---
title: "How to make a Better MC (BMC2) server"
description: "280 mods with nothing to learn — and the load multiplier nobody mentions: waystones, which scatter your group across the map."
url: https://tickserv.com/en/guides/better-mc
site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)"
lang: en
published: 2026-08-22
games: [minecraft]
---
# How to make a Better MC (BMC2) server

Better MC is the reference "Vanilla+" pack: **3.2 million downloads** on Modrinth, **over 280 mods**, completely redesigned world generation, new bosses and creatures, hundreds of dungeons and structures — and waystones to travel between them.

It's the easiest pack to get a group to adopt, and the one whose server load comes from somewhere you wouldn't expect.

## Why it's the simplest pack for a group

There's nothing to learn. No tech tree, no research to unlock, no mechanic to understand before you can play: it's Minecraft, bigger. A player who has never touched a modpack connects and knows what to do.

On a server of friends with very different experience levels, that's decisive — far more than any technical characteristic. A pack like Vault Hunters or All the Mods demands a learning investment not everyone wants to make.

The other consequence: **a player joining late isn't left behind.** There's no gated progression to catch up on, only a world to explore. It's the opposite of RLCraft.

## World generation is rebuilt — what that implies

This is the structural point, and it has two effects worth knowing before you start.

**You can't bring a vanilla world in, or take its world out.** The terrain is generated by the pack's rules, with its biomes and structures. An existing world loaded under Better MC would keep its old chunks and generate new ones differently — the seam is visible and permanent. And Better MC's world, loaded without its mods, loses everything in it.

**Chunk generation is the dominant cost.** Every new piece of map builds bespoke terrain and rolls against hundreds of possible structures. That's far heavier than a vanilla world, and it's what eats the memory.

## The real server trap: waystones

Here's this pack's distinctive characteristic, and it's written nowhere.

Waystones let everyone cross the map instantly. On a server, that means **your players are no longer grouped together**: four players, four corners of the world, four regions the server has to load and keep alive at once.

On a pack without fast travel, a group naturally stays close and the server only works on one region. Here, being spread out is the norm. It's the silent multiplier of load — and it's why a four-player Better MC server demands more than a four-player server of another pack.

The direct lever: **simulation distance** (3 to 32, default 10). It's the radius in which each inhabited area stays alive — and it applies around _each_ player. Dropping it to 6 or 8 divides the work by more than you'd think when the group is scattered.

## RAM: what the server actually gets

The pack's page states **no official memory figure**. The tier below is what we recommend, not a recommendation from its authors.

The number that matters isn't the machine's but the **JVM heap** (`-Xmx`), necessarily smaller: the operating system, Docker and Java's off-heap memory live beside it. Here, the heap is the smaller of "RAM − 2 GB" and "75% of RAM":

| Tier you pick | Actual JVM heap | Verdict for Better MC                  |
| ------------- | --------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| 8 GB          | 6 GB            | holds for two or three, staying close  |
| **16 GB**     | **12 GB**       | **the right choice from four players** |
| 32 GB         | 24 GB           | scattered group, wide exploration      |

**Take the 16 GB tier** as soon as several of you are exploring separately. The creation screen warns you if you drop below what the pack asks: it compares heaps, not machine sizes.

## Version, loader, and the client rule

Better MC (BMC2) targets **Minecraft 1.20.1** on the **Fabric** loader. The Java version follows the Minecraft version — Java 17 from 1.18, Java 21 from 1.20.5, per the [Minecraft Wiki](https://minecraft.wiki/w/Server/Requirements). Here, both come from the pack: nothing to choose.

The pack is shader-compatible, which matters to your players but not to the server: shaders are purely client-side.

The usual rule, however, applies without exception: **everyone installs the same pack, at the same version.** 280 mods is 280 chances to mismatch, and the error message doesn't always say which one is missing. Check the version number, not the name.

## First boot and backups

Expect **15 to 25 minutes** on first boot: downloading, resolving 280 mods, configuration, then generating a bespoke world. Don't kill it thinking it crashed — later boots are quick.

The world is archived **before every shutdown**, with a `save-all flush` immediately before, and restored afterwards. An automatic backup runs **every 30 minutes** while you play, of which the **last 5** are kept. Storage is free, server off included.

One detail worth knowing: on an exploration pack the archive grows faster than on a factory pack, because it's the explored chunks that weigh. The archive cap is 4 GiB — comfortably enough, but it isn't unlimited if you explore for months.

> [Create your Minecraft server](https://tickserv.com/en/games/minecraft) and pick Better MC from the modpack list. Your first session is free.