Costs of running a server

[Robert]

So, I've been juggling the idea of starting a server for a couple weeks now and I've looked all over the place for information on general costs and requirements (eathena forums, rathena forums, google searches.) I have a bunch of questions that I'd like to ask that are general scale. I'd also to like to add that I've looked at the eAthena, rAthena and Hercules forums but wasn't able to register on rAthena and didn't find much in the way of information I'm looking for.

To be frank, I'm pretty ignorant on the subject, so I'm trying to get a full picture of what's required and I'd appreciate any help I could get.

Btw if this is in the wrong place forums, section wise, I apologize. I wasn't quite sure where to put this. I saw you guys don't help get servers running but I'm hoping questions like the following are ok.

To begin, are there any major pros or cons to between Hercules, eAthena or rAthena? I've seen several servers upgrade from one to the other but I don't know what the major differences are.

Second, I realize Ragnarok online is an older game, so I'm assuming hardware wise you won't need the top of the line out there. I saw the minimum requirements for running Hercules and eAthena, neither of which were horribly taxing. I'd like to build a machine specifically for hosting the server, but I don't want to put together the minimum either. Currently I'm thinking about:

2-3ghz CPU
1.5-2 GB of RAM
Haven't looked into video cards yet
2 GB or hard drive space

I think I can handle the control panel side (and by that I mean use one of the several tools I've seen for use or go to someone who's advertized and offered to make one as a service if I'm disatisfied with my own efforts.)

Are there any other considerations I should be looking into or any areas I should be concerned about?

[Adam Don]

Please dont open a server if you dont have that much knowledge.
this is the reason why players are pissed off, people with least knowledge open a server players with hope of good server join and leave, meanwhile loosing their trust on ro servers.

its not only about cost of running server.

it is subjective..
you may run your server as low as 25$/month
and high high as 500$/month. or may be more.

some serves who has high amount of players goes for dedicated server with maximum possible ddos proctection.

more over its about features most of the features are free of cost if you see herc/rathena forum, dev's have released free scripts.
but you wont get any support for those scripts, sometimes there might be error due to that script or previous scripts in your server and this script.
you need to know how to fix it, if not then you need to hire a staff who will do it for you. of course paid staff, unless and until the dev is your very good friend and want to work free of cost.

ads are very important.
if you dont do advertisement, how are players going to know about your server.

therefore cost of ads.
i a developer, and from my previous server work.
the owner had invested about 1000$ for this server ads and manage to find about 150 players.
but the owner had not  much knowledge about the server, so the server died in no time.

in total he might have invested about 1500$.

cost of server also has many other things like ..
website theme.
if you are using a free theme, you wont get support from dev's as its free work.
also that the free design will be very common, many of them might have already used that design.
if you go for premade designs, it will cost you 40 to 100$

if you go for custom design it will cost you 200 to 500$

addons, forums, images, banners, loading screen, login interface.
custom items if any,.. if you are using any other like robrowser or else andro client.
there are many things which requires huge amount of cash.
1 andro client itself cost 400$.

to make and really good server,
more than money you need proficient knowledge about it.
with  at-least say 2000$.
so that you can  host a good server.

this is all subjective..
there are good server around who has invested not more than 100$ and still got good 200+ players.
but the dev's had good knowledge.
i know elariaro the dev team has good knowledge of hosting.
daifu is also web dev.
and has hosted server previously still he faced so many issues regarding gaining players and still trying to accumulate funds for features like robrowser and andro client.

so its really not easy job to host ro server.

my post may seem negative to you.
but i am an avid fan of ro, i am a dev for ro.. i really feel bad when i see people having very less knowledge try to open a server and it dies in no time.
waste of money, waste of time, ruining interest of players, breaking trust.

if you still want to open a server, i would suggest go for pony vps or else trinity networks they will install everything for you, also give you a flux cp free theme website, client etc..

just like ready to play.

this ragnarok hosting are the main reason of ruining ro name.
wanhosting is also there another newbie, who not only open a server but also hosting service.

anyways that it from me.

[Neffletics]

As what Adam said, please do not open a server if you have do not have much knowledge as you'll just end up adding to the number of incompetent developers who have dreamed to have a successful Ragnarok server but closes their server in a month or two.

Here are my suggestions to help you practice and gain experience on server-side management.

I personally like and use rAthena and please do not argue with me about that. But most of the newbie developers are using Hercules nowadays. It's up to you whether you'll use rA or Herc.

You may get a cheap Linux VPS from OVH (https://www.ovh.ie/vps/vps-ssd.xml) for less than 5$ and install the server yourself, just follow this guide: http://herc.ws/wiki/Installation_(CentOS) (if you're planning to use rAthena, the steps are almost the same).

Never buy hosting from a reseller like the one Adam has mentioned (sorry). You should learn installing, backing up, and managing your own server in your own unmanaged VPS/machine. NEVER USE WINDOWS FOR HOSTING YOUR SERVER, NEVER!

Use git for your server files' version controlling. I use Bitbucket because it's free to host private repository there unlike Github. Then you can use jenkins or any other similar software to automatically deploy your repo commits to your linux VPS. (automatic compile too, if you configure it that way)

Once configuration is finished, you may start customizing and configuring your server. Making the client, making scripts, applying src modifiation. You should list down the features and changes that you want to apply to your server, if you don't have these, don't open a server. Without a goal, vision, and aim, you'll never succeed, trust me. So you should have a clear picture of what kind of server you'd like to develop.
-----------------------
Once you've mastered these ^

Now you can start building your own community.

A dedicated machine may cost around 75$+. Or you may use an unmanaged VPS from DigitalOCean if your budget is short. I personally prefer dedicated machine because when you use VPS, the resources are shared to other tenants.

VPS is like an apartment, it's one whole house but divided into different units. Regardless of what you do, you'll share your electricity and water with other tenants. If one tenant is using too much water, the flow of water in your unit might become weak. Whereas in a dedicated machine, all resources are yours.

Dedicated macine is only advised for large server. You can just upgrade soon.

Now you'll need a forum for a better collaboration with your community. IPS costs 200$

And you'll need to get a good website too, there are web developers in rA and herc who are offering their service for 200$+ (FluxCP design and integration). It may reach 500$+ depending on your requirements.

You'll also need a protection for your game. I recommend Gepard Shield, license costs 150$. You may add the developer on Skype functor.x. Never buy Gepard from a reseller because it's a scam. NEVER BUY FROM ANY RESELLER.

You'll need to advertise your server to reach players. You can advertise your post or page for as low as 1$ per day in Facebook and 15$ (not sure) on RateMyServer.

More or less, you'll have to spend at least 1 grand to start a good server.

You'll also need a team to manage your server, GMs and Forum mods. Some of them will volunteer and some of them will require payment (in cash or game items).

Running a server requires money, patience, diligence, and time.

If you are overwhelmed with these, don't open a server yet. Go apply for someone else's server and practice in there. Good luck! 

[Playtester]

To begin, are there any major pros or cons to between Hercules, eAthena or rAthena? I've seen several servers upgrade from one to the other but I don't know what the major differences are.

eAthena is the original english emulator. It only supports pre-renewal and hasn't been updated for years. The server owners that still use it only use it because they cater towards old emulator players that got used to its bugs and don't want them corrected. Also some of the changes in Herc and rAthena are based on renewal information and might have negative influence on pre-renewal features.

Generally rAthena and Herc have a thousand more bugfixes than eAthena though (many of them also being relevant for pre-renewal), so I'd generally not recommend using it. A better approach would be to use rAthena or Herc and then revert selected feature manually.

As for rAthena vs Herc, the core difference is that rAthena focuses on accurate implementation of Ragnarok Online pre-renewal and renewal. It's more directed towards developers who want official RO as base and then add their features by coding them in. Herc on the other hand focuses more on optimizations (less memory / CPU usage) and easier handling for people not very good with coding, but is less accurate in the implementation.

Second, I realize Ragnarok online is an older game, so I'm assuming hardware wise you won't need the top of the line out there.

Really depends on number of players. Like I can just use my gaming desktop PC at home to host a server and it would just run fine for me and my 10 friends.

rAthena has a much higher memory and CPU usage. This is mainly because official RO (Aegis) isn't very optimized, so in many aspect you need to write your code unoptimized as well if you want to 100% accurately copy certain behaviors (e.g. 20ms timer). Of course you can easily tweak it however you want anyway by changing the defines from default.

I don't have any exact numbers, though (my gaming desktop PC is definitely better than the PC you listed :p).

Are there any other considerations I should be looking into or any areas I should be concerned about?

As the others said, don't run a server if you don't have a lot of knowledge about the emulators and stuff. At least no public server. Running a server requires a lot of work and programming knowledge. Most people don't realize how much work it is and then just disappear eventually after opening a server.

The greatest cost of running a server is that you have to sacrifice all your free time.

[Yuzo]

if your server is good and you accept donations, donations will pay for the server and all its costs.

[Robert]

First of all, thank you for responding. Nothing said so far has been anything I would call negative at all and I appreciate good critical advice vs sugar coated and encouraging advice without actually helping me.

Second, I've played RO for somewhere in the area of 7 years off n on. I'd say probably 4 years of different lengths of consistent gameplay. I've played quite a few MMO's but RO is still my favorite. What got me to think about starting a new server is the actions I've seen from the GMs on the server I'm currently playing on and the sheer ****ery of how the server is run. That, a lack of professionalism and other things I've discovered (both recently and from past servers.) So essentially I'm tired of seeing a complete s*** and I can do better.

That being said, from the sound of it I think I'd prefer rAthena. I do like the optimization aspect of Hercules, but I prefer control and function as opposed to convenience. But, if it's possible to practice on a non-public machine I'll do that till I'm confident I can not **** everything up. I know a handful of GMs who I think would be fine giving me advice and answering questions. One without a doubt. So I'm in no rush.

Quick pull together though:
Dedicated VPS  > hosted, but maybe wait until the server is somewhat up and running then upgrade.
Never windows, probably Linux
Know how to actually maintain and run/modify the server before making it public.
Have the server and most features up and running/stable before making it public.
Have an idea of what I want in the server and what the goals/features are now.
Use Git for file configuration and look into a good repository
Have a good website and CP, several options for acquiring and finding support.

I migh have missed some things but that's generally the idea?

[Neffletics]

Quick pull together though:
Dedicated VPS  > hosted, but maybe wait until the server is somewhat up and running then upgrade.
Never windows, probably Linux
Know how to actually maintain and run/modify the server before making it public.
Have the server and most features up and running/stable before making it public.
Have an idea of what I want in the server and what the goals/features are now.
Use Git for file configuration and look into a good repository
Have a good website and CP, several options for acquiring and finding support.

I migh have missed some things but that's generally the idea?

Ah you forgot the game protection, Gepard Shield.

Also, create a timeline of the updates that you guys are going to implement, it works like a to-do list.
(that's how we work in our server and we just keep on finishing them so that when the time comes, we can just implement it)

And do not forget the most important thing, undying motivation.

Once your motivation dies, your server will eventually die. 

Good luck and we wish to see you running a successful server in the near future.

[yC]

Just like the rest of them say if you are are not ready go read the rAthena / Hercules wiki on any issues you run into and solve problem with your own hands you are not ready to run a server.

You do not need a video card to run the emulator ...

[Kris]

best believe KrisRO soon come

[RockerZin]

You should do whatever you desire to do 

[Robert]

So, again I feel like I should apologize for asking something like this on RMS but...

Does anyone know how to make an account on the rAthena forums? or if they're still accepting new accounts? I get the same error every time I try to make a new account and not being able to look at their guides/info and support for server stuff is really hampering my progress.

I've got a server set up entirely, Locally for now to mod, but I can't move forward much now :\.

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