewing system, etc.
Nothing changed in game. Just some things got displayed better and more depth added to things what players could already do or get.
But just with these few things I have added. Now it takes about 7 days to to complete almost everything.

Yea I like the progression Tibia offers. I have played it since 2003. I was just thinking outside of what it offers today, in what ways could we improve it? Is it possible without deviating from the core ideas and gameplay Tibia has?

Long term goals most certainly would make it alot more interesting. Reputation and the ideas you have implemented Whi World sound pretty good.
I am currently developing more of an oldschool Tibia server that will feature, hopefully, a lot of new stuff that wont break the immersion from 7.1-7.72. Hopefully I will come up with some good ideas that will work on a really low-rate server

 

[Flatlander]

We all have our favorite servers that we have played over the years, but i ask you the community what makes them good / bad & how can we make it better and what should we avoid to not make them any worse?

Balancing : almost every server I've played has balancing issues with vocations, equipment & spells, no matter how often you hear a server say 'balanced server' a vocation, item or spell seems to have an advantage over another.

Learning Curve : most times you are just thrown into the game world with zero knowledge of how the game functions and then when asked a question you are either ignored or laughed at because you are the 'noob'.

Staff & Favoritism : when the staff becomes annoyed by their position or takes advantage of it while either singling out people who disagree with them and or only accommodating those who follow them around like lost puppies.

Power Abusing : this is a given on any server, you will always encounter an individual or group which will dominate the server by either take control over certain hunting areas, set prices or just kill players for the hell of it.

Reputation : We all know the advantages of killing someone on a server, we get a frag or a nice red or black skull that says.. "hey don't mess with me bud!" but we are almost never rewarded for helping someone on the server besides a thank you or nothing at all.

Feedback from the Players : there are many people who join an ot and love the server they play but when suggesting new ideas or improvements on existing are ignored or trolled.

Disadvantages : Items or spells that make 'donators' god like, It's nice to support your favorite server but sometimes a server will create items or spells which are not available to non-donators, understandably hosting a secure server isn't cheap & not everyone is interested in sharing their work with a free service such as @HalfAway hosting, although I wouldn't mind . Do you think a donator should have the upper hand?

Content : most servers not all but most are basically you train your skills / ml, kill things, people, engage in the hourly events or possibly decorate your house, but that can get old real quick what other activities could be added that would prevent you from saying to yourself or others "i am bored".

Progression : for the most part content on most servers is pretty static, as you level up you gain new spells, are able to access new areas, or use new equipment but at a certain level you no longer gain anything new but hp / mana, more damage, skills / ml.
What improvements could be made so that players see an incentive to keep on leveling?

Economy & Community : servers with high loot drop rates, unlimited runes / pots / ammo or limited runes / pots / ammo shops seem to have a 0 economy, which seems to limit community interaction other than pvping. What improvements can be made to bring back the economy and community interaction.

Currency : whether a server has a high or low loot drop rate if the server has a donation currency the donation currency becomes the new dominate currency which can sometimes make gp irrelevant. What actions do you think could be taken to prevent this from happening?

This is all I can think of offhand atm... Would love to get some feedback from you the community on your ideas to the above mentioned and anything else you would like to add

I WOULD LOVE to talk about the above points you made! I actually get excited when players produce a list of demands focused at game designers.

Balancing : For PvP servers this is the #1 most important thing. For PvE, all that matters is that each vocation/class is relevent, and perfect balancing doesn't really matter. But after all, this is up to the developer, and players are allowed to comment, but shouldn't demonize developers for not having perfect balance, because it is IMPOSSIBLE.

Learning Curve : Most gamers hate tutorials, and will skip them whenever possible (including any pop-up messages you make to inform them of important things).
For Example:
If I made a pop up message that said "Look left (east) for the next 5 seconds or your character will instantly die. I would get 500 people message me saying "I randomly died for no reason." and when I ask "Did you read the message that popped up?" they will say either "I did not get a message" (Impossible) or "No I just clicked ok real fast".

Staff & Favoritism : Staff Favoritism is the worst thing that can happen in a game, and it kills game. Even giving your OWN character extra stuff is bad. If you want donation items on your own character, do something that pays the players instead of yourself. Like "Next update I am releasing ~~, I am counting this update as $50 towards my character" so players know that you aren't just giving yourself infinite money worth of donations to overpower normal players.

Power Abusing : This is not a problem. As long as players have the ability to avoid being power abused (Find Person spell being removed or edited to be less powerful helps) then power abuse wouldn't even be an issue. If someone bugs me, or hell, even if I don't like someone's name I should be able to kill them whenever I see them whenever I want. You shouldn't tie the hands of players and limit what they are able to do.

Reputation : The skull system is not an advantage to killing someone. It is punishment. If you want to add rewards for being a good player, fine, but then you should also add rewards for being a "evil" player. This is an RPG, if you are being a mass murderer, and you are successful at it, you should be rewarded for it (if you are magically rewarding good players too).

Feedback from the Players : Players do not know what they want, or how to make games, or what makes a game good 99% of the time. Most of the time their ideas are terrible and should be mocked. But complaints do matter, if everyone is complaining about something, you should look into it and find a solution, but you should NEVER use the player's solution, because players generally have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, or how your server works.

Disadvantages : Tibia has premium, and basically everyone buys it that plays tibia. You can't really play tibia correctly without it. But NOT that many people donate to OT Servers, so you have to find a way to get the people that DO donate, to donate enough to cover the 90% of people that do not donate. As long as there are items in-game that donators want, and can trade donator items for, then you are fine. For example, if you need gold coins in-game and they are valueble, then normal players can farm gold, and buy donation items from donators.

Content : If you are bored with hunting, then the hunting needs to be made more fun, if you are bored with training, then training needs to be more fun. You shouldn't just keep adding on more and more crap to do, fix the stuff that is boring.

Progression : Honestly, I do not like progression in games anymore. It's because I don't play as much as all of my friends, so I instantly get left behind and am unable to play with anyone I know, I end up basically playing these multiplayer games SOLO because unless you spend 24/7 online, you fall behind. My upcoming servers will have progression, but the advantages of being higher level will be SO LOW that anyone can participate at any level and hunt together, or even PvP together.

Economy & Community : Economy dies on any game that items do not disappear. If you do not have a "Durability" system where items break, and you have to buy new ones, then sooner or later your market will be flooded with items that are cheap, and everyone will have 10 of everything.

Currency : GP is never irrelevant as long as there is something you WANT to buy with GP. For example, on Deathzot, you can always buy more Perk Points with gold coins, so gold will always be something people want. People "Buy" donation tokens with gold even.

 

[Volrath]

Feedback from the Players : Players do not know what they want, or how to make games, or what makes a game good 99% of the time. Most of the time their ideas are terrible and should be mocked. But complaints do matter, if everyone is complaining about something, you should look into it and find a solution, but you should NEVER use the player's solution, because players generally have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, or how your server works.

I disagree with this point. Players provide something the team can never get. Another perspective/view of your project. Wether it is an OTserver or some other project, it is in my opinion extremely important that you get input from other sources than yourself or your team. There is a reason it is commonplace almost everywhere where you do creative work. A reason not to do so is if you just want to do your thing your way. I guess it depends on what you want to do. Not all ideas are good but to dismiss 99% and say they should be mocked is not a very good view.