How to start a Minecraft Server

Ever dreamed of starting your own server? This guide will teach you how to prevent cheating, get players, staff, etc.

1. Get a host or VPS

Why get one? Because home hosted servers are highly unrecommended. You are prone to attack by 13 y/o booter wielding skids, won't be 24/7 most likely, and very slow net speed.

2. Spigot > Bukkit if you have a medium/large server

Spigot is highly optimized, so it will speed up your server. It may cause problems, but it is very unlikely that getting the boost is less worth than a few bugs here and there.Most plugins will work for spigot

3. Essential plugins (Must have)

Essentials - A pack of essential commands
NoCheatPlus - Popular Anti-Cheating plugin
PEX - Permissions plugin or you can just use essentials group manager
CleanChat - Antispam
WorldGuard - Region protection
WorldEdit - Quick terrain editing.
VanishNoPacket - Be invisible, while hiding yourself from tablist and /list
Add these plugins using FTP or SSH for shell(use PuTTY for shell)

4. Setup

Start server using the Control Panel of the server.
Set up permissions
Build the map(Make sure spawn is medium-large,I suggest making one but you can also download it)

5. Cheat prevention 101

NC+ will be able to prevent most hacks, but you may need to spy on people using vanish(Use /v to toggle vanish)
If 1 violation pops up from a player, don't do anything.
However, if ~10-20 pops up with a high VL, and it is in quick succession, time to spy on the player.
Example messages:
NC+: Player failed SurvivalFly: moved unexpectedly. VL 114
The VL is the total violation level generated by the check alone. VL is like a penalty level.

To check a player's violation level, do /ncp info <player>
It would show something like this:
moving.survivalfly VL 25(n5a5m10)
You might wonder what does (n1a1m1) "thingy" does:
n means number of violations recorded(amount of times that the player failed the check)
a means average vl level/violation(total vl for check/n)
m means max violation level ever reached(not total, the highest amount that the total increased by)

If n is more than 20-40 and you restarted the server not long ago, get ready to vanish!
If a is more than:
Fight: 10
Moving(Survival/Creative Fly): 250
Moving(Speed, MorePackets, etc): 50-100
Improbable: 100
Others: 25-50,
you may consider spying.

6. Advertising and Donations

Don't expect your server to be a boom on the first release or to make any profit from it.

Ideas to get players:
Make an Advertiser rank and Youtube rank
Advertise on server lists, PMC, and don't forget the glorious forum you are on right now
Buy advertising servives if you're rich from CPA and PPD.
What would I do for the donation system:
Donations won't have equipment or OP commands, or even just a tag.
Donation begging? NO

7. Choose your type/gamemode

These are the most common/unique types, in no organized order:
() is demand, prediction only
Factions(1%)
Minigame(10%)
Creative(25%)
Survival PvE(35%)
Anarchy(85%)
Custom Coded(~0-100%)
Roleplay(70%)
RPG(90%)
Tekkit/FTB(55%)
Custom modpack(~40-90%)
FreeOP(84%)
8. Staff
I recommend that:
Don't use staff applications.
Treat staff recruitment as if you are in a critical task and 1 error is doomsday.
Only recruit people you know, or trust deeply(so trusted that you would lend your precious belongings to them)

9. Rank name ideas

This is what I recommend for ranks(Not too many ranks)
Admin -> "Owner" or "CoOwners"
Moderator -> Below "CoOwner" but above the highest non-staff rank.
Chat Moderator -> Moderator for chat.
Trainee -> Moderator in training
Then add something like "Legend" "God"...

10. Don't be a di*k.

Don't do these stuff:
DDoS threats
RATTing
Immaturity.
Caring about money only.
Banning people for not donating.
Claiming you hax0red da gibz0n and y0u g0nna hax0r p1ay3rs.
Spreading IPs of people you hate.
9001 more things.

If you need any help please PM me.

How to start a Minecraft Server

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