Ok, ok, don't go all only botters, dash, etc, etc, right away. Hear me out first and discuss if in a civil manner if you have anything constructive to say, good or bad.
In the early 10s' 8.54 and 8.6 server were bread and butter, rarely you would see a good or even a decent 8.0 or lower server. These 8.6 server used to last almost half a year every time and it was fun as hell, but now days there are not any 8.6 servers at all in Europe, I am of course talking about real map servers with low-mid rates.
There were few servers that started but they lasted only like a week or so, but they had to much custom items and high exp stages.
So how come Europe doesn't have even one decent 8.6 real map server, while South America has like 2-3 long term server all the time? Is it due to lack of the player's interest or?
I thought that as well and while I was discussing this subject on discord/ts it actually seems like there is a huge interest in it. This subject came across because a lot of people that didn't play in a long time came back due to lock-down caused by corona and now they need to go back to their jobs, and can't exp/gain cash for wars on their server. We were discussing how it could be interesting to play "hard-core" version of 8.6 server again, and random people jumping channels and seeing chat were jumping in like when is it starting etc etc.
Since there are numerous issues with 8.6 due the all mighty and powerful elf bot, but while we were discussing we came to these conclusions:
1. You need to make exp stages really, really low, like 2x after 70, 1.5x after 120 or something like that while starting with like 5x untill 30, something along these lines.
What would these lower stages exactly do?
Well, if it takes u 2 days to get to 150+ and then it drops to like 3x, you can then bot with some insane exp/h without worrying about anything. If you die you will just put him on the other spot and while they lose their 15 mins you'll get these % back. Also that makes wars not fun at all if you don't care about dying and can just mindlessly come back.
These lower stages would mean you can't bot dragon lords/frost right away, there are fewer lower level spawns available so you need to fight for them etc. This would also make it just easier to exp by hand in the less bot friendly places.
This could satisfy both sides, if you exp by hand you can do it easier and faster and in better spawns, and people that have jobs/school can still bot and make some progress but at slower rate and with a lot of risk of dying.
2. Make a really low loot rate, like 1.5x:
This is pretty much self explanatory, if you want to war you need cash. So you need to play smarter, have cash makers, etc etc, and you can't just aimlessly die in battles and come back if you have limited cash. This would also keep the economy of the server alive and a float. Some rare items could even be made just standard 1x loot rate, like MPA, MMS, Paladin Armors, Spell-books, these items that people want to buy so they would have a higher value than on rashid/djin and it would keep a trade Chanel alive and players interacting.
3. What about donations, how would owner make cash?
Use the existing model from most of the server. Don't put any in-game items in shop at all. Make a premium scroll (15 days) and a month and sell them separately for like 3-5 and 6-9 euros. So if you keep your sever alive for a long time you will consistently have a decent amount of cash flowing in. Make premium interesting but not overpowered, again use the existing model, like 5% bonus exp, loot messages, access to Rashid, etc.
Add blue/green djinn scrolls, and put djinns in their original locations. A lot of players would just buy that instantly like on the existing server, especially on the start when it is hard to do the djinn quest.
Have the standard change gender/name etc scrolls.
Scroll that gives you ability to buy blessings at one place (Inquisition) but you of course need to remove !bless command, and make it only obtainable with 5 npcs like in official tibia unless you have this scroll or if you have done Inquisition.
Sell rare addon items (or not this is debatable). By rare I mean Dragon Claw, Soul Stone, Nose Ring etc, for a decent amount of money, but also make them obtainable thru the game. Also all addon items should be 1x when trying to loot them so you can't just farm them easily with noob chars in matter of hours.
4. Share exp bonus, but only if 4 different vocations.
This bonus could be substantiation like 50% if you have all 4 different vocations. This would be really hard to manage on a bot, on a decent spawn but would give people that are not cave-botting a decent advantage, especially on higher levels (more below).
5. Real map with or without custom spawns?
Depending on the player count, if there are 500+ active players, one custom city would probably be necessary, but that could be ready for update from the start if it's necessary.
While thing should be kept to the 8.6 state, there also should be some team hunt places inspired by official tibia to give some higher levels content and people that enjoy hunting as a team, but also, more importantly something for war team to fight over.
Also there should be a constant updates of content. Nothing major needs to happen all the time, but owners should be in constant communication with player base. I would never mind an interesting new small island with unique hunting spawns/tasks/quests.
Also there could be some daily tasks/missions, that are easier than without bot, like kill x of these, x of these monster and gather this, this and that, etc and gain 5% more exp bonus, 10% loot chance, 30k of cash etc etc... This would keep even botters engaged for a change to obtain more exp or loot %, etc etc.
6. What about elfbot in war, and wars/frags in general:
Don't really know about frags, that could be discussed with the player base in order to make it possible to clear botters consistently but also to not make it easily to random pk, but that can be fixed easily.
Now, honestly, while elfbot for caveboting is a decent solution for people that don't have that much time to play, it is really annoying and overpowered in war and it should be limited as much as possibly, if it's even possible. There already were some decent solutions on some servers with the SSA, Ring exhaust, exhaust when dropping items below you etc. Everything that could be added to hinder the work of elfbot in war, should be done.
Waves, gfbs, avas, should all hit less if there is x amount of people on screen.
Something should definitely be done about potting people. Either make it that all potions heal like the regular one (100~ mana) when using it on a friend or make double the exhaust if you heal your friend or something along these lines so mages don't become as tanky as Knights, but can still survive few seconds longer than when they are alone, giving them ability to escape.
There are a lot of other things that can be discussed and changed/adopted in order to make a fun, somewhat hard and long lasting 8.6 server.
So the conclusion is that since there aren't any European 8.6 server there should be a decent player base left craving for it. And the fact that I already know 50+ people that would start tonight with just randomly discussing it on discord / ts server kinda supports this.
This kind of server could last for a long long time since it could attract all kinds of players. Hardcore ones that one exp by hand and be highest levels and war, people that don't have that much time, this gives them ability to bot while on work/home with their spouses and war in the evenings. Also a lot of teams that just want to war, even the teams that are not fun of 8.6 it would allow them to change their retro servers each month but bot/buy/keep some chars on this server for consistent wars.
Problem with a lot of server right now is that you can't take a break if you want to keep up and war and everything. If you you want to take a 10 day break it is completely possible that the server will be abandoned when you come back, so people force them self and play it like crazy until they burn out and leave the server anyway. If you manage to make a long term community, people will be confident to take small breaks and come back refreshed and continue playing for a long term.
The interesting fact for war people would be that you could start warring with 70-100 levels in the first weeks, war thru 100-150 levels in upcoming months and then later in the servers history war with the high levels, this would make all tactics and types of battle available etc.
In order to make it long term and attractive for new players, catch up mechanic could be added as well after 2-3 months, that's not necessary but could be interesting solution to attract new comers.
In the early 10s' 8.54 and 8.6 server were bread and butter, rarely you would see a good or even a decent 8.0 or lower server. These 8.6 server used to last almost half a year every time and it was fun as hell, but now days there are not any 8.6 servers at all in Europe, I am of course talking about real map servers with low-mid rates.
There were few servers that started but they lasted only like a week or so, but they had to much custom items and high exp stages.
So how come Europe doesn't have even one decent 8.6 real map server, while South America has like 2-3 long term server all the time? Is it due to lack of the player's interest or?
I thought that as well and while I was discussing this subject on discord/ts it actually seems like there is a huge interest in it. This subject came across because a lot of people that didn't play in a long time came back due to lock-down caused by corona and now they need to go back to their jobs, and can't exp/gain cash for wars on their server. We were discussing how it could be interesting to play "hard-core" version of 8.6 server again, and random people jumping channels and seeing chat were jumping in like when is it starting etc etc.
Since there are numerous issues with 8.6 due the all mighty and powerful elf bot, but while we were discussing we came to these conclusions:
1. You need to make exp stages really, really low, like 2x after 70, 1.5x after 120 or something like that while starting with like 5x untill 30, something along these lines.
What would these lower stages exactly do?
Well, if it takes u 2 days to get to 150+ and then it drops to like 3x, you can then bot with some insane exp/h without worrying about anything. If you die you will just put him on the other spot and while they lose their 15 mins you'll get these % back. Also that makes wars not fun at all if you don't care about dying and can just mindlessly come back.
These lower stages would mean you can't bot dragon lords/frost right away, there are fewer lower level spawns available so you need to fight for them etc. This would also make it just easier to exp by hand in the less bot friendly places.
This could satisfy both sides, if you exp by hand you can do it easier and faster and in better spawns, and people that have jobs/school can still bot and make some progress but at slower rate and with a lot of risk of dying.
2. Make a really low loot rate, like 1.5x:
This is pretty much self explanatory, if you want to war you need cash. So you need to play smarter, have cash makers, etc etc, and you can't just aimlessly die in battles and come back if you have limited cash. This would also keep the economy of the server alive and a float. Some rare items could even be made just standard 1x loot rate, like MPA, MMS, Paladin Armors, Spell-books, these items that people want to buy so they would have a higher value than on rashid/djin and it would keep a trade Chanel alive and players interacting.
3. What about donations, how would owner make cash?
Use the existing model from most of the server. Don't put any in-game items in shop at all. Make a premium scroll (15 days) and a month and sell them separately for like 3-5 and 6-9 euros. So if you keep your sever alive for a long time you will consistently have a decent amount of cash flowing in. Make premium interesting but not overpowered, again use the existing model, like 5% bonus exp, loot messages, access to Rashid, etc.
Add blue/green djinn scrolls, and put djinns in their original locations. A lot of players would just buy that instantly like on the existing server, especially on the start when it is hard to do the djinn quest.
Have the standard change gender/name etc scrolls.
Scroll that gives you ability to buy blessings at one place (Inquisition) but you of course need to remove !bless command, and make it only obtainable with 5 npcs like in official tibia unless you have this scroll or if you have done Inquisition.
Sell rare addon items (or not this is debatable). By rare I mean Dragon Claw, Soul Stone, Nose Ring etc, for a decent amount of money, but also make them obtainable thru the game. Also all addon items should be 1x when trying to loot them so you can't just farm them easily with noob chars in matter of hours.
4. Share exp bonus, but only if 4 different vocations.
This bonus could be substantiation like 50% if you have all 4 different vocations. This would be really hard to manage on a bot, on a decent spawn but would give people that are not cave-botting a decent advantage, especially on higher levels (more below).
5. Real map with or without custom spawns?
Depending on the player count, if there are 500+ active players, one custom city would probably be necessary, but that could be ready for update from the start if it's necessary.
While thing should be kept to the 8.6 state, there also should be some team hunt places inspired by official tibia to give some higher levels content and people that enjoy hunting as a team, but also, more importantly something for war team to fight over.
Also there should be a constant updates of content. Nothing major needs to happen all the time, but owners should be in constant communication with player base. I would never mind an interesting new small island with unique hunting spawns/tasks/quests.
Also there could be some daily tasks/missions, that are easier than without bot, like kill x of these, x of these monster and gather this, this and that, etc and gain 5% more exp bonus, 10% loot chance, 30k of cash etc etc... This would keep even botters engaged for a change to obtain more exp or loot %, etc etc.
6. What about elfbot in war, and wars/frags in general:
Don't really know about frags, that could be discussed with the player base in order to make it possible to clear botters consistently but also to not make it easily to random pk, but that can be fixed easily.
Now, honestly, while elfbot for caveboting is a decent solution for people that don't have that much time to play, it is really annoying and overpowered in war and it should be limited as much as possibly, if it's even possible. There already were some decent solutions on some servers with the SSA, Ring exhaust, exhaust when dropping items below you etc. Everything that could be added to hinder the work of elfbot in war, should be done.
Waves, gfbs, avas, should all hit less if there is x amount of people on screen.
Something should definitely be done about potting people. Either make it that all potions heal like the regular one (100~ mana) when using it on a friend or make double the exhaust if you heal your friend or something along these lines so mages don't become as tanky as Knights, but can still survive few seconds longer than when they are alone, giving them ability to escape.
There are a lot of other things that can be discussed and changed/adopted in order to make a fun, somewhat hard and long lasting 8.6 server.
So the conclusion is that since there aren't any European 8.6 server there should be a decent player base left craving for it. And the fact that I already know 50+ people that would start tonight with just randomly discussing it on discord / ts server kinda supports this.
This kind of server could last for a long long time since it could attract all kinds of players. Hardcore ones that one exp by hand and be highest levels and war, people that don't have that much time, this gives them ability to bot while on work/home with their spouses and war in the evenings. Also a lot of teams that just want to war, even the teams that are not fun of 8.6 it would allow them to change their retro servers each month but bot/buy/keep some chars on this server for consistent wars.
Problem with a lot of server right now is that you can't take a break if you want to keep up and war and everything. If you you want to take a 10 day break it is completely possible that the server will be abandoned when you come back, so people force them self and play it like crazy until they burn out and leave the server anyway. If you manage to make a long term community, people will be confident to take small breaks and come back refreshed and continue playing for a long term.
The interesting fact for war people would be that you could start warring with 70-100 levels in the first weeks, war thru 100-150 levels in upcoming months and then later in the servers history war with the high levels, this would make all tactics and types of battle available etc.
In order to make it long term and attractive for new players, catch up mechanic could be added as well after 2-3 months, that's not necessary but could be interesting solution to attract new comers.
