The Startup Experience - Minecraft Servers
Disclaimer: This guide is not designed to bring thousands of concurrent players to your server and no will ever have the power to do so. Producing a popular server has multiple requirements, which you as a new owner will struggle to achieve depending on time management, budget and general server design.
Chapter 1: General Overview
This /guide is aimed at users with desires to create a Minecraft startup, but lack the experience or knowledge to do this effectively. My /guide will be covering the following topic areas: EULA, picking a host, picking a gamemode, setting up your server, graphics, voting lists and treating your players with respect.
Chapters:
I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading the /guide produced purely to help you, the reader, acquire the knowledge needed to start up your very own Minecraft server! The next chapter will cover information about me, the writer, and why I produced this /guide for the Minecraft community.
Chapter 2: The Writer
So you want to know who I am? I mean if you did not then this chapter would have been skipped. Well here we go!
My Information:
Frequently Asked Questions
Personally, I think it is about time I stop wasting your precious Minecraft venture time and get straight on with the guide!
Chapter 3: Minecraft’s End User License Agreement (EULA)
The Minecraft EULA was updated back in 2015 and this has been the most up to date version of said EULA. To ensure I can guide your server on being EULA compliant I have researched different scenarios and found responses from Mojang. As the writer of this /guide I must advise all readers to comply with the EULA. Let’s get into the basics of the EULA for Minecraft servers. As a Minecraft server owner you should comply with all EULA sections regarding server monetisation. These guidelines are clear and will be covered in the following section.
The following is a direct quote from Mojang’s Commercial Usage Guidelines:
The Brand and Assets Guidelines can be found here: https://account.mojang.com/terms#brand
I ask that you get a high-level of understanding from the previous quote as I will be explaining each bullet point further for the convenience of yourselves.
Since the start of 2016, Mojang have been enforcing the EULA heavily upon accounts, servers and websites which violate the agreement. Any users now have the ability to easily report a server which is believed to violate the EULA. This is why I strongly recommend the compliance of the EULA when producing your server to ensure it has a long lasting lifespan.
tl;dr Donations are allowed, only sell cosmetic items or global boosts. No limiting sections of the server, you can sell full-access to the server based on single access fees or subscription based fees.
Chapter 4: Picking a Host
Now I am sure you are horribly bored of the EULA information, I know that it drags on. So let’s jump straight into getting the server rented! This section will give a brief overview on the different ways you can host your server. It will also introduce you to an unbiased list of hosting providers based on price per gigabyte.
Types of Hosting
There are 2 types of hosting that you will want to make yourself familiar with: budget and premium
Please note that budget and premium hosting are shared hosting meaning your server will be located on a node which can have 1 or more other servers depending on the RAM allocation per server.
Budget Hosting - Shared Hosting
Budget hosting is provided by the majority of hosting providers. This type of hosting, while cheap, uses a large amount of shared resources to run your Minecraft server. A budget hosting provider offers services at around $1.49-$4/gb, these low costs mean the hosting provider more than likely offers relatively bad hardware which will not be suitable for larger servers. Budget hosting will tend to be oversold meaning they sell more RAM space than they have on the node, they do this by not allocating dedicated RAM to your server and only applying it when it is needed.
Not the best option but if you are on a low budget, just want to run a server for friends or you are just really cheap then budget hosting is your best bet!
Premium Hosting - Shared Hosting
Premium hosting is provided mainly by the larger, more successful hosting providers. I personally recommend premium hosting over all options in this list because of the improved hardware, dedicated RAM and usually improved customer support. Premium hosting can range anywhere from $6/gb upwards, these costs are a little more expensive but you will definitely witness performance improvements.
Premium hosting, with some providers, offer free bonuses, such as, unlimited slots and a free dedicated IP. These bonuses are usually subject to an add-on fee with budget hosting which can greatly increase costs leading to a weak sense of value for money.
Mitch’s Hosting Provider List
The following list is a personal opinion only. These list is ordered based on pricing of budget and premium costs. Here is what you have been waiting for:
Chapter 5: Picking a Gamemode
A server gamemode can mean the difference between success and failure. There are a wide range of game types being used across the thousands of servers available. This is why you must ensure your server has the ability to stand out against the crowd.
The gamemodes which are most commonly seen around the Minecraft community are: Factions, OP Factions, Prison, SkyBlock, Survival and modpacks, such as, Pixelmon.
I will give a general overview of the gamemodes to enable you, the reader, to decide which you want to use for your server. Obviously, you could use a gamemode not listed here or a completely unique idea all together!
Factions
Factions is a gamemode offering one of the richest PvP experiences in Minecraft. It enables players to create clans to claim land and wage war against opposing factions. This gamemode is arguably the most popular in the Minecraft community. However, successful mode has the drawback of larger servers monopolising the market.
As a precaution I would highly suggest implementing a unique selling point to ensure you can stand out against the crowd and draw in a playerbase.
OP Factions
OP Factions is just like Factions but, as the name suggests, more over powered, This can be implemented by introduction overpowered gear, starter kits and plugins, such as, obsidian destroyer.
Prison
A Prison server allows players to work from the bottom, mining ores to later sell in the prison store. As players advance in the prison mines they can gain access to more mines and more valuable ores. These advancements are only accessible when the player has purchased a higher rank.
Your players have one goal. Freedom. To achieve this they must grind their way through the ranks until their good behaviour and mining ability are at their peak. The ex-cons are let into the wilderness, this can lead to different gamemodes, such as, Factions!
Skyblock
Skyblock is a survival based game, in which the player attempts to complete the challenges given to them by the gamemode. A skyblock island includes the bare minimum needed to enable your players to complete every challenge given to them. For those of you that have not figured it out yet.. Skyblock starts with a small island in the sky.
I would personally recommend the plugin uSkyBlock as it gives a great range of challenges for players to complete.
Sadly, unless you can produce a largely unique skyblock experience then you will need to use skyblock as an additional server to an alternative gamemode.
Survival
Survival is as vanilla as it gets! This gamemode can be adapted using a wide range of bukkit plugins to ensure fun for all the players. Survival is essentially playing on a singleplayer world in a multiplayer environment.
To enhance the gameplay of your survival server you can check the bukkit or spigot resource page to get the highest quality plugins to inspire your playerbase to achieve greatness.
Modpacks
A Modpack is well a pack.. of mods. These modpacks can greatly change the way your players view Minecraft. They introduce new blocks, items and crafting recipes to mixup the gameplay of Minecraft. One of the most well-known modpack is Pixelmon which brings the world of those adorable little Charizards and Squirtles into block form.
Modpacks may require further research on your behalf to ensure you understand how to implement them on the server.
Chapter 6: Navigating Your Server
In this section I will introduce you to the multicraft panel that comes with your hosting plan. Once you have logged in to the client area/multicraft you will be subject to a potentially confusing layout for a new member. Information regarding IP and server name are censored.
Your multicraft panel should look similar to the one above. I will be going over what each part of the main multicraft page means:
Name: This is the name of your server shown across your multicraft panel.
Player Slots: This is the maximum amount of players allowed on your server at one time.
Status: This will show whether your server is online or offline and the player count.
IP: This is what users will connect to in-order to play on your server.
Port: This is the port users must put on the end of the IP to ensure they join your server.
The only exception to this is if your server uses the default port ‘25565’.
World: This tells the server which world file to use when loading.
Server Jar: Here you can change your server build for modpacks or other versions.
Please note when a user joins your server they must use the following format for the hostname IP
ORT. The colon is required.
If you once again view the image above you will notice a navigation menu on the left hand side. The main sections you will want to focus on are the console and files. This next step will cover what the console is and how to properly use it.
The console may look intimidating but it is your go to place for entering important commands for plugins, talking to your players without being in-game and viewing any issues that may occur on boot.
The console is not an in-game player but enables you to act like one with command lines. In my command box I have the message, ‘say Hello! Welcome to the ultimate guide for starting up a server
’, once it is executed it will send a server wide message welcoming people to the guide. Unlike in-game commands the console does not require a forward slash. Plugins like PermissionsEx require an initial command from the console to change your rank to owner, this will then allow you access to further commands in-game. Once you have joined your Minecraft server, in console, type ‘op [name]’ and you will have access to a wide range of commands for your server.
Now let’s move on to getting FTP access, uploading files and editing configurations. To get to the multicraft FTP access complete the following steps: navigate back to the main multicraft page, click the ‘Files’ dropdown on the left navigation window, click ‘FTP File Access’. Once you have entered your details you will see a screen looking similar to this:
This screen is your one way ticket to uploading plugins, editing config files and checking crash reports/logs.
To upload plugins you must first download them via, mc-market resources, spigot resources or bukkit resources. Once you have acquired the jar file for your desired plugin you can navigate to the ‘plugins’ folder in your FTP, then click the ‘upload’ button on the left hand side. This will take you to the following screen:
You will now have the ability to upload your jar file under the ‘Files’ section on the upload screen. This can be used to upload a wide range of file types under your desired directory! It is not just limited to plugins but can also be config files, schematics and worlds.
Once you have uploaded your desired plugins it is advised to restart your server rather than reloading it to ensure your plugin is installed correctly.
Now that you have uploaded your plugins you will want to configure them to your liking. To do this you should navigate back to the plugins directory and find the folder for the plugin you recently uploaded. In most cases it should be the same name as the jar file you uploaded earlier on.
Now that you are inside the plugin folder you should see something similar to this:
This is the file directory for the plugin known as ‘simple crates’. Now that you are in the file directory the multicraft FTP will give you an option to edit the yml file in the multicraft editor:
This editor is extremely convenient for the new server owner as it allows you to edit your config files without having to download them, edit them then re-upload them to the server.
As a side note, I highly recommend sticking exactly to the indentation of the config and make sure you do not produce any syntax errors which could lead to the corruption of the plugin files. A lot of plugins will leave an indication on where the config file is incorrect in the console upon starting up the server.
Chapter 7: Voting Lists
Voting lists are where you as a server owner will attempt to achieve an increase in players. Uploading your server to lists will not guarantee you players as you will need to look at getting graphics, structuring server descriptions and pushing your unique selling point to the fullest.
The following server list is ranked based on daily unique pageviews (provided by siteworthtraffic.com):
When posting your server on different server lists you will be met with an option to enable votifier. On planetminecraft it looks like this:
Once you have installed both votifier and GAListener (Do not forget to customise your GAListener rewards in the config) you will be able to navigate to the votifier directory to get the information needed for the server lists.
Votifier consists of the following: 2 directories (listeners, rsa) and 1 config file. The config file in votifier will contain your address and port. To get your votifier public key you must navigate to the ‘rsa’ folder and view the public.key file to acquire your votifier public key.
After adding all the information to the server lists and updating your GAListener config for rewards, you will be able to have your players vote for your server!
Chapter 8: Final Farewells
Thank you for sticking with the guide/ to the end! I would really appreciate feedback via my contact information or the thread you acquired it from. If any information was not clear to you or you require further guidance you can view my contact details below.
If this guide has been provided to you by people other than Mitch on mc-market please report it to the below contact details or directly to myself on mc-market.
Contact Details:
Skype - heymitch.hale
Mainframe.co - Mitchell
Mc-market - Mitchell
I will be readily available via any of these platforms to provide further guidance on starting up your server.
Disclaimer: This guide is not designed to bring thousands of concurrent players to your server and no will ever have the power to do so. Producing a popular server has multiple requirements, which you as a new owner will struggle to achieve depending on time management, budget and general server design.
Chapter 1: General Overview
This /guide is aimed at users with desires to create a Minecraft startup, but lack the experience or knowledge to do this effectively. My /guide will be covering the following topic areas: EULA, picking a host, picking a gamemode, setting up your server, graphics, voting lists and treating your players with respect.
Chapters:
- General Overview - Introduction to the Guide.
- The Writer - Who am I? Why am I writing this? Why is there not a price tag?
- EULA - What is it? What do I do?
- Picking a Host - Budget vs Premium.
- Picking a Gamemode - Factions, Prison, KitPvP, Minigames, Survival, Modpack.
- Navigating Your Server - FTP Access, Plugins and File Configuration.
- Voting Lists - Page Views (All information from siteworthtraffic.com), Votifier, GAListener.
- Farewell - Final Farewell, Contact Information.
I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading the /guide produced purely to help you, the reader, acquire the knowledge needed to start up your very own Minecraft server! The next chapter will cover information about me, the writer, and why I produced this /guide for the Minecraft community.
Chapter 2: The Writer
So you want to know who I am? I mean if you did not then this chapter would have been skipped. Well here we go!
My Information:
- Name - Mitchell H
- Age - 16 (27/04/1999)
- Minecraft Experience - I have produced multiple Minecraft servers and have sufficient knowledge to produce this startup guide.
- Occupation - Full-time Student
- MC-market.org Account - http://www.mc-market.org/members/20759/ (mitch)
- Hobbies - Browsing the MC-market forums, playing Yu-Gi-Oh, Black Ops 3 and Tribal Wars.
- Future Ambitions - Take a degree in Business Studies or Management, Advance to a Masters in Business Administration, Take a Doctorate in Business and see where life takes me.
- F.A.Q - Down below.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who am I?
- I am just a simple sixth former looking to provide a free resource for members of the Minecraft community.
- Why am I writing this?
- This /guide is being produced for the sole purpose of giving dedicated Minecrafters the ability to startup their very own Minecraft server!
- Why is there not a price tag?
- This is an /guide. I have no desire in producing a revenue from this resource as I strongly believe this information should be common knowledge minus the premium pricing.
- Do you accept donations?
- I do not accept monetary donations, however, if you are really desperate to donate something then I accept games, graphics, introductions and other non-tangible goods.
- What are you studying in school?
- In sixth form I am studying the following topics:
- Business Studies A2 (I did the AS early)
- Mathematics AS
- Computer Science AS
Personally, I think it is about time I stop wasting your precious Minecraft venture time and get straight on with the guide!
Chapter 3: Minecraft’s End User License Agreement (EULA)
The Minecraft EULA was updated back in 2015 and this has been the most up to date version of said EULA. To ensure I can guide your server on being EULA compliant I have researched different scenarios and found responses from Mojang. As the writer of this /guide I must advise all readers to comply with the EULA. Let’s get into the basics of the EULA for Minecraft servers. As a Minecraft server owner you should comply with all EULA sections regarding server monetisation. These guidelines are clear and will be covered in the following section.
The following is a direct quote from Mojang’s Commercial Usage Guidelines:
“With hosting servers we want to enable the community to make money by creating, hosting and maintaining servers for Minecraft, so you may do this subject to these Guidelines. You may have seen the Blog post on server monetization https://mojang.com/2014/06/lets-talk-server-monetisation/ and the follow up Q&A https://mojang.com/2014/06/lets-talk-server-monetisation-the-follow-up-qa. This section of these Guidelines clarifies them. By "server," we mean a single connecting address or IP number.
Therefore, if you comply with and follow the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines and Naming Guidelines above YOU MAY:
Therefore, if you comply with and follow the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines and Naming Guidelines above YOU MAY:
- charge for access to your server, including a server which hosts your Mods, BUT only if:
- you make a single charge per person that is the same for everyone;
- you give everyone you charge, access to all the Mods that you choose to have on your server (except only in respect of genuine admin tools / admin Mods which should be reserved to administrators);
- you only give access to your server to users who have a genuine paid for version of Minecraft;
- you own or control the server and continue to do so for the whole time that you charge for access to it - so, if you sell the actual servers or server space with Mods pre-installed on them, you must ensure that the person buying the server is aware that she must follow these rules. Essentially you can't get round the rules above by setting up servers with Mods on and then selling those set-ups; and
- overall your access charges should be targeted to cover your operational costs of running the server.
- ask for donations (as opposed to direct charges) IF you do not offer the individual donor something in exchange that only he or she can use. You may offer server wide rewards if donation goals are achieved though.
- sell cosmetic items, except for "Capes", IF the item sold does not give a user an unfair gameplay advantage over anyone else on the server - i.e there can be no "pay to win".
- sell positive effects or enhancements (other than "Capes") IF everyone on the server is positively affected in exactly the same way.
- provide in-game advertising opportunities, sponsorships, or product placement for 3rd parties IF they don't degrade or interfere with gameplay or give a user an unfair gameplay advantage over anyone else on the server.
- use in-game currencies IF (i) they are "soft currencies" i.e. a currency earned or expended only through gameplay that has no real world value and that cannot be cashed out, used or transferred across free or paid servers, or converted into "credits"; and (ii) you don't give the impression that it comes from or is associated with Mojang.
- all servers, items and advertising are suitable for the target audience (i.e no gambling, pornography etc.) and don't damage the Brand.
- you don't pretend to be us or claim to have any association with us (for example, when selling product placement opportunities);
- you are explicit about who to contact about the server, who the operator is, and that it is NOT Mojang, NOT associated with Mojang and NOT supported by Mojang;
- Mojang has no liability for anything on the server or that happens on it, including any advertising, purchases or donations;
- you provide any user who gives you money an online payment /purchase history;
- you are transparent on informing users with regard to all the content and pricing applicable to your server before a person joins, signs up or logs in;
- you do not host or distribute malware, spyware, or engage in illegal activity through your server;
- you comply with all other laws and requirements; and
- you comply with any other additional requirements applicable under these Guidelines.”
The Brand and Assets Guidelines can be found here: https://account.mojang.com/terms#brand
I ask that you get a high-level of understanding from the previous quote as I will be explaining each bullet point further for the convenience of yourselves.
- Charge for access to your server - Allowed
- Charging access to your server is accepted by Mojang and complies with the EULA. Access charges must follow a strict guideline as they can be viewed as borderline breaking the EULA. This means all users must pay the same access fee in-order to gain access to the entire server, a server which offers “premium/donor areas” that are not accessible to non-paying players is strictly breaking EULA due to the requirement of all users having fair, equal access to your server and game modes.
- Monthly subscriptions are allowed and accepted in the EULA as long as the customers are paying for entire access to the server and not subscriber areas, game modes and mods.
- Asking for donations - Allowed
- Donations are allowed by Mojang. These donations must not reward individual donors with items/bonuses he/she only have access to. Donations can, however, initiate a server wide reward if you have a specific donation goal set.
- Selling Cosmetic Items - Allowed
- This is the most important part of the Minecraft EULA which many servers are currently breaking. Cosmetic items are items which do not affect the gameplay in any way other than the visible looks. Items sellable include but are not limited to, particle effects, auras, gadgets and pets.
- Selling weapons, OP armour or ranks which bring unfair advantages can lead to action being taken by the Enforcement department of Mojang.
- Selling positive effects or enhancements - Allowed
- These are more commonly known as “boosters”. Mojang have allowed the sale of boosters with one rule, if one user purchases a booster then all users must receive exactly the same boost.
- Providing advertising space or 3rd party product placement - Allowed
- These types of placements are allowed to be sold on servers. However, these advertisements must not conflict with any other agreement in the EULA - i.e unfair gameplay and adult content. Etc.
- In-game Currencies
- In-game currencies are allowed in Minecraft servers, however, as a server owner you must not provide currencies for real money. The in-game currency must also be purely virtual, they cannot be cashed out, used or transferred across servers this means a casino-type server that can cash out “credits” for real-world currency is directly violating the EULA.
- Damaging the name of Mojang, using the name of Mojang - Not Allowed
- The Commercial Usage Guidelines have strict guidelines on the usage of your server and/or product. As a server owner you must ensure nobody believes your server is directly affiliated with Mojang. Advertisements must be suitable for all target audiences as this risks damaging the name of Mojang and Minecraft.
- You must not distribute any harmful software to your players as this can lead to a lawsuit or Mojang being damaged by bad publicity.
Since the start of 2016, Mojang have been enforcing the EULA heavily upon accounts, servers and websites which violate the agreement. Any users now have the ability to easily report a server which is believed to violate the EULA. This is why I strongly recommend the compliance of the EULA when producing your server to ensure it has a long lasting lifespan.
tl;dr Donations are allowed, only sell cosmetic items or global boosts. No limiting sections of the server, you can sell full-access to the server based on single access fees or subscription based fees.
Chapter 4: Picking a Host
Now I am sure you are horribly bored of the EULA information, I know that it drags on. So let’s jump straight into getting the server rented! This section will give a brief overview on the different ways you can host your server. It will also introduce you to an unbiased list of hosting providers based on price per gigabyte.
Types of Hosting
There are 2 types of hosting that you will want to make yourself familiar with: budget and premium
Please note that budget and premium hosting are shared hosting meaning your server will be located on a node which can have 1 or more other servers depending on the RAM allocation per server.
Budget Hosting - Shared Hosting
Budget hosting is provided by the majority of hosting providers. This type of hosting, while cheap, uses a large amount of shared resources to run your Minecraft server. A budget hosting provider offers services at around $1.49-$4/gb, these low costs mean the hosting provider more than likely offers relatively bad hardware which will not be suitable for larger servers. Budget hosting will tend to be oversold meaning they sell more RAM space than they have on the node, they do this by not allocating dedicated RAM to your server and only applying it when it is needed.
Not the best option but if you are on a low budget, just want to run a server for friends or you are just really cheap then budget hosting is your best bet!
Premium Hosting - Shared Hosting
Premium hosting is provided mainly by the larger, more successful hosting providers. I personally recommend premium hosting over all options in this list because of the improved hardware, dedicated RAM and usually improved customer support. Premium hosting can range anywhere from $6/gb upwards, these costs are a little more expensive but you will definitely witness performance improvements.
Premium hosting, with some providers, offer free bonuses, such as, unlimited slots and a free dedicated IP. These bonuses are usually subject to an add-on fee with budget hosting which can greatly increase costs leading to a weak sense of value for money.
Mitch’s Hosting Provider List
The following list is a personal opinion only. These list is ordered based on pricing of budget and premium costs. Here is what you have been waiting for:
- https://shockbyte.com - $2.50/gb
- https://furioushosting.tech - $2.50/gb
- https://www.host-atom.com - $3.00/gb
- https://www.minecraft-hosting.pro - $3.00/gb
- https://www.beastnode.com - Budget: $2.99/gb | Premium: $10.00/gb
- https://www.dedifire.com/game-servers/ - $6.00/gb | $0.49/slot (Machines built for gaming)
- https://cubedhost.com - Budget: $8.00/gb | Premium: $12.00/gb
- https://mcprohosting.com - $9.99/gb
Chapter 5: Picking a Gamemode
A server gamemode can mean the difference between success and failure. There are a wide range of game types being used across the thousands of servers available. This is why you must ensure your server has the ability to stand out against the crowd.
The gamemodes which are most commonly seen around the Minecraft community are: Factions, OP Factions, Prison, SkyBlock, Survival and modpacks, such as, Pixelmon.
I will give a general overview of the gamemodes to enable you, the reader, to decide which you want to use for your server. Obviously, you could use a gamemode not listed here or a completely unique idea all together!
Factions
Factions is a gamemode offering one of the richest PvP experiences in Minecraft. It enables players to create clans to claim land and wage war against opposing factions. This gamemode is arguably the most popular in the Minecraft community. However, successful mode has the drawback of larger servers monopolising the market.
As a precaution I would highly suggest implementing a unique selling point to ensure you can stand out against the crowd and draw in a playerbase.
OP Factions
OP Factions is just like Factions but, as the name suggests, more over powered, This can be implemented by introduction overpowered gear, starter kits and plugins, such as, obsidian destroyer.
Prison
A Prison server allows players to work from the bottom, mining ores to later sell in the prison store. As players advance in the prison mines they can gain access to more mines and more valuable ores. These advancements are only accessible when the player has purchased a higher rank.
Your players have one goal. Freedom. To achieve this they must grind their way through the ranks until their good behaviour and mining ability are at their peak. The ex-cons are let into the wilderness, this can lead to different gamemodes, such as, Factions!
Skyblock
Skyblock is a survival based game, in which the player attempts to complete the challenges given to them by the gamemode. A skyblock island includes the bare minimum needed to enable your players to complete every challenge given to them. For those of you that have not figured it out yet.. Skyblock starts with a small island in the sky.
I would personally recommend the plugin uSkyBlock as it gives a great range of challenges for players to complete.
Sadly, unless you can produce a largely unique skyblock experience then you will need to use skyblock as an additional server to an alternative gamemode.
Survival
Survival is as vanilla as it gets! This gamemode can be adapted using a wide range of bukkit plugins to ensure fun for all the players. Survival is essentially playing on a singleplayer world in a multiplayer environment.
To enhance the gameplay of your survival server you can check the bukkit or spigot resource page to get the highest quality plugins to inspire your playerbase to achieve greatness.
Modpacks
A Modpack is well a pack.. of mods. These modpacks can greatly change the way your players view Minecraft. They introduce new blocks, items and crafting recipes to mixup the gameplay of Minecraft. One of the most well-known modpack is Pixelmon which brings the world of those adorable little Charizards and Squirtles into block form.
Modpacks may require further research on your behalf to ensure you understand how to implement them on the server.
Chapter 6: Navigating Your Server
In this section I will introduce you to the multicraft panel that comes with your hosting plan. Once you have logged in to the client area/multicraft you will be subject to a potentially confusing layout for a new member. Information regarding IP and server name are censored.
Your multicraft panel should look similar to the one above. I will be going over what each part of the main multicraft page means:
Name: This is the name of your server shown across your multicraft panel.
Player Slots: This is the maximum amount of players allowed on your server at one time.
Status: This will show whether your server is online or offline and the player count.
IP: This is what users will connect to in-order to play on your server.
Port: This is the port users must put on the end of the IP to ensure they join your server.
The only exception to this is if your server uses the default port ‘25565’.
World: This tells the server which world file to use when loading.
Server Jar: Here you can change your server build for modpacks or other versions.
Please note when a user joins your server they must use the following format for the hostname IP
ORT. The colon is required.If you once again view the image above you will notice a navigation menu on the left hand side. The main sections you will want to focus on are the console and files. This next step will cover what the console is and how to properly use it.
The console may look intimidating but it is your go to place for entering important commands for plugins, talking to your players without being in-game and viewing any issues that may occur on boot.
The console is not an in-game player but enables you to act like one with command lines. In my command box I have the message, ‘say Hello! Welcome to the ultimate guide for starting up a server
’, once it is executed it will send a server wide message welcoming people to the guide. Unlike in-game commands the console does not require a forward slash. Plugins like PermissionsEx require an initial command from the console to change your rank to owner, this will then allow you access to further commands in-game. Once you have joined your Minecraft server, in console, type ‘op [name]’ and you will have access to a wide range of commands for your server.Now let’s move on to getting FTP access, uploading files and editing configurations. To get to the multicraft FTP access complete the following steps: navigate back to the main multicraft page, click the ‘Files’ dropdown on the left navigation window, click ‘FTP File Access’. Once you have entered your details you will see a screen looking similar to this:
This screen is your one way ticket to uploading plugins, editing config files and checking crash reports/logs.
To upload plugins you must first download them via, mc-market resources, spigot resources or bukkit resources. Once you have acquired the jar file for your desired plugin you can navigate to the ‘plugins’ folder in your FTP, then click the ‘upload’ button on the left hand side. This will take you to the following screen:
You will now have the ability to upload your jar file under the ‘Files’ section on the upload screen. This can be used to upload a wide range of file types under your desired directory! It is not just limited to plugins but can also be config files, schematics and worlds.
Once you have uploaded your desired plugins it is advised to restart your server rather than reloading it to ensure your plugin is installed correctly.
Now that you have uploaded your plugins you will want to configure them to your liking. To do this you should navigate back to the plugins directory and find the folder for the plugin you recently uploaded. In most cases it should be the same name as the jar file you uploaded earlier on.
Now that you are inside the plugin folder you should see something similar to this:
This is the file directory for the plugin known as ‘simple crates’. Now that you are in the file directory the multicraft FTP will give you an option to edit the yml file in the multicraft editor:
This editor is extremely convenient for the new server owner as it allows you to edit your config files without having to download them, edit them then re-upload them to the server.
As a side note, I highly recommend sticking exactly to the indentation of the config and make sure you do not produce any syntax errors which could lead to the corruption of the plugin files. A lot of plugins will leave an indication on where the config file is incorrect in the console upon starting up the server.
Chapter 7: Voting Lists
Voting lists are where you as a server owner will attempt to achieve an increase in players. Uploading your server to lists will not guarantee you players as you will need to look at getting graphics, structuring server descriptions and pushing your unique selling point to the fullest.
The following server list is ranked based on daily unique pageviews (provided by siteworthtraffic.com):
- 205,360 - planetminecraft.com
- 141,778 - minecraftservers.org
- 99,351 - minecraft-mp.com
- 77,464 - minecraft-server-list.com
- 49,962 - topg.org
When posting your server on different server lists you will be met with an option to enable votifier. On planetminecraft it looks like this:
Once you have installed both votifier and GAListener (Do not forget to customise your GAListener rewards in the config) you will be able to navigate to the votifier directory to get the information needed for the server lists.
Votifier consists of the following: 2 directories (listeners, rsa) and 1 config file. The config file in votifier will contain your address and port. To get your votifier public key you must navigate to the ‘rsa’ folder and view the public.key file to acquire your votifier public key.
After adding all the information to the server lists and updating your GAListener config for rewards, you will be able to have your players vote for your server!
Chapter 8: Final Farewells
Thank you for sticking with the guide/ to the end! I would really appreciate feedback via my contact information or the thread you acquired it from. If any information was not clear to you or you require further guidance you can view my contact details below.
If this guide has been provided to you by people other than Mitch on mc-market please report it to the below contact details or directly to myself on mc-market.
Contact Details:
Skype - heymitch.hale
Mainframe.co - Mitchell
Mc-market - Mitchell
I will be readily available via any of these platforms to provide further guidance on starting up your server.
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