Pit falls and pro tips

[zantwic]

Hey,

I am experienced with Minecraft, its mods and the typical problems that come with each of them, and I know how to setup and run a server as I have done it before but for other games.

I am setting up and going to be running a small white list, FTB DW20 mod pack server soon, and this will be my first Minecraft server. I was hoping that someone might be able to give me a heads-up or some tips and tricks around what sort of pitfalls I might meet by doing this. You know typical nuances of a young MC server or the blinding obvious thing that everyone misses.

Want to hit the ground running and not make any false promises.

Hope this is appropriate for this thread

 

[WitherSauce]

1. Never promise that downtime for fixes/ updates will be completed in a certain amount of time. Just generalize to within a day. MC + FTB can result in some fixes that may take some time, especially when updating. Sometimes things go very wrong

2. Backup backup, backup. At least 2+ times per day. If possible do a full server backup. FTB is still beta.

3. Be aware that if you want to customize DW20 with some extra mods, you will probably run into conflicts between IDs from different mods. Take your time. Use NEI to dump an ID map which will show you free IDs.

4. Notepad++ is your friend.

5. If you want to have greater control over your server, check out ForgeEssentials, BukkitForge, or MCPC+.

6. If you want better server performance, use MCPC+ as a software solution before upgrading hardware.

7. As a server admin, never trust anyone, even your closest freind, or mother, if they are playing FTB. MC/ FTB can do some strange things to people Lock the server up tight, be really really careful who you chose as a moderator or OP.

There is probably more, but meh. Have fun!

 

[Dingham]

Good tips withersauce. Although I want to add to the trust point as it seems a bit paranoid. I ran a small community and I trust a lot of them, (>70%), however this is only because I have played with them for months, I also pretty big on members using teamspeak. This helps me as it enables me to get to know my members. This I imagine makes it harder for them to be dishonest. Also when I started the server last your my best friend did it with me, he was made op incase he wanted to do admin stuff but never used it, thus there are people out there that are interested in been honest players. (should note this is a over 18 community)

I also my add as a tip...

8. Don't make a habit out of give stuff out. For your own sanity. If you replace someones stuff because them were stupid enough to fall in lava. Don't replace it, or they'll ask you again. Then others will ask. And then everyone will ask. If you want some time to play, otherwise you could just become a full time admin.

9. Don't play in Creative. Only Spawn. Players don't like seeing admin and ops in creative, they feel cheated. It's fine for spawns in my opinion. As this is something that A.Needs to looks nice. B. Needs to be done fast.

 

[zantwic]

Thank a lot guys, really sound advice. Thing are going to plan so far but I know where to come if thing change.

Ta

 

[Harvest88]

9. Don't play in Creative. Only Spawn. Players don't like seeing admin and ops in creative, they feel cheated. It's fine for spawns in my opinion. As this is something that A.Needs to looks nice. B. Needs to be done fast.

It's would be better it spawn was 100% legit to begin with. Need it done quickly? A small house of wood logs or planks will do for now like I have a simple wooden house of planks no need to cheat in materials. Then the next thing you know people will probably complain at you for the server not being 100% legit. Also try to work along with your players instead of banning things that is causing "lag" to the server. Like if someone got laggy overflowing BC quarries just help them out on pointing out that they're overflowing and tell them how to have an automated overflow prevention system ready to turn them off should the pipes or processing room overfill. If your willing to help them then I bet they'll more than willing to change their systems especially if they have poor systems that they had no idea that it's lags the server so much.

 

[ampayne2]

Harvest those things really depend on whether its whitelisted or not

 

[ronan75]

Ban anything up front you think might be a problem, then test and unban any item after that. Its more understanding to unban then it is to ban an item.

Test, Test, Test - As mentioned before, backup often goes along with this. When ever you decide to make updates or changes, back up first then whitelist yourself only and maybe a couple testers and see how things look.

2 things to make your life easier Block protection and perms by groups. If you can, depending on what perm mod you use, get a block logger too. So you can see who griefed.

Be upfront about your rules, be open to ideas and communicate with your player base.

Guest group- Don't give someone writes to build as soon as they join. This will invite lots of griefers. Those that like your server are the ones less likely to cause trouble.

Mods should be selected and not a rank. Let only those who you will think will best represent your vision of the server have that kind of power