I'm reminiscing about Realots servers hosted by others in the past, and I found this well done video by Maas (for the-realots.net, 3x exp, a server that was hosted by someone else in the past):
There's also a second clip:
I like both of these videos in general, but they also demonstrate some of the differences between normal OTS and Realots/Real Tibia, at least for those with a keen eye.
I don't want to point out everything, because some things are more interesting than others, but you might notice for example in the second clip that FE's and DL's can be much more volatile than they are on most OTS (notice the red damage is fire spells from the FEs).
Orc berserkers, demon skeletons and other summonable monsters are also generally a little stronger on Realots, which makes them not only a good pvp option for lowlvls, but can actually be very useful at all levels (they are also tougher/harder to damage with physical damage on Realots/Real Tibia).
And if you think back, when was the last time that you got one-shot by a DL from 600 hp on a regular OTS simply by walking down the stairs for less than a second?
Some of this demonstrates how volatile monsters were on Real Tibia. If you have played a lot of OTS you might be over-confident at this point, being used to just SD-spamming everything down, and not worrying much about taking damage because monsters are so weak and predictable.
Not on Realots. On Realots you can die as a mage at level 100+ by a single hydra if you're not careful. Monsters changes target, not only by distance, but by how much damage you cause them, how much HP you have, and sometimes they choose a completely random target.
There are a million more differences, like the follow/chase system is perfect (you always instantly move when the monster moves, and there are no bugs like if you move with the arrow keys on your keyboard then your char stops chasing - this happens on many OTS even if you have "Auto Chase Off" unticked in your client...), minimap clicking into unexplored territory is perfect (on many OTS clicking the minimap into unexplored (black) territory is very broken and you'll often get nowhere with it (char will just run in stupid circles over and over) and so you have to walk manually instead, or on other OTS your char/client will magically know the shortest way to the place you're clicking towards even if the minimap is black (their server likely tells the client the shortest way there even without minimaps, this defeats the purpose of exploring and destroys realism..)).
Realots is just mechanically superior in almost every single way possible* and gives a much more reliable, nuanced and challenging Tibia experience, where everything works just like it should, where monsters are actually scary, where PvP and character mechanics is reliable yet complex (for example holding down your strongest spell hotkey actually doesn't cause the optimal amount of damage!), where every quest, book, key, item mechanics and every other detail works, and where you have to play creatively and adaptively to survive or to win.
* I have found one minor/funny bug and one medium bug that gives this server a small disadvantage in a couple of areas: 1. Summoned monsters that can't detect invisibility won't follow you if you have invisibility, I guess because they can't see you, haha, so you'll have to lose invisibility again or target other monsters for these summons to move, and 2. There seems to be a bug where it's possible that monsters won't respawn under certain unfortunate circumstances. It's unknown whether this bug is temporary and fixable, being caused by other software that are still under development, or if this was a bug that affected Real Tibia too, in which case it's not directly fixable (but it's possible for players to remove the thing that blocks the respawn in-game, and once it's removed, monsters will respawn again).
Generally though, neither of these two bugs has a huge significant impact on your playing experience. Monsters will almost always respawn in time unless the server is extremely crowded (~1000 players or so), and there are a lot of spawns out there, some of which are not affected by this bug.
Server update:
None; Still working on everything
My plans for this server is becoming clearer and clearer day by day in many ways, and I am satisfied with many of my ideas/plans, so I'm still hyped to develop and "finish" this server, and I hope some of you are still too.
These servers should be the richest servers you have played on in terms of nuance, reliability and challenge, with multiple servers for different experiences, customized for different types of players.
Now it's mostly just a matter of finishing all the coding, and for me to think of how to code in creative ways to manipulate the server files, to make customizations for the servers smooth in the future.