About

From 2011 to 2015 (march) I have been attempting to create and host a succesfull server. Whoever tried, knows that it's very hard to become popular in the server list. Because I have already created a resume of what I have been doing from 2011 to 2015, I just link the forum here so you can check it out.

Space Station 13 is the first project I started hosting for seriously. I it is and will always be my favourite game. However, with Space Station 13 I didn't leave it to hosting only. I changed many things to make the server more appealing. For example, I was one of the first server that was played on a planet (I created a planetmap, before CM even had). The main idea of the server was a research station on the planet where xenomorphs live aswell. If you went outside you could basically find alien eggs and more. You also didn't start in your usual workplace, you started in escape pods and had to make a walk to the station, outside. Later, I also managed to add xenomorph walking sounds from the game 'Alien: Isolation'.

Whatever I tried, it never really became popular though. The record of players simultaneously playing was 20. Still, I believe I have done many experience from hosting this game, from the beginning to the end. You learn how to manage a server that hosts a game and how to manage admins in such a way it is kinda chaotic. Also the community has never been big, a lot of things I had to find out myself because it basically lacks information on the internet.

Below here you see one of the latest banners (left) that showed on the BYOND serverlist page.
On the right is the original Space Station 13 banner.

This was my first succesfull hosting project, atleast as I see it if I look back now. I've been watching Empyrion for pretty much a while before early access release and so I was right there on 5 august 2015 when I was able to play it. However, when I started I inmediately noticed this game suits best in multiplayer, it's where the developers would work on later aswell as top priority. I noticed hosting was done by players, and there was no server browser yet. So I inmediately started thinking and started my computer again, ready to host 24/7. I used steam community as a main platform in the beginning to share and update my server hosting information. Later I created (fairly quick) a website and forum to have a place for the community to find information and go to.

A few months later after many knew about my project and plans, the developers updated the game and the server browser got released (plus a few server adminstration extra's). This was when it really started, I stayed on top because most knew me and this went on to januari/februari. This was a very nice experience, I basically reached my goal to become the best known server. The name of the server was Empyrion Galactic Survival #1. The website, which I will show down here with help of Way Back Machine was www.empyrionsurvivalserver.com.

As you can see in the middle of the website, this was at the end of my streaming peroid (march) for Empyrion. There was only one real problem with the Empyrion developers and that was bug reporting. Some bugs where very unknown, resulting in people leaving my server and trying it somewhere else, only to find out that it would occur aswell on other servers. But they where already gone and that resulted in a decrease of population and reputation. This went so bad in march that I lost the top place and couldn't find really a solution to return. The way Empyrion works in multiplayer also depends a lot on the server. The game saves what's going on serverside, meaning that if something went wrong or crashed, my players lost everything. This is very dissapointing and players need someone to blame.

Apart from the crashes and bugs I had to push through (which Barotrauma has aswell), me, my adminstrators and community had a very good time. I've had a Skype connection with the developers aswell due my supporting work (server testing) and they eventually gifted me 5 copies of the game. That even motivates me more to do what I like most.