Questions about renting Day Z serverz

[VibroKnife 3]

Me and my mates were thinking of renting a server soon. And here are a few questions.

 

1. Is there any information I should know before purchasing one?

 

2. Is hosting a server easy? What's the process and how do I customize it?

 

3. Can we host modded servers such as Epoch? We mostly play on Epoch mod for Day Z. And we were wondering how we can perhaps set our server with Epoch mod?

 

4. Are all rented servers the same in terms of cost? Or is there some kind of catch where some servers are more customizable but cost more money. I ask this only because ive been screwed on this before.

[boxman80 964]

Hi, Ill try and answer your questions for you pal;

 

1) Yes, you need to know a little scripting, or at least be familiar with the files within arma server and mission files. You should be aware of the various modes, maps and "flavours of Day z before hand and have an idea of which you are aiming to provide before hand. You should have good reference material to that particular mod/map too, Ideally you should be active on the mod/map community and within the relevant scripting communities within day z.  You should also research the various hosting companies - some are better than others, some specialise in certain maps/mods and all have their advantages and disadvantages!  I recommend dayz.st for new server admins as they do a lot the work for you early days and practically spoon feed you everything you need.

 

2) yes and no. Anyone can host a server, do some basic changes and have it running. Even editing the map and adding all the various community based scripts such as AI is fairly easy after a little research and with a  bit of common sense.However dont presume people will instantly flock to your server and populate it. Dayz is a victim of it's own success and the private hives have introduced as many problems as they have resolved - price drops, host expansions, additional mods have all diluted the day z community and many servers struggle to populate them. So you and your mate need to put in some hard work in trying to poulate the server yourself. This is the hardest part as many people give empty servers a wide birth and wont even join a server if theres less tahn 10-20 people on at any given time, some will but, not as many as those who want to join a populated server.

 

Consistency is also important. Your server needs to stick with its map/mode for a good period of time and have clear and well thought out rules from the start. No one wants all their hard work and hours of play undone when you suddenly get bored of cherno and want to wipe your database to play Taviana! Rules wise, people get pissed off easily in day z. I know its silly and stuff but its a fact. Things like being killed or their bases are destroyed tend to get people emotional so they need to be clear from these start if this is a risk or not.  

 

Its also important to try and be unique with your server. Dont just rip other peoples ideas off or use pre-set modes/configs. Try and aim to provide something different, there are already thousands of similar servers out there, try and find a niche. 

 

3) This depends on your host. dayz.st is a very good host for epoch these days and very easy for new administrators. Its a case of jsut selecting it forma drop down box.

 

4) Costs vary but value wise again .st are reasonable but not the cheapest. There again I find you get what you pay for and I have been satisfied with them. Yes you can set customs with them and they have a nice guide on how to do some basic customs too to get you started. Dont over do the customs though! Try and keep it simply and TEST every single custom!   Feel free to check out our server (link in  my signature - its a Day Z.st server with epoch and many customs . It  demonstrates some of the capabilities of the dayz.st server)

 

There are lots of other hosts though that im sure will be presented on this thread. 

 

Hope you get sorted.

[liquidmind 320]

I'd recommend that you don't try to make your own server, but just rent a dedicated one. You should be able to get a server for a few bucks each and you will definitely have less troubles starting everything up. 

 

You just shoudn't rent the cheapest out there. Some hosters use slow disks and CPUs and you won't have a lot of fun there. Others cost the same. They should also be relatively close to you so you have a low ping.