10 important tips of creating a playable server

[WizZy_]

Hey guys. Over the past years of my developing career and playing Lineage II till Hi5 ,I learned a lot. You know all those 'shitty' compared to your servers who are at the top of the voting lists ? Well, they make it simple and thats the key. The simpler it is - the easier and problem less it is. You see, when you create a complex server with a lot of farm zones, voting systems, a billion NPC's wearing enchanted weapons, fancy custom armors, boosted stats and so on it gets harder and harder for a new player to understand your server completely. The sad truth is not many players know fluent English, so even if you make guides they won't be able to understand it. Then player starts whining why he has this and he doesn't, you try to explain how it works and why is it this way, but players never listen to you - they just want to play.

 

So, lets begin with some simple, but important tips :

 

Tip 1 : Never listen what one single player says about your server.

Always make a poll on the forum or even InGame (there's a system here for polling IG). Make players vote. If you're affected by every player opinion none will be happy. Everything wants a different type of play game, that's why there are so many server out there. If they're not comfortable at yours - there are 400+ others.

 

Tip 2 : Make it fancy, but not so complex.

It is nice to have multi colored NPC's. I personally like it, since I see something different than gray text. Use images BUILT IN the game (do not add external and make your patch bigger /tip10/). Use your imagation, but do not make dark blue/lime green colors which can annoy the players vision.

 

Tip 3 : Always make a 2nd character and be a player in your server.

You will be surprised how much small things such as missing items in the GM Shop (cyrstals/spirit ore/soul ore and such) can make you ragequit your own server. Also, you may learn if you've got any current glitches/exploits in your server. Team up with the big clans - they are the key.

P.S. By making your own character, you may give yourself items as well. Just don't tell your friends that you're a GM's second char, this may piss them off. Don't go too high though.

Tip 4 : Make your forum active.

Many players who are sick of unstable, bugged to hell servers check the forums first (so do I). Never delete or fake anything in the forum which may sound promising, but isn't. I know it drives GM's and even Administrators crazy sometimes when the player starts saying bullshit about your server, but act smart - leave your community to prove him wrong. This way you will gain a better perspective from the viewer.

 

Tip 5 : Don't make ETA's you are not sure about.

I made those a lot and I've got to tell you - this is the best way to lose your players. Do not make fake promises to provide things you (and your team) are not capable of. Always make the promise, if it's a code, test it for a couple of days on a private/beta server and when it's all working - give a sure estimated time of arrival.

 

Tip 6 : Make simple, but big events.

Many administrators make events for voting for the server which is completely acceptable by the raking lists. This is a big way to earn votes, although, don't boost the prizes too high as you may ruin your economy.

Another good idea is to make some events of type 'Valentines day', 'Christmas prize' and other kind of stuff. We are all aware of your mighty TvT/CTF/DM/KoTH auto events, but do something different already. Make special items drop, make them collect them and bring them to a NPC and get some nice prize. Use your imagination.

 

Tip 7 : Make sure that new players can start playing comfortable.

You've probably quit a lot of times for being PK'ed in the farming/level zones. Well, its not only you - your players will do too if you don't take some responsibility. Sometimes guards are not enough - use your developer to make a custom zone where Hide skills (and such) cannot be used and if players are PK'ed to be automatically revived by the system. Remove monsters aggression and team attack. Make sure a GM Shop is always by the players hand. Also, be sure they've got enough Adena to gear up heavy enough to face your farm zones where they can collect for your bigger items/enchantments.

 

Tip 8 : Optimize it.

Optimize your server by disabling useless things in your server package. These things are such as Quests, Seven Signs, Merchants and such, of course, if you are making a PvP server. Remove the none needed NPC's like in the grocery's, temples, but always make sure you've got your alternative (such as custom subclass changer,augmenter,class changer,gmshop with all supplies). This can make your server load a lot faster, also improving the game performance since it has less objects to load. You can remove monsters from forgotten areas like starting zones, forests and such.

 

Tip 9 : Make huge items hard to get.

I'm talking about these items who are REALLY hard to get and have to be a fortune for a player. Those items are such as Valakas Necklace and those type of jewels, Elegia sets, Elegia weapons and so on. Back in Interlude (C6), there wasn't much of a choice for the players gear, but now, in Linage II - High Five there are a lot of other alternatives, such as dynasty and vesper items make a good, also strong alternatives for farming the big things.

 

And last, but obviously the most important - Tip 10 : Server patch.

Adding too much custom items/files or protection to your server can take a part of your community away. It is true that today almost every player has an over 10mbps connection (which is 1mb/s download speed), but those sites who you upload your patch to are speed limited, unless you are a premium user. Never let your patch go over 30MB (archived) or your players can get lazy downloading it. Also, if you bought a host (for your website for example), you can always upload the patch there. The download speed will be bigger and also people won't have to wait or see a thousand ads while waiting.

[Gries]

There is a similiar topic made by another guy here:

http://maxcheaters.com/forum/index.php?topic=230494.0

[L2 E.M.D S.R.L]

There is a similiar topic made by another guy here:

http://maxcheaters.com/forum/index.php?topic=230494.0

good but not good enough

[manu13l2]

thanks for the tips

[djspankman]

well most of these are kind of standard and obvious stuff. I guess some people need that pointed out though :D

[mfausb]

well most of these are kind of standard and obvious stuff. I guess some people need that pointed out though :D

 

:D

[Dreed]

thx, it could be useful

[exity]

Nice one :)

[tenshicz]

nice :D just logic ;)

[MisterBlack]

Thanks for the guide, it helped me a bit.

[lloode]

thanks for the tips