Hello there, me and some friends have been thinking about starting a new WoW server but we need some pointers. We're aiming for putting up a high-rated server at first.
I'm gonna list up some things we need help with.
*Ascent or Mangos, which one is best and have the least flaws?
*What kind of server would you need?
*Is it worth it to buy a good dedicated server from a company and host the server there? If so can you link some good companies?
*What sort of coder will we need to look for if we want to add scripts to the server?
*How to be a good admin
*Competitions, vendors, etc. Do we need any of it?
*Attracting players
*Rates that make a server good(exp, arena, honor rates etc.)
Here are the questions I can think of right now, if I've missed something that's important just post it
Thank you!
Ok what you need:
Emulator - ArcEmU
Server - ANYTHING SERVER CLASS, don't use your desktop pc or a "Frankenstein" PC I reccomend a dell poweredge 2950-3 or equivalent. hunt ebay..something of the dual CPU breeds, at least 4 gigs of ECC RAM and 200 gig of hard drive. Use Free BSD or red hat Linux if you like linux, Windows server 2003 if your a Microsoft person.
I
SP - depending on player base...under 100 - Business DSL, Above 100 - T-Fiber or OC.
Dedicated servers and hosting companies? - Only if you want a DMCA from blizzard. They all sound good but you have to remember that blizzard looks into all of these hosts for people hosting a wow server. you will take the chance of hit or miss here.
Coders? The best coder is yourself, its your server but seriously if you need one go on the arcemu IRC channel or vent channel and ask around. someone may help you.
Good admin? - One who makes fair rules and appoints GMs to enforce them without developing a "god complex"
GMs? - Only appoint those you trust not to abuse the GM powers.
Vendors? - This is up to you. most server have a mall area with vendors either on its own map or in a main city. Depending on your database you may need to spawn portals for the transit system (Boats, zeppelins, tram)
Advertisement - Again you want to keep it private to duck blizzards legal system but out there to get people on it to play. Also a vote/reward system, custom weapons and items, fun events or spawned events (Darkmoon faire, brewfest, etc.) will attract players also. Another thing is uptime and lack of lag. People get mad when a server crashes out or lags, it happens but if this is reduced it will greatly help keep people playing. Also a warning message to tell players that you bringing the system down for updates is a plus instead of just "pulling the pug" on them, this can mess up their client wow program after awhile.
Realm rates? - These are set per realm. if your making a blizzlike realm then rates would be x1 across the board (Un modified .conf file). Usually a high rate server will run about x10 or more where a mid rate will run 5 - 10. you do the math to find whats right for your realm.
Website - My suggestion here is to have an actual web host for your master site (Site, news, forums) and have your registration pages and whatnot on the actual game server and link them back. this is a fail-safe measure. if your server goes out due to: maintenance, hardware failure, power failure, etc. your master site will still be up for players to view and get the latest news on whats going on, many people fail to see this as important and thin their server will never go down and when it does they loose most of their player base if not all because they just "disappeared" off the web one day and there was no news or info on what happened. People appreciate updates and information when something is going on, just like if there was some disaster in your hometown...Communication is the key.
