What would you want in a good private server?

[wastedpeng]

To me a good private server is where you feel comfortable in the community, friendly, nice players that don't mind spending some of their time to help others. Players/people you can enjoy the game with, experiencing it together.
To me it isn't a priority that the Staff is childish in a way, aslong if it doesn't effect the players.
Aslong if they fulfill their job as Staff it's fine with me.

Hence my motto is: "There's a place and a time for everything".

Also a balanced server as in that donators and non-donators dont have a huge gap between them (PvE & PvP wise).
A server that is constantly developing new systems, new content.
A server on which the owner keeps in contact with the players and staff, keeping them updated.

I got go on and on about what I would deem good in a FlyFF private server but the list is to long

[SatoruKikugawa]

A lot of people have this belief that everyone who looks for private servers is lazy and just wants to level quickly, get everything that is a luxury on official servers easily, etc...
As someone whose only reason to still play on officials (even if it's just to log once in a saturday) is because of custom content and high rates being found in every good private, I disagree with those comments.

I like Flyff, the game, and I don't like how so many privates try to turn the game into something it isn't, and will never be.
Flyff was made for PvM. The pvp has always been an after-thought. This is why the pvp 'balance' is given so little care. All the mechanics and existing items in the game point to that. It takes more than a few tweaks to change that, if ever.
Merging ideas of your favorite MMORPG into Flyff doesn't fixes anything. From my point of view most private servers who put too much custom content and 'unique' features turn the game into a fugly chimera. Since the game itself has been trying to play catch up with popular MMOs that's saying something.

I would gladly play on a private server that didn't stray from the original mechanics but still did a good job at fixing what needed a fix. But such a server couldn't possibly exist under the administration of someone who insists the game needs to be twisted into WoW SuperDeformed or some variation of a PvP driven game.
What I would play would be a private with rates no higher than 5x, removal of a big list of cash items and balance-breaking consumables, all the frustrating bugs that haunt the officials for years to be fixed, all the broken quests to be fixed so they can actually be finished at the proper level, the drop system working as it should and not like the pile of crap that the officials have become since v18, ALL BOSSES being worth-farming, all rare weapons being soul-linked WITH THERE BEING NO SCROLL OF UNBIND, MP and critical hit damage awakenings removed, knights/templars being the tankers of the game, no longer any class being able to tank for themselves, no longer any class being able to solo bosses that should be requiring teamwork... no longer the game being cash-shop dependant, donation rewards being stricly aesthetical or flying/pick up pet related (only way to get pets that not doggy or tanuki for example)...

I could go on and on. The point is not only me, but a lot of people I talk to in the officials would gladly play in a server if it only fixed simple things like that instead of trying to build another game on top of Flyff. People that like the game itself the way it is, just not as broken. Legit Fly For Fun that simply gets rid of the flaws brought by the greed of Gala.

That's what I wanted in a private server. But I know that's never going to happen.

I don't know what's so wrong about wishing for a private server like that, when all 90% of the servers do nowadays is copy each other and call themselves 'unique' by changing a few numbers in the rates.
If you don't like low rates that's okay, there are millions of options out there. But people like me have none. We either don't play at all or stick to a server full of bugs, OP cash stuff, awful economy and overrun by hackers stealing our penya.

[Fenris]

New world. Better balancing of pvm and pvp. Customization.

I'd prefer someone to just redo Fly For Fun as if they were attempting to create a new game. If I wanted to play FlyFF, I'd go play officials.

[Scratch]

Professional Staff (not leechers)
Balanced jobs
Anti Hit-n-Run Arenas
Guild Sieges with more than 2 guilds
The server can't be a Donators Only
Community that talks English and not only German/Pinoy
No UBER awakes/items/cards
Mid rates
Active GM's

[Adler]

1. Professional Staff (not leechers)
2. Balanced jobs
3. Anti Hit-n-Run Arenas
4. Guild Sieges with more than 2 guilds
5. The server can't be a Donators Only
6. Community that talks English and not only German/Pinoy
7. No UBER awakes/items/cards
8. Mid rates
9. Active GM's

1. Agreed.
2. Agreed, although absolutely balance is not only impossible, but a bad idea.
3. No. This drives players away.
4. Agreed, but this is based on the player count.
5. Agreed if you're running a charity, disagreed if you're money hungry. A good balance of both makes a good private server.
6. That's somewhat racist. Players should be able to speak any language they want in-game. If possible, just make alternate channels for different languages.
7. This isn't a huge deal. Higher numbers doesn't equal a bad thing. There's no difference between a ratio of 100k damage and 100k hp, and 1mil hp and 1mil damage. However, if done wrong, stronger cards, weapons, etc. can imbalance the game.
8. Most players want high rates or nothing. You can't get a popular v6, mid/low rate, or difficult server. Players want high rates, easier leveling, etc. Having source code leaked has spoiled players.
9. Active GM's are good, but activity doesn't equal to standing around the arena and talking 24/7. They should do their job and catch rule breakers, moderate siege, etc. Most private servers have GM's that dick around and AFK most of the time while visible, showing off or boosting their ego.

[MisterKid]

Professional Staff (not leechers)
Balanced jobs
Anti Hit-n-Run Arenas
Guild Sieges with more than 2 guilds
The server can't be a Donators Only
Community that talks English and not only German/Pinoy
No UBER awakes/items/cards
Mid rates
Active GM's

1: Disagree. People have to learn. People start a pserver to learn. And some to make mony *cough* Hells *cough*
2: Classes are fine! If you edit it it will be ruined.
3: Lame. Arena is just a place to fight freely.
4: I never did a guild siege
5: Servers need to live on donations. You can't just lose 100 eur + Each month. Specially when you are a student like me.
6: People can talk whatever they like. You racist. Du must sich schämen.
7: Agreed ruins everything.
8: Low rates if you ask me. But people here only want high rates.
9: Agreed
10: You need a Misterkid to make your server awesome!

[Valaurax]

Professional Staff (not leechers)
1.Balanced jobs
2.Anti Hit-n-Run Arenas
3.Guild Sieges with more than 2 guilds
4.The server can't be a Donators Only
5.Community that talks English and not only German/Pinoy
6.No UBER awakes/items/cards
7.Mid rates
8.Active GM's

I did not have a private server, never had one but please allow me to say that:

1. I agree that the staff should not be bunch of leechers though the team should also not suppose to be a Professional in many cases.
1) Professional Programmers,3D Developers,Map Developers etc... are too expensive, lets not forget that the majority of this section are based on ages 10 to 22 (maybe there are some elders).
2)Professional Staff does not mean that they are good staff. knowledge and specialization are excellent but staff also need to share similar thoughts between them, get into agreement with everyone inside the team even if they don't really like it, as long most of the team agree the others should also agree.
I think that a good team is the most important for a private server, the teammates should be reliable, trustworthy, open mind.

2. According to what I have witnessed in another private servers, players dislike the idea of anti Hit-n-Run Arenas, many private server owners see the Hit-N-Run as a threat or something that make the players get mad, well It is true but it is also what bring them back to the arena.

3. Pvp is one of the main things in flyff, so I also agree that a decent server must to have at least 3 guilds in the Guild Siege, more guilds shows that the private server is more successful, brings many players in.

4. The server should not live only on Donators, those who donate should get some nice gifts but it doesn't mean that those who can't donate (whether it is because they does not have money or because they do not willing to donate) should lose to those who donate.
there must be some kind of balance between Donators and regular players. Donate may give the players some "push" and help though it (also help the server since handling a server is expensive and hard, so if you want to make a private server you will have to sacrifice a lot of your time, money, sleep for the server even if the server won't make a profit and the profit should first go for the server in first place before the donates go to your hands. the donates should be spend in order to help your server to grow and ease you from spending too much money on it)

5. I think that community also should speak English as because English is a national language which I believe that every country in the world teach it in schools, It may harm the players freedom since they are free to speak in whatever language they want but I don't think that speaking in their own language to each other in PMs or inside party or alone can be a problem unless they shout/ insult in arena or places near many players. so i believe it should be semi-allowed.

6. As Adler said, there is no difference between the damage and the hp ratio as long as it stay balanced which means that the hp and the damage should fit. like a player should not have one million hp and 100,000 damage or opposite. one million damage and 100,000 hp etc...

7. I believe that most player who come to the Private server world came from eflyff and had enough of eflyff rates since they are unfair, players who pay real money can level up easy and get top equipment unlike players who don't pay or don't pay enough and having hard time leveling and getting a decent equipment. I think that a server should stay loyal to their player and follow their wishes for example a server can do a test with rates that are a bit harder (not as hard as flyff ) and if they see players complain about difficulties then raise the rates a bit (again to too high).

8. Game Masters are also an important part of the private server, unlike the developers staff who work behind the scene the Game Masters are those who responsible to keep the peace in the private server, catch law breakers, report bugs, listen to the player, be friendly. Game Masters hold power on their hands which make regular players be afraid, jealous, that's why they have to be be trustworthy and reliable and use their powers for good.

9. another thing that you all above me forgot to note is: RESPECT, a good private server must give respect to the players, staff members, servers around them, above them. those who respect other will be respected. I believe that a server who respect other keep himself from enemies, hackers and people who can harm your business and your players. there are some assholes who will try to take down your server, you should not fight them back but instead protect your own ass, put a better secure, learn from mistakes, they will be busy waste time by trying to take you down while you use this time to learn more and more about security and how to protect yourself from people like that.

The private server can be good and worth to make only if you got the right people, right team and ideas else it would be a mistake to do, waste of money, waste of time and it would harm the players.
A good server should have a good team like stated above, even if the team is not bunch of robots who can high level programming, as long as they are hardworking, have some skills, knowledge even if it is a bit, learning and doing only what they made by their own they will be fit. on private server world I believe that there are no shortcuts, one should not! just copy some other people's features/work even if its released because it may not be good quality, it is not something you made by your own, it is not unique and you in fact can't learn a think from it since it is not YOU who have written it.
a team should be one no matter what happening for good or bad, it is allowed to argue but always keep your head clear and if needed sometimes one have to compromise whether its you or the teammate.

I don't know if I missed some stuff, I believe i went over all the info someone needs to know in order to make a decent and good private server which would respect another private servers around and give a nice competition without do harm.
I did not stated what the team should know since i don't know it myself but I believe that the only way to get a good team is to learn it from actually doing things and not reading about it from some post :)

Good luck!
Valaurax

[Addi]

But people here only want high rates.

I kinda wish there was a server out there that'd like make it where the time between levels was a bit more even. As it stands, from what I've seen, You typically spend less than 20 minutes going from level 1 to level 60, maybe 2, 3 hours from 61 to 120 [I'm a slow leveller, shut up], Then most of your time is spent 121+, sometimes a full day to get one level. The problem is aside from stats, you don't really -get- much after 60. Levels before that you're getting new skills and such every five levels, and IMO it actually felt more like character development. That and with such high rates, you're pretty much entirely skipping over Flaris and Saint Morning, both of which are, IMO, gorgeous maps.

So like instead of 1 to 60 in under 20 minutes and a level a day 121+, why not bring them closer together, like lvls 1 to 15 would take like 3-7 minutes each, 15 to 60 would go like 9-20 minutes, and only like REALLY HIGH levels would actually take an entire day with fkn awesome equips. Y'know?

[MisterKid]

I kinda wish there was a server out there that'd like make it where the time between levels was a bit more even. As it stands, from what I've seen, You typically spend less than 20 minutes going from level 1 to level 60, maybe 2, 3 hours from 61 to 120 [I'm a slow leveller, shut up], Then most of your time is spent 121+, sometimes a full day to get one level. The problem is aside from stats, you don't really -get- much after 60. Levels before that you're getting new skills and such every five levels, and IMO it actually felt more like character development. That and with such high rates, you're pretty much entirely skipping over Flaris and Saint Morning, both of which are, IMO, gorgeous maps.

So like instead of 1 to 60 in under 20 minutes and a level a day 121+, why not bring them closer together, like lvls 1 to 15 would take like 3-7 minutes each, 15 to 60 would go like 9-20 minutes, and only like REALLY HIGH levels would actually take an entire day with fkn awesome equips. Y'know?

As I said only high rates -.-
I like to take like a month getting high level

[Wish Q]

What players and the community want to see is balance not only that active gamemasters in the server hosting events etc.
New game modes everything would also like to see if every server has a good experience in making things not leeching stuff etc.
make the server fun by holding down the exp its always high exp fast leveling that is boring and lame and what more obvious not all 120 lv + premium items in a shop make it donations so its like euflyff but a bit better then the current one obvious.

When you make a private server in flyff always make sure you are a step further then euflyff.
because the player is curious what's coming to the next level.
So yes indeed what second post already said Proffesional owner-coder that has experience with coding and making the server unique.

[AAACookies]

I want it all Balance and the owner should know what is the best on his server ...

[Logicol]

I like an owner that knows what he's doing. Somebody with years of experience, business tactics, expert coding knowledge and a total lack of bias and corruption. Someone that doesn't get overwhelmed by his/her job, or rages at his/her players. Somebody that's mature on their server and shows a good example of what a professional server owner should be.

Aside from this being relatively impossible, I think you're right Adler. I'd love to see an administrator that actually knows what they're doing, and not simply creating a server based around profit and self-gain endeavors. Although, for our wishes to even be granted, the owner would have to have extensive knowledge on FlyFF, objective development, and social skills; having all three is too unique for our times. With the closing of Monster, I fear that not many servers' can achieve the same accomplishments.

As for a plausible thing that should be seen in most servers (as if this isn't obvious) something that makes the server stand-out, something that potential users can look at the server and immediately think, "maybe this isn't the same as every other low-rate (or high-rate) server out there; maybe I should give this a shot." If you're wanting to know my immediate idea: extremely balanced player vs. player, and fairly balanced player vs. npc. One thing I've managed to notice a lot about servers these days are the dependency on siege for end-game users. By insuring that the competitive aspect of the game is balanced and fair, this would set the end-game aspect far from typical servers.

Customs aren't nearly as important as one would imagine. Any imbecile with beast could re-create the lands in Madrigal and call it "custom". Just my two cents about it though, probably a lot of differing opinions.

EDIT: I didn't notice how much I was necro'ing this thread. My apologies, this was the second thread in the section's main forum. I figured it wouldn't be nearly a month since someone had posted.

[Addi]

As I said only high rates -.-
I like to take like a month getting high level

:\

I've heard of people on eFlyFF getting a level a day 130+

I was more explaining a ratio I would enjoy, where it was more even across the levels.

[calibra]

1. v6 ( when i say v6 i mean Full v6 with Full dekane Mine and Full Mars dungeon quests etc..)
with v7 weapons, monsters, dungeon :D
2. Much advertising so lots of people
( best people who dosent Know flyff) plays it
3. Offi like 1-5x Rates in cashshop only spross, gpros and cs-cloth
4. Nice Gms and Events

[Logicol]

1. v6 ( when i say v6 i mean Full v6 with Full dekane Mine and Full Mars dungeon quests etc..)
with v7 weapons, monsters, dungeon :D
2. Much advertising so lots of people
( best people who dosent Know flyff) plays it
3. Offi like 1-5x Rates in cashshop only spross, gpros and cs-cloth
4. Nice Gms and Events

Old-school servers are so boring though. You can't exactly have #1 and #3, then #2 and #4 at the same time. Would be nice, but rather impossible.