What makes a good funserver?

[factionwars]

Well, I am interested in making a new funserver and would like to find out from the experts (you guys) - what makes a good funserver?



I'd like to have a big list of what is a good idea, and what's a bad idea.



Please copy this list and put either a YES or NO next to it. Formatting green or red also works.


Malls
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled)
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled)
Social gathering areas
Scripted minigames
Instances
Raids
New battleground
Arena
Obstacle courses
Custom Items (Please specify)
Scripted NPCs (Please specify)
New Quests (Please specify)
Custom / Secondary classes




Possibly link me to some existing features you'd like to see.


If you would like to see something not previously listed, please specify that too!

[grandmst20]

Malls
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled)
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled)
Social gathering areas
Scripted minigames
Instances - Real and custom
Raids - Real and custom
New battleground
Arena
Obstacle courses
Custom Items (Please specify) Blizzlike Tier 11, etc.
Scripted NPCs (Please specify) - New bosses, new world bosses.
New Quests (Please specify)
Custom / Secondary classes

Something I would like to do/see in any server (fun or blizzlike) is updated dungeons.

Here's a breakdown of some ideas I have:

1. Vanilla/TBC raids updated for 80. (MC, BWL, etc.)
2. Dungeon/raid level scales with player. (E.g. Deadmines is originally level 15ish. Have brackets like battlegrounds. 10-19, 20-29, etc)
3. 2 Modes, heroic and normal.
- Deadmines normal: level 15, heroic: level 80.

[thebigman]

Malls
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled)
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled)
Social gathering areas
Scripted minigames
Instances
Raids
New battleground
Arena
Obstacle courses
Custom Items (Please specify)
Scripted NPCs (Please specify)
New Quests (Please specify)
Custom / Secondary classes

really it depends on the people you are trying to get, any and all or combinations of the above would net different player bases. Honestly I would love for some GOOD or decent WELL THOUGHT OUT hero classes unlocked via quest chains to be made. I had a few thoughts and working on putting them on my server.

Where grandms is wrong:

People love arena, its the biggest e-sport to flex your ***** since BG's

EVERYONE likes obstacle courses, its a thing to do while waiting on Qs.

scripted minigames are clever and I used a few from ****** to test, EVERYBODY became addicted and loved them, the burning legion invasion thing was a hit. So was another thing that I dont quite recall, some race in hyjall or something.

Social gatherting areas! everybody needs a place to chill and talk, and RPers would benefit from this the most. Sorry, but people love that type of shit.

if you want a really custom server, try to have all of the above. if you want a bg/arena/blizlike, try for none of a couple of the above.

tl;dr It all depends on your server and who you are targeting.

[~Keric Vi Britannia~]

Malls - Always a good idea! Include everything, and get people up to a good start!
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled) - Time and effort and precise timing would have to be put into something like this, and it would be pretty difficult to maintain large events. Try it at your own time, but there are always up's and down's.
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled)
Social gathering areas - Be careful, sometimes this may end up being a bad thing instead of good.
Scripted minigames - Something that fails most of the time. Be careful, and all.
Instances -Instances? Always good. Just try to keep things a bit realistic and balanced.
Raids - What I said for Instances, just keep things realistic and balanced, and you'd be alright.
New battleground - Once again, another daring move. Try at own risk. Get ideas from others, and examples, and work over them, but not copy them exactly, bit by bit.
Arena - I use blue, because Arenas are both over-rated, AND popular. Get a good, custom arena going, with a good structured build, and popularity will build over time.
Obstacle courses - Obstacle Courses. Sometimes they suck, sometimes they're good. Make sure you get a bit of practice under your belt before you go and mess with these.
Custom Items (Please specify) - Be careful with how you structure weapons. They might have an over-powered quality, or they might be under-powered. They might also be abusable! They're always a good idea, but you need to think smart, when making items.
Scripted NPCs (Please specify)- Of course. Always fun. Just keep them balanced, like the other ideas.
New Quests (Please specify) - Never a bad idea. Make them both simple and efficient, and enjoyable, and they'll be great.
Custom / Secondary classes - No, no, no, no, and no. Too much time taking, too hard, and the chances of success, are slim, even with a good server.
____________________________________________________________

Many people never actually realize the ups and downs of these things, so just keep those in mind and think a bit realistic, and people would enjoy a fun server a bit more.

[grandmst20]

Malls
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled)
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled)
Social gathering areas
Scripted minigames
Instances
Raids
New battleground
Arena
Obstacle courses
Custom Items (Please specify)
Scripted NPCs (Please specify)
New Quests (Please specify)
Custom / Secondary classes

really it depends on the people you are trying to get, any and all or combinations of the above would net different player bases. Honestly I would love for some GOOD or decent WELL THOUGHT OUT hero classes unlocked via quest chains to be made. I had a few thoughts and working on putting them on my server.

Where grandms is wrong:

People love arena, its the biggest e-sport to flex your ***** since BG's

EVERYONE likes obstacle courses, its a thing to do while waiting on Qs.

scripted minigames are clever and I used a few from ****** to test, EVERYBODY became addicted and loved them, the burning legion invasion thing was a hit. So was another thing that I dont quite recall, some race in hyjall or something.

Social gatherting areas! everybody needs a place to chill and talk, and RPers would benefit from this the most. Sorry, but people love that type of shit.

if you want a really custom server, try to have all of the above. if you want a bg/arena/blizlike, try for none of a couple of the above.

tl;dr It all depends on your server and who you are targeting.

You contradicted yourself. You said I was wrong because everyone loves arena and obstacle courses. I hate arena and the latter. So, you sir, are wrong. You seem to speak on behalf of a lot of people (who remain unnamed, so you have little to no factual basis). My opinion is strictly out of my interests.

[Rollese]

Malls [needed, for at least basic gear]
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled) [Not possible to manage such big events on private server, you'd have to have thousands of players to pull these off]
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled) [Small events are the most important thing about Funservers, be sure to recruit GMs that do events often.]
Social gathering areas [very important that such area exists outside the mall - the GM should be visible there and chat casually with players - players feel more "at home" that way and won't leave your server.]
Scripted minigames [as long as they do not give overpowered rewards]
Instances [see below]
Raids [I think people join funservers NOT to do instances/raids. They can do that on retail/lowrate servers]
New battleground [as long as it is not bugged and teams have equal chances]
Arena [as long as there are no overpowered items]
Obstacle courses [cheaters complete them instantly with flyhack and get the reward while normal players have to to do it over and over again 'till they complete it]
Custom Items [I am against all custom items because they usually are overpowered in one way or another. For example people with custom items would kill new players in PvP instantly which makes your new players often leave the server]
Scripted NPCs [Teleporters, BuffNPCs]
New Quests [Interesing quests that has to do wth custom content you created, no overpowered rewards!]
Custom / Secondary classes [No, they are usually bugged and/or overpowered]

[factionwars]

Thank you people, i am looking at all the comments now and trying to make an overview.


Looking forward to more reply's

[factionwars]

Malls [needed, for at least basic gear]
Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled) [Not possible to manage such big events on private server, you'd have to have thousands of players to pull these off]
Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled) [Small events are the most important thing about Funservers, be sure to recruit GMs that do events often.]
Social gathering areas [very important that such area exists outside the mall - the GM should be visible there and chat casually with players - players feel more "at home" that way and won't leave your server.]
Scripted minigames [as long as they do not give overpowered rewards]
Instances [see below]
Raids [I think people join funservers NOT to do instances/raids. They can do that on retail/lowrate servers]
New battleground [as long as it is not bugged and teams have equal chances]
Arena [as long as there are no overpowered items]
Obstacle courses [cheaters complete them instantly with flyhack and get the reward while normal players have to to do it over and over again 'till they complete it]
Custom Items [I am against all custom items because they usually are overpowered in one way or another. For example people with custom items would kill new players in PvP instantly which makes your new players often leave the server]
Scripted NPCs [Teleporters, BuffNPCs]
New Quests [Interesing quests that has to do wth custom content you created, no overpowered rewards!]
Custom / Secondary classes [No, they are usually bugged and/or overpowered]

i dislike your thoughts about big events and social areas.
1. big events are possible on a private server. as long as everything is done before it begins.
2. a good gm is not invisible and is not being a gm. he's playing with other players and help players when needed.

And people please dont think about what's possible. but what do you like.

Trust me . Almost everything can be done (we'll prove you later)

[TheSpidey]

Malls in my opinion are a lazy man's way of giving your players
starting gear. It's time designers spruced up newways to do it,
without having an unimaginative mall.

Events, both large and small, when done correctly, can be a source of tremendous
fun for your players. Overdo them, though, and your events will lose their impact, making
players less interested and impressed.

Scripted minigames, if I catch your drift, can also be
pretty fun and amusing when done correctly.
Custom instances and raids need proper attention and care; Make sure
they're challenging and rewarding, and aren't a big stretch of grind.

New battleground & Arena can be fun if you can balance them well and
integrate them into the existing system.

Obstacle courses are a heartbeat away from becoming full-fledged world
encounters. Put increasingly leveled monsters along a linear route and get a
big yawn from me. Require me to amass a large force and form proper tactics
before I enter the fight - i.e put an obstacle in my path - and earn my
applause.

Custom Items / New Quests / Custom & Secondary classes - Balance,
balance, balance! It's not too hard to design balanced items or figure out
interesting story lines for quests, but creating new classes is just a recipe for
strife and angst from your players. You know how players whine when Blizz
changes a class? Now put your unskilled self in their position. Do you really
think you can outperform them? Are you sure the benefit is worth the cost? In
most if not all cases, your time is much better spent doing any of the things
I've mentioned so far rather than designing and balancing a whole new class
or range of classes, or set of items.

Overall, your consideration is required. Who's your target audience? Are they
blood-thirsty PvPers with little regard to PvE? In such case you should focus
more on PvP events rather than custom instances and raids. Are they
roleplayers? They'll probably enjoy a well-designed quest chain or a story-
relevant raid far more than a new battleground or arena. Understanding
your target audience is key in designing a successful game experience.

[stoneharry]

It's not too hard to... figure out interesting story lines for quests

Lies. Fillar

[thebigman]

You contradicted yourself. You said I was wrong because everyone loves arena and obstacle courses. I hate arena and the latter. So, you sir, are wrong. You seem to speak on behalf of a lot of people (who remain unnamed, so you have little to no factual basis). My opinion is strictly out of my interests.

Never said I had "factual information"
also a majority of players feel they have big *****es in arena therefore most like it.

[grandmst20]

Never said I had "factual information"
also a majority of players feel they have big *****es in arena therefore most like it.

This is true. This is also one of the reasons I hate arenas.

[I Hypnotoad I]

Green = Yes, with reasoning
Red = No, with reasoning
White = Neutral

Malls - A mall can be great when combined with a social gathering area. May I suggest using an ORIGINAL area when you do this, and keep the mall as small as possible.

Large events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Lunar Festival scaled) - Players like me, LOVE these kind of events. If you combine Large Events, Raids, and PvP, these can be amazing. For example, lets use Lunar festival. You are required to do simple things in the zone, but also run around azeroth retrieving items. This is even better if you make it like a scavenger hunt, adding a description to an item you get for completing the quest that will lead you to the next part of the chain. For bosses, the Dog boss is a prime example. As for PvP, you can possibly make this large events around Dire Maul or Gurubashi, and have a quest to kill 10 people in DM/GURU as a daily.

Small events (Not blizzlike, but roughly Darkmoon faire scaled) - These are usually boring and repetitive in my eyes.

Social gathering areas - These kinds of places are good for RPers (If a non-PvP Oriented realm) or gankers (For PvP)

Scripted minigames
Instances

Raids - I believe raiding is VERY important if at least half of your servers population is more into raiding then PvPing, Try to offer a more challenging experience for a great, non-overpowered reward. If possible, you can even try to create encounters like seen in Icecrown Citadel (Such as the Battleships, but not THAT complex) the sky is the limit.)

New battleground - I have seen great success with these, You will need many LUA scripters and possibly a pro C++/C# scripter.

Arena/PvP - Any system that offers Rewards for the amount of people you kill in a row is good. This is hardly ever seen on servers like Eternion-WoW.

Obstacle courses - You find these on almost EVERY server, it's very unoriginal and the only people that complete them are complete rank-outs, or hackers. If you try to make it original however, possibly by adding a 'Twist' to it, you had have my vote.

Custom Items (Please specify)
Scripted NPCs (Please specify)
New Quests (Please specify)
Custom / Secondary classes - I once saw a system where you would start off the game normally, progress to a certain level, and choose a certain 'Faction' for yoru character. (For example, Gnome and Goblin engineering) as your progress through levels, you would learn new spells and get new items differently compared to the other faction/secondary class. You can easily do this by adding a spell-effect (With a cooldown) to an item, and telling players to equip this to your actionbars as if a normal ability.

[darkwiz787]

What spidey said.

[runyoufools]

Have fun programming, theres a lot of great ideas hovering through this thread.
I dont have much experience, but the things i added to my server that i enjoy are:

lvl1 flying mount, instant, works in azeroth, works while dead, works while in combat, downside is the blue stuff that gets in your camera.
.learn 55164

A portal at the starting location of every race leading to an inn located at a formerly inaccessible area (south of the ghostlands) in wich i planted an innkeeper, a shop with a few nice starting items and trainers for every class and every weapon, accessible by both horde and alliance. Outside i planted a few trainingdummys and a portal to a large "dome-shaped" building filled with an army of elites to taunt.

So i have a small gathering area from where i can fly off with my buddies out into the wild.

Hope you like it.