Crevasse
惡名昭彰
I’m happy to announce plans to release a new server as a way of giving back to the community and creating a platform that appeals to Oldschool players.
About Me (and my team)
I started playing RL Tibia in early 2005. I played seriously until 2013 when I finally retired due to a lack of interest in the numerous changes implemented by CipSoft that, in my opinion, made the game less fun. I’ve been lurking around OTLand since 2008, reading much but saying little. I have a particular interest in/passion for mapping and have worked on several projects with the Collapser Zulu development team. My team consists of family and close friends who are also fellow Oldschool RL Tibia players.
At a Glance
This server is a modified version of TFS 1.2 running Tibia 7.70, and is a mid to low rate server. It’s hosted on a dedicated Linux box behind an enterprise-grade firewall with a gig fiber uplink. It has standard OT features like experience sharing and emoted spells. The map and vocations are custom and will be discussed at length below.
Another Oldschool Server?
I’ve been around this community for a long time. I’ve read the posts and followed the drama from month to month, year to year as different servers have come and gone. My team and I have played on a wide variety of servers seriously and casually, including big names like RealOTS, Mastercores and DarkOT. Over and over the same issues are brought up, discussed, but ultimately never resolved. Sorcerers are still OP, knights are completely underwhelming, druids only exist to be healbots, and paladins can do their own thing for the most part. People argued about the cost of runes and whether or not the addition of wands and rods “broke the game” but in our opinion, none of the reasons brought up by the community are the reasons Oldschool servers fail. After seeing so many unsuccessful attempts at balance and keeping an Oldschool server alive, we have decided to take an entirely different approach.
The Issue With Oldschool
From our experience, there is a deeper, underlying issue as to why Oldschool servers struggle and people can’t seem to pinpoint (or maybe they refuse to acknowledge?) it. I have broken it down as follows:
The “Original Experience” and Nostalgia
The feelings associated with memories, the friendships formed in active guilds, and the rush of trying something new. These are things that players of any MMORPG yearn for and Tibia is no exception. Players want to go back to a time that is considered by a collective majority to be the “golden age,” the time they associate with their feelings of nostalgia toward the game. Experience has shown however that time and time again these 7.4/7.6 servers start, spike, then die off. If people really love Oldschool so much then why can’t they retain an audience?
The reason, we’ve come to discover, is that players aren’t simply missing old sprites and graphics. If that were true, these Oldschool servers wouldn’t rise and fall like they typically do. Players are missing the feelings that came from discovering, living and playing through Oldschool Tibia for the first time. The journey from noob to high level was part of the experience that everyone enjoyed! Fighting your way through the dwarven axe quest room for the first time or accidentally running into a giant spider on your way to the Dark Cathedral; finally opening a dragon lord and seeing a dragon scale mail or winning a major guild war--these were things that came with playing through the game and they made it memorable.
Log in to an Oldschool server now and the journey itself is ignored completely; people just want to get to the endgame as fast as possible. Everyone races through Rookgaard so they can begin the tried and true sequence of rotworms -> minotaurs -> cyclopses -> dragons/dragon lords -> hydras. Before long, the power abusers have risen to the top and the server is on a sharp decline. Most of us have been a part of this cycle multiple times. Some servers implement PoI monsters or king of the hill-style events but that merely delays the inevitable for a couple weeks at best.
The Solution
Let me present our answer to these previously unsolvable problems in the form of our server, Zenith. I can’t cover everything in this post but I will go over the highlights and elaborate on how they address the problems that Oldschool has faced historically. And before you succumb to the urge that so many of you have to jump into the comments and post a reply, please read all the way through, especially the FAQ section at the end.
A New Land
Part of the magic of learning to play Tibia was not knowing the map by heart. Exploring new caves and new areas, discovering quests and secrets truly rounded out the RPG aspect of the game. This magic is completely lost in Oldschool servers; everyone already knows the game map like the back of their hand. Our server has a custom map, and when I say custom, I don’t mean the RL map with that copy-and-paste island for premium users slapped down north of Edron. I don’t mean an altered version of YurOTs, Spider, or some other famous server. I mean a map that has never been played before. And I can say that with confidence because we have spent the last 5 years designing and testing it. I pulled a blank shape off an old thread that Peonso posted years ago as a starting point, and from there I began making it my own (I doubt even he’d recognize it if he logged in and started playing). This creates an even playing field for all players; no one will have the advantage of knowing the secrets that our map holds, the locations of the best spawns, how to solve quests, etc. This will bring back that RPG feel that people crave. The map is complete with custom functional NPCs, boats and carpets; each town has shops, temples, banks and depots. The map even has additional “lore” NPCs that you have to talk to if you want to start the more advanced quests!
Vocations - Less is More
I’ve mentioned balance already in this post. My team and I really wrestled with the issue of balance during the development stages of the server, exploring several different possibilities. Ultimately, we decided to do something that, at the time, had never been done before (although I have seen similar ideas posted on OTLand since development began). Instead of trying to tweak an inherently broken class system designed by CipSoft, we scrapped it all. There is only one vocation to choose from in Zenith: Human. We drew our inspiration for this style from games like Albion, Terraria or The Elder Scrolls: the player can become whatever he or she wants. All players have the same base regen, health gain, mana gain, cap gain, etc. The variety comes in the form of items. Unequipped, a Human is not completely useless in combat, but nowhere near their full potential.
Dress for Success -- Equipment Matters
Equipment and weapons have a drastic effect on your character’s health, mana, regeneration, and skills. For example: Knight Armor grants the wearer additional maximum HP and reduces maximum mana. Amazon Armor grants additional maximum mana and distance fighting, and a Blue Robe grants extra maximum mana and reduces maximum health while providing a significant magic level bonus. (I won’t post the numbers here because people will start arguing about balance before they have even played the game). In addition to being unique and empowering, this single vocation item-heavy playstyle solves several problems at once:
Magic Damage Diversity
A series of source code changes have been made by myself to further balance and enhance the magic system in the server. In Oldschool Tibia, poison was basically useless; everything was immune to it. Fire was good for a little while, but that too eventually became useless as a player leveled up and encountered tougher monsters. In the end, players were left with physical or energy as the only viable damage sources. In some cases, physical damage was the only option as the hardest monsters were immune to everything else (e.g. Behemoths).
CipSoft was on the right track by adding additional elements to the game in 8.1; however they did not balance them correctly. For example, ice was suddenly the most desired ability as it allowed players to more effectively hunt the best monsters in the game, and ultimate explosion was changed to fire damage making it far less useful. Instead of repeating CipSoft’s mistakes, we opted to take a simple but unique approach:
All of these elements (Physical, Fire, Drown, Poison, Energy, Holy, Lifedrain) are usable in the form of spells by players and monsters. Players will also encounter monsters that are immune, resistant or strong to these elements.
Spells: True Oldschool
When it came to spells, we took a page out of CipSoft’s book. Spells are not learned by talking to an NPC, but by using scrolls which can be looted from monsters or obtained in quests. This is yet another element intended to encourage hunting and exploration while discouraging easy power abuse. Again, I won’t discuss the details here, but we tried to make it as logical as possible: Looking for fire spells? You should probably hit up dragons or fire devils. Want to try out drown spells? Find a helmet of the deep and head underwater! Does the monster heal itself? Then it probably drops the scroll to learn “exura” or maybe even “exura gran.” All players by default can already use the light spell, so you can start training your magic level immediately.
More Quests Than RL
Not a ton to say here. We have dozens and dozens of quests, big and small. Simple ones like the crusader helmet quest in RL; make it to the end of a cave, get a reward. There are advanced ones like the Pits of Inferno or Deeper Banuta, requiring the player to travel back and forth between multiple continents collecting items, talking to NPCs, and fighting hard monsters. There are also quests for all of the outfits through version 8.0. These quests have all been tested and played through on non-gamemaster players so we know they are working! There are also custom starter quests that allow players to learn about the different playstyles (magic, ranged or melee), try each style out and even get some basic equipment.
Monsters Galore
Let’s be honest; there isn’t really very much monster variety in Oldschool Tibia, even as late as version 8.6. There was and still is a pretty clear standard of which monsters were profitable to hunt and which ones were terrible, either by virtue of poor loot, small spawns or a bad hp/exp ratio. We have made slight, tasteful alterations to certain monsters in an effort to increase the variety of options for players. We don’t want everyone to be forced to follow the same boring path of Rotworms -> Minotaurs -> Cyclopses -> Dragons/Dragon Lords. Instead, players can choose to hunt Tortoises, Banshees, Nomads, Yetis, Pirates, Samurai, Midnight Panthers, Draptors, Greater Amazons, Barbarians and Titans (to name a few), which have been implemented and are competitive options for players to hunt. This has the opposite of the funnel effect that we see in real Tibia where everyone is trying to hunt the best spawns and everywhere else is empty. Also, monsters in Zenith behave like true Oldschool monsters; they do not have a forced cast cooldown and are capable of spamming.
Endgame and Updates
We are firm believers in the concept of starting small and growing slowly. We aren’t releasing a giant, overwhelming map that will just make players lost and confused. As the player base grows and the need arises, we will steadily introduce more content in the form of continents, cities, quests, monsters and items. Some are already in the works. Raids and events with special rewards are also ways to keep players engaged. We are also open to suggestions! This server is here for the community, and the future of the server is in your hands just as much as ours. We look forward to hearing your voices and will rely heavily on players’ feedback for future implementations.
The Best Antibot
I won’t make any claims that we have some “super unbeatable anti-bot technology” because we don’t. We’ve taken some basic precautions to make botting more difficult than the regular 7.70 client, but cheaters will inevitably find a way to cheat. What we do have, however, is in some ways better than anti-bot technology: Gamemasters. We have 5 full-time, active GMs who are eager to investigate and punish cheaters if they are caught, so if you see something, report it. As the community grows, we look forward to identifying and bringing on additional staff members as they prove their dedication to the community.
The Catch…
Alright, the part everyone is waiting for. Some of you are probably thinking this sounds too good to be true. Well, here it goes: there is no catch. There are no addon dolls for sale, no golden account or premmy roses, no red skull tokens, no “donation island,” no pay-to-unban, no 10% exp boost, no permanent light, no crystal coins for sale, nothing. The server is 100% free. No pay to win. No one can pay real money to get an advantage over other players on this server.
Why would we do this? Well the short answer is "because we can". Most of us have flexible, full-time careers. I work in the IT industry which gives me unique access to the skills and resources necessary to host a reliable server. We want to prove to the community that we aren’t here to set up a cash grab scam and then disappear like so many others have done. We are here to build a server that is around for the long haul. We love the game and want to share our creation with others; it’s that simple.
TL;DR:
We are making a super cool, completely free, custom Oldschool server. Check the last FAQ for beta access instructions and stay tuned for the official open date.
If your question was not answered above, feel free to ask below and I will answer. We really are excited to finally bring this project to the public and give back to the community. We love Oldschool and want to help it live on by removing the bad and improving the good.
For Your Information & FAQ
I realize that what we are proposing here is not typical and understand that it will naturally be met with skepticism, questions and even criticism. I have put together a FAQ to answer what we anticipate will be the most important questions. Specifics will not be discussed; as much as you think it’s possible, you can’t debate the attack stats of a weapon or health bonus of an armor until you’ve actually played the game. If your question isn’t answered in this post or subsequent posts, maybe you should just play and find out for yourself!
Q: Why version 7.70? My favorite version is [insert version here] because [insert opinion here].
A: While we appreciate your input, we have our reasons for choosing this version of the game and we are going to stick with it. No one is making you play, but we encourage you to actually login and play before telling us how much better a different version would be.
Q: What do you mean by “modified TFS 1.2”?
A: This distribution is based off of TFS 1.2, but many changes have been made to the source code by me. I already mentioned the addition of additional damage elements, but I have also gone through and eliminated dozens and dozens of bugs that were present in the original downgrade to 7.70.
Q: What are the rates like?
A: Experience is staged. The rate starts at 25x but begins to drop off pretty sharply. By level 200 the rate is down to RL (1x). Everyone has played through the noob levels dozens of times and we didn’t want to make it a chore to get to the mid-level phase of the game. We still think the noob levels are important, however, as it gives players a chance to experiment with different fighting styles so they can decide what type of fighter they want their character to become.
Skill rates are somewhat irrelevant since everyone is the same vocation. Suffice it to say that the skill rate is such that players will feel like they are making progress.
Q: Oldschool servers with custom maps were never as popular as RL maps. What makes you think this one will be any different?
A: A valid question. Historically, most custom maps didn’t perform well because players would get lost as little attention was given to the finer details like NPCs, street/shop signs, or the map was too big. Our map is big enough for players to hunt comfortably without being overwhelming, and as I said above, we have NPCs and documentation like RL Tibia to help players become familiar with the map.
Q: This single vocation thing sounds boring--won’t everyone eventually just figure out the most OP setup and choose that?
A: First off, even if they did, isn’t that what already happens in Oldschool servers today? Everyone already knows sorcerers are OP and 60%+ of players choose that in any given oldschool server. And to answer the question, no, they won’t. This server is 5 years in the making. We didn’t just come up with this idea overnight. We have tested and fine-tuned all of the different combinations that players could find themselves in: 1 vs. 1 PvP, 2+ vs. 1 PvP, ganking, wars, solo hunting, team hunting, you name it. There are so many more options for equipment and weapons than RL 7.70 that allow us to have more flexibility in balancing the playstyles.
Q: How is the equipment divided up? How do I know which items to look for?
A: Players who want to follow the path of a melee fighter/tank have the most options for items since that’s their primary focus. There are fewer helmets, armors and legs for mages but a huge selection of offensive spells, wands, and spellbooks. Players can choose to primarily collect spells of a certain element or have a mix of all elements, ranged players can choose between long range two-handed bows and crossbows and mid range one handed spears, stars and knives. Shift + clicking on items as you discover them or talking with NPCs will be enough to get players pointed in the right direction. It’s an RPG; explore!
Q: Elaborate more on spells. How do these scrolls work again? What are the formulas like? Are there custom spells? How are they balanced?
A: The method for obtaining spells is almost identical to early Tibia and it’s simple. Let’s say that ghouls, for example, drop the scroll for “exura.” Once you loot one (or buy one), simply use the scroll. You will receive a message telling you that you have learned the spell. Scrolls are generally classified as a “rare” item but obviously the scroll for “exura” is going to be significantly more common than the scroll for “exevo gran mas vis”. Like any other rare item, duplicates can be sold to players or NPCs. Formulas for damage are similar to RL Tibia, but not identical. Again, we’ve tested this for several years, finding the right balance between skills and damage. As far as custom spells go, there are many spells that were not in RL 7.70. I won’t list them out here but I can say with confidence that they have been tested for balance.
Q: You mentioned monsters, items and outfits from newer versions of the game. I don’t like new Tibia, that's why I quit and only play OTs! Why put that stuff in here?
A: Old Tibia, as much as we love it, was flawed. In order to accomplish our goal we needed more monsters, items and graphics than those present in standard 7.70. Think about it; how are you going to support any sort of endgame play when all you have for endgame monsters are dragon lords, hydras, behemoths and demons? That’s so boring! And equipment? This version of RL Tibia literally only had 11 different legs, three of which (dragon scale, demon and dwarven) weren’t obtainable, and everything weaker than plate is useless, leaving players with very limited options (knight, plate, crown, or golden). What kind of MMORPG only gives players 4 options for a leg piece, and the only difference is +/- 3 armor? We urge you to come and play for yourself and see how we have tastefully integrated newer graphics into the game in such a way that it feels natural.
Q: How DO you plan on supporting endgame play?
A: Variety keeps players interested, as does gaining advantages. A combination of events, unique bosses, raids and quests are just some of the things we have planned to keep people’s interest alive when grinding and leveling get boring. Bosses in Zenith will be particularly critical to the endgame; as players get higher and higher, their experience rate approaches that of RL Tibia. At this point, they should begin to work together with friends to fight some of the many custom bosses that, while difficult to kill, reward the players with large sums of experience. This changes the dynamic of hunting greatly.
About Me (and my team)
I started playing RL Tibia in early 2005. I played seriously until 2013 when I finally retired due to a lack of interest in the numerous changes implemented by CipSoft that, in my opinion, made the game less fun. I’ve been lurking around OTLand since 2008, reading much but saying little. I have a particular interest in/passion for mapping and have worked on several projects with the Collapser Zulu development team. My team consists of family and close friends who are also fellow Oldschool RL Tibia players.
At a Glance
This server is a modified version of TFS 1.2 running Tibia 7.70, and is a mid to low rate server. It’s hosted on a dedicated Linux box behind an enterprise-grade firewall with a gig fiber uplink. It has standard OT features like experience sharing and emoted spells. The map and vocations are custom and will be discussed at length below.
Another Oldschool Server?
I’ve been around this community for a long time. I’ve read the posts and followed the drama from month to month, year to year as different servers have come and gone. My team and I have played on a wide variety of servers seriously and casually, including big names like RealOTS, Mastercores and DarkOT. Over and over the same issues are brought up, discussed, but ultimately never resolved. Sorcerers are still OP, knights are completely underwhelming, druids only exist to be healbots, and paladins can do their own thing for the most part. People argued about the cost of runes and whether or not the addition of wands and rods “broke the game” but in our opinion, none of the reasons brought up by the community are the reasons Oldschool servers fail. After seeing so many unsuccessful attempts at balance and keeping an Oldschool server alive, we have decided to take an entirely different approach.
The Issue With Oldschool
From our experience, there is a deeper, underlying issue as to why Oldschool servers struggle and people can’t seem to pinpoint (or maybe they refuse to acknowledge?) it. I have broken it down as follows:
The “Original Experience” and Nostalgia
The feelings associated with memories, the friendships formed in active guilds, and the rush of trying something new. These are things that players of any MMORPG yearn for and Tibia is no exception. Players want to go back to a time that is considered by a collective majority to be the “golden age,” the time they associate with their feelings of nostalgia toward the game. Experience has shown however that time and time again these 7.4/7.6 servers start, spike, then die off. If people really love Oldschool so much then why can’t they retain an audience?
The reason, we’ve come to discover, is that players aren’t simply missing old sprites and graphics. If that were true, these Oldschool servers wouldn’t rise and fall like they typically do. Players are missing the feelings that came from discovering, living and playing through Oldschool Tibia for the first time. The journey from noob to high level was part of the experience that everyone enjoyed! Fighting your way through the dwarven axe quest room for the first time or accidentally running into a giant spider on your way to the Dark Cathedral; finally opening a dragon lord and seeing a dragon scale mail or winning a major guild war--these were things that came with playing through the game and they made it memorable.
Log in to an Oldschool server now and the journey itself is ignored completely; people just want to get to the endgame as fast as possible. Everyone races through Rookgaard so they can begin the tried and true sequence of rotworms -> minotaurs -> cyclopses -> dragons/dragon lords -> hydras. Before long, the power abusers have risen to the top and the server is on a sharp decline. Most of us have been a part of this cycle multiple times. Some servers implement PoI monsters or king of the hill-style events but that merely delays the inevitable for a couple weeks at best.
The Solution
Let me present our answer to these previously unsolvable problems in the form of our server, Zenith. I can’t cover everything in this post but I will go over the highlights and elaborate on how they address the problems that Oldschool has faced historically. And before you succumb to the urge that so many of you have to jump into the comments and post a reply, please read all the way through, especially the FAQ section at the end.
A New Land
Part of the magic of learning to play Tibia was not knowing the map by heart. Exploring new caves and new areas, discovering quests and secrets truly rounded out the RPG aspect of the game. This magic is completely lost in Oldschool servers; everyone already knows the game map like the back of their hand. Our server has a custom map, and when I say custom, I don’t mean the RL map with that copy-and-paste island for premium users slapped down north of Edron. I don’t mean an altered version of YurOTs, Spider, or some other famous server. I mean a map that has never been played before. And I can say that with confidence because we have spent the last 5 years designing and testing it. I pulled a blank shape off an old thread that Peonso posted years ago as a starting point, and from there I began making it my own (I doubt even he’d recognize it if he logged in and started playing). This creates an even playing field for all players; no one will have the advantage of knowing the secrets that our map holds, the locations of the best spawns, how to solve quests, etc. This will bring back that RPG feel that people crave. The map is complete with custom functional NPCs, boats and carpets; each town has shops, temples, banks and depots. The map even has additional “lore” NPCs that you have to talk to if you want to start the more advanced quests!
Vocations - Less is More
I’ve mentioned balance already in this post. My team and I really wrestled with the issue of balance during the development stages of the server, exploring several different possibilities. Ultimately, we decided to do something that, at the time, had never been done before (although I have seen similar ideas posted on OTLand since development began). Instead of trying to tweak an inherently broken class system designed by CipSoft, we scrapped it all. There is only one vocation to choose from in Zenith: Human. We drew our inspiration for this style from games like Albion, Terraria or The Elder Scrolls: the player can become whatever he or she wants. All players have the same base regen, health gain, mana gain, cap gain, etc. The variety comes in the form of items. Unequipped, a Human is not completely useless in combat, but nowhere near their full potential.
Dress for Success -- Equipment Matters
Equipment and weapons have a drastic effect on your character’s health, mana, regeneration, and skills. For example: Knight Armor grants the wearer additional maximum HP and reduces maximum mana. Amazon Armor grants additional maximum mana and distance fighting, and a Blue Robe grants extra maximum mana and reduces maximum health while providing a significant magic level bonus. (I won’t post the numbers here because people will start arguing about balance before they have even played the game). In addition to being unique and empowering, this single vocation item-heavy playstyle solves several problems at once:
- Balance: since everyone is the same base “vocation,” it is impossible to make the argument that one character is inherently better than another. You control how powerful your character is by how much you are willing to train your skills (no, there are no offline skill trainers) and how diligent you are at collecting powerful items. It is much easier to balance the game by tweaking the buffs on a piece of armor or a weapon than it is to rebalance an entire vocation.
- Power Abuse: Let me preface this next portion by saying that we acknowledge that PvP, warring and even PKing are essential parts of the MMORPG experience. We want to give players the tools to engage in balanced, exciting PvP combat. What we don’t want is easy power abuse. Sorcerers were already strong in regular Tibia, but when you factor in the accelerated skill rates that are often present in OTs, power abuse is too easy. It really doesn’t make sense that playing the most powerful vocation in the game doesn’t require the player to obtain any gear to be effective. PAs are well aware of this and you see them create characters (sorcerers, not knights) purely for the purposes of getting tons of easy unjustified kills without consequences. They don't need to do quests or participate in raids and events; they don’t even need gear, just SD runes and manafluids! There are other servers out there for that, they are called war servers. If you want to be able to PvP/PK or survive getting PKed in Zenith, you are going to need items and you are going to need to skill train.
- RPG: The value of items and their ability to shape the game creates additional motivation for players to explore the map, fight different types of monsters and solve quests. Every single item, even things like the Blessed Shield and Horned Helmet, are obtainable in-game.
Magic Damage Diversity
A series of source code changes have been made by myself to further balance and enhance the magic system in the server. In Oldschool Tibia, poison was basically useless; everything was immune to it. Fire was good for a little while, but that too eventually became useless as a player leveled up and encountered tougher monsters. In the end, players were left with physical or energy as the only viable damage sources. In some cases, physical damage was the only option as the hardest monsters were immune to everything else (e.g. Behemoths).
CipSoft was on the right track by adding additional elements to the game in 8.1; however they did not balance them correctly. For example, ice was suddenly the most desired ability as it allowed players to more effectively hunt the best monsters in the game, and ultimate explosion was changed to fire damage making it far less useful. Instead of repeating CipSoft’s mistakes, we opted to take a simple but unique approach:
- Lifedrain damage, which has been a part of the game for a long time, has been adapted for use by players. It is analogous to “death damage” in RL Tibia, and the color of the damage indicator has been changed to reflect that (dark red).
- Drown damage, which was added in 8.0, has been implemented, and can manifest itself as either water or ice graphics.
- Finally, the holy element has been implemented as a counterpart to lifedrain.
All of these elements (Physical, Fire, Drown, Poison, Energy, Holy, Lifedrain) are usable in the form of spells by players and monsters. Players will also encounter monsters that are immune, resistant or strong to these elements.
Spells: True Oldschool
When it came to spells, we took a page out of CipSoft’s book. Spells are not learned by talking to an NPC, but by using scrolls which can be looted from monsters or obtained in quests. This is yet another element intended to encourage hunting and exploration while discouraging easy power abuse. Again, I won’t discuss the details here, but we tried to make it as logical as possible: Looking for fire spells? You should probably hit up dragons or fire devils. Want to try out drown spells? Find a helmet of the deep and head underwater! Does the monster heal itself? Then it probably drops the scroll to learn “exura” or maybe even “exura gran.” All players by default can already use the light spell, so you can start training your magic level immediately.
More Quests Than RL
Not a ton to say here. We have dozens and dozens of quests, big and small. Simple ones like the crusader helmet quest in RL; make it to the end of a cave, get a reward. There are advanced ones like the Pits of Inferno or Deeper Banuta, requiring the player to travel back and forth between multiple continents collecting items, talking to NPCs, and fighting hard monsters. There are also quests for all of the outfits through version 8.0. These quests have all been tested and played through on non-gamemaster players so we know they are working! There are also custom starter quests that allow players to learn about the different playstyles (magic, ranged or melee), try each style out and even get some basic equipment.
Monsters Galore
Let’s be honest; there isn’t really very much monster variety in Oldschool Tibia, even as late as version 8.6. There was and still is a pretty clear standard of which monsters were profitable to hunt and which ones were terrible, either by virtue of poor loot, small spawns or a bad hp/exp ratio. We have made slight, tasteful alterations to certain monsters in an effort to increase the variety of options for players. We don’t want everyone to be forced to follow the same boring path of Rotworms -> Minotaurs -> Cyclopses -> Dragons/Dragon Lords. Instead, players can choose to hunt Tortoises, Banshees, Nomads, Yetis, Pirates, Samurai, Midnight Panthers, Draptors, Greater Amazons, Barbarians and Titans (to name a few), which have been implemented and are competitive options for players to hunt. This has the opposite of the funnel effect that we see in real Tibia where everyone is trying to hunt the best spawns and everywhere else is empty. Also, monsters in Zenith behave like true Oldschool monsters; they do not have a forced cast cooldown and are capable of spamming.
Endgame and Updates
We are firm believers in the concept of starting small and growing slowly. We aren’t releasing a giant, overwhelming map that will just make players lost and confused. As the player base grows and the need arises, we will steadily introduce more content in the form of continents, cities, quests, monsters and items. Some are already in the works. Raids and events with special rewards are also ways to keep players engaged. We are also open to suggestions! This server is here for the community, and the future of the server is in your hands just as much as ours. We look forward to hearing your voices and will rely heavily on players’ feedback for future implementations.
The Best Antibot
I won’t make any claims that we have some “super unbeatable anti-bot technology” because we don’t. We’ve taken some basic precautions to make botting more difficult than the regular 7.70 client, but cheaters will inevitably find a way to cheat. What we do have, however, is in some ways better than anti-bot technology: Gamemasters. We have 5 full-time, active GMs who are eager to investigate and punish cheaters if they are caught, so if you see something, report it. As the community grows, we look forward to identifying and bringing on additional staff members as they prove their dedication to the community.
The Catch…
Alright, the part everyone is waiting for. Some of you are probably thinking this sounds too good to be true. Well, here it goes: there is no catch. There are no addon dolls for sale, no golden account or premmy roses, no red skull tokens, no “donation island,” no pay-to-unban, no 10% exp boost, no permanent light, no crystal coins for sale, nothing. The server is 100% free. No pay to win. No one can pay real money to get an advantage over other players on this server.
Why would we do this? Well the short answer is "because we can". Most of us have flexible, full-time careers. I work in the IT industry which gives me unique access to the skills and resources necessary to host a reliable server. We want to prove to the community that we aren’t here to set up a cash grab scam and then disappear like so many others have done. We are here to build a server that is around for the long haul. We love the game and want to share our creation with others; it’s that simple.
TL;DR:
We are making a super cool, completely free, custom Oldschool server. Check the last FAQ for beta access instructions and stay tuned for the official open date.
If your question was not answered above, feel free to ask below and I will answer. We really are excited to finally bring this project to the public and give back to the community. We love Oldschool and want to help it live on by removing the bad and improving the good.
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For Your Information & FAQ
I realize that what we are proposing here is not typical and understand that it will naturally be met with skepticism, questions and even criticism. I have put together a FAQ to answer what we anticipate will be the most important questions. Specifics will not be discussed; as much as you think it’s possible, you can’t debate the attack stats of a weapon or health bonus of an armor until you’ve actually played the game. If your question isn’t answered in this post or subsequent posts, maybe you should just play and find out for yourself!
Q: Why version 7.70? My favorite version is [insert version here] because [insert opinion here].
A: While we appreciate your input, we have our reasons for choosing this version of the game and we are going to stick with it. No one is making you play, but we encourage you to actually login and play before telling us how much better a different version would be.
Q: What do you mean by “modified TFS 1.2”?
A: This distribution is based off of TFS 1.2, but many changes have been made to the source code by me. I already mentioned the addition of additional damage elements, but I have also gone through and eliminated dozens and dozens of bugs that were present in the original downgrade to 7.70.
Q: What are the rates like?
A: Experience is staged. The rate starts at 25x but begins to drop off pretty sharply. By level 200 the rate is down to RL (1x). Everyone has played through the noob levels dozens of times and we didn’t want to make it a chore to get to the mid-level phase of the game. We still think the noob levels are important, however, as it gives players a chance to experiment with different fighting styles so they can decide what type of fighter they want their character to become.
Skill rates are somewhat irrelevant since everyone is the same vocation. Suffice it to say that the skill rate is such that players will feel like they are making progress.
Q: Oldschool servers with custom maps were never as popular as RL maps. What makes you think this one will be any different?
A: A valid question. Historically, most custom maps didn’t perform well because players would get lost as little attention was given to the finer details like NPCs, street/shop signs, or the map was too big. Our map is big enough for players to hunt comfortably without being overwhelming, and as I said above, we have NPCs and documentation like RL Tibia to help players become familiar with the map.
Q: This single vocation thing sounds boring--won’t everyone eventually just figure out the most OP setup and choose that?
A: First off, even if they did, isn’t that what already happens in Oldschool servers today? Everyone already knows sorcerers are OP and 60%+ of players choose that in any given oldschool server. And to answer the question, no, they won’t. This server is 5 years in the making. We didn’t just come up with this idea overnight. We have tested and fine-tuned all of the different combinations that players could find themselves in: 1 vs. 1 PvP, 2+ vs. 1 PvP, ganking, wars, solo hunting, team hunting, you name it. There are so many more options for equipment and weapons than RL 7.70 that allow us to have more flexibility in balancing the playstyles.
Q: How is the equipment divided up? How do I know which items to look for?
A: Players who want to follow the path of a melee fighter/tank have the most options for items since that’s their primary focus. There are fewer helmets, armors and legs for mages but a huge selection of offensive spells, wands, and spellbooks. Players can choose to primarily collect spells of a certain element or have a mix of all elements, ranged players can choose between long range two-handed bows and crossbows and mid range one handed spears, stars and knives. Shift + clicking on items as you discover them or talking with NPCs will be enough to get players pointed in the right direction. It’s an RPG; explore!
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Q: Elaborate more on spells. How do these scrolls work again? What are the formulas like? Are there custom spells? How are they balanced?
A: The method for obtaining spells is almost identical to early Tibia and it’s simple. Let’s say that ghouls, for example, drop the scroll for “exura.” Once you loot one (or buy one), simply use the scroll. You will receive a message telling you that you have learned the spell. Scrolls are generally classified as a “rare” item but obviously the scroll for “exura” is going to be significantly more common than the scroll for “exevo gran mas vis”. Like any other rare item, duplicates can be sold to players or NPCs. Formulas for damage are similar to RL Tibia, but not identical. Again, we’ve tested this for several years, finding the right balance between skills and damage. As far as custom spells go, there are many spells that were not in RL 7.70. I won’t list them out here but I can say with confidence that they have been tested for balance.
Q: You mentioned monsters, items and outfits from newer versions of the game. I don’t like new Tibia, that's why I quit and only play OTs! Why put that stuff in here?
A: Old Tibia, as much as we love it, was flawed. In order to accomplish our goal we needed more monsters, items and graphics than those present in standard 7.70. Think about it; how are you going to support any sort of endgame play when all you have for endgame monsters are dragon lords, hydras, behemoths and demons? That’s so boring! And equipment? This version of RL Tibia literally only had 11 different legs, three of which (dragon scale, demon and dwarven) weren’t obtainable, and everything weaker than plate is useless, leaving players with very limited options (knight, plate, crown, or golden). What kind of MMORPG only gives players 4 options for a leg piece, and the only difference is +/- 3 armor? We urge you to come and play for yourself and see how we have tastefully integrated newer graphics into the game in such a way that it feels natural.
Q: How DO you plan on supporting endgame play?
A: Variety keeps players interested, as does gaining advantages. A combination of events, unique bosses, raids and quests are just some of the things we have planned to keep people’s interest alive when grinding and leveling get boring. Bosses in Zenith will be particularly critical to the endgame; as players get higher and higher, their experience rate approaches that of RL Tibia. At this point, they should begin to work together with friends to fight some of the many custom bosses that, while difficult to kill, reward the players with large sums of experience. This changes the dynamic of hunting greatly.
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