To host or not to host, what to host. Input for an older player.

[Kodak]

Hello all,

I'm searching for some input on my current situation, as this is about the only outlet anymore for anything OT. I'm in the dilemma of if I should attempt to host again, is it worth it, and what to people even want these days.

I discovered Tibia from a friend when I was young in high school, around the age of 14 or so (2005). I was engulfed with it. I played my heart out, spent way too many hours in front of the screen, played in nefarious ways, but eventually as I got older, the time I spent on it dwindled. I never aspired to a great level character, never surpassing 100, but I made great friends and acquaintances. It wasn't long during my time playing before rumors of a locally ran, 'single player' tibia were beginning to swirl. I did some research and was able to find it. One of the first OT projects publicly released. You couldn't do much, there was no map editor, and all you could do was make tiles in game to try and design something. I began with just building and decorating simple houses, ideas for what one day I may gain in real Tibia. The projects grew to eventually allow multiplayer, and became more and more stable, to what we have now days that can easily run non stop without crashing.

I quit playing real Tibia around 8.6, and while my accounts and characters still exist, I find it too difficult at this point to return and deal with the steep learning curve which is Tibia of today. But thru the years, I have always seemed to come back and dabble with hosting OT's.

Again, I find myself with the 'want' to host again, and have been working on my own servers but have yet to put anything public. I don't know what it is, its not a goal to make profit, as so many servers do today, maybe its the urge to be connected again as I once felt back in the day.

Today, I'm 29, I have a full time career as a Machinist, CNC Programmer, High Performance Engine builder, and anything automotive. I have a family. A wife, two kids of age 8 & 9, and a young one that just reached 1. What I don't seem to have is time. Time to spend sitting hours endlessly on my server to act as an Admin, answering players requests and reports with the utmost urgency. What I do have is a dedicated server machine, and two servers with the potential to put online.

An 8.6 Real Map server, that I spent numerous hours on converting and applying everything from the 10.77 ORTS datapack, to the 8.6 map. Every action, movement, quest, book, everything, as well as a working website to support it.

An 8.6 Custom map, that I spent countless hours designing and building, that while it uses everything from 8.6 in terms of game mechanics, everything ingame is designed by myself, the map, npc's, quests, everything, as well as a working website to support it.

I don't know that either could be "successful" in terms of having any type of player base, which is only compounded by my lack of time to essentially just sit on the server being admin. I want to play Tibia of an era I most remember, with players that enjoy it as much as I do. I'm struggling to figure out is it even worth trying? And are players even interested in playing these types of servers? I'm not a fan of the many 'pay2win' using some real map with a bunch of 'vip' and 'custom' areas, although it seems some have been successful in this method. I've played others custom map servers a few times thru the years and have enjoyed them, but they always were short lived, going offline just months after launching.

I'm looking for some guidance and opinions from others that may have grew up with Tibia and OT, or others that understand these circumstances. I know this is a long post, if you've read this far please leave a comment about what you would do, or what you think I should do. It would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Kodak

 

[e.e]

I see that you hosted a 8.6 server about a year ago: [USA] Atheia - 8.60 - 100% Custom Map - Mid EXP Rate.
What made you decide to stop hosting this one in the first place, and how long did you have it up?

 

[Kodak]

Thank you for responding. Yes, that is the custom server I am referring too. I did put it online, for about 3 months time. Unfortunately what led to me turning it off was a lack of a player base, as well as some real life changes that were occurring at the time that drew me away from the computer screen and my ability to manage the server in the way I felt it should be. I think if it had more repetitive and consistent players I may have worked harder to keep it online. It had some bugs, but I've since polished and improved it some more. The responses here on the forum were somewhat negative, but I tried to not let that deter me. I never released the datapack/map publicly with the idea that I may host it again some day.

Edit: This was another advertisement regarding this server:
[USA] Atheia: An Island of Mystery | 8.60 | Custom Map | MidRate EXP

 

[Wazzup88]

It's pretty dead unless you have a p2w custom server with all the bells and whistles, as you mentioned you noticed already. I don't see much hope for ot servers anymore. I enjoyed the 8.6 era a lot as well, Don't see too many of them unless they are 999x. Read your custom server advertisement, It looked really nice man.

 

[Kodak]

Thank you for the compliment. Its a shame if its truly dying.

 

[Wazzup88]

Thank you for the compliment. Its a shame if its truly dying.

It seems players are going for more like a diablo style of play now.Where you are slaying 100s of monsters over and over with chances at different tier'd gear or legendary drops, some sort of unique gearing system. and new animations and sprites to make their character look cooler. Not even like tibia anymore actually, almost a new game.

 

[e.e]

It took me a while to really decipher your post, so I want to emphasize what I finally got out of it in the end and what I'm about to respond to:

Again, I find myself with the 'want' to host again, and have been working on my own servers but have yet to put anything public. I don't know what it is, its not a goal to make profit, as so many servers do today, maybe its the urge to be connected again as I once felt back in the day.

... I have far less spare time than I used to as I now have my own family etc...

... 8.6 Custom server, put a lot of time and effort into everything ...

I want to play Tibia of an era I most remember, with players that enjoy it as much as I do. I'm struggling to figure out is it even worth trying? And are players even interested in playing these types of servers? I'm not a fan of the many 'pay2win' ...

I'm looking for some guidance and opinions from others that may have grew up with Tibia and OT, or others that understand these circumstances.

Short answer: No, it's generally not worth it.
But if you've already spent a lot of effort into it, would like to host it, and have a spare dedicated server, then why not?
I mean, what is the issue?
If you have 1 new player a week, that person is someone, one of those players are bound to like the server, and OTS hosting is all about the learning experience (or money and power for some) anyway imo.

The only thing I'd like to ask you to carefully consider is what you said here:

I've played others custom map servers a few times thru the years and have enjoyed them, but they always were short lived, going offline just months after launching.

Don't turn into what you're complaining about here

Also if you don't have time to fix bugs etc, then I recommend to make this clear in your advertisement/front page of your website or whatever, and to emphasize it so as many as people will read it.
That's the way to do responsible hosting anyway, and it sounded to me from what you're saying that this is what you aspire for, so..
Basically there are only three ways to host OTS:
* Making money/large playerbase
* Responsible hosting
* The worst of both worlds; no money, no players, and irresponsible hosting

It's all up to you who you want to be and what you want to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Kodak]

Thank you for your detailed response. It's much appreciated . As you said I have little to lose putting something online, and you're right, it would be a good idea to inform players about what to expect from myself in terms of time available. Thank you again.