Minecraft Multiplayer!

[McG2k1]

oh, i didnt know there was another thread! thanks for the heads up.

[AWS260]

My son was recently watching a YouTube video about old versions of Minecraft, which got me thinking about this thread. I've been reading through our discussions from the glory days of 2010, and it's a delightful nostalgia trip.

There was an underground railroad!

For those interested here is a picture of the current Underdark Railroad.

Pixel art!

We've also completed our outer wall system, along with a cool space photo item to the upper left of our castle. I hope it turns out, since from the ground it looks like a collection of just torches and sand.

The view from the skywalk:

Whatever this is!

We have founded the Church of the Holy Creeper.

Good stuff.

[Lordnine]

That server was a ton of fun. That was the server that had the Mage Spoon Incident. This was back when chunk errors were common and our mage tower was literally cut in half by a loading issue. We purposefully didn’t repair it because it was kind of awesome.

I remember we tried to reboot multiple times but it was never quite the same once the player base shrunk.

[Baroquen]

I still love connecting structures via underground tunnels, though I leave the railroad/cart parts to my son. He gets things moving.

I remember some of the connecting sky-ways that you all built. Some crazy buildings too. Fun!

[Cylus Maxii]

Yeah - it was a lot of fun. I'm much better at building now. I used to just make comfy holes in the ground.. heh

[Blackhawk]

So, quick question. My son (15) and three of his friends want to Minecraft (Java.) They've been playing on free public servers, but they're finding that there is often a login queue of close to an hour. Given that he only has two hours of gaming time on school nights, that's an issue. They looked into realms, but they don't have regular mod support and they're wanting to play a modded game. I don't have a computer that's suitable to running a server locally. I have some that could run servers, but they're used during the time the kids game.

Some of the folks here are much more MineSavvy that I. What are the good options?

[hitbyambulance]

So, quick question. My son (15) and three of his friends want to Minecraft (Java.) They've been playing on free public servers, but they're finding that there is often a login queue of close to an hour. Given that he only has two hours of gaming time on school nights, that's an issue. They looked into realms, but they don't have regular mod support and they're wanting to play a modded game. I don't have a computer that's suitable to running a server locally. I have some that could run servers, but they're used during the time the kids game.

Some of the folks here are much more MineSavvy that I. What are the good options?

it is possible to run a server on the same machine you're using to game on.

but you really don't need a powerful standalone machine to run a server - a Raspberry Pi 3 can go up to version 12.2 with four people logged in. this is actually an excellent use for any 'obsolete' hardware you have lying around. old processor, mobo, some RAM, a small HDD, case and power supply (no monitor needed) running Linux and you're set. heck, the case is even optional - just run all the parts on a table. old laptop works as well. what parts do you have already?

[Blackhawk]

Nowhere near enough to put together a new system.

[Cylus Maxii]

Look into MineOS. Its a Linux distro trimmed down just to run a MC server. You could probably run it from an external drive or even a decent USB stick. Then you could just boot and run it from whatever was available. Issue might be with other people connecting if they are playing from home and not on your local LAN. It depends on how good you are with your router.

If they aren't running a bunch of mods, you might be able to get a hosted virtual server for as little as $10 a month. If you are running lots of mods, though, it will get pricey for the specs you would need.

[Blackhawk]

What I don't have is an extra PC that isn't being used during gaming time.

I'll look into running a server on his system while he's gaimg and letting him try it out to see if it works. I'm a little intimidated about the fact that it seems to be command line only (because it is 1996, right?) I've built plenty of computers and have played a lot of games, but I don't exactly have a degree in computer science.

[Cylus Maxii]

There's probably not much point to running a separate server in the scenario you describe. They combined the client and server engines for the JAVA version a few years back, so I don't think it will help performance. I think he can just have a local game and open it for his friends to connect. It may still be a pain to deal with port forwarding for the router, though.

Hosted servers start at $8/month for vanilla-level resources. You could probably host a light to medium modded server for $15/month. That's probably way more cost effective than buying any hardware at all to make this happen. Minecraft realms may not support mods but lots of hosting companies, like CreeperHost, do. And its pretty easy to setup if they are using a curated modpack from something like ATLauncher or FTB/Curse/Twitch (which are all combined now). If you go the hosted route for a modded server, I recommend finding an official/maintained FTB pack you like in Twitch and having it hosted on CreeperHost or the like. If you use an official FTB-curated pack, good hosting companies can auto-patch it and admin work is minimal.

FWIW - I used that method for my last MP server (that I retired this last weekend). But I made mod changes and it ended up being higher maintenance and had longer load times. If I host another MP server for OO and others, I will just pick a much lighter modpack (with a lot fewer bells and whistles) and not add anything at all to it. (Subtractions are not an issue). I had fun playing with some of the late-game tech stuff, but I was the only one who did. Feedback was that it was too heavily modded and took too long to load.

[hitbyambulance]

I'll look into running a server on his system while he's gaimg and letting him try it out to see if it works. I'm a little intimidated about the fact that it seems to be command line only (because it is 1996, right?) I've built plenty of computers and have played a lot of games, but I don't exactly have a degree in computer science.

this is definitely the way to go for you, then. i personally enjoy working with the command line, and i realize it's not for everyone, but you can learn it. growth mindset. there are only a few commands to run for the server, and you can put them all into a batch file (on Windows) so you don't have to run them manually each time. i recommend using Spigot as a more system-resource-efficient server alternative.

https://www.spigotmc.org/wiki/spigot-installation/

(and it's all Java binaries, so they're the same on every platform - Linux, OS X, Windows - only the JRE is tailored to the OS.)

[Lordnine]

Feedback was that it was too heavily modded and took too long to load.

Yeah sorry, that was my issue. Minecraft was always my downtime game and when it took over 4 minutes just to load it meant that I would use most of my time just waiting. The fact that it was also prone to crash meant I couldn’t leave it idle and tab back to it either. The final nail for me was that many of the mods were redundant in what they did or simply didn’t work because of conflicts. This meant I spent too much time testing items instead of actually using them.

[Cylus Maxii]

Yeah. And you weren't the only one. The opinion was well distributed. I soldiered through to try end-game stuff I never got to before. It was fun, but not particularly the adventure or social experience I would have liked.

It was definitely a variety pack. That's kind of what DireWolf20 does - let's play videos and mod demos. So his packs are intended for variety players and groups where different folks will do different things. I also was disappointed in the recipe conflicts. This version of DW20 pack seemed to be poorly curated compared to others he's done. But at least I didn't have any crashes and errors like you did.

The next mod pack I play will have a more specific theme. But I have no idea when that will be.