Sounds awesomely generous. Im on PC and my IGN is "the_deadeye". Im the polar opposite of PvP player. Killed 1 attacker and 1 wanted player when i was like lvl 9, turned on pacifist mode ever since.
Iv actually never been to a private server. I only have like 5 friends and only 3 of them sometimes to online weekends.
Does it feel any better lag-wise?
I Always only go for shops when servers are the least crowded, like around 5-6AM, and even then, build a stupid metal maze around the 1 source i need, crouch, ready to fast travel. I think i got killed by triple digit PvP maniacs like dozens of times.
If it works, which happens at random, i literally stay there until game crashes, so that i dont have to do it for long time.