Hello !Interesting question...
For someone who wants a "basic server" and wants to cut costs as much as possible, I mean the following:
- Use a decent dedicated server (OVH Rise Game series)
- Website and server on the same machine [imo worst idea].
- Hire volunteer guides / mods / gm
- Depend only on your development knowledge.
- Use only released models / systems / tools / artwork...
You can count about 80-100$/month (25$-40$ if you use a VPS instead of a dedicated server).
As for the money you can earn, many parameters must be taken into consideration:
- The type of store (P2W? P2F?)
- Local server or international server ?
- If you are going to dedicate yourself seriously to the server (updates, events, fix)
- If the players are loyal (by gifts linked to their connection time, or linked to their number of votes or other types of loyalty) or not
For the Original MoonFlyFF (The one opened from the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2016 by Wave) He earned 150k€ [157k$](In reality 120k€/125k€ [126k$/131k$] If we take into consideration the expenses he had to pay)
To clarify, I'm talking about Moon FlyFF the French server and in terms of systems the server offered what is currently done on a basic server.