Today, many servers are focused on either Player versus Monster (PvM) or Player versus Player (PvP) and thus creating an imbalance where the players have no content in the Wilderness or any area for player combat, or contain all content in the Wilderness and therefore creating a cat-and-mouse situation. While there is not one solution for everyone, this blog goes over some things that can be done to encourage wilderness activity.
Tasks and Achievements
Creating tasks and achievements related to different parts of the game such as combat, skilling, treasure trails or other miscellaneous tasks is a great way to add a change of pace and something to aim for apart from getting the highest levels or getting your hands on the best gear. By allowing players to complete tasks inside of player-versus-player areas and rewarding them with useful rewards that allow teleportation, banking or grant increased attributes such as experience gain or drop chance inside of that area, players will be interested in completing the tasks to reap the rewards.
Special Events
Having one or multiple special events inside of a player-versus-player area will incentivize players to visit it. Some examples to a special event are: A world boss to fight many bosses at once, a specific skilling node for fast experience gain, defeating monsters to protect or loot a chest or increase the spawn and drop chance of certain monsters in a specific area. One example of this that was successful is Oldschool Runescapes monster called Revenant Maledictus, which spawned in the Revenant caves, an already popular player-versus-player area on launch.
Slayer and PvM
Inserting Slayer and bossing/pvm into Wilderness is another way of motivating players to visit it. Slayer is included by having a Wilderness slayer master which rewards the players with either less xp but more points or vice-versa. It allows players to quicker gather points or level up in exchange for a risk of meeting another player in a combat encounter. Wilderness bossing can also be added by placing difficult monsters in either singles+ or a multi-combat area. Focus lies on the +, meaning players can be in 1v1 combat while already being in combat with the boss. Otherwise, chances are that players will avoid players by engaging in combat with a monster that can not kill them.
Skilling Content
Scaling skilling content with a Wilderness or risk level is a great content to attract players to the Wilderness. By placing various skilling nodes all over the area and ensuring that they are not obtainable from other areas in the game, skillers will be forced to gather them from a dangerous area. While some may decide to fully avoid it, others will train new accounts to protect themselves while gathering valuable materials, and thus creating a pvp scenario.
Bounties and Clan Content
Finally, ensuring that bounties and clan content are available is another method of making a pvp area more popular. Bounties ensures that people are after different targets and gain greater rewards in contrast to staying in one area and attempting to scout out weaker targets. On another hand, implementing clan content will motivate players to create groups and will attract groups of players to your server. If pulled off correctly, creating a clan versus clan situation can lead to a longer period of battles in a pvp area, and will motivate others to join in on the action.
Conclusion
Be aware that while these are some examples of how to create an active Wilderness or pvp-area, it is once again not one solution for all servers. While some servers may implement these ideas and find success, that does not mean that others will too. In the end, it is also of great significance that the combat mechanics are identical to Runescape as players want to re-experience nostalgia and play through a game that they are used to, not relearn or take on new content. This is one of the reasons to why there are not any custom pvp servers currently on the market, as they introduce new, custom weapons and mechanics that end up being too powerful in comparison to the standard and balance set by the original game.
