OSRS pros/cons/questions of Official Custom Servers

I just heard about the 2023 end of year survey and the ONE thing that stood out to me was the talk of custom servers.

  • This would essentially add modding to Oldschool Runescape.

  • I 100% WOULD COME BACK TO RUNESCAPE AND PLAY AROUND WITH MAKING THINGS OH MY GOD YES YES YES YES YES WHAT THE HEEEEEEL?!!!!!!!!!

  • This raises many questions and points of discussion.

  • Would players get paid for it?

  • On one hand, this is like any modding scene for any game. If you look at Minecraft modding, Terraria modding, Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod... players don't get paid to mod games, they mod for the love of the game.

  • On the other hand, if we make something good enough to be in the game, shouldn't we get paid for making something for the game?

  • Not to mention, couldn't we just make a Patreon to support myself as a Runescape Custom Server creator? People already do this when modding other games, and even for existing illegal servers.

  • If this is made, creators WILL need community creation tools; players WILL need a custom server browser. In other words, I would want to advertise my world or worlds as "DataScape" and make a nice thumbnail graphic you click on to access my worlds which rests in a browser amongst other people's custom 'Scapes with their own nice little graphics and whatnot.

  • Creators will abuse free XP and Items in worlds. There is always a market for this. I know progression in a custom world will not be tied to the main game, but it's something we will see everyone do. The question is, is it so bad? You can think of it as having permanent beta testing worlds.

  • Regarding the previous point, Team Fortress 2 has seen some types of server that give you everything for free and making everything TURBO by giving everyone rapid attack speeds and infinite crits and all sorts of crazy buyable perks. I think the Runescape equivalent would be like... if we gave OSRS exp rates equivalent to RS3 and gave everyone free insanely OP weapons with infinite special attack. Someone could make that, and who knows, maybe they could monetize it somehow, maybe even abuse it and create Pay-2-Win systems through Patreon or something. I think that kind of server is trashy and appeals to children who just play mindlessly and just not good for the game. So...

  • Jagex would certainly need rules on what creators are and are not allowed to make. While giving us a lot of freedom, restrictions would need to be in place. But how do you decide on these things? I don't think Jagex has historically been the best in deciding clear rules for this stuff; to do so requires foreseeing all potential problems before they begin.

  • Oh yea, people could just code a gambling server too.

  • Money is just a big question isn't it. I would personally do it for free.

  • Next question: Is there a possibility for content in my custom world to be considered for addition to the main game as an official update to normal Runescape?

  • I 100% WOULD WANT THIS. THIS WOULD BE A MAJOR REASON FOR ME TO WANT TO BOTHER EVEN MAKING A CUSTOM SERVER!!! I WANT TO DESIGN PVM CHALLENGES, TRY MAKING A PVP MINIGAME, MAKE ITEMS, MAKE MONSTERS, THAT COULD OFFICIAL BECOME PART OF RUNESCAPE!

  • To me, this is a GOLDEN opportunity to allow EXPERIMENTAL and BETA content to be created, without polls, but with players testing it to see if it works or not, and then poll it later to make it official. This is something gamedev NEEDS that polls get in the way of. This would be such a huge motivator for me because this is how >I< develop content for games I play and mod - through iterative testing and feedback.

  • This will allow EVERYONE to try out new things in Runescape that are controversial to REALLY see if they are a fit for the game or not. Imagine a u/GentleTractor custom world that implements his ever famous update ideas? We could try stuff and if it works, poll it for the real game. If not, it could be improved until it works. If it never works, it can safely be removed from the custom world without affecting the main game.

  • Perhaps we could also be compensated if we make something that catches on so good that it gets added, or that it becomes an officially hosted gamemode?

  • What would the protocol for this be?

  • I could see two types of custom content that could become officially part of the game. First is regular gameplay updates. Quests, custom monsters, skills, items, balance changes. Second is custom gamemodes, like if someone make special rules for a Custom Battle Royale Scape or Prophunt Scape or a custom Deadman Mode. These would not be added to the official game, but could go into the pool of fun event modes that get hosted for a month or something.

  • Some players have mentioned it will fracture the playerbase. I disagree, but I think it depends on the rules for creation of custom servers.

  • I think the majority will still play the main gamemode and realize that many custom servers are just a gimmick.

  • This will also partly depend on the capacity of how many custom worlds can be made. If even 1,000 of Runescape's players made their own custom world, that's already space for 2 million players and way more than the base game. 99% of it will be EMPTY.

  • How is that going to work lol.

  • Can I as a creator make two worlds? I personally would want to make one world for custom "main game" content, and one or even multiple worlds for "custom game modes", as I have ideas for all of it.

  • Then again, maybe I don't need a second world for a "custom game mode". I could just put it in my one world as a limited event using my world, and turn it off later. I could also just make it a minigame. Or a world-wide minigame...

  • So, perhaps creators should be limited to only making one custom server?

  • What if someone makes a world so popular, it is full 2000/2000 at all times? I'm sure any OSRS Youtuber could easily pull that off by inviting players to play in their own world, regardless of if the content is good or bad.

  • Would there be any kind of restriction on WHO can make a world? Because if even 100 people can make a custom world, at 2000 player capacity, that is still 200k player capacity set aside for custom worlds. How will that work?

  • I would pay a $100 one-time fee to be allowed to create a custom world. This matches the one-time fee required to be able to release games on Steam. This would thin the number of random "just trying this out and abandoning it later" servers down to people who seriously really want to make something.

  • Will these be player hosted or Jagex hosted? I do own my own VPS and could definitely host my own world, but I doubt I have as much security as a literal game studio.

  • All in all, this isn't just an idea with huge potential. This will be an extremely huge breakthrough for Oldschool Runescape as a game, if it ever happens.

  • Creators would need access to development tools. I want tools to help me create models the way Jagex does. I want to edit Runescript. I want to build islands with towns on them. I want to edit the engine code. I want to add something that "gives you a one time bonus for the first account you make on my world just so you aren't starting completely from scratch which requires me to know information about your runescape account".

  • I want in.