Damon
Check my status to contact me :)
Heya Otland,
Today I have just been checking on Otland like I usually do and what thread popped up right in front of me?
YES! It was yet another discussion about how to get rid of bots.
I have thought about this quite quite often from time to time, especiall when I was running my OTS. But since my servers were never crowded, I never experienced any problems with botters at all. Now seeing this thread about botting once more I've drawn a rather radical solution to this problem. I am sure few will agree with me, and alot will just think this is a joke, but in order to fight against this big problem CIP has left us, we might aswell need a CHANGE to OTS.
Well, what is my idea then? In a nutshell: Achieve a loyal and manual (also smaller) community of players by setting up PAY TO PLAY (NOT PAY TO WIN!) , and FEATURING GROUP HUNTS/QUESTS and CREATE A SERVER filled with HIDDEN SECRETS and SPONTANOUS RANDOM EVENTS bots couldn't possibly be a big help to.
WAIT...WHAT DID I JUST SAY? Yes, you've got me right. First of all I think that playing on a server where you need to PAY TO PLAY (monthly or one time fee) is another big step expected from a player. Woho! Isn't Tibia also PAY TO PLAY and full of botters? Indeed, however we are talking about OPEN TIBIA SERVERS here. I can see many botters (and unfortunately also manualers) regarding this as a NO GO and therefor not joining the server. So what have achieved so far? By now, we probably have gotten rid of 80%-90% of the botters and quite alot of possible manualers aswell, lets say 60%. While the riddance of the botters is exactly what we hoped for, the loss of the big amount of manualers is unfortune, but can't be helped - for now.
What makes our longing for PAY TO PLAY righteous? The idea of the riddance of the botters and taking OT-gaming to a next level...AND the fact, that SERVERS COST MONEY, their MAINTENANCE is a PAIN IN THE ASS and maintaining an OTS takes alot of EFFORT AND DEDICATION. I can see the PAY TO PLAY used in a cheap monthly fee (3€-4€) or a bit higher one time payment (10€-15€). However I consider the chance of ridding the botters with a monthly fee, even a small one, higher, than a One Time Payment. Alot of botters already have to pay monthly for their bot programms such as Xeno, or iBot and this would mean another investition for them to take.A small monthly fee should be affordable for anyone who enjoys PLAYING (manualing) Open Tibia Servers and is willing to understand that in order to keep botters out, aswell as guaranteeing a nice atmosphere among the players and continous bug fixes and (Map-)Updates some money is needed. This small cash goes into Server costs, Updates (maybee enough money left to hire mappers/scripters/GMs) from time to time, Bugfixes, and Maintaining the server - all these things are considered to be essential when it comes to running an adventerous and exciting OTS.
Keeping in mind, that the first servers of this "next Level", if they by any chance will be happening, consist of a low amount of players I can't see OTS owners making a big fortune from this, thus please quit your whining about owners who wanna become rich bitc***. If under any circumstances a dollar or two gets to the owner of the OTS you are playing, BE HAPPY for them, because this may just motivate them to keep going, and give them somewhat of a - effort pays off - feeling. As for further payment options I would not completly refrain from the idea of adding an item shop additionally to the subscription model, however the shop musn't consist of any items giving advantages to its wielders. I can see house decorations and outfits (as cip already has done) a fair way to have another chance of supporting the server you love.
Now, we come to the SECOND CHANGE of the "next level" OTS:
THE GAMEPLAY itself: Keeping in mind the player base will be quite low at the start of these kinda servers - I am thinking of a 50-80 PEAK here - the gameplay must be adapted to this. While I dont want to completly refrain from the possibilty of RLMap Servers, I can see custom map servers and Evo TP Servers come out on top of this battle. A custom map could focus more on exploring (hidden quests) and story telling in order to compensate for the lack of players, while an Evo Server could feature hunting places developed for team hunting and challenging quests. I am not saying that we should turn OTS in a boring single player experience. Hell, NO! The focus should just be a little more on exploring. Also putting the focus on adding RANDOM Events, Group Hunting/Quests and HIDDEN QUESTS that only appear only once for the first one to find them feature the heart of the community and can be also enjoyed with a small group of friends, whose have sworn to follow each other till the depths of hell. This CHANGE OF GAMEPLAY FOCUS also affects the entire playstyle of the players and should focus on making the usage of bots inefficent for those botters who still overcame the payment obstacle. Also for building up and strenghten their community these new OTS should be communicating with their players and use forums. In those creative events like "giving a name for a new discovered village" could bring the community together and seperate botters. A server where gold farming and selling becomes useless and group hunting aswell as player bonds are featured there is no place for bots to be efficient. Last but not least the return of reliable, non power abusing GMs can take care of probably a fair amount of the remaining botters.
Those botters who are willing to stay even under all these circumstances, will be part of the server, like they always had been. However this now should be a really small amount and easily be taken care of or atleast not game harming and power abusing anymore.
With this, I bid thee, who has read through all this my sincerest gratitude and wish you a nice evening.
I, personally don't have the time to MAKE THIS CHANGE myself. But I am sure there are still people out there who are longing for this and who will gladly take atleast some of my ideas up and use them.
Kind Regards,
Damon[/COLOR]
@EldinWorld @HalfAway @hehemidu
Today I have just been checking on Otland like I usually do and what thread popped up right in front of me?
YES! It was yet another discussion about how to get rid of bots.
I have thought about this quite quite often from time to time, especiall when I was running my OTS. But since my servers were never crowded, I never experienced any problems with botters at all. Now seeing this thread about botting once more I've drawn a rather radical solution to this problem. I am sure few will agree with me, and alot will just think this is a joke, but in order to fight against this big problem CIP has left us, we might aswell need a CHANGE to OTS.
Well, what is my idea then? In a nutshell: Achieve a loyal and manual (also smaller) community of players by setting up PAY TO PLAY (NOT PAY TO WIN!) , and FEATURING GROUP HUNTS/QUESTS and CREATE A SERVER filled with HIDDEN SECRETS and SPONTANOUS RANDOM EVENTS bots couldn't possibly be a big help to.
WAIT...WHAT DID I JUST SAY? Yes, you've got me right. First of all I think that playing on a server where you need to PAY TO PLAY (monthly or one time fee) is another big step expected from a player. Woho! Isn't Tibia also PAY TO PLAY and full of botters? Indeed, however we are talking about OPEN TIBIA SERVERS here. I can see many botters (and unfortunately also manualers) regarding this as a NO GO and therefor not joining the server. So what have achieved so far? By now, we probably have gotten rid of 80%-90% of the botters and quite alot of possible manualers aswell, lets say 60%. While the riddance of the botters is exactly what we hoped for, the loss of the big amount of manualers is unfortune, but can't be helped - for now.
What makes our longing for PAY TO PLAY righteous? The idea of the riddance of the botters and taking OT-gaming to a next level...AND the fact, that SERVERS COST MONEY, their MAINTENANCE is a PAIN IN THE ASS and maintaining an OTS takes alot of EFFORT AND DEDICATION. I can see the PAY TO PLAY used in a cheap monthly fee (3€-4€) or a bit higher one time payment (10€-15€). However I consider the chance of ridding the botters with a monthly fee, even a small one, higher, than a One Time Payment. Alot of botters already have to pay monthly for their bot programms such as Xeno, or iBot and this would mean another investition for them to take.A small monthly fee should be affordable for anyone who enjoys PLAYING (manualing) Open Tibia Servers and is willing to understand that in order to keep botters out, aswell as guaranteeing a nice atmosphere among the players and continous bug fixes and (Map-)Updates some money is needed. This small cash goes into Server costs, Updates (maybee enough money left to hire mappers/scripters/GMs) from time to time, Bugfixes, and Maintaining the server - all these things are considered to be essential when it comes to running an adventerous and exciting OTS.
Keeping in mind, that the first servers of this "next Level", if they by any chance will be happening, consist of a low amount of players I can't see OTS owners making a big fortune from this, thus please quit your whining about owners who wanna become rich bitc***. If under any circumstances a dollar or two gets to the owner of the OTS you are playing, BE HAPPY for them, because this may just motivate them to keep going, and give them somewhat of a - effort pays off - feeling. As for further payment options I would not completly refrain from the idea of adding an item shop additionally to the subscription model, however the shop musn't consist of any items giving advantages to its wielders. I can see house decorations and outfits (as cip already has done) a fair way to have another chance of supporting the server you love.
Now, we come to the SECOND CHANGE of the "next level" OTS:
THE GAMEPLAY itself: Keeping in mind the player base will be quite low at the start of these kinda servers - I am thinking of a 50-80 PEAK here - the gameplay must be adapted to this. While I dont want to completly refrain from the possibilty of RLMap Servers, I can see custom map servers and Evo TP Servers come out on top of this battle. A custom map could focus more on exploring (hidden quests) and story telling in order to compensate for the lack of players, while an Evo Server could feature hunting places developed for team hunting and challenging quests. I am not saying that we should turn OTS in a boring single player experience. Hell, NO! The focus should just be a little more on exploring. Also putting the focus on adding RANDOM Events, Group Hunting/Quests and HIDDEN QUESTS that only appear only once for the first one to find them feature the heart of the community and can be also enjoyed with a small group of friends, whose have sworn to follow each other till the depths of hell. This CHANGE OF GAMEPLAY FOCUS also affects the entire playstyle of the players and should focus on making the usage of bots inefficent for those botters who still overcame the payment obstacle. Also for building up and strenghten their community these new OTS should be communicating with their players and use forums. In those creative events like "giving a name for a new discovered village" could bring the community together and seperate botters. A server where gold farming and selling becomes useless and group hunting aswell as player bonds are featured there is no place for bots to be efficient. Last but not least the return of reliable, non power abusing GMs can take care of probably a fair amount of the remaining botters.
Those botters who are willing to stay even under all these circumstances, will be part of the server, like they always had been. However this now should be a really small amount and easily be taken care of or atleast not game harming and power abusing anymore.
With this, I bid thee, who has read through all this my sincerest gratitude and wish you a nice evening.
I, personally don't have the time to MAKE THIS CHANGE myself. But I am sure there are still people out there who are longing for this and who will gladly take atleast some of my ideas up and use them.
You have to be the change, you want to see in the world.
Kind Regards,
Damon[/COLOR]
@EldinWorld @HalfAway @hehemidu