I think if all custom servers had a decent sized team and had a year or so to create the server before opening it to the public, you might see more of what you are wanting to see, Secrets.
You have to keep in mind that creating content 1 or 2 zones at a time is no easy task to create perfect balance for. To do it right, stuff like loot would have to be fully planned out from starting a new character to the end-game content before any actual loot tables were made for the custom zones. It would probably be a good idea to get at least a rough plan done all of the way up before starting it anyway, but many people starting a server don't think about that before-hand.
I am sure that servers are not much fun to develop for until the are open to players. Also, developing a full server worth of content before opening it up is sure to have very unbalanced content loaded with tons of bugs and issues that will need to be resolved later, if they are ever resolved/found at all. So, many people like to get their server open as soon as possible. That is what I did with Storm Haven. Doing that means content has to be done quickly, so you are likely to see freebies where there should be quest for such items, and you are likely to see content that is very similar to the standard PEQ DB other than maybe a few changed factors (mostly loot tables).
I didn't know anything about running a server when I first created Storm Haven. If I had it all to do over again, I am sure I would have it planned out much better before hand and do quite a few things differently. The good thing is that now that we have enough content to keep people busy for quite a while before they run out of things to do, now we can start going back and filling in the stuff that should have been there from the start. I have even considered doing some major adjustments like cutting item stats data-base-wide by certain percentages. Even though some balance issues like loot being too good or mobs hitting too hard are things that can be tough to adjust after the fact, it is all still a possibility if the change is worth it.
As for your list of what all custom servers have goes, I think you are generalizing way too much. That list may be a compilation of what you have seen on all custom servers, but Storm Haven for example only fits a few of the things on that list. Heck, I think every EQEmu server there is has increased Exp Rates, even PEQ. Also, until their population got so high and lag was reduced, they even had a buffbot I believe.
If EQEmu servers had as many players as EQLive, many of the common things you see on custom servers wouldn't be required, but since player numbers are low in comparison, certain things have to be compensated for. I am sure there are plenty of other things that I could add to your list, and many of those things originated from the custom server named Zebuxoruk as far as I know. I played there and I noted the things that I really liked from the server and incorporated some of them into mine. I am sure others had played there or on one of the other servers that have similar features and used what they liked best as well. If you play somewhere and find something custom that you really like and is a good idea that makes sense and adds to fun, I don't see why not to use it on your own server :P I know some servers have had ideas inspired from playing on Storm Haven as well (clicky banker summon, de-leveling, etc). I think part of creating a custom server is just figuring out the features you have seen and would like to use on your server, and then coming up with your own unique ideas to add to that and make it your own.
It would be really cool if all of the custom server owners could start a project together and have a decent size team to create tons of great content the right way. Unfortunately, I highly doubt anything like that would ever happen. Even if it did happen, it would be an absolute nightmare to manage it. All of the owners wanting to do things their way and not agreeing with each other and different levels of quality work and so on. The only way it could possible work at all would be having some seriously well-thought-out plans before anything at all was created. Even then, I would just imagine constant conflict in a project like that.
Secrets, what happened to the "The Divide" server project that you were working on with some guys? Hopefully you can find something to do that you enjoy soon so you aren't moping around trolling the custom server owners by generalizing them with a negative overtone :P Looks like you got quite a few custom server devs to pop in this thread to defend themselves and their projects. Honestly, I take a bit of offense to your post and I wouldn't be surprised if other custom server owners do as well.
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