RLCraft Server Hosting: How to Set Up and Tune a Server for Friends

An RLCraft server is hardcore survival on Minecraft 1.12.2, where you die of thirst, fall damage and dragons long before your first iron pickaxe. The pack is brutal solo and far more fun with friends — as long as the server doesn't lag. Here's what an RLCraft server needs, how much memory to get, how to install the pack on Elysium and which settings you must not skip.

What RLCraft is and how it differs from other modpacks

RLCraft is made by Shivaxi; the RL stands for Real Life, as in realism. It's a large set of mods, each tuned around one idea: survival should be genuinely hard. You can't punch trees, your first tools are made of flint and grass string, your character has thirst and body temperature, damage is location-based, and the world is full of dragons, undead and modded bosses such as Ice and Fire. Progression runs through a skill system: you need a certain attack level just to use an iron sword.

For a server this means two things. First, the world is dense: new chunks arrive with ruins, dungeons and mobs, so generation loads the CPU and memory harder than vanilla does. Second, the pack is old and finished: the latest release, 2.9.3, came out in June 2023 and RLCraft hasn't been updated since. That's actually convenient — you set the server up once and play without constant mod updates.

What an RLCraft server needs

The pack author states plainly that VanillaFix and BetterFPS are incompatible with RLCraft. Don't add them to the server, even if someone recommends them as optimizations. In general, avoid adding mods to a finished pack without a reason: Shivaxi tuned the configs by hand for this exact set, and a stray mod can break the balance or cause a crash.

How much RAM you need and which plan to choose

The baseline for RLCraft is 6 GB: with that much memory a server for two or three players handles world generation without long garbage-collection pauses. The more people scatter in different directions at once, the more chunks the server keeps loaded, so it pays to have headroom. How memory and player count relate in modded packs is covered in detail in how much RAM a modded server needs.

The CPU matters as much as memory. Minecraft 1.12.2 simulates the world almost on a single thread, so single-core clock speed is what counts. Elysium servers run on Ryzen 9 7900X at up to 5.6 GHz with NVMe drives, and the data center is in Frankfurt, so ping from across Europe is low.

How to install RLCraft on an Elysium server

RLCraft is in our CurseForge modpack catalog, so there's no need to assemble the mods by hand.

1. Open the order page and find RLCraft in the modpack list using search.
2. Pick a plan. The form suggests the minimum plan by memory and flags plans that are too small for the pack.
3. Pay for the order and wait for the installation: the server downloads the pack from CurseForge and sets up Forge.
4. Start the server from your dashboard. The first RLCraft start takes longer than usual while mods initialize and build their recipes.
5. Install the same RLCraft version in the CurseForge launcher and connect using the address shown in the panel.

If you already have a server, you can install RLCraft from the panel in the Modpacks tab. Keep in mind this is a clean install: all server files, including the world, are deleted. Make a backup first. The general process for any pack is described in the guide how to install a modpack on a server.

Server settings after installation

All server files are available in the panel's file manager and over SFTP. What to check first:

• enable-command-block=true — mandatory, see the warning above.
• view-distance — 6–8 chunks is sensible for RLCraft. A long view distance in such a dense world quickly hits the CPU limit.
• white-list=true — if the server is just for friends, enable the whitelist and add players with whitelist add <name> in the console.
• max-players — set the real number so random visitors don't take resources.

The rest of server.properties is explained in a separate article on configuring server.properties. Difficulty, survival mechanics and mob balance in RLCraft are already set by the pack's configs, so leave them alone unless you have a reason.

Common problems and how to fix them

A player can't join because of mods

This is almost always a version mismatch. The server and every player need exactly the same RLCraft version — currently 2.9.3. Check the version in the CurseForge launcher and don't add extra client mods that only you have.

The server won't start after changes

Check the console in the panel: Forge reports which mod crashed and why. A common cause is a manually added mod such as VanillaFix or BetterFPS. Remove it from the mods folder and restart. If the error is about the Java version, remember that 1.12.2 runs on Java 8, and you can switch the Java version in the panel's Versions tab. Changing only Java doesn't touch the server files.

Lag while exploring

When several players head off in different directions, the server generates a lot of new chunks at once. A shorter view distance and spare memory help. If the lag becomes constant, work through the causes step by step with the guide why your server lags.

Backups: RLCraft needs them more than you'd think

A hardcore pack often ends with someone waking a dragon next to the base or adding a bad mod. An Elysium server makes an automatic backup every night, and there are manual slots too: 3 each on Vector and Nexus. Before changing any mods or configs, make a manual backup in the panel — you can roll back to it right from the panel.