What makes a good server?

[huggybear]

Hi guys, I decided to post this thread as a genuine question to you guys the community as to what you think makes a dam good server.

I have been contemplating making a server of my own for years, however I have always been a player more so than a creator but I feel like after 20 years of playing I feel like I have the knowledge to create something players would enjoy, I have seen so many servers fall due to silly mistakes or lack of commitment or just in it for a quick penny. Id love to hear some feedback on what you guys enjoy as I want to put something out there that grabs attention.

We all love mir and I refuse to let it die out <3

 

[Whoops777]

My type of server is to have 10/20 quest at the start in a province
Then say a npc at the 1st cave and have like 20 quest inside that cave and do it for all caves
All the way to lvlv 100 cave . Then when you update your server you can just add quests to the npc at the cave. I would like to see more of the lower caves transformd into harder caves using what you have and what you can make it into
And put some caves together say 10 caves or keep do it to all of the caves
Also lots of group caves
And boss caves like super bosses for 10+ ppl

 

[nigelfarage]

The servers I enjoy the most are the ones where they add in meaningful quality of life changes and change how spells work like on Jamie's servers.

Good quality of life changes like:
No durability on items (it's just annoying imo)
Health potions that can be used hundreds of times at once to provide a steady hp regen rather than tapping the potion button all the time
Spells that are automatically learned when you reach a level, except for rare high level spells
An auto attack button that you can press to make your character attack in a single direction until you press the button again
Items having a large max stack size so that we can hold hundreds of random teleports
Disable bag weight

And also changing how spells function to make them more intuitive and satisfying
Such as on Jamie's server he changed Assassin's Dark Body spell to create an explosion around an enemy when the enemy died, and also other changes such as crescent slash being changed to a toggle ability that had a chance to fire the crescent slashes every time you use a basic auto attack. I've never played anything more fun than that before, it was excellent.

 

[Jev]

I'd say go for it with creating your own server. There are plently of guides and resources around to help you create an awesome server.
Loads of people to ask for help if you get stuck.

Create a server you'd want to play is my best advice.

 

[NoLife999]

Every person will have a different point of view off what they would say is a good server so I don't see how that is going to help you create your own server my advice is just go with it make your own server as @Jev said create a server you would like to play.

come up with new ideas and new features for the server.
if you can pay for code for new things to be added (if you cannot code)

and good luck (i am no expert but if you require any help you can drop me a message )

 

[Omnibus]

I like innovation in a server. Also having new additions, power ups, levels etc etc would also make it fun.

Adding in new maps and new mobs would always be a must do!

The GM must also be a problem solver and address any bugs or glitches within the Server and root out any cheats/ bad behaviour etc etc.

 

[Vyse]

As others say Mir differs for each and every person so everyones opinions will be different. For me though I think the most important things are

1. PVP Balanced correctly and their is a significant Risk & Reward system in place.
2. Solo content and 4 man group content, yes you can have larger group content but currently the active user base on lomcn is quite low.
3. Systems built on top of the existing game to let players feel like they are progressing even outside of levelling prime example is Bons Codex system which he took from Mir4 and simplified. Mir4 and MirM had a lot of good features like this that gave people other goals to aim for besides levelling.
4. Different types of PVP mode that are safe from body drop e.g like sabuk.
5. Cash shop that contains no permanent buffs or ingame items that effect the balance.
6. Evolution on classes spells and the Stats in the game things like durability are a bit dated in my opinion and as are the machanics, spells, and stats for references on how you could change this I'd suggest looking at Mir4 or MirM spells and stats and design future PVE content to contain some of these effects within.

Just to carry on with point six MirM taoist instead of going mir2/3 route with multiple summons got 1 summon that scaled based off player level, and skill level making it much more useful than having to create new pets or buffing them every 20-30 levels on Mir2/3 servers. Addtionally their were effects like Slow, stun, freeze, poison, burn, Petrify, Silience, reduced potion effect, increased potion effect, reduced healing, increased healing all these effects could be worked into the game in a balance method if someone took the time to do it.

Best change I saw in Mir4 was the Lancer who is basically the assassin got lifesteal on a single skill with a pretty hefty cooldown (think 30 seconds) on it rather than a set % of lifesteal on everything it does which would be much more easier to balance for PVE and PVP on Mir2/3 servers.


Also you wouldn't need to redesign the early game on a Mir2/3 server adding such effects all you need to do is add Skill levels 4-8 where these effects start to appear and keep level 1-3 for the base games content so as not to break early game.

 

[LuckyDip]

Deffo agree with @Jev on this, Create a server you would enjoy playing, im in the midst of making my server based solely off what i enjoy as custom as i can make it (i can not code but i do my best). No matter what you create somebody isnt going to enjoy it and thats ok so if you try to keep everyone happy you will just become one of them gms who gets frustrated with his community, Feedback either good or bad is feedback and implementing the ideas of the community is great to an extent but aslong as you stick to your plan people will very likely play it or at the very least try it.

 

[huggybear]

Thanks for the replies guys, Im giving it a go im sure i will be asking for help at some point <3

 

[WelshSteel]

Imagine I wrote 5 full bodied paragraphs.

My xmas present to you all and all the best for the new year

 

[thedeath]

i think you need to start with what you want: do you want a good server or a popular one? (these 2 arent exactly the same lol)

most ppl would say a good server is a popular one so lets assume you meant that:

- pretend it's not p2w, but make it as p2w as possible (this might sound stupid but the more you can pay to get ahead/stronger > the higher usercount a server ends up getting). <players just cant get the impression it's expencive/bad so microtransactions are likely king here.

- dont mess to much with the first days of a users experience. try to stock to almost stock "euro" maps/quests below something like lvl 20/30, you can modify the exp etc and even small tweaks but your main goal is to appeal to that nostalgic feeling to draw the player in.

- expect you first 2/3 weeks to be really bad for your social life as a gm (the first group of players to join will expect 24/7 support and massive tweaks to fix issues fast, after that if you succeed your community will settle out most of the time).

- once your players get past that initial 'original' content make sure there's a nice bunch of 'newer' content to keep them bussy (but expect the first group to run out of content in under 3 weeks no matter how much you added at start lol).

- in a perfect world you have new content drops every month at most (best to not add everything from the start and have a staggered release, first ones to drop in 2 week intervals and later you can go 4 weeks just fine).

- dont worry to much about pvp balance late game, your much bigger problem is going to be getting through those first weeks when most arent endgame and struggle to play/fight while they are lower lvl and the geeks ended up outlvling(gearing) them super fast. < this is where most of your balance complaints are going to be based on and once they start they stick the rests of your servers life no matter what you change.

- above all: dont try to force small guilds, yes small guilds look great in encouraging pvp on your server. but it actually makes most of the players lose out on being part of your server community and ends up killing of your userbase real quick. once your server is running for a few weeks/months those big guilds are gonna start splitting up because the ppl inside cant get along> but at that point they're hooked to your community.

 

[mir2pion]

I found an interesting 18 minutes video on how p2w leads to stagnation and decline of user count for today's big online MMOGs and IMO it applies to mir2 p2w server scene as well.

Interestingly it touts subscription based servers...

 

[thedeath]

I found an interesting 18 minutes video on how p2w leads to stagnation and decline of user count for today's big online MMOGs and IMO it applies to mir2 p2w server scene as well.

Interestingly it touts subscription based servers...

see thing is: this is true> but in mir private servers there's a unique scenario:
- servers rarely last more then 2 or even 3 months before you see a massive decline.
- servers dont get 'popular', they either start popular or die off in days.

the reason why p2w ends up bad for big mmo's = majority of players arent the whales that enjoy paying big.
reason it works amazing for mir = majority of players are the whales that expect to be done with a server within 3 months max anyway

 

[mir2pion]

You got something there. We'll see how the sub based server soon to be released will fare.

There are (or were?) also those long lived servers, p69, Arcadia, Artificial, Chronicles (now closed?). They are not roaring but still have or had exceptional run, much longer than few months.