Two very important things, with everything else being fairly minor in comparison:
(1) The server hardware/software must be good. That is to say that the server must be able to perform well, even in times of stress. Nothing bugs a gamer more than when they cannot play the game properly. It throws off their rhythm and generally makes it less enjoyable to play. This can be especially true for games like FTB, when even a small amount of lag can carry on over the thousands of actions a person might perform. Imagine needing to place 2000 or so blocks and having that time increased by even 20%. If 2000 blocks takes an hour, that's 12 more minutes. If you keep piling that up it'll get painfully obvious what'll happen.
(2) The server's community must be good. Regardless of whether you have a good modpack, cool features and nice "pay-to-win" addons, if the community doesn't exist the server's population will eventually go extinct. The best way to ensure that this doesn't happen is to develop a strong core of players. People who are devoted to keeping the server going. They generally should be IRL friends or really close gamer friends. These are the people you can rely on to support you when shit hits the fan. Drama will always occur. I have been playing multiplayer video games for a very long time and can say that these things pop up more than you'd like them too.
Think about guilds in WoW, etc. As long as you have a strong, friendly core of players, those players can help you reach out to other players and add to the conglomerate. You must realize that you cannot do all this by yourself, one person simply isn't enough. When you have to make a decision, no matter what you are offending somebody. You will have to rely on these core players to "pad" the landing for the losing side. Even if you lose the players, hopefully you'll have made it less of an issue.
The biggest part is being able to laugh at yourself and at whatever comes at you. If you cannot maintain your composure as the server-head, it'll say a lot to the members of your forum. If you can show that you will not make emotional choices; rather they can rely on you to make concrete, logical decisions. These decisions are ones that effect the server as a whole and can change server dynamics greatly if managed improperly. The most important part is you. Keep this in mind.
(1) The server hardware/software must be good. That is to say that the server must be able to perform well, even in times of stress. Nothing bugs a gamer more than when they cannot play the game properly. It throws off their rhythm and generally makes it less enjoyable to play. This can be especially true for games like FTB, when even a small amount of lag can carry on over the thousands of actions a person might perform. Imagine needing to place 2000 or so blocks and having that time increased by even 20%. If 2000 blocks takes an hour, that's 12 more minutes. If you keep piling that up it'll get painfully obvious what'll happen.
(2) The server's community must be good. Regardless of whether you have a good modpack, cool features and nice "pay-to-win" addons, if the community doesn't exist the server's population will eventually go extinct. The best way to ensure that this doesn't happen is to develop a strong core of players. People who are devoted to keeping the server going. They generally should be IRL friends or really close gamer friends. These are the people you can rely on to support you when shit hits the fan. Drama will always occur. I have been playing multiplayer video games for a very long time and can say that these things pop up more than you'd like them too.
Think about guilds in WoW, etc. As long as you have a strong, friendly core of players, those players can help you reach out to other players and add to the conglomerate. You must realize that you cannot do all this by yourself, one person simply isn't enough. When you have to make a decision, no matter what you are offending somebody. You will have to rely on these core players to "pad" the landing for the losing side. Even if you lose the players, hopefully you'll have made it less of an issue.
The biggest part is being able to laugh at yourself and at whatever comes at you. If you cannot maintain your composure as the server-head, it'll say a lot to the members of your forum. If you can show that you will not make emotional choices; rather they can rely on you to make concrete, logical decisions. These decisions are ones that effect the server as a whole and can change server dynamics greatly if managed improperly. The most important part is you. Keep this in mind.
