Advice on game choices for new comers
Hi. This is my first major post on this forum, and its posted in the off-topic section because i dont feel this guide actually has anything to do with the technicalities of building a server, or any specific one, but is only here to make you think about what server is best for you and your needs, not just which one looks best or is easiest to set-up. Also, if your already experianced in one kinda game, there aint any reason to read on, this is just a guide to new guys testin the waters a lil.
First of all lets consider the long-term use of the server. Do you want to make a game for you and a few mates to PVP on ?, Do you want to make a highly recognised server like Lockdown-Mu etc?, or do you possibly want the one thats easiest for you and your GM comrades to modify and set quests in for example ?
First of all i've had a little experiance at setting up Mu, Lineage2 and WoW servers, not too broad but dynamically there is a lot of differences between all of the games and their respective servers. For example, when setting up a Lineage 2 server (almost certainly L2J) you will need to compile the server using a range of software, usually the following:
Navicat
MySQL
Eclipse
JDK
and during launching the server youl need to execute 3 applications (excluding the actual client), this means throwing yourself "in the deep end" like i did and possibly haveing 2 outcomes, either learning a lot of usefull information about server set-up, or youl give up. Luckily I persevered, but to be honest mainly to the extensive use of the search button on many, many forums.
So, what about if your new to the whole idea of making these servers and just want an easy one to start off with?. To be honest theyre all possible and a lot of it depends on the support on forums and websites, and learning to use the search button, this being for both quickness and it ensures that if you need to ask for help on something, like I did myself with WoW setup, you recieve both accurate advice, dont seem too newbie-ish lol, and so that you actually know what information to give, and possibilities to expell all in your first post, so those helping you know what ISNT the problem.
So, what else to consider ??? Well, for me making the WoW server seemed much easier, so long as you followed the instructions given by the patch/update/emu etc posters and developers you normally nail it, however there is usually a lot of broken links and very old help files existing and even some updates to certain Emus that prevent the emu from working, however, gems are easily found and advice for WoW is found with a relative ease, my questions and prayers were answered within 10-15 mins on here, which is great. However, Worldcraft graphics arent too great are they ??? So what if you want lucid graphics and glow-tech eh ?, go for Lineage 2 !!!
Lineage 2 was the first game i set-up a private for and the graphics are almost flawless lol, the only real difference between L2 and Guildwars being that guild wars supports anti-aliasing (think thats how you spell it =D), which if ya dont already know is where textures closer to the camera or point of view are seen much better than those further from the point of view which appear blurred. Overall this wasnt a very hard thing to do, just a case of using the search button many times !. The hard part about setting up this kind of server for the first time for me was learning how to use all the programs needed to recieve data-packs and server files needed to run the game, how to use programs to compile this data and launch a server linked to the database which youve spent ages learning to update haha !. However, a lot of links for this game and the respective programs required to set up the server were active, and the help site was overflowing with answered problems and issues, which is good if yours is there already answered !.
The last things to consider in a nutshell. Interest and administration !
What I looked for when deciding which game i liked to run best, didnt turn out to be graphics, nor the size of the map, nor the ease of the server-setup, what i think is important more than anything besides a mostly (lol) bug free server and even more important than the in-game totty ! was the ability to keep the server "new", the ability to change even the most stupid of things in the game and keep the game interesting for those who play on it. For example, with regards to warcraft, there is a PVP element to it, and yeah there are many different armors, a decent package of quests, however when it came to the true ability to keep the game interesting in my eyes Lineage 2 took the prize
The commands are very easy to figure out, the databases are easy to modify once you have set it up and updated a few times cause you just awaken to the hows and wheres, and also, the GM aspect of the game is great a simple //admin allows trusted GMs access to almost all aspects of the games options regarding to play including spawing npc's, enemies, making items, banning, un-baning, even item enchanting and announcements all in the one console. Also, with commands such as //earthquake <intensity> <duration>, close gate commands and an event panel in which to set-up events and even a event launcher, its no problem at all launching mass-player events such as PVP events, fight the giant dragon events, team PVP events and even a simple //mons command launches the monster races at the pre-built race track !.
The main conns of this game though is high graphics means possibly high lagg if your pc aint reasonably new, with a good grpahics card and is set to high detail graphics in-game (although its easily remedied), also server can be restarted from the console, meaning all GMs have access to it (i think), meaning if your mate wants to be silly and restart your server for you when your messin around, he can which can be annoying (also remedied with a stop command), and although graphics are great and weapons are many, the selection of armor "looks" aint too great so if your running a high-xp and adenna (the currency) drop rate server sooner or later most people will have the best armor and look quite similar !
Lets not forget WoW ! The pros for this game is that there are quite a few GM commands, the map is vast and varied, models, armor and weapons are many so if you have quite a few friends that want to play the game on your private server you actually will more than likely be able to look at someone and say ...... Thats so-and-so !!! without having to click and check their name, also, there are many quests, a decent storyline and decent music to accomapany both the Valiant heros quest to defeat the evil dragon! or the unfortunate undeads home-sweet crypt. Other "possible" pros are that the graphics arent great like most new games yet it has that slightly older rpg look to it which is actually sometimes refreshing.
Ok, now to the Cons, the GM commands are varied yes, however they can get somewhat confusing if your new, also there isnt an in-game console for gms which means unless you wanna bookmark the gm commands thread in this forum and reffer to em every time you need one you may-aswell just write em all down and try to remember a few. Other cons are that the graphics arent great, to be honest I really LOVE my slightly real looking games where you can immerse yourself in a virtual world or just sit back and admire the beautiful glow of your enchanted GM specially made weapons.
So, after compairing two very different games in a few different ways hopefully youl have a greater idea of which one you want to make, not only for the game itself but for your ability to make it as interesting and fun as you can. Considering this you'l be more likely to keep the loyalty of players on your server and have a succesful and mostly (again lol) stable game without many hitches. Think of what you would look for if you were looking for a server to play, are you hard-core and like exp at something like 10% and working for your aims ?, or do you want to be at max level in under an hour and be battle ready in the arena ?
Hope this aint been a completely useless rant haha :3dflagsdo :smileysex
