Guilcera is meant to be a OpenTibia server for protocol 7.72 that pay tribute to the 7.x era game mechanics.
A old protocol is chosen for nostalgic reasons, specially 7.72 because of the availabilty of OTHire server engine. In the year of 2006, Tibia was simpler game, without too many systems and without hotkeys for throwing runes, a remarkable feature. It will have an custom map, because that's what the developer is aiming to with Guilcera:
I got motivated by the dream of coming up with my own game world, by have players running though dungeons I designed myself.
A game world where players are motivated to explore and search for mysteries, the thrill of facing the unknown in the next corner.The focus is in exploring and questing, while having it balanced for both PvE and PvP.
It must be enjoyable, and the content reachable, to people that now a days have busy lives and can't compromise huge amount of time to the game. Some people that played Tibia 10, 15 years ago, and now have jobs, families, among other responsibilities, are interested in to play but are discourage by the gap nolifers achieve, Guilcera casuals should be at the same peace as nolifers, at least the gap should be small regarding character power.
Tibia is a 20 years old game, most people can't be arsed to grind rotworms for hours and hours, if the content is too repetitive and trivial people will bot it, and that we want to avoid. Gameplay for lower levels is boring also, characters can't do much with limited resources.
We want players to stick, keep hooked playing, but won't trick players through Skinner Box traps. We want meaningful content, be at narrative, lore, quests, mysteries, and a huge rich world.
Simplicity, Tibia 10 years ago was a simple game, there wasn't tons of system and points to be tracked.
More fast paced early game.
Tibia is a 20 years od, game https://otland.net/threads/on-the-dedication-of-players.233345/
Avoid making traps to add replayability
Most MMORPGs, and consequently the vast OTServ majority,
Having this in mid, the 3 most important points to have in mind while developing the server:
- Make sure it's available
And those are the main characteristics I will focus on:
Gameplay from 7.4-7.72 era
7.4 spell system with x4 mana regen
High exp rate (starting around 20x)
RPG content: lore, quests, puzzles, dungeons
Those common problems should also be addressed: #1 - Players at oldschool servers achieve so high levels that the content become trivial, there are no monsters for them, no quests directed to them, even damage formulas aren't developed taking so high levels in consideration, wich end up ruining PvP also. #2 - Grinding rotworms is 10 year old boring mechanic. People can't be arsed doing that for hours and hours, even more in servers they know won't last forever. So they just avoid it or bot. #3 - Servers die. I will take in consideration the server won't last forever, and the game will be developed with this in mind. The idea is to develop some kind of main quest that can be solved, so you can actually beat the game and move on with your life. #4 - A lot of map content is ignored since players has nothing to do there after achieving a higher level. Nearby the entirety of the map will be aimed to players at maximum level. #5 - Resources are scarce, with lead to multi-client and cheating. #6 - Obtaining good equipment is too easy, what also decreases the value of it.
[b]And my thoughts[/b]: Points #5 and #6 can be addressed by having a low drop rate for good gear (as it was on real thing) while giving resources as quest rewards, not exclusively because unique rewards are what is actually rewarding, but to give more access to supplies. Still regarding #5, selling supplies at shop is a good solution, oldschool players tend to go against it (but they like to multi-client runemakers, as if it is the correct way), it also works as a money sink and control economic inflation. For #2, high exp bonus for lower levels, people want action, lower level OpenTibia characters are too limited on what they can accomplish. Regarding #1 and #4, I think the solution is to standardize players strength, by limiting level, force heavy diminishing returns to experience around level 100, so it actually works are a level cap, while also having most of the map made for level 80+ characters, with high exp rate at lower levels you don't need tons of rotworm caves. Regarding #3, Path of Exile leagues seems the most perfect solution for this issue, having a secondary server where all characters are sent before the next reset would work wonders, but it would be a long term solution and not the focus, since it's a single server.
Simplicity
[youtube]tWtvrPTbQ_c[/youtube]
first draft 17/07/2017/