Minecraft Server (hosting) questions.

[FaceFoiled]

Hi there!

I was thinking of possibly starting up a server. Initially I wanted to host it myself on my old PC, but decided that for now I will just use a hosting service.

I have been looking at several services, mainly http://artofwarcentral.com/ as I've used this in the past for other games and loved their stability and support.
They are rather Pricey for Minecraft servers though. The ony thing that struck me as odd, is that other hosts such as http://multiplay.co.uk/ most often ask how many "slots" you want, where the http://artofwarcentral.com/ does not. I am guessing that this means they have unlimited slots for their hosted servers, and the rented memory defines how laggy it gets.

So my question is:
Does anybody know how much memory is a good amount? That is quite vague.. Let's say I want to start with a relatively simple server. Have the "merchant" system where you can buy/sell items, and perhaps something like locked doors/chests for players, and host it for 10ish people, and possibly open it up to 20 if it gets fun.

Does anybody have any idea what the memory usage would be like for something like that, and how much should be allocated to it to make sure it remains running smoothly for everybody?

If you have any better suggestions then the 2 hosting services I linked, please feel free to let me know. =)

[Katalliaan]

It's hard to say, since the server provider doesn't give their up/down speeds.

I've seen on a site related to hosting Minecraft servers that you should have at least 100 MB of RAM for every player in a vanilla server (mods will take more memory). Using that idea and given your number of 10 people, I tried those two at 1 GB. AOW came out at $40/mo, while Multiplay came out at $20/mo (including a Mumble server for 10 people, since they'll give you up to the number of players for free). Of course, AOW seems like it's a per-month transaction, while Multiplay seems like it's an up-front 12-month payment.

And, if you wanted to go to 2 GB for 20 players? $90/mo for AOW, and $54/mo for Multiplay.

[diegokilla]

dam prices are that high nowadays?
I can host up to 40ish ppl, maybe I should rent a server out to pay for my net costs :P
But with all the research and testin I've done, 1G= about 10 ppl. The number of people slightly decreases if you have a lot of memory hogging plug-ins like Big Brother etc. but not by a whole lot.

A friend of mine did rent a server a while back (15 man) for roughly 10 bux. (It was a british hosted, and was payed for in euros so I don't remember the exact cost, but I could connect from the east coast with minimal amounts of lag. Hope this helps in some way)

[FaceFoiled]

Thank for the replies. :)

I went with a 10slot 1.5gb server by Multiplay (including the 10slot mumbles server) for 3 months to try it out. So far its working great. :)

[Battosay]

Lemme know when your server will be up ;)

[duartemad]

And me if you dont mind...

[sargunv]

I might join too is you don't mind. :)

[FaceFoiled]

I will add those that are interested to the whitelist and send out details this weekend. Please know that I am limited by the slots at the moment (10), so I might not be able and invite everybody.

For now though, I'm at work :P and one of my mates is busy building a little starting village with beds to set a spawn, and a farm for ongoing bread production (thought I'd help out with the hunger stuff to start with :P).

It is currently running the "basic" minecraft server software without any addons. When bukkit 1.8(.1) is out and stable, I will update to that and eventually when available, add the economy thing. (add money to the game, and allow for selling/buying of materials from each other).

If this does prove to be a cool project with a lot of interest I might upgrade the server with additional memory/slots. For now its limited to 10.

I'll update when I have more details, and am ready to invite. =)

[Katalliaan]

Are you running it on the latest update or still on 1.7.3?

Also, don't forget that the 10-player limit is 10 players at any given time, not 10 players total. There's no need to have the chunks around an offline player or the inventory/location of an offline player loaded into memory.

[BinoAl]

I'm interested in being whitelisted for this, too :)

[Zhil]

I'm interested too, would love to hang out with you guys :)

[FaceFoiled]

It's running the latest version, 1.8.1 (not bukkit yet).

I do understand that it is 10 connected at a time, and not 10 whitelisted =) but I would hate for someone to not be able and login when they know they can. That has got to be frustrating. :(

I'll test it out as it is for a few days/week (as said, Ill whitelist people tomorrow =P), but if there is a growing interest, I will see about upgrading it sooner rather then later.

[duartemad]

Awsome!

[FaceFoiled]

Small update!

The server has gone live, and a few invites were send out. If you did not get one, but were interested, then I do apologize but I sadly can't invite more at the moment. I will most likely open up a few more slots/invites soon, but I want to test the stability a bit more for now to ensure that it won't cause any problems.

I have also made a simple webpage (well, altered a template :P) with information and details for the server. Which can be found -> Here <-

[FaceFoiled]

First video is up! =)

[Battosay]

You should accept a bit more people, since we're never more than 2 or 3 playing at the same moment ;)

[FaceFoiled]

Yep, I agree. I've sent out a few more invites. :)

[Triskelli]

Wouldn't mind poking around myself if there's still room...

[maxsi]

i would like to play in your server..xD