dragon001 Greg's Server Operations Advice dragon002

NOTE: My thanks to Greg for providing the information for this page. I have taken the liberty of rearranging his prose so that the generalities are foremost and specifics are toward the end. I did this in the belief that if someone is serious about running a server, the someone needs to know first what to expect. For directions in how to setup a Server - go to Decklin's Domain.

The most important thing about the server is to remember that you are the host and you decide when it is in operation. Other than that, the server belongs to the Demise Community. The server op doesn't make the server; the people that play and contribute to the server are the people that own the server. The server op is appreciated for donating equipment, curing server problems, and weeding out the rare, but occasional, problem player. The server op is also the person that users depend on to keep Multi-Play alive. Good Luck and have fun !!!!

The most important suggestion I can give is to remember that your server is a part of a community of players that range from beginner to highly skilled. There is no room for a public server to be in competition with other public servers. From my experience, all other server ops will be glad to lend a hand with anything, so make sure you don't abuse the rules of their servers. The quickest to build a good server is to first get to know other server ops.

Being Proactive

Running a server is more than letting people show up and letting them play. People have to know that this is their home and they are more than visitors. The people that play on the server are the same people that are going to build the server. Demizens will find the spells for the guilds, high-level items for the store, and monsters for the companion store that will be much needed for quests and companions.

    Here are some suggestions for being a proactive server-op:
  1. Make sure you communicate the server expectations! You can't please everyone, but you need to let everyone know what the server will and will not tolerate. If you are going to run a clean server, keep the hackers off the server. If you are going to allow hackers or illegitimate characters, make sure that others know this.
  2. Be available as much as possible. If no one is on the server, no one is going to want to play. Playing alone can be done in SP with a lot less lag.
  3. Greet everyone that comes to play. This doesn't mean to chat non-stop- but at least let people know you're there. If they want to chat, they will chat. Make sure you offer any assistance you can. New players are the most needy. Give gold and stat raisers so they can begin their journey into the dungeon a little stronger than normal.
  4. Create a rescue team. No one likes dieing, and in Demise characters die. Death almost always comes at the worst possible time- like when you forgot to deposit your gold from the last dungeon run. My rescue team has 2 main characters. One can go to any level for a rescue, and the other heals\resurrects. I either take dead characters to the front door, or the tearoom where I heal them.
  5. Always find out what people need to help their exploring. I found that Black Dragons were in big demand, but not too many users had the ability to charm them. I made a point to level magi just for this purpose.
  6. Always ask users what you can do to improve the server. Make sure that if users offer suggestions or opinions, you react with a positive attitude. Even if the user is asking for something that is not beneficial for everyone, let them know why their idea will not be used.
  7. Keep storylines and guild masters files reset. When the Gherrick's quests storylines are completed, reset them by deleting the following files: (NOTE: File deletion is discussed in more detail further down)
  8. Characters with high levels make it virtually impossible for low-level characters to earn guild crests. My strong opinion is that everyone is entitled to the guild crest at the minimum level Demise offers it. Delete the DEMISEGuildMasters.DED to reset the guild master. The server records are in the hall of records and those are the records that you will not to save.
  9. I can't say this enough- BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!! Make a copy of the whole AE directory to another location on the hard drive. Copy the whole AE directory to a cd. Do not lose all the items, spells, and monsters that the community has provided to the server. It takes hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of user playtime to build the server up. I have had over 200 users on my server. If each player averaged just 10 hours (I know this has to be way more!), then that is over 2000 hours of people's time that has gone into the server. Why waste all this hard work by neglecting to do complete and proper backups? Be very conscientious about doing backups. You are protecting the Demise Community's assets.

Setting up a Server

Basic suggested requirements (My suggestion- Demise Internet Server can run on a lot less requirements, but this should get you a nice running server):

Be aware that if you have a lot of other programs running in the background, the server will not run as fast. Demise Internet Server will use 99% of available processor resources. The more programs you have running, the more lag users will experience when playing on your server. I only run DIS and Demise on my system. Nothing else loads when I boot my machine.

Decisions, Decisions....

You need to decide what kind of server you are going to run. Are you going to become a public server, or a private (password protected or LAN server). Since I run a public server, I will only discuss public servers.

When I decided to run a public server, I made certain commitments on the way the server would be operated.

  1. The server would be clean- there would be no tolerance for hacked characters or illegitimate games.
  2. I would never, under any circumstance, password protect my server. If I can't trust an entire community, then I wouldn't waste my time running a server. I figured that there would always be a few bad apples, but I would be able to manage them as they presented themselves.
  3. I would never ban someone unless there was a legitimate reason to do so. As long as the basic rules of the server and respect towards other players were given, people could play as they wish.

The next step was to name my server. I wanted to present my server so that it seemed comfortable and a place people could call home when playing.

Now I was ready to open the doors!!!

Resetting MP Files

The following is a list of files to delete to reset certain features in Demise. Since I am only familiar with resetting MP files, this list pertains only to MP files. Following this will be my experience as a Server OP and what I have done to try and create a proper game environment for the enjoyment of all players.

I have spent many hours trying to figure out what some these files do, and this is about the best I have to offer. Any further info would be greatly appreciated. I don't alter any of my files in any way other than deleting them and allowing Demise to re-create them.

Tips for resetting files:

Instead of deleting a file, rename the extension. I remove the .MIS extension and use my initials. This does 2 things- you can restore the file in case the game malfunctions, and it creates a backup if you ever want to restore the data. An example would be the Library file or user file. There could be data on these files that you may need to refer back to. A second way is to empty your recycle bin and make sure the recycle bin isn't set on auto empty. Delete the files you want, and in case of game failure- you can restore the files to the original location from the recycle bin. Be very careful when using this method, because if you empty the recycle bin, the files are gone forever.

Demise is setup so that when something needs to be reset, then a file pertaining to that item can be deleted. When Demise or Demise Server is restarted, the file will be automatically rebuilt. The first thing that should be noted is that anytime a user wants to reset files, the server needs to be shut down. This doesn't mean deactivated. This means that the server application is not running.

Files to Delete

Warning!!! Deleting the wrong files could potentially damage the structure of your game. Make sure you have backed up the whole AE directory.

There are only 2 directories that have files that can be deleted to restore things:
(Editor Note: As I don't use the default paths, I feel I need to note that these are the default install directories. If you have installed to a different location, the paths will be different to the files ex. C:\Games\MPDemise\System\Demise\ )/

Artifact Entertainment\Demise
Artifact Entertainment\Demise\System\Demise\

There are some files that are duplicated in each of the listed directories. So unless specified, only delete Server Files out of the Artifact Entertainment\Demise\System\Demise\ directory unless otherwise noted.

DEMISEUsers.MIS
Resets the list of users that have been on the server. Sometimes users get an error when logging on that says the user name is already being used. It is better to delete just the user from the server management, but sometimes there are many with the problem. This is when you want to reset the file.

DEMISEBannedUsers.MIS
will remove all users that have been banned.

DEMISETransactions.MIS
Resets the transaction list on the server- who sold and bought stuff from the store.

DEMISEStoryline.MIS
DEMISENewsIndex.MIS
DEMISENews.MIS
These 3 files reset the Gherrick quests and the logs that that pertain to who accomplished what task and all the info that Gherrick says when the task is accomplished. Best to remove all 3 at the same time.

DEMISEStore.MIS
Resets store- can be done from server management as well.

DEMISEServerMonsters.MIS
Delete this file to repop the dungeon. Very handy if the dungeon is empty or you are getting a lot of monster errors.

DEMISEServerMaze.MIS
Not sure what this does

DEMISEMessages.MIS
This file is found in both directories listed above. Both need to be removed before restarting the server. Resets messages on the server and the Bounty Board. If both aren't deleted, there will be error messages.

DEMISEBounties.MIS
This file is found in both directories listed above. Both need to be removed before restarting the server. Resets bounties on the bounty board to show no bounties. If both aren't deleted, there will be error messages.

DEMISELibrary.MIS
Resets Library files.

DEMISEHallInfo.MIS
Resets the Hall of records- Sucks when a hacked character gets on your server and ruins all the legitimate records.

DEMISEGuildSpells.MIS
Resets all the spells that were turned into the guilds. Not sure why anyone would want to delete this file other than to fix corrupted files.

DEMISEGuildMasters.MIS
Resets the Guild Masters so that lower level characters can get the guild crests at the lowest experience level allowed.

DEMISEGuildLogs.MIS
DEMISEGuildLog.MIS
One resets the server guild log and the other resets the log found in the guild hall.

DEMISECStore.MIS
resets the Companion or Confinement store.

DEMISEStore.MIS
resets the item store.

DEMISEAutomap.DED
This file contains version information. If you open the file with notepad and the version listed is different than the version you are running, then delete this file. When you restart the game, the file should be replaced with the correct game version.





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