How to Host an Ancient Kingdoms 3 Server
Ancient Kingdoms 3 is the third entry in the Ancient Kingdoms RPG series on Forge 1.20.1, built around establishing a settlement, leveling it through quests, and expanding by conquering neighboring NPC-faction kingdoms. Combat, diplomacy, and resource management all feed into that progression loop, which makes correct setup matter more than it would for a simpler pack.
Start the server with at least 7 GB of RAM allocated. That's the recommended floor for Ancient Kingdoms 3 on Forge 1.20.1 — the kingdom-building and quest systems layered on top of faction NPC AI push memory use well past a vanilla Forge server, and starting under that floor just means stutters the moment a settlement grows or a conquest kicks off.
Import the modpack through a direct installer instead of guessing from a client export. Ancient Kingdoms 3 is the third, most refined entry in its own series, and its Forge mod list and config defaults have moved between versions — a clean import keeps the server pack in sync with what players actually have installed, rather than relying on a manually zipped client folder.
Watch the console through first boot and don't call it ready until it fully loads. Forge should finish registering all mods, the kingdom/quest systems should initialize without errors, and the world should generate past spawn before you consider it stable — modpacks in this RPG family are prone to silent mod-loading failures that only show up as missing quest hooks later.
Only invite players in after that first clean startup. Letting people join mid-boot on a kingdom-conquest pack risks them loading into a half-initialized faction state, which can desync settlement ownership or quest progress right from the start.
Take a backup before any world import, loader update, or config change. Unlike MineColonies-style building packs or exploration-focused packs like Dungeons & Dragons, Ancient Kingdoms 3 ties real progress — settlement levels, conquered territory, faction standing — to a single evolving save, so a bad update without a backup can roll an entire kingdom back to nothing.
Use a cleaner Ancient Kingdoms 3 path
CoalHost is built around modpack hosting, which makes Ancient Kingdoms 3 much less annoying to launch correctly.
Deploy Ancient Kingdoms 3 now →