What do you look for when searching for a new server?

[HalfShotz]

I've been looking into starting a new FTB Infinity server and I know what it is that I look for when browsing through the many different server lists, but it's sometimes hard to judge a server based just on descriptions.

I was curious what others look for when searching for a new server to play on. Is item restriction a major deciding factor? What about the overall design/look of the website and advertising, does a well presented poster/logo/advert entice you to look in to joining? Are you all about ranks & titles or is a strong player economy what gets you eager to join?

I have a fairly good idea what direction and what focus/goals the server will be based on, but having opinions outside my own that I may not have considered will definitely help me shape it to be friendlier to a broader audience.

Any tips/suggestions are welcome.

 

[asb3pe]

Usually, lag is the biggest factor. If you're breaking block after block, and you have to break each block twice before it "drops"? I won't last more than 5 minutes on such a server. Good bye and good riddance.

The next biggest factor would be the modpack they're running, but since that's a personal taste and a personal choice, there's not much to say about that. Pretty obvious. I prefer the harder packs, so if they're running some real easy modpack... meh.

Third would be if they ban items or not, I'm not a big fan of that even tho I understand why it sometimes needs to be done. Each item banned diminishes the experience, so that can be a big factor on some servers.

And finally, the last factor (I think) is whether you like the people who are playing on that server or not. I'm older, so if I discover the server is filled with young "adults" (who really aren't yet haha)... I might reconsider. hahah The server I currently play on likes to switch modpacks very frequently, which I don't quite understand. I guess they only enjoy playing the early-game, and they play it over and over and over again... as if the next time, it will go much better. (shrug)

 

[Nedrith]

For me the biggest thing is the modpack, when I want to play on a server I know what modpack I want to play on and if they aren't running it then I don't want to join. For example right now I want to play infinity evolved expert mode because I like the recipe changes and I love the pack mods
The next is probably the age of a server as while a newer server is more dangerous to play on a lot of times over an older one due to it possibly not lasting for a long time, I don't like to play on a server where people are giving away high end items because they have a crap ton.
The next major one is lag, I don't want to be fighting lag constantly. small bursts are fine, but if they happen often then no.
Next would be basic server stuff. Banned items, rules, donation rewards ect. I hate the whole donate $50 and we'll give you a creative energy cell, no inventory loss on death, 8 teleport points so you never have to walk far again and the ability to warp back to your last death point. Server owners want to make money or atleast pay less than full price for their servers and get something for their time but some of the rewards are very balance breaking.

 

[PierceSG]

1. I don't like having banned items, and then "rewarding" them for "donations".
2. I don't like teleport commands.
3. I don't like KeepInventory on.
4. Server performance. If I have to wait a full second for the block to be broken or appear after placing it, I rather be playing SP.
5. No PvP. I have other games that I play for PvP, Minecraft isn't in my list.
6. Last of all, the community. I don't mind playing with kids. I do mind playing with "kids".

 

[Waisse]

In no particular order :

- Mature staff
- Friendly community
- Good ping and TPS
- A good modpack, may be custom I don't care if it's a good one
- Clear rules

 

[HalfShotz]

Third would be if they ban items or not, I'm not a big fan of that even tho I understand why it sometimes needs to be done. Each item banned diminishes the experience, so that can be a big factor on some servers.

I plan on having a lot of the server resource intensive mods/items restricted to higher ranked players, and as few banned items as possible. I think most of the banned items will be either because they cause crashes or bypass protections. For example Speed III Upgrade for ender quarries would be restricted to a higher rank than just the base rank, is something like that understandable/acceptable in your opinion, or should it be allowed to be used by all players regardless of rank?

 

[HalfShotz]

Server owners want to make money or atleast pay less than full price for their servers and get something for their time but some of the rewards are very balance breaking.

That I can definitely understand. I usually try to stay away from giving creative items as rewards because it does make things unfair.
For donating, I'd have rewards, but none that would make things incredibly unbalanced.

Some of the things I'd probably use as rewards for donating would be:

- Ranks, which would allow players to have access to server resource intensive items/mods sooner (like Speed 3 Upgrades for ender quarries or access to dimension creation from RFTools).
- In-Game money, to use towards player shop purchases/rental/etc.
- Additional land claim space to protect larger areas.
- Starter kits for some of the primary mods like AE2/TE/IC2 to help players get started, but it would be starter materials only, not end-game mats like enderium, etc.

Do those kinds of rewards seem too unbalanced or would those be acceptable in your opinion?

 

[Inaeo]

That would depend greatly upon how one was to rise through the ranks. If I join a server and the staff tell me I'll have to jump through hoops to obtain certain items, I'm likely to walk away. I figure the hoops the mod developers pit in place should be enough. Also, if you're banning items, in likely not going to stick around, as its a slippery slope when doing such, and people can grief with even Vanilla tactics if they wanted to. If the item is causing crashes, I suppose that's a bit different, but it still leads to bad places when owners start banning items IMO.

Edit: Donations being required to obtain normally craftable items is right out for me. That's extortion in my book, and I'll not be a part of it.

 

[HalfShotz]

3. I don't like KeepInventory on.
5. No PvP. I have other games that I play for PvP, Minecraft isn't in my list.
6. Last of all, the community. I don't mind playing with kids. I do mind playing with "kids".

I completely agree with KeepInv, that breaks a lot of the immersion for me. Gives you no reason to fear death, so you don't care about being careful.
No PVP is also a big game breaker for me, I've played on a few PVP servers in the past and it just kills the experience, especially when it's bullies who do nothing but farm new players and drive them away from playing on the server ever again.
The kids part I have a low tolerance for as well, while I understand some will play on the server .. as long as they act mature I don't mind. I don't plan on tolerating childhish behavior though, not the kind of server I would want to be a part of, let alone run & administrate.

Thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

 

[HalfShotz]

That would depend greatly upon how one was to rise through the ranks. If I join a server and the staff tell me I'll have to jump through hoops to obtain certain items, I'm likely to walk away. I figure the hoops the mod developers pit in place should be enough. Also, if you're banning items, in likely not going to stick around, as its a slippery slope when doing such, and people can grief with even Vanilla tactics if they wanted to. If the item is causing crashes, I suppose that's a bit different, but it still leads to bad places when owners start banning items IMO.

Edit: Donations being required to obtain normally craftable items is right out for me. That's extortion in my book, and I'll not be a part of it.

Rank would more than likely be strictly time/experience based. Play for 12 hours and have 30XP in your XP bar and you rank up to the next level. I don't see that as too much of a hassle when I've played on servers, so it's probably what I would stick with on my own.

Banning items, I agree is a slippery slope, but sometimes it needs to be done for the betterment of the server as a whole. While it's a pain for the players who do play by the rules, there are those who don't and will abuse easy exploits if given the chance. It's hard to find a balance but I would definitely do my best to keep banned items to as low as possible.

As far as donations for normally craftable items, that I agree with. The only time I would ban a craftable item that could be used with a donation would be dimension creation. However, it would still be available to those who reach the rank normally, so it would be restricted and not actually banned outright. I don't think I can think of any item that I would give to only a donator, all items donators would get would be available at later ranks, it would just take time for players to get access to them.

 

[Nedrith]

That I can definitely understand. I usually try to stay away from giving creative items as rewards because it does make things unfair.
For donating, I'd have rewards, but none that would make things incredibly unbalanced.

Some of the things I'd probably use as rewards for donating would be:

- Ranks, which would allow players to have access to server resource intensive items/mods sooner (like Speed 3 Upgrades for ender quarries or access to dimension creation from RFTools).
- In-Game money, to use towards player shop purchases/rental/etc.
- Additional land claim space to protect larger areas.
- Starter kits for some of the primary mods like AE2/TE/IC2 to help players get started, but it would be starter materials only, not end-game mats like enderium, etc.

Do those kinds of rewards seem too unbalanced or would those be acceptable in your opinion?

I love ranks, I would love a server that gives ranks not just for donating but for other things such as helping out other players with mod advice or building advice or just simply being active on the server. I actually donated on one server just for the rank as sad as that is.ws Honestly I'm not completely sure if I would like to see dimension creation restricted by ranks. I don't mind seeing it banned due to server resources it takes but for a player to have unlimited access to powerful dimensions because they donated is a big deal. Now if you were to say donate X amount of money and get access to one dimension that you can custom create that I would be fine with. As long as there are restrictions in place, I would hate to see someone pay for a UU-Matter ocean dimension or any other dimension that boasts a lot of powerful resources. Sure other people are going to get into the dimension but overall it's a pretty game breaking dimension. Whether said player would have to power the dimension they paid for themselves or not is debatable, I would probably say that with good restrictions the power cost wouldn't be high and as such the power could be part of the donation.
In-Game money is fine, assuming the items the players can purchase aren't over the top powerful. I've seen some good servers run admin shops. Things like silverwood saplings that were available in a server that was strangely devoid of silverwood trees for example was nice.
Land claim IMO is probably the best reward, being able to claim about 4-9 chunks is good for any standard player, being able to spread out is nice for other players.
Starter kits would be good. I would avoid something like AE2 probably just because how powerful the mod is but even then giving say a few 1k storage drives or so wouldn't be too bad.

One of the things that I was thinking about lately that I loved about another server I was thinking of joining is restrictions on player item selling. The basic concept is player A can't give player B a diamond producing bee unless player B is at or close to the level of making a diamond producing bee. While I was searching for servers last I came upon the MineYourMind(MYM) group of servers and they had a list of all end-game items for various mod packs that were forbidden to be sold publicly through chat. This seems nice for a few reasons, a New player can't buy currency and then buy top tier items yet it allows players to trade items as long as they progressed to that point.

I would honestly say that last part is overall a very minor thing though, just a nice rule.

If the server you are considering created turns out to be running infinity under expert mode let me know, I'm almost through my IE:Skyblock playthrough and just have a few small things I want to finish up and wouldn't mind playing expert mode in a normal world on multiplayer. Don't play multiplayer too often because I like to play on a relatively new server where I can get a fresh start with a lot of new players and have fun seeing the community spring up.

 

[GreenZombie]

Personally, I would like to find a server that
1. Is low latency.
2. Does NOT have pretensions of some player driven economy with supporting microtransactions.
3. Runs a relatively unmodified FTB pack.
4. Actually has other players.

I have not found such a thing. Every server I have found has had a gloriously modeled starting area, with lots of space for, and advertising for players to buy, market slots. Bad latency (I am playing from south africa, and Minecraft more than any other game seems very sensitive to distance), and a general dearth of other players.

 

[Azzanine]

Latency
Consistency
And Courtesy.
Everything else any one says can boil down to these things.

You must obviously have a server with a playable latency.
You must be consistent with everything you do, moderation, maintenance, up time. If you can help it, your server should be predictable. Being decisive with a ban is important, depending on the community you are trying to harbor.
Also like any service you need to be courteous, even if it's mostly free your server is nothing if you don't respect the players. Think about how the players will react to your decisions and make calls that will improve their experience.

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