So I am in the market for a MC server, and I have seen several active servers with 1,000-2,000+ slots, and sometimes even over 1,500 players logged into on a server with 2000 slots...
I have been shopping around, and I have seen a variety of different MC server hosts offering completely different prices for similar products. For example, treepuncher has a maximum player slot limit of 200 for $200 a month. Seems like a lot to me, but ok.
mcprohosting has a plans between $55 and $80 that boast "unlimited players".
I have no idea what they actually mean by "unlimited"... How is it they are offering "unlimited" players at $55, when treepuncher is limiting it to 200 for $200?!
Now, I understand that you can change the number of slots in your config file, but what I really want to know is, how are these larger servers pulling it off without bogging down their servers with lag? Are they doing this all on a single server?
When I see a server listing 900/2000, are those 2,000 slots divided among different servers?! What gives?
I have also been looking at host-seed, which offers 192 slots for $50 with 8GB, but they offer up to 96BG of RAM.
Bottom line, I would like to have a server with 2,000+- slots, and not have to worry about lag if that fills up. Would the mcprohosting 6GB $80/m plan work for something like that, or should I be looking into something else?
I have been googling all over the place, but I can't seem to find any useful information.
In your server.properties file you can set the max number of players to what ever you want. For example, I own a 1.5 GB server but to make it look official and better I set the max players to 250. If there were ever that many players online the server would crash, but we never really have more than 30 on at a time. Okay, now that we understand how that works lets answer the questions.
Bottom line, I would like to have a server with 2,000+- slots, and not have to worry about lag if that fills up. Would the mcprohosting 6GB $80/m plan work for something like that, or should I be looking into something else?
No, if you want 2000 players online with no lag you are looking for at least 150 GB.. I'm not completely sure about high values like that. Best to message the host.
how are these larger servers pulling it off without bogging down their servers with lag? Are they doing this all on a single server? Some of these servers use programs like BungeeCord, which connects servers together. Or, they have just bought a lot of RAM and are very popular.
What you really need to look at is CPU. That will fill up WAY before RAM.
Usually they calculate 24 players per gigabyte of RAM. So 1 GB = 24 players, 2 GB = 48 players and so on.
If you add plugins those figures are no longer true, and you need to see what you need.
Ram has NOTHING to do with the amount of players you can have online, that is mostly a cpu issue. Ram just contains the world around each player.
The issue for big servers (and any server) has and will always be cpu power. Its cpu power that does the chunk loading, the AI, the networking etc... its what makes some servers lag and some not.
Hell its possible to have hundreds of players on a gig of ram with a tiny map.
If you want to have that many players, you are going to need huge worlds. Yes, it is true that the memory of the server is mostly for the worlds, but when was the last time you saw a 2000 person server in a 60x60 block radius. Most of these servers are a handful of servers together on a bungeecord with a dozen worlds.
Any 'unlimited' plan you see on the market is a scam. They assume you won't get that big, when you do, you'll release it can't run on what they offer and you'll move. Regardless, they've still made their money.
With a dedicated machine, the highest slot counts you can see are around 150-300 players, and thats with highly tuned servers. Thats why any real host will have a high slot count at an expensive price.
All the big servers are using dedicated machines and using bungee or lilypad to join them together.
ALL the big networks are minigames, they all have hundreds of tiny servers running together. The biggest server in the world at the moment is actually thousands of tiny 4-8 player vanilla servers running adventure maps.
So you agree with my point then? How much RAM do you think that server has? A lot.
So, I think bungeecord is the answer I was looking for. The only next question I would have is, what are my best hosting options?
I think $50-$80/m is a realistic goal for each server, but where can I get the best bang for my buck at that cost? If I need to expand, I would simply add another server and tie them together with bungee. That sound about right?
double your budget or tripple it, and you'll get the sort of specs people use realistically.
I have no idea what people use realistically. If I spend $160 - $240/m for a single server, what should I expect to get out of it? Could I realistically only get about 200 people on that server, or could I reach 400-500+ for something like that on a single server?
I don't know what my options are. Any suggestions?
Yeah. My only concern is that I have a unique concept which could initially draw several thousand people just wanting to check it out, but then it die back down to normal numbers after the initial introduction. I am considering hosting with Azure just so I can easily scale down in the event that this happens, and easily scale up in case it's needed. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly convinced their services are exactly what I am looking for.
I am considering opening a single server and running a kickstarter type scenario where only 50-100 paid members will be whitelisted initially just to ensure I actually have an audience and can pay for at least one server for a few years.
Yeah. My only concern is that I have a unique concept which could initially draw several thousand people just wanting to check it out, but then it die back down to normal numbers after the initial introduction. I am considering hosting with Azure just so I can easily scale down in the event that this happens, and easily scale up in case it's needed. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly convinced their services are exactly what I am looking for.
I am considering opening a single server and running a kickstarter type scenario where only 50-100 paid members will be whitelisted initially just to ensure I actually have an audience and can pay for at least one server for a few years.
Instead of buying one server, you may be better off getting a strong VPS. NFO Servers, and Ramnode both have good VPS, just keep away from OpenVZ or Virtuozzo.
On your VPS you can setup a bungeecord server, and a lobby server. Then add additional servers as needed with your unique idea. Think of it as servers on WoW. Each server could be identical but players would choose a server to play on. These servers could host anywhere from 20 to even 30 players each, and if you continue to grow you can add resources to your VPS or move to a dedicated server.
A good E3-1240v2 machine will cost quite a bit on a yearly basis compared to a VPS but it will be able to handle around 300 active players (depending on mods of course)
Most of the time the large servers have multiple machines handling the data. Slots are interchangable on a machine, so technically you can have 1,000,000 slots.
I have been shopping around, and I have seen a variety of different MC server hosts offering completely different prices for similar products. For example, treepuncher has a maximum player slot limit of 200 for $200 a month. Seems like a lot to me, but ok.
mcprohosting has a plans between $55 and $80 that boast "unlimited players".
I have no idea what they actually mean by "unlimited"... How is it they are offering "unlimited" players at $55, when treepuncher is limiting it to 200 for $200?!
Now, I understand that you can change the number of slots in your config file, but what I really want to know is, how are these larger servers pulling it off without bogging down their servers with lag? Are they doing this all on a single server?
When I see a server listing 900/2000, are those 2,000 slots divided among different servers?! What gives?
I have also been looking at host-seed, which offers 192 slots for $50 with 8GB, but they offer up to 96BG of RAM.
Bottom line, I would like to have a server with 2,000+- slots, and not have to worry about lag if that fills up. Would the mcprohosting 6GB $80/m plan work for something like that, or should I be looking into something else?
I have been googling all over the place, but I can't seem to find any useful information.
Thanks!
No, if you want 2000 players online with no lag you are looking for at least 150 GB.. I'm not completely sure about high values like that. Best to message the host.
how are these larger servers pulling it off without bogging down their servers with lag? Are they doing this all on a single server? Some of these servers use programs like BungeeCord, which connects servers together. Or, they have just bought a lot of RAM and are very popular.
Usually they calculate 24 players per gigabyte of RAM. So 1 GB = 24 players, 2 GB = 48 players and so on.
If you add plugins those figures are no longer true, and you need to see what you need.
Just remember, CPU is important.
^ this is all true
I think $50-$80/m is a realistic goal for each server, but where can I get the best bang for my buck at that cost? If I need to expand, I would simply add another server and tie them together with bungee. That sound about right?
I have no idea what people use realistically. If I spend $160 - $240/m for a single server, what should I expect to get out of it? Could I realistically only get about 200 people on that server, or could I reach 400-500+ for something like that on a single server?
I don't know what my options are. Any suggestions?
I am considering opening a single server and running a kickstarter type scenario where only 50-100 paid members will be whitelisted initially just to ensure I actually have an audience and can pay for at least one server for a few years.
Instead of buying one server, you may be better off getting a strong VPS. NFO Servers, and Ramnode both have good VPS, just keep away from OpenVZ or Virtuozzo.
On your VPS you can setup a bungeecord server, and a lobby server. Then add additional servers as needed with your unique idea. Think of it as servers on WoW. Each server could be identical but players would choose a server to play on. These servers could host anywhere from 20 to even 30 players each, and if you continue to grow you can add resources to your VPS or move to a dedicated server.
A good E3-1240v2 machine will cost quite a bit on a yearly basis compared to a VPS but it will be able to handle around 300 active players (depending on mods of course)
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