Category:Private Server: Difference between revisions

Private Servers are unsanctioned third party hobby projects based off of Final Fantasy XI™. As such they are not exact copies of the game, but a longstanding effort to reverse engineer and recreate the official version of the game, referred to plainly as "Retail". There are public repositories of code shared and developed on by a wider community. Which builds on over a decade of work toward the effort. However, not all projects share in this, and some keep their code private. Reasons vary for developer engagement, but often they are simply fans seeking to create their own experience. A common sentiment among developers is in seeing their work as a preservation project for the game as retail will eventually come to an end.
As one would expect, a fan project of a privately run servers will contains bugs or other issues. While it varies between servers, players often will at least experience disconnects and certain aspects that do not function correctly (or at all) compared to retail. Overall, this category has come far and grown for over more than a decade now. It is far from being nearly as niche or unheard of compared to the past.

Private Server community leaders are often passionate and relatively hard working as it is a large undertaking. On the other hand, there have been a good deal of scandals along with plenty of drama. As servers have come and gone over the years. While not acceptable, it is one of the things you should expect if venturing forth into one. Players of private servers should have an understanding that their characters and adventures can end at any moment. As data can be lost, projects can collapse, and so on.

Generally speaking, anyone with the means and wherewithal can run an FFXI private server. Nevertheless, there are a vast array of settings and possibilities within a server.
A popular concept for some of the most popular servers is to attempt to recreate the 75 level cap era of the game. With many servers going this route, but even within this genre the differences are vast. Some seek a strict recreation, others an augmented one, and a completely custom experience for some still. Servers generally have long lists of things that work or not, custom changes, workarounds, available content, approved third party tools, and so on.

All-in-all, this category page houses and segregates any relevant private server subcategory pages. Click a server below to enter it and the potential pages housed within.

BG Wiki and Private Servers

It needs to be stated that BG Wiki is a retail wiki. Wider pages across the wiki should only reflect retail. If you are not sure or can not verify an edit as retail accurate outside of the Category:Private Server, then do not make it.
We also encourage anyone participating in a private server to maintain an active retail sub. This not only helps preserve the real game, but will continue providing a crucial resource for private server development.

The private server community is, and should be seen as a wider part of the Final Fantasy XI community. Not as a rogue alien or adversary to the game. Private server players use and participate in the development of this wiki. Many projects point to pages on our wiki for their players along with custom comments on their end creating a disunity in player resources. It is for all this and more that we wish to provide a space for quality private server pages while also maintaining the utmost integrity of the wiki for retail.

This is why Category:Private Server pages must follow the following criteria:

• Not engage in speaking negatively about other servers or the retail version of the game.
• Keep image uploads reasonable.
  • We sadly can not have a free-for-all, and there is no limit—yet, but just keep it reasonable.
• Follow correct page tagging, labeling, and page titling.
  • This is very simple, and is detailed below.

Page Categorizing

• Place a [[Category:Private Server]] on the root page representing your server. It will then add it alphabetically at the bottom of this page.

Currently, only six sub pages are allowed in order to keep quality and consistency. Please reach out to us on Discord in the BG Wiki channel if you would like to discuss this.

• You may create sub pages of these, but they must have the root name.
  • E.g. [[YourServerNameHere Systems/Jobs]] as a sub page of the Systems page for detailing custom job changes, etc.

Root Page:

• [[Category:YourServerNameHere]]
  • Discuss your sever details, what works and doesn't, third party tools allowed, etc.
    • Guide pages and any external links should be linked here or the Misc page if you so choose.
      • Tag any guide page on the wiki at the top as {{Private Server Guide}}
  • All private server pages should have {{Private Server}} written at the top to load the disclaimer message that also links to this page.
• Note: If you have an ambiguous name such as Cactuar or Apocalypse etc. Then name your root page "Category:Cactuar Server", for example. We don't want people having you come up instead when they want to find those game related matters.
  • If you have an unambiguous name such as "CovidXI" then you can just name it "Category:CovidXI".
    • Make sure you carry this through to the sub pages. E.g. Cactuar Server Systems, Cactuar Server Systems/Jobs, etc.

Sub Pages:

• [[YourServerNameHere Systems]]
  • Outside of Content, custom systems would include unique things such as a custom Daily Rewards system, weapon skill changes, or system work arounds, etc.
• [[YourServerNameHere Content]]
  • Discuss any custom content, changes to content, etc here.
• [[YourServerNameHere NPCs]]
  • Discuss custom NPCs on your server.
• [[YourServerNameHere Tech Document]]
  • Install information, walkthrough for your launcher, add-on related stuff, etc
• [[YourServerNameHere Misc]]
  • This last category is for anything unforeseen, and to keep the layout compliant from a bunch of exceptions

Tagging Pages

• Use the Template:Private Server as follows.
• On your Category:ServerName page simply place {{Private Server}} at the very top.
  • This will tag and link your server page to the bottom of the main private server page automatically.
• On your sub pages place {{Private Server|Your Exact and Case Sensitive Server Name}} at the very top.
  • This will tag and link sub pages to the bottom of your server page.

We also have a Private Server Forum Section if you wish.