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How to make your minecraft server blow up!

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Athamus Network's Avatar Athamus Network
Level 14 : Journeyman Network
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Did a short review on my website: Crimsoku TV


The Beginning




That's right, I'm a server owner, running a server can be easy, or it
can be hard! If it's easy than your not doing it right, there are always
hundreds of more ways to improve your minecraft server. And not even I
know many of them at all. I started my server with a simple 2GB RAM
which can be real important when you want lots of players to have more
ram, which is why I upgraded to 4.5GB Ram with cubichost.





The most important part of a server is its Staff and "Spawn Structures",
basically what catches the eye. Put yourself in the position of the
player, What would you want to see, how would you want to play the game. Always put your members ahead of the fun parts of being an owner(hard work pays of).



What makes servers fun?



What may strike you and I as fun, could be different to each individual
who plays on your server, It is you who determines how long a member
will stay, A lot of server are just lucky, they get the right members at
the right times, the right personalities, some aren't so lucky, and
that is when it becomes difficult to grow your playerbase. This is why
you need a good common ground, something that most everyone likes! If
you are running a Minigames only server make sure to have just one
minigame so players can actually play with each other(for brand new
servers). If you're running factions, make sure you have good starter
kits, If you are running towny, Decent starter kits such as: Wood,
Wooden Tools, Animals, Wheat(Any PVE Element), And perhaps offer to help
start off the first few towns. People join servers to play with other
people, Just keep that in mind.



How to keep players?




What works really well is when you give your members something to do,
something to achieve. Perhaps an auto ranking system. Playtime
determining when you rank up in game, that will keep your member there
longer. There are many variations of ranks that would spark the players
interest.



Best times To bump on Planet Minecraft?



Many server owners think the best times to bump on pmc is when kids not
currently in school, or are home from school, This is partially true,
but there is more you have to look at and think about. PMC has a
wonderful feature where it tells us how many players are currently
online browsing the site, TAKE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, find the busiest
time and bump that server!



What traits to look for in staff.




This could be the hardest part of any new starting server. Staff is real
important, you can't run a server on your own unless you plan on
getting no sleep. Servers have many time zones, you're not gonna stay up
forever. Take a break!

Some traits to look for in staff:
+ Mature
+ Organized
+ Patient
+ And again.. Mature

Other server owners might look for more traits, What are yours?



Best Minecraft plugins for your server



The following plugins are some plugins I found really useful on my own
server, Which is currently turning out to be real successful:

A Reward Plugin:

This plugin allows you to reward your players in many different ways for
many different reason. It currently supports all versions of Minecraft
1.8 and up. here is a link to the plugin page on spigot: RewardPro

New Player Protections:

Noob Protect is a simple and non-configurable but useful plugin. It
protects any returning players for 5 minutes on rejoin, and protects any
ne to the server players for 24 hrs on join, and it can simple be
canceled using the command /noob off. Here is a link to the plugin: Noob Protect

Time Is Money:

If you are using Vault
and have an economy plugin, you could use this plugin. This plugin pays
players for daily logins, and by the hour or minute, this plugin is
also really easy to configure. Here is a link to Time is Money



There are many other plugins you can use to make the server more
newplayer friendly, if you have any, please comment down below! I am
open to more ideas.



Core Plugins For Your Minecraft Server

There are thousands of different plugins you can use for your server,
dozens and dozens of admin plugins, hundreds of add-on plugins, but only
a select few of all these plugins are essential for your server to be
successful. Speaking of "Essentials", one of the first plugins you
should worry about is:



Essentials:


Essentials is a super complex plugin that gives your server over 100
different commands to spice things up on your server, it is also
required to run many different types of plugins for different types of
servers. You may download Essentials builds here.



Vault:


Vault is another really important plugin to use, Vault is an Economy,
Permissions and Chat API. Many plugins require you to have this
installed to your server, there is no config, meaning easy download and
installs to your server with no problems, just make sure you're getting
the right versions! You can download Vault here



WorldGuard



If you are planning on making a more vanilla type server where players
can do anything anywhere, this plugin wont help you, but please keep in
mind, players who join servers want something interesting. Worldguard
allows server admins to protect land from regular members of the server
from breaking, or placing, or even switching. You can deny exiting a
place, or deny entering a place without certain permissions. You can
download this plugin here



CoreProtect:



Coreprotect is a simple block logging plugin, this plugin logs block
activity/interactions. Say "Steve" Breaks a block and steals some pork
out of "Eaves" chest. Eave will make a ticket for a grief report. The
staff member "Notch" will go to the location of the grief and type /co
i, from there Notch will right click blocks to check the block logs, and
chest logs. Steve is found guilty because CoreProtect was keeping logs
of those blocks disturbed by Steve. Anyway you can download this plugin
from here





Im back

Hello! I haven't been updating this in a long time, and that is because I stopped running my very own minecraft server to deal with 'Life'. Though I recently decided to come back to what I enjoyed for so many years. I will be updating this blog again, Hoping to spread some more strategies and updating my own !

User Opinions:


Naarcissus
I think that this guide is useful to new server owners interested in
growing their playerbase. Even if they don't necessarily agree with all
of the ideas, it's always good to understand another's experience and
possible ways to solve similar problems. Since you're interested in
feedback, I'll elaborate on why I like your post:





redrum64 said:


This plugin pays
players for daily logins, and by the hour or minute, this plugin is also
really easy to configure. Here is a link to Time is Money


In my opinion, rewarding players for their time spent on the
server is more of an added bonus. Accumulating money or valuable items
by playing isn't enough to actually hook in new players if they find the
game boring, but it might encourage already active players to stay on
the server when other members aren't online. The real value of this
plugin, in my opinion, is the possibility for daily login rewards that
can act as a substitute for voting. While voting can help promote a
server, only a couple of votes doesn't do much. New players who join
are likely to have joined other servers and tested out the voting
rewards already. They have used all of their votes on the main voting
sites and simply cannot vote for the server to receive the voting
rewards that are no doubt very valuable when starting out. Having a
daily login reward enables players searching for new servers to have a
great start on your server, and in the long run, the daily login reward
might just snag some players who regularly vote for another server.






redrum64 said:


If you are running
a Minigames only server make sure to have just one minigame so players
can actually play with each other(for brand new servers).


I agree with starting out small as long as players have hope for
expansion in the (near) future. Hub servers attract players because they
reach a wider variety of interests, but yes, they spread out players
and reduce community interaction. Starting small enough for a few new
players to interact is essential to minigames servers that rely on there
being enough players to actually start the game. While other gamemodes
can also benefit from a sense of community, I think other gamemodes
should strive to be unique enough and have enough individual content to
interest players who join alone.





redrum64 said:


If you're running
factions, make sure you have good starter kits, If you are running
towny, Decent starter kits such as: Wood, Wooden Tools, Animals,
Wheat(Any PVE Element)


I personally don't like having many starter kits, but I recognize
their importance. I prefer having a more challenging game where I have
to make my own tools, but this can be difficult for players joining a
fairly empty server. Without regulars around to answer questions and
help new players start out, kits can make a great start on the server a
lot easier. These kits also bring me to a point about donator ranks.
When I look at potential servers to join, some of the first things I
look at are the ranks. Many large servers have ranks priced upwards of
$100 USD. Such large scale donations are appealing, but having expensive
ranks is not the way to go when starting out. If players join your
server just to try it, they're not going to want to invest a lot of
money in it. Therefore, it's more effective to entice players with small
packages that make them stand out than with large packages containing
loads of items that make the game easier and make a lonely server
ultimately less difficult/entertaining.





redrum64 said:


The most important
part of a server is its Staff and "Spawn Structures", basically what
catches the eye. Put yourself in the position of the player, What would
you want to see, how would you want to play the game. Always put your
members ahead of the fun parts of being an owner(hard work pays of).


Almost always when I join a server I see the owner simply sitting
in-game. I understand that after you go through so much set up and
testing the game might not be all that appealing to play, but I think
that actually playing on the server (mostly) legitly is a way to
encourage other players to play. Also, giving staff ranks only the
permissions they need to do their job might send people who simply join
and ask for staff away, but eventually it will lead to only players who
really want to help others applying for the positions. Staff members will also have to play fairly, which encourages them to remain active and progress (who wants to play towny, skyblock, etc when you have creative and don't work for resources?).



I like your server, and it was nice getting to interact with you in-game.

- Naarcissus
Nitwick
> Core plugins. There are people who have no idea about Essentials,
Coreprotect, Worldguard and other useful plugins to have. What you
suggest is good for gameplay, but perhaps not optimal when it comes to
actual setup of the server - the formation of the server's core. Making a
note of the permissions plugin options would be helpful as well.

>
A note on what kind of hosting you prefer. Specific sites are not
allowed, but even a look at the pros and cons of home vs online hosting
may be useful.

> Technical babble. Basics for plugin
installation, initial setup, a note on permissions, setup resources if
you advise a permissions plugin (such as the extensive documentation
available for PEX) and so on.

All in all, quite good. If this
expands, it would save me the trouble of making a general concept guide,
and allow me to dig into specific elements of servers while being able
to just point here for a general overview.

Mr_Jacksonville
*cough* me.



Though I do agree that spawn structures are pretty important to catch
players' eyes, I think what's really more important is when the players
are looking for a server. Banners, what gamemodes you offer, how many
players are online, etc. comes in to play when you want the players
browsing on Minecraft server sites to stop scrolling and get on the
server. Banners kind of matter because you want to stand out from other
servers' banners as well as not making it something too flashy to the
point where it hurts your eyes looking at it. Gamemodes really depend on
the players' personal taste. From what I've heard, servers with custom
gamemodes have been pretty successful, so if you could squeeze in that
as well as other classic gamemodes (i.e. prison, survival, towny), you
are pretty much good to go. In my opinion, you shouldn't have too many
mini games servers to start because if one person comes on to the server
wanting to play Bedwars (for example), but there's no one else on, what
fun is that? With the players count displayed on the listing sites, I
personally prefer going on to popular servers because, well, everyone's
on, why shouldn't I? Not saying I don't prefer smaller playerbases than
larger ones. If I think the gamemodes offered are interesting, I'd go on
there, or if I saw a really interesting banner, I would think, "Hey...
that server has got some dedication into making it special, why not
check it out?"



So that's just my two cents to input into this guide. Hope you understand my viewpoints. :)


[​Article in progress]
I need Idea's and tips. To improve my server and this article, to better help new servers!
CreditNitwick, Naarcissus, Mr_Jacksonville
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15 Update Logs

Update #15 : by Athamus Network 01/10/2021 1:35:43 amJan 10th, 2021

Added a Website URL to a small minecraft review on my new website
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1
01/20/2021 10:29 pm
Level 26 : Expert Warrior
ImYourFwend_
ImYourFwend_'s Avatar
ok thx
1
02/04/2018 2:30 am
Level 1 : New Miner
ScratDe
ScratDe's Avatar
Time to upgrade my Minecraft to premium (Link removed) :D
1
02/04/2018 5:35 pm
Level 14 : Journeyman Network
Athamus Network
Athamus Network's Avatar
Premium is very useful, lots more account protection ( Per server ), also a lot more better maintained servers are from premium minecraft users.
1
01/24/2018 10:31 pm
Level 57 : Grandmaster Engineer
ShelLuser
ShelLuser's Avatar
I'm not necessarily a fan of the way you shared your blog because all the spoiler sections made it harder to read. Then again, I also have to admit that it was somewhat different.

But there's one thing which I think is very important yet left out from your guide. About those plugins: actually customize your plugins to meet your demands and/or separate yourself from the rest.

9 out of 10 servers simply install plugins and use their default values. Sure, plugins like GriefPrevention use sane defaults, I'm not denying that, but it becomes awkward if you (for example) share a certain building expectation ("make your build at least 20x20 blocks to make a good impression") and then don't allow said player to protect their build because the default values don't cover this.

Seriously: if 2 survival servers use GriefPrevention and both use defaults settings then... why would I stay with either of them when a third offers me a larger default starting claim?

In my opinion too many aspiring server owners think that just slapping a bunch of plugins onto a server is enough to make it work. But with a seriously oversaturated server market that trick no longer works.
1
02/03/2018 8:30 pm
Level 14 : Journeyman Network
Athamus Network
Athamus Network's Avatar
You make a good point. I took the format into consideration and changed it, no spoilers.

I will also be adding some more about how to make your plugins more unique by configuring them to the servers own unique ways.

I will also be brainstorming examples
1
12/21/2017 5:15 pm
Level 22 : Expert Blockhead
raidarr
raidarr's Avatar
> Core plugins. There are people who have no idea about Essentials, Coreprotect, Worldguard and other useful plugins to have. What you suggest is good for gameplay, but perhaps not optimal when it comes to actual setup of the server - the formation of the server's core. Making a note of the permissions plugin options would be helpful as well.

> A note on what kind of hosting you prefer. Specific sites are not allowed, but even a look at the pros and cons of home vs online hosting may be useful.

> Technical babble. Basics for plugin installation, initial setup, a note on permissions, setup resources if you advise a permissions plugin (such as the extensive documentation available for PEX) and so on.

All in all, quite good. If this expands, it would save me the trouble of making a general concept guide, and allow me to dig into specific elements of servers while being able to just point here for a general overview.
1
12/22/2017 12:45 am
Level 14 : Journeyman Network
Athamus Network
Athamus Network's Avatar
Thank you for your detailed comment. I will definitely add a core plugins category. I've had experience with Pex and group manager, I will be able to list pros and cons of both to better suggest to the server owner which one fits their style. And how important essentials is to a server and how if it's run on wrong version it could hurt ur server ram, and cause all kinds of player rollbacks when it comes to economy and vault. Thanks again for your comment! I'll be adding you to the credits.
1
12/20/2017 10:01 am
Level 14 : Journeyman Network
Athamus Network
Athamus Network's Avatar
I'm considering adding some art. Expect that in next update
1
12/19/2017 4:22 pm
Level 53 : Grandmaster Architect
LightlySaltedBuilder
LightlySaltedBuilder's Avatar
You should talk about staff, and community. Great blog, real nicely formatted, it isn't an eyesore like some of the blogs on here. Keep up the good work.
1
12/19/2017 6:26 pm
Level 14 : Journeyman Network
Athamus Network
Athamus Network's Avatar
Thank you so much for your feedback! I actually plan on editing quite a bit of the format anyway, make it even more eyefriendly. I will talk about staff next! Thanks for the suggestion
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