How To Make a Good Server

Way back in 2000 I used to work on Damasca, a popular server in its own right that managed to make the cut as an official playerworld and held an impressive player count for the majority of its run. During that time I learned a lot of valuable things that many people here just now seem to be coming to grips with.
In this post I will share that knowledge in the hopes that it will improve the quality of other servers who want to follow in the footsteps of the greats.

The first and most important thing to realize is that you are operating in a vacuum. The potential player base for your server is going to be very small. A typical player count for a 1.28 GServer (back when that sort of thing was actually encouraged by Graal) usually hovered around 5 players during the day even if you managed to disable the 8-player limit. And on Graal Reborn in particular, that number is smaller because everyone is spread out across the serverlist. You will be extremely lucky to get more than ten simultaneous connections at any given time.
As such, you need to design your world accordingly, both in physical size and conceptual scope. The bigger it is, the emptier it will become. To cite a personal example, Damasca 1.31 used an 8x8 overworld with exactly one town on it, and the object of the game was “six different clans battle for the fun of it.” It never took more than 30 seconds to meet up with other players, have a nice chat, and start PKing each other. Low player counts were expected and tolerated because the world was never too big or too small. On the other hand, Damasca Classic (the 2001 playerworld) spans three 16x8 overworlds with multiple towns and fortresses, and the object of the game is “six different Kingdoms have complex relationships with each other in the tactical fight for global domination.” It’s practically a ghost world without the robust player counts of Graal proper to fill it up.
I would say a good sized overworld is never any larger than 8x8 levels, nor should it be any smaller. Otherwise, your players will quickly get bored no matter how much content you’ve filled it with.

The second thing you need to consider is playing toward your audience. Whether you realize it or not, you are competing directly with every other server on the list simply because they are there. How many times have you logged into a world and said “this is boring, nobody’s here, nothing’s being worked on, time to hit F8 and check out the other servers”? You need to give players the impression that you care about your server and there is always something to do. In the old days, this was often as easy as setting up a forum for your GServer to tell people when it was going to be up, what there is to do, and when there’s going to be any special events. The added bonus there was that your players would start to collect and become a community.
Graal Reborn’s unified serverlist and forum definitely makes it harder to stand out this way, but not impossible. Xoria has been a good example of how well this can work, at least to a point. Its world is still too huge for a 10-player population, but the constant presence of the design team and their frequent events and competitions make waves across the board when they happen.
And if you are brave enough to strike out and found your own independent serverlist/GServer combo, you can handle it just like we did in the early years. Just try to avoid attracting unwanted attention from certain Fancy European Abandonware Police. (This, by the way, was how they convinced Damasca to “go legit”. Back then it was a happy compromise, but today it generally involves paying the fee like everyone else.)

The third item (but no less important than the others) is how you manage your staff and delegate responsibilities. Generally speaking, you don’t need to impose a rigid chain of command because anyone you appoint to a position is usually going to be a friend or a loyal player. Most of the time, your team is held together by trust. And when you need to relate to other players as a staff member, just relax and be approachable. You’d be surprised how much good it will do for your reputation and the reputation of your server as a whole.
Point of very, very important advice: Never fail to pull your own weight, never play favorites, and never saddle any one staff member with too many burdens. That kind of management style is exactly what triggered Damasca’s demise from Graal.

If you keep all these things in mind, you’ll have a much better shot at success with your server. It worked for us… and it can work for you.

I remember making the GUI for Damasca then never giving it to you. That server was pretty damn good.

I’ve always worked on one level at a time instead of using a giant, empty GMAP and editting the levels.

I actually uploaded the levels from my server, Zolderon, onto it. Although, nobody ever went on those levels because you had to find my house on the XoriaPW GMAP to get to it… Oh well. I never had enough motivation to finish Zolderon… Much too busy with Classic.

Kool post, it hasd some very good facts about making playerworlds and with the play count we got here its a good point to bring up, i find it easier to make the PW bigger after you have made the main areas (save trouble of what to cut out and the time wasted on them).

5 out of 5 for starting a good thread.

Nobody asked for a review on his post.

oh didnt they?? good point then 5 out of 5 for observation. :smiley: